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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Officials Update Arrests, Charges After L.A. Protests; Police Chief: Three Charged With Felony Assault On Officers; Sheriff: Suspects Committed Vandalism, Assaulted Police; Sources: U.S. Moves To Relocate Non-Essential Personnel From Locations Around Middle East; Trump Says Trade Deal With China Is "Done". Aired 5-6p ET
Aired June 11, 2025 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right, that's going to do us -- do it for us here in The Arena. Jake Tapper standing by for "The Lead."
Jake, you're going to be monitoring this upcoming news conference from the LADA (ph).
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Absolutely, Kasie. Thanks so much. We'll see you back in "The Arena" tomorrow.
[17:00:36]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he's ready to send the National Guard to other states throughout the country. The Lead starts right now.
We are standing by to hear from authorities in Los Angeles about the arrests and charges stemming from five days of protests that have at times turned violent. Demonstrations now expanding to other cities throughout the United States. Is this what summer 2025 is going to look like? Plus, plans to evacuate the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. But officials in Baghdad say there is no immediate threat.
So what's going on? And end of an era, the Beach Boys tortured genius Brian Wilson dies at age 82. And God only knows where we would be without him.
Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.
We're going to start with our national lead. Any moment we're going to bring you a live update from Los Angeles officials as they announce new charges filed in connection with the ongoing unrest and violence in the city. Today, we'll mark the sixth day of protests, some of which have turned violent in response to the Trump administration's immigration raids. The protesters say more than 200 people were taken into custody just yesterday for failing to disperse once an overnight curfew came into effect for part of downtown L.A., a curfew imposed by the L.A. mayor. Today, White House press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says that since Friday, since Friday, 330 undocumented immigrants, including 113 with prior criminal convictions, have been arrested, quote, "As part of these riots."
This, of course, as the Trump administration has deployed about 4,000 active duty National Guard troops and mobilized 700 Marines. Those Marines are still training, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson. Here are those Marines on a softball field, no batting practice. They appear to be practicing detaining people perhaps, though, the Marines and National Guard in L.A. are only authorized to temporarily detain people in a very specific circumstance. Now, that would change if President Trump opts to invoke the Insurrection Act, which CNN asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about earlier today.
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PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Right now in California, we're at a good point. We're not -- we're not scared to go further. We're not frightened to do something else if we need to.
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TAPPER: Also today, the Department of Homeland Security posted some stark imagery on social media. This poster that looks almost like it's from another era in U.N. history. Uncle Sam nailing up a sign that says, quote, "Help your country and yourself, report all foreign invaders." It then gives the DHS tip line.
Protests against immigration actions are now spreading to other cities, including New York, Chicago, Denver, other cities across the great border state of Texas. Texas has deployed its National Guard members ahead of more planned protests throughout this weekend.
We're going to go to the Los Angeles County District Attorney right now. Let's listen in.
NATHAN HOCHMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Thank you very much for coming today. We will be joined -- I will be joined -- my name is Nathan Hochman, I'm the District Attorney of Los Angeles County. You will hear after myself from Sheriff Robert Luna of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and then Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Before I announce the charges, the state charges that have been brought that are tied to these immigration protests, let me first put an overview about the charges. The complaints and the information you will hear about the charges today are not evidence.
Evidence has to be presented in a court of law. An individual is presumed innocent until and unless they are proved guilty in that court of law beyond a reasonable doubt. So the discussion of the charges today is just that. It's a discussion of charges and not ultimately -- does not ultimately constitute evidence of the crimes that will be presented in a court of law.
So I first want to start out with a thank you. On behalf of the District Attorney's office, I want to thank the hundreds of law enforcement officers from the LAPD, from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, from their related law enforcement agencies that have come to Los Angeles to help out in this situation. It is not a situation certainly that law enforcement intended to actually have happen. Both the District Attorney's office, the LAPD, the L.A. Sheriff's Department, and local law enforcement do not participate in federal civil immigration enforcement. Want to make that crystal clear.
[17:05:22]
We were not alerted ahead of time that this was going to happen. We were not involved in the participation of it or the staging of it. We are not involved at all with respect to federal civil immigration enforcement. What happened though, is that though we -- the law enforcement has done its absolute best to protect individuals who wanted legitimately to protest, to use their First Amendment rights of speech to peacefully assemble. And when I say law enforcement has worked incredibly hard, they have worked overtime to make sure that people who want to engage in this legitimate protest have the opportunity to do so.
A District Attorney's office equally will fiercely protect people's rights to peacefully assemble and peacefully engage in First Amendment protected speech. However, when that speech crosses over from protected speech into illegal conduct, the people who engage in that illegal conduct will be prosecuted. They will first be arrested, they will be prosecuted, and they will be punished to the full extent of the law. We have said this repeatedly. We've said this as a warning to people who are thinking about conducting these illegal acts, pretending that they are engaged in protests, but at the moment they engage in the illegal acts, they are no longer legitimate First Amendment protesters, they are criminals and they will be prosecuted as criminals.
If people want to hurl insults, we will protect that. If people want to engage in crimes, we will prosecute them. So hurling bricks, hurling cinder blocks, hurling fireworks will not be tolerated in this county, now or ever. So when we talk about the cases that we are brought, I'm going to highlight five cases today that we have brought in order to, again, not -- to give an example of the types of cases that we are bringing and as importantly, the types of potential criminal consequences the individuals who've engaged in this criminal activity will face. And I -- in saying that we have literally, we will be having literally dozens and dozens of additional cases that will be brought to us from law enforcement to consider filing.
In the weeks to come, we will look through all those cases. And by the way, as a quick aside, for any individual who is engaged in criminal conduct but did not get immediately arrested, let me provide some bad news for you. There's a tremendous amount of video out there through social media and otherwise. We will know who you are, who engaged in this conduct. We will track you down, we will arrest you, we will prosecute you and we will punish you.
So, for people who've already engaged in this -- in this illegal activity, we're coming for you. For people who are thinking that maybe this is a good idea to do, please take this as your warning, that if you engage in this conduct, please don't come to us afterwards and say we didn't think anything was going to happen to us because those prosecutions will occur. And again, before I go into the examples, let me give you one more overview. If you only saw the social media and the media reports of what's gone on over the last five days, you would think that Los Angeles is on the verge of war, that we are truly being attacked repeatedly over and over and over again, because that has been the media's message to both people in Los Angeles, to people in the state of California, to people in this nation, to people throughout this entire world, that somehow every second of every day there's another exploding firework on our street, at motorcycles are running into cops, that stores are being looted, that buildings are being vandalized and graffiti. But let me put this in perspective for you, there are 11 million people in this county, 4 million of which live in Los Angeles city.
We estimate that there's probably thousands of people who've engaged in legitimate protests, let's say 4,000 people. That means that 99.9 percent of people who live in Los Angeles city or generally in Los Angeles County have not engaged in any protest at all. Now, amongst the people who've engaged in protest, we estimate there are hundreds of people, let's say up to maybe 400, to use rough percentages, who've engaged in this type of illegal activity. So what does that mean? That means that 99.99 percent of people who live in Los Angeles City or live in Los Angeles County have not committed any illegal acts in connection with this protest whatsoever.
[17:10:25]
So let's put that as a context when we look at these images over and over again at the media wants to put out there to try and scare us all, then understand what the resources that we can bring that law enforcement can bring to this task. The Los Angeles Police Department has over 8,500 officers. Sheriff Luna has over 9,000 officers. The California Highway Patrol, the local law enforcement agencies that have all been enlisted and have been so generous in helping us out, bring additional thousands of officers if needed for any level of civil unrest that might occur. And that civil unrest has been on a downward trend over the last several days.
But these law enforcement officers are absolutely ready for anything that comes their way. So let me describe these five cases. The first case involves a defense -- an individual who's been charged, his name is Juan Rodriguez. He's from Gardena. He's been charged with one felony count of assault upon a peace officer, resisting arrests and advocating violence against an officer that has caused injury.
On the -- in the -- at 5:00 p.m. on June 8, Mr. Rodriguez allegedly passed out commercial grade fireworks to a group of protesters who lit them and threw these commercial grade fireworks and at police officers at the intersection of first street and Los Angeles Street. He's also accused of throwing the fireworks himself at the officers. And one of these fireworks exploded and injured an officer from the exploding sparks. If convicted as charged, Mr. Rodriguez will be facing six years and four months in state prison.
Second case, it involves Randy Paul Ruiz and Georgina Ravellero. Both have been charged with two felony counts of assault upon a peace officer. On June 8th at approximately 3:40 p.m., police were holding a skirmish line at the corner of Temple and Alameda streets where Mr. Ruiz allegedly drove his motorcycle into a line officers. Minutes later, Mr. -- Ms. Ravellero is accused of driving another motorcycle into the officers, injuring one and knocking down several others. If convicted as charged, Ruiz and Ravellero each face up to six years and four months in state prison.
Third case, Timmie Paulk and Raven Mitchell. This case involves both of these individuals being charged with one felony count of second degree commercial burglary and grand theft. On June 8th at about 10:15 p.m. Mitchell was double parked near a Nike store in the 600 block of South Broadway that was allegedly being looted by a group of people. Paulk is accused of stealing multiple items from that store and getting into the car driven by Mitchell. They fled, but they were arrested a short time later.
If convicted is charged, they each face up to three years in state prison.
The next two cases are Los Angeles Sheriff's Department cases. Sheriff Luna will provide additional facts about these cases, but let me just give a quick overview of each one.
Ulysses Sanchez. Ulysses Sanchez has been charged with one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon, and one misdemeanor count each of reckless driving and possession of a smoking device. On June 8th at 9:35 p.m. Mr. Sanchez engaged in reckless driving in his minivan in downtown Los Angeles. Many of you saw the video footage of this where he was driving in donuts and injuring individuals. Mr. Sanchez is a third striker.
If convicted as charged, Mr. Sanchez faces up to 25 years to life in state prison.
The fifth case is Christopher Gonzalez and Yoselyn Johnson. In this case, they have both been charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit vandalism and two felony counts of vandalism as well. On June 9th at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Gonzalez was -- is accused of vandalizing an apartment complex down here on the 500 block of South Broadway. And Mr. Gonzalez allegedly painted graffiti right here on the Hall of Justice. They each face three years and eight months in state prison.
[17:15:19]
I'm going to turn the microphone over to Sheriff Luna to go into greater detail. But again, I cannot commend enough the tireless work that law enforcement has brought to this task to try and keep us safe and still ensure that people who want to legitimately protest get that opportunity. Sheriff Luna.
SHERIFF ROBERT LUNA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: Thank you, DA Hochman. Thank you all for covering this story. I do want to start off not only by thanking all of you for being here, but I do want to take just a quick second to thank the district attorney. The day after the protest started, he called me, he told me he was assigning us a special prosecutor to deal with violence against our deputy sheriffs or any other related police officers. And I really appreciate that because just for a quick second, if you could think of the mindset of our employees having to leave their families and coming to work to know that they're going to be in the middle of some of the -- that isolated chaos that you've seen, it is good to know that when they are being violently attacked, whether it's with rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails, pyrotechnics, pepper spray, I could go on and on that they know that the individuals that we're going to focus on them and we have a district attorney who's going to bring forward charges.
And just really quick, I received the same call from the U.S. attorney here in Los Angeles, and I think all of you saw something earlier today where he is doing the same thing with federal charges. So I just say that. And Mr. Hochman said it perfectly and articulated it very well, there's a big distinction between individuals that protest and demonstrate to violent, destructive, basically anarchist, I mean, just creating that chaos. What we're talking about are the individuals who don't care about the issue at hand because we will facilitate all peaceful First Amendment activity, but when you have people that are out here to commit acts of violence against our deputy sheriffs or police officers or just -- they're destroying our city, we're going to stop it. You see it.
It's frustrating. And as the days go -- have gone on, arrests are climbing and now the prosecutions are taking place. And just this warning, because if you didn't get caught the last couple of nights, there's a lot of evidence out there and you're probably going to get detectives or others knocking on your door and arresting you and bringing you in for either committing all these acts that we've talked about.
So just a little bit on some of the cases. On Saturday, during civil arrest in Paramount, a local gas station was burglarized, looted on a laundry boulevard. After the unlawful assembly concluded, Compton deputies responded to the gas station to secure the location and take the reports of the burglaries that had occurred. While at the location, an individual shouted at them and threw two full cans of beer in their direction. And I don't think it was to say thank you, it was for the opposite reason.
The deputies ordered him to leave. However, he refused and threw a third full can of beer at our deputies. Based on the suspect's assaultive actions, deputies used less lethal force, specifically a 40 millimeter baton launcher striking the suspect. The deputies were able to immediately handcuff the suspect without any further incident. The suspect, 20-year-old Eduardo Cervantes, a resident of Linwood, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.
He was released on his own recognizance yesterday at the Compton Court. Separately, two suspects arrested for felony vandalism here at the Hall of Justice. On Monday, deputies were driving in the 2000 -- or 200 block of Temple Street near the Hall of Justice when they observed an act of vandalism in progress. They witnessed a 20-year-old Christopher Gonzalez Reese (ph) defacing the south wall of the hall of justice building, not with a spray can, he was literally standing there with a paint roller, a very long stick and writing graffiti over an area measuring about 18 feet by 12. The suspect was using beige paint and the content of the graffiti included profanity directed at a federal agency.
[17:20:07]
The same suspect was previously identified as the same individual who was observed committing a similar act of vandalism on the south wall of a building located in the 500 block of North Broadway. In both occurrences, a second suspect, identified as a 4 -- as 40-year-old Yoselyn Johnson, appeared to act as a lookout and was observed video recording the acts of vandalism. Following the second incident, deputies contacted both suspects and took him into custody of search. A search of their vehicle led to the discovery of large buckets of paint and a 10 foot extension pole believed to have been used in the commission of these crimes that were described. Both suspects were arrested and booked on felony vandalism charges.
And just as I wrap up and before I turn it over to my partner, Chief Jim McDonnell, I just want to reiterate, we will facilitate the peaceful protest and thank God 99 percent of them are taking place in this one smile -- this one square mile area here in the city of Los Angeles. And then when you saw in Paramount in Compton on Saturday, we are going to do everything we can to protect our employees when they're being attacked. So if you come to demonstrate, that's great. If you come to throw things at us, attack our employees, you're going to get arrested, maybe not that day, but later, and you're going to get prosecuted. And not only may you serve significant time in jail, but there's going to be fines behind that.
So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Chief McDonnell and I'll be available for questions after he has completed his portion.
CHIEF JIM MCDONNELL, LOS ANGELES POLICE: Thank you, Sheriff Luna, and thank you all. Good afternoon. And again, you'll hear some common themes here, certainly. I want to start by expressing my sincere gratitude to all of our officers and deputies on the lines for their professionalism and dedication. They've been asked to work long hours in dangerous and unpredictable conditions and I'm grateful and proud of their resilience.
I also want to thank our dedicated partners from local, state and federal agencies for ongoing partnership and unwavering support during these challenging times. Los Angeles Police Department recognizes and supports the right to peaceful protest. But when individuals choose to weaponize that right, I want -- excuse me, by assaulting peace officers, endangering lives or committing crimes under the COVID of a crowd that is no longer a protest, that is a crime and it won't be tolerated.
Three individuals have been charged with felony assault on our officers, including the use of fireworks and motorcycles to cause harm. These were deliberate attacks, acts of -- that injured officers who were simply doing their job out there to protect the public. Let's not forget our officers face uncertain and often dangerous situations every day and their risk to their lives has been even greater over these last few days.
I've watched Molotov cocktails and fireworks shot mortars being launched out of tubes at our officers. They're encountering routinely M type fireworks and commercial grade fireworks, which in the state of California are considered explosives and they can kill. Our officers should never have to face targeted violence while standing on a line to protect others. I want to thank the District Attorney for pursuing felony charges in these cases. It sends a strong and important message.
If you assault a peace officer in this city or this county, you will be held accountable. Additionally, I'm also pleased that there are charges related to looting and vandalism, crimes that took advantage of the unrest to target businesses and city property. In one case, a retail store was burglarized and tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise were stolen. In another, graffiti was sprayed onto historic public building while an accomplice stood watch. These crimes don't advance any cause or further any message.
What they do is harm to our communities, our small businesses and our civic institutions. The LAPD will continue to investigate all incidents thoroughly and work with our partners in the DA's office to bring every offender to justice. We remain committed to protecting First Amendment rights, restoring peace and holding criminals accountable.
I want to thank our officers, our partners and this community for their resilience and cooperation throughout this event. Thank you.
HOCHMAN: And before we start with questions --
TAPPER: All right, that was the Los Angeles District Attorney, Nathan Hochman, the Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, and the Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, giving their updates on the unrest in Los Angeles surrounding the ICE raids of that city as well as the protests around them. With me now, CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, as well as CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller.
[17:25:03]
Elie, to you first. You know, it's interesting because the L.A. District Attorney started off by bashing the media for making it seem as though a war was going on in Los Angeles. I'm sure there are channels that have done that, but we've been pretty clear to say that this has been isolated incidents of violence with most of the protests peaceful. But, you know, violence is violence. And then he was followed by a number of lists of individuals who have perpetrated violence, including violence against police officers.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I think it's important to understand the difference between state and federal charges. Now, that was the DA, so we're talking California state level charges. Some crimes are one or the other, some crimes are both. So just as a quick example, we just heard about assault charges. Assault ordinarily is a state crime, but if you assault a federal officer or a military member, that's a federal crime.
Vandalism, state crime, but vandalizing federal property becomes a federal crime. Theft, we just heard a bunch of theft charges, state crime. But if you then take stolen property across state lines, it becomes federal. And I think it was important the DA said we are coordinating with the U.S. attorney, his federal counterpart, and so both of them are bringing charges. And by the sound of it, apparently appropriately so.
TAPPER: Yes. John Miller, authorities doing more than releasing a paper statement. They organized this news conference to announce charges against those committing violence in these protests, including one individual who allegedly supplied fireworks that were used to fire as projectiles at law enforcement. What do you make of this as they try to keep the calm in downtown L.A. as well as bash the media for what they perceive as unbalanced coverage?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I think they're sending a signal which is if you're going to engage in violence and you know it's different from failure to disperse, that's a misdemeanor, you're going to get arrested. That'll be handled, the DA's office. If you're a legitimate protester and that was your civil disobedience, that might be dismissed.
The signal they're sending here is if you're actually engaged in physical destruction of property, vandalism, attacking police officers, fireworks, that case is going to go forward. You know, we mentioned the U.S. attorney, these are the district attorney's charges today. Earlier today, the United States attorney announced a single charge, which was federal charges against an individual accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at sheriff's deputies facing serious, serious jail time. So, the signal is out there that disorder isn't going to be tolerated.
TAPPER: John, let me just ask you, because it's rare to have somebody like you who has both worked for law enforcement and also worked for news media. How would -- you don't have to remove CNN from it because obviously you have a conflict of interest there, how do you think the media has done the job that we've done in covering the unrest in Los Angeles in general, knowing that you have the perspective of both a newsman and also a lawman?
MILLER: Well, I see both points, which is, you know, a lot of this coverage is live. A lot of this is our people in the thick of it. A lot of it takes up a lot of airtime and it brings the audience right inside. But I get the district attorney's point, which is, if you're watching that it can appear that it is a sweeping protest across Los Angeles when it has been relegated mostly to one square mile. And when they did the curfew last night, it went away altogether.
What's going to be interesting, Jake, is what do we see over the next two days? Do these protests dissipate while they wait for Saturday, where we expect nationwide protests in multiple cities, or does it continue like this?
TAPPER: All right, thanks to both of you.
Let's bring in CNN's Nick Watt, who's outside the detention center in Los Angeles. Nick, what are you seeing there right now?
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, so far today it's been pretty quiet. Frankly, there have been more media than protesters. The crowd's beginning to pick up as we move past lunchtime. The National Guard slightly different posture than yesterday as well. No riot shields, but they do have firearms and batons.
Listen, the message from that press conference was clear. They say there are 18,000 officers between the LAPD and the Sheriff's Department here, plus other departments, they don't need -- they don't want the feds here is the message. And also stressing that this has been very contained. It has been very contained. I've been in the protests.
And the mayor saying that it is -- what did she say? Deliberately false for the president to describe what's happening here as an insurrection.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to stop --
WATT: For somebody who's covered a bunch of protests, most people are sincerely for the immigrants. There are some people who are here to cause trouble. I have noticed any coordination that might suggest an insurrection. Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Nick Watt in Los Angeles, thanks so much.
[17:29:46]
One interesting individual who was in Los Angeles as all this tension started to Mount was Dr. Phil McGraw. You know him as Dr. Phil. He was with ICE officials and ICE -- and border czar Tom Homan from Thursday through the weekend. He's going to join us coming up next and give us his perspective on what he saw on all this. Stay with us.
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TAPPER: We're back with our National Lead as Los Angeles officials just announced new charges stemming from protests that turned violent, protests against ICE raids there.
With us now, Dr. Phil McGraw. You know him as Dr. Phil. He's the host of Dr. Phil Primetime on Merit TV, and he was in the Los Angeles ICE headquarters on Friday when those raids kicked off, and he also interviewed Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, both Thursday and Saturday in Los Angeles, so he has a unique view into all this.
Dr. Phil, thanks so much for -- for joining us. Your crews captured some footage from raids over the weekend. You were not embedded with agents, though, we should note. What did you learn about these raids as you were covering them behind the scenes?
DR. PHIL MCGRAW, MERIT TV HOST, "DR. PHIL PRIMETIME": Well, Jake, thanks for asking, and thanks for the coverage you guys are doing. Listen, I found out some things that I think were knowable, and I think some people are reporting and some are not. First off, this was a multi-agency operation. This wasn't just an ICE operation.
[17:35:01]
The -- the particular operation, and I think it has drawn all the attention, did involve different agencies. There were -- the ICE was there, U.S. Marshals was there, FBI, the IRS was actually involved in this. ATF was there. Not all of the agencies were involved in every operation that went on, but there were multiple agencies involved, and this was pursuant to a search warrant.
And you know that in order to get a search warrant, you have to present a lot of evidence to a federal judge who has to find probable cause to issue a search warrant, and that was done for a particular company that was alleged or suspected to be involved in criminal behavior.
They were alleged to have undervalued their imports, like $80 million, underpaid tariffs, $17 million, which involved the IRS. So when the raid took place, there were a lot of records seized, and they went in and audited the workforce. And I think 40 people were arrested at two different sites for the company at that point because they were illegal, and there were criminals included in that group. So it wasn't just an ICE raid. There were other agencies involved.
And nobody seems to talk about that very much, although that information is available. And there were other sites that they went to as well, but I was apprised of that going in because we have looked at this. And, you know, people say, you know, why are you focused on this?
Well, listen, I've -- my -- my focus from the beginning has been to talk about things that matter to people who care, and that has shifted from pure psychological to the more psychosocial issues. People have become much more aware of what's going on, and my viewers tell me what they want to hear about.
And this immigration has become a really big issue with people. It's one of the top two issues that Americans tell us they're concerned about.
TAPPER: Yes, no, absolutely. It was one of the reasons why President Trump was elected because of the perception and reality in many cases of a -- of an open border.
MCGRAW: Yes. And the thing that really puzzles me in looking at this is I'm wondering, they're attacking agents on the street, FBI agents, police, ICE agents. They didn't pass these laws. These laws were passed, as you know, in the legislature by the officials that these people elected. Why are they not on Capitol Hill protesting there? They want to change the law. Change the law. But laws are not suggestions, and they're not optional. You're either going to enforce them or you're not.
TAPPER: Yes. Let me ask you. Obviously, there are a lot of violent criminals being picked up in these raids. There are some stories out there, you see them in the press, about ICE arresting undocumented migrants who otherwise have clean records, moms and dads, college kids, et cetera.
California Republican Congressman David Valadao tweeted yesterday, "I remain concerned about ongoing ICE separations throughout California and will continue my conversations with the administration, urging them to prioritize the removal of known criminals over the hard- working people who have lived peacefully in the Valley for years."
And we had a different Republican congressman on the show yesterday, Gonzales of Texas, who said something similar, focus on the violent criminals. That's what everybody wants. What are your thoughts on that, having -- having seen a number of these ICE raids from the inside?
MCGRAW: Well, I've talked to President Trump about this and Tom Homan extensively, and they have three priorities. Number one was to close the border, and I think they have effectively done that. Number two was the worst first, to take the violent criminals, the gang members, MS-13, Tren de Aragua, to get these violent criminals off the streets.
And I don't think anybody wants those criminals on the street. And listen, when they go in, I've seen that they target these individuals. They're not going and doing just random sweeps, but they target these individuals.
Now, when they go in to find these people in an apartment building or some area where there are a lot of others around, they're going to check who's around. If they go into an apartment, there's eight people in there, and the -- and the target is in there, the dangerous criminal with the violent history, they're going to check who they're with. And if those people are illegal, they're not going to turn a blind eye to that. They're going to take those people into custody as well.
And the third prong that they're focused on is finding the missing children. There are over 300,000 estimated, 300,000 children that have just fallen through the cracks and gone missing once they cross the border. And some of them have found their way to families, but others have been pushed into prostitution and forced labor, and they need to be rescued.
[17:40:23]
And when they're rescued, they need help. They need services, medical, psychological, sociological, to help them recover from the trauma and then reunited with their families. Those are their three top priorities.
TAPPER: So on Saturday, you interviewed Tom Homan, and you were nice enough to let us use a clip. Let's play that clip now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCGRAW: Do you put agents' lives in danger if you come in and inform the mayor of what you're getting ready to do?
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF ENFORCEMENT AND REMOVAL OPERATIONS: Absolutely. You know, these surprise operations, it's about officer safety, it's about community safety. You know, especially, as you said, Sanctuary City, someone's going to be laying in wait, and -- and terrible things will happen. It's a matter of time before one of our law enforcement officers take a life or these radicals kill an officer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says that not having a heads-up makes it difficult to plan for law enforcement, for LAPD to plan for protests that pop up in response to the raids. I'm not sure if you've had a chance yet to -- and this is obviously an ongoing story. I'm not sure if you've had a chance to talk to Mayor Bass or Governor Newsom to get their sense of the overall safety implications as these protests continue.
MCGRAW: Well, one thing I am bothered about is, listen, I've known Karen Bass for a long time, and I think she is a very nice person. I know her well, and I think her heart's in the right place on most things, most of the time. I'm not comfortable with the things I've heard her say since this took place. I spent an hour with Governor Newsom a week ago, Monday, I believe it was, talking with him.
Both of them have made it clear that they don't support what's going on here. If you tell them ahead of time, what are they going to do? They talk about the network of people sending out information, alerting people that ICE is in the neighborhood, where to go, how to hide, how to do different things that make their operation more dangerous, alerting people that they're coming. How can you tell them what you're going to do if they're not going to be supportive of it?
These are two elected officials that took an oath to support the Constitution and to enforce the laws, but yet they don't seem, initially at least, to be doing that. I think both of them seem to be coming around now, but they weren't doing that initially. And if they're not going to put their heart into this, how do you do it?
Listen, Jake, nobody questions the humanity of -- of most of the people that have come across the border. Most of the people, at least in my experience and what I've seen, are not criminals. They're not dangerous, vicious, violent criminals. They are moms and dads. The Hispanic population, historically, is very family-oriented.
They're very church-oriented. They're very family-oriented. Nobody questions the humanity of most of the people that have come across the border. That doesn't make them immune from the law. The law is not optional. It's not a suggestion.
You either enforce it or you don't. And if you don't like the law, and if it's flawed, change it. Those protests need to be on Capitol Hill. You don't need to be vilifying the officers on the street, the ICE agents, and throwing rocks at their heads. Do you think anybody asked a single ICE agent, do you think this is a good law? Forty-eight percent of the border agents are Hispanic. They -- they don't get a vote about this stuff. If they don't like it, change it. And I think a lot of it probably needs to be changed. But while it's the law, it's distinctly non-optional.
TAPPER: Dr. Phil, Phil McGraw, thanks so much for talking with us today. Really appreciate it, sir.
MCGRAW: Thank you, Jake. We'll talk soon.
[17:44:30]
TAPPER: Coming up next, a new evacuation plan for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. What the State Department says about the need to move non- essential employees out of the country, despite, they say, no known serious security threat. Stay with us.
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TAPPER: We are going to continue to monitor the volatile situation in Los Angeles. A curfew will be in place again tonight for downtown L.A. as the city prepares for a potential sixth night of protests. Hopefully not violent ones. There is also breaking news in our World Lead.
The U.S. State Department is ordering non-essential staff to leave some U.S. embassies in the Middle East. Let's bring in CNN's Kylie Atwood. Kylie, what do we know about why officials are preparing for these evacuations?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's both the State Department and the Pentagon that are drawing down non-essential personnel across the Middle East. And according to sources I've spoken with, it has to do with heightened security concerns in the region. They aren't saying exactly what those are. But significantly, U.S. Central Command said they are monitoring developing tensions in the Middle East.
And as we well know, the tensions between Israel and Iran have been on high for quite some time. Also, it comes as the Trump administration is continuing to try and strike in Iran a nuclear deal. However, those efforts haven't actually brought anything to fruition yet.
And the specific diplomatic posts that are being impacted here for the State Department are Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain. All of the non- essential personnel are being ordered to leave those posts. So we'll watch and see how this plays out.
[17:50:05]
But it also comes, as President Trump said in an interview that was released earlier today, non-essential personnel are being ordered to leave those posts. So we'll watch and see how this plays out. But it also comes, as President Trump said in an interview that was released earlier today, that he is growing less and less confident that they can actually strike a deal with Iran on their nuclear program.
So that's an area for us to watch as they're going into their sixth round of talks this weekend with the Iranian officials saying yesterday that they would be giving a response to the U.S. proposal that they put on the table that wouldn't be defined as just a no, but also warning that if there isn't a deal, the U.S. is going to have to leave the entire region.
TAPPER: All right, Kylie Atwood, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Another headline impacting every American consumer, President Trump today writing on Truth Social in all caps, "Our deal with China is done." What does this deal actually accomplish? We're going to dig into the details, next.
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TAPPER: Tonight in our World Lead, a major update on that trade deal between the United States and China. President Trump says it's, "done." But it's not official just yet. Both countries still need to sign off on the framework CNN's Phil Mattingly is here. Phil, walk us through what is in this deal as far as you understand it as of this moment.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: There are still some details that we don't know about, specific to some of what the U.S. side put on the table. But what's important here is less about what each side got and more about what it prevents.
And if you had been paying close attention or following things over the course of the last couple of weeks, it became very clear over the course of the last 10 days or so that the initial de-escalation that occurred during those first round of talks in Geneva in early May was not holding. There were some significant irritants, particularly on the issue of rare earth minerals. Yes. What are those? They are absolutely essential components to everyday electronics and life.
But far more importantly, China has about a 99.9 percent lock on the supply of rare earth minerals that are used in weapons systems and automotive industry. Major supply chain issues were mere days away when you talk to U.S. officials. And more broadly, national security concerns were very, very real.
[17:55:06]
So that being taken off the table, China committing to reopening the spigot on rare earth minerals prevents the worst case scenario.
TAPPER: So you've done a lot of reporting for us and for others here at CNN on the behind the scenes escalations playing out before this recent phone call between President Xi and President Trump. You talked about how things were looking pretty dicey for a while there. Does this deal definitively mark a de-escalation in the trade war?
MATTINGLY: It returns things back to where they were after the first round of talks, which may not seem like a lot. TAPPER: When?
MATTINGLY: In Geneva, where the tariffs were taken down from 145 percent to 30 percent.
TAPPER: OK.
MATTINGLY: Where they stand now, the president said they're at 55 percent. That's the 30 percent that was in place from this year, plus his first term tariffs that still exist. So there wasn't any change in the tariff rates. There's still kind of a baseline to have continued negotiations, but no clear pathway to a wide ranging trade agreement anytime soon.
But the reality over the course of the last couple of weeks was you could see kind of the game of chess trying to reach for leverage that both sides were playing as things started to ramp up the escalatory ladder. And it was risky. And I think when you talk to U.S. officials a couple weeks ago, one, they're extremely frustrated.
They thought their initial agreement was supposed to unlock the rare earth export controls that have been placed on by China. But I think their bigger concern was, oh, we're about to go right back down the path where things get really dicey really quickly. That won't be the case, at least as things currently stand.
TAPPER: All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. And we're seeing more protests against Trump's immigration crackdown in Los Angeles. We're seeing crowds grow in New York, also in St. Louis this hour. Much more of this breaking coverage, next.
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TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, Los Angeles officials gave an update just moments ago about the arrests and charges after a fifth day of protests. But as these demonstrations spread across the country, what comes next? We're going to go live to downtown Los Angeles tonight.
Plus, are tensions finally thawing between President Trump and former first buddy, Elon Musk? Well, we're learning today about a call between the two men and a 3:00 a.m. tweet from Musk saying he regrets some of the comments he made about Trump. Does that including -- does that include accusing the President of being in the Epstein files, one wonders.
[17:59:51]
Also, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo scoring a big endorsement, yet another endorsement from someone who was once a big Cuomo detractor as Cuomo tries to complete his political comeback from disgrace and with the primary less than two weeks away. Is Cuomo about to go from frontrunner to the Democratic --
