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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Sources Say, Trump Considering U.S. Military Action In Iran; DHS Says, Secretary Noem Hospitalized After Allergic Reaction; Americans Cut Back Sharply On Spending Last Month Amid Tariffs; Daughters Of Detained Immigrant Worker Speak With CNN; Popular Food Network Chef Anne Burrell Dies At 55. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired June 17, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper.

This hour breaking news out of the Middle East, just moments ago, we saw missiles lighting up the skies over Tel Aviv. We're live in Israel. And at the White House tonight as President Trump is weighing whether the U.S. military should get more involved in this conflict.

[18:00:05]

Plus, breaking news out of Washington D.C. tonight, where we're just learning Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been taken to the hospital. Sources say she has been conscious, has spoken to her security detail. What else we're learning about what happened ahead.

Also, new data shows Americans are sharply cutting back on spending after stocking up on goods earlier this year in an attempt to beat Trump's tariffs. But is this a warning sign for the U.S. economy with just families getting back to their new normal?

And the announcement today from the company behind Heinz ketchup, Kraft macaroni cheese and Jello about making changes to some of its most popular products is it faces pressure from RFK Jr.

Our Lead Tonight, just moments ago, Israelis ran for shelter as Iranian rockets lit up the skies over Tel Aviv. While back here in the U.S., President Trump is warming up to the idea of using the US military to strike Iran. Sources telling CNN he's already souring on the possibility of a diplomatic end to the conflict initiated by Israel strikes on Iran last week.

Now, Trump's evolution pretty apparent in his social media post from a clear statement on Sunday, quote, the U.S. had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, to today when Trump posted, quote, we now have complete and total control over the skies over Iran.

We start things off with CNN's Clarissa Ward, who's with us now. Clarissa, you are in an underground area right now. Tell us what's been happening.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Phil, we are basically in the operation center of the Ichilov Hospital here in Tel Aviv. We are two stories underground and this room is basically the nerve center for all the hospital's operations during this crucial period, where Israel is coming regularly under attack. They have 600 patients at the moment who are in beds in the parking lot or what used to be the parking lot. Now, it is a fully functioning hospital.

And it's in this room that when you hear the sirens, as we did just about 10, 20 minutes ago, doctors and dispatch coordinators come in here. They are talking to Israel's Emergency Services. They are working out where missiles may be falling, if there are any injuries, which injuries or casualties will be taken to which hospital, and then they have an entire protocol that they basically follow up on to ensure that they're ready to receive those injuries while also keeping the staff and other patients at this hospital safe at the same time.

Now, in this instance, we have not heard from Israel's Emergency Services of any casualties as a result of those missiles. There were scenes that are playing out of missiles being intercepted over the skies in Tel Aviv, also Jerusalem, some reports that some of those missiles seem to overshoot Tel Aviv and land in the sea. But so far, it doesn't appear that there are any casualties as a result.

And it's significant, Phil, because we're definitely seeing that the kind of damage and destruction that these Iranian missiles are able to inflict is reducing quite clearly from four days ago when we were seeing the sirens go off a few times a night when we were seeing significant numbers of casualties, when we were seeing a huge amount of destruction from impact sites.

Now, we're still hearing those sirens, but we're not seeing as many missiles. I believe last night, it was about 30 compared to 200 just four days ago, and while the sirens are going off, fewer munitions coming in and fewer casualties.

But in this room, nobody is relaxing just yet, people preparing. It's still relatively early in the night and they're making sure that they're ready for whatever might come this way. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Another night of uncertainty. Clarissa Ward in Tel Aviv, thank you so much.

Well, over to CNN's Kaitlan Collins now at the North Lawn of the White House. Kaitlan, we hear President Trump spoke to the prime minister today. What do we know?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Our colleagues in Israel have confirmed that there was another conversation between President Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister. Obviously, they've had a lot of phone calls, Phil, over the last several weeks, including after Netanyahu made the decision for Israel to go in and strike Iran in that initial strike last Thursday night. That now was just the beginning kicking off what has played out every day in and day out, leading to the scenes like you just saw with Clarissa.

And what we don't have right now is a readout of this call and what was said between these two world leaders at such a critical moment, as the Israelis seem to have been treading very carefully, waiting to see what President Trump decides on a crucial decision that is before him, and that is whether or not the United States should militarily get involved. In this conflict, not just defending Israel and helping Israel defend itself against incoming fire from Iran, but also taking a step to potentially help them with bombing Iran's nuclear program, trying to wipe that out.

[18:05:06]

That is certainly something that the president has been more and more open to in recent days, including in an extended question and answer session we had with the president last night as we were flying back on Air Force One from his trip to Canada, where he was essentially, you know, raising these questions of what this would look like, what the capabilities of the United States would be if this happened, and also reiterating, Phil, that longstanding position that the president has had for ten years now, where he has said publicly that he does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

I asked him last night about what the specifics of this could look like should the United States get involved here on a military basis, and this is what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Is there any guarantee that if the US did get involved militarily, that a U.S. bomb could destroy Iran's nuclear program and facilities?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: (INAUDIBLE) everything, all right. You think our life, you know that. Look at you, right? There's no guarantee. When you're saying a guarantee, on what?

COLLINS: Do you think if the U.S. got involved militarily, it would actually wipe out Iran's nuclear program or where's your assessment of that?

TRUMP: I hope their program's going to be wiped out before that, but they're not going to have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, after the president got off Air Force One, he was back here at the White House. Just this afternoon, he met with his top national security team, several top generals, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Phil, that were here inside the situation room with the president for well over an hour.

And it's still not clear whether or not he has made that final decision to move forward. He has certainly been more receptive to it after, for months, ruling out any kind of military action when it comes to Iran, and instead seeking a diplomatic one, which he seems to certainly have cooled on, including this idea that he might send his vice president and Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, to the Middle East. They were here at the White House today. That gives you any indication of where that stands right now. And so, obviously Phil, everyone is watching very closely, seeing what the president was posting on Truth Social today, calling for an unconditional surrender, and also warning the supreme leader that the United States, President Trump says, knows where he's hiding and is not going to try to take him out. But he had this caveat, he said, quote, at least for now.

MATTINGLY: There were a lot of posts. I know it's been a marathon, two days for you, Kaitlan Collins. I can also suspect that one thing we can guarantee you're going to have a lot more reporting in just a few hours. There's a lot more to come on this story.

Kaitlan Collins at the White House, and, of course, don't miss Kaitlan on her show, The Source with Kaitlan Collins. That's tonight, every weeknight at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

Well, Israel has already hit a number of sites important to Iran's nuclear program. But there's one key site that Israel can't destroy alone. That's the Iranian nuclear complex at Fordow, which is buried deep underground, too deep for any Israeli bomb to reach. Now, the Israelis are sending strong signs that they want U.S. military might to help destroy that site.

I want to bring in CNN National Security Analyst Kylie Atwood and CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton.

Sorry, Kylie, you have like a really big title that's tied to that.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Correspondent, whatever they want to call it.

MATTINGLY: This is actually quite serious. Colonel Leighton, I want to start with you. If you're in the Situation Room right now, if you are one of the military leaders in the Situation Room earlier today, or as this is being weighed going forward, what are the considerations? What are you putting in front of the president?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, the various options that you'd put in front of the president in a case like this, Phil, would include things like you know, if you attack a place like Fordow, how would you do it? You know, would it be something that we could do from a military perspective? So, to give them the technical parameters of what's possible, in this case, the answer would probably be the B-2 bomber would be the weapon system that would be used. Then you take a look at the availability of something like the B-2, you know where it would come from, how far it can go, you know, all the technical parameters associated with it.

And then you'd also talk about what type of ordinance to use, and that's where the GBU-57 comes into play. And this particular bomb is the massive ordinance penetrator. This is a bomb that is designed to go after what we call hardened and deeply buried targets.

And then you give the president the option, you know, do you want to use something like this or do you want to go after another part of Fordow, another -- you know, maybe one of the ventilation shafts or work in conjunction with the Israelis and perhaps combine an aerial attack with a commando raid, you know, those kinds of options.

And then also, of course, the other option being do nothing. You know, is there an option where you let the Israelis continue to do things? You probably will not give them that particular weapon. But is there another course of action that they could take? So, those are the types of things that I would tell a president in a situation like this.

MATTINGLY: A lot of things that can be put on the table from the U.S. military side. Kylie, I've been interested, you haven't seen a ton of -- there are a lot of regional players here. They carry a lot of weight, just in general. I'm interested, the Trump administration, the president, how have they been interacting with them?

[18:10:03]

I think you've got some new reporting on that.

ATWOOD: Increasingly so. So, one of the interesting things over the last few days, Phil, is when after the Israeli strikes on Iran began, you saw a flurry of activity behind the scenes by administration officials, particularly Steve Witkoff, as he was tasked with trying to get Iran back to the negotiating table. And this was a change in tactics.

And I say that because, initially, it was the Omanis who had been the primary interlocutors. They were facilitating the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks over the last two months. But over the last few days, it wasn't just the Omanis that Steve Witkoff and others in the administration were talking to. They were talking with the Saudis, the Egyptians, really the Turks, anyone that they thought could get the Iranians back to the table. It demonstrated that there was a seriousness in their effort to try and reengage diplomatically with Iran.

However, it also created some confusion, according to sources in the region. Because when you're talking to so many people, are the messages precise? Do the Iranians take them seriously? And this effort didn't actually manifest in the Iranians coming back to any talks about the future of a nuclear deal with the Iranian Foreign Ministry telling our colleague, Fred Pleitgen, that the Iranians knew nothing about planned talks in the coming days. That was just this morning.

So, presumably all of these efforts not actually leading to anything really did funnel into where President Trump is now. And we've talked to U.S. officials that our colleagues have talked to at the White House, they believe that he's warming to the idea of using the U.S. military in Iran, something that he wasn't as warm to days ago.

MATTINGLY: Such important back story there.

Colonel, there was a report this morning or a couple reports this morning about cyber attacks on infrastructure inside or tied to Iran. And I thought to myself, I figured that was coming.

LEIGHTON: Yes.

MATTINGLY: How does that kind of -- what's the interplay between the cyber element of this and what we've seen from Israel up to this point?

LEIGHTON: So, this is a very interesting piece because when you look at both the Iranians and the Israelis, they have used cyber in the past and the Iranians most famously with the Shamoon virus, which was done several years ago against Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil company, they basically destroyed the entire administrative I.T. infrastructure of Saudi Aramco.

So, the Iranians are very adept at cyber activities, and they can use those to their advantage. Basically, what the Iranians are being forced to do is engage in asymmetric operations. And, you know, if you're giving options to the president for something like this, you also have to warn about the possibility of cyber attacks, not just against Middle Eastern targets, but also against the U.S. because the Iranians have been known to get into the U.S. infrastructure, such as water, utilities and similar systems.

And those systems are very vulnerable to attacks by almost any country because they're old. They use what are known as industrial control systems and not all of those have been protected against cyber attacks.

MATTINGLY: Yes, underscoring very dynamic situation the president is now considering. Your reporting is great. I've actually been wondering about that over the course of the last couple days.

Kylie Atwood, Colonel Leighton, thank you guys very much. I appreciate it.

And an update now on the breaking news in our Politics Lead, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this afternoon was taken by ambulance to a hospital here in D.C.

I want to go straight to Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, what more are you learning about this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, we now have a statement from the Department of Homeland Security as to why she was urgently sent to the hospital here in Washington, D.C., earlier today. I'm going to read you the statement from DHS spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, quote, Secretary Noem had an allergic reaction today. She says she was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering.

Now, as you mentioned there, Phil, earlier we had reported that the secretary had been taken by ambulance to a D.C. area hospital. It was unclear what her condition was and what it was that had transpired. But now we have those answers from the Department of Homeland Security saying that this was an allergic reaction. And, again, she is alert and recovering.

Of course, the secretary, you see images of her there, had been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the very critical Department of Homeland Security, one that is tasked with overseeing his immigration agenda. She has been blitzing around the country over her tenure, and she's

expected to travel again tomorrow. We'll be keeping tabs on that, but so far, we know that she is again, alert and recovering, according to the Department of Homeland Security, who said she was ultimately sent to the hospital out of an abundance of caution because of an allergic reaction.

MATTINGLY: Priscilla Alvarez with the update, thanks so much.

Well, new data on the economy shows us how Americans are changing spending habits of her fears of how tariffs may impact their wallets. Our panel weighs in next.

And Senate Republicans openly fighting over President Trump's so- called one big, beautiful bill, are there going to be enough votes to completely derail it? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

MATTINGLY: In our Money Lead, the uncertainty created by the president's tariffs has many Americans clamping down on their spending. That is according to a new report from the U.S. Commerce Department. Retail sales, it fell by almost 1 percent in May compared to April's, the steepest monthly drop since January, and it was a lot worse than many economists projected.

I want to bring in a panel now to discuss. Ayesha, I want to start with you, because I've heard from a lot of Trump econ team folks saying you guys all predicted the worst things, and it hasn't actually happened yet. Is it happening now? What's your sense --

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST, NPR'S WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY: Well, I mean, I think we're seeing some signs of the softness, right? Like I think what happened was you had people like who were very concerned about the tariffs, so they went out and they bought a lot of stuff, and so then you can go, oh, look, it didn't happen yet, but now you see people pulling back. People are concerned about these prices.

And sometimes it takes a lot of time for these measures to catch up to what is actually happening in the economy. Like, for instance, like jobs are a lagging indicator. Often it's after a recession has ended when unemployment peaked. So, you have to be like very careful about just looking at the day-to-day. Like gravity still matters.

[18:20:00]

If you make things more expensive, they are more expensive. Like that's just a fact.

MATTINGLY: Noted believer in gravity makes two tariffs. Marc Short, we saw something Democratic Senator from New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen posted today, Americans understand the tariffs drive up prices on everyday goods at a time when families are already grappling with high cost. The president's trade policy is throwing our economy into unnecessary turmoil.

Marc, my question is, does any of this funnel into the debate that's happening on Capitol Hill right now? You've run ledger affairs for a White House and I think what the environment and the atmosphere is important. Sometimes it may be counter-intuitively actually helps move something forward, but what's your sense of what you're hearing from Republican senators?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO V.P. MIKE PENCE: I think there's a lot more anxiety about the economy in the second half of the year that I do think it's pushing to say we need to get this done sooner rather than later.

I do think that, you know, there has not been some of the dramatic price increases that many expected, but I think some of the biggest retailers pre-purchase inventory in anticipation of that. And so there's an expectation the second half of the year gets the impact a lot more dramatically, and I think Republicans want to get the tax relief package done before there's the more turmoil in the discussion into the economy.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it was kind of the wrench in the White House saying, this is a great GDP report because all it's showing is the inventories and that's why it was negative. And it's like, yes, well that also means people are building up.

The one, big beautiful bill --

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Beautiful.

MATTINGLY: You are jealous. You didn't name it.

FINNEY: I am.

MATTINGLY: And I'm cognizant.

FINNEY: You could tell fact.

MATTINGLY: I think one of the things that I've been trying to figure out right now is from a kind of political dynamics perspective, and Marc knows this well. There is a White House perspective of you have to vote for this eventually. We will wear you down. How operative do you think that is?

FINNEY: Well, here's the challenge though. The White House, the president's not going to face voters again. But if you are up in the midterms, part of what you're trying to hold out for is the ads write themselves right now. Because not only we're talking about, you know, concern about the economy, there's uncertainty in the economy, there's uncertainty in the global economy. What's happening with Iran does not make it any better. We're probably not going to get another rate cut from the Fed.

And so if you're then talking about cuts to healthcare, to programs for kids for food and for services and pushing those costs down to states, people are going to feel that. And so that is only going to deepen the anxiety.

So, yes, the White House is going to do everything they can to wear people down, but it's incumbent on certainly I think my Democrats here to really keep the pressure on and to do everything they can to wedge Republicans in and make sure they pay a political price when it comes to the midterm elections.

MATTINGLY: I'm going to go to Ayesha because Marc, I know, has like 15 years of responses to every single one of those issues.

FINNEY: I can feel it.

SHORT: I'm ready.

MATTINGLY: When you talk to officials inside the White House, around the White House right now, how were they thinking this is all going to play out? Do they just not take Ron Johnson seriously, don't really care about Rand Paul? How does this work?

RASCOE: Well, I mean, I think the idea is that they will be able to pressure them, right, that they have the political will to say, look, this is what your base wants. And what else do they have, right? Like if you don't get this done, what have they delivered for the American people other than like tariffs and maybe some uncertainty in the Middle East? Like so it's like you have to deliver something before the midterms. You're not going to get anything else. So here's what you got. And tax cuts are what we're selling.

Now, the big issue for them is that there is this idea from some people like Ron Johnson and others that this is too -- this is going to explode the debt at a time when should we really be spending all this money, it's not an emergency. And in the past, people are always talking about their grandchildren and stuff like that. We're passing on this debt. The deficit is getting bigger and bigger, and I think that is something that people are trying to bring up at this point.

MATTINGLY: I will say, tariffs and uncertainty in the Middle East is not necessarily the bumper sticker that you are going for when you come into this.

Marc, we saw in New York today, and this was, you know, in New York City. Most of us are probably not paying attention to what's going on day-to-day, but it connects with a couple of things we've seen over the course of the last several weeks, including with Senator Alex Padilla and Kristi Noem. He addressed that issue on the floor. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): I was forced to the ground, first on my knees and then flat on my chest.

After United States senator becomes too afraid to speak up, how can we expect any other American to do the same?

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Very emotional floor remarks, but I think contextually it was also -- you know, we saw this in New Jersey. We saw this with the comptroller today in New York. What's your sense of how Republicans feel about what they've seen play out?

SHORT: Well, I think that in the Senate, it's generally a body that looks to protect each other. And so I would imagine there's a lot of discomfort in the Senate when something that happens to one of their colleagues. I think it's almost -- it is a club in which they want to protect each other there.

I think that more broadly, look, I think there's even a growing sense of, you know, beyond these instances.

[18:25:04]

What obviously happened in Minnesota is that there's much a greater and greater amount of political violence today that really should be condemned universally.

FINNEY: You know, I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Padilla a few hours after the incident happened, and it was stirring because he was talking about having to explain to his children what they just saw happened to him on television and his point that, as he made on the floor, we can't be bullied.

He was -- he had been escorted over there by an FBI agent, by a member of the National Guard. They knew exactly who he was, the comments that Kristi Noem was making right before he walked in. You know, talking about the leadership of the state and the city, we don't need that.

And, look, we should do away with this kind of hateful rhetoric, this kind of violent rhetoric. But from my perspective, obviously, there's one side in particular, you heard it from Donald Trump earlier today when he was attacking Tim Walz.

You know, we have to hold leaders accountable for their behavior as well and for their language, particularly because we live in an era where we know there are crazy people out there who can figure out where you live and could show up with a gun. That's reality.

MATTINGLY: We've certainly seen that in the last couple days. All right, Karen, Marc, Ayesha, thank you guys very much. I appreciate it.

Democratic Senator Tina Smith just left the Senate floor after paying tribute to the Minnesota lawmaker shot and killed over the weekend. Senator Smith will join us live in moments to share more about her friend's life and her legacy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

MATTINGLY: In our National Lead, a powerful emotional moment on the Senate floor just a few moments ago when Minnesota Democratic Senator Tina Smith paid tribute to her close friend, Melissa Hortman. Hortman, the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota Statehouse, and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed Saturday in what authorities call a politically motivated assassination.

Here's part of what Senator Smith said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TINA SMITH (D-MN): From her first job making burritos to her last job, leading her caucus through a deeply divided legislative session, nothing was handed to her and she earned it through her work. And that is the inspiration of the American dream.

Even in the rough business of politics, she was someone who never lost focus on our shared humanity. Those shared values and that shared goal that we should all have in public service, which is improving life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Senator Tina Smith joins us now, and for those who weren't able to watch your speech, I wonder if you can pull out a few more details about how you would want the public to remember Melissa and Mark based on how you knew them.

SMITH: Well, I knew Melissa both as a friend and also a colleague. We worked together for a long time at the Minnesota State Capitol when she was in the legislature, and I was in the executive branch as lieutenant governor and also as chief of staff to the governor.

What I wanted to highlight today was in this moment when politics seems so mean and when there seems to be so much division, I wanted to highlight her humanity and her hopefulness, and the way in which she never lost track of how even when we argue with one another, we still need to treat one another with respect, and as I said in my speech today focus on fixing things and not just talking about fixing things.

And I hope that her kids, Colin and Sophie and maybe someday her grandchildren, will have a chance to just appreciate how much we loved Melissa and Mark and appreciated her contribution.

MATTINGLY: There were reports that you were at a political dinner with Melissa Hortman, as well as State Senator John Hoffman, who, along with his wife, survived an attack by the same suspect. I wonder what you can tell us about that evening.

SMITH: So, once a year, all of many of the Minnesota Democrats gather together for our big Humphrey Mondale dinner. It was just last Friday. Melissa was there with Mark and John was there with Yvette, and I was of course there with Archie, my husband. And it was a night of kind of coming together and celebrations certainly, but also sort of rededicating ourselves to all of the work that we had ahead.

So, I saw her there, we were waving at each other across the room. And it's almost unfathomable to believe that they are gone, that just a few short hours later, this killer showed up at their door and shot and killed them at their doorstep. I still honestly can't completely believe that it's happened. MATTINGLY: I can't imagine difficulty in just getting your head around the moment, particularly when you come back to Capitol Hill and I actually don't want to spend a ton of time on Senator Mike Lee. I'm usually fairly numb to the hyperbolic stuff from Capitol Hill, but like it was so juvenile and ridiculous and embarrassing for an elected official to post what he posted. You confronted him or you had a conversation with him. He has since deleted the posts on his personal social media. I wonder if you can explain to people kind of what you talked about with him and whether or not you think that was the reason why.

SMITH: Yes. Well, honestly, I too get a little numb to all of it. There's just so much meanness out there and I try to ignore it. But I found what he posted to just be so deeply hurtful and insulting to me, of course, but to Melissa's family and to Minnesotans and to John and Yvette. And I thought, you know, this is a moment where I want to actually talk to him face-to-face.

And Senator Lee and I don't have a deep relationship. We haven't spent a lot of time together. We don't serve on any committees together. So, I went and found him last night. I wanted him to hear directly from me about the impact of his words. I think often in the social media world, people aren't thinking that their words actually come into contact with actual human beings on the other end of that Twitter feed. And I just wanted him to appreciate that and I hope feels some sense of responsibility for what he was saying.

[18:35:02]

And, of course, you know, almost 8 million people interacted with that social media post that was so hateful and actually just completely also incorrect and wrong.

So, I'm glad I did it. I don't know exactly how he took it. He seemed a little -- honestly a little confused about being confronted or at least having this conversation. But maybe that's a step in the right direction.

MATTINGLY: Just real quick, before I let you go. I wanted to ask, because your staff. There was an email that was sent to his staff from one of your staff. How's your team? I think people sometimes don't realize that your staff, the senator's staff, the principal's staff is going through a lot of stuff too in these moments. How are they?

SMITH: That's such a kind question for you to ask because this was incredibly difficult for all the people that work in my office here in Washington as well as in St. Paul. I mean, understand they were sort of grappling with this tragedy of Melissa being killed. And also they were worried about their boss because my name was also on the list of people that this man apparently intended to kill. And so there's a lot of processing that goes on in that moment.

And, of course, you get into these jobs because you want to help make the world a better place. And I think that they are doing well but it has been a really hard week for many people in my office and in offices all over Minnesota too. MATTINGLY: I think the entire country's thoughts are with you, your team, with the state of Minnesota and certainly with the families back home for you.

Senator Tina Smith, I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much.

SMITH: Thanks so much.

MATTINGLY: Well, breaking news out of Israel where moments ago we saw more missiles in the sky over Tel Aviv. Israel says they were fired by Iran. We're going to go back to the region. That's ahead.

But, first, our small business series takes us to Georgia, where music shop owner already had to raise prices and delay orders because of tariffs. His message to lawmakers, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

MATTINGLY: We're back with our Business Leader series, where we hear from small business owners from coast-to-coast about President Trump's tariffs. Some, they're reaping the benefits while many are telling us they feel burdened.

Today, we're visiting Town Center Music in Suwanee, Georgia, a one- stop shop for buying, repairing, and learning to play instruments, especially at an affordable price for school programs.

Owner and manager Aaron Brown joins me now. Aaron, the products that have been most impacted by tariffs that you've seen, what are they?

AARON BROWN, OWNER AND MANAGER, TOWN CENTER MUSIC: Hey Phil. Thank you for having me on and giving me some space to tell the story. The products that we've seen most are the lower priced ones, the goods that are made offshore. I know I've done in the past four weeks a few price jumps sent from us by the folks that we buy stuff from, and things like $99 acoustics, things like stands, the everyday things that folks need.

MATTINGLY: How are you managing the cost? You know, I understand it's a very difficult calculation for a business owner to think, I can eat this much, I have to pass on this much. How are you thinking through that right now?

BROWN: For the 12 years we've been here, we've tried really hard to stick close to internet matched things like that. But right now, I am looking around going, okay, I need to do a price jump here, I need to do a price jumped there, but I think there's only so much that we can really take on that front before the consumers start to really take a hard look at where their money goes.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's the uncertainty and also the very compressed time window.

School out for the summer, I think, for most people. But by the time August hits, we're going to be on the other side of President Trump's promise, 90-day pause for most of these tariffs. From a planning perspective, how are you possibly figuring out what's happening in the next quarter, next month even?

BROWN: I am relying heavily on guesses, man. Really the biggest factor for me is what are consumers going to plan to spend. We have like a guitar class that is really, really huge here. It used to be that I would stock up on price points at about $200 two to $300.

Now, I'm going to rely heavily on the $100 price point, which this week I just got word is no longer going to be $100, but $120. And when you add that to the assorted accessories, the bags, the picks, and the books and things like that, watching that number climb really gives me pause. I've got a couple of kids and I know what it costs. And so it's a really tough place for me to be.

MATTINGLY: Actually, I want to ask you about that. Small businesses, businesses like yours, they're connected to the community, right? You know who everybody is. You know who your customers are on a regular basis, names, families, where they live, those types of things. How are consumers dealing with this, in your experience?

BROWN: It's been -- I'm hearing more. Like you said, we have a lot of folks that come in that I see every week, every other week, but I'm hearing more of, like, oh man, this is getting to be more and more. I don't think that I can get these strings this week. I was going to get this re-fret done here now, but I don't know that we can swing it this month. It's really -- when I start to hear it from the folks themselves, that's the thing that really kind of makes me a little bit concerned.

So, we're doing everything we can to help out, trying to keep the price low, trying to show folks the benefit of what it is that we sell. It's not just a thing. It's not a thing you're going to buy in trash. It's an experience. Like you said, it is a com community that you can really feel at home in. So, we really try to push that hard.

MATTINGLY: Before I let you go, message for policymakers, lawmakers, people involved in the tariff policy process, what would it be?

[18:45:05]

BROWN: Spend time with us. I've -- heard a lot in my talks about this stuff, that some of these folks don't know the full extent of where all these things go, like how far these tariffs and things can reach and just come and spend time in our stores, come and see what we do and see if it's of worth. And then when you make a new law, when you make a choice like this, take that into mind.

MATTINGLY: It should be the baseline. But it's a very important message in this moment.

BROWN: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: The business one more time is Town Center Music, located in Suwanee, Georgia, about 50 miles outside of Atlanta, I believe. Aaron Brown, really appreciate your time and perspective. Thanks so

much.

BROWN: Yeah. Thanks, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, breaking news, CNN learning moments ago that celebrity chef and food network star Anne Burrell has died at the age of 55. We're going to be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our national lead, as ICE raids across the country continue targeting undocumented immigrants, many families have been left broken and with no contact with their loved ones. Rina Ramirez (ph) is one such person. She was taken during a raid on the meatpacking plant where she was working.

[18:50:00]

CNN's Ed Lavandera sat down with Ramirez's daughter, who feared they may never see their mother again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RINA SALADO, DAUGHTER OF DETAINED WORKER: I wish I could hear her voice again.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the voicemails Rina Salado received from her mother, as immigration agents raided the glen. Valley foods meatpacking plant in Omaha, Nebraska.

R. SALADO: Right there. That's my mom.

LAVANDERA: That's your mom right there?

R. SALADO: Yeah.

LAVANDERA: That's when she's calling you.

Her mom captured in a social media video by another worker, was one of more than 70 people taken into custody as they worked the morning shift.

Rina Ramirez (ph) has lived in Omaha for almost 25 years. Her family says she's always worked grueling shifts in meatpacking plants since she came to the U.S. She worked at the plant that was raided for 13 years, but now, her future here might be over.

Have you thought that she might not be coming back to this house?

R. SALADO: Yeah. We know it's a reality. My mom came here to work. She's not a criminal. All she ever wanted to do was provide for her family, get her children ahead.

And she was the most selfless woman I know. LAVANDERA: We sat down with Rina Ramirez's daughters on the front

porch of their Omaha home.

ZULY SALADO, DAUGHTER OF DETAINED WORKER: And I just started screaming, crying to think that they were taking her away. Just like, made me feel like I had lost everything.

LAVANDERA: It's been days since you've had your mom at home. What's that been like?

R. SALADO: It's just been empty. It's been. It's been quiet.

Z. SALADO: It's been sad, seeing all her stuff here is just --

R. SALADO: Very emotional. Seeing her --

Z. SALADO: It hurts. It hurts my heart.

LAVANDERA: For several decades, immigrants have steadily moved into Nebraska. Many coming to work in the agricultural industry and meatpacking plants that are a driving force of the state's economy. It's created neighborhoods like 24th street in South Omaha, where blocks of small businesses have become the heartbeat of the city's Latino immigrant community.

LAVANDERA: And this street would normally look like what?

LINA TRASLAVINA STOVER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEARTLAND WORKERS CENTER: Busy, busy. No place to park. People walking up the street.

LAVANDERA: Like this is strange. This is strange to you.

STOVER: This is strange. This is strange.

LAVANDERA: It just sounds strange.

STOVER: The eeriness of silence is sticking with me.

LAVANDERA: Lina Traslavina Stover is the executive director of the heartland Workers Center, an immigrant labor advocacy group. She says immigration raids injected a level of fear she's never seen here before.

What do you say to those people who support what the Trump administration is doing, and they see this and it's like, perfect, they shouldn't even be here anyway?

STOVER: I want people to find empathy, perhaps for their own ancestors that came as immigrants to Nebraska.

So if you find empathy for your own ancestors, can you find empathy for the people that are coming in here that are doing the same thing?

LAVANDERA: We met 21-year-old Ally. She asked that we not use her last name because she's worried for undocumented family members. By her count, at least eight of her aunts and uncles were detained by immigration authorities in the last week. She says her family is terrified, and that many of her young cousins have had a parent taken away.

ALLY, FAMILY MEMBER OF DETAINED WORKERS: I don't know how my cousins are doing this and I feel so bad for them, and I wish we could do something to change this because this is not a way to go about things. They're humans.

LAVANDERA: You went back up there to get it?

R. SALADO: Yeah, I saw the picture of it. I wanted anything that belonged to her.

LAVANDERA: After the raid, Rina Salado drove to the meatpacking plant to get her mother's lunchbox.

R. SALADO: I opened it and she had these cinnamon mints. And I always hated that. She hated cinnamon gum and cinnamon mints. But that day, I ate one, and, I don't know, it just -- it tasted so good. It reminded me of my mom.

LAVANDERA: It seems silly, but it was a piece of her because Rina doesn't know when she will ever see her mother again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (on camera): Immigration authorities at this meatpacking plant say the workers use fraudulent identifications to get their jobs. The owner of the plant told us that he was stunned by the raids, and that he thought he had done everything possible to verify the legal work status of his employees. But all of this only continues to raise fear, especially among immigrant rights advocates who say they expect these workplace raids to only intensify in the months ahead.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Omaha, Nebraska.

MATTINGLY: Our thanks to Ed for that report.

Well, up next, big changes announced today by the company behind some of the products, likely in your pantry and refrigerator right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Some sad news in our pop culture lead.

Anne Burrell, chef and popular Food Network star, has died at the age of 55. That's according to the Food Network, which said in a statement, quote, "Anne was a remarkable person and culinary talent. Our thoughts are with Anne's family, friends and fans during this time of tremendous loss."

Well, in our health lead today, food giant Kraft Heinz, maker of Kraft Mac and Cheese, Heinz Ketchup, Jell-o, Kool-Aid, basically my childhood diet, will remove all artificial colors from its products sold in the United States by 2027. While 90 percent of their products already contain no artificial dyes, Kraft Heinz will be one of the first U.S. packaged food companies to commit to phasing out artificial dyes from its brands entirely.

The decision comes after renewed scrutiny over chemical dyes from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In our tech lead, Amazon is warning employees that it will reduce its workforce as artificial intelligence replaces human employees. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy expects the changes to happen over the next few years, but he hasn't predicted how many workers it could affect. This warning comes just weeks after the CEO of Anthropic predicted A.I. could boost unemployment to as much as 20 percent over the next 1 to 5 years.

On that note, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.