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The Situation Room

Election Denier Tina Peters Released from Prison; CENTCOM: Iranian Missiles Targeted U.S. Forces in Kuwait; State Media: Iran Suspends Talks Over Israeli Strikes on Lebanon; Artificial Intelligence in Political Ads: Boost or Ban?; New Concerns Over Tick Bite That Causes Red Meat Allergy. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired June 01, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: -- just weeks after Colorado's governor cut her sentence in half. And we'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Happening now, former Colorado election clerk and conspiracy theorist, Tina Peters, is out of prison. The governor commuted her nine-year sentence last month. Peters was serving time for breaching her county's election system. And a federal civil trial will begin today against the owner and operator of the cargo ship that slammed into a Baltimore bridge two years ago. The bridge collapsed, as you may recall, killing six people. The companies on trial say they shouldn't be held responsible because the disaster was out of their control.

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And it's like Rock'em Sock'em Robots all grown up. This boxing match was just part of the spectacle at the World Intelligence Expo in China this weekend. Look at this. New embodied A.I. technology took center stage, bonding A.I. to a physical or simulated body.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And we have more breaking news here in the Situation Room. The U.S. says Iran fired two ballistic missiles at American forces inside Kuwait. Both were intercepted, and now Iran says it's suspending talks with the U.S. to protest Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

Joining us now, the retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark. He's the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and is the founder of Renew America Together. General, thanks so much for joining us. Those two missiles were knocked down. The missiles, Iranian missiles going after U.S. targets, U.S. forces inside Kuwait. How much of a threat is Iran right now to U.S. assets and personnel in this entire region?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FOUNDER, RENEW AMERICA TOGETHER AND FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: It is a threat. They do have their missile capabilities restored. They are a threat. They still have some air defense capabilities. But they're a bigger threat to our allies, Wolf. That's what we are depending on in terms of trying to restore America's presence in the region.

And so, what I see happening right now is a sort of low-intensity conflict centered on the Strait of Hormuz, in which we're trying to escort ships out by stealth, turn off their transponders, keeping them next to Oman. The Iranians are taking payments from countries like Qatar to move out their LNG. And I think the Iranians sense that the United States is reluctant to use military force. They're going to continue to squeeze us until it becomes accepted that they own the Strait of Hormuz and they are continuing to strengthen their military and possibly work on their nuclear capacity.

BLITZER: A CNN analysis, General, shows that Iran is right now digging up its missiles that were buried in the strikes by the U.S. and Israel. Could we see a scenario where Iran has plenty of missiles to resume military action against Israel and the United States, U.S. troops in the region, if it comes to that?

CLARK: Yes. We can see that. And especially they would have plenty of missiles to go against our allies in the region as well. And they've done an asymmetric response. So, when we go after Iran, they go after our allies. And what they're trying to do is build the case that the United States can't protect people, shouldn't be in the region, the United States should leave.

So, we have to think not only about Israel, but about the Gulf states in terms of protection. And it is a serious threat. The Iranians have been going after U.S. forces inside not just Kuwait, but the UAE, and Qatar and other places as well.

BLITZER: All right. General Wesley Clark, thank you very, very much. Pamela.

CLARK: Well, thank you, Wolf.

BROWN: All right. Wolf, coming up, ads and A.I., how the technology is already transforming political campaigns despite legal and ethical questions, and even some calls to ban it from elections altogether.

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[11:40:00]

BROWN: All right. Now to our new special series here in the Situation Room, Decoding A.I. As election season picks up, we're seeing more political ads use artificial intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just won't leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The clown?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, Sherrod Brown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sherrod Brown is still around. We gave him the boot after 50 years in politics, but he just won't go. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Save America Act is stalled and our nation is at risk while he's vacationing. Cornyn skipped town instead of fully funding DHS or working on reconciliation. And Cornyn still won't abolish the filibuster to support Trump. Save America and defend the homeland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, obviously that is an example of A.I. being used in these ads. And despite how viral these ads may be, not everyone supports them. There are even calls to ban the use of A.I. in campaign ads altogether, but that is easier said than done.

Joining us now is Hillary Lehr. She is the CEO and co-founder of Quiller, the first generative A.I. content tool designed for electoral campaigns, specifically. Hi, good to see you. So, if you would, just as we start out in this conversation, speak to just how powerful A.I. can be in politics, especially when it comes to crafting ads.

HILLARY LEHR, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, QUILIER: Certainly, and thank you for having me. A.I. can be incredibly transformative in the way that technology has always transformed politics, whether that is radio addresses from FDR, the first presidential debate that was televised that benefited good looking JFK, the digital revolution that helped the Obama campaign, and now A.I. is transforming campaigns as well.

But what's different about A.I. is the speed, scale, and sophistication that this technology can have in the way that election campaigns are run. It's quite transformative.

BROWN: And A.I. generated ads and videos are perhaps most notably breaking through in the Los Angeles mayor's race. Let's watch some of those in support of the Republican candidate there, Spencer Pratt.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm voting for Karen Bass because I want to keep injecting in public parks.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm voting for Karen Bass because I like it here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm voting for Karen Bass because I'll be damned if I go back to jail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter, she's sick.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Spencer Pratt is the common-sense choice for Los Angeles. Just look around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, what do you think about that?

LEHR: It's an interesting time when we're starting to see everybody throw spaghetti at the wall in terms of trying all different types of A.I. content for political ads. And because it's still so new, we're really in an early trial phase for what the public's taste and tolerance for A.I. generated content is going to be.

Right now, there is about a 20 percent gap between the American left and the American right, with the American right being 20 percentage points ahead in A.I. adoption. So, you'll see from the right a lot more experimentation and bravado with the types of A.I. generated ads that they're willing to put in front of the public. There's a lot more pushiness and kind of bravery in the type of ads that will be shared on that side to push the limit.

But A.I. generated content is coming from both sides of the aisle. Ultimately, it'll be up to voters in November and in subsequent elections to vote for candidates who put the type of content out into the public that resonates with them.

We're seeing two types in particular that cause concern. One is deep fakes that promote realistic content that can deceive the public. And the other type is the type of ads that you just saw, which are sarcastic and obviously generated, which is at least a little easier for the public to see what's real and what's false.

BROWN: And in terms of the deep fakes, I mean, there was that one now infamous A.I. generated ad of Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donald. And a lot of people thought it was real. It was spread far and wide. It was him -- it was using words he had taken about another issue and made it seem like he was advocating for insider trading. And even though it had warning signs on it, people believed it. They spread it.

I mean, what do you do at that point? How do you put the genie back in the bottle once it's out and people are believing this?

LEHR: It's such a good question. And one thing that's making me hopeful is that practitioners who run campaigns on both sides of the aisle have a rare moment of bipartisan agreement and that they agree that there does need to be disclosure of A.I. generated content, but it shouldn't stop there.

We shouldn't only be disclosing that A.I. was used in the creation of political content, but how it was used. Because there's a big difference between photo editing to remove a freckle, dramatizing an event that did happen, and fabricating a completely false misrepresentation of something that never happened.

And ideally with consistent and toothy federal legislation, we can enforce that, or at least at the state level with consistent, durable legislation, we can require not just A.I. disclosure, but specificity on how the tools were used so that the public knows what they're seeing.

BROWN: And there's at least one governor in a state that wants to ban A.I. and political ads. What do you think about that?

LEHR: It's tempting to say that a ban would be the cure-all for a lot of the challenges that we're seeing right now. But is the problem A.I. or is the problem deceit? And the problem with a ban is that you can have the liar's dividend, where good actors are not going to use A.I. for ethical, fair use cases, but bad actors are going to use these tools because they don't care about our laws anyways. And that's a case where bans would continue to have bad actors deceiving the public, which is the whole problem that they're trying to stop.

BROWN: That's an interesting perspective. And just as we take a step back and look at this, how else are candidates, their staffs, and voters using A.I. on the trail and in politics more broadly?

LEHR: It's a great point. There are so many positive use cases for A.I. in politics. Ethical use cases that help us respond faster to public events, draft content for campaigns, whether that's a fundraising email, an SMS, an op-ed, or a volunteer update. There are ways that we can use A.I. to better understand our volunteers, our donors, and everybody that's participating in the political process with more nuance and sophistication so that we can run better campaigns. There are a lot of ethical use cases.

And while deepfakes are, of course, a very serious concern that must be addressed, my hope is that the regulation doesn't preclude all of those great use cases where A.I. can really support and enhance democracy in our elections.

BROWN: All right. Hillary Lehr, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate you coming on to offer your perspective.

And here in the Situation Room, we'll be decoding A.I. every day this week in a brand-new series addressing its impact on just about everything, even your love life. Don't miss it.

Well, Lyme disease cases are up, and we haven't even hit summer yet.

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Coming up, there are these new concerns about another condition you can get from a tick bite that can make you allergic to red meat. We'll be right back.

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[11:55:00]

BROWN: Well, this just in to the Situation Room, the police officer fired for repeatedly punching a woman during an arrest is now charged with assault inflicting serious injury. That's from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The police officer fired for repeatedly punching a woman during an arrest is now charged with assault inflicting serious injury. That's from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. And I want to warn you before we play this footage it is very disturbing to watch.

The unnamed officer turned himself into the Cleveland County Detention Center and was released on bond. He was fired from the Shelby Police Department after a home security camera showed him repeatedly punching a black woman as you see right here in this video who later asked for mental health support. Now, we don't know what happened immediately before this video.

BLITZER: Very depressing, very depressing indeed. Also happening now, the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to improve how it handles illnesses from tick bites like Lyme disease. Part of the effort includes protecting people from another condition association -- associated with ticks called alpha-gal syndrome. It can make you allergic to red meat and dairy.

CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell has more on the rising number of cases and how communities are now trying to handle it.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People don't want to go outside anymore. They don't want to go hiking. They are scared to go gardening or even walk the dog.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Martha's Vineyard, an island people visit especially in the summer to enjoy its gorgeous beaches and trails and great food scene, ticks are making life difficult.

TOM MURPHY: We're surrounded by what is apparently a tick haven.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Tom Murphy, his wife Chris and several of their neighbors have all contracted an allergy called alpha-gal spread by ticks. It makes them allergic to red meat.

MURPHY: I had a steak dinner with my son. I went to bed and everything was fine. Everything was normal and about 2:00 or so in the morning I woke up and I was having trouble breathing.

TIRRELL: So, what were the things you can't eat anymore?

MURPHY: Well, you can't eat beef, no lamb, no pork, no venison. A lot of people can't eat dairy.

TIRRELL (voice-over): It's spread by a tick called the lone star, which can transfer a sugar molecule with its bite that can spark the allergy. We found two on a quick hunt with a tick biologist in Tom and Chris's yard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, lone stars were first recorded on the island in 2011. They were probably here before that.

TIRRELL: Why has it grown so fast?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a good climate here for ticks since we're out on the ocean. We have plenty of hosts like very overabundant deer that the ticks just have no problem finding a meal.

LEA HAMNER, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: When it bites us, our immune system might decide foreign invader don't like it and I'm going to create an allergic response.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Lea Hamner is an epidemiologist on the island. She says there's still a lot to learn about the allergy.

HAMNER: We don't exactly know who's most likely to develop alpha-gal syndrome and who's not. There's people who get lone star tick bites and do not become allergic.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Martha's Vineyard Hospital tested nine people for alpha-gal in 2020 and only two came up positive in 2024.

AUBREY STIMOLA RYAN, MARTHA'S VINEYARD HOSPITAL: We did over 1,200 tests and 523 of those tests were positive. So, you can see that we went from like a positivity rate of 22.2 percent up to 41.7 percent. It can be quite frightening for patients because the allergy can be mild including itching, rashes, some GI symptoms, but it can also be very severe and unfortunately quite unpredictable.

REBECCA MILLER, NORTH TABOR FARM: About one-third of our customers that come in have alpha-gal.

TIRRELL (voice-over): Farm stands and restaurants on the island are also adapting to try to help their customers.

MILLER: So, many people were just shell-shocked that they had to change their diets immediately. And so, they needed support with that. So, I've been buying alternative dairy plant-based cheeses. This is like a like a feta-like cheese and I bake with this and it's melty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, here we have our turkey Bolognese which is completely alpha-gal friendly. We want to make sure we can accommodate this allergy because it's spreading like wildfire.

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TIRRELL (on camera): And, Pam and Wolf, it's important to know that experts emphasize this can be prevented. Personal protection they say is the best way to start. Wearing long pants, tucking your pants into your socks, wearing boots, spraying yourself with repellent and treating your clothes with a repellent called permethrin.

I did all of those things while I was on Martha's Vineyard. I did not get a tick bite that I know of. This is the way they say to try to protect yourself and still be able to enjoy the beautiful outdoors. Guys.

BLITZER: Very scary indeed. Meg Tirrell, thank you very, very much. Pamela.

BROWN: Thanks so much, Meg. And happening now, it is CNN's birthday today. 46 years ago, Ted Turner launched the first 24-hour cable news network.

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TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: I dedicate the news channel for America, the cable news network.

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BLITZER: Here's the start of that very first broadcast here on CNN with David Walker and Lois Hart.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 11. Mic cue. To New York. Standby. Ready three. Take three. Mic cue. Freeze. Start to slow zoom in a little bit. Roll tape. Take three. Ready 13. Full. Ready camera three. One center up.

DAVID WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm David Walker.

LOIS HART, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Lois Hart. Now, here's --

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