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Beach Boys' Brian Wilson Dies; Elon Musk Expresses Regret Over Trump Criticism; Will Trump Administration Escalate Immigration Crackdown?. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 11, 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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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Attorney General Pam Bondi says the Trump administration is not scared to go further with its response to the protests in Los Angeles. And those demonstrations are ballooning beyond L.A., as protesters march in many cities across the country against President Trump's deportation policies.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And could regrets lead to reconciliation? Elon Musk admitting that some of his posts against President Trump went too far. The president, though, says he's still disappointed in the richest man on the planet.

And high drama taking place on and off the stage before opening night at the Kennedy Center, President Trump set to attend tonight's performance of "Les Mis," but this is already being met by protest.

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

KEILAR: Happening now: These anti-ICE protests are expanding across the country, as Los Angeles is bracing for a sixth day of clashes over President Trump's immigration crackdown.

And moments ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified on Capitol Hill that President Trump's order to federalize the National Guard may not stop at California. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Part of it is getting ahead of a problem, so that, if, in other places if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened, we would have the capability to surge National Guard there if necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's get right to CNN's Stephanie Elam, who's in Los Angeles for us. Stephanie, what are you seeing today?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, sun's up, Boris, and we're starting to get that energy here. You can see they have been out here all night.

The Highway Patrol has been out here closing off the entrance and exits to 101, which is a major highway thoroughfare here in downtown Los Angeles, because they don't want people getting off here if they don't need to.

That said, though, I want to show you that the roads are still open. If you look over here, you can see that people are still making their way through here. That big building behind me is the Metropolitan Detention Center. So that's where people are being held and that is where we have seen a lot of the protests. And then the building to the right is the federal building.

These are the epicenter of the protests that we have seen. And since yesterday, LAPD just put out new numbers saying that there have been 203 arrests for failure to disperse, another 17 arrests for people who were out during the curfew, and three arrests for possession of a firearm, one arrest for assault with a deadly weapon a police officer, and two LAPD officers were injured.

So this is exactly what they have been trying, to disperse this energy with the curfew. And, so far, Mayor Karen Bass saying they believe the curfew worked. And think about it. It's starting at 8:00 p.m. local. That is pretty early in the evening, and going until 6:00 a.m.

We have been out here from much of the night into the morning. And I can tell you it has been calm. But we are starting to see some people come into this area. We have seen the helicopter overhead. But it is important to know that this part of the city that is closed down is just one square mile.

It is just a sliver of downtown that is closed. The rest of the city is operating as usual. And you can see in the distance some red technicolor down there. That's again another ramp onto the 101, where they're blocking it off, because just yesterday they managed -- protesters managed to make their way onto the roadway again and stop the freeway's traffic for a bit.

This is why they're being very vigilant about keeping the freeway access points blocked and covered. And also still down there, there's still some law enforcement I can see down there in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center.

But this is the situation that we find ourselves in again after five nights of protest. And what they're doing now is expecting that curfew to be in a place again tonight, so that they continue to disperse the people and separate those who are just protesters from the people who are out here just trying to cause havoc and destruction.

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KEILAR: All right, Stephanie Elam as we await the day ahead there in Los Angeles, thank you for the report.

As we said, Attorney General Pam Bondi is saying the DOJ has assisted in the arrest of over 190 undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles so far.

SANCHEZ: And when asked if the president could invoke the Insurrection Act, Bondi said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Right now in California, we're at a good point. We're not scared to go further. We're not frightened to do something else if we need to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: With us to discuss, CNN senior legal analyst former federal prosecutor Elie Honig.

Elie, great to see you as always.

Short of invoking the Insurrection Act, what options do Bondi and the administration have?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: That would be a huge next step. Talk about going further. We're not there yet in terms of invoking the Insurrection Act.

What has happened already is, the president has evoked a separate law, and that enables him to mobilize the National Guard in certain situations. Would include an invasion or rebellion or the broadest category is if necessary to enforce federal law. So that's what he's already done in California.

There's an ongoing court battle hearing tomorrow on the legality of that. So far, the judge has refused to pause the president's mobilization of the National Guard. The other thing Pam Bondi can do, she can always step up enforcement efforts, right? She's the head of DOJ, which means that the law enforcement agencies that fall within DOJ, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA, those are all under her command.

And she can amp up the federal charges relating to these protests. Now, not every street crime is going to be a federal crime, but some will. And it's important. If DOJ is going to get involved, they better make sure -- and I presume they are -- that what they're charging is actually federal crimes.

KEILAR: So as they go to -- before a federal judge tomorrow...

HONIG: Yes.

KEILAR: ... as California is suing the Trump administration over the use of the Guard and the Marines, who's got a stronger case here?

HONIG: Well, so far, it looks like the Trump administration has a stronger case. Now, we are on really unknown territory here. This law has only ever been invoked one time before. It was in 1970.

It had to do with a postal workers strike. It was not controversial. Did not end up in the courts. That law that I mentioned before, what Trump has pointed to is, he says, first of all, this is a rebellion, or there's a danger of a rebellion. It feels like a stretch to me.

But then he says, what, provision three, it's necessary to enforce federal laws. Now, California's argument is, yes, but that law says that it has to go through the governor. The orders have to be issued from the president through the governor, and Gavin Newsom certainly doesn't agree to this, so therefore it's invalid.

But I think the better argument is, the whole reason this law is passed and exists is to give the president some power over the National Guard. It's about enforcing federal law. You can't tell me that a state governor can override a president when it comes to enforcing federal law.

SANCHEZ: Even if there's no real organized rebellion or insurrection, as the administration is claiming?

HONIG: Right, so that's a separate argument, and I think a better argument that California might make, which is, OK, even if it's not up to the governor, even if it is up to the president, this is not a rebellion. I think that's actually a good argument.

It's a little harder to argue it's not necessary to enforce federal law. This statute, again, where this all springs from, it's really broad. It gives the president very broad powers, and it's really tough to get a judge to say, well, I disagree it's not necessary to, again, enforce federal law. Think of how broad that is.

Now, important to know the judge that has this case, a federal judge in California, has refused to stop the president's deployment of the National Guard so far, right? A lot of judges would have said, oh, we're putting the brakes on. But, yesterday, the judge said, no, I'm going to let it go forward and we're going to resolve it.

We're going to have a hearing at least tomorrow. So, for the time being, presidents actions stand.

KEILAR: The Trump administration is accusing California of judge shopping, which seems to be like the new thing that everyone accuses everyone of doing here.

HONIG: Yes.

KEILAR: What do you make of this?

HONIG: Well, everyone does do it, to be clear.

(LAUGHTER)

HONIG: But in this case, it's not. I don't think it's being done at all.

KEILAR: It's quite the refrain, though.

HONIG: Yes. No, I mean, look, both sides -- there's a reason that all the cases challenging the Biden administration were filed in the Western District of Texas. And there's a reason -- but this case is perfectly legitimately filed where it's been filed.

First of all, you have to go to federal court. And then there's only three districts in California. There's North, Central and South. This is -- L.A.'s in the South, the Southern District of California. And then you have no say over which judge gets appointed to a case. So you file in a district.

And in any given district, there's a dozen or two dozen judges. And it's just randomly wheeled out. So I don't think the charges of judge shopping apply here.

SANCHEZ: You made the point earlier that we're still far from an invocation of the Insurrection Act, but we are heading into a weekend where there are some 1,000-odd protests planned across the country.

HONIG: Yes.

SANCHEZ: What grounds would the president have to actually do it? Because he's left it on the table as an option.

HONIG: Similarly fuzzy language to what we just talked about. I mean, obviously, if there's an insurrection or rebellion, then the president can invoke the Insurrection Act.

But there's also language along the lines of what I just said, similar to what I just said, if necessary to enforce civil rights and to protect constitutional rights of citizens. But the thing is, if the president invokes the Insurrection Act, the effect of that is that would then allow the military to carry out everyday law enforcement, everyday policing, which is ordinarily a very strict wall.

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The military folks cannot carry out policing actions. They can support the police, they can protect federal buildings, but if he invokes the Insurrection Act, you could see members of the armed forces putting handcuffs on people in the streets, doing search warrants, doing interrogations.

I mean, that's scary stuff in this country. And, in a way, we're a far away from that, it feels like, but it's also a stroke of a pen if he wants to do it, so very important stuff.

SANCHEZ: Very important to keep in mind.

Elie Honig, thank you so much.

HONIG: Thanks, guys.

SANCHEZ: ICE operations, which sparked much of what we have seen, have put many people on edge. For months, fear has been growing in California's immigrant community, as many are now afraid of getting swept up in raids.

KEILAR: And with us now is a staff writer at "The L.A. Times," Rebecca Ellis.

Thank you so much, Rebecca, for being with us.

What do we know about where ICE raids are currently taking place in the L.A. area and who's being targeted?

REBECCA ELLIS, STAFF WRITER, "THE LOS ANGELES TIMES": Yes, so the ICE raid on Friday is really what started this and got people aware of just how much the administration was ramping up.

The main raid on Friday was at an apparel factory in the downtown L.A. We have seen other raids at car washes. There have been a few alleged raids at Home Depot. It is really hard to get firm numbers on just how many raids have occurred in the last few days. Immigrant activists we have talked to have said it could be somewhere around 200 to maybe 300 people detained in these raids.

But the rumor mill's going and we're hearing about them every hour.

SANCHEZ: Rebecca, I'm curious if you have been able to gather an assessment of specifically Friday night, when this all started and part of the justification for the administration sending in military force.

The idea that folks on the ground, that protesters were blocking ICE agents from conducting their work, how legitimate is that claim?

ELLIS: So the one -- and I wasn't there on Friday afternoon, but I have seen video and I had colleagues that were there.

What happened, it seems like, is that ICE had gone in. This was in a garment factory downtown. ICE had gone in and then word got out. And so while ICE agents were still there, there were a ton of protesters that had gathered around outside and were trying to block ICE from leaving, and that was when you saw, I think it was like, there were all these videos of tear gas and flashbangs, I think.

And so there was some blocking there, but for the most part what we have seen where there have been these big clashes is, it's really around federal buildings downtown and not so much actually at the ICE raids themselves.

KEILAR: And in your reporting, talking to people in the immigrant community or in mixed-status families, how are they reacting to these operations? Are they changing their daily behavior?

ELLIS: I mean, people are terrified. I will say there have been so many rumors we have been hearing about ICE parking outside of schools.

So we have spoken with some families who are afraid to bring their kids to school. Or, last weekend, there were supposed to be all these graduations, parents afraid to go to their kids graduation, people afraid to go to work. But some are saying they still have to. They still have to make -- they can't -- they can't not.

And so the stakes are really, really high right now. And I think there's just so much -- so much fear.

SANCHEZ: Have you gotten an update on the level of coordination between local officials and these federal troops, whether the National Guard or the 700 Marines that we understand are still undergoing training?

ELLIS: Yes, so we have not seen too much in terms of the Marines that have been sent here.

I think we're supposed to start seeing them on Wednesday. The National Guard for the most part has really just been on the perimeter of the federal building downtown and some other federal buildings, guarding them, but they haven't really stepped far outside. They have been helping with some ICE raids that we have seen.

And so the protest control, the crowd control has really been local, California Highway Patrol, LAPD, some from the sheriff's department. So that's really who's been doing all of that protest stuff. So there hasn't been too much overlap from what we have seen. When I was there, I think two days ago, what you saw was LAPD moving really fast to move protesters away from the National Guard, away from the federal building.

So there was pretty limited interaction once it started getting dark between protesters and federal forces.

SANCHEZ: Rebecca Ellis, thanks so much for the update.

ELLIS: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: We have much more to come on the anti-ICE protests spreading across the country. New York City's Mayor Eric Adams joins us to talk about demonstrations in the city last night.

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KEILAR: And Elon Musk reveals that he has some regrets about those social media posts about President Trump. So, which posts are part of the some and where does this leave his relationship with Trump?

We will discuss next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: So, Elon Musk is now expressing some regret about the very public war of words he's had with President Trump over the last week, the wealthiest man in the world taking to social media, his social media platform, X, writing -- quote -- "I regret some of my posts about President Trump last week. They went too far."

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That crossed in the wee hours of the morning. KEILAR: Yes.

And this comes just days after Musk was still taking a fighting stance, replying yes to a post suggesting that Musk would win the battle against Trump and that Trump should actually be impeached.

CNN has some new information what preceded Musk's newest regret post.

And we have CNN's Kevin Liptak at the White House.

Kevin, what can you tell us?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and this was not a particularly effusive expression of regret. It was fairly terse, and he's not actually saying which of his posts he now regrets, whether it was the implicit call for impeachment, whether it was linking Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, the world's most notorious pedophile.

But there were some signs that this thought was in the offing, and it all sort of began on Friday, when Musk got on a telephone call with J.D. Vance, the vice president, with Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and discussed this ongoing feud.

And you saw indications over the weekend that perhaps Musk was backing down. He deleted that post about Jeffrey Epstein. He posted some things that were supportive of what the president was doing in Los Angeles. He refollowed Stephen Miller, who he had previously unfollowed. It all sort of built up to this post that he put out today.

I think the real question is whether Donald Trump himself seems all that open to reconciliation. He talked on a podcast interview earlier this week, essentially saying he wasn't spending much time thinking about Musk at all. Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have no hard feelings. I was really surprised that that happened. He went after a bill that's phenomenal. It's the best thing we have ever signed in this country. And that's phase one.

Phase two, phase three, all of a sudden, it all comes together. It's coming together so well. And when he did that, I was not a happy camper. So it's too bad.

QUESTION: You said he had problems. What kind of problems? I mean, is it the drugs?

TRUMP: I don't know what his problem is, really. I don't know. I haven't thought too much about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So the president there stopping short of expressing any regret himself, although adopting a somewhat softer tone. The real question, I think, is what this all means for the big piece of legislation that was the origin of this feud in the first place, remember, Musk going after that megabill because it would explode the deficit, giving voice to concerns that a number of Republican senators continue to have about this piece of legislation, Donald Trump making the argument for the bill there, but I think it's clear Musk himself still no more supportive of that legislation, even as he's trying to make up with the president.

KEILAR: As Justin Bieber said, is it too late now to say sorry?

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: And perhaps President Trump has answered that question.

Kevin Liptak live for us at the White House, thank you.

We do have some breaking news into CNN. Music legend Brian Wilson, the, of course, driving force behind the Beach Boys, has passed away at the age of 82.

SANCHEZ: In a statement, his family wrote -- quote -- "We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father, Brian Wilson, has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time, as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world."

CNN's Stephanie Elam has more on his life and career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (voice-over): He was the mastermind behind the Beach Boys' chart-topping success. Brian Wilson was one of the most influential composers in modern music.

The Beach Boys' joyful pop emerged at the vanguard of the California sound in the early '60s. It was Wilson's creative genius that layered the band's five distinct voices into one perfect harmony.

BRIAN WILSON, MUSICIAN: I would describe it as ethereal and masculine and feminine put together.

ELAM: Wilson and the other Beach Boys wrote their signature sound wave through a string of hits, "Surfing USA," "I Get Around," "Fun, Fun, Fun," and "Help Me Rhonda."

By the mid-'60s, Wilson experimented with new music and with drugs. He said an LSD experience helped him write the Beach Boys' 1966 magnum opus, "Pet Sounds." "Pet Sounds" is widely considered one of the greatest albums of all time.

During its studio sessions, the Beach Boys recorded "Good Vibrations," later released as a single. It became one of the most influential tracks in rock history.

WILSON: The night we cut the vocals at RCA was one of the highlights in my life, teaching the guys the parts. And it was just a departure from anything we have ever, ever done before. It was probably our masterpiece.

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ELAM: For seven months, Wilson experimented with multiple layers of track, echoes and reverb, using the studio as his instrument.

"Good Vibrations," produced at a cost of more than $400,000 in today's dollars, was dubbed a pocket symphony. But the drug-fueled creative blaze came at a cost. Wilson said he began hearing voices around the time he used LSD. By the '70s, his life had spiraled into an abyss of drug abuse, depression, and seclusion.

He disappeared from public view and fell under the sway of discredited psychologist Eugene Landy. The 2015 biopic "Love and Mercy" dramatized Wilson's decline, his struggles with Landy, and his redemption with the help of second wife Melinda.

Wilson returned to the studio in the late '80s. He released over a dozen solo albums in the decades that followed. In 2012, he joined the Beach Boys for their 50-year reunion tour. Four years later, they toured again to commemorate 50 years since "Pet Sounds"' release.

Brian Wilson, a musical master who faced personal discord and wrote enduring harmonies.

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KEILAR: Our thanks to Stephanie Elam for that.

Dozens of arrests happening after anti-ICE protests in New York City. Mayor Eric Adams will join us to talk about those demonstrations next.

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