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Clashes Erupt In L.A. in As Trump Deploys National Guard; Officers In Riot Gear Use Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets As Protesters Clash With Police In Los Angeles; California Lt. Governor To CNN: Lawsuit "Likely Tomorrow" Over Trump's National Guard Deployment. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired June 08, 2025 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:02:09]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

We are following breaking news out of Los Angeles tonight. You are looking at live pictures where protests have taken a violent turn in this situation that we're looking at right now. These are self-driving cars that clearly you see people who proclaim to be protesters are stomping on them. We've seen some of them lighting them on fire, taking selfies with them, kicking them.

We've also seen law enforcement on horseback trying to disperse the crowd. Now, zooming out for a second, let me take you to where we are right now. This is after several days of ICE raids in Los Angeles, where we saw much smaller protests over the last several days. President Trump decided to federalize National Guard members. They are now in parts of Los Angeles. Away -- a little bit away from where you're looking at right now.

We're told by the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass. She told me that her understanding is those National Guard troops have been told to protect those federal buildings and not, in her words, be in the streets. We have seen and you see LAPD cars right there.

Los Angeles police officers, California Highway Patrol trying to disperse the crowds that really grew at a peak earlier this evening, really mid-afternoon there in Los Angeles. At one point, once they tried to disperse them, they actually got there on the 101 Freeway. You see, now, a handful of protesters who are still there. A number of arrests were made, a number of encounters between law enforcement and protesters, as this has gone on.

The lieutenant governor of California telling me last hour that they anticipate a lawsuit will be filed tomorrow challenging the president's decision to federalize the National Guard. Gavin Newsom has formally asked to have that rescinded. Mayor Karen Bass telling me that she believes that that decision has been incendiary, that she has full confidence in local law enforcement to get a handle on all of this.

I do want to go now to CNN's Kyung Lah, who has been standing by all day.

Kyung, a lot has happened since we've been talking to you. Where are you now? What is the status where you are?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are multiple protests now. Or at least we should call them incursions between the people who have been demonstrating here, people who've joined in and law enforcement. We are near where all of this began. And what you're seeing here is a line of a mix of the predominantly federal agents. Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, as well as the National Guard that brought out some of these protesters.

[21:05:04]

But you can see they've created quite some space between them. And then these protesters, that violence that you were referring to, Jess. You can see that there's a car burning in the background. And while they've made a semi-circle here on the street, you can see that the Waymo over there has been vandalized. And we understand that some cars over there may also be Waymo's that have been set on fire.

So, this is a part of the night that law enforcement really worries about because when I look at some of these protesters, they are not resembling the people who were here when all of this began earlier this morning in Los Angeles. This crowd is different. And so now you have a problem for law enforcement trying to contain these people, whoever they may be, some of them who may have some legitimate concerns, but then also other people who are mixed in.

So that is where we are in the evening right now. But again, we are very close to where this all began. And these federal agents now are just standing here with some space between them and these protesters -- Jess.

DEAN: And again, we're -- thank you, Kyung. We're looking live at some of these Waymos that are on fire at the moment. And as Kyung noted, this has taken a turn since she's been out there over the last several hours. When she saw a different type of protester that was there in a more peaceful way. A lot of people, things have turned far more destructive and violent.

I do want to bring in CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller, who joins us now.

And, John, we were talking about this a little earlier during our broadcast, which is kind of when you start mixing groups that there are people who are true, peaceful protesters who believe in a cause, who are doing this the right way. And then sometimes there are others that just take the moment and use it to inject destruction and chaos.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, and you're seeing some of that here. You have purely, protesters for immigrant rights, for migrant rights, protesting against the government action. You have some Palestinian protesters who have been part of a protest movement who are also protesting against the government to have joined in. And then in the background, you have some experienced anarchist groups that are very adept at protesting, but also adept at moving within the crowd and then breaking away to do things in terms of property damage and other things that are more provocative than many of the protesters who showed up might have been intending on.

And it's exactly as you describe. It's a mix that moves as one, but isn't necessarily altogether in terms of what their intentions are.

DEAN: Yeah. And I know we're getting reporting from our colleague Josh Campbell that an L.A. law enforcement source said tonight could be a rough night, in their words. What is law enforcement worried about in a moment like this? It's still 6:00 on a summer night out in L.A.

So, they've got a couple more hours of daylight. But. But it's going to get dark soon. What are they worried about? What are they factoring in as night begins to creep up?

MILLER: So many things, you know they went into what the LAPD calls tactical alert this afternoon. Thats when they have to surge 300 or 400 officers to a major event, as we saw today. But they also have to police the rest of the city.

Los Angeles Police Department is a relatively small police department in a very big city. Youve got, you know, just under 9,000 police officers down, a thousand and more from what it is supposed to be at its regular strength. And they're patrolling a city that is a third larger than New York City in terms of geography, with half the population. A number of gangs, a degree of violence that has to be taken into account.

So, when you deplete that many police officers, it means, A, nobody's shift ends until the until the chief says so. So, with the night shift coming on, they will probably hold over many of the people from that day shift. The city may remain on tactical alert for some time, meaning that the police won't go to routine calls. They'll only go to priority one emergencies because they've been depleted of the officers that have been surged to this event. And that means that tonight they'll be worried about policing the larger city. Any crime or violence that they might have to respond to there while staying focused on this downtown area and those two federal buildings to make sure this thing doesn't get away from them in the dark with a sudden surge of a crowd or a move to another location.

[21:10:00]

DEAN: Yeah. It is -- it is precarious.

John Miller, thank you so much for all of your analysis all throughout the last five hours. We really appreciate it.

MILLER: Thank you. Appreciate it. DEAN: I also want to bring in Juliette Kayyem and Steve Moore to talk

a little bit more about what we're seeing here.

Juliette, we -- the posture, you know, John was just walking us through that as we get closer tonight to nightfall, what law enforcement is going to be concerned about? And Kyung adding into that, Kyung kind of making the note that the protesters she's seeing now who are staying after all of this. It's a different crowd than who she's seen earlier.

What is -- what is their posture going to look like? And what can we anticipate seeing do you think?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So this is, you know, nighttime obviously gets worrisome from a public safety perspective for people who are anticipating or want to incite violence. This would be the time to do it, is it at nighttime, they can evade police arrest.

So, what the police are doing now is obviously trying to disperse crowds to the extent practicable, because I think now, as compared to before, where you would say there was lawful protest, which is allowed in this country. That if you're showing crowds of people together cheering the burning of a car, this has gone from political protest against ICE, which is legitimate to violent protests. That doesn't again -- that does not answer the question. Why do we have federalized military in the streets of Los Angeles? But that's going to be the biggest concern at this stage is, is that is people who want to take advantage of this and provoke violence will use nighttime to do so.

DEAN: Yeah.

And, Steve, I'm curious from your perspective, there has been much made from California officials, including the governor, the mayor, who said we did not need the National Guard. We had this under control. Obviously, President Trump and his administration believed otherwise. That is why they federalized the National Guard.

In your opinion, do you think local authorities have had this under control?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: They don't have that street under control. They don't -- they aren't stopping those cars from burning. What's -- what makes them think that later on in the night that they'll get better at this, that they'll have more people tonight?

The fact that L.A. city and California governor do not want to have simple guards at federal buildings to protect property, they're not out there, you know, fighting these people. It smacks to me of a political issue, not a safety issue. And I know a lot of people hear the phrase National Guard. And you get, you know, images of Kent State and all these kind of things. This is different. They are protecting federal property.

And if for some crazy reason, the lawsuit prevails. Well, that's why they've got marines on standby, so nothing's going to change. Those buildings will be protected.

I've been out there in those -- in those riot things, protecting federal properties. And it stinks.

DEAN: And just for our viewers, the lawsuit you're referring to is the one the lieutenant governor told me was likely coming tomorrow. That challenged the federal, the federalization of the National Guard, right?

MOORE: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I can't imagine that they prevail.

DEAN: Okay. Juliette, I want to ask you just in terms of the National Guard and the troops there, when I spoke with the mayor earlier today, she said her understanding of what they were doing there. To Steve's point, that they are there to protect those federal buildings. And in her words, she said they weren't supposed to be in the streets.

What does that say to you? And what's your analysis there?

KAYYEM: Yeah. I want to just clarify something that Steve said. I don't think anyone would oppose the National Guard under the governor. To believe that this is not political is to ignore the tweeting that was happening yesterday, calling this an insurrection threatening the military. So, I don't -- I don't want viewers to view what Steve Moore just said as normalizing is actually saying that this is normal. It's not normal.

The use of the National Guard under a governor is very normal. We are here today because the federalization of the National Guard at the opposition of a governor isn't done. And the reason why is, to, quote, every person that we have quoted from law enforcement and military. We have no idea what the rules of engagement are. How long and how they are going to -- what the timeline is that from an operational perspective, for those of us who live in the military, civilian intersection, not just for the police.

[21:15:02]

That is the difference here is there's a reason why you do not deploy military in an urban area without a unified mission, without training, without command-and-control structure that is not in opposition to each other.

So, I just don't want people to believe that this is like normal. It's not. You can agree with it. We're a democracy. You can agree. I can disagree with Steve Moore. You can agree with me. That's fair.

But to normalize it, I think is not the correct way to represent what was done yesterday. And the fact that Secretary Hegseth and others in the administration are using language like insurrection and the deployment of active military in the United States, which would be unprecedented. So, I just we've got to be careful about normalization here. I can -- you can disagree with me or you can disagree with Steve Moore.

MOORE: It's certainly not normal. I agree with you. It is not normal. It is not normal for the governor of a state to reject protection of federal buildings in his city or in his state.

KAYYEM: He wasn't asked.

MOORE: If he wants to --

KAYYEM: He wasn't asked --

MOORE: If he wants to have anything to do.

KAYYEM: We just have to be careful about normalizing what's been done. What I'm saying, Steve, all I'm saying is the governor, the governor learned of it through, a tweet that that 2,000 to 3,000 of the National Guard were going to be put under the presidents command. You and I both know you out in the field. Me overseeing public safety agencies that the integration of command and control, that a strong mission that an understandable mission.

What is -- what are the rules of engagement? How do we avoid friendly fire, against police officers? How do we avoid clashes with civilians who may be doing something unlawful, but we don't want to have military clashes? Both Stephen Moore and I agree, de-escalation is exactly the focus right now if you are committed to de-escalation, and let's hope that the White House is.

DEAN: Steve, do you have would you like to finish a thought? I feel like you had a thought, too.

MOORE: No, I very much respect Juliette and her thoughts on this. And she's absolutely right, there are serious concerns about putting military in our streets. But so far, we've only seen 300 of the 1,700. Ive been trying to contact all day. The 49th military police brigade up in Fairfield because they -- their mission, their declared mission, you look it up on the internet is public is liaising and working with local authorities to handle public emergencies.

That's what they do. They're trained as law enforcement, civilian law enforcement, as well as being soldiers. And so, you have the possibility of bringing hundreds of more trained officers down to Los Angeles. And I -- I -- is I really respect Juliette, but and I know maybe that maybe, Governor Newsom was not brought into this decision, but it's not because he would have said yes.

DEAN: All right. Juliette and -- yeah.

KAYYEM: I think -- I think that's -- I think that's an important distinction from the L.A. riots. I know, I know people like Steve have been talking about, well, the L.A. riots, it was that was when, when Governor Wilson and the L.A. Mayor Bradley, a Republican and Democrat, asked, asked for the troops.

This is very different. I agree with Steve Moore on that, that this was not in conjunction or coordination with state and local authorities.

DEAN: All right, both of you, please stay with us. Thank you so much. We're going to take a quick break. We are back in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:22:42]

DEAN: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of what's going on there in Los Angeles. You are looking at what was a self-driving car that was set on fire by some of the people who are there in downtown Los Angeles. As our Kyung Lah noted, just at the top of the hour, as police have been dispersing protesters, a lot of the people who were actually there protesting peacefully have dispersed, others who want to be more destructive are doing things like this.

So, we are seeing still a fair amount of activity, a lot of activity, really, in downtown Los Angeles right now. I did speak with the mayor, Karen Bass, earlier tonight, and she made it clear that she believes that the president's deployment of National Guard troops is further escalating tensions and causing more problems.

Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Mayor Bass, thanks so much for being here with us. I just first want to get your assessment of -- we've been watching this live for the last couple of hours. What do you know? What should people know about where things stand right now?

MAYOR KAREN BASS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Well, there are a number of protests that are taking place around the city. And unfortunately, in a couple of the areas, there has been an unlawful assembly declared. I will tell you that, a sense of fear has been created in the city beginning on Friday, when numerous workplaces were raided. Initially we were told only violent criminals. I don't know how that relates to a workplace.

We have people that are detained right now, and they've not been in contact with their families. They've not been allowed to have legal counsel. And to me, it just seems like this is intentional chaos.

You know, I had talked to representatives of the Trump administration earlier on to tell them that the Los Angeles Police Department could control things that were happening here and that there was no need to federalize troops. And so, to have this here is really just a provocation and something that was not needed in our city.

We're still recovering after five months from the city's worst natural disaster in decades. And now to go through a trauma like this that is really traumatizing the whole city, because everybody knows somebody in a city where more than 50 percent are Latino.

[21:25:09]

This just sows chaos. That is not warranted nor needed in the city of Los Angeles at this point in time.

DEAN: And I know LAPD, as you just noted, declared some of these gatherings unlawful assembly. Is that something you were made aware of before they did that? Did you okay, that?

BASS: Yes. I didn't okay it. I don't run the police department. The chief does. But I was aware of it. And what I was told is, is that the protesters had begun throwing things. So, to me, it is most important that everybody be allowed to exercise their First Amendment right. But it absolutely has to be done peacefully.

Now with federal troops on the ground, we do not need to have our city under siege. I remember the last time federal troops were on the ground here, and it was in 1992 when there was massive civil unrest. Nothing like that is happening here. So, there is no need for there to be federal troops on our ground right now.

DEAN: And, Mayor, we've seen since the federal troops arrived, there were those clashes earlier today, and we saw LAPD essentially trying to build some space between where the protesters were located, where the National Guard troops were located, try to spread them out a bit. Now, obviously, they're trying to disperse them.

I'm curious if now that the National Guard troops are there on the ground, if there is any urgency on the police departments part to really put out an even stronger force and a stronger posture to get this under control. So, you can and I know your governor has said that they don't want that -- he's formally requested that the National Guard troops go back, that they're not needed.

Were those things correlated?

BASS: Well, I absolutely agree with the governor in asking that the troops be withdrawn. I don't think that is a way to bring peace in Los Angeles. I think that our law enforcement officers can handle this situation.

But I just have to repeat again, it's a feeling here of intentional chaos in a situation that had not broken out to violence short of a few people, and there's nothing unusual about that. And our police departments can manage that. But it is as though troops were rolled out in a provocative manner, and I do not see how that is helpful to Los Angeles right now. It's not the type of resources that we need in the city.

DEAN: You and the governor both said this is that that the presence of those National Guard troops is incendiary, is what we're seeing right now what you were afraid would happen?

BASS: Well, absolutely. I mean, again, it's hard to describe the depth of the fear in this city because of the raids. I mean, you had a Home Depot day laborer center where people were literally running through the parking lot, and it was reported that they had been chased.

We had a graduation that was taking a few blocks, taking place a few blocks away. I know that there were parents who were conflicted with whether or not they should even go to their own kid's graduation, because maybe they wouldn't be -- maybe they would be detained, maybe it would be disrupted. The last time this happened, several years ago in the first

administration, you had kids that wouldn't go to school because they were afraid their parents wouldn't be there. You had people that wouldn't go to work, and you just think of the ripple effects. You have people on the west side of town, far away from downtown, who might employ people in their houses that have green cards that are there legally.

But now people are even concerned about that. Just because I have a green card, does that mean I'm protected? Will I be picked up too? Will I be detained? Are my relatives that are detained? Are they even still in the United States?

We know they're not in Los Angeles. They're in an adjacent county. But these people don't even know if their family members are still here or whether they were flown back, quote, unquote, home. I would argue that Los Angeles is home.

Or maybe they were even sent to another country that they have no relationship with, like the people that were sent to Venezuela, and they are not Venezuelan. So, this is a sense of chaos and fear, and it's just the last thing that Los Angeles needs right now at this point in time. This is not helpful.

DEAN: Yeah. I want to ask you an additional logistical question. This is a question we're trying to get to, the bottom of, which is these National Guard troops are -- they're federalized at this point. Are you aware of what their rules of engagement are and are -- the LAPD -- is the LAPD actively in coordination with the National Guard at this point?

BASS: Yes. The LAPD is in coordination. And as I understand it, their mission is to protect federal property, not to be in the streets where protests might be taking place, far from the federal building. But their mission is to protect the federal building downtown and the federal building in Westwood.

[21:30:04]

But again, it's the intimidation factor. It's the anger that people feel that then gets directed to the guards. And how ironic has it been because the guards, the National Guard, has been in the fire area and everybody has just been applauding and cheering them. And now to have this situation take place, it's just really unfortunate.

DEAN: All right. Mayor Karen Bass, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

BASS: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Again, that was my conversation with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. We have more from Los Angeles when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEAN: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage out of Los Angeles, where we are continuing to see the fallout from today's back and forth between protesters and law enforcement following multiple days of ICE raids there in California.

We have seen in the last several minutes, in the last probably half hour, exactly that, burning cars -- these are self-driving cars in downtown Los Angeles. At one point, when they were still cars, we saw some protesters climbing onto them and taking selfies, lighting them on fire. That is different than some of the other protesters who were out earlier today.

I do want to go to Kyung Lah now, who has been with us all day long tracking all of the developments.

[21:35:05]

And, Kyung, I thought you made a great point earlier, which is -- and we've been talking to John Miller about this as well -- that once they disperse, the crowd and law enforcement told them to go home, a lot of these peaceful protesters did do that. They followed the law.

And now some people, not all. But there are some people now that just are kind of creating more destruction and chaos.

What more can you tell us about from where you are?

LAH: It seems to it definitely seems to be a mix of people of that ilk. And I can tell you just from being here, it is certainly devolving.

Let me give you a look of this, this area that I'm standing in has been declared an unlawful assembly. So, you know what that means.

As far as law enforcement trying to disperse this crowd at this point, we haven't seen real evidence of it. But this is the freeway. This is a 101 Freeway. And you can see that there are police vehicles blocking the freeway where there were protesters. And, Mike, if you could take a look up the ramp, there are you can see

that there's law enforcement also blocking the ramp. And then all across that bridge and then tracking all the way to the right across the bridge, you can see that there are still those self-driving cars, the Waymos that you were referring to. They are still burning.

And we're seeing graffiti tagging throughout this area. And I'm just going to walk you over to that call for the unlawful assembly. We're going to spin this way. If you look over here, where I was earlier, there was a pretty large line of people.

It's the crowd has certainly -- watch your step, Mike -- has gotten smaller. So, this is what's left of the group. After the city put out an alert saying this is an unlawful assembly. And then if you look all the way to your right, there's a bit of space, but there is law enforcement.

When I was looking at some of their badges and their patches, this is Department of Homeland Security. These are the federal officers that we've seen throughout the day, as well as the California National Guard. And you can see that they are equipped to deal with a crowd with riot gear.

We're not seeing the rifles that I saw earlier today that that appears to be gone from the National Guard. But certainly, if they are looking to clear out a crowd using their riot apparatus, they are using it -- Jess.

DEAN: Yeah, they certainly are. And, Kyung, look, it's 6:37 where you are. It is a summer night. Weve got a couple more hours, probably of daylight, but. But I know that that law enforcement is concerned about what happens when it gets dark.

LAH: Yeah. I think after covering a number of protests here over many years in Los Angeles, what happens when you have the remnants of a crowd like this? This is a problem for law enforcement because what you have are opportunists.

Just based on previous protests that we've covered tempers get extremely short. There aren't a lot of bathrooms. People get hungry. Opportunists come in, agitators come in looking to try to steal the narrative or turn something.

I just want to point out, I was just talking about tagging. Our local affiliate has -- yeah, it's a shame. But it's, you know, this is -- this is where the potential problem can happen in Los Angeles when it gets cold and people are tired and tempers are short, and you have law enforcement that really needs to try to contain the people who are left behind.

Something else you may notice a lot of these people are wearing masks when that happens. When they obscure their identities and they can charge at law enforcement. That is another thing that we have seen before in previous clashes with law enforcement. So, this is -- this is not going to get better unless people start to heed the warnings from law enforcement -- Jess.

DEAN: Yeah. And just lastly, before we let you go, Kyung, not too far from where you are. Thats where those National Guard troops were located. Around that federal detention facility. I'm assuming they're still positioned there as LAPD has moved this crowd away from that location.

LAH: They are that line of DHS that I was showing you earlier, that is where they are still positioned. The National Guard is right behind them.

DEAN: Got it.

LAH: They just aren't wearing the same heavy soldier gear. I know I'm being very casual here, but they look a little different now than they did earlier in the day. The show of force is different.

DEAN: All right. Kyung Lah, who has been there all day, thank you so, so much for bringing us all of those updates. [21:40:03]

We really appreciate it.

Again, look, you're looking at as we were just saying, this is destruction. This is destruction. This is -- this is what law enforcement is concerned about. That's not necessarily peaceful protest. That's destruction of property that we're watching happen right there.

All right. We're going to take a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Bringing you back into our breaking news. Now, seeing fire trucks there in Los Angeles, those fire trucks coming, as we've also been seeing those self-driving cars that have been on fire. Unclear exactly where those fire trucks are headed to or what they're being used for, but I think they were about to zoom out. It looks like they are in the vicinity of some of those cars that had been lit on fire.

I want to bring in former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

Ed, thanks so much for being here with us. I appreciate it.

We've watched all day as this --

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: My pleasure.

DEAN: Yeah. As this is unfolded, obviously the key thing now is -- it is -- it's about to be dark. We're getting were about two hours from sunset in Los Angeles. What would you be thinking about in this moment?

DAVIS: Well, when you have unrest like this, clearly the evening hours, the darkness that falls creates opportunities for people who are out there and intent on causing havoc.

[21:45:07]

As has been mentioned during the coverage today, you know, there's peaceful protesters, but there are also people that use this type of situation, people like anarchists and anti-government forces, who will -- who will leverage this to their advantage. And so, nightfall complicates things. And there's no doubt that if I was in charge here, I would have an extremely large number of people available to maintain the peace that has somewhat fallen over the city at this point in time.

The crowds seem to be dissipating. You want to continue that and make sure that there are sufficient personnel around to continue into a period where you don't have this kind of horrible scene that we're looking at right now.

DEAN: Yeah. And is that what it is at this point when you're going into a nightfall like this, is it a numbers game from law enforcement perspective?

DAVIS: Yes, I believe it is. They have -- has to be sufficient field forces to move around the city and to directly confront illegal activity when people are breaking windows, when they're vandalizing things, when they are lighting fires, particularly, there really has to be an almost immediate response to that as best you can.

Now, you always have to keep in mind the safety of the officers that you send. You -- ideally, you would have a force of officers that is somewhat equivalent to the -- to the group that you're identifying as problematic. And frankly, there was a lot of restraint used today by the officers out there on those lines, the skirmish lines that were set up to move the crowds around.

So, Jim McDonnell, the chief in L.A., is one of the most accomplished and impressive police chiefs in the country. So, he knows how to do this. And hopefully, we'll see things calm down in the next few hours.

DEAN: Yeah. And that's what I was going to ask you, because we did really see this play out in real time. As we were watching over the last 4.5 hours, just what you made of how LAPD and also the California highway patrol got was able to push the protesters off the freeway as well. Just what you made of their strategies today.

DAVIS: I thought it was well done. They were really too close to the federal building at the outset of this. And thankfully, it was the LAPD that came in and moved them so that the federal officials and troops didn't have to get involved in it.

So, I think they -- you know, the LAPD community disorders unit stepped up and did a fantastic job of using appropriate force. They were attacked. There were items being thrown at them. You saw fireworks being utilized. And all the tactics of these professional demonstrators being deployed against the police.

But despite that, they moved the crowd away from the federal building. They were able to clear the highway. The CHP people went into the highway and cleared that in a very effective way, moved it slowly but methodically. Several arrests but nothing unusual. And they got traffic flowing again.

So, it's sort of like a mopping up exercise that you have to do when, when the crowd dissipates throughout the city. And that's going to be the challenge tonight is making sure there's enough quick reaction forces to move around and break up anything that starts to form.

DEAN: All right. Commissioner Ed Davis, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it.

DAVIS: Thank you.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:52:49] DEAN: We are following breaking news this evening. Taking you back to Los Angeles where firefighters are on scene now, putting out those self-driving cars that had been lit on fire by some people who had gathered in the crowds during these protests. We have learned that California's governor, Gavin Newsom, is there in Los Angeles. He says he's meeting with LAPD and the sheriff's department.

This, as he's formally asked to have the federalization of those National Guard troops rescinded. And we're told by the lieutenant governor to expect a lawsuit on that tomorrow.

I do want to bring in Ron Brownstein right now as we close out this hour.

Ron, look, there's so many dynamics at play here, but this is obviously the Trump administration and a blue Democratically run state with Gavin Newsom.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah.

DEAN: Those are -- those two men have a long history. And there's a lot going on here in addition to exactly what we're seeing play out.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Look, preserving public order is the first job for any level of government preserving public safety. There's no question about that. The question, though, is whether the Trump administration actions are advancing or undermining that goal. I mean, the original ICE raids that triggered all this were done -- was done in a manner that many view as intentionally provocative to try to, in fact, trigger just this kind of response.

And federalizing the National Guard over the objection of a governor -- Jessica, you can't underscore how dramatic and unusual an action that is. The last time it was done was during the civil rights era, when governor -- southern governors were actively impeding the enforcement of federal laws.

Now, in this case, you know, you have the governor and the mayor saying local authorities could bring the situation under control. This is something that Trump has made clear he's wanted to do for a long time. You know, this is a guy who often talks about regrets, but he has said frequently that his biggest -- one of his biggest first term regrets, regrets is that he did not send in the National Guard into Democratic run cities in his first term, when local mayors or governors objected.

[21:55:04]

In the campaign, he talked frequently about sending the guard into Democratic-run cities under different pretexts. The order that he signed Friday night does not specify L.A. It talks about deploying the guard anywhere where there could be protests against ICE or even potential protests against ICE. And of course, he has already arrested a judge in a Democratic city, a mayor in a Democratic city, a U.S. representative, a Democratic U.S. representative, and today talked about potentially arresting the governor or mayor in this instance. So, there is a lot going on that goes beyond the immediate necessity,

which I think everyone would agree, of maintaining public order in L.A. This is part of a larger pattern in which Trump has often talked about using federal force and federal leverage to force blue states and blue cities to do what he wants them to do.

DEAN: Right. And that's overarching while were watching people vandalize what I believe are California highway patrol cars, they're just there throwing scooters on them. Again, not sure how that's exactly protesting, but for -- but for, you know, all of us watching, we are seeing it play out.

Ron, thank you so much for being here with us. We really appreciate it. Always good to hear from you in moments like this.

We're going to close out our coverage here of what's been going on in Los Angeles with me. Again, we've seen a lot play out today as Los Angeles has seen so many protesters now dispersing, but a few or some remaining there wreaking some havoc.

More to come overnight. I'm going to see you here next weekend. CNN's special coverage of what's going on in Los Angeles continues after this quick break. Have a great night, everyone.