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Newsom: California To Sue Trump Administration Over National Guard Deployment; U.S. And China Kick Off New Round Of Trade Talks In London; Ukraine: Russia Launched 479 Drones In Largest Overnight Attacks. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 09, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:20]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news out of Los Angeles where all of downtown there has been declared an unlawful assembly area by the LAPD. And we're still about an hour before sunrise to see what today brings, but last night brought a third night of unrest.

Police and protesters clashing in the streets after President Trump took the extraordinary move of sending the National Guard himself to the city over the objections of the mayor and California's Governor Gavin Newsom. The governor says that the state is going to sue the Trump administration now over that deployment.

Here is what Newsom told MSNBC last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM, (D) CALIFORNIA: Donald Trump has created the conditions you see on your TV tonight. He's exacerbated the conditions. He's lit the proverbial match. He's putting fuel on this fire ever since he announced he was taking over the National Guard -- an illegal act, an immoral act, and an unconstitutional act. And we're going to test that theory with a lawsuit tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, and CNN opinion writer and attorney Raul Reyes. Thanks, guys, for being here.

Elie, let me play some more of what the governor is saying, and it could be leading up to this lawsuit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: Under his executive order it specifically notes and under what the DOD did is they had to coordinate with the governor of the state. They never coordinated with the governor of the state. I would have no problem working collaboratively in a mutual aid system with local law enforcement but there's a protocol, there's a process. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Elie, what would a lawsuit or is the lawsuit -- could it look like over this National Guard activation?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Well Kate, I think any lawsuit brought by the state of California is very unlikely to succeed here because it's really important to understand what the president has and has not done.

He has not invoked the insurrection act. He has not purported to give the military independent law enforcement powers to conduct arrests or searches. What the president has done is he has pointed to a specific federal law, section 12406 if anyone wants to look it up at home, that gives the president very broad authority to activate the National Guard to protect federal interests or to make sure that federal assets are protected.

So what's happened here is Donald Trump has said these National Guard officers are there to a) to protect federal personnel and to protect federal property. They are not being given the authority to make their own arrests, to make their own raids. And so given that limited scope and given the specific law that Donald Trump has pointed to, I think he's within the law here.

BOLDUAN: And Rual -- I mean, the president is also really leaning into this confrontation himself. I want to play what he said to reporters just this weekend. Listen to this for me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a little statement. They say they spit; we hit. And I told them nobody's going to spit on our police officers. Nobody's going to spit on our military, which they do as a common thing. They get up to them this far away and then they start spitting in their faces. If that happens, they get hit very hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Where do you see this headed?

RUAL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER, ATTORNEY: Well look, I was born and raised in Los Angeles of this is personal for me. What I fear is that this is potentially headed to further escalation of what's already a very volatile situation --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

REYES: -- we have in Los Angeles.

About half the city is Latino. One in 10 people in L.A. County are undocumented. So illegal immigration and the issues surrounding it are -- matter a lot to these communities. And I think this threat of increased militarization could potentially have some very tragic consequences -- and not only for the protesters who are -- the overwhelming majority of whom are exercising their constitutional rights, but also for law enforcement officers and potentially the National Guard who are being thrust into this highly- charged environment when the government -- excuse me, when the governor, the mayor of Los Angeles, and even the mayor of Paramount that is seeing some of the worst incidents does not want them there.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and the chief of police even saying there's a real difference between the protesters during the day and then what is happening --

REYES: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- overnight. There's a big difference with what they are seeing.

Elie, let's also -- entwined in all of this because it gets to immigration as well is the president's travel ban against 12 different nations. It's just gone into effect as of midnight.

What's the outlook here for this travel ban if and when it's challenged in the courts?

HONIG: Well, I think it certainly will be challenged, and I think it's very likely to be upheld in the courts because the Trump administration did this the first time around.

[07:35:00]

Now, they had some problems. They had to go through three different iterations of the travel ban but ultimately when the first term travel ban got to the U.S. Supreme Court it was upheld by a 5-4 vote. Now, if anything, the U.S. Supreme Court is more favorable to Donald Trump now. It was a 5-4 court then, now it's 6-3 court.

The other thing is the Trump administration -- if you read the declaration around the new travel ban, they clearly have taken the lessons of that earlier Supreme Court case --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

HONIG: -- and put them into effect here.

In fact, the new declaration cites the prior Supreme Court case. They carved out exceptions. They did a detailed study by the State Department and by DHS. All those things are going to help uphold the legality of it.

So Kate, with both of these actions we've been discussing here today there is plenty of room to discuss and debate whether they're good, fair, wise policies. But I think both of them are likely to be upheld as legal in the courts.

BOLDUAN: It is interesting, Raul, your take on it as well because Kevin Liptak was saying the same in the way that it's written and the way that they've been discussing it within the Trump administration is they clearly learned lessons --

REYES: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- from the mess that was. I mean, you were -- I remember us discussing the first --

REYES: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- travel ban when this all went down in the first administration that it is different -- it is tailored -- it is tailored a different way this time around.

REYES: Right.

BOLDUAN: But what is the impact (INAUDIBLE)?

REYES: Well, the way they have tailored it, they -- as Elie said, they have learned from their past mistakes. The travel ban in the first administration -- it was very rushed. It did not meet sort of the technical requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. It was rolled out so chaotically, so we had these scenes of confusion at the airports.

BOLDUAN: And people were like in airplanes when they landed, right -- yeah.

REYES: People who were on their way here didn't know what was happening.

This time it's been presented in a much more orderly way. It's more narrowly tailored not specifically aimed at only Muslim-majority nations.

But I do think a weakness in this new iteration that could provide an opening for a legal challenge is that it focuses on visa overstays. And the U.S. doesn't even have an accurate count of our visa overstays because some people come here on their visa and then apply for asylum. So they're not technically an undocumented population.

And trying to ban people who come here on an immigrant visa -- banning all people from certain nations who come here on an immigrant visa because of people who came on a non-immigrant visa and overstayed -- that's a -- that's apples and oranges. There are two completely different classes under immigration -- classes of people --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

REYES: -- under immigration law. So I think that rationale would give an opening to legal challenges from immigrant rights groups and progressive groups against this new version of the travel ban.

BOLDUAN: Very interesting. Good to see you, Raul. Thank you so much.

REYES: You, too. BOLDUAN: Elie, thank you as always -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's talk some politics now of all of this. With us, CNN political commentator Karen Finney and Republican strategist Neil Chatterjee.

And I want to read to you the headline of an article in The New York Times this morning -- a news analysis by Tyler Pager. It said, "Trump Jumps at the Chance for a Standoff in California Over Immigration. The situation has all the elements that the president seeks."

Neil, what do you think about that notion that the president is getting, politically speaking here, exactly what he wants?

NEIL CHATTERJEE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER POLICY ADVISER TO SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, FORMER FERC CHAIRMAN AND COMMISSIONER, 2017-2021 (via Webex by Cisco): I mean, look, this is a tough subject for me to discuss. It's not my area of expertise. I focus on energy and Congress.

And there's a human component to this. As an American you hate to see these scenes of violence in the streets.

But if we must talk about politics, which I guess we have to, look, this is exactly what the White House wants. This is black and white for them. They believe immigration is their strongest issue. That it's what propelled the president's political comeback and got him into office.

And these kinds of scenes I think are clear-cut for them while it's messier for Democrats who are sympathetic to their base and want to be cognizant of the concerns regarding these ICE raids. But man, these images are not good. And when you are quibbling about whether law enforcement should handle this locally or the National Guard should be brought in, that's tougher politically.

So I hate to talk about politics in a sad situation like this, but I do think the White House feels like it's on pretty strong footing politically on this issue.

BERMAN: Karen, another player in this obviously is the California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited there and may have national ambitions. I say "may" in quotation marks. Seems to have national ambitions.

The border czar Tom Homan made the case that any local or state officials who get in the way of the immigration raids -- they may be arrested and prosecuted. This was the response from the California governor -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: He's a tough guy. Why doesn't he do that? He knows where to find me. Come after me. Arrest me. Let's just get it over with. A tough guy, you know? I don't give a damn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So what do you think of that response, Karen, from the California governor?

[07:40:00]

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER FOR 2016 HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (via Webex by Cisco): Well, I think Governor Newsom there is trying to make clear he is going to stand up for the rule of law. He is going to -- I mean, the other statements that he made around the concerns that he has, and very legitimate concerns, that the federal government did not even consult with him.

And I just want to go back to something we were just saying earlier. This is really something. We know that Trump has been sort of Jonesing even from his first term.

But I think they should take a step back because we saw CBS News poll over the weekend which showed even on immigration, which as we've said he believes is his best issue, people -- they may agree with the goal, but they are very uncomfortable -- even Republican voters -- with some of the tactics and some of the means.

Even a majority of the American people continue to say they want the president to follow the law. They want to make sure that people are getting due process. And as we've heard time and time again that does not seem to be happening.

I think that's what the governor is trying to stand up for, and also to stand up for the idea that we don't necessarily -- we may not need federal troops to be called in and there should have been some kind of consultation.

And I think politically, Trump views this as he looks -- he thinks he looks tough with those kinds of sentiments that we saw in that clip of him. I guess it was on Air Force One.

But I think -- but those images we're seeing in California -- I think they're disturbing. And we've been seeing these kinds of clashes all over the country as people are concerned about, again, the manner with which Trump is and the Trump administration are carrying this out.

BERMAN: Neil, one thing this might have done is to bring Elon Musk and Donald Trump closer together maybe again? You know, there were tweets over the weekend from Donald Trump and the vice -- the president and J.D. Vance, the vice president, which Elon Musk retweeted or liked.

What do you think Elon Musk is up to as President Trump, by the way, continues to say he sees no need to reconcile with Elon Musk?

CHATTERJEE: I mean, look, I think they had an alliance that was mutually beneficial. For President Trump, he had the world's richest man who has a huge social media platform supporting his agenda. And for Elon Musk, he had this influence of the most powerful man in the world. And it was a mutually beneficial alliance, and it bewildered me why it fell apart for either of them.

But of the two of them Elon Musk has far more to lose in the short-run than President Trump. I think he's trying to make good.

Look, I'm somebody who cares about things like energy tax incentives, clean energy incentives. Elon Musk's companies desperately need these incentives. I don't want to see the broad swath of Americans who benefit from clean energy policy suffer because Elon Musk got into a spat with the President of the United States. So as someone who cares about clean energy policy, I'm happy to see Elon trying to get back in the good graces of the president.

BERMAN: Is that fight over, Karen, do you think?

FINNEY: Oh, doubtful. Come on, two big egos. Lots of toys to play with from their perspective -- doubtful. I think there's going to be a round two. I'll put $5.00 on that. How about that? We take that bet?

BERMAN: That's a lot of money for both Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Karen Finny, Neil Chatterjee, I appreciate you both being with us this morning. Thank you -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, John.

Happening today a new round of trade talks between the U.S. and China begin in London. The economic superpowers are trying to preserve that fragile truce that they brokered over tariffs. That happened just last month.

CNN's Anna Stewart is in London. What can we expect today?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we had President Trump actually tease ahead to this towards the end of last week and he said all the key issues had been straightened out. And I think what will be in focus isn't so much the trade deficit and tariffs. I think it's going to be much more about export controls.

Now, for the U.S., the key issue really is China's restrictions on certain rare earth metals, which are critical for a number of sectors. This is a space where China dominates.

And just on that and looking ahead we did have a comment from the White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett on CBS. Here is what he said yesterday heading into this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: I'm very comfortable that this deal is about to be closed, and it's going to be closed not with a bunch of staffers and bureaucratic language but with handshakes. The point is we want the rare earths, the magnets that are crucial for cell phones and everything else to flow just as they did before the beginning of April. And we don't want any technical details slowing that down, and that's clear to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:45:00]

STEWART: Now on Friday, the American Chamber of Commerce in China actually said that some Chinese suppliers for American companies had been granted six-month export licenses. So perhaps there's already a bit of a loosening up here ahead of these talks.

For China, they want better access to critical technology from the U.S., particularly around things like semiconductors. There have been increasing restrictions from the U.S. side on that. And key to this is the fact that the U.S. Commerce secretary is on this trip. That is very much in his wheelhouse.

Now, achieving moves in this trade discussion this week will be very important, but perhaps even more so because we had trade talks in Geneva just last month. It's not just reaching some agreements; it's actually keeping them. Because following the talks in Geneva, of course, we saw a bit of an unraveling and actually a ratcheting up of tensions if nothing else -- Sara.

SIDNER: Anna Stewart, thank you so much for that reporting. We will be watching to see how this goes -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight Russia unleashes its biggest drone attack yet. Nearly 500 drones and dozens of missiles striking Ukraine.

And we've got a very important update about a zebra on the lam -- a now flying zebra who was on the lam. You're going to want to hear what happened to this guy. Apparently, his name was Ed.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:35]

BOLDUAN: President Trump is hinting that he knows who he wants to replace Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chairman. The president teasing that the decision will be "coming out very soon."

Now, you'll remember the president has repeatedly attacked Powell for lots of things and blamed him for lots of things. Not cutting interest rates fast enough and threatening to "fire" him a number of times though most everyone agrees the president can't fire the Fed chairman. But Powell -- and also adding to this Powell still has 11 months in his term.

CNN's Matt Egan is here taking a look at all of this. What are you learning here, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, Kate. Look, it's no secret that President Trump and Fed chair Powell have had a rocky relationship, right? And I think all presidents would prefer low interest rates, but Trump has been very vocal about his desire to get interest rates lower and lower, right? He's been pounding the table for rate cuts in almost no matter what the economic conditions are. But he's really stepped up his personal attacks on Powell. He's called

him "too slow Powell," a major loser. He's called him a fool and said he's unbelievable. He said his job at the Fed has been a disaster. I'm wondering what these comments will do to the White House's task of trying to find someone to replace Powell eventually, right? Because in the back of their mind they're going to be thinking about the attacks on Jerome.

BOLDUAN: And also, when you put it together like this -- I mean, it's just like it should be unbelievable that this is being said by a president about the independent -- longstanding independent Federal Reserve. But this -- doesn't even break through anymore.

EGAN: Right, right. It's -- yes, yes. It's happened again and again. We're kind of becoming numb to it.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

EGAN: But take a listen to the president's latest comments about the Federal Reserve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Are you already thinking about who your next Fed chair would be? I know it's 2026 when his term expires.

TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: So you're already thinking about it?

TRUMP: Oh yeah, sure.

REPORTER: Who are you -- who are you --

TRUMP: It's coming out very soon.

REPORTER: And who are you thinking about?

TRUMP: I could tell you but --

REPORTER: What do you make --

TRUMP: I have a pretty good idea who I'm going to pick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, of course, the ironic thing here is that Powell is the handpicked Federal Reserve chairman from Trump, right? Trump nominated him back in 2017. He's one of the only Trump appointees -- major appointees who was kept in place by President Biden. Not just kept in place but actually renominated back in 2021.

And his term though does not expire until May 2026, which is why it's so surprising to me to hear the president say that we're going to have news on a successor very soon. Previously, the White House had said they wouldn't start interviewing candidates until the fall. So this feels like an accelerated timeline and it's making me wonder

if this has anything to do with an idea that Scott Bessent had floated last year before he was nominated to become treasury secretary. Bessent said maybe there could be a shadow Fed chair where essentially someone is nominated so early in the process that what Powell has to say is kind of diminished in the view of the market. Of course, that could just add even more confusion to an already very confusing economic landscape.

I talked to Joe Brusuelas. He's an economist over at RSM. And he said undermining Powell at a time of weakening growth and higher inflation is not going to do good for anyone. And he said it could almost definitely translate into a weaker U.S. dollar and higher rates, which is, of course, the exact opposite of what the president wants.

BOLDUAN: Yes. That would be exactly that. Let's see what happens or if this is his no comment-comment, which is like I'll announce it in two weeks, which we know two weeks comes and goes on so many ways.

EGAN: Right.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, Matt. Thank you -- John.

EGAN: Great to see you.

BERMAN: All right. This morning Israel has intercepted and seized an aid ship that was on its way to Gaza carrying activists, including Greta Thunberg. A prerecorded message by Thunberg was released after the ship was intercepted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRETA THUNBERG, ACTIVIST: My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The ship is now being taken to Israel. Israel says those on board will then return to their home countries.

This morning a salmonella outbreak linked to eggs has sickened nearly 80 people in seven states. The CDC says 21 people have been hospitalized. The August Egg Company has recalled 1.7 million eggs it said were potentially contaminated. They include brown, cage-free, and certified organic eggs sold under several brand names. The eggs were sold to restaurants and stores, including Walmart, Safeway, and Ralphs.

[07:55:10]

So this morning, zebra on the lam no longer. A runaway pet zebra that had been on the loose for more than a week in Tennessee has been found and airlifted to safety. One wonders what the zebra thought of that right there. So the zebra, who we're told is called Ed, was seen running down a highway last week and he became something of an internet sensation. We are told he was captured safely after being spotted in a pasture and then was choppered to a nearby animal trailer -- Sara.

SIDNER: I don't know if you've seen "Madagascar," but it makes me think of the song "I Like to Move it, Move it!" And he got moved.

BERMAN: What's the next -- how does that go?

SIDNER: Never mind, John.

BERMAN: Just go. I'll get it if you --

SIDNER: Nice try.

BERMAN: If you keep singing it, it may ring a bell. What? Oh, yeah.

SIDNER: OK. I see how you are. I'm not going to play today.

BERMAN: All right.

SIDNER: That's cool. All right.

We have several breaking developments in Russia's war on Ukraine. Ukraine says Russia launched its largest overnight drone attack deploying 479 drones. Hours ago, Ukraine said its special forces hit a Russian airfield and destroyed two aircraft there. Now, Russia is now claiming its forces have pushed into a central Ukrainian region for the first time since the start of this war 3 1/2 years ago.

And we've learned that Poland and allies scrambled aircraft as Russia's air campaign targeted Western Ukraine, which is very near the border with Poland.

Joining me now to discuss CNN military analyst and retired colonel, Cedric Leighton.

Oh my goodness. Colonel, we're seeing a renewed wave of heavy attacks and Russia now saying that it is pushing into regions it hadn't been able to push in before. In other words gaining ground.

What does this indicate to you about where we now are in this war?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, good morning, Sara.

Yeah, we're in a precarious position here as far as the Ukrainians are concerned. Now, I believe the Ukrainians can hold onto a lot of the territory that they have but there are some danger signs here.

We see not only in the east where they're moving into the province of Dnipropetrovsk. That is a significant development because they have never actually -- as you mentioned, never actually gone into that particular area nor have said that they're going to claim that area, at least in their initial wave here. The other area that they're moving forward into is the province of Sumy and then, of course, the Kharkiv areas. So as we see the results of some of their attacks in Kharkiv you can tell that the Russians are intensifying their artillery barrages, their rocket barrages, and their drone attacks.

And the reason for that is that they are not only going after the Ukrainians in response to Operation Spider's Web but they're also going after them in order to soften up targets they basically want to position their negotiating team so that they can actually get more territory. And of course, the ultimate goal still remains for Russia to take over Ukraine in its entirety.

SIDNER: I want to bring up two other things. Poland, as we mentioned, had to scramble aircraft as Russia launched strikes on Ukraine. And then Germany says it's now planning rapid expansion of outdated bunkers in fears of Russian aggression.

With these moves from Europe -- you now, European nations -- how close might we be to seeing this war begin to spill over beyond Ukraine's borders?

LEIGHTON: Well it's certainly a danger. I don't see it happening in the next few weeks or so, but it is certainly possible that Poland could be subjected to an inadvertent missile strike by the Russians. That has happened actually in the first few months of the war in several other instances, in some cases resulting in casualties in Poland. So the Poles are very sensitive to this and rightly so.

As far as the Germans are concerned, they are basically trying to figure out how to ramp up a defensive posture as well as their military. So they need to do something with their civil defense. They are nowhere near what Israel, for example, has or what even Ukraine has when it comes to civil defense capabilities. And they have a long way to go before they can actually protect a large portion of their population. Right now they can probably protect around five percent of their population --

SIDNER: Wow.

LEIGHTON: -- which is way too low to survive something like this.

SIDNER: Wow, that is a mouthful, Cedric Leighton. It's so good to see you, Colonel. Thank you so much for that analysis.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BOLDUAN: President Trump deploying the National Guard and calling for more arrests in L.A. The governor promising to sue the president today.