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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Hilton, Becerra Lead In California Governor's Race; Bass Advances; Pratt, Raman Battle In L.A. Mayor's Race; Kiley, Stansfield, Pan Locked In California House Race; CNN Gains Access to Hospital in Ebola Hotspot; Final Results in California Elections Could Take Days; CNN Analyzes Waymo Driverless Taxi Accidents on the Road. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 04, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: About pet adoptions. Every single furry friend on screen will be up for adoption, set to air Monday across various networks, including HBO Max.

Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.

The Story Is counting votes. California's race for governor still too early to call. The latest numbers next. The story is war powers. The U.S. House seeks to limit President Trump's power in the conflict. Iran says they haven't been any progress and talks. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is headed to Tehran to get the view from inside the country.

The Story Is North Korea's nuclear power. Kim Jong Un calls for exponential expansion of the country's atomic arsenal. CNN's Will Ripley joins me with the latest. And The Story Is NBA Finals. CNN's Omar Jimenez talking with pumped up fans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michelson.

MICHAELSON: Thanks for watching The Story Is. I'm Elex Michelson here live in Los Angeles. And our top story is in California as we continue to count votes at this hour.

Final results could take days in the key races for governor and Los Angeles mayor as election workers are working even at this moment to count ballots. Mail-in-ballots postmarked on or before Election Day have a week to arrive. So we don't even know how many ballots there are to be counted yet. Republican Steve Hilton is leading in the governor's race, followed by Democrat Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. That could change.

A lot of votes still to count. Top two vote getters advanced in November's general election, Becerra with a shot at the Trump administration last night. Today, Hilton attacking Becerra.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) XAVIER BECERRA, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: I sued Trump more than 120 times before and I won and I won and I won. And anyone who wants to come at California will have to go through me.

STEVE HILTON, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Looking at the basically the record of the Democrats after 16 years in power and the fact that we got the highest gas prices, highest cost of living on everything, highest poverty rate, highest unemployment rate, the crime, the homelessness, all these things. And you've got a candidate in Xavier Becerra if it's him who's explicitly saying that he doesn't think that there's anything that's been done he disagrees with and isn't offering any kind of change, I think that we will have a shot at winning. I don't think it's going to be easy, but we're going to work very hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: In the Los Angeles mayor's race, incoming Karen Bass will advance the general election in her bid for a second term, according to a CNN projection. Right now, Republican Spencer Pratt is in second place, followed by LA City Council member Nithya Raman. Who will advance to go against Bass, that's still too early to call.

Let's go live now to Sacramento. We're joined by Paul Mitchell, the Vice President of Political Data and owner of Redistricting Partners.

Paul, you were here with us on set last night, but the election is still going, so we're going back to you for more. So today we got more data in terms of the governor's race. The question is, Tom Steyer, can he get into the top two? Where are we at and how realistic are his chances from a data perspective in making it into the top two?

PAUL MITCHELL, VP POLITICAL DATA & OWNER, REDISTRICTING PARTNERS: Well, we've really only got a trickle of ballots today counted in a handful of counties, maybe 300,000 total new votes cast or counted in this -- in this governor's race. And what Tom Steyer needs is really, really big numbers, like 30 percent, 35 percent statewide. And you reflect that with his current like 20 percent. That's a big like maybe 15 percent bump in his numbers statewide in order to catch up and pass either the Republican Steve Hilton or Democrat Xavier Becerra.

Now, we're not seeing that in the numbers that have come out just now. What we see in the data from the counties that have posted is that both Becerra and Steyer are gaining as these votes are more Democratic. But they -- Steyer is not making up ground.

MICHAELSON: So that's the number, the smart number to be looking for in the days ahead that Steyer's got to be at like 30, 35 percent as new ballots drop around 4:00 or 5:00 every day.

MITCHELL: Yes, and we're going to be getting more ballots tomorrow, a big chunk. I think the biggest will probably be on Friday. I think a lot of counties were even holding off entirely to just do one big drop of ballots on Friday. And it might be Friday that we really get -- really get clarity in this race. It's possible that Friday will really know whether or not an -- whether there's enough runway for Steyer to make this up.

[01:05:04]

MICHAELSON: Or that could be the day when we make a call on that race based off of what you're saying. Let's talk about the mayor's race.

MITCHELL: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Obviously, the governor's race is 58 counties. The mayor's race is just one county and just one city, although it's the largest county and the largest city. And we're looking at Karen Bass ahead, Spencer Pratt, Nithya Raman. Today, Nithya Raman made up about 3,000 votes. She trails by about 37,000 votes. How do you see the math on this one?

MITCHELL: Well, I definitely think that as we get to more and more of these more Democratic voters who are represented in these late returns, we're going to see Spencer Pratt drop. Same thing happened to Rick Caruso four years ago after the Election Day. Big number he had at 42 percent. He dropped. And in total, he dropped almost 12 points.

Now, I don't think that Spencer Pratt is going to drop 12 points. And the reason is that when he drops votes, it's not all going to Nithya Raman. He's also dropping. And some of those voters are going to Karen Bass. So in a way, this is really going to go down the wire, we'll see how much he drops, how much Nithya Raman comes up.

But one of the challenges for Nithya Raman is a lot of those progressive voters, they're still voting for Karen Bass.

MICHAELSON: Well, and there are three other Democratic socialists on the City Council, and they did not endorse Nithya Raman. They endorsed Karen Bass as well. So at this point, almost, if you're looking at this day after day, a vote for Karen Bass in some ways is a vote for Spencer Pratt. Because if the votes are not coming in for Nithya Raman, that is good for Spencer Pratt.

So you, for people that are watching last night, remember that you are the guy who helped to draw the congressional districts after California passed Prop 50 in response to Texas gerrymandering their map to help Republicans, you helped gerrymander the maps to help Democrats. California voters agreed with you. And one of the districts you targeted was Council District 6. I'm sorry, Congressional District 6. We want to put up the numbers there.

Kevin Kiley, who somebody was a foe of Governor Newsom, and you all want to get him out. And we see him, he's now an independent. He's ahead here. And there is a Republican in the second spot. It's possible, if it stayed this way, that you would actually have two Republicans and lock out the Democrats altogether.

This whole point of this was to get a Democrat in this seat. Where do you see the numbers going on this one? And what do you say to critics that are worried about this idea of two Republicans in this district?

MITCHELL: Well, I definitely think this is a big concern. And this is one of those things where Democrats had one job. These districts were drawn to push back on Texas and their five Republican pickups. So we have five Democratic pickups here in the state.

Kevin Kiley was one of those targeted members. He actually did move districts, change his party to being Independent, and is now in a seat where, because of this fluky top two system, you might have a situation where a Republican who really is not a serious candidate, but was the only candidate in the field that had an R next to his name, he might make it into the second spot. I think ultimately Richard Pan, who's the leading Democrat, will end up surpassing that Republican candidate. And one of the data points, just a couple hours ago, Placer County, the most Republican county in the district, it had been showing about 30 percent more Republicans in the late vote until what we just saw today. Today's numbers of what the county released as the ballots that they're currently processing are more Democratic than Republican.

So we're going to see that throughout the district. We're going to see, I think Sacramento and West Sacramento really allow for the Democrat to win this in the late stages. But it should be a lesson to Democrats and honestly to Republicans, it should be a lesson to people who draw districts and this work. But then you cannot count on, you know, just snapping your fingers and picking up seats. It really does take candidates and voters to make that happen.

And this could be a lost opportunity for Democrats to think about five districts in California. That 1/5 or 20 percent of the entire goal of Prop 50 could be washed away because of a poorly executed plan here in Sacramento would be, you know, really troubling.

MICHAELSON: But you're confident at the end of the day, the Democrat wins that seat.

MITCHELL: The numbers suggest that all the Democrats are going to -- there was several Democrats in this race --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MITCHELL: -- that all those Democrats are going to have their numbers go up and that should push Dr. Pan into the second spot again.

MICHAELSON: And then he probably wins the general election based off of the makeup of that district. But --

MITCHELL: It'll be a competitive race -- it'll be a competitive race, but it is one of the targeted districts.

MICHAELSON: Yes, but people got to vote. You can't just draw it up. That's the beauty of our system, right? Ultimately it comes down to the voters, not the consultants.

Paul Mitchell in Sacramento joining us live with the analysis. Thanks, Paul. Great to see you. And thanks again for being here with us late last night. We appreciate it.

[01:10:06] MITCHELL: Thank you very much. Great seeing you.

MICHAELSON: Todd Blanche may officially become the United States attorney general. President Trump announcing at a private White House dinner that he will nominate Blanche for that role. He has been serving as acting attorney general for two months since his predecessor, Pam Bondi, was fired. Blanche, who was Bondi's deputy, was formerly President Trump's personal attorney. He has secured indictments against some of the president's personal foes, including former FBI Director James Comey. He's also rolled back gun control measures and issued subpoenas to journalists for their sources.

Now, despite Blanche telling lawmakers that the $1.8 billion so called Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead, President Trump says he's not sure if that's the case. He is again defending that controversial fund, calling it a, quote, "beautiful thing."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIRANDA DEVINE, HOST, POD FORCE ONE WITH MIRANDA DEVINE: The Anti- Weaponization Fund, have you dropped that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, a court ruled against it.

DEVINE: Yes.

TRUMP: But just so you understand, these are people that have been decimated. These are people that lost their lives over nonsense. And these were many great people. And I gave them pardons. I'm very proud to have given them pardons.

And I think they should be reimbursed for a crooked government. The government was crooked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: There are sharp disagreements in the Republican Party over how to handle this, with some lawmakers arguing against January 6th defendants being compensated. Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who is not running for reelection and has become very much a Trump critic on a lot of things, is vowing to introduce an amendment to a critical immigration bill to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to reward President Trump's political allies.

Now to a remarkable rebuke in the U.S. House, where lawmakers passed a resolution to limit President Trump's war powers in Iran. We look live in Washington, four Republicans cross party lines who support that measure, which must be approved by both chambers. House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that reining in the president's war powers could have a negative impact on negotiations. The status of those negotiations still not clear, with President Trump saying talks with Iran are going very well while Iran reports, quote, "no significant progress in recent days."

Our team is in Iran to get the view from that country. CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government, but maintains full editorial control of its reports. Here's Fred Pleitgen.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've just entered Iran and we're currently driving towards Tehran. I would say that the drive is probably going to take well north of 12 hours. And we come here at a pretty decisive time, as the United States and Iran are trying to inch closer to a memorandum of understanding that would at first end the hostilities between the United States and Iran, but also pave the way for negotiations for a broader peace agreement to that could then happen maybe a month, maybe two months down the line. At the same time, the security situation, especially in the Persian Gulf area between the U.S. and Iran, remains fragile and it remains volatile.

Just overnight, there have been attacks that went back and forth. The United States hitting some targets on some islands in the Persian Gulf, the Iranians responding with ballistic missile strikes targeting American installations in places like Bahrain and Kuwait. So all of that, of course, makes for a very difficult situation as the two sides say they are committed to try and reach some sort of agreement to end this war.

MICHAELSON: CNN's Mike Valerio joins me live now from Beijing.

Mike, last hour we talked about Iran saying there's been no formal progress in the negotiations, but messages between Washington and Tehran still being traded. What do we know about these messages?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think the primary message is that if Beirut is attacked by Israel, all bets are off. The memo that Fred was just talking about in his car drive a couple seconds ago, the first step to get to really ending this war, despite what the secretary of state says, despite what the president says that it's finished, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. So the main message that we've been able to learn about through our journalism here at CNN is that if Beirut is attacked, if this ceasefire is not a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, all bets are off.

So let's talk about the president, how he's projecting enthusiasm. And we'll talk a little bit more on the other side. Let's listen to him earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The negotiation itself has gone very well, actually. Very well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

TRUMP: It could happen -- even if it happens, and it might not happen, you know. Who knows? But if it happens, it could happen like over the weekend.

[01:15:03]

The blockade is the most powerful thing. I think the blockade maybe has more impact than the bombing has, but the blockade that we have, the naval blockade is incredible. Not one ship has gotten through unless we wanted it to. And people respect it a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: So he says it's going very well. But we pivot to Iran, where the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi is, is saying that there is no formal negotiation process. The American president saying it's going very well, Iran's foreign minister saying there is no formal negotiation process.

Messages, of course, continue to be exchanged as we were talking about a minute ago. But, you know, that dichotomy is something that Americans are going to have to grapple with. And it seems as though the next phase of what happens here all depends on the ceasefire working out between Israel and Lebanon, Elex.

MICHAELSON: And Mike, what about that cease fire? Is it going to work out? Do we have any evidence of that?

VALERIO: That's to be determined. But I think it is interesting that there's a very simple framework that has been agreed upon between Lebanon, the U.S. and other people who have been involved in these discussions at the State Department, you know, people who are representing Iran and their point of view, taking into account what should happen here. And essentially it's such that Iran -- Hezbollah, excuse me, stops firing and then moves out of southern Lebanon. That is something that Israel has wanted for a long time. And in response, Israel would stop attacking Hezbollah targets.

So what we're really waiting to see is what the Lebanese armed forces do to establish what they're calling a pilot zone in the southern part of Lebanon, allowing Hezbollah fighters safe passage to go north, to go towards Beirut. So we're watching to see when do these pilot zones, when are they going to be established? That's what we're looking for. That's our reporting target in the day ahead, Elex.

MICHAELSON: All right, we will see what you uncover. Mike Valerio, you can see him on T.V. and on social media as well to follow that reporting.

Now to the most fun story of the night, the NBA Finals, where Game 1 lived up to the hype for fans as the New York Knickerbockers won a back and forth battle against the San Antonio Spurs. The Knicks extending a playoff win streak of 12 straight games, the second longest in league history. Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson, who is so clutch, finished with a game high of 30 points. Victor Wembanyama in the Spurs will look to even the series in game two set for Friday night in San Antonio.

CNN'S Omar Jimenez, who by the way, played college basketball at Northwestern, is outside Madison Square Garden in New York with Knicks fans.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the reaction after a Game 1 win in the NBA Finals for the New York Knicks. We have been outside Madison Square Garden throughout all of this. And look, if you doubt any of the enthusiasm even for an away game for the Knicks, look no further than the crowd that gathered over the course of this game. But I want to show you what we've been seeing over the course of this as a celebration really begins here in New York City. It's the beginning of a long series.

You know that if you're a basketball fan. But you can't tell the people here who have been chanting Knicks in four for hours. I was talking to them beforehand. They were saying Knicks in four beforehand too. So this is just the beginning.

They got a Game 1. It came down to a back and forth game throughout all of it. But the excitement in New York City is the chance to do something they have not done in over five decades now that they are back in a place they have not been in more than two decades. So moving forward, like we said, is a long series. But the enthusiasm here, it is not going anywhere.

It's not going anywhere. See, you can't go far. This is New York City. Back to you, guys.

MICHAELSON: Omar Jimenez and his photographer clearly backing away. Thank you so much for that.

Knicks in four would be a sweep. They've done that the last few rounds. We'll see if they're able to do that against the Spurs. That would be quite the upset.

The biggest sporting event on Earth, on earth, it's just a week away. The opening match of the FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday, June 11th in Mexico City. But momentum is building all over North America as teams start to arrive. The Moroccan national team landing in Newark. In the last World Cup in Qatar, they were the first African and first Arab team to reach a semifinal.

And at an aquarium down in Rio de Janeiro, a shark picked a can displaying the Brazilian flag, which fans took as a sign that Brazil will triumph over Morocco in their opening match.

[01:20:07]

North Korea is widely believed to have dozens of nuclear warheads, but the country's leader is making it clear that he wants more. That story is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: North Korea's leader wants to beef up his country's nuclear program at an exponential rate. A state news agency says Kim Jong Un made that statement during a visit to a new factory that makes nuclear material. For more, our Will Ripley joins me from Taipei.

Will, a lot of power is in these nuclear weapons, right? I mean, we talk about Iran trying to get a nuclear weapon, and you might think that Kim Jong Un has derived a lot of his power and influence from having them.

[01:25:07]

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And I think the message that he's projecting by showing himself inside this enrichment -- uranium enrichment nuclear facility is that it's here to stay. He has no interest in denuclearization. He has no interest in giving up his nuclear weapons. He is not just showing off missiles at a parade, he's showing the backbone, the industrial complex that is producing the enriched uranium that could help North Korea double, triple the amount of nuclear warheads that it possesses over the coming years, which is a goal that Kim Jong Un has publicly stated.

And this is a highly sensitive facility. This is at least the third public tour of this kind of facility that North Korean state media has covered since September of 2024. Before 2024, North Korea never publicly showed the inside of a uranium enrichment plant. But interestingly, they're not disclosing the location at all. So analysts are wondering, is this at Yongbyon?

Is it at Kangson? Is it an entirely new site? They're obviously being very careful about the details they release. Even if you look at some of the still images, they have things that are blurred to try to make sure that spying eyes in South Korea and the United States military intelligence offices aren't going to be able to ascertain too much.

We did talk a few months ago about a new building at Yongbyon that the International Atomic Energy Agency had identified as the possible location of a new enrichment facility, but because state media is so careful in the images that they curate and release, we just have no way of knowing exactly where this is. But as you mentioned, Kim Jong Un has said that his nuclear forces must grow exponentially. The same language that he used, by the way, during his 2024 enrichment visit. And state media is claiming that their production capacity has more than doubled since 2021.

So these centrifuges that you're seeing in the images that produce the fuel for nuclear weapons, they are a sign that North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un, is really increasingly confident in showing the world its nuclear infrastructure. As they continue to deepen their military ties with Russia, and as they continue to move towards this position that Kim Jong Un has strategically outlined for his country of being a global nuclear power to have so many nuclear weapons that even a superpower like the United States would not be able to stop all of the nuclear missiles that could be fired from North Korea in an attack, a similar situation to Russia and China and other nations with a large nuclear arsenal. It's just simply impossible to shoot down a barrage of incoming ballistic missiles. That's that mutually assured destruction that everyone hopes will prevent a nuclear war from destroying the entire planet. North Korea wanting to be part of that nuclear superpower club.

And these images, just them projecting that once more. But obviously we can't independently verify their claims, Elex --

MICHAELSON: Yes. RIPLEY: -- that they've actually, you know, increased their capacity this much. We can only go by what is seen in state media and the limited info that military --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

RIPLEY: -- intelligence can ascertain from satellite images.

MICHAELSON: Yes, there's no way to independently confirm almost anything based off the way they set up that system.

RIPLEY: Right.

MICHAELSON: Will Ripley for us live in Taipei. Will, thank you so much.

The World Health Organization says it has significantly slashed its count of suspected Ebola cases after processing a backlog. They now put the number of confirmed cases at 344 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including 60 deaths. And in neighboring Uganda, there are 15 confirmed cases and one death. But the full scale of the outbreak is not yet known. CNN's Clarissa Ward is reporting from the region and recently gained access to a DRC hospital on the front lines of the fight.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're at a hospital in the rural community of Rampara. This area has been one of the hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak.

So at the moment, the hospital has 17 suspected Ebola patients. They're rapidly running out of capacity. But if you look over here, you can see a huge amount of activity as people from the community and the NGO ALIMA are furiously working to erect these Ebola treatment centers.

The doctor from ALIMA told us they're hoping that these facilities will be completed in the next two to three days. And that really is going to be a game changer for this rural hospital because it will give them the capacity to receive another 34 Ebola patients. And it's really interesting if you take a look at the way these treatment centers are being built, they are incorporating a lot of the lessons that have been learned from previous Ebola outbreaks.

[01:29:44]

So I want to show you what each room here looks like. You've got the tap outside, of course, to make sure that people are washing their hands the whole time.

Each room has its own bed. Each patient has, crucially, of course, as well, their own toilet.

But the really interesting part is right here. This paper will come off, and it's transparent glass, which allows the doctors to get up close and see the patients without endangering themselves.

This is what it looks like from the doctor's perspective. This is the entrance they come into. They can see through, see the patients.

It's pretty incredible. It's interesting because despite the fact that this community has been ravaged by this virus, the mood here among these people, who are all local, who are taking pride in the fact that they are participating in building and contributing and protecting their community.

They have been singing, they have been laughing, they have been joking around and honestly, against the backdrop of so much misery, it's been really wonderful to see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Clarissa Ward, thank you for that.

Voters are still coming in -- votes are still coming in for the primary elections here in California. So many people focused on the races for governor and L.A. mayor. We'll break it all down next with national managing editor at Bloomberg News, Sarah McGregor in the house for the first time. She joins us next.

[01:31:37]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: It could take days, even weeks, before we have final results in the California governor's primary election. Workers are counting votes right now as Republican Steve Hilton leads the field. He's followed by Democrat Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. The top two candidates advance to the general election. Mail-in votes expected to favor the Democrats.

For more on the California races, I want to bring in Sarah McGregor. She is the national managing editor for all of Bloomberg News, makes the big decisions over there. And she's here on our set for the first time.

Welcome. Good to see you.

SARAH MCGREGOR, NATIONAL MANAGING EDITOR, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Thank you so much.

MICHAELSON: So how do you see this race? You know, Tom Steyer hoping to find a spot in the top two. Both Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton feeling confident tonight.

MCGREGOR: Yes. It's been interesting because it seemed like we had this flood of votes last night. I know you were -- you were tracking it minute by minute, and now its slowed to a trickle.

But what's not changed is that we see Hilton and Becerra neck and neck in the race. Tom Steyer sort of holding his own at third. And I think, as you know, as time goes on, people are going to get more and more eager for an outcome to this race.

And I know that Californians are used to waiting, but I think the rest of the country is watching this race right now.

I think what -- you know, what expectations are is that, you know, California is a deep blue state. And if Becerra very likely makes it to the runoff, you know, structurally, he does have an advantage.

And so I think it will be Hilton's race now to try and win.

MICHAELSON: Yes. I mean, structurally he had. If it's a Democrat versus Republican, he has an enormous advantage. There are twice as many Democrats in this state versus Republicans. Most statewide races, Democrats win by 20 points.

No Republican has won statewide since Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 2006, when he was married to a Kennedy Democrat and one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

I mean, the structure is tough if you're a Republican running in California, the closest anybody got recently was Lonnie Chen, who lost by nine points.

MCGREGOR: Yet here we are, still waiting for the results of a very close election.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MCGREGOR: So I think really what it should be is a wake-up call to California Democrats. Don't be complacent.

I know that -- you know, many things, if this race has taught us anything, many things can happen. Eric Swalwell was up front.

Becerra was in the low single digits until just, you know, weeks ago. And here he is, surging ahead as sort of the compromise candidate now for the Democrats.

So I think if they look back now as a party and even Becerra as a candidate, and again, votes are still being counted. So this is all assuming he does make it and it is against Hilton, you know, they really should take it seriously for the next five months.

It will really be up to the candidates, again if its Hilton and Becerra, to explain what their platforms are. I feel like the political drama really overtook what the message was of how they would help Californians and fix the problems of the state.

MICHAELSON: Well, and some of the candidates, frankly, that tried to talk about that more, didn't do that well.

I mean, Xavier Becerra's thing was, I'm the experienced guy. I know how to fight Trump. I've got a good resume. And he didn't really get into a lot of policy specifics.

But then there were folks like Matt Mahan, who was the mayor of San Jose, Katie Porter, Antonio Villaraigosa, others who were laying out more policies and were challenging the party more and didn't do all that well. You all at Bloomberg really follow the tech world. They were

enthralled by Matt Mahan. They were part of the reason that he decided to run. They said they were going to fund his campaign. They didn't end up giving him as much money as he thought that they were, and they ended up leaving pretty disappointed.

MCGREGOR: Absolutely. It was very interesting to cover Matt Mahan' campaign. We had covered him a little bit as San Jose mayor, and he did make a mark on that city. And I think voters and his constituents did like him. He managed to kind of chip away a little bit at the homelessness program, and he had some real solutions that I think people liked.

It was interesting, though, that he did come out, and he seemed to come out from the front where you thought, ok, this is an interesting candidate. I'm going to keep my eye on him.

[01:39:50]

MCGREGOR: Tech support, like you said. Silicon Valley elite. He had Reed Hastings from Netflix. He had Mike Moritz, a venture capitalist, you know, thinking really that this is the guy to watch. And he ended up conceding after 30 minutes last night, you know, of the results dropping.

And I really do think it's a bit of a maybe a cautionary tale. He wasn't able to break through. And even with this tech money and sort of the political influence that you'd think they'd have, especially with A.I. right now, so dominant in the California economy, the U.S. economy, he still wasn't able to break through.

MICHAELSON: And it showed that even though these tech guys who are so good at dominating that space and are used to dominating most spaces that they're in, may not have a lot of political experience and may not be great at dominating that space.

And as we saw from Tom Steyer, just because you have money doesn't mean you're necessarily going to win. He outspent Xavier Becerra 200 million to 1 and still may not even end up in the top two. We'll see as more votes are counted.

Other big story, the whole country has really been following, is the mayor's race and this rise of Spencer Pratt, who may or may not end up in the top two. What do you make of that story and what his success tells you about sort of this pushback in some places to Democrat-run cities?

MCGREGOR: Absolutely. I mean, that race, I think, almost seemed to transcend Democrat versus Republican lines. I think as soon as Spencer Pratt came out with a really healthy showing at one of the debates, pretty splashy showing, you know, people started to listen to what he was saying.

One of the interesting things in terms of his sustainability and what kind of broad appeal I think he would have as a candidate, as we were looking at some of the maps today of the votes coming in. A lot of his support coming from the Palisades, which is the area where he lost his home in the fires. And --

MICHAELSON: Right.

MCGREGOR: -- you know, thousands of other people.

MICHAELSON: The big question will be, can he win west -- east of the 405, which Rick Caruso struggled with last time around?

MCGREGOR: Absolutely.

MICHAELSON: Thank you so much. We're out of time. But great to talk with you Sarah McGregor from Bloomberg.

Thank you for watching THE STORY IS. For international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back.

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MICHAELSON: Waymo operates driverless taxis in 11 U.S. cities and wants to expand. But according to a CNN analysis, the feature that makes the robo taxis less likely to cause dangerous collisions, the lack of a human driver, also creates new safety problems and that is worrying government officials.

Here's CNN's Kyung Lah.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is that Waymo doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, the Waymo is on the track.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are all Waymo robo taxis. And you may have seen one of these videos on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That definitely ran a red light. Oh my God.

LAH: As Waymo aggressively expands to new and more complicated cities, our CNN analysis of public records, including calls for service, police reports and city council meetings, finds hundreds of incidents where Waymos are confused in everyday moments, putting pedestrians, passengers and others on the road in potentially dangerous situations.

If you don't know what a Waymo is, this is it. There's no driver behind this wheel. It is a high-tech car equipped with cameras and sensors. And that's because Waymo are entirely self-driving.

You order a ride with your phone. In some cities, even through the Uber or Lyft app. And it takes you, without any driver, to where you need to go.

On its Web site, Waymo says its robo taxis have driven more than 170 million miles through the end of last year. And it says peer-reviewed data shows that Waymos are better than humans at avoiding crashes that result in injuries.

The company shared this video with us of several close calls. Waymo showing off the ability to swerve last second and dodge people, possibly better than a human driver could.

This is all pretty new tech, learning in real time, but we found it's creating a whole new set of safety problems. The incidents are just a snapshot of the concerns, because federal and state rules don't require Waymo to fully track near misses and other safety issues.

Waymo tells CNN it safely completes more than half a million rides every week. And those smooth, uneventful rides, they don't go viral. But here's some key themes we did see in records.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Connected to rider support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The car is going the wrong way. It's going on the wrong side of the road.

LAH: Over and over again, we came across reports of Waymo breaking basic traffic and safety laws. Like in this video from Austin, Texas where Waymo appeared to cross double yellow lines and drove on the wrong side of the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) the Waymo's on the track. What an idiot. Here comes the train.

LAH: Or even going completely off the road. This isn't Phoenix. The Waymo drove onto the light rail tracks with a passenger still inside. Light rail workers responded and the passenger got out ok.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. Get out, get out, get out.

LAH: There's any number of reasons for what might be happening in moments like this when Waymo appears stuck. The company says when their cars face an uncertain situation, they'll pick the safest option, including coming to a stop.

Now, another possible explanation, Waymo says that at any point in time, they have 70 remote human assistance operators working. Half of them are based in the Philippines, and Waymo doesn't require that they have a U.S. driver's license.

When a Waymo faces an ambiguous situation, it may send a request to those operators who can give it a suggested maneuver. But the car can still decide to accept or reject the advice.

Another problem we kept seeing, how Waymos respond to ambulances, police cars and fire trucks failing to stop or even blocking the route entirely.

First responders are even having to move the Waymos themselves during an emergency.

[01:49:43] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're becoming a default of assistance, roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we -- do not think is tenable.

LAH: Waymo told us in the last month, they've reduced the number of Waymo initiated emergency calls by over 50 percent.

"No technology is perfect," Waymo says in a statement to CNN. "But unlike humans, Waymo takes community feedback and applies those safety learnings to our entire fleet. That has led to a 13 times reduction in serious injury crashes compared to human drivers."

Kyung Lah, CNN -- Los Angeles.

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MICHAELSON: Wow. Who knew that a person in the Philippines is basically potentially driving or sending the instructions? That's amazing.

A familiar scenario for many of us. You get out of your rideshare and realize you've left your keys or your phone or something else behind.

But how about a box of 420 donuts? That's one of the items that made Ubers annual lost and found index. Bizarre items don't end there. A dishwasher, a textured photo with a rhinestone picture of Jesus, dentures, two teeth, 20 pounds of duck sausage.

Phones topped the list as the most forgotten item, and New York was the most forgetful city, with July 17th named as the most forgetful day.

I wonder if people forget more in Waymos when there isn't a driver there to remind them or not.

We'll be right back.

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MICHAELSON: The Dalai Lama is known for his activism and spiritual leadership. Now he's a Grammy Award winner. The Nobel laureate finally received his award for his spoken word album, "Meditations" at a special ceremony at his residence in India on Wednesday.

The 68th Grammy Awards were presented in Los Angeles earlier this year, but the leader could not attend. He said on his Web site that he accepted the award with gratitude and humility.

"Variety Magazine" is recognizing its Women of Power award winners, with a ceremony in London. Honorees include Cynthia Erivo, star of "The Wicked" movies, and Emilia Clarke from "Game of Thrones". The award celebrates their work in media and charities.

And a reminder, television's hottest actors are on CNN. It's a new season of "VARIETY'S ACTORS ON ACTORS", with new episodes dropping daily right now on the CNN app.

And speaking of that, our pal Elizabeth Wagmeister is back from maternity leave and joining me live tomorrow night to talk about her "VARIETY ACTORS ON ACTORS" chat with Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow. The "Friends" stars back together with Elizabeth tomorrow here on THE STORY IS.

I'm Elex Michaelson. I'll see you then.

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