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Arrests in L.A. After City Sets Downtown Curfew Amid Protests; Elon Musk Expresses Regret Over Some Posts About Trump; Police May Have Spotted Dad Accused of Killing His Kids. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking this morning, one hour left in the curfew in downtown Los Angeles. Hundreds have been arrested and California's governor delivers a speech overnight that has Democrats around the country talking this morning.

All right, breaking overnight, full of regret, or at least some of it. Elon Musk posted 3:00 A.M. that he regrets some of his mean tweets about President Trump, but which ones? Which does he stand by?

And police in Washington State believe they have spotted the survivalist father accused of killing his three young daughters. Tracking teams, helicopters, canine units said to be closing in.

I'm John Berman with Kate Baldwin, Sara Sidner on the ground in Los Angeles. This is CNN News Central.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news here in Los Angeles, the curfew still in effect about to expire in about an hour after a fifth straight night of protest. Some of those protests, very small group, creating some destruction in the city, tagging businesses and federal buildings and state and local buildings, and also businesses being looted at the same time. The LAPD chief says, after the curfew was put in place, they had a large number of people arrested, the largest number that we have seen yet in these five days. About 400 people in total over the five days have been arrested, according to local police.

The curfew impacts an area, just to give you some idea of the size of all this, it is very small, about one square mile here in downtown L.A., which affects, according to the mayor, about 100,000 residents. Most of what happens here in downtown. Is that there are businesses and people going about their businesses is not huge residential area.

We also though heard from Governor Gavin Newsom, who is blasting Donald Trump, saying that he is attacking democracy with what he is doing, sending in National Guard who are behind me here, as well as having the Marines deployed. They are right now just outside of the city waiting for their orders. He also talks about the fact of what this is doing to his city, saying what Donald Trump is doing is actually ratcheting up tensions, not bringing them down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): These are the men and women trained for foreign combat, not domestic law enforcement. We honor their service. We honor their bravery. But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces, not in L.A., not in California, not anywhere.

Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our communities. They're traumatizing our communities. And that seems to be the entire point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Donald Trump blasting Newsom after he heard Newsom's address to the state, saying that he couldn't protect patriot ICE officers and called him incompetent.

Now, within this one square mile are Stephanie Elam just down the street from me in another area. What are you seeing there and what are you hearing from local officials?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Sara. We are standing here on the other side of the federal building, and you can see out here as we are still in curfew mode in this part of downtown Los Angeles that you do have police officers here that are blocking off access to and from the highway, from 101, which is a massive thoroughfare through downtown Los Angeles, so that the traffic just keeps moving and you can't actually get off here. That's one of the big things yesterday.

And this is not the first time that we've seen it in these few days that we've seen protests. Protesters actually made their way onto the 101 and shut it down. And we did see some of those more than 200 arrests happen down there during that skirmish that happened earlier than what we've seen in other times of this last five days or so.

Also worth noting that the mayor said that there -- you know, we showed you some of that looting yesterday.

[08:05:03]

They're saying that about two dozen businesses were looted. I can tell you, getting into this area this morning, that many of the businesses boarded up yesterday. It's looking back to like 2020 when we saw a lot of that boarding up after the George Floyd protests, where the storefronts are all boarded up right now because of this uncertainty for how long this will be lasting.

But it does seem that at this point that the curfew is having an impact down here. It's a different tone. It is much milder. We saw a little bit of a skirmish yesterday. Today, nothing at all coming into this curfew area, a lot less people are around. But, again, as the sun comes up and we are still, you know, an hour or so away from that, we will see that change here potentially.

But right now, it is calm, but still seeing the after effects of more than 200 people being arrested yesterday and think about that piled onto each day since we have seen these protests really ramp up. All of this in light of the same time that we've seen ICE going into parts of Ventura County, north of here into farms and also detaining people there.

So, we are seeing that, we're seeing people call that out, saying that this is not helping. These are businesses and these are families that are being impacted by this. So, not all of it concentrated here, not all of the action concentrated here in Los Angeles. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. Great report from you, Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for that.

We are also seeing National Guard who are helping to protect ICE, seeing some images of that as ICE goes about trying to detain and eventually deport some of those migrants.

Joining me now, Jose Luis Solache, he's a Democratic member of the California State Assembly. Jose, I just want to get your reaction to some of the images coming out where you are seeing the National Guard actually stand and try to protect ICE as it goes about going into some of these businesses and taking people out.

JOSE LUIS SOLACHE (D), CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY: Hi. Good morning. Yes, our community in Los Angeles is living in fear. There's no need to militarize our communities. There's no war zone coming in, in L.A. You know, we have 10 million people living in Los Angeles County. And, you know, these incidents are happening in parts of Los Angeles, not in the entire county of Los Angeles.

So, we stop these militarization of our communities. Our community is afraid what's going on, and we need to make sure that we bring, you know, decorum to our county.

SIDNER: How would you like to see federal immigration laws enforced?

SOLACHE: You know, it's -- we've known that previous administrations have conducted deportations and there was never a need to do a militarization. There's never a need to bring, you know, these agents in our communities. There's a dual process. We live in a country of laws and we're proud to be Americans but there's a process for this. And, yes, previous administration did it, but in this case, this current administration is going wrong the wrong way of conducting these processes, including these unacceptable raids in our communities.

SIDNER: Let me ask you about your participation in all this. You saw a convoy of ICE agents in Paramount, California, which is part of the district that you represent. What did you do in the last few days when you saw that contingent of immigration agents?

SOLACHE: For sure. Our community was shocked to see 60-plus agents in our community, specifically Border Patrol agents that were in our city. Clearly, they were going to -- they were staging in our community. They were ready to go out and conduct these raids, without a doubt. And it's unfortunate that there's no communication from the federal government to local agencies, to local government. So, of course, if someone comes to your backyard, you're in shock. There's no news, there's no collaboration. And this is not normal for our community. This is not normal for administration not to communicate with local agencies.

I self-identified myself to the crew that was there, and no one gave me information of why they were there. I was simply asking, what were you guys doing here? There was no communication. So, when we are trying to get information, we get no information. So, it's really frustrating that we as representatives and local and state government, local government are not getting the answers from these agents. They have a job to do, but we also have a job, and that's to protect our community to ensure that, you know, we understand why they're there in our community, in our backyard.

SIDNER: Yes. Assembly member, beyond talking to them and trying to figure out what was going on, you took to social media. What were you trying to do when you took to social media after seeing that there were a contingent of ICE agents near a Home Depot?

[08:10:04]

SOLACHE: You know, again, it's in the expression of feeling shocked that they were in our community. You know, we hear these things in other parts of our city, in downtown L.A. and other parts. There's a federal building downtown, that's why you see activity there. But in our hardworking community, a community that contributes to this country every single day by its workers, you know, we were really shocked to have in our own city, we don't want this activity in our communities. So, that's why the community was shocked to see them.

For those of those that follow me on social media, I simply, you know, make awareness of our community what's going on, activities, city events. So, it was natural for me to share that, hey, they are in our community, and just FYI there in our city and our communities in our backyard.

So, you know, it just created awareness for folks to know that, you know, these agents are now in our backyard, and that was simply the message to ensure that community was aware.

SIDNER: Do you worry at all that you may have put them in jeopardy? I mean, sending people -- people did come out, correct, to protest as soon as they found out where they were.

SOLACHE: By the time I got there, there was already some folks already, some observe -- folks that were observing generally commute. I was driving by. I mean, when you see patrol agents in your streets. Naturally, people were stopping by. Of course, this is after the day, the night before where we saw activity in the downtown Los Angeles area.

So, of course, people were already alarmed. So when they see Border Patrol agent carts, which, by the way, Border Patrol carts are by the border, are by San Diego, they're not in Los Angeles County, this is not normal. So, for folks to see these cars, vehicles, and they see, say pluralist, there's many vehicles in our community, it's not normal. So, of course, people were organically stopping and wondering what was happening. So, it just organically happened. We live in a world of social media. Of course, people were sharing that. We had them in our backyard. And, of course, our community wanted to make sure that they made other folks alert that Border Patrol agents were in our backyard, which is not normal.

SIDNER: Jose Luis Solache, I know that you're hearing from your constituents who are terrified, who are afraid, those who work and live in your community and go to school. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us this morning. I really appreciate it. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Elon Musk expressing regret over some of his posts about Donald Trump that he now says went too far. So, what does this mean?

And a new clue in the manhunt for the man accused of killing his three young daughters, where police think that they may have spotted him and where that investigation now stands.

And a congresswoman indicted after a confrontation with law enforcement outside an ICE detention center, the charges she now is facing.

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[08:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, or really in the early, early, early morning, Elon Musk having second thoughts about the explosive in public breakup that he had with President Trump last week in the wee hours this morning writing that I regret some of my posts about President Trump last week, they went too far, he writes.

The feud between the president and the world's richest man really exploded last week. Musk going so far as to, at one point, threatened to say that he was going to basically drop a bomb, is how he described it, suggesting that Trump was connected to the undisclosed list linked to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Musk providing no evidence of that. And that one came after Musk called Trump's domestic agenda bill and abomination and more.

In response, the president said that Musk had lost his mind and threatened to cancel Musk's government contracts in retaliation.

Joining me now from the White House, CNN's Kevin Liptak. It's a little bit of where does this go from here and what is the real impact this whole breakup has even had.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, I think it's an open question. I think the biggest impact, at least for the White House is what impact this is going to have on the president's massive piece of legislation that's still working its way through the Senate. That was, at the end of the day, the origin of this very ugly, very sour feud, Elon Musk saying that that mega bill would explode the deficit, that is a concern that many Republicans still have.

And so even as these two men seem to be able to repair their relationship to some capacity, it's not at all clear that this is going to help the bill move through Congress, which is what President Trump really wants. You know, this expression of remorse from Elon Musk, it was not particularly effusive, I would call it terse. He doesn't explicitly say which of his incendiary comments about the president he actually regrets, whether it was calling for his impeachment, at least tacitly, whether it was saying that Trump wouldn't have won the election without him, whether it was linking him to Jeffrey Epstein, the world's most notorious pedophile, which was the tweet, that at the end of the day, many White House officials said, really put the nail in the coffin with his relationship with Trump.

He has deleted that post and there were some signs that this thaw was coming. He has backed up the president's efforts in Los Angeles. Even his own father said that he went too far. He said he made a mistake picking this fight with Donald Trump, saying that he would not prevail. It's not really clear how interested Trump is in reconciliation. His attitude throughout all of this has been to say he's not thinking about Musk at all.

[08:20:00]

BOLDUAN: Well, he is not posting yet about Musk this morning, but he did just jump on the socials to talk about negotiations with China over tariffs and trade. What is he saying and what's the reality that you're learning about it?

LIPTAK: Yes. And it does appear as if there has been a significant breakthrough. After these marathon talks in London between Chinese officials and American officials, including the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, it does appear that this sort of deteriorating trade relationship between the U.S. and China is at least been put on the correct path. And President Trump is saying on Truth Social, quote, our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me. And the president goes on to reference this issue of rare earths. He says Full magnets and any necessary rare earths will be supplied upfront by China.

And just to explain a little bit of what he's talking about there, China had put some restrictions on these exports of these critical minerals. That is part of why the U.S. and China had engaged in this back and forth. Now, the president is saying those restrictions will be limited. He was on to say that the U.S. will include Chinese students using our colleges and universities, essentially saying that some of those visa restrictions will be lifted.

So, clearly here, a thawing in the relationship, but I think it's clear that trade tensions will still persist between these two countries.

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's see what comes to that this morning and what China says as well.

Great to see you, Kevin, thank you so much for that.

Still ahead for us this morning, a community is remembering the victims of that deadly and rare school shooting in Austria. There are new details about what led up to that attack that has left ten people dead.

And we are watching stock futures this morning pointing down a little bit right now as we stand by for a new inflation report out in just a few minutes. And we now have this news coming from the president about a trade deal.

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[08:25:00]

BERMAN: All right. This morning, potential major developments and a tense manhunt for a 32-year-old man accused of killing all three of his young daughters. The bodies of the girls all younger than ten were found at a campsite east of Seattle, along with Travis Decker's truck. This was about a week and a half ago. Now, police say they think they spotted Decker via helicopter off a hiking trail in Washington State. They think he's trying to get to Canada. An affidavit revealed he has survival training, he's a military veteran, and made Google searches about moving to Canada and finding a job there.

Let's get to CNN's National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem for the latest on this. Juliette, why tell the public? What does the public get from this? What do you make of the warrant?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think they are concerned that he's still a threat. He's desperate to get to Canada, although Canada's not going to provide him any comfort or solution. Even if he gets over to Canada, we still have an extradition treaty with that country. And so his idea that he's just going to hide out and somehow get to Canada is slightly absurd. But he remains a threat here in the United States.

And I think what you're seeing is the sort of crowdsourcing of this search for him at this stage. We now know that the public serves as a force multiplier, that police can't be everywhere, especially in national parks or rural areas where he seems to be. And so you ask the public other hikers who have seen someone strange, someone who looks a little bit desperate for their help.

BERMAN: Survivalist, military training, how does that affect maybe the way you search for him?

KAYYEM: Right. So, it this is in the interesting part because like a sort of a person who doesn't have that kind of training, if they're on the run, they're going to sort of run out of tools after a while. They're going to need food, they're going to need water. So, the question is, is how much did he prepare to be on the run? Because any person who has training in this would certainly want to map out how long they need. It also means that he's able to survive in ways that most average people couldn't in terms of accessing water or food, livestock, birds, whatever that is.

So, his timeframe is just longer than the average person for law enforcement. And so that is the challenge right now. But he'll run out of time, I'm pretty confident, now that they are using new technologies to find him. It's just much harder to hide these days. I mean, when you think about people who have -- you know, the Unabomber or others who have hid out, it's just hard to get off the grid especially if you're trying to cross an international border.

BERMAN: Yes. Talk to us about the new technologies being used to find him and exactly how they might help.

KAYYEM: Yes. So, I mean, some of it is this old stuff that you see on T.V., you know, heat sensors, helicopters. But it too is getting more sophisticated in terms of -- both in terms of its precision. You could just simply pinpoint where the heat rises, where a person may be, but also you can get into areas through drone surveillance that we just couldn't before. A helicopter has to fly over at a certain altitude. Drones can get much lower. So, that's the first.

The second is, of course, real time communication, simply iPhones. Hikers see someone, they don't have to wait a day to be able to tell someone. They can get on their phones or they can tweet out or they can text out to someone, I saw a strange guy walking.

[08:30:03]