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Crowd Clashes With Authorities After L.A. ICE Raids; Musk Appears To Scrub Several Posts Attacking Trump Including "Epstein Files" Allegation; Abrego Garcia Returns To U.S. To Face Criminal Charges; Trump Warns Of "Serious Consequences" If Musk Funds Democratic Candidates; Coco Gauff Defeats Sabalenka To Win First French Open Title; Tesla Stock Crumpled Thursday Amid Musk-Trump War Of Words; Washington, D.C. Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Pride Festivities. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired June 07, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:38]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean in New York. And we are following several developing stories tonight.

Breaking news first, intense clashes in Los Angeles as authorities in riot gear, deploying tear gas and flashbangs in an attempt to disperse protests against immigration raids. Plus, we have new details on the breakup heard around the world, and the fallout between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Just moments ago, Trump warning Musk against funding any Democrats who are challenging Republicans that support Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill, that's according to NBC News.

And also, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year, has been returned to the U.S. And now that he's back, Abrego Garcia is facing criminal charges related to allegedly transporting undocumented immigrants.

Let's start first with that breaking news. ICE immigration raids and protests intensifying tonight in the Los Angeles area. We have new video of what appears to be tear gas being deployed in Paramount, California. This as protesters and police clashed last night after immigration raids.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, they're removing the --

(GUNSHOT)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Son of a --

(END VIDEOCLIP)

DEAN: CNN Correspondent Julia Vargas Jones is joining us now from Los Angeles, and in fact -- there she is. We're looking at Betsy Klein for a second. We're going to go to Julia now.

Julia, what is the latest we're seeing this new video? What are you hearing?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this new video is showing the immigration officers attempting to disperse a crowd after a raid just south of Los Angeles. Take a look at how that went down, Jessica.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEOCLIP)

JONES: She was -- one white -- eyewitness telling us that she could feel the tear gas there as they were trying to disperse the community. The raid happened near a Home Depot, Jessica. This one eyewitness who took the video said where workers usually gathered, and it's unclear if any arrests were made in this raid that's still going on.

But it has been an extraordinary show of force as these immigration actions take place around Los Angeles. Starting yesterday, 44 people were arrested across three different locations, one of them in the Garment District, in the Fashion District of Los Angeles, where it was believed to be that the owner of this place was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, another one at another Home Depot.

And, of course, these raids in Los Angeles, a city that is -- has an immense immigrant population, was met with a lot of anger, and that is how those protests escalated, taking over downtown Los Angeles, paralyzing parts of the city until police stepped in and dispersed it with some smoke bombs last night as well.

I want you to listen to why one protester said that she felt she had to be out.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ANGELICA SALAS, DIRECTOR, COALITION FOR HUMANE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS: Our community is under attack and is being terrorized. These are workers. These are fathers. These are mothers. And this has to stop.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

JONES: The outrage from this, Jessica, not coming only from these protesters, but also from California officials. Mayor Karen Bass calling this a terror tactic, and Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, saying that these arbitrary arrests are as reckless as they are, are cruel, calling Donald Trump by name, saying that this is chaotic and it's eroding trust in the government.

California is home to an estimated about 10 million undocumented immigrants, and about one-third of them live here in the L.A. County area. So, of course, the effect of these raids is that this community is in fear. People will be afraid of going outside to go to their jobs.

And it is also another chapter in the everlasting feud between the governor and the president, as he now has threatened to cut federal funding from California for various different reasons, not just immigration, but that being today the central point, Jessica.

[15:05:13]

DEAN: And just to underscore the video we were just looking at, Julia, that's from today. And so it went like this. There were raids by ICE. People in California were protesting those raids, and that's when authorities used flashbangs and tear gas to disperse them. Is that correct?

JONES: That was yesterday. Today, what we're seeing is this was not a planned protest. This was just a gathering of the community as ICE was conducting a raid in South L.A. The reaction there was quite immediate. We saw -- we followed this live stream from this one woman who recorded the whole thing, and we could follow as ICE was going along and more and more people were arriving at the scene in South L.A. near this Home Depot, Jessica.

DEAN: All right.

JONES: That's where we see those flashbangs, where we hear those tear gas canisters being deployed to disperse that crowd.

DEAN: OK. We will keep an eye on this. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for your reporting. We appreciate it.

Meantime, Senior -- CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein also standing by. She's joining us now on our other top story. And Betsy, let's go back to the beginning of the show with another story we've been following, which is this breakup and a feud between President Trump and Elon Musk. There are new developments in that just in the last -- little bit today, what are you learning?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Yes, Jessica, White House officials had spent most of Friday trying to diffuse and downplay this explosive breakup between President Trump and Elon Musk that took place on Thursday through a series of barbs traded on dueling social media platforms. This all started because of a disagreement over the president's signature domestic spending agenda, but quickly devolved.

But despite all of the drama here, it really could have real-world serious impacts. Number one, Musk at one point endorsed this idea of impeaching the president, removing him from office, and installing Vice President JD Vance in his stead. Of course, Musk has pledged significant funds to Trump-aligned candidates in the 2026 midterm elections. And now all of that is in question.

The president was asked about that earlier today in an interview with NBC News, and he said that there would be serious consequences if Musk chooses to fund Democratic candidates who run against Republicans who vote in favor of this bill. And secondly, the president has threatened to review Musk's federal government contracts for his businesses. This, of course, could have billions of dollars in impact to things like SpaceX. The president has told his staff to stay focused on that so-called Big Beautiful Bill working its way through the Senate now.

He told his Vice President JD Vance to speak diplomatically about this situation, and for his part, when asked about it on Air Force One, told reporters he's not thinking about Musk. Of course, this feud has spawned gossip across the West Wing. One former Trump official saying that everyone is talking about it.

And even though the president says he doesn't care, we've learned that the president has been privately asking allies and advisers whether they believe that Musk's reported drug use has impacted his behavior over the last several days, Jessica.

DEAN: And Betsy, I also want to ask you about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. to face these criminal charges. The Trump administration has been adamant that he would not be returned to the U.S. Now he has been returned to the U.S. to face these charges. What changed?

KLEIN: It appeared to be a bit of a dramatic turnaround yesterday as it was announced that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, that Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador a few months ago, was returning to the U.S. to face federal criminal charges. Why now? A grand jury investigated the matter, according to Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

She said the circumstances have changed. There have been new facts that have emerged as part of that investigation and evidence. Sources say that the White House signed off on the decision to return Abrego Garcia.

The president, for his part, telling reporters that he had nothing to do with it. Listen to what he said on his way here to Bedminster.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, did you speak with Bukele directly to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't want to say that. But he's returned.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have any conversation --

TRUMP: And he should have been returned. He should have never had to be returned. I mean, you take a look at what's happened with him. You take a look at what they found in the grand jury and everywhere else. I thought Pam Bondi did a great job today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was this your call to bring him back to the United States?

TRUMP: I don't want to say that. (END VIDEOCLIP)

[15:10:00]

KLEIN: The president told NBC News in that interview that it was not his decision to return Abrego Garcia here to the U.S., but he believed it would be a, quote, "very easy case for federal prosecutors." The White House, of course, will be watching this case play out in federal courts quite closely in the coming days and weeks ahead, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Betsy Klein, thank you so much for that update.

And joining us now, White House Correspondent for The New York Times and author of the upcoming book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America", Tyler Pager, and Senior Political Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Molly Ball.

Good to have both of you here with us. Thanks for being with us on a Saturday afternoon. Let's go back to Elon Musk and Donald Trump for a second. Obviously, Musk has now deleted a lot of his more explosive posts that he wrote over the last couple of days.

Tyler, I know you and your colleagues at The New York Times report there was a buildup to this meltdown between Musk and Trump. What did you learn?

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, the relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump had eroded from what we saw earlier in the administration where Elon Musk was almost a constant presence by the president's side, traveling with him to Mar- a-Lago, hanging out in the Oval Office, even sitting for a joint interview with Sean Hannity.

Over the course of the several months, Elon Musk had clashed with senior White House officials and Cabinet officials. He had frustrated Trump and his advisers by criticizing the president's tariffs. And then one of the really flashpoint episodes was just about a week ago inside the Oval Office, right after Trump and Musk had that sort of jubilant farewell event, where the president asked Elon Musk about Jared Isaacman.

So this is Trump's nominee to run NASA, NASA of critical importance to Elon Musk because of SpaceX, his space technology company. And Trump had relearned that Isaacman had made donations to Democrats. There was some back and forth and a confrontation over that fact.

And Trump ultimately decided to pull that nomination, humiliating Elon Musk, according to our sources familiar with the matter. And that then unfolded over the course of the last week, where we saw Musk ratchet up his criticism of Trump's domestic policy bill. And then it just exploded in plain view on social media over the course of the last few days.

DEAN: Yes. And Molly, look, there is the drama of all of this, which everyone has watched play out, but there are the real world implications. I mean, the post calling the bill an abomination are still on Musk's profile. He also has this, which says, quote, "In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people."

And in a phone interview with NBC, the president said today that Musk will, in his words, pay the consequences if he does fund Democratic candidates. He's been talking -- Musk has been talking about starting a third party. Molly, what kind of implications does this have for Republicans moving forward?

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think this is what the serious downstream consequences are what we're all waiting to see now, because as you say, it's drama, it's gossip in the moment. But clearly, I mean, already it has had consequences at NASA, which is going to get a different administrator than people had been preparing for already. And someone who potentially is less favorable to SpaceX and to Musk.

There's the potential political consequences.

Does Musk decide that he does want to fund a political party? Someone with his resources could -- and particularly his command of a major media platform could really make a difference there if he wanted to. Republicans are already regretting the potential loss of his political contributions for their side.

And then there's the potential legislative consequences. You know, as Tyler was talking about, Musk has become the ringleader of the fiscal conservatives criticizing the Big Beautiful Bill. There were a few of them, but Musk has given them important ammunition so that they can now point to his criticisms and say that, you know, he's backing them up.

So, you know, most Republicans in Congress are much more loyal to Donald Trump than they are to Elon Musk. But to have him on their side and to have him amplifying the criticisms of people like Rand Paul, who have been already calling this bill, just like Elon Musk, a bill that spends too much, that doesn't do enough to rein in government spending and rein in the deficit, you know, that was already a bill that was experiencing tough sledding getting through the United States Senate.

Most congressional observers still expect that it's going to be able to pass, but it could be a pretty tortured process to get there. It could have to go through some changes. And now those deficit hawks who are sympathetic to Musk's position have a little bit of wind in their sails because of the things that he said.

DEAN: Yes. And look, Tyler, to that point, the most recent polling from New York Times and Siena College in April showed Musk's favorability at about -- among Republicans at 77 percent. What is -- what do you know and what are you hearing about the president and the White House's thinking around going up against somebody like Musk?

[15:15:14]

Trump's not opposed to a clash, and then he's not a stranger to clashing with people and fighting with people. But this is particularly different given that Elon Musk is a known quantity now, worked for, you know, was DOGE, embodiment of DOGE, and has -- and is the world's richest man.

PAGER: Yes, so one interesting thing about that, Jessica, is we have sources who are telling us that over the last, you know, few days Donald Trump has been pointing out that his poll numbers are higher than Elon Musk's, which I think gives you a window into how he is viewing this clash, that he feels confident the party is behind him.

And if forced to choose between him and Elon Musk, most people will support him. I mean, I think he has that longevity, he has that political power of building this MAGA movement over the better part of a decade.

But the -- as Molly said, I think one of the concerns is not just Elon Musk's money, that was a huge factor for Donald Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot, but also Elon Musk's willingness to use X, his social media platform, to wade into political fights and attack his critics. That was helpful for Republicans when he was attacking Democrats, but they will quickly learn that it is unhelpful to them if he starts training his fire on them more directly.

I think we also can get a sense of Trump's confidence about this clash based on the approach he's taking in these interviews. He's doling out to various reporters over the last day when he's saying, I have no interest in talking to Elon Musk and saying to NBC that he thinks the relationship is basically beyond repair.

Trump has a long history, as you know, Jessica, of sparring with former aides. He even made mention of that in the Oval Office, insinuating that Elon Musk may have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

So Trump is gearing up for a fight and his allies are ready to take his side. There are some that want to see this, you know, subside for the better of the Republican Party. But it's clear Trump is willing and ready to further engage in this fight or just ignore Elon Musk should this continue.

DEAN: More to come.

Tyler, Molly, thank you both. We really appreciate your time.

And still ahead, Coco's comeback. An epic showdown on the clay in Paris as Coco Gauff storms back to defeat the world number one in a nail-biting French Open final. We're going to have more on her emotional win.

Plus, the shattering of Elon Musk. We're going to talk to the reporter who wrote the book on the billionaire and how this feud with the president may have been inevitable.

And a CNN special event tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. George Clooney live from Broadway in "Good Night and Good Luck". He sat down with our Anderson Cooper tonight of -- ahead of tonight's show.

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[15:22:33]

DEAN: A huge day on the red clay at the French Open as Coco Gauff won her second Grand Slam singles title by beating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka to win the French Open final. The 21-year-old Gauff is the first American since Serena Williams in 2015 to earn the title only the third this century.

And today's match was a repeat of Gauff's U.S. Open win over Sabalenka two years ago where she also came from being a set down to beat the Belarusian in the final.

Our Patrick Snell is joining us now. Patrick, this is just an amazing day for Coco Gauff. So much fun to watch, but this was not an easy match by any means.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: It wasn't. First of all, Jessica, I want to say this was an absolutely fantastic contest. It was absolutely sensational. It was high emotion. It was drama every step of the way. And Aryna Sabalenka will know you've never quite beaten Coco Gauff until you've actually beaten Coco Gauff.

She was absolutely full of dynamism and never-say-die attitude. It was incredible. These two were 5 and 5 going into this final but the first set lasting nearly 80 minutes and it would be Sabalenka in the end who takes that first set. And at that point we all thought she's probably going to go and win in two sets but not a bit of it.

Coco coming straight back and absolutely nailing that one to take the second set levelling the match at one apiece. And this is where her mental fortitude, Jessica, really shone through. Coco Gauff is one tough competitor and for me there was only going to be one winner in the deciding set and it would be the American player who as you say is now the first American woman since the great Serena Williams in 2015 to win the French.

You can see what it means to her. For me this journey begun three years ago when she lost the final in the French to Iga Swiatek. Though on that day it was tears of despair, now it's tears of absolute joy and emotion. You can see there sharing the moment with her parents.

She's earned this. She's deserved it. She's a worthy, worthy winner. Let's hear now from both players starting with Coco Gauff.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COCO GAUFF, WINS 2ND CAREER MAJOR, 1ST AT ROLAND-GARROS: You guys were cheering for me so hard and yes I don't know what I do to deserve so much love from the French crowd but I appreciate you guys. So merci beaucoup.

(APPLAUSE)

ARYNA SABALENKA, 3-TIME MAJOR WINNER, WORLD #1: I miss you, guys. This will hurts so much. Especially after such a tough two weeks playing great tennis and in these terrible conditions show such terrible tennis in the final, that's really hurt, but it's OK.

Anyway, Coco congrats. In this tough conditions, you were a better player than me. Well done on great two weeks and congrats on the second Grand Slam. Well deserved. You're a fighter, hard worker, so congrats to you and your team.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

[15:25:24]

SNELL: Really nice words there from Sabalenka and our heart goes out to her because she played a wonderful final as well.

But look at these scenes as well. This shows just how popular, Jessica, Coco Gauff is there taking in the moment, sharing it with those youngsters, those young ball boys and ball girls. They will never forget that moment, the day they got to party with Coco Gauff and share in her second Grand Slam singles crown.

There's something about the Terre Battue over there in the French capital, Jessica. Clearly (ph), the famous Paris clay that she absolutely loves. She's got her first French Open title in singles. She won the doubles there as well last year.

Bring on Wimbledon! I bet she's saying now because she can't wait for Wimbledon to come. It's an incredible story. Congrats to Coco.

Back to you.

DEAN: It's really -- it was -- it's really exciting. Huge congratulations to her.

SNELL: Yes.

DEAN: Patrick Snell, thanks so much.

And still ahead, the Trump-Musk feud still bubbling. And tonight, President Trump issuing a new warning saying Musk will, quote, "pay consequences" if he dares fund Democrats. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

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[15:30:47]

DEAN: Today, President Trump telling NBC, Elon Musk would, quote, "pay the consequences" if he were to start funding Democrats. Now, that's in stark contrast to February, when Musk posted he loved President Trump, quote, "as much as a straight man can love another man."

And last week, when Trump handed Musk a golden key to the White House as he officially left his government role and head of DOGE, Trump now saying Musk isn't on his mind at all.

Faiz Siddiqui joining us now. He's a journalist at the Washington Post. He's also the author of "Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk". Faiz, thanks so much for being here with us. One new development or newer development in all of this is that Musk has now begun to delete some of the more incendiary posts that he put up over the last couple of days. As someone who's reported extensively on him and his behavior, what does that say to you?

FAIZ SIDDIQUI, TECHNOLOGY REPORTER, WASHINGTON POST: I think Musk seems like he might be open to some form of reconciliation. Certainly his posts suggest that, you know, he's pleased that the president is not trying to escalate this any further. But can he restrain himself, you know?

As he's sitting behind his keyboard, can he resist the urge to fire off another one of these tweets that will kick things into high gear again? That's something to keep an eye on.

DEAN: Yes. And look, we've talked about this. There is the drama of all of this, of course, that I think human nature people are drawn to. But there's also real implications here. Musk, obviously, from a business perspective, has a lot of his companies relying on large government contracts like SpaceX. He's also got Starlink. How might that impact him?

SIDDIQUI: Yes. And Trump threatening to pull the subsidies from Musk's companies is a huge development for Musk's business empire, which, as you note, is heavily reliant on government backing, whether in the form of subsidies or support in terms of, you know, drawing up regulations or regulatory frameworks.

So Musk has a ton riding on his relationship with the government. And as Musk insinuates that, you know, Trump couldn't have gotten to office without the backing of Musk. Trump also holds some cards, as he might put it.

DEAN: Yes. And then there's the Tesla piece of this, because ostensibly Musk was leaving in part to go back to Tesla, that the investors had been begging him to come back to help right size some issues with that company, not to mention all of the kind of political blowback they were getting from what Musk was doing as well.

And yet he's gone a week and it's almost somehow worse than when he was still at the White House in terms of the attention they're getting. We saw those stocks dropping while this was happening. What about the Tesla piece of this?

SIDDIQUI: Yes, I mean, you have to imagine this is extremely frustrating for Tesla investors who saw the stock price soar on the news that, you know, the leader of the company would have a close relationship and serve in the administration, you know, the leader of the free world, and then who saw the fierce blowback to DOGE's efforts to cut down the size of the federal government.

And the demand for the company's cars has now come into question. Musk leaves or signals he's leaving government to refocus on Tesla and all of a sudden picks a fight with the president, causing a 15 percent decline in the stock price.

So these folks are tremendously frustrated. One of them asked me, like, can someone take away the phone from Elon Musk?

DEAN: Well, yes. And I think that's also to just as someone who's covered him. What do you know about his personality? I mean, clearly he -- it was like catnip. He couldn't stay away from -- once he got going.

SIDDIQUI: I think that's right. I mean, you've seen these types of feuds with officials at every level. I'm thinking, you know, a county level health official during COVID, a state insurance official at one point, safety investigators from the federal government and regulators all the way up now to the president of the United States.

Not to mention, you know, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which, you know, regulates companies such as Tesla, publicly traded companies, but then all the way up to the president of the United States, Musk has -- there is a desire among -- even Musk's backers for him to show some kind of restraint that he has been unable to demonstrate at times in the past.

[15:35:21]

DEAN: Well, we will see if that can unfold before us. Faiz Siddiqui, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

SIDDIQUI: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, millions in our nation's capital celebrating world pride. We're live as the parade and protests are just steps from the White House here in the CNN Newsroom.

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[15:40:19]

DEAN: Just steps from the White House. An estimated 3 million people are in the nation's capital this weekend to celebrate world pride and to honor the LGBTQ plus communities fight for equality. This is the Trump administration has issued executive orders limiting transgender rights, banning trans people in the military and rescinded anti- discrimination and diversity policies for LGBTQ people.

Julia Benbrook is following the parade route and she is out there with all the people. Julia, what are you hearing?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica. Lots of topics to get to, but right now it's a party. This is the pride parade here in Washington, D.C. I'll step over here so you can see a little bit more of the action. But the D.C. pride celebrations have been going on for 50 years now.

And back in 1975, when things started, the D.C. Pride Alliance said they had about 2,000 people. And in recent years, they say they've had hundreds of thousands of people come together.

Now, I've been speaking with people who were over at the block party earlier. Now we're on the parade route. But at that block party, I spoke with a D.C. resident. And the themes that just kept coming up throughout the multiple interviews were acceptance and celebration, respect and community.

The D.C. resident that I spoke with said that he really hopes that people who are visiting Washington, D.C. right now feel those things.

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TYLER WONG, WORLD PRIDE ATTENDEE: Obviously, D.C. is going through a very fraught time right now. There's a lot of conversation and discussion about pulling back DEI and talking about, you know, LGBTQ issues and other social issues. But seeing -- having world pride in D.C. and having people from all over the world come and celebrate and join in the celebration is truly heartwarming and inspiring.

And it makes me feel confident that even though some things might be going on, the direction and the trends are still going to be steady.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BENBROOK: And that was a theme that I heard throughout my conversations. I spoke with one couple that traveled in from Dallas, Texas. And they actually booked their flights over a year ago. So before they knew who would be in the White House, they said that they considered canceling their plans, not coming out. And then they decided that it was even more important to be here in D.C. this year specifically.

So following this parade, there's actually a free concert. We're going to see Cynthia Erivo, who of course plays Elphaba in Wicked, right now. We're going to see her perform a free concert in downtown D.C. There's also some other things going on.

So let me ask you all, what are you most looking forward to today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Either Cynthia Erivo tonight or Doji tomorrow.

BENBROOK: Oh, so even more concerts. Tomorrow, all of this fun continues. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Julia Benbrook, thanks so much for that.

And still ahead, Cooper and Clooney. Anderson sits down with the actor ahead of his live Broadway performance of "Good Night and Good Luck" tonight at 7:00 p.m. only here on CNN.

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[15:47:55]

DEAN: Tonight at 7:00, here on CNN for the very first time, we'll be broadcasting a live performance of a Broadway play. It's "Good Night and Good Luck." It's starring and co-written by George Clooney, who is playing the lead role of legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow. Now, the show chronicles Murrow's 1950s showdown with Senator Joseph McCarthy. And earlier this week, our Anderson Cooper sat down with Clooney on set.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What do you hope people leaving this theater take away from?

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Well, I think it's always good to walk away reminding yourselves that we've been in tight spots before and we got through it. You know, this -- if you were a newsman in 1954, you would have felt some heat. You, personally, would have felt some heat. And there would have been charges of you being a communist.

COOPER: If I was in a newsroom in 1950, I would be outed as a homosexual.

CLOONEY: That's exactly right. But it would have been just the same as a communist.

COOPER: Yes.

CLOONEY: These elements of fear, you know, what they're doing is not nearly as damaging as what we're doing to ourselves. You know, it's when you act on fear, when you start going, well, I'm going to keep quiet or I'm going to stay in the background or I'm going to let this thing slide.

You know, the first time you let something slide because of fear, you've lost. And so we have to -- remember that, we have to remember who we are. We are not descendant from fearful men, as Murrow says. We are not -- we are -- we've taken on some of the biggest challenges in the world.

We took on the Nazis when we were the paper tiger and no one thought we could do anything. We've seen the face of evil and we've defeated it. We're not fearful. So we need to remind ourselves of that sometimes.

COOPER: There's a line in the play when Murrow says, the terror is in this room.

CLOONEY: That's a line Murrow said. He actually said it. And the reason was because they were about to self-censor. And he said, then we have to go with the story.

Not because he thought he wanted to go with the story yet. He wanted to wait. He thought he wanted to get more evidence.

[15:50:06]

But then he realized that it was now they were coming after them. And if he didn't go after them, they would come after him. It's always better to be on your front foot than your back foot, you know. I always tell kids we have -- we gave tickets away to 2,000 kids to come here and watch it, which is pretty funny because they have no idea who any of these people are.

All of our references are pretty old and they're like -- but they got it at the end. And the part of it that I keep going back to is challenge, challenge, challenge people with more power than you. Defend people with less power than you. If you do only that, you succeed. And it doesn't mean you're going to get everything right. It doesn't mean you're going to succeed all the time.

But you will have been a success in life if you do that. You know, the Democrats got caught in this, as you've seen a lot of the coverage of, like, just trying to put blinders on about things that were going on in the election. And it's very -- it ends up hurting you if you're not, you know, able to challenge things.

COOPER: Do you have any regrets about the role you played in what happened during the election of speaking out?

CLOONEY: No. You know, it's funny. You know, I wasn't the source for -- you know, Jake has this book out. I wasn't the source about that story of the fundraiser where I was at. But I'm not going to deny it was true. I'm just saying I wasn't the source.

COOPER: The story was that if the president didn't recognize you.

CLOONEY: Right. So I didn't -- you know, he got that from someone else and then sort of asked me. So it's true. In fairness, he -- I was told he had just come from Italy or from Europe, and he was tired. And fair enough. And we'd just seen him at the State of the Union. He seem -- everybody thought he was on cocaine, so he seemed like he was OK or doing all right.

That was a surprise. The debate was more of a surprise, obviously. But that's not why I wrote it. I wrote it when it became after that, when suddenly the people around were saying, don't believe what you saw. We were just talking about the facts.

That's -- and I was getting calls from senators and congressmen and governors, all who said what I wrote. They just didn't say it out loud. And I thought that was a mistake. I thought it was late, but I thought we had a chance.

I didn't think we had a chance otherwise. Obviously, we know the numbers would have been pretty bad. But I also don't like there is this thing now of looking backwards in a way. I think the people around President Biden advised him poorly. I really do. I feel like that was a bad move on their part.

Having said that, he was a guy who gave 55 years of service to his country. He was a loyal and faithful American who did an admirable job in everything he did. And I don't like that the one error in judgment at the end is somehow going to define him and make us be incredibly unkind to someone who had, you know, served his country so well, you know, for so long.

COOPER: Given all the performance you've given, is there -- just to end on, is there -- are there some lines of Murrow that stand out to you as having an impact on an audience and not asking you to do Murrow, right?

CLOONEY: No.

COOPER: (INAUDIBLE) Murrow. Like, are there some lines in your head that resonate strongly, you think?

CLOONEY: I love when he says we will not walk in fear one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine. Remember, we're not descended from fearful men. I love when he says we must remember that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

Because right now, as we're sitting here, we are contemplating not using due process of law. We are, in fact, not using due process of law and challenging it in the courts. And we're talking about -- they always say they're joking about, but they tend to joke about things out loud, getting rid of the writ of habeas corpus, you know.

The things that are the foundation, the underpinning of our government. So I'm always proud when I get to say those lines because those lines don't -- they age very well, those lines. They still hold up, you know?

So, you know, here's what we do. This is a total bluff. We put this here, but these are all made of wood.

COOPER: Wow. Oh, wow.

CLOONEY: That one's fake. There's no lenses on it, but we have a real one hidden over here.

COOPER: Oh, that's how you do it.

CLOONEY: Yeah, that's interesting.

COOPER: But it is so, I mean, there's so much video.

CLOONEY: Yes.

COOPER: It's so interesting, the staging of it, because at times, you know, depending where you're sitting, you can't necessarily see your face --

CLOONEY: Yes.

COOPER: -- but you see it on this monitor.

CLOONEY: Yes, that giant, those monitors that come down. And then we have that camera is an actual real working camera. You see it's hooked up. But it's working not as a actual old-fashioned camera. You know, these cameras, when you see them like this, these had four lenses on them, and they would have a handle right here, and you would turn it, and the thing would turn depending on how close you wanted to be.

So we didn't do that, but inside here, we just have a video camera like you're using here that we use. And then we shoot all of that stuff live. So it's pretty fun along the way.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

[15:55:15]

DEAN: "Good Night and Good Luck" starring George Clooney live from Broadway. It's tonight at 7:00 only here on CNN.

Still ahead, before we get to that, we're going to have more on our breaking story this afternoon. ICE immigration raids and protests intensifying tonight in the Los Angeles area. We're going to take you there. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

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