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Curfew Expires in Downtown L.A. Amid Immigration Raid Protests; Trump Announces Deal with China Done Subject to Approval; Trump Plans to Phase Out FEMA After 2025 Hurricane Season. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

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JENNA NORTON, NIH EMPLOYEE: Are trials where people had implanted devices inside their bodies being terminated with no safety protocol, no shutdown procedures. So participants are being left in the lurch, and it's just completely counter to everything I got into public health for.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're not new, as you mentioned, to dealing with the federal government or new to this, the world of medicine as it is. Do you get the sense, Dr. Skorton, that they don't grasp the impact of the moves that are being taken and being proposed, or that they get it and somehow they think it's worth it?

DR. DAVID SKORTON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN MEDICAL COLLEGES: Well, it'd be pretty tough for me, Kate, to get inside someone else's head or heart and figure out what they are thinking or not thinking. I don't think that's my place. My place, really, through this report is to, as I said in the very beginning of the report, sound the alarm that however we got to where we are right now, we are at a dangerous point for the present and future of the country.

The present, because we need to deliver, deliver health care to those. For example, I'm terrified about the things that may move as many as 11 million people off the Medicaid rolls. I'm literally terrified about that. I'm terrified about our prospects of aspiring physicians, people who want to be doctors, and can we deliver on that promise by making sure that they can have access to graduate loans, as I did, and perhaps a loan forgiveness program?

And then very, very importantly, as you're referring to, can we discover those things about life and health and disease that are discovered through biomedical research, which will lead us to new methods of diagnosis, new drug treatments, new surgeries, new cures like immunotherapy for cancer, like all the things that I could not have imagined in January of 1980. If we want to have a brighter future, we have to face these three threats. We have to face it right now. BOLDUAN: Doctor, thanks so much. And I really encourage people to read

more. There's a -- it is up on CNN.com and through your organization. The shortage of physicians with an aging population that you're projecting in the next 10 years is something that must be paid attention to for sure, and is also one of the impacts that you're fearing right now.

Doctor David Skorton, thank you very much for your time.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking right now, the curfew in downtown Los Angeles lifted as we speak. Marines poised to deploy today. What will that look like as California Governor Gavin Newsom addresses the nation in a way that some Democrats see as a model for opposition.

So who does not have regrets at 3:04 a.m.? That is when Elon Musk posted he has some regrets about some of the things he wrote about President Trump. Some he says. What -- does that mean not at all? Where are they still divided? And will they be saying, they laughed, they cried, it was better than "Cats"? President Trump goes to see "Les Mis" at the Kennedy Center tonight, but new questions about who will be on stage.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. Sara Sidner is in Los Angeles. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news this morning, as you just heard from John Berman there, the curfew is now over here in Los Angeles. You are seeing the light of day now, seeing the remnants of what is left. Some things a bit different. More worse for the wear after protests overnight ended in hundreds of arrests according to police. The most arrests that we have yet seen over the course of five days, about 400 people have been arrested.

We now know that the Marines are outside the city ready to deploy, but the governor and the mayor saying they have things under control, along with the LAPD. For the governor's part, he is blasting President Trump for putting about 4,000 troops deploying them here to Los Angeles from the National Guard, saying he is just ratcheting up tensions instead of bringing them down and saying that what Trump is doing is also an attack on democracy.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation. Putting our people, our officers, and even our National Guard at risk. That's when the downward spiral began.

Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived. He's taking a wrecking ball. A wrecking ball to our founding fathers' historic project.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [09:05:06]

SIDNER: The battle on the streets are over this morning for now. But the battle between the governor and the president is just ratcheting up. The president now posting this morning, calling Newsom incompetent, saying he couldn't protect patriot ICE officers, and called the protesters insurrectionists. We should note he did not call those who broke into the Capitol on January 6th insurrectionists and pardoned those who took part in violent confrontations, including with police.

Now, local authorities here, local law enforcement have said and have been saying that they have the situation under control. Mind you, this is happening in about a one square mile area of downtown Los Angeles, which is where the curfew is as well, affecting about 100,000 Angelenos here. Many people do not live downtown. It is much more of a place where people come to work, where the federal buildings and state and local buildings are, as well as businesses. But it is affecting folks. And now it has finally been lifted.

We should also mention that these protests against ICE enforcement have spread out across the country in places like San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, and New York. But here in this sort of one square mile area where you are seeing the destruction left behind from the last five nights of protests, our Stephanie Elam is down the street with more information and what she has been seeing this morning -- Steph.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Sara. Yes. And you can definitely see that people are coming in to work getting into downtown area as they should. But for some people, it's finding a new way to do it because as you can see here, we have some highway patrol that are blocking off the entrances and exits off of the 101 Freeway, which is a major thoroughfare through downtown Los Angeles.

But you can see the effects of last night and the skirmishes. I've been out here just looking as the sun has been coming up, finding these rubber bullets that they were using to break up the crowds yesterday. We also know that protesters made their way onto the 101 Freeway and shut it down again, as they had over the weekend, so there were some arrests there. More than 200 people arrested yesterday just in that zone at all.

But here's the thing. We know that this was the first of the curfews that is just now ending, but they're saying it's probably going to continue for a few nights. In fact take a listen to Mayor Karen Bass talk about this.

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MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: My message to you is if you do not live or work in downtown L.A. avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew and you will be prosecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ELAM: And it's also worth noting that the protests were not just in downtown L.A. yesterday. They started early here, by the way, like in the afternoon. We started to see that there were skirmishes and there were arrests starting before the sun went down. So that was a change in tone that we've seen. It seemed there was a more aggressive stance by law enforcement to change the progression of the night time.

But we also saw some protests in Santa Ana as well. And on top of it, while all of this was going on north of us in Ventura County, ICE agents were up there making arrests on farms, detaining people there. So while this was going on here, these ICE actions are still continuing throughout parts of California and also in places like Omaha, Nebraska, as well -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for that update there this morning.

Joining me now is Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles. He is now running for a second time for governor.

Thank you so much for being here with us, Mr. Villaraigosa. Give me some sense of what you're seeing here. I mean, how do you think the mayor of Los Angeles and the governor are doing in this? And would you do something differently?

ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), FORMER LOS ANGELES MAYOR: I talked to the mayor yesterday and she's doing the right thing. Look, I've said since Friday what is going on today with massive military style deportations, where they go into workplaces and schools, where they're actually arresting citizens, dividing children from their family is absolutely unacceptable. And that's why the governor is right in suing the federal government and Donald Trump on this issue. And I support that. I called for that on Sunday.

With respect to the riots or violence that has occurred, absolutely. They'll be arrested. They'll go to jail.

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There's no place for violence. There's every place for peaceful demonstrations in the tradition of Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez.

SIDNER: This is going to go to court and is in court. There is going to be a hearing tomorrow. The courts, though, have blocked the governor's request to stop the National Guard and the Marines from being able to come in and enforce laws for the time being as this goes, this case goes through court.

I am curious about this because the law says that it is the federal government's purview to enforce immigration laws. What is your objection to the fact that ICE is enforcing those laws, although differently than many past administrations?

VILLARAIGOSA: Yes. When have you seen, as the governor said, and I've said all weekend, when have you seen mass people in military fatigues with flash bang grenades and assault weapons come into neighborhoods in this way? Yes, they have a right to arrest people. They said they were going after serious and violent criminals. Everybody is for that. You know, but at the end of the day, that's not what they're doing.

You just reported there in Ventura in -- you know, raiding farms, raiding workplaces. Go after serious criminals. Not these people. So it's the manner in which they did it. It's bringing in the Marines. It's doing it for the first time in 60 years without the consent and the request of the governor.

The last time they did this in the South, they did it to protect the civil rights of individuals. Here in the manner that they're engaging in these military style deportations, they are infringing on those rights.

SIDNER: Mr. Villaraigosa, I am curious what you think about the comments made by the governor saying that this really is the president's attack on democracy. Do you see this as the president trying to create law and order, or do you see this as the president trying to attack particularly Democratically run cities and states? He has been after California for some time, criticizing the Democrats in this state and the way the state has been run.

VILLARAIGOSA: Virtually every day we see a White House and a president generating chaos, generating chaos at a time when his big, beautiful bill is wallowing in the Senate because of the cuts to Medicaid and the like. These horrific cuts that are really going to leave people without medical care.

And so, you know, look, I commend the governor. I commend the mayor. I commend law enforcement for stepping up and addressing the violence. But I also believe that we have every right in this country to protest. It should be peaceably. People should know that they will be arrested if they violate the curfew or if they engage in violence.

SIDNER: All right. Antonio Villaraigosa, thank you so much for speaking to us. One of the former mayors of Los Angeles, now running for the governorship. Appreciate your time.

Guys?

BOLDUAN: So coming up for us, post roast regret. Elon Musk out this morning to say he now regrets some of the things that he said about the president. Which are the some and which of his biting critiques of the president and his agenda does Elon Musk still stand by today?

And a new study is out this morning with a fresh look at the very real threat to a crucial -- of a crucial Atlantic current collapsing and how its collapse would redraw the entire world's climate map.

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BOLDUAN: Breaking this morning, President Trump is saying on social media that the trade deal with China is complete. In his post, the president writes, "Our deal with China is done subject to the final approval with President Xi and me," and giving some details of what he thinks and says is going to be in there up front.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is tracking this one.

I mean, these talks that have been going on hugely important. But what are you hearing about this, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Kate, here's what matters in terms of what the president announced today, the deal that was kind of hammered out over the course of 20 hours of negotiations over two days between the two delegations, led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the U.S. side. What matters is what President Trump was talking about related to opening up the spigot for rare earth minerals.

Now, if you're sitting there going, what are rare earth minerals? Why do I care about these things? Here's why you care. They are largely heat resistant components that are absolutely essential to just about everything that matters in terms of general life, operations, technology, phones, flat screens, the power cords for computers.

On one side, more critically, and what really posed an acute risk to the U.S. supply chains, U.S. manufacturers and really global manufacturers around the world, they are critical components in the automotive industry. They are central components to a lot of U.S. and international defense weapons systems.

The reason why this became such a significant issue, Kate, is that China has basically a virtual monopoly on the heavy, rare earth elements that make up the most sophisticated autos and defense systems.

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That was a huge problem. Shortly after the April 2nd liberation day tariffs, President Trump announced China slapped export controls on the shipment of those elements. Essentially, they locked them up and put them behind closed doors. And when they basically produce and basically produce and refine, roughly 90 percent to 95 percent of the entire world's supply, that causes major, major issues.

For all the ways, Kate, you've heard, I've heard administration officials talk about how they believe they have a clear kind of they're in a better place than China has ever been when it comes to the bilateral trade war that was going on, this was the one issue where China had absolute leverage. That was the driving force behind these talks. U.S. officials were frustrated. They thought that first round of talks in Geneva unlocked these rare earth minerals, or the kind of reopened the access to supply.

They did not. And so what President Trump and his team were willing to put on the table is they are going to remove some U.S. export controls on critical industries. We don't know exactly which ones yet. The president announced in that Truth Social post that the student visa issue that the administration had put on the table saying they were going to block them, that is now no longer in effect, according to the president.

We are waiting to see what else specifically this deal is going to entail. But make no mistake about it, China had a clear leverage point here. They utilized it over the course of the last several weeks, and they're getting something out of this agreement in the form of U.S. export controls coming down, the student visa issue going away, there are no new tariffs as a part of this agreement.

But essentially, if you want a big picture, this, Kate, the most important bilateral relationship in the entire world, the two largest economies in the entire world that were essentially at a place of complete trade embargo just a month and a half ago, are now back to where they were five or six weeks ago in Geneva. That's the baseline. There's no dramatic step forward in the relationship. President Trump, in a follow up Truth Social post, said that he and Xi will work together, Xi Jinping will work together.

But it's basically back to where they were six weeks ago, which is better than where they were two days ago.

BOLDUAN: And let's hope better than where they will be in 12 minutes from now. It's exactly right,

Phil, it's great to see you. Thank you. John?

BERMAN: Yes. No one has got a better understanding of this than Phil Mattingly. Such a great explanation there.

All right. Just as a powerful hurricane season gets underway, the president says he plans to phase out FEMA after this year. And is this a rare moment for Javert? The president attends "Les Mis" at the Kennedy Center tonight. Threats of boycotts in this raging battle over the arts.

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[09:26:53]

BOLDUAN: President Trump's latest plan for the country's lead emergency management agency phasing it out. Forecasters are predicting this year's hurricane season will be particularly intense, with a higher than average number of named storms and major hurricanes. And the president is now saying after this hurricane season, he is phasing out FEMA entirely.

Gabe Cohen tracking this one for us and joining us right now.

Gabe, what are you learning about this?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Kate, this is significant. Trump saying in the Oval Office yesterday that he wants to wean the country off of FEMA. But not until after hurricane season, which, as you mentioned, is projected to be a particularly intense one. And this is really the clearest confirmation and the clearest timeline that we have gotten for the president's long term plans to dismantle FEMA and make states handle their own disasters, something that we have been reporting on for weeks or months now.

I want to play a little bit of what Trump said yesterday inside the White House. Take a listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it's not going to be so much the states. We're going to give out less money. We're going to give it out directly. It will be from the president's office. We'll have somebody here. Could be Homeland Security, but we're going to give it out through a method.

We think after this, Kristi, I'd say after the hurricane season, we'll start phasing them out.

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Yes, sir. You set up a FEMA council over the next couple of months, will be working on reforms and what FEMA will look like in the future as a different agency, as under the Department of Homeland Security, to the president's vision.

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COHEN: So, Kate, key takeaways. Less disaster aid and now it is going to come directly from the president's office cutting out FEMA. One big question there is what information then is the president going to be using to decide who gets money. Because remember, FEMA offers a nonpartisan recommendation that the president typically follows. They usually guide him through disasters. We don't know who's going to be doing that guiding moving forward.

We also heard Trump say that governors should really be able to handle disasters on their own, and if not, they really should not be governor. But I have heard from a long list of federal and state emergency managers who say that states are not prepared to handle disaster response and recovery alone. And there are big question marks about how long it's going to take to bolster those resources on the state level.

So we're going to see what this looks like in the years ahead, Kate. And then this year, FEMA limping into hurricane season. They say they want to operate like they did last year, but they've lost like a third of their staff, including a lot of senior leaders. So big question marks and concerns.

BOLDUAN: Lost a lot of leaders and lost a lot of time in trying to prepare for this hurricane season, as you have done such great reporting on, Gabe. Thank you so much for staying on top of this.

Coming up for us, President Trump took over basically all control of the famous performing arts center in Washington, D.C. and tonight is the big opening night for the Kennedy Center, with some performers expected to boycott their performance of "Les Mis." The new reporting coming in. And a new study is out today with a fresh look at the very threat, a

very serious threat. A crucial Atlantic current will soon collapse and how its collapse would redraw the globe's climate map.