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Erin Burnett Outfront

WSJ: Iran Has New Plan To Kill Trump, Israel Tells U.S.; New Video Captures Moments Before Man Is Fatally Shot By ICE; Platner Defiant, Still Hasn't Officially Dropped Out Of Race. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 09, 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:

The breaking news, a new assassination plot against Trump. "The Wall Street Journal" tonight reporting that Israel shared intelligence that pointed to a new Iranian plot to kill President Trump. The reporter who just broke that story is our guest OUTFRONT, along with former CIA Director General David Petraeus.

Plus, more breaking news this hour. The family of a Houston man says he was shot and killed by an ICE agent while inside his van on his way to work. ICE said he was evading arrest. But tonight, we have new surveillance videos. And the victim's son is our guest.

And why is Graham Platner still not officially out of the race? What's going on here?

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett on this Thursday.

And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news, a new Iranian plot to assassinate Trump. According to "The Wall Street Journal", with new reporting this hour, Israel shared new intelligence with the U.S., which suggests Iran was plotting a new plan to kill President Trump.

Now, Israel is not commenting thus far, but President Trump did bring this topic up multiple times yesterday. It was clearly on his mind. He talked about how his life could be at risk and mentioned specifically that he is Iran's target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want to take out the U.S. leader, me. I'm on every list. I saw things this morning. I'm on every single one of their lists.

I'm number one on the kill list for Iran. They're lovely people. I'm number one. I may be gone, too, because I'm their number one target. It's out all over the place. I'm their number one -- because they're scum.

REPORTER: Were you aware of any credible threat by Iran against Air Force One?

TRUMP: Well, I have a threat all the time. I'm number one on their list. before you. But if I go, you go, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now you see him there speaking on a plane here in that last clip. That was on board Air Force One, the old Air Force one, right, that he's gotten rid of because he has the new $400 million presidential jet that he was given by a foreign country, Middle Eastern country, Qatar.

According to four U.S. officials, the reason Trump was forced to swap the jets while he was at the NATO event in Turkey was because of security concerns. Two official sources tell CNN that the newer plane did not possess the same capabilities to ensure its, quote-unquote, "safety in international settings".

Well, it came as threats against Trump's life were quite visible at the funeral for the Iranian former supreme leader. We saw the funeral today. We've seen these days and days. We've been showing them to you. I think that if you can read, this becomes clear.

It reads, "We will kill Trump." Massive, massive banner. And then, of course, there are smaller ones people are carrying which read, "Kill Trump."

OUTFRONT now, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter who helped break this story, Anat Peled.

And, Anat, what more are you learning about this new intelligence that Israel shared with the U.S. about an Iranian plan to assassinate President Trump?

ANAT PELED, WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER: Yeah, so what we know is that Israel recently shared this fresh intelligence. It says that it indicates that there was a plan that Iran was contemplating to kill Trump. And this would help to explain some of his behavior, and I think some of the statements that you guys played.

We also saw, you know, the chants at the funeral. And what's important to note is that these two men have been speaking very frequently during the war, and they had late-night phone calls, and they would talk about intelligence and targets, and the relationship recently soured.

BURNETT: So, Trump did seem to, as you point out, right, he brought this up. I mean, we played, there were many times that he talked about being Iran's top target yesterday. Do you know anything about the timing here? I mean, it all just seemed to be so intense in terms of his references just yesterday.

PELED: Yeah, I think this helps explain some of those statements. This intelligence was shared very recently, and we think that that's why he was making some of those statements. And this was obviously a concern to him. He has been a target of Iran in the past, but we -- this has, you know, been on his mind, and it's come up again and again.

BURNETT: Anat, do you know anything about-- did they share anything about the method or how far along this plan was? Or obviously, there was the development yesterday where people who were on board the old Air Force One reporters were told that they had to put down their window shades. The president said that he had not been told that by Secret Service.

But do you know anything about the method or the timing of any possible plot?

[19:05:02]

PELED: No, we don't have these details right now. We just know that these two countries, you know, their cooperation, their military cooperation, intelligence cooperation has really reached unprecedented levels in this war. It's gotten much closer.

You know, we have tankers parked at the Tel Aviv Ben-Gurion Airport. We have, you know, you have Israeli officials all over, you know, in different Situation Rooms in the U.S. And so, this is not unusual, but, you know, this is a different level of threat. And, yeah, it obviously got Trump's attention.

BURNETT: All right, Anat, thank you very much with that new reporting that you're breaking there at "The Wall Street Journal".

I want to go OUTFRONT now to the former CIA director and retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus.

General, can I just ask you what you make of what we're learning here?

Obviously, this war began with the United States and Israel in a joint strike, killing the supreme leader and ruler of Iran, along with much of his family and many of the leadership there, and then subsequently in Israeli strikes, some that had seemed to replace them, also being killed. "The Wall Street Journal" is now reporting that there are plans for Iran to retaliate in kind.

What do you take away from this new reporting in The Wall Street Journal?

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS (RET.), FORMER CIA DIRECTOR, FORMER U.S. CENTCOM COMMANDER: Well, I'm not surprised. There's a long history of Iran putting people on various lists. As you know, a number of our former officials had to have protection well after their time in government, in fact. And as you described and showed, the mood in the crowd around the funeral procession and so forth was one of anger, defiance, and a quest, really, for revenge and retribution.

So, I'm not at all surprised. that they would be figuring out if they could take that retribution, how they might do that. We should note, though, again, that there's also a history of a degree of incompetence in what they have done. You may recall the case, in fact, when I was the CIA director, an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Quds Force officer tried to hire a hitman in Mexico City to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in Cafe Milano in Washington.

And thankfully, the individual they hired was a DEA, of course, and we diverted the aircraft to Kennedy International Airport that was carrying that officer home, and the FBI met him at the bottom of the ramp.

I hope that this is also a case where they're not able to come up with a competent plan. But no, this is a big warning. I think we should all take it very seriously.

BURNETT: Yeah, let me ask you about that, because I am aware that Prime Minister Netanyahu, his security situation, which always has that incredibly elevated security situation, has changed and quite dramatically since Israel -- you know, since the war began and they took out the Iranian leadership.

It's very difficult for him to go outside. It's difficult for him to be in person. That's part of the reason there were all those conspiracy theories early on in the war, right, when people didn't believe he was alive. But his security situation has seemingly permanently changed.

I'm just pointing that out, General, because Trump's hasn't, at least visibly, right? And the United States and Israel were partners in that decision and that strike.

So, do you think that the U.S. intelligence believes that Iran does have the capability to pull off such a strike against the U.S. and its president?

PETRAEUS: Well, it's a very big difference. Obviously, Prime Minister Netanyahu is well within range of Iranian intermediate range ballistic missiles. President Trump generally is not, but the fact that they changed out the new Air Force One for the old one indicates that they took this very seriously and appropriately so, and wanted to make sure that all the countermeasures that were possibly available were in fact on that aircraft.

BURNETT: So, I want to ask you about that because this this whole aircraft embroglio obviously has raised a lot of concerns, okay, from accepting foreign gifts all the way to security. But on the security front, you have a $400 million jet gifted by Qatar that the president describes as magnificent and is now, I guess, visiting a base in the U.K. for U.S. soldiers to see.

But when there was concern, it couldn't live up to what was necessary to provide the president security. That's actually pretty stunning to think about that. I mean, why was it being used anyway if it didn't hit that standard?

PETRAEUS: Well, it's all based on the threat, depending on where you're going and what the threat posture is. I don't think there's any threat posture that is elevated, for example, in the U.K. or heading back to the U.S. or what have you. But while he was out in Turkey, that possibility did loom. Again, it appears that there is credible intelligence about some unspecified threat.

[19:10:00]

And so, I think you take the precautions that are available to you.

And that's exactly what the Secret Service gets paid to do. And presidents listen to them, and especially somebody who's been twice the subject of an assassination attempt.

BURNETT: So, the signs that we showed, the big giant one, General, that I just showed was obviously about killing Trump, and then we saw lots of individual ones. And I want to point out we have seen those over the past several days because this has been a multi-day funeral process in Iran.

So, over those many days, many other senior representatives of other governments in the region, even governments that don't like Iran, sent representatives. It's been pomp and circumstance. So, in that context, we still did not see the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. He was not there, not at any of the events for his father, not even the private burial.

How bad do you think his condition needs to be, either mentally, physically, or both, for that to be the case?

PETRAEUS: Well, I suspect there's a good degree of physical disfigurement. Again, that's supposition, but the fact that he has not shown himself during this very, very solemn ceremony for his father, keeping in mind, again, that in the same strike that killed his father and his mother and his wife, he was very seriously wounded.

So, he clearly doesn't feel ready to be seen yet by the population that he now leads as the new supreme leader. And we can only, again, have supposition about how serious his injuries are. He has been issuing statements, or at least statements have been issued in his name. We do know that.

We believe that he's very close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. We know, we actually do know that, and we believe that they have been in consultations from, again, some of the statements that have been made. But really, we don't have hard fact on this at this point in time.

You know, by the way, in the bigger situation in the Gulf now, what really remains to be seen is it's really Iran's next move. The Trump administration, I think, rightly pursued very substantial strikes against Iranian targets over the past two days. They have now clearly telegraphed that they are going to pause for a moment to see how Iran responds, with Iran having also retaliated against U.S. bases in four different countries in the region.

And I think that's what now we're focused on and seeing whether or not this traffic can resume, according to what we understand. the member of understanding to be, but clearly there is a degree of misunderstanding over that MOU at this point in time.

And so, is there a return then to negotiations? And that will indicate, I think, the way forward, at least for the short term.

BURNETT: All right, General Petraeus, as always, we greatly appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

And next, the breaking news. We have new surveillance video that we've just gotten in. We're going to show it to you. It is from just before a Houston man was shot and killed by an ICE agent. What does it show? That man's son is going to speak out OUTFRONT next.

And Trump's starting another renovation project at the White House. And we'll tell you what this one is about, because "The New York Times'" Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan have all of the details, and they are here.

Plus, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime assistant, accused of not telling the truth when she testified before Congress, she said she never met any of Epstein's survivors. But now, those survivors are speaking out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:03]

BURNETT: Breaking news, we have new surveillance video that we have just gotten in. And what this shows is the crucial moments before Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the father of three, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Houston on his way to work on Tuesday morning. So, what was happening here is that he was driving a crew to a homebuilding site when he was killed.

Now, we can see Arajo's van drive by. There you go. You see it. About five seconds later, black SUV driven by ICE begins to follow him.

And this new video comes as a source with preliminary details about the incident, says that Araujo was not the target of their operation this morning. Now, that's extremely significant for many reasons, but one of them is this -- an earlier statement from DHS to describe the incident as a, quote, "targeted enforcement operation".

So, it was targeted, and then said that Araujo was attempting to evade the arrest.

Now, the video that we'll show you here, posted on Facebook, is how his son says he learned of how Araujo died that day. According to one eyewitness -- these are terrible details but important to know -- that he was screaming, and he was in pain, and he was screaming, "Help me. They shot me."

Now, Araujo had lived in the United States for 30 years. He has no known criminal record.

OUTFRONT now, Ronaldo Salgado. He is Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's son. And he's joined tonight by Juan Proano, the CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who has been supporting the family and advocating for workers like Araujo.

And, Ronaldo, I'm so sorry to even have to share with people the pain your father was in in those moments. Sorry for your shocking and staggering loss. But you are choosing to speak out because you want people to understand what happened to your father.

Can you please just share as best as you understand what happened?

[19:20:00]

RONALDO SALGADO, FATHER SHOT AND KILLED BY ICE: Yes, ma'am. Thank you for having me.

What happened was around seven o'clock, I was notified by my mom that my dad was in trouble. We didn't know what it was, but we suspected it to be an ICE-related incident. What I don't know is like -- I don't know of that was my only thing going for me, you know, that was my only piece of evidence. five minutes later I got into the car and tried looking for him at his work site up about an hour away in north Houston, until I got the news on a Facebook page that, you know, there was ICE activity very nearby to where we live.

And as far as I know, I didn't know that it was my dad. I had to go check it out for myself. And unfortunately, I saw my dad's van, but I did not see my dad at all.

I stayed on site. At, you know, the police accorded off the street, blocked off the street. I stayed on site for several hours. Asking any and all officers and members of the public that were there for answers as to where my dad is, if anything. Yeah, it's been really tough.

BURNETT: Yeah. Yeah, I truly obviously can only imagine the pain that you're in and your family is in I understand. Ronaldo, you know, you did share some footage of the last time that your family saw your father when he was alive because he was going, as you said, to his work site, as he does every day. You mentioned it's in North Houston.

So, there he is, your dog. Normal morning, right? Loading his work van. That video that you shared with us is 5:54 a.m. So, then, that surveillance video that I showed everybody where he's passing in his van is at 6:46 a.m., and then, as I said, just a few moments later, you see that unmarked black SUV following behind. That's just five seconds later.

So, by 6:48 a.m., Ring camera footage from the area shows what appear to be federal agents standing over people, detained on the ground next to the van. And I says the encounter with your dad happened moments later.

I mean, the timeline here is incredibly compressed. It seems to have happened so quickly.

SALGADO: Yes, it did. There was a lot of stuff in flux happening at the time, as you saw in that footage.

And, you know, I would like to correct it. It was two vehicles. I saw two vehicles right there. Unmarked vehicles without any sirens without any markings on any of the vehicles.

I -- it's -- it's just everything happened so fast. I -- by the time I was already in North Houston, it was around like eight o'clock, eight something. I didn't heard about anything else until I again I opened the Facebook page. the Southeast HTX news page and that's where I learned a possible ICE activity and I had to go check it out myself.

BURNETT: So, I want to understand, Juan, let me -- let me just ask you a question here, the preliminary details that a source shared with us says that Ronaldo's father was not the target of the operation, okay? Was not the target of the operation. And I emphasize that because the earliest statement from DHS said that it was a targeted operation.

OK, so what do you make of this contradiction, that at first they said it was targeted, and then they're saying that Mr. Araujo was not a target.

JUAN PROANO, LULAC CEO: Well, what it tells me, Erin, is that, you know, DHS and ICE have been playing by a familiar playbook. The initial description of the events and what happened were very similar, eerily similar to what happened to Rene Nicole Good, right?

There was a confrontation. The vehicle was used as a weapon. The police officer basically shot in self-defense.

And now, ICE is having to walk back the information that they provided, now saying that he was not a target. Now even we've heard that there was confusion in regards to a similar-looking vehicle as well.

And so, the fact of the matter is, we do not believe ICE. We do not believe DHS at all. We do not trust that the FBI will actually conduct a thorough and independent investigation, and we are seeking and asking for a few things.

Number one, we want a truly independent investigation to actually happen. We're also demanding the body of Lorenzo to go back to his family. They're still not in possession of it.

And in addition to that, we're requesting that all information that can be used as evidence to be retained as well.

[19:25:03]

And so, this is just the start of the process. It is a tragic, tragic series of events for a man, a family man, a provider, to his children and his wife of over 40 years. That should have never happened.

BURNETT: Ronaldo, I just want to stop right there on one thing that Juan just said. This happened on Tuesday morning, and your family still does not have your father's body?

SALGADO: That's correct, ma'am.

PROANO: And, Erin, let me -- BURNETT: DHS says -- yeah, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah.

PROANO: All of the personal identifiable information was taken from Lorenzo before he was put in the ambulance. When he arrived at the Ben Taub Hospital, he was checked in as a John Doe, as a John Doe, Erin. The family has had to go through extra hurdles to do a biometric forensic verification that it is his father. They didn't actually get a notice that he is deceased until the following day, all the time knowing that his father was there in the hospital and had been shot earlier that day.

Who does that? I mean, what world do we live in? where someone would remove all identifiable information and provide no context and information for Ronaldo, who was on the site in direct conversation with the FBI. They dragged him along. They struggled along and didn't give him the information that he should have had immediately as his son.

BURNETT: Ronaldo, DHS also said, Juan mentioned this a moment ago because he mentioned the comparisons to what happened to Renee Good earlier this year in Minnesota but the DHS had said your father used the vehicle as a weapon. I just want to give you a chance to respond to that allegation that they put out there initially.

SALGADO: Look, I know my father. He had a -- his main concern was to keep the van safe and his tools safe. There's been instances in the past where his van got stolen and his tools got stolen. So ever since then, he's been very cautious about people following him. People looking at his van a little bit too much.

So, I -- along with that, my dad was also in the process of obtaining a work permit. He decided that it was time for him to achieve his American dreams after putting three kids through college, one currently in college, I'm sorry. So he had been informed and we have spoken as a family time and time again what would -- what my dad should do in the case that he did get detained by ICE.

He did not know that those vehicles following him were ICE agents. Again, these vehicles were unmarked. They had no emblems, no logos, no flashing lights. There was no way for him to know that they were ICE agents.

I know my dad would have stopped had ICE agents formally and clearly identify themselves, at least through their vehicle markings. My dad would have stopped and complied because he knew that there was a process. That there was a process for him to be able to get -- for him to be able to be released from any sort of detention, or at least you know, there would be -- there would be ways for him to, you know, come back to us if that were to happen.

My dad, again, he would have stopped had ICE very clearly identified themselves through their vehicles.

BURNETT: Ronaldo, I'm just so very, very sorry to you, your mother, your mother, and your siblings for such a -- as I said, staggering and unimaginable and sudden loss. So sorry. I appreciate you choosing to speak out. And, Juan, thank you very much also for making sure people understand the story and about your father, Ronaldo. Thank you both.

PROANO: Thank you, Erin.

SALGADO: Thank you.

BURNETT: And we have more on our breaking news after this, our other breaking news story of Iran's plot to kill President Trump. Sources are telling CNN now that Israel told the United States that Tehran was working on a new plan to kill the president, and we've got those details.

Plus, Graham Platner says he's stepping aside, except for he hasn't, right? He said it, but it has not happened. He has not officially yet dropped out of the race for Senate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:50]

BURNETT: Breaking news, back to our top story. CNN now reporting that Israel shared intelligence with the United States, that Iran has devised a new and specific plot to assassinate President Trump. One source tells CNN that the warning to the U.S. came this week. It comes as Iran has vowed for years to retaliate against Trump for ordering the assassination of a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander in his first term, and of course, after the beginning of this war in which Israeli and U.S. strikes killed the supreme leader of Iran, as well as many other leaders in the Iranian government.

OUTFRONT now, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, top White House reporters for "The New York Times" who know Trump best.

They are the authors of the best-selling, it doesn't even really describe it, super best-selling, supercharged best-selling book, "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump."

So, appreciate both of you so much.

Maggie, Trump has talked often about Iran targeting him. Yesterday he talked about it repeatedly, and now, of course, the reporting is that there had been a specific warning from Israel about a plot yesterday. What do you think, knowing Trump, his response will be in the context of a war where a ceasefire is already technically off right now?

[19:35:01]

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's hard to say, Erin, and I don't have any independent reporting about this latest threat, but it is correct, as you say, he has been under threat before from Iran for a very long time, going back to 2020. It is not a surprise. It may or may not have something to do with why there was a switch on the plane that he took to fly out of Turkey, yesterday to leave the G-7. He ended up going back to the old Air Force One. And obviously, there's more to learn here.

Whether it is going to make him make a different decision in terms of Iran, he has been more hawkish on Iran this entire time than most of his team. We get into that in detail in the book, and we explain how it was really always there to see if his advisors wanted to. Throughout term one, he was that way, even before he ordered the strike on General Soleimani, which is part of why he is a top target for Iran now.

But his choices, really, unless he wants to engage in a massive escalation, Erin, are pretty limited. The U.S. munitions are depleted after this war. He does not want to send in boots on the ground. I think he would do that as a very last resort, so we'll see.

BURNETT: Jonathan, you do write in the book about how Trump really fused the assassination attempt at Butler with a Revolutionary Guard plot from Iran to kill him and other American politicians, that to him, as you report, that he saw this as one threat.

How consumed is he, Jonathan, by threats against his life?

JONATHAN SWAN, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, you're exactly right. One element that people, I think, underestimate or understate is how much Trump's feelings about Iran intensified and became more personal in the interregnum period when he was out of office. He was briefed by the FBI that Iran was trying to kill him.

Iran hacked into the emails of Susie Wiles during the campaign. There was this sort of atmosphere of threat that was hanging over the campaign. Wherever they went, they switched planes at one time.

And Trump has traveled far less this term than he has in the first term. He doesn't -- he would not articulate this because it would be a sign of weakness, but there are advisors around him who believe that part of the reason for his much more homebound presidency this time around is fear of assassination, which is understandable given what he went through during the campaign.

BURNETT: This is really fascinating reporting. I mean, Maggie, I guess this brings us to the trip that he just took, right, so when he was in Turkey and that he had to leave Turkey on the old version of Air Force One, rather than the controversial plane that Qatar gifted to him and that just entered service July 1st, right, that he's been calling magnificent and we all know he's proud about this.

So, ,in the book, you actually go through a lot of detail about how Trump wanted the Qatari jet because he was embarrassed by the old plane, it cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to get ready for Trump.

How -- I mean, I guess, Maggie, how surprising is it to you that it goes into service on July 1st. They take it to Turkey. Obviously, they didn't take it to Turkey thinking that it wasn't secure enough to be in Turkey and bring home. But now here it is. That appeared to be the case. How surprising is all this?

HABERMAN: Well, we don't know what we don't know, Erin, in terms of what may or may not have been done in terms of security. But certainly, according to all of our reporting, this was done very quickly to try to get this plane ready so that he could fly it as president. We know that he was very upset about the fact that the two new Boeing jets that he had commissioned as the new Air Force Ones were not going to be ready in time before he left office for a variety of reasons.

He was wowed by this new plane, as we write in the book. It was palatial. And he's been open about this. He thinks that it's commensurate with what a U.S. president ought to have. He thinks that other nations have, fancier and nicer jets.

But something clearly happened that the Secret Service was concerned about flying, because according to our colleagues' reporting, the Secret Service was concerned about him flying on that particular plane, and they wanted him to use the old jet. That is not something that you would normally do. You wouldn't take the old jet with you just for the sake of it.

And I assume we will learn more. But this was always a concern that some military officials, former and some current, had about this plan.

BURNETT: So, Jonathan, today there was some draping that went down along the scaffolding of the White House North Portico today, where workers are working on the columns in one of Trump's remodeling projects. And he shared a photo of new gold signage around the West Wing, saying he's, quote, "revamped" it and planted maple trees.

[19:40:00]

Now, you guys obviously spent plenty of time with Trump for this book. When you interviewed him, Jonathan, one of the first things he said to you, I understand, was that he ordered maple trees for the White House. And just in the you guys have so much reporting in there, but, you know, about the arch and about the pool and about the renovation and about the ballroom.

How much time does Trump spend thinking about these things compared to the other things that you do as president of the United States, like, you know, conduct a war, deal with the economy?

SWAN: An enormous amount of time. We have a scene in the book where several aides are in the room for a highly classified defense briefing. And, sorry, this guy walks in, like salt of the earth kind of looking guy, and he's holding up stone samples for the patio that Trump's building, the Rose Garden.

It's just like an extremely classified, sensitive national security meeting. This guy just walks in, he's clearly got essentially walk-in privileges to the Oval. And so, Trump gets up, they're looking out at the Rose Garden. He goes upstairs, outside, he gets on the phone, he's calling his other guy.

You know, he talks about his gold guy. He's got a gold guy who brings the gold in. We have a scene in the book where the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, walks into the Oval Office, this is early in the term last year. And Trump is there supergluing himself, supergluing a gold applique onto the fireplace. So, it's an enormous amount of his time. When we went in and saw him.

The war in Iran was the furthest thing from his mind. I mean, he had the photographs of the maple trees on the resolute desk. He had images of the ballroom, which he wanted to show us.

He was proud that the columns were apparently going to be bigger than the columns at the Supreme Court.

Just to take a step back, he's really just trying to put his imprint on Washington, D.C. in a permanent, durable way.

BURNETT: It is -- it is incredible, that story, the man coming with the stone samples with walk-in privileges. That stays with you. Thank you both so much.

And of course, speaking of staying with us, so many things in their incredible book does. If you're one of the few who haven't bought it, we hope that you will. Thank you both so very much. I appreciate your time.

And next, a tense situation in Maine, because Graham Platner said that he's ending his campaign for Senate, except for he didn't. He's technically still in the race. So, what's the game?

Plus, a CNN exclusive, Tonight OUTFRONT, Epstein survivors speaking out specifically accusing the convicted sex offender's longtime assistant of lying to Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: She also said, quote, "To my knowledge, I never met any of these masseuses." What do you guys think about that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's lying. She's lying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:01]

BURNETT: Breaking news, Graham Platner, defiant. The embattled Democrat waiting until the last moment to officially exit the Senate race. So, he vowed to step aside amid the allegation of sexual assault, which he does deny, but he was going to step aside anyway. But then he refused to file the paperwork until the Monday deadline, so he hasn't done it yet.

So, this is just hours after he posted an 11-minute video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM PLATNER (D), FORMER MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: The political establishment got to act as judge, jury, and executioner. It's not the false allegations, though, that have brought us to where we are. It's the fact that they are being used by the political establishment to put structural pressure on us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Arlette Saenz is OUTFRONT in Battleground, Maine, where she has been covering this on the ground for us.

And, Arlette, Graham Platner won the Maine Democratic primary. Okay, that's a fact. And he won it overwhelmingly by 72 percent. So now he's saying, all right, I'm getting out, but I'm not going to do it until the very last second. He's not making this easy for Democrats.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, no, he's not. Graham Platner has announced that he is stepping aside from this race, but technically there's still one final thing he needs to do to make this official, and he's waiting until the last minute to do so. Graham Platner does need to officially file the notice that he is withdrawn from this race by Monday to the state Secretary of State, but he told staffers last night on a private call that he is not doing that until Monday, that very deadline.

There really has been no explanation for why he is waiting so long to do so, but it comes at a time as Democrats are very eager to really turn the page from this saga and get onto the work of trying to select their next nominee. This is also coming on the heels of Platner waiting more than 48 hours after that allegation of sexual assaults was made against him, something that he continues to deny.

There had been a lot of consternation within the Democratic Party about the delay in announcing that he would step aside from this race, and now they are just waiting for that final technicality, there really hasn't been an explanation for why Platner is waiting this long.

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

So, let's go to John King. By the way, John King is live in another must-win state for Democrats. That's Michigan, which I'm going to talk about in just a moment.

But first, John, just because of what Arlette's reporting, that Graham Platner says he's getting out, but he's not going to do it until the very last second. because, you know, he says there was a cabal against him, and he's going to call the shots on that.

So, the way this goes, do Democrats still have a legitimate, reasonable path to victory in Maine?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They have a path to victory in Maine, but the first thing they have to do is settle their -- I'll politely call it a family feud.

And Arlette was frankly, Erin, Arlette's too polite. She's a very polite person.

[19:50:03] I've been texting with Democrats in Maine all day, had a couple phone calls up there. A lot of them are frankly, forgive my language, pissed off at Platner and pissed off at the people around him, the consultants and the unions who were behind his candidacy, which who they now think are waiting and delaying this because they're trying to get their preferred candidate to be the nominee in the fall now.

And there's a lot of tension and there's a lot of frustration and there's a lot of anger. And now Maine has to figure out how to have a process that it hopes in the end will bring the party together to turn the page as our let notes is the game.

Can they win in Maine? Look, let's just look at the history. Kamala Harris lost the presidency, but she won Maine by six points, right? She won Maine by a pretty healthy margin in 2024.

Yes, a Democrat can win in Maine. Go back to 2020 in the presidential race there. Joe Biden won by 9 points. Let me pull this over a little bit. The magic walls get a little sketchy the road.

But Joe Biden won by nine points there. So Democrats have won the last two presidential elections there. They've won more than that. But in the last two, they've run it up pretty good.

But I just want to remind you, if you look at the Senate race, Susan Collins was reelected in 2020 in the Senate race. There we have it. It's a little sluggish there, but it'll come up. She was reelected. Biden won the state by nine points, and a Republican senator was able to get enough people to split their tickets.

So, she is a formidable contender who has won in a very difficult environment before. This is a horrible environment for Susan Collins. I've been there. Trump is unpopular. Some people think it's time for her to move on because she's been in the Senate so long.

But Democrats first have to settle their feud. And you would think that Platner announcing he's going to get out would be the beginning of that healing process. Not -- not yet.

BURNETT: No, definitely not yet. And he doesn't sound like there's any healing coming anytime soon.

But, you know, all right, we said for Democrats with a tough map in the Senate, if they want to flip it, they have to win Maine. And then they have to win Michigan, which is where you are tonight, OK? And you talked about the nasty family feud in Maine. Maybe that looks nice even compared to what's going on in Michigan where you are.

What's happening?

KING: You have a left versus center, establishment versus insurgency. In some ways, Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton all over again. We're 10 years from that campaign, but some campaigns never end.

We went last night to an event by Abdul El-Sayed. He is the favorite of progressives. He was a helpful to Bernie Sanders in 2016. He is running against Haley Stevens, a Democratic congresswoman here.

But much more so, he's running against a Democratic establishment and a Democratic leadership that he says is beholden to AIPAC, beholden to corporations, beholden to big pharma.

And he's not at all subtle, Erin. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Yeah, I want to reflect on this moment. See, the establishment's taken to calling me dangerous. You heard that? Dangerous. I'm not dangerous if you're someone who needs government to work for you. But if you're Chuck Schumer, damn right, I'm dangerous.

(CHEERING)

EL-SAYED: I am dangerous. If you are someone who wants to stand in the way of government working for people, yes, I'm dangerous. And I think we need that kind of dangerous in government right about now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And so, Erin, again, this one's more about policy. It's more about who you listen to. It's about money and politics. It's not about the character allegations against Graham Platner.

But you have, you know, Schumer allies are with Congresswoman Stevens, Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, with Congresswoman Stevens, Bernie Sanders with Abdul El-Sayed, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with Abdul El- Sayed.

So, you see the differences there in what they simply say, the insurgents say, is a quest to take over the party, to change the party, just like Trump did to the Republicans in 2016, very much has a Tea Party element to it.

So, let's look at 2024 quickly before we close here. You know, Harris lost the state, but they did elect a Democratic senator. They elected a Democratic senator. Harris lost by 80,000.

Elissa Slotkin won by 19,000 votes. So, it is doable here. But again, some Democrats are worried if the primary is too nasty and this bruising, some people stay home, something like that.

What the Democrats are worried about in Maine and here Erin is, it's an opportunity. Let's not make it an opportunity lost because of a family fight.

All right, John King, thank you very much in Traverse City, Michigan.

And next, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime assistant claims she never knew the ages of the girls around Epstein, but that is not what Epstein's survivors are exclusively telling CNN tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:56:21]

BURENTT: Tonight, Epstein's survivors exclusively telling CNN the convicted sex offender's longtime assistant lied to Congress. Lesley Groff testified that she was unaware of Epstein's crimes and never met the girls who would come to his house. But six of those survivors are sharing new details with CNN now about why they say she's lying, including one who first met Epstein when she was just about to turn 14 years old.

MJ Lee is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARINA LACERDA, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: If a girl wanted to meet Jeffrey Epstein, you had to go through Leslie Groff.

SHARLENE ROCHARD, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Just literally tell the truth.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jeffrey Epstein survivors are outraged and calling out Lesley Groff after the longtime assistant to the convicted child sex offender spoke with the House Oversight Committee last month. CNN interviewed 6 Epstein victims, two of them on camera. They said Groff lied to Congress about key details, including whether she ever met any of the girls visiting Epstein or knew how old they were.

LEE: She said, quote, "To my knowledge, I never met any of these masseuses." What do you guys think about that?

LACERDA: She's lying. She's lying. Just me and my friends. She's met at least three or four of us.

ROCHARD: I met Lesley multiple times in different locations together today and taking the time.

LEE (voice-over): Marina Lacerda says she first met Epstein in 2002 when she was just shy of turning 14. Charlene Rochard says she was a young model working in New York City when she first met the financier.

LEE: Do you have anything that you remember that leads you to think Lesley Groff knew how old you were?

ROCHARD: Of course, she knew how old we were because she had to look at our IDs to book our flight.

LACERDA: How old is she? Where is she from? What does she look like? Where does she live? Is she going to school? These were top five questions by Lesley Groff.

LEE (voice-over): One Epstein survivor who spoke to CNN anonymously said she was 100 percent certain that Groff knew that she was a minor.

"I went to a private Catholic school and she would always ask me to leave school early," the woman told CNN, because Epstein liked to see her in her school uniform. She said there were many times when Groff saw her wearing her uniform.

Another detail from Groff's testimony that multiple women disputed. her claim that she never paid anyone on Epstein's behalf.

LACERDA: I definitely was paid by Leslie because I asked for money all the time. Fresh $100 bills looks like it just came out the bank, and it was always in a white envelope.

LEE (voice-over): Groff appears in Epstein files thousands of times, a ubiquitous presence for almost two decades in managing Epstein's day-to-day life, from scheduling appointments to arranging travel plans.

Groff's lawyer did not respond to CNN's request for comment for this story. Groff has never been charged with a crime and denied to Congress that she ever knew about Epstein's abuse of girls and women.

"For 18 years, I worked for Dr. Jekyll, but was never permitted to see the true Mr. Hyde," Groff told lawmakers. "Mr. Epstein was, in hindsight, a master manipulator and deceiver. who separated his legitimate life from his secret life as an abuser."

While Groff was not under oath, lying to Congress is a crime. Some Epstein survivors questioned whether the current congressional investigation might be a dead end.

LACERDA: We have so many people coming in and lying and saying they don't know, they don't remember. Can we just have one person at least come in and take accountability and bring in full transparency?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: And, Erin, a spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee, tells CNN that they are currently reviewing Groff's transcript against available evidence and that they would welcome any additional evidence from anybody that might have it. But some of the Epstein survivors that we talked to did say that cooperation can be hard to come by because some of these interactions with Groff would have taken place many years ago when some of these victims were teenagers and certainly before the proliferation of smartphones -- Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah. MJ, thank you very much for that.

And thanks to all of you for being with us.

"AC360" begins now.