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Defense Secretary Testifies on Capitol Hill; Interview With California Attorney General Rob Bonta; Trump Escalates Military Presence in Los Angeles. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 10, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Doubling down. After sending more federal forces to Los Angeles, President Donald Trump warning the city would have burned down without his intervention, but critics say these deployments are for show, a distraction, even illegal. We will take you live to the ground in L.A.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And one of Sean "Diddy" Combs' accusers takes the stand again to testify against him, as the judge in the case denies the rap mogul's defense team's request to declare a mistrial.

And no shot in the arm, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissing a panel of vaccine experts, one that the government has relied on for advice. The move is alarming the scientific community.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Happening now: The fight over President Donald Trump's growing military presence in Los Angeles is escalating.

The AP is reporting that more than 700 Marines are now in the city and ready to follow orders. Yet the head of the Marine Corps tells the AP the battalion has not yet been called up to respond. Minutes from now, we're going to speak with California's attorney general, as Governor Gavin Newsom vows more legal action against the administration.

The governor has called this deployment of Marines a -- quote -- "blatant abuse of power," saying: "We will sue to stop this. The courts and Congress must act."

California had already sued over the National Guard's involvement. Today, President Trump defending his decisions after police clashed with protesters for a fourth night, this time in a smaller section of downtown, officers notably using less lethal weapons to disperse the crowd overnight, the damage more limited than over the last few days.

The president is claiming credit for that, saying -- quote -- "If I didn't send in the troops, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground." Let's get the latest from the White House now with CNN's Kristen Holmes.

And, Kristen, President Trump had more to say just moments ago.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Boris.

He was really doubling down on this idea that it was imperative that they send in the National Guard and the Marines, pushing back on any notion that this was for show or that the Marines were political pawns, saying that all he wanted was safety and that L.A. was under siege until he got there.

He also, of course, again attacked Governor Newsom, saying that he was grossly incompetent. Now, of course, the question that we have been wondering and pushing the White House is, just how far is Donald Trump willing to go? Is it possible that he is going to invoke the Insurrection Act?

And some of our reporting yesterday and today has indicated that the administration has been looking for other, less extreme alternatives, but that the Insurrection Act and invoking it is still very much on the table,something that Donald Trump himself seemed to double down on just now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We will see. But I can tell you last night was terrible.

QUESTION: How will you determine whether or not there is an insurrection? And also...

TRUMP: Well, we will take a look at what's happening. I mean, I could tell you there were certain areas of Los Angeles last night, you could have called an insurrection. It was terrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, very, very clearly they're laying out that invoking the Insurrection Act is still on the table. He left the door open.

The other part of this that was so fascinating was it seemed as though Donald Trump was saying that he was sending a message through what was happening in Los Angeles, at one point saying that, if any other cities, any other areas do this, I can guarantee you they will be met by equal or more force than you're currently seeing in Los Angeles.

That, of course, has been a question as we expect more of these ICE raids around the country.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House.

Thank you so much, Kristen. Let's actually go now live to the ground in Los Angeles. CNN's

Stephanie Elam is there.

Stephanie, what's the latest this hour? What does it look like on the ground where you are?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, now that we are into daytime hours, Boris, I can tell you there's a lot more going on. This is the federal building. And this is where we have seen a lot of the concentration of activity here in downtown Los Angeles.

You have got this building and then behind us is the detention center where people are being held after they have been detained during these protests here. And there's a lot of graffiti, OK? There's a lot of graffiti through downtown Los Angeles. But you can tell that they are preparing for more escalation.

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We have not seen any Marines. We have seen some National Guard, but take a look here. They just blocked off this ramp that would allow you to get onto the 101 Freeway, which is a major thoroughfare here. At one point over the weekend, this is the freeway that was shut down.

I wanted to give you this perspective to show you how close it is. We also saw earlier -- we have been out here overnight, and there was some looting that happened on a few stores, and we talked to some of the people that live in the neighborhood to see how they felt about the Marines and the National Guard coming into their part of the neck of the woods.

Take a listen to what these two residents had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL FABIANO, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: No, it's not a good thing that active-duty military are being deployed in a civilian neighborhood. That is not a good thing in any sense of the word.

LUIS, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: What I have seen so far is that, when they announced National Guard, there was protests, and then when they announced the Marines arriving, it was more protests, more escalation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And those are people who live right there where we saw that looting had happened.

I have to tell you, Los Angeles had workers out cleaning it up very early. By 8:00 a.m., it was just about all cleaned up. The glass was cleaned up. The windows were boarded up that had been broken and people were inside of the Apple Store cleaning up all that debris that was looted and also cleaning up those windows there.

But I think it's really important just to give you this idea here. You see the metro bus is running, the train is running, people are going to work. The city is working as it normally does throughout most of the city. You just have some parts where I would say even the streets are open in front of these federal buildings. They're open, but they are more highly concentrated with police officers and also the National Guard.

That's the difference, but, for the most part, Boris, it's really important to say the city is operating as normal.

SANCHEZ: Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for that update -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Let's get to the legal fight that is playing out over the response to these protests.

California has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration asking a judge to declare the mobilization of National Guard troops unconstitutional. And the state also wants the court to prevent future deployments.

With us now is the attorney general for the state of California, Rob Bonta.

Thank you so much for being with us.

I'm pretty sure that you have heard the president here just moments ago echoing his homeland security secretary. He said that these are paid protesters mostly in Los Angeles. What's your reaction to that?

ROB BONTA (D), CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: People who peacefully protest and make their voices heard, consistent with their rights under the First Amendment, who do it lawfully, who do it safely, are a core part of our democracy.

We have a government of, for and by the people. Most of the folks who are protesting are protesting peacefully. Of course, we often see those who see this as an opportunity to agitate and get involved in criminal activity. And those folks should be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Local law enforcement has been doing just that. But peaceful protesters organically rising up to share their thoughts and call out injustice and demand something different or better is a core part of our constitutional democracy. These are not paid protesters. These are Americans who care about the future of their country and are making their voices heard.

KEILAR: And, as I mentioned, you're suing, the state of California is, over the deployment of the Guard, now planning to sue over this deployment of Marines.

Will those suits move in time to really affect the situation? And if they don't, what are you worried is going to happen?

BONTA: They will move quickly. We will be sure of that. We sued yesterday because the president has been engaged in an unlawful power grab. He has tried to seize authority he does not have. He cannot lawfully

deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles, period, full stop. The statute he cites to does not give him that authority. You need to have an invasion or a rebellion or the inability to execute the laws of the United States. None of that is present.

He also needs to have consulted Governor Newsom and issued the order through Governor Newsom, who has objected to calling in the National Guard. So we believe clearly and unambiguously under the law we have a winning case.

Today, we are bringing a temporary restraining order request to the court to assure that this case moves quickly, that we get an order as early as today or within the coming days, maybe later this week, because of the irreparable and irreversible harm that California faces because of this needless, unnecessary, counterproductive inflammation and provocation, escalation, and antagonizing conducted by the president.

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KEILAR: There are legal experts who say he does have latitude to do this. The question is really whether he should or not, and a lot of them say it's not a great idea here.

You hear Trump administration officials saying they're just enforcing the law, they're doing these worksite raids, and your solution is for them to not enforce the law. What is your reaction when you hear that?

BONTA: So let's make sure we're talking about the same thing.

Can immigration enforcement authorities enforce immigration law lawfully? Of course. And it's unlawful to obstruct or interfere with the lawful enforcement of immigration law by immigration enforcement authorities.

We're talking about the military being brought on to American soil to be engaged in civilian law enforcement. The Posse Comitatus Act clearly states since the late 1800s that that is unlawful. The National Guard, the California National Guard is a joint operation under the command of Governor Newsom, unless or until there's a specific statutory element that allows the president to call them in.

No such element is present here. So we're talking about the military being brought to Los Angeles, not about civil immigration enforcement, to be clear. And our position is, the president can only do lawful things. He has a lot that he can do within the authority of the president, but he cannot do unlawful things.

And calling the military to do civilian law enforcement in the city of Los Angeles, when he has no authority to do so, is unlawful. And that's why we have sued him in court. We have sued him 25 times in 20 weeks because that's how blatantly and brazenly, consistently and frequently he has violated the law, trampled over the Constitution.

When we have gotten court orders in our cases, we have largely won. And we believe we will prevail again here, because this is yet another example of a blatant unlawful action by a repeat offender president who breaks the law consistently.

KEILAR: Protesters -- the protests really began after these worksite raids.

And the mayor of Los Angeles said that a lot of the upset from protesters stems from the fact that they were expecting from Trump's promises criminals who were in the country illegally to be targeted, that they weren't necessarily expecting people who are holding down jobs, paying taxes to be those.

So, when I do ask that question, I think that's really what I'm trying to get to here. You have some officials in California who are saying there are people protesting because they do feel that even what Trump is doing, lawful, as even you describe it, may have -- may be an overreach for what they were expecting. What do you say to that?

BONTA: Yes, thank you for that clarification. I appreciate it.

The hypocrisy of the president has been consistent and blatant and exists here again. He has sold to the American people or at least tried to that he will go after undocumented, violent criminals. And he has completely overpromised and underdelivered on that. And we have seen him on day one go after citizens, children who are owed to birthright citizenship under the U.S. Constitution when he tried to revoke that.

He's gone -- he's deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen. He's gone after hardworking immigrants who have never violated the criminal law in whatever state that they're in. He's gone after refugees. He's targeted churches, where the faithful pray, and hospitals, where patients heal, and schools, where students, where kids learn.

And so, yes, when he says he's going to go after undocumented violent criminals, and he does the opposite, there's some people who feel that there's a bait and switch and this isn't what they signed up for.

Now, can he legally go after anyone who's not lawfully present, if they do it lawfully to enforce immigration law? Yes. And the federal government may do that.

But for people who didn't sign up for that, who didn't want that, it is their right to peacefully, lawfully and safely protest and speak out against it, and say, hey, you lied to us. You're a hypocrite. You sold us a bag of goods that we didn't want. And we are upset. And we are the people of this country for a government of, for and by the people, and we want something different.

KEILAR: California Attorney General Rob Bonta, thank you so much for being with you -- with us. We will continue to watch what you're doing and what's happening there in Los Angeles.

BONTA: Thank you.

KEILAR: We will have much more on the protests, and that includes the L.A. police chief warning that Marines being deployed to the city could create confusion. We will take a look at what the chief calls the logistical challenges of this situation.

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And the judge overseeing Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial denies the defense's second request for a mistrial. We will have the latest from court.

And then, just days after they're falling out, President Trump and Elon Musk soften their tone towards each other. What this could signal.

We will have that ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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KEILAR: Earlier today on the Hill, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended President Trump's controversial deployment of troops to Los Angeles.

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Listen to this exchange between the secretary and California Congressman Pete Aguilar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): What's the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in L.A.? Why are you sending war fighters to cities to interact with civilians?

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Every American citizen deserves to be -- live in a community that's safe, and ICE agents need to be able to do their job.

AGUILAR: The law also says, Mr. Secretary, that the orders for these purposes shall be issued through governors of the states.

HEGSETH: You and I both know that President Trump has all the authorities necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell is on the scene in Los Angeles for us.

So, Josh, what are local law enforcement officials saying about the increased troop presence there?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the law enforcement business is all about managing risk. You can't eliminate it. You have to manage it.

And what local police here in L.A. are now faced with are two areas of risk. They have the nightly protests, which at times have turned violent. And then now with the deployment of U.S. military to Los Angeles, they're concerned that any lack of communication could lead to something that's potentially negative.

In fact, we heard from the Los Angeles police chief who said that there are grave logistical challenges that might occur here if there isn't maximum communication between these military members as well and local police as they're out doing their jobs. There's also a big question about, what are the rules of engagement for the National Guard and U.S. Marines?

The president has somewhat dodged the question, saying we will see what happens. But that is something that law enforcement here needs to know. When can these troops actually use force against the citizenry? And when you're in a particularly volatile situation with different agencies and now different departments, the military and law enforcement, that could be a recipe for disaster, in their view.

And the last thing I will just say is, I was thinking about it as we have been covering this, when I was an FBI agent, we went through the academy at Quantico, which is on a Marine Corps base. The FBI created this mock fake city that we would use in order to conduct training. That same city was used on the weekends by Marines, the best fighting force in the world, but for a whole different purpose.

They were training for looking for insurgents in some type of urban area overseas, not crowd control, not law enforcement. And so that's what we continue to hear from local law enforcement here. The tactics, their expertise, they're not highly trained in crowd control, which is what's required here and certainly tactics like de-escalation.

So the LAPD chief hasn't come out and said he condemns the military being here. He just says that, in order for things to remain safe, there has to be maximum communication.

KEILAR: Yes, and he's also saying there doesn't appear to be that on some of these issues.

Josh Campbell, thank you so much for that report -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger joins us now. He also served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.

Sir, thanks for being with us.

You have said that you believe this decision by the president to deploy the National Guard and hundreds of Marines is for show. I wonder if you agree with some local officials who say that the presence of these federal troops unnecessarily escalated the situation and made it more violent.

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, yes, absolutely.

I mean, you can see it. There's a direct line between when they showed up and the escalation. I mean, it doesn't excuse the escalation, of course, but, yes, this is provocative. This was the president overreacting on purpose. I mean, look, there are 4,000 now activated California National Guard.

And this is an important point, and I know it's in the weeds. But once they're activated by the president, against the consent of the governor, they are now federal troops. They're U.S. Army. They're no longer National Guard. So even though they have National Guard shields, they are U.S. Army with no law enforcement ability. So they're basically pointless right now.

And then, on top of that, to deploy the U.S. Marines, when you have 4,000 troops that are not being used, it's simply an intimidation tactic. It's meant to either appear tough or, frankly, to stir this up.

SANCHEZ: I saw on social media that you were calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to activate the rest of his Army Guard. Why?

KINZINGER: Look, right now, there's a constitutional tension. So the Second Amendment, we always talk about in terms of guaranteeing the right to bear arms, but it also guarantees a well-regulated militia.

The militia has always been seen to be the National Guard. So there's a tension. How is the National Guard actually a militia if the president, against the wishes of the governor, can activate that militia against its own state?

And so I think that's an extremely important point to look at. And I just think it's something that we have got to take very seriously in all of this.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it is a good point.

I wonder what you make of local officials telling CNN, at least as of last night, that they hadn't received clear outlines on the rules of engagement for these troops. Does it concern you that a lack of transparency would blur the line between national defense and law enforcement, domestic law enforcement?

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KINZINGER: Yes, because they don't know what their rules are.

So, I mean, maybe the Army does, but they really can't do much. And I actually forgot to put this on the last point. The reason I think the governor needs to activate the rest of his National Guard, or at least consider it, is because what that does in that tension I was talking about, it now puts the Guard under the control of the governor.

It would force the president to then overrule the governor, which could set up potentially something for the Supreme Court. But the lack of the rules of engagement, if you are LAPD, or you're the sheriff's department, you're sitting there going, I don't know how we can use these folks.

The answer to that, by the way, is they can be used to guard federal buildings. That's about it, at least legally, according to the Constitution, without the Insurrection Act or without the consent of the governor. And so all of this is murky, which makes it very clear.

And when you saw the pictures last night, I mean, it's not like there's an overwhelming amount of protesters. There's not a ton of them. And I think, honestly, if it gets out of control, that's where the governor comes in and activates the Guard, and then it would actually have a purpose. This is just stirring up people's anger.

SANCHEZ: I want to get your reaction to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi saying that Trump refused to send the Guard on January 6, even as officers and lawmakers were under attack.

You served, obviously, on the committee that investigated January 6. Do you think that's a fair and valid comparison to what we're watching happen in L.A. right now?

KINZINGER: It absolutely is. And I'm glad you brought this up, because there's been this misunderstanding on the D.C. National Guard and on January 6 that somehow the speaker could have activated the Guard or the mayor.

The D.C. Guard is the only National Guard, as far as I know, maybe like Guam, but the D.C. National Guard is under the command of the president. There is no governor of D.C., so the D.C. Guard falls under the secretary of the Army and under the president. The only person that could activate the D.C. Guard -- Nancy Pelosi can scream all she wanted about it. Mike Johnson could try to activate the D.C. Guard. The mayor could.

They can't. Only the president can. And so that falls squarely on President Trump's shoulder to -- for his lack of ability or lack of desire to activate the Guard. Yet he was really quick, really fast to activate it to something that L.A., frankly, hadn't even called for yet. And I think, had they called for Guard, probably, Gavin Newsom would have activated the Army Guard, and they actually then would have authority now, which they do not have today.

SANCHEZ: Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, great to get your perspective. Thank you.

KINZINGER: You bet.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead: A former girlfriend of Sean "Diddy" Combs returns to the stand for cross-examination, the defense zeroing in on how the media mogul supported her and continues apparently to support her financially.

Plus, Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. removing all 17 members of a key vaccine advisory committee -- ahead, why Kennedy says this is all part of an attempt to restore public trust in vaccines.

We will be right back.

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