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Netanyahu Says Israel Controls Skies over Tehran; Trump in Canada for G-7; Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) is Interviewed about Iran and the Minnesota Shooting; Juror Dismissed in Combs Trial; Minnesota Suspect in Court Today; Huldah Momanyi-Hiltsley is Interviewed about the Minnesota Shooting. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 16, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rest after that hit by Karen Read. Defense saying he walked into the house. I wanted to see it for myself. So, I went out there to 34 Fairview. I want to show you the pictures that I shot.

First of all, my impression. It is a much smaller front yard than it looks like in pictures. It is not that big. The area from the flagpole to the street, which is where it is believed by the commonwealth that John O'Keefe -- and that's where his body was found -- but that is where they believe that after he was hit, he made (ph) there, fell and died. It is very close to the street. It's very close to the debris field where so much was found, the broken tear light, his shoe, a baseball cap, the drinking glass that was broken, the straw that was broken.

But -- but really what I looked at I think helps both sides because the defense is saying that he walked into the house. And it wasn't that far for him to walk into the house. And you saw these different doors. You see the front door. When you look at the full house, you see the front door. You see a door to the right. And there is a side door into the garage the defense really focused on. But for the commonwealth, it also helps them because being hit, clipped by a vehicle, and laying to rest so close to the street, right where the debris field is, that is strong also.

Now, back out here. I want to tell you, this is a massive crowd. Absolutely massive. I'm going to step aside so you can see everyone. And you're just seeing one side of the street here. But this place is packed. And we are right across the street from the courthouse. The support here is 100-fold what it was during the first trial. People are here. They are -- there are families here together. They are all dressed in pink, showing their support for Karen Read.

Now, the jury arrives in a bus on -- at the back of the courthouse because the commonwealth made an argument before this trial started that this could intimidate a deliberating jury. But the courts have allowed this for them to be here to peacefully assemble. Jury comes in at the back, but they should start deliberating I'd say in about two minutes. Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jean Casarez, going to the scene there, giving us some perspective on all this in Massachusetts for us. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just in, quote, "the Israeli Air Force controls the skies over Tehran." The new message from the Israeli prime minister amid new rounds of Israeli and Iranian attacks. The death toll in both countries is rising. And we are standing by to hear from President Trump as he meets with world leaders in Canada as the conflict in the Middle East rages.

And we are standing by for the first court appearance of the Minnesota man charged with shooting four people, killing a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband. He was captured overnight in the largest manhunt in state history.

Kate is out today. I'm John Berman, with Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: Breaking news for you. Just this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying just moments ago that Israel's air force now, quote, controls the skies over Tehran. The new comments coming as the conflict between the two escalates and civilians are caught in the crossfire.

Overnight, missiles over Tel Aviv and dramatic new images of the damage to residential areas from the latest Iranian strikes. The two sides have been trading strikes ever since Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran's nuclear sites on Friday.

Now, let's take you to some video from social media that shows explosions around a refinery in the Israeli Port of Haifa. The power grid in central Israel was also damaged. According to officials on either side, at least 24 people in total have been killed in Israel and 224 in Iran since this conflict began just four days ago.

CNN's Nic Robertson is on the ground in Tel Aviv.

Give us a sense of what you're kneeling by, what you're seeing and what you're hearing from officials in all of this.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, one of the things I'm going to listen for right now, Sara, is the sound of sirens, possibly. It's -- it's really possible at the moment that Iran could be launching another series of strikes into Israel at the moment. So, keeping an ear for that. And if we move fast, you'll know why.

But what we're looking at here right now, that's the impact of one of the big Iranian ballistic missiles, not their biggest by far. And look, just going to stand up. Sanjiv (ph) is going to pan around here. That was the apartment building that it tore into. And the fact that nobody in here died, not just the miracle, people were in their shelters, but there was a staircase outside here that really took the -- the vast impact of the blast.

[09:05:01]

But as we've been showing you early on this morning, the building over there, I can see it, it's in sort of dark shadow at the moment, a hotel-office complex ripped apart by the blast as well. Eight people killed overnight, many others injured. No one killed here.

But the situation is a trade of weapons and munitions is just going on. And Yair Lapid, the principal opposition leader here, came down here before. His son lives in an apartment around here. He went to check it out. He said the bed that his granddaughter would normally have been sleeping in, if the family hadn't have moved out, was showered with glass. He said for sure his granddaughter would have been dead.

But I pushed him on this issue that Israel is promoting right now, that this exchange of fire, this conflict is going to go longer if the United States doesn't step in and support Israel. This is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So, what do you say to the U.S. right now and President Trump?

YAIR LAPID, ISRAELI OPPOSITION LEADER: I -- I -- listen, President Trump will make up his own mind about what's good for America. But we are telling, this is not only a threat for Israel, this is a word for a threat to the entire globe.

ROBERTSON: So, you want them to come in now, the U.S., others?

LAPID: I think -- I think it will be in everybody's interests, the region, the world, the United States, and, of course, Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It seems that Nic does not have communication with us right now at this hour, but you can see the damage surrounding him there.

ROBERTSON: Yes, what you heard Yair Lapid talking about there, a need for this to happen, for them to step in, it affects everyone. What he's very clearly saying is that this conflict, this spike in tensions, will go on much longer from Israel's perspective, if its allies don't join it, to help Israel destroy Iran's nuclear capability. That's the message very clear here. And the other message he had for me, politically, they are united here. He is in the opposition. But right now he's united with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They all have the same view on Iran.

And this is what the -- this city and other cities are going to endure as long as that goes on, strikes after strikes after strikes. Some will be destroyed in the air, the missiles. Some will get through. SIDNER: Yes, I know you and Sanjeev (ph) are concerned about those

sirens going off again, just along with the people there who are all told to be very close or to stay in shelters.

Thank you so much for being out there for us today, to give us a sense of what's going on there in Israel.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, President Trump is in Calgary for the G-7 summit. In just a few hours, he will have his first meeting of the day with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney before the official G-7 welcome event that happens at noon. This is the first international summit of Trump's second term. One with major implications on the domestic front for the president's trade deals and internationally, of course, with that growing conflict between Israel and Iran.

CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes, is in Calgary for what will be a busy day.

Kristen.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, it's not as though there isn't anything going on in the world. But when you talk to President Trump and his advisers, the real focus for them is the global economy. It is these trade and trade deals and potentially coming back with trade deals.

I mean we have to remember that the backdrop of all of this is, one, a looming global trade war, but also, two, those reciprocal tariffs that he has promised to put in place. That deadline is coming up and coming up fast. It's July 9th. And we expect Donald Trump to possibly even get aggressive with this, which we've seen in the past.

Now, he talked about these trade deals specifically when he was leaving for this trip.

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have our trade deals. All we have to do is send a letter. This is what you're going to have to pay. But I think we'll have a few -- a few new trade deals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A few deals there. He said sending the letters. That's something he's talked about, sending letters to these various allies, trading partners, to say what their unilateral tariffs will be if they don't meet that deadline. And we know the European Union, Japan, are all looking to make those deals.

But when we take trade out of the picture, and we just talk about these global alliances and these global relationships, the thing to look at here, you're going to see a lot of these leaders trying to really suss out where Donald Trump stands on various issues. These are some of our closest allies. But as we've seen, Donald Trump doesn't really care about our historically closest allies.

And one of the things that these other countries, leaders want to come away with is not having a confrontation, particularly a public confrontation with President Trump. You know, we'll see him sit down with Prime Minister Carney later this morning. The last meeting the two of them had didn't go great. It was on camera. And you saw the prime minister, who seemed very prepared for this sit down with Donald Trump, growing increasingly tense while Donald Trump kind of belittled Canada. Someone point -- he kept talking about how he wanted it to be the 51st state. He was talking about trade, laying into him publicly in front of these cameras. And these other leaders, they don't want to have a confrontation like this. So they're going to have to, behind the scenes, try to work with Donald Trump, who obviously is a mercurial person and isn't afraid to have these kind of confrontations in public, to see where he stands and if he is on the same side as they are with some of these international issues.

[09:10:11]

BERMAN: All right, just one of the things or one of the many things he'll be discussing today.

Kristen Holmes, in Calgary, thank you so much. Great to see you.

Sara.

SIDNER: Joining me now, Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington state.

I want to first just quickly talk to you about the G-7. There is concern among G-7 leaders that whether or not Donald Trump and -- and the U.S. is with or against them. They are the allies of the United States. How concerned are you about the feeling of the -- the G-7 nations?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): I'm very concerned. First of all, it's a legitimate concern based on what Donald Trump has done as president in the last five months. You know, he's basically started a trade war with the entire world. I mean we have a major challenge with China. I mean taking that on, on its own would be difficult. But now President Trump has alienated all of the potential partners in that challenge. He's made it clear that he will place tariffs on anybody and everybody regardless of -- of the relationship.

And then, as -- as John was just alluding to, the constant belittling of our allies, like Canada and Denmark, threatening to use military force to take Greenland, to take Panama and to annex Canada. I think all of the G-7 have every reason to worry whether or not Donald Trump is truly going to work with them and be a partner and an ally.

SIDNER: I -- I want to go to the conflagration between Israel and Iran. Trump has said, look, for now, the United States is staying out of it, but it is possible for the U.S. to become involved. What are the warnings here? What do you think? Is the president doing the right thing by trying to stay out of this conflict right now?

SMITH: Yes. I think we should stay out of the conflict. But it's very dangerous. And the warning signals are clear. And I get regular updates. You know, we have a number of forces in the region, in Iraq and UAE and Qatar, Bahrain, Syria. And there's reporting that some of those forces have been targeted a couple times by militia groups. Fortunately, not attacks that have succeeded.

You know, but if U.S. service members are killed or injured or even attacked in that region, it grows the pressure on us to get involved to protect them. To protect them against Iran.

Look, we need to de-escalate this situation as soon as possible. I support the Trump administration's effort to negotiate an outcome. But we all do have to remember what Iran presents to Israel. And from the day Israel -- I'm sorry, from the day Iran was founded, the Iranian Republic was founded, Islamic Republic, 1979, the elimination of Israel has been a central tenet of their foreign policy. And it hasn't just been rhetoric. They've supported Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis, others, in an effort to destroy Israel. And Israel has to figure out how to deal with that. And it's certainly an Iran that wants to destroy Israel and has a nuclear weapon. That is -- that is the definition of an existential threat, just hoping that Iran is willing to find an off ramp at this point.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about what has happened in Minnesota. You have a lawmaker and her husband assassinated. You have another lawmaker, a state senator, who was shot, along with his wife. What are your great concerns after seeing what happened and hearing from police that this was likely a politically motivated attack?

SMITH: My biggest concern is that we, as a society, are normalizing political violence. And you see this on many points on the political spectrum, the denigration and attacking of elected officials that you disagree with. It becomes incredibly -- it's -- it's hateful and dehumanizing. And it puts in people's minds the idea that violence is an acceptable way to carry out your political viewpoints. And you see this in much of the dialog that we have. No one side of the political spectrum has a monopoly on it. It's certainly -- you've seen it on the right and the left.

But President Trump is the biggest problem here. I mean he has used hateful, degrading rhetoric from the day he decided to run for president. And then pardoning all of the January 6th attackers of the U.S. Capitol, people who thought that violence was a legitimate way to overturn an election, and Donald Trump gave him a big stamp of approval. You also have heard Trump muttering about possibly pardoning the people who attempted to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Look, if Donald Trump and the Republican Party want this kind of thing to stop, they need to change their rhetoric and stop pardoning people who commit acts that are dangerous to this.

Like I -- representative democracy is dependent upon people running for office and holding those offices. If you think running for office means that you're a legitimate target for violence, that significantly undermines our representative democracy. And I -- I am deeply worried about it.

[09:15:01]

And I hope all of our leaders will begin to change that rhetoric.

SIDNER: Congressman Adam Smith, very wise words this morning on that subject. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we're standing by for the first court appearance from the Minnesota man charged with killing a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband. He was captured overnight in the largest manhunt in state history.

We've got some breaking news just in. A juror in the criminal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs, dismissed. We've got the new details ahead. What are the implications for that case now?

And new this morning, President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency telling staff to stop enforcing violations against the oil and gas industry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right, we've got some breaking news for you now in the Sean Combs trial. We are now learning a juror has just been dismissed.

CNN's Kara Scannell outside the courthouse in New York with more on this.

Do we have a reasoning for why this happened, knowing that there are alternate jurors, so this will not hold the case up?

[09:20:05]

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Sara, this will not hold the case up. The judge said that he was dismissing juror number six because of inconsistencies in statements that he made, answering what the judge called basic questions, such as where does he live? In jury selection he said he lived in the Bronx, but it came to be known to the court that he was actually living in New Jersey. The judge saying that he has concerns about these inconsistencies and the candor that the juror had provided the court. He also said that he had questions about whether the juror would be able to follow the law and as he is told to apply it. And the judge said that there were questions now about whether the juror was shading his answers to get on the jury and to stay on the jury.

Now, the defense team had pushed back. Combs' lawyer saying that this would make the jury less diverse. But the judge said that he disagreed. And he also said that race should play no role and have no factor in this process. The race of the juror and the race of the alternate. Now, this juror who is dismissed is a black man. He will be replaced by a white man on this jury. But the judge underscoring that this jury is still quite diverse, particularly in this district. So, that is the issue.

There's an issue with another juror that has arisen. The judge says that they will deal with that after court. But he said the two are not related at all. And right now the government has called their next witness, a paralegal from their office who is starting to do the summary of this case, which is to get -- tie the dots -- connect the dots between some of the evidence that has come in so far.

Sara.

SIDNER: Kara Scannell, good for you getting through that New York New Yorking with all of the honking. Thank you for that breaking news. A juror has been dismissed from the case because of questions over inconsistency with what he told the judge and the court. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. We'll check back with you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, shortly, the Minnesota man charged with shooting two state lawmakers and their spouses is expected to make his first court appearance. Fifty-seven-year-old Vance Boelter was captured overnight, arrested after officers say he crawled out of the wooded area near his home into a field. Boelter is charged with killing State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband. He's also charged with the attempted murders of State Senator John Hoffman and his wife. Authorities say they found multiple weapons and at least two hit lists with the names of other lawmakers on it. The Justice Department is now weighing possible federal charges against Boelter.

Let's get right to CNN's Danny Freeman, who is in Minneapolis outside the Hennepin County jail.

What's the latest from there, Danny?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, just an incredible turn of events. Less than 48 hours after 57-year-old Vance Boelter was accused of opening fire at these two lawmakers and their families on Saturday morning, he was taken into custody last night without incident. Police calling this the largest manhunt in Minnesota state history.

And this all unfolded, John, about 50 miles southwest of where we are here in Minneapolis. It's in a rural area of the state. It happened in Sibley County. And what was fascinating is yesterday that entire community was on edge. There was an alert that went out saying that people should be extra vigilant, lock their doors, secure their cars because they thought that the suspect here might be in that rural area. And I and residents in the area, we watched heavily, heavily armored and armed police going door to door, searching homes, searching open garages, combing through farmland and, as you noted, woods to try and find the suspect. And then, according to "The Minnesota Star Tribune," around 7:00 p.m. it was a trail camera owned by a local resident that actually picked up an image of what appeared to be this suspect. They alerted police, and then police were able to focus in on a specific area in this county, and then police were able to use drones, helicopter and infrared technology, to zero in. Police, as you said, were able to crawl towards him, ultimately convince him to surrender.

And police noted that he was armed when they found him. So, again, just incredible that they were able to end this search, this manhunt, without any injury to any officers or anyone else.

I will say, though, this has been a tremendous amount of relief to so many in this larger Minnesota community. I want you to take a listen, though, to how police describe this massive effort to get to this conclusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MARK BRULEY, BROOKLYN PARK, MINNESOTA, POLICE: We started to deploy resources, including the Brooklyn Park SWAT team, along with many other SWAT teams, to contain an extremely large area, knowing that this is a very dangerous individual. During that, we got privy to additional information of an individual that was in the woods, and that search went on for many hours until ultimately we were able to locate him in the woods.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Again, just remarkable, with so many cameras out there, even in a rural area of the state.

Now, Boelter is back here in custody in Hennepin County. He's expected to face murder charges in court a little later this afternoon.

And then the last thing I'll note, John. We just got our hands on the official criminal complaint here in this case. And we learned that the daughter of the Hoffman's, that's the state lawmaker -- State Senator Jeff -- John Hoffman, excuse me, and his wife, Yvette, they were shot, but they survived, their daughter was actually the first one to call 911 to alert police that something had gone horribly wrong here.

[09:25:04]

That and the proactive nature of a local police officer to check on State Representative Melissa Hortman, according to police, really, really stopped what would have been otherwise a tremendous amount of destruction.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, it could have been so much worse, but it was awful already. But the courage of that child to call police may have saved lives.

Danny Freeman, thank you so much for your report. We'll check back in with you shortly. It's going to be a busy day there.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining us now is Minnesota State Representative Huldah Momanyi-Hiltsley.

Thank you so much for being here.

I am -- I know you are devastated. We are so sorry you are going through this. And -- and I'm curious at this hour, even though that the suspect has been apprehended, with this horrific instance of violence where two, not one, two members of the Minnesota legislature have been attacked, one killed, one gravely wounded, alongside their spouses, are you still in fear this morning?

HULDAH MOMANYI-HILTSLEY (D), MINNESOTA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: You know, first of all, thanks so much for having me on. It's -- we are right now, all of us, in a state of just shock still. But if we're talking about safety, you know, right now, all I'm thinking about is my family. Right now we had to leave our home. We are hoping that with this good news of the perpetrator (INAUDIBLE) it's a sense of relief. But at the same time, as legislators, we are definitely on our toes and -- and still looking behind our backs.

SIDNER: Can -- can you -- I know you know and knew Representative Hortman. Can you give us some sense of who she was to you and who she was to the community at large?

MOMANYI-HILTSLEY: She was a woman of the people. She was our anchor. You know, coming from the same city, you know, me and her have worked a lot on community engagements, community, you know, partnerships and uplift in the city of Brooklyn Park together. I got to know her, you know, when I got involved in politics, you know, back in 2022, when I ran for state senate, and I had went to her and asked for her advice and asked even for her support and endorsement. And I remember her telling me -- telling me, you know, I think you're bright. I think you are, you know, smart. And we need you. We need your representation. But I think you'll have more fun in the house. And she still gave me her blessing.

And so, knowing that we no longer have our anchor, especially now that I am in the house, and I was privileged, and many of us were privileged to be under her leadership. You know, she was, you know, someone, a leader, who led with quiet strength. She didn't have to yell. Instead, she set the bar for us. You know, her challenge. We made sure we were vocal about issues. But at the end of the day, as brilliant as she was, she laid out the case as to why she thought we would, you know, go down a certain path. And we believed in her. You know, there's moments where we were very upset with the decisions that she was making, but we knew, in the end, she was doing it for our own good and for the people of the state of Minnesota and because we trusted in the vision she had for our caucus and the state of Minnesota.

SIDNER: Do you think that lawmakers, not just in Minnesota, but across the country, with so many of these threats going up, in large numbers, threats to lawmakers, lawmakers reporting that they are getting all sorts of threats, both online, sometimes in person, does there need to be a change in the way in which you are protected? In other words, are you asking for more protection? And do you think that is necessary across the board?

MOMANYI-HILTSLEY: Absolutely. I mean this is just a wake-up call. There's -- there's a couple of us who would get certain messages, certain comments on social media, you name it, and we would voice that. We would voice how unsafe we felt, you know. And this is yet another reminder that, you know, as lawmakers, you know, we have put our blood, sweat and tears especially into, you know, serving and it's -- it's about time that we are accorded the support and the security and most importantly communication to us when certain things happen so that we know how to, you know, move forward, how to make decisions, because I felt this time around, personally for me, I wasn't aware of what was going on until later on when a news reporter reached out to my office asking me if I was safe, asking me if I was the representative that was involved because, you know, the initial release statement said a Brooklyn Park representative, you know.

[09:30:07]

And -- and I never got information in --