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Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) is Interviewed about Trump-Musk; May Jobs Report; Art Hogan is Interviewed about the Economy; Colorado Attack Suspect in Court; Migrants Being Held at U.S. Base in Djibouti. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 06, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Wasn't -- he wasn't exercised (ph). He wasn't -- he didn't sound angry. He sounded I can't -- I guess more resigned to where their relationship is right now. But he obviously is very well aware of the impact that this is having. And that's why I found it interesting that even though he seemed to try to put a stop to any speculation or, as you were saying, the entreaties from so many people for the two of them to -- to make up, he was still trying to kind of shape the narrative about what is coming out of the White House.

It's not an easy thing to do right now because literally the entire world is focused on this remarkable feud between the president of the United States and Elon Musk.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I will say, that's 100 percent true. People were talking about it on the subway, on the sidewalks, everywhere I turned yesterday afternoon and evening.

BASH: It's unbelievable.

BERMAN: This was -- has 100 percent focus.

Dana Bash sharing her interesting morning conversation with the president of the United States. Thank you very much. We'll let you get ready for "INSIDE POLITICS," which airs at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right, with us now, Congressman John Garamendi, a Democrat from California.

So, Congressman, I think you just heard the news. President Trump says of Elon Musk, he's got a problem. The poor guy's got a problem, says he has no plans to speak with him, but that he wishes him well.

The last 24 hours, this fight has been explosive. I've heard some people call it catty. But what's the significance from where you sit? What does this matter to the country and to the policy that you have voted on and will be voting on again?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): It's extremely important. We cannot -- we can get caught up in the tit for tat and back and forth with a tweet here or there. But the reality is, this is going to have a significant impact on a very, very crucial piece of legislation, which in my view is an absolutely horrible piece of legislation.

That's the big, ugly bill or the big, beautiful bill, depending upon how you look at it. The reality is that that legislation is seriously impacted by this fight. You get past the various personality issues involved, and Musk is pointing out that the bill has very, very serious consequences for our national debt.

And I just overheard the Speaker a moment ago talking about the beautiful cuts, the largest cuts ever. Well, those are cuts on critical programs, on health care programs, the Medicaid program, Medi-Cal in California, 10 to 15 million people lose their health care, school lunch programs, veterans programs, programs that Americans depend upon, and international programs all being slashed and destroyed in that legislation. So, this is really, really significant beyond the personalities involved.

It's going to have a serious effect, and in my view, be helpful in, well, either killing or causing that legislation to be seriously amended.

BERMAN: So John Garamendi, a senior Democrat saying that Elon Musk may be helpful to you and your political desires, at least insofar as that bill goes. I want to read you something. Again, there are a lot of personalities involved here.

People have been wanting to know where the Vice President stands on this, because at one point, Elon Musk endorsed a tweet that said that the president should be impeached and J.D. Vance should take over. Vance just tweeted, "There are many lies the corporate media tells about President Trump. One of the most glaring is that he's impulsive or short-tempered. Anyone who has seen him operate under pressure knows that's ridiculous." What do you think of that analysis from the Vice President?

GARAMENDI: I wouldn't expect him to say anything that would be detrimental to the president. And he didn't. The reality is that Trump changes his mind every other hour. You take a look at the tariff issues. One day, it's this way. The next day, it's that way. We're going to cut a deal. No, we're not going to cut a deal. The inconsistency of policy from the president is very, very detrimental to the United States, to the economy, and really to our national security.

BERMAN: On the subject of national security, and you are on the Armed Services Committee, President Trump yesterday had this to say about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and where it stands right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: But sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy. They hate each other and they're fighting in a park. And you try and pull them apart. They don't want to be pulled. Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: OK, so he said sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while. And overnight, Russia unleashed one of its most aggressive air attacks on Ukraine since the initial invasion. So, what do you think Russia is hearing in this?

GARAMENDI: Well, it's hearing that Trump is not going to push Putin, not going to push Putin to stop it.

[08:35:01]

And this is the inconsistency that I was talking about a moment ago. The previous day, he was talking about millions or hundreds of thousands of people being killed, soldiers being killed, how terrible it was. And now it's a schoolyard or a fight between a bunch of kids.

It's that inconsistency that is so troublesome here. The attack was not just an attack on Ukraine. It was an attack on the urban areas of Ukraine. It was an attack on the children. It was an attack on the civilians of Ukraine. It wasn't.

Ukraine went after Russian airplanes. Russia, Putin is going after civilians. He is bombing the apartments. He's bombing the urban areas of Ukraine. It is a horrible situation. It's one in which the United States needs to stand strong and consistent in support of Ukraine.

And at the same time yesterday, it was announced that the air defense systems that should have gone to Ukraine are somehow going to be diverted to the Middle East. You go, what in the world is that all about? It's this inconsistency.

Bottom line here is it's absolutely critical to our national security and really to the security of Europe and the world that Ukraine has the support it needs to be successful in its fight against Russia. We need to understand what Putin really wants to do. He wants to rebuild the Soviet Union.

He wants to re-establish the Warsaw Pact in which Russia dominates Eastern Europe. This is a direct attack through Ukraine on NATO. If in any way Ukraine becomes a puppet of Russia or it becomes a part of Russia as it once was, then the next step is Eastern Europe and that is NATO. This is the moment. This is the time in which the United States has to stand with Ukraine and with Europe and make absolutely certain that Putin doesn't get his wish, which is the re-establishment of the Soviet Union.

BERMAN: Congressman John Garamendi from California, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up for us, the next important read on the state of the U.S. economy is coming in right now. What the May jobs -- jobs numbers say about the economy and the early impact of the trade war.

And what ICE officials are saying now about a group of detained migrants that are being held inside a converted shipping container on a U.S. military base.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:56]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news just into our newsroom. The jobs report just out showing the U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs in May. That's down from April, but slightly stronger than expected.

We've got our Matt Egan here who is taking a look at these numbers.

What do you see?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Sara, we're seeing a slowdown in the jobs market, but not an alarming slowdown, right? This is still painting the picture of a pretty healthy jobs market, especially considering all the chaos going on with the trade war.

So, we learned that the U.S. economy added 139,000 jobs in May. That's pretty close to the forecast of 130,000. The unemployment rate stayed at 4.2 percent. It's been remarkably steady. This is the third straight month it's been at this pretty low level.

And when we look at the trend for jobs added, I think two things stand out. One, it's that this is slower growth, OK, clearly. Look at where things were last year.

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: We had some 150,000 to 200,000 to above 300,000 jobs added in each month. It's slower. And it's even slower than we realized because we did get some negative revisions just now. We learned that fewer jobs were added in both March and in April. Together, about 95,000 jobs fewer were added.

But the other thing that really stands out is that it's been pretty steady despite all of the confusion over the trade war and those recession fears. And this looks at the unemployment rate. Again, you can see it is still low. It's higher than it was in 2023, but it remains at a pretty low level.

And when we look into some of the sectors, we saw a lot of jobs added for health care, 62,000, leisure and hospitality, that's bars, restaurants, hotels, added 48,000. So, that's a solid sign.

We did, however, see job loss in two key areas, manufacturing lost 8,000 jobs last month alone. That's the exact opposite, of course, of what the White House wants with their trade policy. SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: Also, the federal government lost another 22,000 jobs last month. And that comes as, of course, they're taking an axe to the federal budget.

But all in all, I do think this paints the picture of a pretty solid jobs market. Looks like the market is pretty happy with this.

SIDNER: Looks pretty happy.

EGAN: Stock futures solidly higher. And I do think this is going to reassure people who had become a little bit worried in recent days, because we did see some concerning signals on the jobs market, this report looks pretty solid.

SIDNER: All right, Matt Egan, thank you so much for that.

EGAN: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about this.

Joining us right now is chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial, Art Hogan.

Art, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

Give -- give me your take. What are you seeing in these numbers?

ART HOGAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, B. RILEY FINANCIAL: Yes, I think Matt really nailed it. I think when you think about the -- the perception versus the reality of some of the hard data we've been seeing over the course of the last couple of months, the -- the economy is slowing, that's for sure, but it's not crashing. And I think that's the good news.

I think what -- what we -- we glean out of the jobs report is that the average hourly earnings went up 0.4 percent. The estimate was for 0.3 percent. So, not only do we have full employment, but wages are still rising, and certainly rising faster than inflation. That's really good news.

I think that --

BOLDUAN: That -- oh, yes, go ahead. Keep going. Keep going.

HOGAN: It's important to remember we -- we need between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs created on a monthly basis to keep unemployment unchanged, right.

[08:45:06]

So, what will -- if we start to degradate down to, you know, creating jobs less than 100,000, that unemployment rate is going to go up. We're just not there right now. It may come, you know, over the course of the second quarter and into the third quarter but right now we're still steady as she goes. One hundred and thirty-nine thousand is certainly less than the three month average, but certainly better than we --

BOLDUAN: And when you add the other kind of data that we got in, basically -- also this week, you've got Wednesday, ADP reported that weakest monthly jobs total since was it March 23, March of '23, applications for first time weekly jobless benefits ticked up last week, a high for over a -- the highest level in many months. And also people -- another report showing that people are staying unemployed for longer.

When you add it all up -- what do you see as what direction the trend is really pointing?

HOGAN: Well, we've gone from a labor market that was overheated last year. And, you know, when we're creating almost 200,000 jobs a month, and the JOLTS report showed that there were two and a half jobs for every one person looking for a job, to back to a normalized level, where the JOLTS report last week showed that we're back to where we were pre-pandemic. So, that's a healthy thing.

The problem with that normalization process going from a very tight labor market to a neutral labor market is, you keep moving. When the momentum is moving like that, people are going to see a softer labor market. So, clearly the weekly jobless claims are starting to tick up. They were averaging about 222,000 a week. Now we're up to 232,000 a week. So, that's going to inch up.

The good news is, it's not happening drastically, right. And so it's -- it's something that the Fed will certainly keep an eye on. But if we start to see that unemployment rate ticking up in the months to come, that's going to -- that's going to be the mover or the catalyst for the Fed to finally get off the sidelines and do something with monetary policy.

BOLDUAN: Art, is this report show -- and just -- and -- and tell me what you're seeing, but does this show there's at least not yet a real hard impact of this trade war we've been covering?

HOGAN: Yes. The problem with that, Kate -- and that's a really good question, right. So, we went through a period of time where -- where companies were likely not making any decisions in the fog of this trade war, right. So -- and -- and that was true for investors and certainly true for consumers.

Now we've gotten to a place where I think we're -- we've got a consensus belief this trade war ends something like this. At some point in time, there's a 10 percent reciprocal tariff on just about everybody with some -- some carveouts on the side and about 30 percent on China. With that, I think, companies at least have started to move forward with making decisions about capex and new hires. So, we may avoid the worst of this in the near term, but we certainly are going to see the effects of this trade war. And that data is likely going to start to get affected in front of us, not behind us. So, some of what we're looking at now is rear view mirror looking. But certainly all the pull forward of demand in the first quarter to get ahead of (INAUDIBLE) prices is going to show up in a lack of demand in the second and third quarter. So, if we're expecting a slowdown in the economy, it's the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter. And that's when we'll actually feel the real effects of -- of this trade war.

BOLDUAN: Yes, so stand by on that one.

Elon Musk raging against the president and -- and the massive tax cut and spending bill. Trump threatening him in return. Tesla's stock cratered as a result yesterday.

No matter if it is just political theater or how -- what it is or how -- how catty it gets, investors are watching this how?

HOGAN: Well, investors look at this as a -- as a very bizarre and entertaining sideshow at the very best. And at the very worst, investors look at this and say, you know, should both of these men be acting so irrationally, you know, on the public stage? So, somewhere in the middle probably lies the truth.

You know, Elon Musk has the ability to say that I -- I throw a lot of support to presidents and the Republican Party and -- and can continue to do that. And I think the president has the ability to say, you know, we support a lot of things that you're doing, and we can pull that back. So, this could get pretty messy in real time if there's not some detente found, you know, over the course of the next couple of weeks. And, you know, I don't think anybody wants to see this play out in public theater or certainly entertaining for about an hour. I think as the dust settles, we want to move on to more important things.

This shouldn't be the lead story. The lead story should be the -- the president and -- and the president -- and the -- and the president of China had a conversation. That should have been the lead story yesterday, and it just wasn't. And so, I think we need to move off of that at some point in time.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Art, it's great to have you on always. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, an after school program is safe from budget cuts this fall, all thanks to a seventh grader. Diego Vides- Egas and his family rallied their Fairfax County community to protect the program, which provides after school activities to help students do better in the classroom and get access to athletic and academic opportunities. This is what he told county leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIEGO VIDES-EGAS, STUDENT, FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOLS: This after school program is changing lives. It's helping us become better students. We need this. I need this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:50:03]

BERMAN: When asked about what he learned from this whole process, Diego said, speaking up matters. Yes, it does.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, still ahead, President Trump talking to our Dana Bash, saying he feels sorry for Musk, but does he want to talk to him? We will answer that question.

And off-road enthusiasts in California were trying to test their Jeep's abilities before becoming stuck in a river's current. The latest on the helicopter rescue trying to save those passengers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Happening today, the man accused of carrying out an anti- Semitic attack in Colorado will be in federal court in Denver.

[08:55:05]

Mohamed Sabry Soliman faces a federal hate crime charge which could carry up to life in prison if he is convicted.

CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild following this case.

He was in state court yesterday facing charges there. What can we expect today in court?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, this will be another short hearing. Basically the judge just making sure, you know, that the custody is -- the custody has been ironed out, that he understands what's happening, that he understands the federal charge is being filed against him.

Sara, as you pointed out, this hate crime charge in federal court, when it's coupled with an attempted murder charge, could result in life behind bars. In the state court he is facing the potential for hundreds of years behind bars. And here's why. State officials have now filed 118 charges against Mohamed Sabry Soliman. And what they're doing here, Sara, is they're basically charging the same charge but under different theories. So, you can think about it like sets of first-degree attempted murder under one set of theories, attempted first-degree murder under another set of theories, and the list goes on and on for all of the different elements of this overall crime.

This investigation is still very much ongoing. Sources are telling CNN that law enforcement is reviewing a notebook he left behind. A notebook that Soliman told police where to find. They are also reviewing videos that he recorded.

Sara, there was also this open question about what would happen in terms of his, you know, potential deportation. What we know is that the White House and the Department of Homeland Security has said that he was in the country illegally. The White House has made very clear from day one, they are prioritizing deporting people who cause harm to Americans.

So, the Boulder DA was asked how potential deportation would affect these charges. Here's how the Boulder County district attorney, Michael Dougherty, answered that, Sara.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DOUGHERTY, BOULDER DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I am absolutely committed to making sure the defendant is fully prosecuted. So, obviously, making sure he remains in the country is a top priority so that he can be fully prosecuted and held fully responsible. And I know the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Boulder Police Department, not to speak for them, but I think we're all equally committed to that goal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Sara, his family still has an open question mark over their status in the United States. The White House had made clear that they planned to deport them, and quickly. However, a federal judge has halted that. The latest information we have, according to court filings, Sara, is that his wife and five children are being held in Texas.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, there are two big facets to this case. Whitney Wild touching on both of them.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Some of the other big headlines we're watching, Japan's latest shot in the space race ending in failure. The Resilience moon lander, built by Tokyo's startup iSpace, was on track to touch down on the moon yesterday but something went wrong. Officials say the spacecraft, they lost contact and likely crashed into the lunar surface, though the cause of the failure is still unclear. This was iSpace's second try at pulling off a soft landing.

And what started off as an off roading adventure near Lake Tahoe quickly took a dangerous turn. And then some very dramatic video of it. In Alpine County, California, a driver tried to cross the Carson River but got caught in the cold and very powerful current, as you can see. The California Highway Patrol responded. They used a helicopter to lift both of the passengers -- look at that -- passengers out of the water -- out of the car and the water. Both are OK thanks to the quick action from those first responders.

And a live camera also captured the fiery overnight eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. Look at that. The lava shooting more than 1,000 feet in the air. The U.S. Geological Survey provided these brilliant images. And scientists say this lasted about seven and a half hours. They add that -- they add that these episodes have happened about once a week since the volcano started erupting in December. But regardless, the images are always awe-inspiring.

John.

BERMAN: Every week.

All right, new this morning, ICE says it is holding a group of deported migrants in a conference room in a converted shipping container at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti. This is an African nation. But it says that room is ill equipped for that, according to a new court filing. It says the eight migrants have criminal records and were put on a plane to be deported to South Sudan. But after a judge's order, they were diverted to the base in Djibouti for now.

Let's get right to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez for the latest.

What's happening here, Priscilla?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now we have a situation where nearly a dozen immigration officers and eight migrant detainees, all of whom the Department of Homeland Security says have criminal records, are now stuck on this U.S. military base. This is after a series of events that actually started last month.

And what happened last month was that the administration had selected these eight to transfer them to South Sudan. They did not, however, have ties to South Sudan. They are from varying nationalities.

[09:00:00]

And what a federal judge found is that the way in which the administration went about this was in violation of his court order, which had said that they had to provide, quote, meaningful opportunity.