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One Dead, One Injured After Truck Runs Over Crowd At Pride Parade In South Florida; At Least Four Dead After Weekend Shootings In Several Cities; Tornado Rips Through Homes In Alabama And Injures Three People; Tropical Depression Claudette Continues To Dump Rain On Southeast; Record-Shattering Heat Wave Bakes Western U.S., Raising Drought And Fire Concerns; Republicans Attempting To Rewrite History Of January 6th; White House Under Pressure As Bipartisan Talks Drag On. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired June 20, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:20]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to a NEW DAY. I'm Boris Sanchez.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Amara Walker in for Christi Paul.

We are following a developing story. One man is killed, another injured when a truck hits a crowd during a Florida Pride Parade. Plus, a deadly weekend, more gun violence, more mass shootings, including a new one in Oakland.

SANCHEZ: There's also some severe weather we're going to tell you about. An Alabama neighborhood ripped apart, several homes suffering major damage when a strong tornado moves through. And an update for you from the nation's capital. Some members of the GOP looking to whitewash the events of January 6th.

Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Sunday, June 20th. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Thank you so much for waking up with us. Great to see you as always, Amara.

WALKER: Yes, great to see you as well. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, including my brother, who just became a dad three days ago. Maybe he's up right now with the baby, you know, newborns.

SANCHEZ: He might be, yes, dealing with some crying. That's wonderful. Congratulations to him, Amara.

WALKER: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

We start today with a developing story out of South Florida. One person is dead, at least one more injured after a white pickup truck plowed through a group of pedestrians. This is the scene immediately after it happened. It was at the Stonewall Pride Parade around 7:00 last night in Wilton Manors, Florida. It was happening just as the event was about to kick off. You see the woman in that car appears to be Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

WALKER: Yes, I think that was her. And you can see just the horror in her eyes. I mean, there was some initial speculation about whether it was an accident or what some, including the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, calling it a terrorist attack on the LGBTQ community.

CNN's Natasha Chen joining us now live from Atlanta with more. Natasha, what do you know about what happened and what are authorities saying about it?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Amara and Boris. Right now it's very unclear what exactly happened. What we do know is that there were a lot of witnesses when this happened because it was the start of the Stonewall Pride Parade around, like you said, 7:00 p.m. A lot of high-profile individuals there, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was in fact there and she said that this was devastating to witness.

Now, our affiliate, WPLG, who is also providing some of the video that we are seeing, the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus did provide a statement to that affiliate station of ours saying that the people who were injured, one person now has died, were part of the Gay Men's Chorus. They also added that the driver was also a part of the chorus family. And that they do not believe that this was an attack on the LGBTQ community.

Of course, we are still trying to learn more about that. I have reached out to the chorus to see if they can share some more information. But just a really devastating thing for so many people to witness as they were about to embark and participate in something really joyful. So, here is a witness talking about what they saw as well as the authorities on what they know now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE COLEMAN, WITNESS: You can't go anywhere anymore without fear for your safety and fear for your life. It's very, very sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And also authorities talking about the fact that one of those men who were hit by the truck now has died. A witness also said that they heard, you know, the pickup truck sort of -- the engine revving before it plowed into the people. So a lot of questions here, of course.

Wilton Manors is where this happened in the Fort Lauderdale area bills itself on its Web site as a gay friendly community. And so a lot of these people there expecting to celebrate. Instead, witnessing something very traumatic -- Amara and Boris.

WALKER: Yes, just awful. SANCHEZ: Natasha, you mentioned that there were indications from this Gay Men's Chorus that the person believed to be responsible for the accident, the apparent accident, was part of their group. What more do we know about that suspect?

CHEN: Not very much except that he was apprehended at the scene there. The Gay Men's Chorus in their statement to our affiliate local station simply said that he was part of the chorus family and that the two victims are a part of the chorus, Boris.

[06:05:06]

WALKER: Very sad.

SANCHEZ: Natasha Chen --

WALKER: Thank you. Well, we are seeing another weekend marred by deadly gun violence in cities across the nation.

SANCHEZ: Yes, in the past 48 hours at least four people have been killed and nearly two dozen wounded. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police still trying to idea the suspects who shot six people after a concert early Saturday morning, killing two of them. In Anchorage, Alaska, police arresting a 21-year-old man after they say he shot five people downtown on Saturday. One woman dying there.

WALKER: Also, Friday night in Colorado Springs at least five people were injured in two separate shootings. The first was at a mall carnival. The second was just 40 minutes later and less than a mile away at a Boston market restaurant.

And then in Minneapolis five people hurt when a gunman opened fire there. Fortunately, none of those injuries were life-threatening. And overnight in Oakland, California, at least one person has been killed when gunshots rang out near a lake where people were celebrating Juneteenth.

Polo Sandoval is following the latest on this. I mean, it's really hard to keep up with all these shootings. So, Polo, what do you know about the shooting in California?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Amara and Boris, that map that you just showed viewers it tells a lot, that there are victims of gun violence really throughout the country right now. They are feeling the effects of that. So, let's get you up to speed on specifically that one in Oakland.

And we know at this point according to investigators, said it was apparently a gathering of about 1,000 people at Lake Merritt, a very popular destination in this city surrounded by parkland. And it was after 6:00 p.m. that shots rang out and this is basically the aftermath in the massive crime scene that investigators have been working throughout the night.

We know at least six people according to investigators, all of them young people, 16 to 27 years old, did sustain gunshot wounds. One of them, a 22-year-old man, was rushed to the hospital where sadly he did not survive.

Investigators did indentify and arrest or at least detained two armed men that were fleeing the scene at the time of the shooting. They were detained. They are speaking to them right now and they are working to determine if they are possibly connected to that shooting. And they're also seeking that anybody with any information come forward and provide that information to investigators as they try to establish what is behind this latest shooting that again left at least one person dead and about five others injured here.

Now, when it comes to the broader look, we have seen a 40 percent increase in similar incidents according to data that has been compiled by CNN and also Gun Violence Archive. A big question, of course, what's behind this?

You hear from multiple experts across the country, the latest on this program, Charles Ramsey, the former police commissioner in Philadelphia, that just yesterday told you, Amara and Boris, that he believes that it's simply too many guns in hands of people who simply should not.

And the former commissioner calling out changes in the law but also stricter ways in the way they prosecute these kinds of crimes as a possible solution as we continue to see yet another wave of gun violence this weekend -- guys.

SANCHEZ: Ramsey also lamenting the lack of action from Congress when we spoke to him yesterday. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

SANDOVAL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Now, so far this year there have been nearly 290 mass shootings according to the Gun Violence Archives. And naturally, the question emerges, what is fueling this surge?

WALKER: And yesterday when we were talking I think that number was at 280 or so. So, that number is ticking up by the day. Jillian Peterson, founder of The Violence Project, says there are several reasons, including the mental health crisis caused by the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILLIAN PETERSON, FOUNDER, THE VIOLENCE PROJECT: That type of violence has been surging through the pandemic and now in 2021 we're really seeing those numbers rise. And we can think about how the pandemic has increased stress, increased frustration, added to things like job loss and trauma and isolation, and we know all of that has been impact on gun violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: And Peterson went on to say that now that we are out or coming out of the pandemic, we are starting to see some of the consequences of people not being able to access help or connect with family and friends during the lockdowns. SANCHEZ: There's a new report out that we want to tell you about and it's questioning -- raising questions, I should say, about the number of deaths at the hands of police, specifically in the Latino community. They have apparently been severely undercounted in recent years.

WALKER: It comes at a tenuous time for America. The country facing a racial reckoning with policing. And now there are many calling for change for the Latino community. CNN's Josh Campbell with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Silent video shows a Vallejo, California, police officer firing a rifle through his own windshield. Five shots in four seconds from an unmarked truck --

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: What did he point at us?

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: I don't know, man.

CAMPBELL: -- at a man who police later said was half-kneeling. Officers were responding to a call about potential looters at a Walgreens.

[06:10:04]

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: You see a gun on him?

CAMPBELL: When the audio comes on, the officer says he thought the man was pointing a gun at him.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: I thought that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) axe was a gun.

CAMPBELL: One of the bullets struck 22-year-old Sean Monterrosa. It was eight days after George Floyd's death and America was lit with outrage. Monterrosa himself had been out protesting, his family says, and even asked his sisters to sign a petition calling for justice for George Floyd.

A year after Floyd's and Monterrosa's deaths, new research shows more than 2,600 Latinos could have been killed by police or in custody since 2014. According to researchers at Cal State San Bernardino and the Raza Database Project, Latino deaths by police are severely undercounted, partially because they are not counted in a uniform way.

ENRIQUE MURILLO, JR., PROFESSOR, CAL STATE UNIVERSITY SAN BERNARDINO: Sometimes we are in the white category. We could be in the black because there's Afro Latinos. We could be in the Asian category. A lot of them -- a lot of us are in the unknown or the other categories.

CAMPBELL: Enrique Murillo is one of the researchers. He says America still has more racial reckoning to do.

MURILLO: The racial conflict in the United States is usually black and white. It's considered black and white. And it's rare that they consider Latinos.

CAMPBELL: They hope their painstaking work of counting will bring about change in Washington.

REP. TONY CARDENAS (D-CA): Latinos are definitely undercounted.

CAMPBELL: Congressman Tony Cardenas represents a southern California community that is 67 percent Hispanic. He was one of the co-sponsors of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

CARDENAS: The people who are dying in the custody or in contact with police more than anybody else in America are black individuals. The second highest right behind them are Latinos.

CAMPBELL: Cardenas says the first step for that to change is good data. Then accountability when laws are eventually passed.

For the Monterrosa a family, waiting for Congress is not an option. The family has filed a civil suit against the city of Vallejo and the officer involved for a violation of civil rights and wrongful death, and now the California attorney general is investigating the case. The local D.A. has not brought charges against the officer, who has not been identified by police.

S. LEE MERRITT, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: We need an immediate arrest. There's nothing really obscure about what happened to Sean. We have -- there's a video. We all know what happened.

CAMPBELL: His sister Michelle Monterrosa hopes the memory of her brother will help put a stop to police violence against Latinos.

MICHELLE MONTERROSA, SISTER OF SEAN MONTERROSA: My advice to other Latino families, don't wait until it's one of your loved to get involved because it does happen in our own backyard. We do have to face the reality that this can really happen to anyone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL: And, Jim, when we talking about policing reform, that obviously covers a whole host of topics including police tactics. There has been widespread support to ensure that officers are respectful in treating people fairly.

But this other issue, when it comes to some of the new constraints placed on some officers, what they can do, where they can go, we're hearing police groups calling on elected officials to rethink some of those policies, especially in light of the surge in violent crime in so many places in the country that seems to have no end in sight -- Jim.

WALKER: All right. Thanks so much for that. It's Amara and Boris. But we'll take it, right?

All right. Ahead this hour tropical storm Claudette spawned a tornado and left a path of destruction in the south. We're going to tell you where that storm is headed next. SANCHEZ: Plus, the growing push from the far right to cast doubt on what actually happened during the January 6th insurrection. Some even falsely blaming the FBI.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:44]

WALKER: In Brewton, Alabama, drone footage shows the path of devastation after a tornado ripped through a town yesterday. Yes, that's incredible. Emergency officials say the tornado left at least three people injured and destroyed, decimated several homes.

SANCHEZ: Now, one survivor says that she watched the tornado pass by while she was hunkering down, and when she later came out she was shaken by what she saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICIA JOSSEY, TORNADO SURVIVOR: All of a sudden the trees over this way behind the houses over there, they just kind of just -- it was just like they imploded. They just fell over.

I was in shock really. I didn't -- I mean, I didn't really know what to do. It was just really helpless feeling because I knew that we were fine. I knew that the inside of my house is fine. I knew that we were fine. And then when I walked out on the front porch and saw that it just -- you know, it was really upsetting to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Yes, upsetting for sure. Now, tropical storm Claudette has now weakened into a depression. But the storm continues to dump heavy rain onto the southeast. Tropical storm warnings have now been issued for much of coastal North Carolina.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Meantime, other parts of the country are not getting enough rain, if any at all. Nearly 30 million people are under heat alerts in the west as they continue to battle an extreme heat wave.

Let's bring in CNN's Allison Chinchar. She's live in the weather center. Allison, give us an update on Claudette.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So, the thing we just showed that tornado damage, that's going to be one of the factors we're still dealing with today, is additional tornados. You saw the tornado watch valid for many areas along the Gulf Coast for at least about another hour or so.

Right now tropical depression Claudette looking at winds about 30 miles per hour moving to the east-northeast at about 13 miles per hour. Here's the thing though. We actually anticipate the storm will restrengthen back into a tropical storm once it gets out over the open Atlantic again and then kind of rides up along the East Coast making its way towards Nova Scotia. Because of this you have new tropical storm watches and warnings along areas of North and South Carolina's coastline in anticipation of that restrengthening from the storm.

Here you can see still some very heavy bands of rain across areas of Georgia, South Carolina, and especially along portions of Florida. Because of how much rain fell yesterday, plus the additional rain anticipated today, you have flood watches in effect for a lot of these states here going forward.

[06:20:04]

Look at some of these 48-hour totals. You have several places that picked up over 10 inches of rain, most of that heavy focus along areas of eastern Louisiana and portions of southern Mississippi and Alabama.

On the western portion of the U.S., we're talking heat. And, yes, I get it. The southeast is normally a very hot place, but even for the desert these are extreme temperatures. So, you have the excessive heat warnings and even some heat advisories out for over half a dozen states in the western tier.

Now, the good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are going to finally start to see a break on Monday for some of the areas down to the southwest, and then eventually Tuesday for areas a little bit farther north, namely, say, northern California, Oregon, and even into Washington State.

But still very hot. Las Vegas 114 today, down to 105 on Tuesday. Phoenix 114 today, down to 106. The concern is those very hot temperatures mixing with very dry conditions and that's going to give us an elevated fire weather risk across the Four Corners region for today, Boris and Amara. So certainly something to watch, especially over the next couple of days.

WALKER: Yes, so much extreme weather to be watching out for. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for that.

Ahead, we all watched and witnessed the January 6th insurrection. Now, the shocking and horrifying images playing out on live TV for the world to see. Right now there are Republican members of Congress who are actively downplaying the events of that day, rewriting history, really. So, where do we go from here?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:49]

WALKER: This week a woman from Indiana will become the first person sentenced for playing a part in the January 6th Capitol riot. Around 500 people have been charged.

But on Capitol Hill many of the Republican lawmakers whose lives were threatened that day are continuing in their efforts to rewrite history and deny the facts of what really happened. Twenty-one House Republicans voted against a bill to give medals to the Capitol Hill police who protected them that day. That measure eventually passed the House and Senate. And Arizona Representative Paul Gosar this week saying the woman killed storming the Capitol was executed. Yesterday he implied a cover-up.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

REP. PAUL GOSAR (R-AZ): They don't want us to know the truth about Ashli's death, but we do. Release the video. Release the investigative report. Give Ashli the dignity that she deserves. Give Congress some self-respect and stop covering up this murder.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WALKER: All right. Joining me now to discuss is Daniel Lippman, White House reporter for "Politico." Daniel, thanks for joining us.

You know, it's mind boggling. It's saddening and maddening when you have some lawmakers amplifying delusional conspiracy theories, denying the facts of what happened on January 6th and then voting against awarding the officers who defended them during that violence riot. Look, for those who aren't following politics day in and day out just help us understand why so many Republicans are choosing this alternate reality and what do they stand to gain from it?

DANIEL LIPPMAN, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: I think it's a cynical partisan play because they need Donald Trump's support to win the, you know, House back next year in the midterms. And they think that he is a very likely candidate in 2024 and so they don't want to anger his base of supporters who, many of whom think Antifa or the left stormed the Capitol instead of Trump supporters who he had riled up.

And so for a party that talks about -- venerates police so much and supporting the police last summer during Black Lives Matter, it's just a swift turnabout when they are saying, you can't even get a mark of honor and respect in terms of this gold medal to cops who put their lives on the line to protect these people who voted against this type of, you know, recognition.

WALKER: It's one thing to try to not upset the base and it's another to just feed into these lies. You know, President Biden, as we all know, made a campaign promise to work with Republicans and Democrats to get things done, right? And this is something he has done and he has touted for much of his 40-year career in government.

But, look, talks are dragging especially on infrastructure, voting and policing. And we know Biden is dealing with this post-Trump America. It's a very polarized atmosphere.

Trumpism is not really a thing of the past, right? It's pretty much the future, it seems like. I mean, how are Democrats feeling about the stalled agenda? What's the mood?

LIPPMAN: I think the mood is, you know, kind of despair a little bit because they don't want Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to define what the party gets in terms of this presidency. And so they think that, you know, it's all great to try bipartisanship but, you know, as soon as the August recess comes, they want to feel like they have accomplished a great deal of infrastructure and voting rights, and they don't want to do something small ball.

If you look at Republicans when they take over power, such as in 2017 with Trump, they spend a little bit of time working on bipartisanship in terms of trying to craft bipartisan bills, but they don't spend months and months trying to reach something that is almost unattainable because Mitch McConnell doesn't want to give Joe Biden a win -- a major win. And so this seems to be about protecting Manchin's political future instead of delivering on that mandate that Democrats got last November.

WALKER: Right. OK.

[06:30:00]

So, then to build on what you're saying and looking forward to this test vote on Tuesday on whatever bill the Democrats agree upon. So, there was a short-lived optimism, right, after Joe Manchin's proposed compromise on the voting rights bill. But then, as you were mentioning, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shut it down. So, is there anything Republicans are willing to support? And regarding this vote, what is it about? Is it about showing that at least the Democrats are united?

LIPPMAN: Yes, I think it's, you know, showing Democrats can kind of show a united front, that voting rights is important -- are important, and that they're not going to let McConnell or, you know, minority Republicans dictate what they get.

I think there's -- you know, voting rights is such a big issue because it determines whether in this age of, you know, woke ism and also just people -- you know, people want to be heard. They don't want the country to be defined by an insurrection or they don't -- they want everyone to have the right to vote. And so, you know, Joe Biden has to kind of be seen as fighting for that and making sure that, you know, something supported by Stacey Abrams actually gets to pass.

This is not a -- what Manchin proposed in terms of voting rights is not some, you know, far-left fever dream, it's something that is much more moderate. And even liberals are saying, you know, it's not enough, but we'll take -- we want to at least make some progress on this issue.

WALKER: Yes, but the fact that Stacey Abrams supported and endorsed this compromise deal seemed to be a huge turnoff for Republicans. Daniel Lippman, I appreciate you joining us this morning. Thanks so much.

LIPPMAN: Thank you.

WALKER: And tonight, CNN's Drew Griffin will take a closer look at the Capitol riots in the new Special CNN Report Assault on Democracy: The Roots of Trump's insurrection. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are now hundreds in the mob roaming halls, banging on doors, taking photos and video. Some members of Congress are being escorted to safety, but scattered behind doors, staffers, and news media are in hiding.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then I remember telling my colleagues, we need to go into lockdown.

GRIFFIN: Inside House Speaker Pelosi's office, her staffers rushed to a conference room, locked the door. Among them, Elisa La and Kelsey Smith speaking exclusively to CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then we started hearing the banging and like, the hooting and hollering --

AMERICAN CROWD: Nancy, Nancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- very close to us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here you go, brother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then I realized, OK music off. Everybody, silence your cell phones. Turn the lights off. Do not say anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're coming for you, Nancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was menacing. I mean, they were like, where's Nancy? Where's Nancy? Where are the people that work for her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to find you. We're going to find you.

GRIFFIN: They had barricaded themselves in hoping the door would hold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The den was coming from all directions. And we heard somebody yell, I found Nancy Pelosi's office. They're like, Nancy. People are chanting, Nancy, Nancy. They come through this way. So, we're hearing it from behind us and in front of our door. So, it was completely -- the sound surrounded us to the point we're just hearing the shouting and the yelling and the banging and crashing and shattering of glass. But then once they started banging on the door, that's all I heard. That's what I still think about, the door sound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Assault on Democracy: The Roots of Trump's Insurrection airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN. Look, a major player in whitewashing all that we saw on January 6 is right-wing media. And someone who has taken right-wing media to task is Brian Stelter who joins us now with a preview of "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Brian, good morning, and Happy Father's Day.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Thanks.

SANCHEZ: The latest attempts -- of course. The latest attempt to deflect blame for the insurrection now involves the FBI somehow being behind the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Where is this nonsense coming from?

STELTER: Well, I think this shows the pipeline that right-wing media has really shrunk. It's really devolved. It used to be that these kinds of fringe ideas, these conspiracy theories would take months or even years to spread from the dark corners of the internet on to Fox News prime time.

But now it's only in the span of a day. Something pops up on a random right-wing Web site, the next night, Tucker Carlson is promoting it to millions of people, and then you have GOP lawmakers glomming on to it, coming up with excuses for the rioters.

It's as if you know, all of the kind of processes for these sorts of ideas making their way to the mainstream have shrunk and collapse. And now, there's really no difference between a random fringe Web site and mainstream media, in this case, Fox News, bringing these ideas to millions of people.

But what Fox is doing, what Tucker is doing, is not reporting. He's presenting a series of questions and then claiming it's true without proof. It's a rarely really cynical thing he's doing. And to see how it spread so quickly this week, Boris, all across the right-wing, all across the GOP, it shows you the state of the party. It's not evidence-based in this case. It is fantasy-based. They want this to be true, but there's no evidence it is.

[06:35:36]

SANCHEZ: It's so aggravating to see lawmakers that were barricading doors that day now talking about these rioters as if they were tourists and downplaying what happened. I do want to ask you about my favorite thing I read this week, the final column from New York Times opinion columnist Frank Bruni saying that he's worried about having contributed to what he calls the toxic tenor of American discourse.

And this is what he writes. "We pundits are merchants of certitude in a world where much is in doubt, and many questions don't have one right answer. As such, we may be encouraging arrogance and then yielding this in our readers, viewers, and listeners. He makes the point that nuanced, complicated, compelling, challenging arguments don't make for a lot of clicks. What did you think of his piece?

STELTER: Yes, Bruni went on to say that there aren't as many clicks in cooling tempers and complicating people's understanding of situations as there are in stoking their rage. I think this is a really important column. It's up at nytimes.com.

I think the question for everyone in public life, whether you're a columnist or writer or a television host or a lawmaker or someone who wants to be an elected official is, are you helping to lower the temperature and make things a little calmer and easier to discuss among people? Or are you raising the temperature making things harder to discuss, harder to debate, and making people, as he says, stoking their rage? Are you lowering the temperature or cooling the temperature? And it is absolutely true that some in media, even some newspaper columnists end up raising the temperature, end up stoking rage, end up making things harder to process. So, I was glad to see him write about this. And it's something we have to be reflective about.

Are we making things better or worse? One way of saying it, Boris, is there's constructive and there's destructive types of media. There's a lot of destructive media out there that just pollutes the atmosphere. It's so much better to be constructive however we can.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's the difference between skepticism and cynicism, right?

STELTER: Right.

SANCHEZ: Brian, I hope Sunny and Story gives you a great Father's Day. I know we'll be watching you on "RELIABLE SOURCES."

STELTER: They actually slept in.

SANCHEZ: They did?

STELTER: They actually slept in. I'm going to -- instead of making -- instead of they making me breakfast, I think I'll go make them breakfast in bed.

SANCHEZ: If you have any spare bacon, please send it my way. Brian Stelter, thank you so much. Great to see you as always, my friend.

STELTER: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: And of course, be sure to watch Brian on "RELIABLE SOURCES" today at 11:00 a.m. And a reminder, check out Brian's book Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth. It's out now in paperback.

Up next, a crowded field of Democrats vying to be New York City's next mayor are making their final pitches to voters ahead of Tuesday's primary. We'll take a closer look at what's at stake after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

SANCHEZ: Today is the last day of early voting ahead of the primary election for New York City mayor. And recent polling shows that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is in the lead. Though experts say any of the top four candidates could wind up winning.

WALKER: Especially this year because for the first time in the city's history, ranked-choice voting is being used for Tuesday's primaries. So, the new voting system is changing the way that candidates are campaigning.

Yesterday, Andrew Yang and Catherine Garcia joined each other at events hoping to cut into Adams' leads, something we haven't seen before at least in New York. And in the heavily Democratic City of New York, mayoral candidate Maya Wiley has garnered the most support from the city's progressive leaders.

SANCHEZ: Yes. There are still questions though about whether that's going to be enough to carry her to City Hall. CNN's Athena Jones has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYA WILEY, MAYORAL CANDIDATE, NEW YORK CITY: Hello, sir. Maya Wiley, I'm running for mayor.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley has emerged as the top progressive candidate in the race to lead New York City, consolidating much of the support of the left-wing of the party in the crowded field vying for the Democratic nomination.

Wiley's surge coming after she won the endorsement of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, part of the House leadership team in late May.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): The right person at the right time.

JONES: And the supportive progressive superstar Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in early June.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We have an option of a candidate who can center people, racial justice, economic justice, and climate justice.

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I need legal help. Let me get my counsel.

JONES: Wiley, former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio rising to prominence as the campaigns of two of her chief progressive rivals face controversy. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has been dogged by to allegations of sexual harassment which he has denied but still cost him several prominent endorsements. While former nonprofit executive Diane Morales' campaign has been beset by staff turmoil.

Wiley, a mother of two who lives in Brooklyn, wants to establish a $10 billion infrastructure stimulus and jobs program to help drive a post- pandemic recovery and to expand the city's rental assistance program.

[06:45:08]

WILEY: They ran into peaceful protesters, beat others to the ground and New York's leaders defended it. But it was an injustice to those of us know Black lives matter.

JONES: She has made fighting systemic racism and reforming policing key themes of her campaign vowing to transform the city's police department.

WILEY: We need a policing to be effective and efficient and fair and just and accountable to us.

JONES: She has proposed cutting at least $1 billion from the NYPD budget to fund so-called alternatives to policing like community-based violence interrupters and mental health responders.

WILEY: We are going to stop the hiring in the next two police cadet classes. As I have said, we have a police department that is bloated.

JONES: But while these views have led to missteps, like in our recent debate when she refused to answer directly whether guns should be taken away from police officers.

WILEY: I am not prepared to make that decision in a debate.

JONES: Later clarifying her position.

WILEY: I never said and nor has anyone in this campaign. Has it ever even been a campaign issue whether we would take guns from on-duty active duty police officers?

JONES: Wiley has also been hit for her work in the unpopular De Blasio administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Wiley, when you were Mayor de Blasio's top attorney, you devised a way for the mayor to hide potential conflicts of interest with outside consultants, three of whom have business --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From agents of the city, you allowed unfettered access to lobbyists and consultants.

JONES: Wiley has said her administration will be more transparent than her former bosses, and that she will be a different kind of leader.

WILEY: The kinds of solutions that we need in this historic crisis requires a change-maker and a change-making manager, and that's what I am.

JONES: Athena Jones, CNN New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Thanks to Athena for that. Hey, there was an instant classic last night, a game for the ages in the NBA playoffs. The Bucks and Nets playing in the first game seven overtime in 15 years. Ridiculous highlights in just a few minutes.

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[06:50:00]

WALKER: The Milwaukee Bucks are moving on in the NBA playoffs.

SANCHEZ: Coy Wire joins us now. Coy, the old adage, the best two words in sports, game seven, but there's a third overtime.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I stayed up way too late with this. Good morning to you. Two MVP is going to the wire and beyond. All the energy and emotion of a high-stakes game, this is what the playoffs are all about. 16,000 packed in Barclays Centre in New York. Bucks superstar Giannis needed to play like one and he did, 40 points. But Kevin Durant somehow was better.

Nets is down to (INAUDIBLE) hitting the game time bucket sending it to overtime just one second. And look at the crowd go wild. Look at mom go wild. The first overtime in the game seven since '06, but in OT just not enough gas in the tank. Durant is driving to take the lead but Brook Lopez with a block of his life. And then on the other end, Khris Middleton iced, the game winner.

Look at the reaction back in Milwaukee. Bucks win 115-111. They'll play the winner of the Hawks-Sixers game seven today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO, NBA PLAYER: I almost got emotional a little bit out there, you know, because like the team really, really try the best, you know. And we just come in New York again game seven, you know, and everybody's anxious, everybody's nervous, you know. And to be able to execute, believe in one another, trust one another, it was -- it was big time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Wild ending in Stanley Cup Semi-Finals. Closing seconds, Islanders is up one. Tampa Bay's Ryan McDonagh spinning, no-look shot. But Ryan Pulock comes out of nowhere stopping the puck that had gotten past the goalie for the game time goal that surely would have forced overtime. Instead, islanders went three-two evening the series at two apiece.

U.S. Open now still wide open. Torrey Pines, Louis Oosthuizen looking for a second career major in 11 years shot of the day. He even putt from 52 feet out 18th hole. Did you see that? Yes, you saw that. He catapults to (INAUDIBLE) now in a three-way tie for first with Russell Henley and Mackenzie Hughes. 20 golfers within five shots in the lead entering today's final round.

Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon. What a moment for Sha'Carri Richardson last night. 21-years-old from Texas blowing away the competition, winning the 100-meter dash by 13 hundredths of a second, clinching a spot in her first-ever Olympics. Richardson rushing into the stands to celebrate with grandma, then revealing she had lost her biological mom just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON, TRACK AND FIELD SPRINTER: Everybody has struggles on this day, but you all see me on this track and you all see the poker face I put on. But know how to put them. And my coach know what I go through on a day-to-day basis. And I'm highly grateful. Without them, there would be no me.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WIRE: And on the Juneteenth weekend, the MLS team with the highest fan attendance five years running, Atlanta United will unveil their unity kit. The Jersey has 13 messages, 11 different languages highlighting soccer as a unifying force around the globe. Team President Darren Eales, superstar in the making Miles Robinson and Machop Chol whose family emigrated to the U.S. from Sudan in 2000 to escape persecution says this is so much more than just a uniform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACHOP CHOL, MIDFIELDER, ATLANTA UNITED: Football was the game that united us all. So, even though we didn't speak the same language, I think the game really connected us. And I was able to learn a lot from different people and grab from different cultures, which is really nice.

[06:55:03]

DARREN EALES, TEAM PRESIDENT, ATLANTA UNITED: It couldn't come at a better time. I think, you know, across the world, this is a time for unity. So, something where we can focus on soccer being the global game. It's what unites communities all over the world.

MILES ROBINSON, DEFENDER, ATLANTA UNITED: Just things like this, having a jersey like this is definitely something to be proud of. You know words like justice, stuff like this is strong. And it's just a matter of, you know, understanding that racism is unacceptable in the world, but also the games.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: And they look pretty sweet too, Amara and Boris. Unity, justice, those words are powerful, you know. And all the progress we've seen in this country, sports, sports leaders have played no small part in that.

WALKER: What a great time to be celebrating diversity right now. And I love that that one player referred to it as football and not soccer. I refer to it as football too.

WIRE: Yes, indeed.

WALKER: Coy Wire --

SANCHEZ: Coy, great to see you as always. Happy Father's Day.

WALKER: Yes, Happy Father's Day.

WIRE: Thank you, Boris.

WALKER: All right, NEW DAY continues after the break.

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