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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

U.S. Launches New Strikes South of Iran Amid Ceasefire Talks; Worst-Case Blast Threat Eliminated in Chemical Tank Crisis; Pope Leo XIV Issues Stark Warning Over Artificial Intelligence; Cornyn, Paxton Battle in Texas Republican Senate Runoff; Pratt's Homeless Policy Stirs Debate in L.A. Mayoral Race; U.S. Coffee Chain Attracting Attention with Low-Cost Model. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired May 26, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:07]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Now, a year after that, Jake Larson passed away peacefully at the age of 102. But before he left us that interview ended up winning an Emmy and we made sure to send it to him. We sent him the statue, which he held up proudly. So thank you to Jake Larson and to all who fought so bravely.

Thank you for watching and goodbye from London.

(END)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Elex Michaelson, live in Los Angeles. Welcome to THE STORY IS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON (voice-over): THE STORY IS in Iran. The U.S. carrying out new strikes in the region while trying to negotiate a peace deal.

THE STORY IS in Rome. Pope Leo XIV lays out a religious based warning about artificial intelligence.

POPE LEO XIV, HEAD, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed.

MICHAELSON: Catholic Radio host Katie McGrady, CNN tech contributor Jacob Ward standing by live.

THE STORY IS in Texas. High stakes showdown in the Republican Senate primary just hours away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some things on Cornyn that I really like but then there are some things on Paxton that I like.

MICHAELSON: Our panel here to debate. On the left, Loren Piretra, on the right, Matt Bilinsky.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Live from Los Angeles, THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: The top story is in southern Iran, where earlier U.S. Central Command says that the U.S. military conducted self-defense strikes targeting Iranian missile launch sites and boats around the Strait of Hormuz. The attacks come as Washington and Tehran are engaged in negotiations to end the war, but disputes remain over Iran's nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions.

President Trump laying out his plans for destroying Iran's enriched uranium or, quote, "nuclear dust," as he calls it, saying it will either be transported to the U.S., dealt with on site or taken to a, quote, "another acceptable location." Meanwhile, some Republican allies of the president who support a hard line stance against Iran say that the pending framework to end the war puts the U.S. at a disadvantage.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said, quote, "Trump being ill advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it is written on, and that ceasing military action risks a perception of weakness."

CNN's Mike Valerio live in Beijing following all this.

Mike, we're just hearing from the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. What's he saying?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, he's speaking to the point, which is our main question of whether or not these strikes, Elex, are going to potentially derail the talks that you've described, that have been happening for days. He seemed to express optimism on board his plane with this press gaggle saying that talks even after these strikes are continuing. So he starts from there.

He also talks about the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz being tolled. So let's listen to him. It's a couple seconds long. We'll talk it more on the other side. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, the straits have to be open. They're going to be open one way or the other. So they need to be open. What's happening there is unlawful. It's illegal. It's unsustainable for the world. It's unacceptable. I don't know of any country in the world that does that. The Russians are not in favor of a tolling system. The Chinese are not in favor of a tolling system.

I mean, there's no country in the world that's in favor of tolling system, except the regime in Iran. So that's not acceptable, that cannot happen. The straits need to be open, unimpeded without tolls. And obviously that needs to happen immediately, as soon as anything has agreed to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: Well, he's certainly right about that. You know, the Chinese side, when President Trump was here a couple of days ago, also agreed with the Americans that the Strait of Hormuz needs to stay open and it cannot be tolled in any way, shape or form by the Iranians. So if you're heading to bed in California, the West Coast, if you're waking up, or if you're just getting started with learning about what's happening with Iran, let's put up on the screen just some bullet points to get you caught up to speed.

So American officials are beginning to stress that even though there are these strikes in southern Iran, which have included the navy headquarters of the IRGC, that strikes have happened before during this technical, just technical period of cease fire. So like we heard from Marco Rubio, this may not engender an end of these conversations. Trump's position on removing enriched uranium appears to be shifting.

When you had that Truth Social post up at the beginning of the show, Elex, you know, originally he was saying perhaps U.S. ground forces might, stress, might have to go into Iran to remove the, quote- unquote, "nuclear dust." Well, now his position seems to be shifting to either the USA could deal with it, or perhaps the IAEA, the United Nations could handle it, or perhaps a third country like Russia or China could be involved in making sure that those thousand or so pounds of enriched uranium are dealt with or removed, processed, destroyed.

[00:05:18]

The Iranian team is also remaining in Qatar, where much of its assets are still frozen by the United States. So the team negotiating this hasn't left. And then we want to talk before we go about the memorandum of understanding, which Marco Rubio is also referring to, saying that that is not dead. It would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That is the main, central crux of the memorandum of understanding.

Gradually, as the strait opens, the U.S. blockade would gradually end, according to the plan. 60 days is kind of how the clock would tick to reach final agreement on some points, which would also include what is going to happen with that nuclear material. So there's not -- the last bullet point says not like an open ended discussion on Iran's nuclear program, but more of a timed within 60 days discussion to end this war and end some of the biggest sticking points that have been part of it -- Elex.

MICHAELSON: But as we've seen here in the United States, there's some controversy even over the idea of that memorandum of understanding, much less the actual points that would go into that. This is a very complicated discussion, and the Trump team getting blowback from some of their own Republican senators on that so far, which is why that memo may or may not even come into understanding.

Mike, thank you for starting us off. We'll see you next hour with more as we continue to follow this breaking story.

Meanwhile, an Israeli source tells CNN that the Israeli military is preparing to expand its operations in Lebanon in coordination with the U.S.. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, posted this video on social media Monday on the plan to intensify strikes against Hezbollah. Watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): But we are not taking our foot off the gas pedal. On the contrary, I said, we need to push the gas pedal even harder. We will strike them. But what this now requires from us is to intensify the blows, to increase the force. We will strike them decisively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: We are also learning that the -- that Israel is pushing to renew strikes on Beirut to target senior Hezbollah figures there. As we look live at Beirut, where it's just after 7:00 in the morning on Tuesday. A U.S. official has signaled that the White House supports Israel's continued operations against the Iran backed militant group.

Meanwhile, back here in southern California, where it's just after 9:00 on Monday, good news to share from Orange County, California. The threat of a catastrophic explosion of a chemical tank at an aerospace facility has now been eliminated. There's not going to be an explosion. That's what officials say. But officials also say the crisis is far from over. Emergency crews say that a crack in that tank has relieved a significant amount of pressure, and that a constant deluge of cold water has brought down the temperature of the toxic and highly flammable chemical held inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG COVERY, DIVISION CHIEF, ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY: What we essentially were shooting for in layman's terms is to boil an egg. OK? That's what we wanted. You know, you have to control that temperature to get that egg done right and not crack the shell. OK? The shell did crack, but just enough to release that pressure without causing a leak or an explosion.

That was our huge moment in this incident that we were able to capitalize on and take control of it and start mitigating it and go what we would call offensive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Authorities have also significantly scaled back evacuation orders. At its peak, it was at 50,000 people. Now that is significantly less.

Let's bring in interim Fire Chief T.J. McGovern of the Orange County Fire Authority, who is helping to oversee this response.

Congratulations on the good news today. Sort of what is the latest on where we're at and the biggest challenge that remains?

T.J. MCGOVERN, INTERIM FIRE CHIEF, ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY: So, yes, thanks for having us. So today was definitely a good day that was conducted on an overnight operation. And what we confirmed last night is that the tank did not have pressure in it. Once we confirmed that the tank didn't have pressure, that's how we were confident saying that now the BLEVE has been mitigated and eliminated. What that does for us, that gives us an opportunity, a target of opportunity to go back and do more work.

So what the crews did, once they confirmed that the BLEVE was pretty much off the table last night is then we're able to go in and the next -- there's still more work to be done.

[00:10:05]

And then the next threat we had is there's still a fire threat up and we have to mitigate that. And so how -- what we're looking at is controlling the internal temperatures. We don't want those temperatures to rise and cause a fire. So after the threat for the BLEVE was undone, is now we can go in and we're starting to skin the outer shell of the tank. And as we're skinning the outer shell, what we're doing is we're pulling away the insulation, and that's allowing us to use our copious amounts of water, our unstaffed deluge systems that we have.

And now we're able to focus our hose streams to cool more of the internal tank and watch those readings firsthand. So that's helping in that operation as well. So right now it's all about watching the temperature, making sure it stabilizes and doesn't increase. Early on, we knew when we did finally see the visualization of the gauge, it was basically pegged at 100 degrees. It doesn't go more than 100. So we didn't know if it was 101 or 110.

But what we saw tonight or last night was it's down in the low 90s, 90 to 92. And throughout the day today we saw it, tested it right. It's sitting out in the sun and we weren't getting any spikes. And that's telling us that it's starting to stabilize. When that temperature stabilizes, we have a lot more confidence taken away that fire threat also. So that's the other threat we're looking at. And then the third threat is a threat for a spill.

And we're working on that, too. We have mitigations in place with that with, you know, dikes, catch basins, all that should that occur. So that's pretty much where we're at. But today, taking that threat of a BLEVE out, what that does is that's opening up, closing actually our evacuation areas. And we can start to re-pop, which we did. We brought in about 65 percent of our citizens back into a state of normalcy, if you will.

MICHAELSON: Yes. When you say BLEVE, basically what you're talking about is blowing up, right? Like an explosion. And thankfully that's not going to be happening at least that's what you guys are saying. So there are still, though, 16,000 people who are under evacuation orders who can't go home yet. What's the timeline until you're confident to let them back into their home? And for people that are concerned about the air quality, what do you say to them as well?

MCGOVERN: So tonight we're running another operation and we're going to continue to cool. We're vetting it, we're validating it. And tomorrow morning we're going to see how it does tonight. We're going to see if we get increased temperatures or if it's stabilizing. Based off our operation tonight, we're going to do what we did this morning and we're going to evaluate and vet it. And based off those findings, we're going to look at our operational plan and should we adjust it tomorrow.

Those are the decisions that we're going to have early tomorrow morning. And look at, could we, are we ready to do another operational strategy change? So that's something we'll be working through tonight. Vetting it in the morning. And we'll have more on that. And I'm sorry, you're -- the second part of that was?

MICHAELSON: Air quality. Air quality.

MCGOVERN: Air quality. From the get go -- yes. From the get go, we've been testing the air. We do not have a leak. There is no leak. And we -- all the limits that we're testing the air and we're doing it continuously, all within normal limits, completely safe. So all those limits and air quality are within normal limits and we're not going to stop. We're going to be testing that air for probably months to come just to ensure the public safety.

MICHAELSON: Yes. T.J. McGovern, I can only imagine how tired you are at this point. And we appreciate you taking some time for us, and we're all glad to hear good news from Orange County and hopefully our neighbors can get back home soon. Those that are coming back home tonight, we can see, are very relieved to be doing so.

Now let's talk a little bit more about Memorial Day weekend, which is wrapping up here in the U.S.. AAA predicted that a record number of Americans would be traveling by plane and by car. Millions hitting the road even with gas significantly more expensive than last year due to that war with Iran. The AAA national average currently stands at $4.50 a gallon. At least check the price of Brent crude.

At last check the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, is down just over 5 percent to about $95 a barrel. So good to see that price going down instead of going up.

After the break, a look at Pope Leo's first theological publication as pontiff. The stark warning he issued to the world, and why he's taking aim at the rise of artificial intelligence.

[00:15:05]

We've got amazing guests to break that down. Plus, it is deadly -- after deadly strikes on Kyiv, Russia is demanding foreign nationals leave the Ukrainian capital, but Ukraine's allies say they will not respond to threats. The latest on Russia's escalating attacks ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Russia says its bombardment of Kyiv this weekend was the start of, quote, "systematic strikes against military facilities in Kyiv." Moscow fired more than 600 drones and 90 missiles overnight on Sunday, killing at least four people and wounding dozens of others.

[00:20:02] The attacks destroyed Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings and shops. Moscow is also warning foreign nationals, including diplomats and international organizations, to leave Ukraine's capital, quote, "as soon as possible." But Ukraine's allies are refusing to leave, including the E.U.'s ambassador and the U.S. Here's what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: Right now, there is no active like scheduled negotiations ongoing with Ukraine, but the U.S. is always prepared to play a constructive and helpful role if that opportunity presents itself. Look, every time you see these big strikes from one side or the other, it's a reminder of why this is a terrible war that's now gone on longer than the Second World War, and it needs to come to an end. And the U.S. stands ready and prepared to help do whatever we can to help facilitate the end of this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: More than 70 diplomats visited a heavily damaged neighborhood in Kyiv on Monday, laying flowers and paying respects to the victims of Sunday's strikes.

Pope Leo has issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence in his first major theological publication as pontiff. The text titled "Magnifica Humanitas" or magnificent humanity calls for the disarming of A.I. to prevent it from dominating and degrading human life. It covers topics ranging from the consolidation of global power and modern warfare to workers' rights, and the ethical risks of the ever growing technology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV: Artificial intelligence already touches many areas of our lives and affects decisions that shape human coexistence. It is also dramatically changing how war is waged. Artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed. The word is strong, I know. But deliberately chosen because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: For more, I want to bring in CNN Vatican analyst Katie McGrady, host of "The Katie McGrady Show" on Sirius XM's Catholic Channel, and tech journalist and CNN contributor Jacob Ward.

Welcome to you both. Katie, let's start with you. From a religious perspective, what is the main argument that Pope Leo is making here?

KATIE PREJEAN MCGRADY, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: He starts out really strong and he says it's building Babel versus building a civilization of love. And I think that's the through line throughout. He isn't saying, even from a religious perspective, A.I. bad or A.I. good, which I think was what some people were kind of expecting. Instead, in 245 paragraphs, thousands of words, he takes us on a journey through the social doctrine of the church, explains how that shines a light on the age of A.I., this new revolution, and then consistently challenges the Christian and the person of goodwill and the A.I. architect and everybody in between to recognize the dignity of a human person made in God's image and likeness, called to relationship with God, pursuing truth and beauty and goodness in solidarity with one another.

It's dense, but it is actually a very pastoral approach to who we are as humans in an age where artificial intelligence is held up as the end all, be all, and he points out why that's a challenge to each one of us, and why we can't shy away from this moment specifically.

MICHAELSON: So you're the religious expert. Jacob, you're the tech expert, and you think the Pope sounds pretty tech savvy here, huh?

JACOB WARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: He does, Elex. I mean, I was very impressed. He is bringing up some very subtle critiques of our technological moment. He's not, as Katie is saying, A.I. good, A.I. bad. He's saying, for instance, the moral responsibility for how we use A.I. doesn't lie with the technology. It lies with the people who make the technology and the people who use it. That's very subtle.

He's talking also about the invisible ways in which our lives are being shaped by algorithms, by the data that we give over. He talks about the colonialism of data that we've basically had our data stolen from us in these very sophisticated ways. He's talking about big, invisible effects of technology that really you only hear academics and activists talking about. Typically, you have the pontiff, you know, the worlds the, you know, the longest operating institution in Western history, the head of that saying these things suggest to me that, you know, this is a guy who was a math major at Villanova back in 1977. It seems to show here he's really done his reading.

MICHAELSON: And interesting also to hear an American Pope make this kind of argument in English as well. Let's listen to more of what he had to say here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV: Let's not fear artificial intelligence, but constantly keep the question of the human in play. We cannot be careless with our most powerful technical instruments.

[00:25:01]

Only together, those who design systems and those affected by them, richer countries and poorer ones, institutions and individuals, power centers and peripheries, will we be able to build a future. Not for a privileged few, but for the entire human family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: He referenced, Katie, his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, who was pontiff more than a century ago, who sort of made a similar address back then about a different issue. Can you talk about that and maybe the fact that he's thinking about that, how that maybe shapes the way Leo XIV sees his role as pontiff?

MCGRADY: That's a great question. And one of my favorite points to bring up, a Pope picks his name with intention. It tells us a lot about who he is. And he picked Leo, which would immediately tether him to Leo XIII, whose seminal document Rerum Novarum of the New Things in 1891 came out at a time when the industrial revolution was affecting humanity. And as a result of that document, things changed in our society.

We saw the minimum wage, unions. Labor unions really began as a result of the Pope standing there and saying, these are a good thing, and we need to protect the dignity of the worker. And now, while he's talked about unemployment, he's talked about the child labor that has to be used to mine some of these rare earth minerals, they discuss extensively the way this is impacting people in their homes and at school and in the workforce.

What he's challenging us to consider is the exact same thing Leo XIII, his namesake, talked about, which was where is the human person? Where is the human family? And I think he sees his role as a shepherd in the same way that Leo XIII did. Popes can sometimes be accused of, you know, sitting in an ivory tower and kind of looking down at people and saying, oh, well, these religious things.

But this Pope, he literally tells us, I make an appeal as a shepherd. I make an appeal as a father to halt the building of Babel in the same way that Leo XIII said, please be careful about these people who are being used as these cogs in the machine all those decades ago. So it's a beautiful throughline. And if you read chapter one and chapter two of the document, he traces that. Leo gives us a beautiful summary from Leo XIII to now.

MICHAELSON: And Jacob, the Silicon Valley bros are not necessarily known for their theology. Right?

WARD: Right.

MICHAELSON: How are they responding to this? And do they care about some of these moral issues raised by their technology?

WARD: Well, Elex, I will tell you, I mean, at this point, publicly, we've heard from nobody except for one company. I'll talk about that company in a second. I mean, this is not, as you say, an industry known for its theological moves. On the other hand, we do know, based on multiple reports, that the heads of public policy of all of these companies, for the most part, have come to the Vatican in recent months, clearly understanding that this was going to come out and trying in some way to probably affect Pope Leo's perspective on this.

So publicly saying very little, in fact, nothing. And privately they've been pretty active. But the weird thing here is the one company that was up there and that was Anthropic, the maker of Claude. Anthropic's co-founder, Christopher Olah, was on the stage with the Pope and has been participating very deeply, supposedly, in this process and basically has been nodding along as the Pope says too much power is being concentrated in the hands of too few. We're using autonomous weapons in this very scary way.

And, you know, as he's nodding along, he's talking -- the Pope is talking specifically about Anthropic's business model. I mean, literally as they were speaking, strikes were being made on Iran today. And we know that Anthropic's technology is built into some of the Pentagon's systems, especially a battlefield decision-making system called Maven. So the fact that those things are happening in parallel tells us something about the uncomfortable position that the tech industry is in, especially because, as Katie has pointed out so eloquently, he's harkening back to a time when, you know, children were being taken out of their beds and forced onto factory floors, and the human was being devalued.

What he kept asking over and over again in this encyclical is, how will we stop evaluating people based on how efficient they are? Something we've been working on for 135 years at least. And instead, just think about the dignity of people. I can't quite square what I know about the tech industry with everything that he's trying to get across today -- Elex.

MICHAELSON: Well, it was a remarkable moment in history, a remarkable speech as well, on an issue that could sort of redefine humanity in the not-so-distant future. And pretty interesting that this is the issue that he is choosing to go in on.

Katie McGrady, Jacob Ward, thank you both for your insights. Really, really appreciate it. Great to talk to both of you.

[00:30:09]

MCGRADY: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Let's talk politics now. Tuesday is decision day for Republicans in Texas. Voters will decide who will take on Democrat James Talarico in this very expensive, high-profile Senate race.

Our political panel here to discuss that, plus a debate about Spencer Pratt and his run for L.A. mayor. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:35:08]

MICHAELSON: THE STORY IS decision day in Texas.

Republican voters will head to the polls in the coming hours to choose between incumbent Senator John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. The winner of that runoff will face Democratic state Representative James Talarico in what is already one of the most closely-watched races of the 2026 midterms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are some things on Cornyn that I really like, but then there are some things on Paxton that I like. And then I'm trying to discern between the lies that are being told on both sides and the truths that are being told on both sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: President Trump has endorsed Ken Paxton, who has been plagued by ethics scandals. But Trump thinks he's more loyal to him.

Still, Cornyn is clinging to Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): President Trump has called me a friend and a good man.

I don't see my situation as the same. But, you know, in the end, it's Texans who are going to make that decision.

KEN PAXTON (R), TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL/U.S. SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: What has John Cornyn accomplished, not just in the 24 years in the Senate. Look, he's running for a fifth term, which no one's done, as you know, in Texas history. No one's served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. He's been in office since I was in college, and I'm 63.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Cornyn is one of the most powerful people in the United States Senate; has been for years; and voted with Trump over 99 percent of the time.

And yet, Trump said that he was not loyal enough. And he endorsed Paxton, even though many Republicans in the Senate are frustrated by that and are backing Cornyn.

Let's bring in our political panel. On the left is Loren Piretra as the host of "The Loren Show" podcast. And on the right is attorney Matt Bilinsky, host of "The Prevailing Narrative" podcast. Welcome to you both. Welcome to CNN for the very first time. We appreciate having you here.

Matt, let's start with you. Is President Trump making his life more complicated, and making the life of Republicans more complicated, by backing Paxton instead of Cornyn?

MATT BILINSKY, HOST, "THE PREVAILING NARRATIVE": There's a strong argument that he is, right? Because in contrasting this with the recent Senate -- Kentucky congressional race, in which Donald Trump was very influential on, there was a big distinction between the two candidates.

Here, you look at John Cornyn, you look at Ken Paxton, from the eyes of a Texan who doesn't have a dog in the fight about loyalty to Donald Trump, necessarily, are there -- is there really a big difference, policy-wise, approach-wise, between the two -- two politicians other than one seems to be more endeared to Donald Trump? There's not a lot.

So, is, you know -- is Donald Trump just picking a fight that is kind of unnecessary, just as a test of, you know -- just to show that you have to be unduly loyal, universally loyal to him, where there's no room for any disagreement whatsoever? That could be the case.

And also, probably a pretty weak Democratic candidate that either of these two are going to go up against. But maybe giving James Talarico a little bit of daylight, that there's, you know, dissension on the Republican side.

So, it might not be the best fight for Donald Trump to pick right now.

MICHAELSON: Your thoughts?

LOREN PIRETRA, HOST, "THE LOREN PIRETRA SHOW": You know, I'm quite excited about this race. Donald Trump, being the agent of chaos that he is, has essentially put his thumb on the scale for the most unlikable candidate possible.

We have Ken Paxton, somebody who makes people like Ted Cruz look angelic. And then, on the other hand, we have James Talarico, somebody who is arguably pretty angelic himself: a Christian man; somebody who's been able to mobilize a base in Texas; and who's led a life of service.

And what this is going to end up costing Republicans is it's going to cost them, one, a lot of money that they didn't anticipate having to spend defending the Senate seat in Texas. And it's also going to cost them the loyalty of the incumbent.

For what? For Donald Trump's ego. So that way, he can continue to defend the January 6th coup.

I'm quite grateful for Trump in this this instance, for his own self- sabotage.

MICHAELSON: I mean, because it is -- it is interesting. The conventional wisdom is that Cornyn would be easier as somebody to defeat Talarico, and that the Republicans would have to spend a lot less money on that race.

Now to back, if Paxton gets it, they may have to back him with a lot more money, which takes money away from some of the other competitive races out there. We'll see.

We'll have election results tomorrow night at this time here on THE STORY IS.

Let's talk for a moment about Spencer Pratt, who is running for mayor here in Los Angeles. And on your podcast, the latest episode is actually breaking down our recent interview --

PIRETRA: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- with Spencer Pratt.

On your podcast, the latest episode is your interview with Spencer Pratt.

BILINSKY: Yes. MICHAELSON: This is something that is making national news all over the country. Incredible amount of clicks online.

And one of the things that you highlight is, in our recent interview with Pratt, he lays out his plan for homelessness, essentially saying, we've got to get the homeless out of Los Angeles and get treatment somewhere else.

Here's some of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So, your plan is to -- is to require homeless people to go to a facility outside the city of Los Angeles, potentially in the desert?

SPENCER PRATT (R), L.A. MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I didn't say, "Desert." I said, "Beautiful nature."

[00:40:02]

MICHAELSON: OK.

PRATT: A desert's hot. That sounds brutal.

MICHAELSON: OK.

PRATT: I was thinking more like -- you know?

MICHAELSON: So, where? Like, where?

PRATT: You know, I'm going to have to meet with the federal government when I'm mayor --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

PRATT: -- and look at the most beautiful property we can get.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

PRATT: And get that. But it's going to be somewhere where people will go, and they go, "Thank God for Spencer. This is the greatest thing in the United States of America. Everyone needs to copy this model."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Loren Piretra, your thoughts on that?

PIRETRA: I mean, first of all, Elex, I have to commend you for maintaining your composure during that interview. That's not what I can say, same for me.

That -- I haven't seen that level of chaos in a candidate interview or in a celebrity interview since the Charlie Sheen "tiger blood" moment.

Spencer, essentially, is suggesting that we take the unhoused and shift them up into a camp outside of his jurisdiction, which he's essentially suggesting internment camps, more or less; work camps.

And we've seen this before in history, when we take a group that's deemed undesirable and move them out of sight and into a new space; and it's never looked favorably upon us.

I think what we really need in L.A. is a mayor that's competent and not concerned with content.

MICHAELSON: You think that's what he's suggesting?

BILINSKY: No, not at all. And in fact, if you go and look at historically -- and people have short memories, right? Because if you look at the trajectory of Los Angeles over the past 30 years, '80s, early '90s, crime and homelessness was incredibly high.

And starting about 1992 to 1994, both crime and homelessness began to plummet for about 20, 22 years. All of a sudden, it starts to tick up right around 2014 once again.

Seems to serve our purposes to go look at what worked during that period and what worked in the opposite direction to have it start ticking up again.

And if you go speak with people in the district attorney's office -- and these are people that are Democrats, one, for instance, candidate for city attorney, John McKinney, African American man who's been in the D.A.'s office for over 35 years through many different waves of crime and homelessness in Los Angeles, he says, listen, people can tell themselves all the comforting delusions that they want about how -- how people who are addicts, who have drug problems or homeless, how they solve that problem.

A lot of these people, they got the treatment that they needed once they got arrested.

OK, you can sit there and say that, oh, we should just have them cart them into treatment centers. And they should get the help -- help that they need without, you know, any consequences for the criminal behavior that they're engaging in. That's not how it works. Right?

So, these people, more likely, they don't have -- there's not an inalienable right to be able to live wherever you want in public spaces. And to say that the government, that the people of Los Angeles cannot regulate those public spaces.

So, to say that, if you want the government's help, if you want resources that are paid by the public teat, by tax dollars, that you have to go to a certain area to get those services, I'm not -- I'm not seeing where there's anything wrong with that.

MICHAELSON: You're shaking your head.

PIRETRA: Yes. I mean, I think we're aligned on the fact that like, yes, the -- this is a complex humanitarian crisis, one that needs to be met with not only respect and competence and dignity, but also with a level of experience.

This is -- homelessness is not a problem that's unique to Los Angeles. This is a complex issue that exists throughout the United States. So, we need a mayor that's going to be concerned with solving the crisis and with addressing these things and the systemic issues.

And from a fiscal responsibility, even if you don't care about the humanitarian aspect, it is much easier and more cost-effective to prevent people from falling into cycles of homelessness to begin with, than to invest in over-policing, and incarceration, and pipelines that leave people more traumatized when they exit.

BILINSKY: OK, we can look at experience, and we can look at fiscal responsibility. And once again, these aren't things we have to speculate upon. We have data points. We have the recent history to look back upon.

Everybody forgets this: 2016, like I said, homelessness began to tick back up. 2014, 2015.

2016, they put it to the voters of Los Angeles. Let's -- let's pass measure Triple H to fund $1.2 billion in homeless financing that was supposed to go to building 10,000 units of homeless housing to get people into those houses.

In about six years, how many out of the 10,000 units do you think they built? Barely over a thousand. OK? During that period, while we spent -- while we blew through $1.2 billion, the homeless population doubled.

So, if we're looking at experience and fiscal responsibility, the people that are running this city, the people that were put in charge of that $1.2 billion --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

BILINSKY: -- they're -- clearly don't know what they're doing, and they're not using the money fiscally responsibly. In fact, they spent double as much to have the problem double in size.

MICHAELSON: Quickly, your case for Spencer Pratt.

BILINSKY: I think that we can look at the many disaffected voters and look at how this city has been run over the past ten, 15 years.

And if you want -- once again, you want to talk experience. OK, let's talk about results.

Things have gone in the wrong direction in nearly every metric. Of course, they want to say, like, OK, crime has gone down over the past couple of years. Yes, from the massive increases --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

BILINSKY: -- that we saw while the social fabric was being frayed during the pandemic. So, if we want -- if you're looking at a disaffected voter and someone

who's saying, you know, something? This way of doing business and the --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

BILINSKY: -- the machine that's been running the city for the last ten, 15 years. Spencer Pratt the reason, he has this energy, he's the only one who's willing to speak boldly about it.

MICHAELSON: Real quickly.

PIRETRA: Yes, I think, listen, I would rather have an imperfect candidate than Spencer Pratt. This is the man who blew his fortune on crystals; a man who has a rich history of inappropriate behavior with non-consensual images.

He has demonstrated time and time again that he only cares about his own best interests.

[00:45:05]

And I can empathize with the sudden loss of a home and how that feels.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

PIRETRA: But with Spencer Pratt, he is, more than anything, running from something rather than running for something.

And I'd rather select a mayor that is going to bring us closer to collective liberation than Spencer Pratt, who's going to bring us a reality TV show.

MICHAELSON: We are out of time, but it's great to have both of you. Hope to have you both back here. Loren and Matt, thank you so much.

PIRETRA: Thank you.

BILINSKY: Thanks.

MICHAELSON: We'll be back with more of THE STORY IS right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:50:04]

MICHAELSON: At a time when affordability is top of mind for many Americans, one company says they're sticking with a low-price model for a high-quality cup of coffee.

Matto Espresso is causing a stir on the New York coffee scene by charging just $3. CNN's Richard Quest stepped behind the counter to get a firsthand look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Can you give me a job? Well, maybe not. Very nice. That really is excellent. Cheers.

JENNIFER MAMAN, COFOUNDER, MATTO ESPRESSO: I was in Italy with some friends, and wherever we would go in Italy, we would have the most incredible cappuccinos and lattes with the perfect foam. It didn't matter if we would go to the most expensive place or inexpensive place. You could get an incredible cup of coffee.

And so, that was really the big moment where we said, why doesn't something like this exist in the United States?

QUEST: Right. Because the coffee you're talking about in Italy is a couple of euros. It was the price point that became important, as well, wasn't it?

MAMAN: Right. The big part of the business is the $3 menu. So, when you say, I want to charge $3 for coffee, then you build an entire system around that.

QUEST (voice-over): The Matto app is the key to that system, and it's the only way to get your hands on that coveted $3 coffee.

MAMAN: We decided to put together a menu that really targets the most popular items that people order every day. And we decided we want the top quality.

So, we partnered with a coffee roaster from Italy that's been roasting coffee for over 100 years.

QUEST: Right. But you also have to be very attuned to what people are, the needs. So, for instance, we've got an affordability crisis --

MAMAN: Right.

QUEST: -- at the moment. Are you going to be able to keep $3, bearing in mind every one of your costs are going up at the moment?

MAMAN: Our model was designed to be profitable at $3. So, we have small store footprints. So, that lends to lower operating costs. And our app has been really revolutionary in terms of serving the customer and how they experience Matto.

QUEST (voice-over): All that talking has made me thirsty.

QUEST: Would one of you come here, please, and make me a nice, hot cappuccino?

Now, what have you discovered works? And what have you discovered doesn't?

MAMAN: It's really the simple things. make a good quality cappuccino Espresso. Give it to them on time. Give them friendly and quick service. That's what they want.

You don't need to sell a lot of things. You just have to make it right. And you have to give them what they want.

Quest: So, you know that being a barista was my pandemic project.

MAMAN: No, I didn't know that.

QUEST: So, during the pandemic, I decided, right, everybody else was baking banana loaf.

MAMAN: Yes.

QUEST: So, I went out and I bought myself the -- a proper espresso machine and learned how to make espresso. And I realized that my first ones were truly awful. And my latte art is awful. How's your latte art?

MAMAN: I have to confess, I'm not good at that at all. I leave it to the baristas.

QUEST: Matto (ph) latte.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's (ph) the latte. OK, so first we need a shot of espresso. Take the tamper and press it. Just try to press it like straight. Yes.

QUEST: Lock it in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Take the cup.

QUEST: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Put a little bit of milk. Then swirl the cup a little bit with the milk. Yes. Now hold the cup like this. And now wait, wait. You want to wiggle, right?

QUEST: I need to wiggle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Try to do like this.

QUEST (voice-over): Let me just say it took a couple of tries to get this right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not good.

QUEST: Try it again?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Like really relax. Like on the hand. Yes.

Let's dig in.

QUEST (voice-over): Eventually, I got it. Well, sort of.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, when you're going to put the milk? Try to put, like -- make circles. Yes, yes.

QUEST: Well, there is a sort of wiggle. That's the best wiggle I've ever done. I mean, it's sort of --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Flower. Heart. QUEST: Finally, the name Matto.

MAMAN: It means "crazy: in Italian. People think we're crazy for charging $3 for coffee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Richard Quest, he does it all. Thank you, Richard.

The World Health Organization says responders are playing catch-up in central Africa's battle against Ebola. Ahead in our next hour, the director-general's upcoming trip to assess the deadly outbreak firsthand.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:59:40]

MICHAELSON: In the U.K., people are searching for ways to stay cool while enduring their first heat wave of the year.

On Monday, Britain broke its record for the hottest day in May, with temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius. Western London reaching nearly 35 degrees, which is over 94 degrees Fahrenheit. That's very hot for there.

And the coming day is also expected to be a scorcher.

Western Europe is also suffering through an early heat wave. Most areas in the region are experiencing temperatures 10 to 15 degrees.