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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
California Has 23M Registered Voters And Many Vote By Mail; Trump Claims Dems Cheating In California, Without Evidence; Trump Interviewing 5 Candidates For Top Intelligence Chief; Iran - Attacked Enemy Bases In The Region After U.S. Strikes; Iranian Supreme Leader Adviser - Trump Must Break Deadlock; Pope Leo To Begin Six-Day Tour Of Spain; The Search For A Missing American In The Forest; Hunter Biden Wins Fans And Detractors On Social Media; Albanian Protests Grow Over Trump-Linked Resort; Aired 12-1a ET
Aired June 06, 2026 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: We are going to be talking about the NBA finals with Derek Fisher, five time NBA champion is coming in, who once coached the New York Knicks. So that's going to be interesting to hear from him. We've got Brian Tyler Cohen and Katie Zacharia debating tonight. So it's going to be a lot of fun. And Paul Mitchell, the top data expert in California, is going to be joining us as well. So we got a lot going on tonight.
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: A hell of a show. Can't wait to see it. Talk to you soon.
MICHAELSON: Happy Friday. Have a great weekend, Laura.
COATES: Me too.
MICHAELSON: And "The Story Is" starts right now.
"The Story Is" the California primaries.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You're going to be waiting weeks to get these votes. It's corrupt.
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MICHAELSON: After multiple accusations by the president, Department of Justice is sending an observer to monitor vote counting. The top election official in Los Angeles joins me live on set.
"The Story Is" negotiations with Iran. CNN's Fred Pleitgen sits down with the Senior Military Adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader. Ahead, why they say the deal is, "deadlocked."
"The Story Is" Albania's Flamingo revolution. Why a $1 billion luxury resort project linked to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner is sparking anger. Plus, "The Story Is" the NBA's finals were live with fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: Welcome to the weekend. The voting is still going on -- voting counting is still going on in California. "The Story Is" California's primary. CNN's decision desk is projecting that Democrat Xavier Becerra will advance to the general election in the governor's race. The question is, who is he going to face?
Vote counting continues. It's not clear whether Becerra will face Republican Steve Hilton or fellow Democrat Tom Steyer in November. With more than 23 million registered voters, California has had a long reputation for being slow to report election results in part because of a high percentage of people who vote by mail.
Friday morning, the justice department sent one of its attorneys to observe ballot processing in Los Angeles. Earlier Friday, the Republican who leads the LA based U.S. attorney's office, Bill Essayli, who was on our show live last night, described fraud investigations on social media and said the state is stonewalling efforts to ensure only U.S. citizens vote.
Last night, he told us that he had no evidence of fraud. This comes after President Trump claimed several times without evidence that the slow pace of California's count meant Democrats are cheating. He said this Friday in Wisconsin.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You're going to be waiting weeks to get these votes. It's corrupt. Somebody said it's incompetent. I said, no. Just the opposite. It's unbelievably competent if you happen to be a Democrat politician. Because with their policies, the only way they can get elected is to cheat.
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MICHAELSON: I'm joined now by Dean Logan, the Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk for Los Angeles County. He's in charge of the vote counting process for LA County, the biggest county in the biggest, most populous state in the country. Dean, welcome.
DEAN LOGAN, REGISTRAR-RECORDER/COUNTY CLERK, LA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Thank you. Good to be with you.
MICHAELSON: What's your response to that, this idea of cheating? Do you have any evidence of any examples of that?
LOGAN: No evidence or examples of that. I think what we're seeing, unfortunately, is carrying out of a narrative that has become the gameplay in national politics in the United States, and that is to prior to the vote count being completed, take shots at the process. So if the outcome turns out different than what you want, you don't accept that. You challenge the process. The reality is this is the way elections have been designed in California. It's actually -- we're actually pacing a little bit ahead of where we've been in prior elections. It's not going to be weeks. It's going to be days. I know it's frustrating, but this is really about making sure that every eligible ballot in this election is counted and counted correctly.
MICHAELSON: When you say days, it's days until we know the outcome, not days before we certify because there's still a process to cure ballots and other sort of more technical things. But in terms of the lion's share getting the votes. Because we still have about 500,000 votes that have not been processed yet from that you guys have sitting there waiting to be counted.
LOGAN: That's right. And we're going through those incrementally in bulk each day. We do updates each day. But part of that is because the bulk of those, not all of them, but the bulk of those are ballots that were turned in at ballot drop boxes throughout LA County on election day and then collected after the polls closed at eight o'clock. And they have to come back. They need to go through signature verification. They need to be extracted from the identity of the voter, and we need to make sure that they're going to be properly counted.
MICHAELSON: Let's go through that process, because this really is about the process. So LA County first off has more voters than anywhere else, more voters than 41 states.
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LOGAN: Right.
MICHAELSON: And so there was this extraordinary push by the Democratic party to vote at the very last minute. Most people voted in the last day or two. About 80 percent of people now vote by mail. So you have this huge backlog of vote by mail ballots, and the process for processing a vote by mail ballot is very different than the process for vote in person. Talk about that.
LOGAN: Absolutely. And vote by mail is resource intensive, right? But it's responsive to, the move to vote by mail has really been driven by voter behavior. It's a choice voters have made. Remember, California's ballot and LA County's ballot in particular in this election, it's a very long ballot. Three or four pages worth of contest. Some of them that had 20, 30, even 60 candidates to go through, right?
MICHAELSON: If you looked at the ballot, there were 60 different names for Governor alone.
LOGAN: Absolutely. And so voters value being able to sit at their kitchen table, talk to their friends, figure out how they want to do that. And as you say, in this case, every election is different, but in this case, people were being encouraged to wait late in the game. They wanted to know, is somebody going to drop out of the race or not. And as a result of that, they came in late in the process. So what happens when we get them back is we scan them through a sorting -- a piece of sorting equipment that takes an image of that envelope. We do signature matching that's required by law, every one of those. That's how we verify that it came from the voter that it was intended from for.
Then the ballots are removed from the envelope to separate them from the identity of the voter. They're physically reviewed to make sure that they can be read by the tally system. Then they go in and they're scanned in the tally system, and that's what allows us to produce the results.
MICHAELSON: Other states do it differently. Like a state like Florida where they do get results faster, their ballots are due by election day, not postmarked by election day.
LOGAN: Right. Different rules.
MICHAELSON: Different rules, and so they're able to go through it faster. Is it time to maybe rethink some of these rules? Has California gone so far over this way that maybe it's time to come back a little bit? And if so, what are some rules you think might make sense to reform?
LOGAN: I think it's a fair conversation, and I think it's a dialogue that that should be had in California through a deliberative process. But what I would caution is that that we also don't want to make sweeping changes and then expect that voter behavior is going to respond to those immediately. And keep in mind that this is an election where the turnout is probably going to be under 40 percent of the electorate.
If you start massively changing the process and eliminating options that voters are used to and that voters have preferred in California, you run the risk of actually reducing participation even lower, which runs counterintuitive to the whole purpose of an election.
MICHAELSON: But you know there are two things that are really important for counting votes. One is integrity is the most important thing, but also appearance of integrity is important too so that people trust the process. And you guys are very transparent. I got to give you credit. People can come visit there. They can watch the livestream and all of that. But we are seeing, in terms of what is happening, there is often this sway, this switch. On election night, conservatives feel like they're in a good place, and then they see day after day after day Democrats doing better, especially far left Democrats doing better. And they feel like the system is rigged. They feel like something is up. What do you say to those people, and why is it often swaying one way and not the other?
LOGAN: Well, I think you have to look at the demographics of the county, and you have to look at the registered voter statistics in LA County and in California in general. The Democratic registration rate is significantly higher than Republican. Then the second largest group of voters are people who don't identify with the party at all. So I'll leave the speculation of the campaign dynamics to political commentators, but logic follows. And I think, unfortunately, the message about that you're talking about that talks about that as large swings and calls it cheating or, whatever, that's coming from that political playbook again.
I don't think that the majority of voters in LA County see it that way. The majority of LA County voters turn their ballots in at those drop boxes, and I think that itself is an indication that they're confident that that process is going to work and work correctly. And as you say, if you watch the process, you can see the level of detail and security and transparency that we put into that process.
MICHAELSON: So you think most votes counted by early next week?
LOGAN: I do. I think by early to mid-next week, we're going to start seeing more definitive results. There'll still be provisional ballots and things like that to go through, but it's going to start to take the definition that people are waiting for.
MICHAELSON: Dean Logan, I know a lot of people have a lot of questions, and so we appreciate you taking some time for some answers.
LOGAN: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: Thanks for coming in on your busiest time of the year. We appreciate it. Good to see you.
President Trump says he is interviewing five candidates for the permanent position of Director of National Intelligence, while Bill Pulte serves in the role temporarily.
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Democrats and Republicans questioned Pulte's appointment this week because of his lack of national security credentials. Pulte is currently the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Trump administration has put in writing that it is Anti-Weaponization Fund is dead. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this week the Department of Justice was abandoning the controversial program. And on Friday, the DOJ told two federal judges the $1.8 billion fund has been killed.
U.S. and Iran are trading new attacks as both sides struggle to reach a peace deal. Iran says it has struck, "enemy bases in the Middle East." U.S. military says it intercepted a wave of ballistic missiles fired towards Kuwait and Bahrain. All this comes hours after the U.S. launched attacks on Iran's coastal surveillance radar sites. The U.S. also shooting down four drones that it says Tehran aimed towards the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran says peace negotiations with the U.S. are deadlocked. In an exclusive interview in Tehran, CNN's Fred Pleitgen sat down with the senior military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader. We should note CNN operates in Iran only with permission of the government but maintains full editorial control of its reports.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You are the military adviser of the supreme leader. How is the supreme leader doing? Is he fully in control of everything? And President Trump said that he would be honored to meet the supreme leader.
MOHSEN REZAEI, SR. MILITARY ADVISER TO IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER (translated): This will not happen. Right now, we are in the first stage of negotiations, and Mr. Trump has brought the negotiations to a standstill. This will not happen.
PLEITGEN: Are the negotiations right now blocked, or do you think that a memorandum of understanding can be reached quickly?
REZAEI (translated): In my opinion, the negotiations are at a deadlock, and Trump must break this deadlock.
PLEITGEN: They are waiting for an answer from Iran.
REZAEI (translated): Iran has openly stated that our assets have been frozen, and you must release them. The Americans are not telling the truth in this regard.
PLEITGEN: So the frozen assets are the big problem right now?
REZAEI (translated): This is a sign of trust building. If Trump takes the negotiation seriously, $24 billion is not much to America. If he wants to reach an agreement with Iran, this $24 billion is a test of trust that Iran wants to have with Trump. This is a test that America must pass, and the path will be opened. This is our own money, not America's money.
PLEITGEN: Wouldn't a war be catastrophic for Iran as well though if it was a big bombing campaign?
REZAEI (translated): If the war continues and the naval blockade is not lifted, we will drag the war to the Indian Ocean, the Bab al- Mandab Strait, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean. And we will give another dimension to the war by attacking these other American bases that we have been attacking so far. America will definitely suffer much more losses. America's losses will be very heavy.
PLEITGEN: Final question. What's your message to Donald Trump?
REZAEI (translated): Mr. Trump must make decisions independently of Israel. He must give what is the rights of the Iranian people and stop the blockade, release our frozen assets, and this can be a new horizon for the future of Iran and America. Therefore, Trump must put aside his personal interests and think about the interests of the American people. If Trump has the courage, many issues will be resolved in the future.
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MICHAELSON: Joining us now is CNN National Security Analyst, Alex Plitsas. Alex, what do you make of what he just said?
ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So it actually reflects what I've been hearing in private over the last week from regional mediators as well as U.S. officials in the back channel. And that's that the Iranians are looking for the release of funds as part of a, proof that the United States is serious about negotiations, because they've said that the last couple of rounds have ended in conflict. And when the United States began those negotiations, they didn't end in good faith. So the Iranians are pressing that.
But in reality, they have a liquidity crisis. So the Iranians need cash upfront right now, but they're looking to have that released as a show of good faith prior to any serious concessions on the nuclear issue, which is a bridge too far for the president. So what I'm hearing from regional mediators that both sides have sort of dug in their heels, and they are in fact at an impasse at the moment with the Iranians demanding cash and the U.S. looking for more substantive gifts from the Iranians that so far they've been unwilling to do.
MICHAELSON: Iran says it attacked enemy bases in the region targeting Kuwait and Bahrain. What's that about? What message are they trying to send there?
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PLITSAS: So they're still trying to send a message to the United States as well as to our regional partners in the Gulf, that U.S. bases are subject to attack, and any country that hosts U.S. bases is also subject to an attack, which was also part of that thinly veiled threat we heard at the end of the clip that you just played, in which the IRGC adviser to the Supreme Leader mentioned from the Indian Ocean to the Bab al-Mandab. So what he was really getting at is, Diego Garcia is in the Indian Ocean where they fired missiles previously, twice the distance of any known capability prior to that.
So Iran had obviously exceeded its limits on ballistic missiles, and it lied about that for months and years in the proceed before that. And then the Bab al-Mandab is actually interesting. So we've heard a lot about the Strait of Hormuz, and that's the entrance to the Persian Gulf that the Iranians have choked off using, basically drones and missiles and projectiles to hold it at risk.
On the other side, at the entrance to the Red Sea, the Houthi rebels, are a basically a proxy force for the Iranians, had previously held that choke point off, using the same type of tactic, and now they're threatening to do so again. And that again goes back months when we heard that they were holding the Houthis in reserve in the event that this goes the wrong direction of the Iranians.
So it looks that they're still threatening to escalate if the U.S. doesn't give in and once again speaks to the standstill that we just heard about.
MICHAELSON: So our colleague Christiane Amanpour spoke with the President of Lebanon today who said that Iran is using his country as a bargaining chip with the U.S. Do you see it that way?
PLITSAS: I think it's an accurate depiction of what's going on. I mean, Hezbollah is a proxy again, of Iran that has been firing missiles and projectiles into Northern Israel going back to October 7th and well before that. 1 percent of the Israeli population has been displaced, unable to return home as a result of offensive actions that Hezbollah has taken.
The Lebanese government, the Lebanese people, the United States, the Israelis had all told Hezbollah to stay on the sidelines and not get involved again, which they didn't. And so Israel has been going after them pretty hard as a result of their strikes on the Israeli territory. And as a result of that, Iran has always said that they deny that there are proxy forces out there. But at the same time, they're tying the ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a pretext for negotiations to a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, but it's not Israel and Lebanon. Israel is going after Hezbollah inside of Lebanon.
So it's basically a tacit admission from the Iranians that Hezbollah is in fact part of its overall offensive capabilities, and it's seeking to have that turned off because Israel has done a pretty decent job at degrading Hezbollah's capabilities, and Iran is worried about losing more offensive firepower for which it's used as a deterrent against Israel.
MICHAELSON: Alex Plitsas, who always provides us great information and providing great fashion tonight. Quite the company man in your sartorial choices tonight. Nice to see you.
PLITSAS: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: A big night in San Antonio, but an even bigger one in New York after the Knicks win game two of the NBA championship series over the San Antonio Spurs. This one was a thriller. The Knicks led for most of the game. San Antonio's furious comeback in the second half saw the Spurs tied up in the fourth quarter. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama missed a last second shot that would have put them ahead. He also had a bad turnover late in the game. Final score, 105-104. The Knicks now lead the series two games to none heading into Monday's game three, which will be at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the first finals game there since 1999.
CNN reporter Mark Morales is at a Knicks watch party in New York where the party is still going on after midnight. Mark. Not sure if Mark can hear us or his mic is turned on. Hopefully we can get that. Obviously it's challenging sometimes to operate in one of these. Mark, can you hear us? Now we can hear you. Go ahead. See if we can try to figure that out and go back to him after a quick commercial break. Obviously, a lot going on in New York right now.
Coming up on "The Story Is" the search continues for a missing American in Japan, investigators are now getting extra help in their massive search. I'll have an update on that when we return and hopefully head back to New York City.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MICHAELSON: In the coming hours, Pope Leo begins a six-day tour of Spain with stops in Madrid, Barcelona, and the Canary Islands. Earlier, the Vatican confirmed that the pope will meet with victims of clergy abuse during his visit, but he'll begin the trip by meeting with the Spanish king and queen on Saturday before holding an evening prayer vigil with Catholic youth in Madrid. Later in the week, Pope Leo will travel where he will meet with migrants and organizations that support them.
Japanese citizens are joining the search for an American college student who is believed to have gone missing in a mountainous forest. The student's family made a public plea for any experienced hikers to help in the search through the treacherous terrain. Hanako Montgomery reports.
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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Deep in Japan's forests, a search is underway. For Weston Higginbotham, a 20-year-old college student from Alabama who vanished during a family vacation.
So this is the type of trail that the Japanese police have been investigating to search for Weston.
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He's known as an avid hiker, so they think that maybe he might have disappeared into the woods when he went missing on May 29th. Police are relying on K-9 units to sniff out any trace of Weston. But the forest search ends for now with no answers. Just more anguish for a family still waiting for news.
NANCY HIGGINBOTHAM, MOTHER OF JAMES "WESTON" HIGGINBOTHAM: There are so many possibilities that we have thought through because as a parent, you don't want to think the worst. And you keep seeing these sightings here and there. It's like, well, maybe I don't know. I don't know.
MONTGOMERY: The day Weston disappeared, the Higginbotham's were vacationing in Kyoto, Japan, a major tourist destination in one of the world's safest countries. But after a small disagreement with his mom, they agreed to give each other some space. Nancy, his mother, tells me it's not unusual for Weston to clear his head in nature. But when he seemingly turned off his phone location, panic set in.
HIGGINBOTHAM: Well, it was scary because that's not Weston. I mean, we're just -- we don't do that in our family. Even when we're mad, we don't do that in our family.
MONTGOMERY: Since then, Nancy has posted daily appeals on social media asking anyone with information to come forward.
HIGGINBOTHAM: He has a heart of gold, and we all want him to come back safely.
MONTGOMERY: Strangers have answered her call, sharing Weston's photo and distributing flyers to help find him.
MANAMI NAKAGAWA, VOLUNTEER (translated): The search ends when people stop looking. For as long as it takes. I'll keep doing everything I can until he's found.
MONTGOMERY: The police have told us that until they find Weston, they won't stop looking. And as the search continues, so does a mother's hope. And today, the search is getting extra help. Citizen hikers are now heading to the mountains after Higginbotham's family organized a search and rescue party of volunteers. Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Kyoto.
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MICHAELSON: Coming up more on our top story, the California elections, including President Trump's claims that California's elections are raked and Democrats are cheating. Our political panel here to break that down, dig deeper in that, and more Brian Tyler Cohen on the left, Katie Zacharia on the right, two of our favorites. Get ready. It's Friday night. Let's get into it.
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MICHAELSON: Big night in San Antonio, an even bigger one in New York after the Knicks win game two of the NBA championship series over the San Antonio Spurs. Let's try this again. Our CNN reporter Mark Morales is at a Knicks watch party having a good time. Mark, what's it like, and how drunk is everybody right now?
MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER: Well, this is as excited as everyone is as you can tell around me. The Knicks are up to nothing. And just to tell you how rare this was, the last time they were in the NBA finals in 1999, they were down 0 to 2. That's what happened the last time. But this year, a lot has changed in 27 years. They're up to nothing. We come back to Madison Square Garden on Monday, and believe it or not, the New York Knicks are two wins away from winning the NBA Championship. If you could believe it, there are still people hanging out outside of Madison Square Garden. Everyone is here. And when you could believe it when --
MICHAELSON: I can believe it.
MORALES: When we missed that shot, the place erupted. That is what we saw, and this energy that you're feeling that's coming into you right now, this energy, it is about years of pent up frustration wanting the Knicks to be great. And now they're about as you can tell, like, I'm excited. I'm wearing my shirt today. I can't hide my fandom like, we have been waiting for this for years.
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
MORALES: To the point where if this is a dream, I don't want to wake up. MICHAELSON: All right, very nice. And I feel like this we're all sort of -- there's a meme that's about to happen from this live shot or something. There's a lot going on here. Have fun. Congratulations. Of course, the Knicks haven't won a title since the 70s, so there's several generation of people that have never experienced that. And we'll see. It's going to be crazy for game three, Mark. I'm guessing are you -- do you have tickets? Are you spending $50,000 to get inside?
MORALES: I don't, but the electricity here in New York, it's not even like you need it. All you got to do is go outside, walk down the street, and you'll feel it.
MICHAELSON: All right. And they're saying Knicks in 4, which has been a thing. They've been sweeping teams, and that really would be amazing. Mark Morales, thanks for joining us live from New York.
Let's get in some of the other serious news stories of the night tonight as well. The U.S. has extended its labor market rebound. The economy adding a 172,000 jobs in May, shattering expectations, providing some reassurance that the U.S. labor market may be stabilizing after a year of weak job growth.
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Despite the strong jobs data, it was a bad day for the markets. The Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P all closed the week in negative territory.
Trump administration told two federal judges it has abandoned the controversial Anti-Weaponization Fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said earlier this week that the fund was being killed. But these court filings are the first time that the Trump administration has put that in writing that it would no longer pursue the $1.8 billion fund for people who claim that they were unfairly investigated by the U.S. government.
Justice department on Friday sent a U.S. Attorney to observe vote counting in Los Angeles. Officials are still tallying ballots after California's primaries on Tuesday. The President has claimed without providing evidence that the slow pace of the count means that Democrats are cheating.
I'm joined now by two very non-cheaters, former Homeland Security Spokesperson Katie Zacharia and Brian Tyler Cohen, host of the No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen podcast. Welcome to you both. Good to have you back with us. Katie, are democrats cheating?
KATIE ZACHARIA, FORMER SPOKESPERSON, U.S. DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Listen, in 2019, the Tom Fitton with Judicial Watch sued Los Angeles County. and what did they find? Los Angeles County hadn't kicked anyone off their voter rolls for over 20 years. They had to kick off 1.5 million people off those voter rolls. 1.5 million, and in the last seven years since that happened, 400 plus 1000 people have fled Los Angeles.
So we're relying on this faulty system that never kicked people off the voter rolls to begin with to somehow now start doing it? And look the electoral system is broken. If you can't have the count in a week.
MICHAELSON: But how do those people, but the reason that the system is slow is because of signature verification to go through all of that to make sure that there isn't fraud or anything like that. How are those people supposed to get through the system?
ZACHARIA: Well, listen. You could have voter ID and same day voting and no universal mail in ballots. If you had all of those, you would know your -- you would know your results right away.
MICHAELSON: Know your right results.
ZACHARIA: And in California they banned the ID. They have universal mail in ballots. And by and large, a lot of those ballots that come in are typically Democrat drops. And right now, we're seeing and news is mixed. We are actually seeing a pretty stable flow of Pratt, Raman, and Karen Bass. However, this is something that needs to be looked at because it should not take over weeks and weeks and weeks to get this.
MICHAELSON: And Nithya Raman is gaining on Pratt every day. Today, she gained 12,000 votes on him. She's now 20,000 votes behind Spencer Pratt. A couple days ago, she was 40,000 votes behind. Do you think that this is a flawed system?
BRIAN TYLER COHEN, HOST OF "NO LIE WITH BRYAN TYLER COHEN" PODCAST: Look. I think that the system is working as it should. We're giving voters as much of an opportunity as we possibly can to make sure that their voices are heard. Again, we've heard from Katie a lot of different -- a lot of rhetoric about suggesting that something nefarious is happening, but the reality is that there is no actual evidence of widespread fraud.
And in fact, Justin Levitt, who is a professor at Loyola Law School, did a comprehensive study spending 14 years, studied 1 billion ballots that were cast. They found 31 instances of voter or election fraud. 31 instances out of 1 billion ballots cast. If we look toward a red state, Utah wanted to see how many undocumented immigrants were voting in that state. There's no democrats to gum up the works in that state. They looked at over 2 million voter registrations. They found one instance of an undocumented immigrant who was on the voter rolls. That person never even voted. So we can hear all the rhetoric in the world from Donald Trump straight on down about how Democrats are doing something nefarious, but not a single Republican can point to a single instance of widespread voter fraud in this country that would in any way change the results of these elections.
MICHAELSON: Yeah. Where is the evidence?
ZACHARIA: Well, look. The truth has nothing to fear from investigations. So if there isn't fraud, they're not going and going to manufacture fraud. They're saying if there is something widespread and problematic about the fact that we don't get our vote totals for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there's no voter ID and there's universal mail in ballots, then then and there's nothing that comes up. Wonderful. If there is an U.S. attorney --
COHEN: But that's not what Trump is saying. Trump is coming out --
ZACHARIA: U.S. attorney Bill Essayli has pointed to evidence of he even brought it up again where he prosecuted a woman who paid people on Skid Row. Was it over at least 20 people to go cast ballots. Now listen. 20 people is a lot if you're looking at people spending money to go cast votes for other people, and we don't have control of voting laws.
MICHAELSON: Well, Bill Essayli said last night when he was on live with us was that there are a few instances, but he does not, right now, have evidence of widespread voter fraud. When president Trump has been pushed or his attorneys have been pushed in court over the years, they have never been able to provide.
COHEN: Right. And I think that's the difference. In court, you're required to tell the truth. But when Donald Trump is out there speaking off the cuff in the Oval Office, that does not stop him at any point from suggesting that there is widespread fraud. And this is something that he's brought up over and over and over again.
MICHAELSON: But two things can be true.
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One, it could be that there is not fraud and that they're in -- they're going through the system the way that the system is designed. But it also could be true that the system needs some reformation, and maybe it isn't a good thing that your ballot can be postmarked on election day and can be received for days after election day. Maybe it isn't a good thing that you can drop off your ballot, vote by mail on the day of the election. Maybe it should be a few days before that. I mean, there are things that other states do that speed up their count. Do you think that's worth the trade off?
COHEN: I think it's worth the conversation, but the reality is that it's really important not to conflate the system working as it was intended to work, which is a slow system, because we give voters as much time as humanly possible to make sure that their voices are heard. And frankly, I think that's more important than getting it done as quick as possible because there's no difference really from having an answer yesterday versus tomorrow. I mean, the election results are going to be the election results.
And I personally think it's more important to give Americans as much of an opportunity to have their voices heard in these elections as we possibly can.
MICHAELSON: Do you think, Katie, that some of the president's language on this is irresponsible and creates a distrust in the system and actually hurts Republicans and may stop them from voting?
ZACHARIA: I absolutely don't. I absolutely agree that this needs to be looked at. Look, I went to go vote and --
MICHAELSON: Then by who? ZACHARIA: This needs to be looked at and ensured that the system is secure. There's no other country in the world that has this electoral an election system like we have. Everybody knows day of who won except California, United States, and particularly Los Angeles. And so what is broken with the system? Whether it should be same day voting, whether you should have voter ID.
But I don't think it's irresponsible of him. And I think putting a US attorney on it who's going to do everything by the law and look at it very closely should say to everyone, it's the same thing with regular fraud. We want this to be blown open. We don't want to cover up fraud because it hurts people. So if there is a broken election system, if we have inactive voters on our voter rolls and somehow those ballots are being cast in their name, even though they've moved to Texas or Florida or any of the other states that people fled to, we want to know about it. And that should be a unified agreement. Like, we don't want voter fraud.
COHEN: You don't think it's -- you think it's not irresponsible for the President of the United States, the person with the biggest megaphone in pretty much in the world to say that there is voter fraud happening in California with no evidence to actually back up what he's saying? You don't think that's irresponsible.
ZACHARIA: I think there's evidence, and I think don't it's irresponsible.
COHEN: But what evidence do you have?
ZACHARIA: I've named some, and I'm sure that --
COHEN: You said that voter rolls haven't been cleaned up, but that's not the same as widespread voter fraud.
ZACHARIA: If you are not regulating who's going to the ballot box, you are going to inherently get unfair demographic. Look Democrats, by and large, surge. Rahman has come up a ton in these last ballot drops.
COHEN: Because those are mail in ballots, and those are disproportionately and overwhelmingly used by democrat voters because Donald Trump --
ZACHARIA: A lot of Republicans have started no.
COHEN: The reality is Donald Trump has denigrated mail in voting, and so that's why Democrats are more likely to use it than Republicans.
ZACHARIA: He reversed course, and it's a big part of why he won in 2024 is because he said vote early. I mean, he understood that this was an important --
MICHAELSON: He still raises questions about mail in ballots all the time.
COHEN: He just signed an executive order. He just signed an executive order trying to ban mail in voting. MICHAELSON: And any members of the party are frustrated by that because it -- he -- they have said that it sometimes hurts them.
ZACHARIA: Until you can pass legislation either on a federal level, which will be the SAVE America Act, and then you can also add in no paper ballot or only paper ballot, same day voting, voter ID.
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
ZACHARIA: And you also institute that statewide. You have you have city councilmen in Los Angeles trying to push for illegal aliens being able to vote in our elections. This has happened in Oakland and in San Francisco with city council meetings. And if you need to prove you are a valid citizen, that is a fundamental part of being in a sovereign country. No other country in the world, at least a first world country, doesn't have voter ID.
COHEN: Again, I brought up the example where Republicans in the fully red state of Utah, went over this. They found a single instance of an undocumented immigrant who was registered to vote, that person never even cast ballot. And So this has been adjudicated earlier.
MICHAELSON: And in terms of illegal immigrants voting, that is for things like school board elections. It is illegal for them to vote in any federal elections and certainly for president, just to put that out there. Quickly to wrap things up. There is apparently one thing you guys agree on, which is Hunter Biden on X. You like Hunter Biden on X. Why is that?
ZACHARIA: There is something so disarming about and about Hunter Biden's irreverence. And there was this --
MICHAELSON: So tell us about this. So he started posting on X, and he's posting all the time and apparently kind of makes a lot of jokes and is kind of fun.
ZACHARIA: Look. I think America loves a comeback story, and I myself have family members that have struggled with some substance abuse. And so to see Hunter Biden be able to engage the public be able to kind of be known but also be funny and having a reverent attitude, but also a depth and seriousness about what he did. I think he's charmed a lot of the right, and it's very difficult to shame someone who's recovering of drug addict and alcoholic.
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And, I mean, he literally is funny.
MICHAELSON: And self-deprecating.
ZACHARIA: He's very self-deprecating.
COHEN: Look. I agree with my co-panelists here. I America loves a comeback story. They root for the underdog. Hunter Biden is nothing if not the underdog. And look the numbers, his engagement on social media speaks for itself. MICHAELSON: Yeah. Meanwhile, not necessarily rooting for Joe Biden's book based off the sales, but that's a whole other thing. Katie, Brian, great to see both of you. Thank you so much.
COHEN: Thanks for having us.
MICHAELSON: We'll be back with more of "The Story Is" right after this.
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MICHAELSON: Anger is growing in Albania over $1 billion luxury resort project. Thousands taking the streets in Albania's capital again on Friday to oppose the project linked to President Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner. Environmentalists say it will endanger pristine beaches and flamingos that nest there. More now from CNN's Isa Soares.
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ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Defiance and outrage in Albania's capital. For several consecutive days now, demonstrators marching through the streets of Tirana protesting a large luxury real estate project backed by the U.S. President's daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Demonstrations have been dubbed the Flamingo Revolution because the site suggested for the luxury developments includes the Island of Sazan and some of the coastline near the Sewanee Wetlands and the Narta Lagoon, part of a protected area, home to seals, turtles, and thousands of flamingos.
The first protest started in spring when bulldozers were first spotted clearing land in this untouched corner of the Mediterranean. But only gained momentum when private security were filmed clashing with protesters near the actual site early in the week. A day later, the issue was amplified when Ivanka Trump shared in a podcast interview how she and Kushner stumbled upon the location during the visit in 2021.
IVANKA TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: We were on a friend's boat, and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it. We swim to the islands. We went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated.
SOARES: Trump's romantic tale of causality and spontaneity, not mentioning an important detail.
JARED KUSHNER, U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S SON-IN-LAW & SPECIAL ENVOY: Prime Minister Rama came to the boat.
SOARES: Edi Rama, head of the country's government, impressing Kushner with his vision for Albania. In 2022, a year after that first visit, Kushner decided to go back. KUSHNER: So we went there. We looked for opportunities, and we were able to find some incredible opportunities.
SOARES: A firm linked to Kushner and his partners obtained strategic investor status in 2024, a provision which under Albanian law allows their project to be fast tracked by the government and regulators and given certain tax exemptions. Another law introduced in 2024 makes things even easier. By spelling out the luxury tourism developments can simply bypass legislation safeguarding environmentally protected areas.
Two controversial rules Albania has agreed to repeal as part of its accession to the European Union. With protesters accusing Prime Minister Edi Rama of selling the country to the highest bidder, the head of the Albanian executive telling me there isn't even a project yet.
EDI RAMA, ALBANIAN PRIME MINISTER: There is not such a thing like a Trump family island. There is not such a thing like the family of the American president taking over, protected areas.
SOARES: Rama is saying environmental studies to measure the impact of building on this landscape are ongoing. While the company behind the project says its focus remains on responsible stewardship, environmental enhancement, job creation, and creating long-term value for local communities, echoing what Kushner and Trump have also said about the project themselves.
KUSHNER: If we, don't respect the environment, the development we're going to create there won't be as special.
TRUMP: Because the land is so beautiful that really the architecture has to be fully integrated into it.
SOARES: It's unclear whether the bulldozers currently operating near the Narta Lagoon are connected to the Kushner linked luxury development. But protesters and environmentalists believe the government, despite their many denials is hiding something.
MELITJAN NEZAJ, ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGIST: As we speak now, there are no permissions publicly available. The government is saying that we have a permission to the investors to develop the area, but we don't have anything else. Like, everything else is like darkness for us and for the public.
SOARES: And so until sunlight is shed, they say these flamingos are going nowhere. Isa Soares, CNN.
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MICHAELSON: Next hour, we'll be joined by NBA legend, former head coach of the New York Knicks, Derek Fisher, to break down game two of the NBA finals. What a game it was. Down to the wire. Stay with us.
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MICHAELSON: Cash App wants to make it easier to spend money, so it created the Cash App Wand. You can use it, the cute tag to swipe a payment at a retail outlet. Payment is linked to a Cash App Visa debit card. The company says its first drop will be limited, so if you'd like to use magic wand to pay, you'll need to jump on it. Don't forget, no real magic here. The bill still has to be paid by somebody.
Singer Dua Lipa and actor Callum Turner danced in Palermo on Friday as they kicked off three days of celebrations to mark their marriage.
