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The Situation Room

NBA Finals Set to Begin; Pete Hegseth Under Fire; A.I. and Medicine; Primary Results. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired June 03, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: What do you think is going to happen with Spencer Pratt out in California?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it looks like Spencer Pratt and the current mayor are headed to a run-off. We'll see. Obviously, the votes are still coming in. That's obviously a bit of a surprise.

One thing I would say about Cal -- and L.A. specifically, having lived there for a long time, the mayor, I mean, she's taken a lot of heat for the aftermath of the fires, even for parts of the city she technically doesn't control. A lot of people understand the difference between what the mayor controls and the city council.

She's going to have to do a better job, I think, of talking about what she has done, because he's certainly made that a central issue of the campaign and it's a pain point.

BLITZER: T.W., as you know, Spencer Pratt, he will likely land in second place. So he's got, what, five more months to make his case before the November elections. What does he -- what message does he need to send in order to win that race?

T.W. ARRIGHI, FORMER AID TO LINDSEY GRAHAM AND MIKE POMPEO: Well, first of all, Wolf, I hope you're right.

He has a 41,000-vote lead. There's about 291 ballots remaining. I have PTSD from 2018, when we were up 4.5 points on election night with Mimi Walters and Katie Porter. We ended up losing by 2.5.

He's got to stay laser-focused on local issues. He's talking about homelessness. He's talking about crime in the streets. He's talking about fire recovery. That has built him up to this point. He needs to stay laser-focused on that and keep doing the fun, creative campaign that's had him break through in a very Democratic city.

BLITZER: It's interesting. Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra are likely going to face off in the November election. Where do you think Steyer's voters are going to go?

FINNEY: I think they will go to Becerra, because, if you're a Steyer voter, particularly you probably care about, for example, the environment, that's been an issue that he has really cam -- been a big donor and supporter of for quite some time, I don't think you're going to end up going to the Republican.

But I got to say, when it comes to California governors, they can -- we can be quirky. We are the state of Governor Schwarzenegger.

BLITZER: What do you think, T.W.?

ARRIGHI: Yes, look, I think a lot of times, in these elections, within a heavily blue state or heavily red state, the man that you're pushing back against is the party in power in that state.

So Steve Hilton's strong performance on primary night is sort of evidence to that. I think a lot of people are discontented in the way California is going, and that's why he's in first place. Now, there's a long way to go. Five months is a long time to either lose ground or make ground, and we will see what happens.

But I'm glad the people of California have a choice between a Republican and a Democrat.

BLITZER: Another question for you, T.W.

In Iowa's Republican race for governor, President Trump endorsed Randy Feenstra, but lost to Zach Lahn. What does it say to you that Feenstra is the first statewide Trump endorser to lose a major primary in 2026?

ARRIGHI: It tells me that it was too little, too late by the president. The president endorsed him on Friday. Early voting had already been going on for two weeks, and there have been a lot of criticisms among Iowa Republicans that Feenstra was not campaigning well enough, that he skipped all the debates. He didn't seem fully engaged.

So it was too little, too late. If he didn't get the endorsement, probably would have been a bigger loss.

BLITZER: In Iowa, it's interesting. Zach Wahls tried to make the Democratic Senate primary a referendum on Chuck Schumer. That didn't necessarily work out.

Speaking more broadly, what does the party need to do right now in order to be successful in November?

FINNEY: Well, in Iowa, to stay very laser-focused on issues in Iowa.

We know that one of the big issues in the heartland of the country is what's happening to farmers, who have been really harmed by the tariffs. And that has also been an issue in this primary, and I suspect it'll be a big issue when we -- now that we're in this general election contest, so I think staying focused on that.

And then, writ large, the party has to stay focused on cost issues, but also acknowledge the pain points people are feeling. I will also say, I think the Voting Rights Act being gutted is -- we're already seeing that as a mobilizing issue for voters.

BLITZER: It's still the economy, stupid? ARRIGHI: Always has been, always will be. And there's a long way to go before the general election, but people want to see progress being made now. And in a lot of these local races, they see their local leaders as the first touch point.

So it's falling on Democrats and Republicans to give a good message on the economy and chart a better path forward so people's pain in their pocketbooks don't last too long.

BLITZER: I wasn't calling you stupid.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: I was quoting...

(CROSSTALK)

ARRIGHI: I have been called a lot worse, Wolf. It's quite all right.

FINNEY: It's from the '90s. It's from the '90s.

BLITZER: I was quoting James Carville from the Bill Clinton election, when he said, remember, it's the economy, stupid.

(CROSSTALK)

ARRIGHI: Yes. Yes.

FINNEY: Yes. Yes. We got you.

BLITZER: I wasn't calling you stupid.

ARRIGHI: I -- it's quite all right.

BLITZER: Karen Finney and T.W., thanks very much for joining us.

ARRIGHI: Thank you.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Important clarification there, Wolf.

All right, happening now, breaking news: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is weighing in on that reportedly heated call with President Trump. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: What really happened in that call?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm not going to get into details over our conversations. We have had thousands -- well, a lot, a lot of them. And if you think this is a crisis, you should be in some other conversations.

[10:35:01]

But we have always found a way when -- we have so many agreements. We agree on the main things. We want to get Iran -- the nuclear program in Iran finished. We want to make sure that Iran doesn't pose a threat to Israel, to the Middle East, to America, that it doesn't develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, not only to Israel and to every capital in Europe, but to every city in the United States.

That's our common goal. That's what we set out to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And also this morning, Ukraine strikes St. Petersburg, hitting infrastructure targets, including an oil terminal. Hundreds of drones rained down and several people there were injured.

Also, uncertainty is growing at CBS after it fired veteran correspondent and anchor Scott Pelley. The announcement came one day after he strongly spoke out against "60 Minutes"' new leadership in front of staff.

And the White House Correspondents' Dinner will now take place on July 24 with enhanced security measures. April's dinner, as you will probably recall, was stopped after a gunman opened fire in a nearby hallway. President Trump says he will speak at the rescheduled dinner.

And so passengers on a Frontier flight restrained an unruly man. Police say he attempted to go into the cockpit and then tried to open the emergency exit door. This video right here shows multiple passengers helping to subdue him with flex cuffs and seat belt extenders. The man was later taken into custody.

And happening now, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing scrutiny from lawmakers after reportedly blocking the promotions of nine Naval officers in a move that disproportionately impacted women and black service members. Five current and former defense officials detailed to "The New York Times" how Hegseth's actions appeared to defy rules of the Pentagon's promotion process.

That system is supposed to be nonpolitical and based on merit. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told "The Times" that promotions are given to those who have earned them and that the department will never consider the color of a service member's skin or their gender as a factor.

Parnell did not address why Hegseth pulled the officers from the Navy's one-star list.

And joining us now to further discuss is retired Lieutenant Colonel Amy McGrath. She's a former Marine combat fighter pilot and recently ran as a Democrat in the Kentucky Senate primary.

Nice to see you back on the show here.

So, if you would, just as we start off this conversation, explain how these promotions typically work and why these actions by the defense secretary are so unusual.

LT. COL. AMY MCGRATH (RET.), U.S. MARINE CORPS: Sure. Well, first of all, the folks that get to this level, Pamela, these

are the best of the best. They have spent their entire careers doing very hard jobs, very high performance, and promotion boards aren't just some random selection committee.

This is the toughest scrutiny of performance records of any profession that I know. Takes months of review. And these boards, they make sure you have done the tough jobs. They make sure you have done them very well. All of these officers have done this or they wouldn't have gotten to this point.

And for the names to be pulled by Secretary Hegseth clearly because of race and gender is outrageous. And it's beneath what America stands for. And, unfortunately, there's not much that folks in the military can do about it.

BROWN: So, as "The Times" details, Secretary Hegseth barred nine Naval officers, including three women, two black men and four white men, from being elevated to the one-star rank of rear admiral.

But critics argue this is part of a broader pattern in which female and minority officers have either been fired or held back and part of a bigger campaign aimed at purging the Pentagon of so-called wokeness. And we know he wanted to roll back DEI and so forth. Why does that matter?

MCGRATH: Well, here's what's happening.

Pete Hegseth and his team are trolling the military records and social media accounts of officers. And they're punishing anyone who has ever served on a diversity task force potentially in the past or have said anything having to do with championing diversity in the past. They're punishing anyone who was involved in withdrawal of Afghanistan.

By the way, if you want to argue that was a failure, it was a strategic failure, not a tactical one. And this matters because promotions in the military should be apolitical, OK? And they have been apolitical.

And this sends just a chilling message to everyone in the Pentagon and everyone within DOD. They're walking around -- people are walking around scared right now, not -- trying not to get fired. And that's a problem.

It's ultimately a problem for our national security writ large.

BROWN: I'm wondering. I think Hegseth and those who support his decisions here would say, well, the military has gone too far astray prioritizing diversity over merit, and we saw these all DEI -- DEI offices and so forth.

[10:40:03]

And I wonder what you say to that. Have you seen examples where diversity has been prioritized over merit? MCGRATH: So, even if you take the argument of, hey, we don't want

these diversity initiatives anymore, remember that these officers in many cases were told to do these jobs, OK?

It's like in the Justice Department, where folks in the Justice Department were told to go to Mar-a-Lago and pick up the records. They don't get a choice as to what duty stations they get. They do it, and they do it well. And for them to be punished later on because of the jobs that they were given four or five, six or 10 years ago is absolutely wrong and outrageous.

BROWN: According to the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, he's been very outspoken on this issue, he says almost 60 percent of senior officers fired by Secretary Hegseth during his tenure are female or black.

The Pentagon says promotions simply go to whoever earns them. Why don't you believe that? Tell us a little bit more.

MCGRATH: Well, first of all, women in the high ranks in the United States navy are already underrepresented, OK? So the United States Navy has about 20 percent women; 20 percent of the fleet sailors are women; 30 percent of academy graduates, so those who graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, are women.

But by the time you get to admiral, it's like 6 percent. And so this isn't based on performance. It's based on a lot of factors. But to target women who are -- and black officers who have risen to this rank is just outrageous. These folks are my peers. They have done -- in the case of women in particular, they have done the job with -- no standards have ever been lowered.

We have come in the last 20, 30 years and done the exact same jobs as the men have done. And so to get to this level is really, really important. They have worked very hard for it. And so it's kind of -- I mean, it's just outrageous that this is happening.

BROWN: All right, Lieutenant Colonel Amy McGrath, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your perspective. We appreciate it -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very good interview, very important too.

And coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM: A.I. versus the M.D. Why taking health advice from your chatbot is not what the doctor ordered. Our series on the impact of artificial intelligence continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:47:04]

BLITZER: Now to our series here in THE SITUATION ROOM "Decoding A.I."

All week, we're examining the impact of artificial intelligence, looking at the good and the bad. And from Googling symptoms to scrolling WebMD, turning to the Internet for medical advice is certainly nothing new.

BROWN: But, with the rise of A.I., studies show tens of millions of people are now looking to the technology for answers to their health questions.

In fact, one poll by KFF showed that roughly one in three adults have used A.I. for health advice just in this past year, while another Gallup study estimated about 14 million adults skipped a doctor's visit because of the advice they received from A.I.

And, this week, Microsoft and Mayo Clinic announced they're teaming up to build an A.I. model specifically on medical data, including records, research, and the expertise of Mayo Clinicians.

So, joining us now is Dr. Helen Ouyang, an emergency medicine physician and associate professor at Columbia University.

Dr. Ouyang, thanks for coming on.

You actually recently wrote a piece for "The New York Times" about your own experience using ChatGPT as a patient. And you write: "As both a physician and a patient, I found the experience startling, not because ChatGPT dazzled me with its scientific knowledge, but because it behaved the way I wish modern medicine and its practitioners still would."

What do you mean by that? And how has this shifted how you approach your own patients?

DR. HELEN OUYANG, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, thanks for having me on.

So I had gone for my annual exam. And some of my lab numbers were starting to creep up, and it was something I wanted to try to change and improve. So I asked my doctor if we could speak on the phone. And she said we would have to do another appointment.

And, like many other Americans, I decided to put the numbers into ChatGPT and ask for advice. My primary care doctor has suggested continued diet and exercise, which I kind of thought I was already doing.

And what I found was that ChatGPT was able to give me really specific recommendations. It suited in my lifestyle. It gave me evidence behind it, and I was really able to use it as a health coach. And a few months later, I had my blood work checked again and it was improved.

BLITZER: And I know you made an important point in your article that you wrote. You are a doctor, as we all know. So, you know when to ignore certain things the chatbot says, while others who don't necessarily have a medical background might not know how to discern certain information.

What kind of guardrails, Doctor, do you think should be implemented so that patients can use these technologies safely? OUYANG: Yes, exactly.

Wolf, all the data out there has shown, that is what the studies have shown, is that when people without any medical background use these chatbots, they can often get misled. It's not -- much less accurate than when somebody with some sort of medical background uses them.

[10:50:05]

And I think we need some guardrails on them. We have all heard stories of patients with cancer that was likely curable with chemotherapy, and they decided after talking to the chatbot to forgo treatment. And patients have died.

So I would never suggest people use A.I. or chatbot without in collaboration with their doctor, speaking with their doctor about what they are doing. But I think, for things like trying to understand the diagnosis better, or understand annual screenings and when they're due for them, or some health coaching, like diet and exercise, I think these chatbots can be really good.

BROWN: And you also talk about how you were able to ask the chatbot the same question over and over without feeling judged or annoyed or worried about the time because I know a lot of us feel like we're -- we don't want to waste the doctor's time, right?

Do you think A.I. could be used to bridge gaps with some patients who might traditionally fall through the cracks because of something like a complicated diagnosis or limited access to health care, particularly because it can connect dots and take -- and it saves time in a way you may not get during a visit with the doctor?

OUYANG: Yes, definitely.

I mean, I work in the emergency room, and I see patients frequently on off-hours because something they were worrying about festering, they panicked. And, of course, they can't reach their doctor at night. They can't reach them on weekends, and they end up in the E.R.

And I think, in those cases, a chatbot might be pretty good, because you can start to ask the questions whenever it's convenient for you on off-hours, and you can ask them as many times as you need for reassurance. I had a patient in an emergency room. He had a highly curable cancer. And he knew that his doctors told him that. He was doing really well.

And he confessed to me that he still asks ChatGPT every week if his cancer is curable because he needed the regular reassurance.

BROWN: Yes.

OUYANG: He wasn't going to bother his oncologists every week like that.

(CROSSTALK) BLITZER: You're a medical doctor, Dr. Ouyang, so very quickly, what's more reliable, from your perspective, getting advice from a chatbot or from Google?

(LAUGHTER)

OUYANG: I think the data has shown that the chatbots are better.

But, again, when people use it who don't have any medical knowledge, some studies have shown that it's not much better than Google. So I think everything needs to be used with a grain of salt. You should definitely tell your doctor you're using it. And if doctors are open, they can start collaborating with patients on their responses, so everyone can sort of work together to make health better.

BLITZER: Go ahead.

BROWN: I know that, obviously, there's HIPAA and you have to protect patients' privacy, but I just wonder if you have used it on the doctor side of things.

OUYANG: Yes, I have.

It makes me nervous when I use it for myself. I don't upload like a PDF of my lab results with all the information. I just type in the value one by one. And I -- personally, when I use OpenEvidence, which is a professional tool for doctors to use for patients, I don't upload specific patient information.

And I don't recommend patients do that right now. I'm not sure about security or privacy, but that's definitely always a concern.

BLITZER: Dr. Helen Ouyang, thank you so much for your expertise. We are grateful to you.

BROWN: Thank you.

OUYANG: Thank you.

BROWN: And here's what's coming up all new at the top of the hour: brand-new reporting about a proposal to make Israel pay for U.S. weapons.

Plus, another investigation for George Santos. Did the former congressman cash in on a bet about himself?

And time for tipoff. Wait until you hear how much fans are shelling out for nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden for the NBA Finals.

That's all new next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:22]

BLITZER: Happening now: Two of the NBA's most iconic franchises are getting ready to Duke it out tonight for a shot at eternal basketball glory.

BROWN: Let's go live now to CNN sports anchor Coy Wire.

Coy, how excited are you for this year's NBA Finals matchup?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Let's go. So many people are excited, Pamela. Good to see you, Wolf.

Global sports platform Fanatics tells me they have never seen better sales for two teams heading into the Finals. The Knicks sold more merch in the first two hours post-clinch than the previous bestselling team, the Warriors, did in five days post-clinch.

This is a rematch of the 1999 championship between the Spurs and the Knicks. Game one is in San Antonio, where the Spurs, the youngest Finals team since 1977, are chasing their first title in 12 years, while the Knicks are seeking their first championship since 1973. That's when gas was 40 cents a gallon. The Internet didn't even exist yet.

Stars from both sides are fully aware of the stakes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS, NEW YORK KNICKS: To be able to have this moment in Knicks history, where we're back here, where New York's been hungry to be back in this Finals, it means a lot.

JALEN BRUNSON, NEW YORK KNICKS: Just got to be -- stay focused and keep learning even today. We can't be satisfied just because we're here. We got to continue to keep learning.

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: Coming back down from this is a challenge, and it's not done yet. We still need to really come back down to earth and realize that we haven't done the hardest yet. The job isn't done at all.

STEPHON CASTLE, SAN ANTONIO SPURS: I think we hit our stride at the right time, so -- and, yes, also, we have the best player in the world on our team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: The Knicks are on an historic 11-game win streak. Fans are hyped.

Nosebleed seats at MSG are nearly $4,000. That's roughly five times the get-in price of tonight's game one in San Diego -- oh, San Antonio.

(LAUGHTER)