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Inside Politics

Trump Gets Booed At Knicks Game, Calls It "Mostly Cheers"; NASA Announces Artemis III Mission Crew, Eyeing 2027 Launch; Trump Claims Iranians Shot Down U.S. Apache Helicopter Last Night; How Maine Voters Are Reacting To New Platner Allegations. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 09, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: -- who is a sports analyst, sports commentator, also somebody who is not so subtly thinking about running for president himself. Listen to what he said and how Trump responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN A. SMITH, HOST, "THE STEPHEN A. SMITH SHOW": If the New York Knicks lose game three, this is on Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think he's a nice guy, but you need a certain aptitude to run for president. You need a high IQ. I'm not sure that Stephen has that. I don't think he does, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And just in case you are just coming out from under a rock, which I'm sure you're not, the Knicks did lose last night.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, the Knicks lost, and I think President Trump is, you know, deflecting to, speculating on Stephen A. Smith's presidential aspirations. But at the end of the day, we know that sports fans tend to be superstitious, and the fact that the President showed up and the Knicks did not win, snapping a winning streak, I think he'll be even less welcome at a game four or five.

So that's just something the President's going to have to contend with. You know, at the end of the day, the play on the court probably is up more to the players and the coaches, but we'll leave that for the sports shows. But I do think, again, fan superstition is going to mean that he would be even less welcome at future games.

BASH: OK, so there's mixing sports and politics, and then there's literally mixing sports and politics, or like an athlete and a politician. Did you see what happened with Jose Alvarado and Michael Bloomberg last night? I think we can play some of this.

He was trying to get an errant pass in the fourth quarter and slammed into Michael Bloomberg. I mean, he looks like he was OK.

DASHA BURNS, WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF, POLITICO: Good seats are dangerous.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes.

BASH: Yes, I guess they are.

WRIGHT: Yes. And then we heard the commentator say, yes, I think he's worth $1 or $2 billion. I think it's a little bit more than that. Look, I mean, you got courtside seats. They said that they sold two for 1 million pair. Obviously, you're going to have very rich people courtside sitting there, but yes, there has been --

BURNS: Howard Lutnick was courtside, too.

WRIGHT: Yes, and then he went back up into the suite. There had been a real mix of politics. We saw Rahm Emanuel there. He's --

BASH: We can shot that.

WRIGHT: -- not running for -- wink, wink, thinking about running for president.

BURNS: He's cycling for President.

BASH: There he is. He's --

WRIGHT: -- sitting there. Look, I think you've just seen Donald Trump go to so many sports events since becoming in office. This is not the first one. This will -- I mean, we know he'll be at UFC on Sunday. It won't be the last one from there. I'm sure we'll probably see him at a World Cup event.

This -- he's made that a feature of his presidency. Obviously, stoking back to kind of this manosphere that he talked to a lot in the 2024 campaign, but also burnishing as a part of his image. And I think that, yes, they probably expected booze. They probably expected some cheers.

But this won't be the last time we see him somewhere. And also, just as a conspiracy theorist a little bit, the last time that NBA Finals had a sweep was 2018, and people were really pissed about it. I highly doubt that they were going to allow that to happen again.

BASH: What? Wait, I don't even know what that means.

WRIGHT: Like the last time that they had -- the final four -- I mean, excuse me, the NBA Finals had a sweep was 2018 with the Warriors.

BASH: Oh, I see what you're saying. So that the NBA won't say --

WRIGHT: And so like, they were --

BASH: OK, I'm going to --

WRIGHT: (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: -- say, I don't know that -- well, I understand that you're just throwing this out there, but I'm sure that the Knicks would have been just fine with the scores, yes.

MITCHELL: I do want to stick up for Donald Trump a little bit. He is a real sports fan.

BASH: Yes.

MITCHELL: When you talk to people who --

WRIGHT: Because he goes to sporting events all the time.

MITCHELL: He goes to sporting events --

BURNS: And the amount of sports athletes that he's had in the White House.

MITCHELL: Right, he considers them his friends. Like he really is a big sports guy. He's watching it. He goes to these live events because he really enjoys sports. It's his thing.

BASH: All right. Up next from sports, Sports to Space. If Artemis II was all about moon joy, NASA says the next mission is all about Earth joy. We just found out which astronauts are going to lead that mission. You'll hear it after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:37]

BASH: Moments ago, NASA announced the crew for their next Artemis mission. These four astronauts will launch into Space on Artemis III. But this time, they won't return to the moon. The next crucial step in the final mission to land on the moon will have this team stay in Earth's lower orbit.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now. So who are they?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It must be a big announcement, Dana, to have Pete Muntean on IP talking about Space. But this is a huge --

BASH: Of course.

MUNTEAN: -- announcement from NASA about these four astronauts. They have whittled this down from an astronaut corps of about 40. Mostly men. Although a lot of women involved. This is an all-male crew. Andre Douglas, mission specialist. His first mission as part of a NASA astronaut crew. U.S. Coast Guard veteran.

First European to make a moon mission. Luca Parmitano got very emotional and choked up. He's ex-Italian Air Force. And then we also heard from Frank Rubio, ex-Army pilot, who is the mission specialist. One of two on this flight. And then Commander Randy Bresnik, ex-United States Marine Corps colonel.

Want you to hear from them here. This was a quite surprise announcement. There was so much speculation online about who NASA would announce as part of this crew. Would there be a return of the four Artemis II astronauts as part of this? That did not happen.

[12:40:03]

We've seen an entirely new cadre of astronauts here for this Artemis III mission. Want you to listen to what they said in their remarks. And then we'll talk about the significance of this mission. Here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRE DOUGLAS, NASA ASTRONAUT: So mom, thank you so much for believing in me. For believing in me. This whole time. All these years.

FRANK RUBIO, NASA ASTRONAUT: Wow is the right word. What an incredible blessing. And an honor it is to be standing here representing all of you.

LUCA PARMITANO, NASA ASTRONAUT: I'm honored by the role that I've been given. I'm also very humbled by the task in front of us.

RANDY BRESNIK, NASA ASTRONAUT: And every single person in NASA, ESA, our industry partners, our international partners whose blood, sweat and tears -- OK, hopefully not blood, and very few tears, but their collective effort will lift all of us up on that SLS rocket when we hit launch day and carry us through the mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The astronauts did a literal handing of the baton. From the Artemis II crew to the Artemis III crew. This mission is a huge linchpin. Really the keystone to getting us to the moon again. Artemis III was supposed to be a moon landing mission.

But just before the Artemis II launch this spring, National Administrator Jared Isaacman essentially threw out the plan and made Artemis III a mission that would remain in earth orbit. Sometime in 2027 is the plan. Although we will get wet dress rehearsals by the end of this year, Isaacman just said.

And this is to test not only the Space launch system and the Orion capsule which have been tested before on the Artemis II missions but then also the lander that will land physically astronauts on the moon in the Artemis IV mission in 2028. Those are built by commercial space companies, Blue origin and SpaceX now in this heated competition to see whether or not they will be the ones to provide the lander to put Americans and apparently possibly Europeans and beyond back on the moon once again for the first time in 50 years.

So this is really significant. They will do some of that pilot stuff, where they will do actual docking and flying in earth orbit to try and make it so that these two vehicles can mate together. And then they will test going from one vehicle to the other using the hatch. This is really critical. He called it an extraordinary demonstration of what NASA will be able to do on this Artemis IV mission coming up by the end of President Trump's first term. By the way, politics is at the center of this. I shouldn't have glossed over that. I probably should have put that at the very top of this hit because we are talking in Inside Politics.

Isaacman thank Congress, thank President Trump who have been supportive of these missions from the start. And remember, NASA considers itself really in this heated space race to go to the moon first before China goes to the moon. And so there is a lot at play. Not only when it comes to domestic politics but international relations as well.

BASH: Yes. Pete Muntean, just for the record, it's always a good day when you are on Inside Politics, especially with this fun and exciting news. Thanks for being here.

MUNTEAN: Very fun. Good to see you.

BASH: A lot more Inside Politics after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:45]

BASH: President Trump provided an update on that U.S. military helicopter crash. He said, "I have been informed by the great military that last night, Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved. Both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump."

I want to go straight to the White House to Alayna Treene. Alayna, what more are you hearing about what the President might be referring to in terms of responding?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think what this response will entail is obviously the key question here. We haven't gotten any more information other than what the President had just shared on social media. But I think one of the key parts of this post, Dana, is that he is saying that it was the Iranians that shot down this Apache helicopter. That is more information, of course, than we have gotten.

This statement from CENTCOM this morning, all it had said was that the cause of the incident is under investigation, not giving any information about who was responsible. Well, Trump is now saying it is the Iranians who were responsible for downing that helicopter and that they have to respond, the United States, out of necessity. Very much unclear, again, what he means by this, if he means potential strikes or something else.

But that can definitely, of course, be a major complicating factor after a very few tense days in this war, really, between after, of course, we saw Israel and Iran exchanging fire, the President getting them to back off. Now he's been optimistic, the latest we heard from him this morning, very optimistic about a deal, but now saying he needs to respond to this.

And I do want to provide some information while about the importance of these Apaches, because this marks the downing of this helicopter the first time an Apache was lost since this war began. Typically, they have been responsible for precision attacks on some of these Iranian small boats we know that have been operating in the Strait of Hormuz, the United States using them as part of the Iranian blockade.

So all to say, it's unclear what this response is going to be. I think we have a lot of work to do in our reporting with our sources on what this is going to look like.

[12:50:06]

And I also think the fact that the President is even coming out and saying that there needs to response -- be a response is a huge signal on how he's trying to handle --

BASH: That's right.

TREENE: -- this entire moment at a very fragile time for the ceasefire negotiations, Dana.

BASH: Yes, it's so true. All of the factors here are very important. Thank you for bringing us this breaking news, Alayna.

And here at the table, look, this is a war that the U.S. and Israel started. And the President was very clear that he wanted it to be over very quickly. And time and time again, things have happened as is, you know, that's what happens in war that sets back his desire for a deal.

BURNS: Yes, we have heard so many times that a deal is in the offing. Sometimes last week, he said potentially as soon as this weekend. He told farmers in Wisconsin that the fertilizer costs that skyrocketed because of the war would be down in 90 days because he was going to take --

BASH: Let me just interrupt -- sorry, Dasha, just to play what the President said last night about this very thing.

BURNS: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're going back and forth, and now they both agreed through me to stop. And we're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape or form nuclear weapons, et cetera, and that it straight will open up right away. It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Two or three days. And there he was talking about Iran and Israel and the fire that's been going back and forth there. But if you look back, our colleague Aaron Blake did a terrific report that you can see on CNN.com. Since this ceasefire started two months ago, the President has at least 38 times said some version of a deal is around the corner.

BURNS: Yes, and he's been really pushing for diplomacy here. And he has been calling this a ceasefire. It's really a ceasefire only by the President's definition, which he recently said just means a more moderate amount of shooting for that region because you have seen a very hot Middle East in the wake of all of this.

WRIGHT: Yes. And, you know, I think she's right. The President believes that there can still be some shooting and the ceasefire holds. But you've seen him so hesitant to restart these kinetic attacks. Even last night, he said, you know, we could bomb, that's an option, but the Strait of Hormuz would be closed for much longer.

What has been much more helpful, he said, I'm paraphrasing, is the blockade. And so obviously we're learning more about what the -- or we need to learn more about what the President's going to do. I've asked whether or not he's going to be in the situation room monitoring, haven't heard back.

And then a CENTCOM commander, or the CENTCOM commander who has been the leading role of kind of announcing to the public what has been happening kinetically, including those responses to those boat strikes that we've seen --

BASH: Yes.

WRIGHT: -- over the last two weeks, is supposed to be briefing at 2:00 p.m. on the Hill, remains to be seen if that's still going to happen.

BASH: And it also, because it takes two to tango, it also says something that Iran is so brazen that they shot down Apache helicopters.

MITCHELL: Yes. That doesn't sound like someone who's working towards a deal to end all of this, not just, you know, making the shooting less frequent, but ending it entirely. It shows that ending wars, they're easy to start, very hard to end. And Donald Trump has been, you know, making promises that are easier said than done.

BASH: And we just have something else, and this is from the speaker of the Iranian parliament, which was posted right before President Trump posted what we reported to you. And the Iranian speaker said, "We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments and we'll switch to what we speak best. You ride the horse, you saddled."

Wow.

BURNS: Wow. You talk about brazen -- this is pretty brazen. And the fact that Iran has kind of used Trump's own style online in response to him is pretty striking. I mean, we were not hearing this kind of language and these kinds of threats out of Iran until very recently.

WRIGHT: And so much of this conflict has been a strike would happen. And it was unclear how high that strike was ordered because of the inability, because of after those strikes that took out those top leaders, the inability for one side of the Iran government military to talk to the other.

And I think that Donald Trump has for a couple of different times said, you know, those strikes are happening because they're not talking to the people. Those strikes are talking -- happening because they're not talking to the people. And so with that tweet, is he going to say that again?

BASH: We're going to have to sneak in a break. Coming up, Graham Platner is facing his first ballot box reckoning today. I'm going to talk to a reporter in Maine who's spent months taking the temperature of voters there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:14]

BASH: The big question facing Democrats in Maine today is how much voters care about Graham Platner's checkered past. Well, a local Maine newspaper has some early clues. A voter says, quote, "Personal growth is not a disqualification from public life." Another, "None of us is married to Graham Platner. Gossip is gossip." And yet another says, "I feel sickened that I have to vote for him."

Now, these voters spoke to Alex Seitz-Wald, a fellow Maine native and deputy editor of the Midcoast Villager, who joins us from Rockport, Maine. Alex, it's good to see you. What are you looking for in tonight's results that could be an indicator of (technical difficulty) --

ALEX SEITZ-WALD, DEPUTY EDITOR, MIDCOAST VILLAGER: -- are split on him. Some are very uncomfortable and some are kind of dismissing these latest allegations as more establishment attacks that they don't need to believe.

BASH: But they do have a new op-ed from the candidate's former political director, Genevieve McDonald, who says flatly that Platner should not be the nominee, never mind a senator. "I was one of Platner -- the Platner campaign's first gaslighting casualties. In September, he told me that he had a tattoo that could be problematic, but assured me it was just a military thing.

I believed him. Then I began receiving calls from Washington warning me he was not who he seemed. Have you read his op file? I had not. I trusted that his out-of-state consulting team had thoroughly vetted him."

SEITZ-WALD: Yes, Genevieve McDonald is a well-known figure in Maine politics. She was a state senator from the Deer Isle area. That's the same part of the state that Platner's from. She's a former lobster woman, like Platner works on the water, and she was a spokesperson and advocate for the fishing industry. I met her years ago talking about the lobster industry.

So, you know, Platner defenders will say she's just a disgruntled employee who didn't like the way she was being treated by the campaign and that she was going to get out before the Reddit allegations came out. But either way, she is a voice that I know a lot of people, especially women in Maine, are looking to.

So if she is out there and making the case against him, I do think that matters. And the swing voters in Maine for Susan Collins have been not the --

BASH: Yes.

SEITZ-WALD: -- white working-class voters that we often talk about, but older, educated women on the coast. And so I think somebody like --

BASH: Yes.

SEITZ-WALD: -- McDonald really beating that drum could hurt him among them.

BASH: Alex, it's a very busy hour. Thank you for being here. Please come back after we get the election results.

SEITZ-WALD: Thanks so much.

BASH: Thank you. And thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.