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Third Day Of L.A. Protests Over Immigration Raid; President Donald Trump Deploys National Guard California; Former VP Harris Condemns Trump's LA Protest Response; Self-Driving Cars Set On Fire During L.A. Protests; California To File Lawsuit Against Trump Admin Over Deployment Of National Guard. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired June 08, 2025 - 23:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:00:44]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta. We begin with breaking news out of Los Angeles. A third straight day of protests following immigration raids. And California officials say the federal government is only making the situation worse.

Tear gas and the sound of flashbangs as police could be seen detaining at least one person there. The tense moments as demonstrators clashed with National Guard and ICE agents outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA.

Police say arrests are also being made after thousands of protesters flooded the streets and blocked lanes on the 101 Freeway. You see it here causing significant disruption to traffic. Demonstrators are making clear why they've turned out to protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON GOCHEZ, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: It is a beautiful day of resistance. And for every single minute that were here resisting against the Border Patrol, that was time that they were not out deporting people in our community. They could not kidnap people in our community today because the people came out to resist.

ALEX WALLS, PROTESTER FROM LOUISIANA: I think it's very disturbing. You know, you're stepping, separating people from their kids, family and whatnot. Younger kids don't understand what's going on, seeing this going on. So it's just, it's very disturbing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And as the unrest continues, the U.S. Northern Command says about 500 active duty Marines are on a prepared to deploy status. This despite calls from the governor and other top officials for the Trump administration to rescind the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles.

CNN's Kyung Lah has been following these developments. She's been on the ground and she filed this report earlier from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It's been a long day of protests and skirmishes between the people who are opposed to federal law enforcement and the National Guard showing up in strong numbers here in Los Angeles, federalized by President Donald Trump as they've continued to have conflict with some of the law enforcement who's here.

What you're looking at is a long line of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security. There are also some National Guard, the Customs and Border Patrol and also LAPD.

And this is where it all began. The area that we're standing in right here is right near where the initial protests began when we saw the California National Guard lining up. And then there was a skirmish with some of the protesters who were standing on the sidewalk and on the street. And throughout the day, there have been problems.

The LAPD was brought in, tried to clear the crowds, and then there was a conflict with the federal agents as well at that site. And now we've come to the part of the night where cars are being set on fire. You can see that this Waymo has been vandalized. There are people still sitting on the streets in various corners.

The LAPD has called these assemblies unlawful assemblies on this particular corner. I have not been here throughout the duration, so the unlawful assembly was a block away from here. The assumption is that that may be the case here as well. But this is all very fluid.

At this point, this is still a city where there are many people on the streets and law enforcement still standing in force. Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: And joining me now from Los Angeles is Steve Moore, a CNN law enforcement contributor and a retired supervisory special agent with the FBI. Steve, thank you for being with us. Right next to us, we are seeing live images here from Los Angeles. We saw some mounted patrols moving through. We've also seen police vehicles on fire point and police lines like this.

From what you are seeing at this moment, do you believe that this situation rises above one that local and state law enforcement agencies could control?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, they probably could control this if they decided that they were going to. One of the things that they have said they're not going to do or enforce immigration law, federal immigration law.

[23:05:05]

And I think if this was not a sanctuary city, then it wouldn't be such a political battle between Washington and Sacramento right now.

I think right now, the reason that the administration could easily use is the argument that protester came up with. While we are keeping ICE busy here protecting federal buildings, these they can't do their job. We like that.

So, it would be very easy for the administration to argue in court that we have to have soldiers there, otherwise they can shut ICE down in this region. So, I think there's a lot of facets of this. Frustratingly, I think this is much more political on both sides than it is rational.

ABEL: When we take a look at the context surrounding this, and you mentioned the sanctuary cities, specifically Los Angeles has a significant heavy amount of a Latino population. When we look at this and we see some of the separation of families and ICE agents going into places like a Home Depot for their immigration enforcement actions, do you believe that this setup and this operation before this moment here today was thought out well enough to understand that this might be the backlash received in a place like Los Angeles?

MOORE: It might not have been the outcome that they anticipated. The problem here, though, is that there are laws that Congress has instituted that the state of California has decided to ignore. This is what started the Civil War. States rights versus federal rights. And federal law takes precedent.

So, I think what happens is both sides are making some terrible mistakes that are bringing us to the brink of an insurrection in Los Angeles. So, I think both sides could back away from the precipice they're at right now.

But first one would have to start enforcing laws and the other one would have to maybe stop sending military in. You have to cooperate to solve this problem. And if you continue to go head to head, it's going to end badly for both of you.

ABEL: And it seems again by an objective viewer that this situation has devolved instead of become a better controlled situation over the last 24 hours. You mentioned that both sides would need to back away here. Do you actually see that happening? Where does this go from this moment forward?

MOORE: No. No, I don't see this because the administration, I don't think is going to back down because this is what they were elected to do. This is what their contingent wants them to do, enforce immigration laws. And the governor and the mayor were elected to protect people from being immigration laws being enforced. So you have political careers here online.

I will tell you one thing, as somebody who's been down there in those, in all that gear and getting concrete, like they're getting concrete thrown at them. Those police officers down there aren't upset that the National Guard is there.

ABEL: Tell me a little bit more about that. Why is that?

MOORE: Because the police are there, not for political reasons. If you ask any policeman down there on the street, what do you think of this? What do you think of that? They're going to say, I've got to get home to my wife or my husband. I'm sitting here on the edge of an overpass and people are throwing concrete at me as I'm driving to my place here. I want to get these people off the streets.

They don't care about the political ramifications of this. They're there to enforce law and keep people safe. What's going on, well, above them is a fight for policy.

ABEL: OK, so given what we are seeing, given that what appeared to be a pretty precarious situation, given the elevation advantage by protesters that were throwing that concrete on those officers or near those officers, we're not exactly sure how that concrete got there. We're also seeing officers move forward here on the freeway.

Given everything that we've seen, where do you think this goes forward tonight? What should we be looking out for?

MOORE: Well, I did see people throwing on the video see people throwing concrete down on the officers, didn't hit anything but a vehicle.

[23:10:00]

But where I see this going tonight is what I believe has happened is the well-intentioned, peaceful protesters are smart enough not to be here anymore. And what has happened is the professional protesters, the antifa, the people who come in to agitate, to destabilize city, local and federal governments, these people are coming in along with opportunists who just enjoy violence and just this chaos.

And so what you're seeing tonight is these people are going to be the ones left. So do I see it getting better? It might get smaller, but the people who are still out here at 10 p.m. tonight are going to be much more violent because they're not it. They really don't care about the issues. They just hate the government and want to do violence.

ABEL: And we will see what happens in the next few hours. We do see law enforcement there, a blockade of the entrance to a freeway there. Steve Moore, really appreciate your analysis. Thank you for joining us.

MOORE: Thank you.

ABEL: And CNN's Kevin Liptak has more on the president's choice to deploy the National Guard despite objections from California officials.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump's decision to call up National Guard troops in Los Angeles is really one that's without precedent, at least in recent memory. You have to go all the way back to the civil rights era to find another example of a president calling up a state's National Guard without the explicit request of that state's governor, which has not happened this time around.

In fact, it's quite the opposite. The Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, calling on Sunday for President Trump to reverse his decision, saying that there is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles.

And to do so in this unlawful manner and for such a lengthy period is a serious breach of state sovereignty that seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation while simultaneously depriving the state from deploying these personnel and resources where they are truly required.

Now, as of Sunday evening, there was no sign that President Trump planned to back off this decision. He said at multiple points on Sunday that this was about instilling law and order and that he could potentially deploy these troops in other cities across the United States. Listen to more of what President Trump said as he was heading to Camp David.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are the rules of engagement for federal troops?

TRUMP: We're going to see what happens. If we think there's a serious insurrection or less than that, we're going to have law and order. Very important.

UNDIENTIFIED MALE: How would you define an insurrection?

TRUMP: You have to really just have to look at the get to see what's happening. Last night in Los Angeles, we watched it very closely. There was a lot of violence there. There was a lot of violence that it could have gotten much worse. You have an incompetent governor.

LIPTAK: Now, later Sunday, the president reiterated that point of view on Truth Social, saying that violent insurrectionist mobs were swarming and attacking our federal agents to try and stop our deportation operations, but these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve.

The president went on to say that he was instructing federal officials to, quote, take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the migrant invasion and put an end to these migrant riots.

Now, President Trump has mused in the past, including during his first term in office, about using federal military personnel to tamp down on protests and on crime. But aides previously had talked him out of it, taking such an extreme action. This time, he seems unencumbered by these so called guardrails around him. And the president clearly tried to follow through on things that he said he would do as a candidate.

Now, he's long seen California and its Democratic leaders as something of a foil. You've seen that really escalate over the last several months as the president threatens to withdraw federal aid from that state. Now clearly the president willing to take it a step further as he deploys these National Guard troops against that state's wishes. Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Former Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the National Guard deployment to her home state. In a statement posted to social media, Harris called the move a, quote, dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos. Harris said the move supports President Trump's, quote, cruel, calculated agenda.

While expressing her support for the protest, 22 Democratic governors issued a joint statement condemning the deployment, calling it, quote, an alarming abuse of power.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is publicly criticizing the federal immigration raids in Los Angeles on Sunday. She said Los Angeles, quote, would not be what it is without the Mexican men and women who live there. She also demanded the rights of Mexican men and women be respected while offering her approach to resolving the migrant crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We do not agree with this way of addressing the migration phenomenon.

[23:15:00]

It is not through raids or violence that the migration phenomenon will be addressed. It is by sitting down and working on the comprehensive immigration reform that takes into account all Mexicans who are on the other side of the border. That is our position and we will always call for peace, for nonviolence, for non-exacerbating any form of violent demonstration. None.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Still to come, more on the California protests over federal immigration rates. Our breaking news coverage continues.

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ABEL: Back to our breaking news. A third straight day of protests in Los Angeles after a series of immigration raids across California. President Trump has taken the rare step of deploying the National Guard and California officials are accusing the Trump administration of making the situation worse.

Protesters clashed with the National Guard, ICE and DHS agents through the day, and many demonstrators flooded the streets and a major highway, causing road closures. As the unrest continues, the U.S. Northern Command says about 500 active duty Marines are on a prepared to deploy status. Joining me now is Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition

for Humane Immigrant Rights. Angelica, thank you again for joining us tonight. We talked last night. What have you experienced in the last 24 hours?

ANGELICA SALAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COALITION FOR HUMANE IMMIGRANT RIGHTS: Well, first of all, I think it's important to let the public know that the raids continue. There were two work site raids today at car washes on the west side of Los Angeles and Inglewood. And men who work in those car washes were actually picked up.

This morning. I began my day going to the Adelanto Detention Processing Center in Adelanto, California.

[23:20:06]

After unsuccessfully being able to provide legal representation to individuals who were detained here in Los Angeles yesterday with three members of Congress -- four members of Congress yesterday. We then found out that many of the detainees were actually taken to the Adelanto Processing Center in Adelanto, California.

At nine o' clock in the morning I was there with Congresswoman Judy Chu, Congress member Derek Tran, and also Congress member Gil Cisneros. They were asking for oversight of the detention center to check in on the detainees and on the conditions in which they were being held.

Instead of receiving us and receiving lawyers who were there to represent individuals as well as family members who have been looking for their loved ones for now several days, were actually received with locked doors. They immediately upon seeing us, ran to the gates and then locked them up for us with a padlock.

And so they did not allow us to come in. We were there waiting outside the gates for two hours. At this point now, there have been three days without our ability to actually provide legal representation to those individuals.

I was -- right before this call I was informed that one lawyer was able to go in, was there for four hours, and was only able to see one person. So it is very important to me for people to understand that these rates continue. People are being picked up.

But what is unfortunate, and I've never experienced this in my entire career, is that you have a situation in which legal representation is absolutely denied for the people who are being detained, many who have deep roots and potentially the ability, if they go before our judge, to stay in this country.

ABEL: Angelica, when you went to those detention centers and you were denied, what did they tell you? Did they say anything? Or did they just lock the doors and let you plead?

SALAS: Well, actually, that's what we did. And what was outrageous is that no official came forward to even talk to us. In Los Angeles -- in the Los Angeles Detention center before we saw people being put in vans and taken away, we knew that they were people who had been detained during the raids because family members were there and could identify their loved ones. But there was at least an exchange. In this situation nobody came out.

There was a person sitting in a car in front of us, would not come out of the car, would not talk to us, was unwilling to talk to or bring out supervisors. And I want you to know that we have been going to the Adelanto Processing Detention Center for years. People, you know, it's a practice. People have gone who are loved ones or who are also representatives.

This idea to lock down a facility when individuals are coming in, simply to be able to represent the individuals who family members are asking, who are asking for their well-being and also they need representation.

We're also very fearful that the individuals who are currently detained will be shipped out of state. We already have one case in which we know that individuals were shipped out to Texas. It's also the practice of this administration to simply them to Louisiana and as you very well know, to send them to other detentions outside of the country. So this is time is of an essence.

And I think it's outrageous that what the President is actually doing is bringing in more National Guard, fortifying his ability to continue these raids, but at the same time also creating this illegal conduct in which he's not allowing lawyers to provide representation for the individuals who are caught up in these raids, they have due process.

Many of them have never even had contact with immigration authorities. And so it's important for us to get to them and their loved ones are coming to us with so much fear, asking for us to intervene in order to find their father, their mother, their sister, their brother, their nephews. So it's important for us to understand how important it is that as these raids continue, that access to council actually become an incredible and important demand by everyone in our communities.

ABEL: And Angelica, given that families are coming to you asking for help, do you have any sort of estimate how many individuals have been round up in these immigration enforcements so far in the last handful of days?

[23:25:05]

SALAS: Well, my -- based on our own calculations, we have -- we believe over 200 people that have been actually picked up. This also includes individuals who are being picked up in the courtrooms in Los Angeles. So we have two enforcement operations happening at the same time. One in the courtrooms where people are doing their check-ins and we're going to their hearings and on the other one is in the streets and in work sites.

So now we have four different operations that actually happened at work sites. ABEL: OK.

SALAS: The other enforcement has happened in the streets and people have been picked up from the streets, rounded up in the streets.

ABEL: And Angelica, very quickly, when we look at these images at this time of the evening with these protests, do you have any sense of how many are protesters that are so sympathetic for your cause versus agitators that are coming outside just to agitate police officers?

SALAS: Well, what's so concerning is we're losing focus in terms of what is important. What is important is all the people who are actually being snatched up from our streets and from our work sites and who are currently detained without legal counsel.

And so for me, it's unfortunate that we have very peaceful protests that begin with gathering of community members who actually are sympathetic to our cause and who are speaking up against this injustice and also the militarization and enforcement that's coming into our communities.

As the protest is over, some people linger, but then what I see is these protests are taken over, sort of protest takeovers just in the way that sometimes in Los Angeles we have street takeovers of individuals who are coming in many instances, you know, really acting in a very violent way.

And I want -- what my message to all of those individuals is you're not helping our folks. Instead, you know, you're putting attention on yourselves and on the activities. You know, sometimes the vandalism, the burning of cars, you're not putting the attention on the very people that you say you want to help.

Right now what we have to pay attention is that we have hundreds of people in detention who need to be with their families. That's what our focus should be about their stories. And so for me, it's important that we reiterate that absolutely, I believe deeply in our First Amendment right to protest.

I have been organizing protests and rallies for years, always very peaceful. I mean, we have rallied hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles with absolutely peaceful working with our police department.

And what I also know is that as protesters, we also have responsibilities. And so it's important that we're also. Our responsibility is to keep our people safe and to create and to make sure that our message is really centered on the people who are most impacted during this time.

ABEL: Angelica Salas, good to see you again. Thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.

SALAS: Of course. And thank you for having me.

ABEL: Still ahead, the deployment of the National Guard to California protests sparks backlash from state and local officials. More on the immigration protests when we return. You're watching CNN.

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[23:32:16]

ABEL: We continue to monitor Los Angeles at this hour, where unrest and protests have broken out for a third consecutive day following immigration raids across the state that we are told continue today.

California officials are furious with the Trump administration, saying the president's deployment of the National Guard has only inflamed the situation. And one law enforcement source warns it could be a rough night ahead.

Authorities say arrests are being made after thousands flooded the streets. You see it there, even blocked one freeway. We have seen clashes and at least two self-driving cars before being set on fire.

President Trump's federalization of the National Guard. It marks the first time a U.S. president has used this power in over 30 years.

In 1992, the Guard was deployed to Los Angeles to quell riots caused by the acquittal of four white police officers in the Rodney King beating case. A key difference is that California's governor at the time requested their assistance.

But current California Governor Gavin Newsom opposes this National Guard deployment. Guard units also came under federal control in 1970 during a postal strike in New York and in 1968 in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as 1967 to restore public order during the Detroit riots.

CNN's chief law enforcement analyst John Miller says in all of his experience, this type of deployment is something that he's never seen. Here's what he had to say about the President's move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: We have to begin with the question of what are they doing there? Typically the request will come from an overwhelmed law enforcement community that will go to the governor and say, we need help from outside and that's going to be the National Guard. That did not happen, nor did the governor ask for assistance from the National Guard.

This is the Trump administration in Washington federalizing the California National Guard out from under the governor and deploying them based on their assertion that they are not satisfied with the force protection that they got from the local law enforcement agencies, whether that was the LAPD deployed Friday and Saturday at the federal building, or whether it was the LA sheriff's people who were deployed in Paramount, California near the ICE facility there.

So they're basically saying we're federalizing the whole operation, not just the enforcement piece based on civil immigration law, but also the protection of the federal building, the protection of the federal agents. And I haven't seen that before and I've been around a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:35:00]

ABEL: Joining me now from Washington is Elizabeth Goitein. She's the senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice for. Thank you for the time. We really appreciate it. Elizabeth,

Ordinarily, using federal troops to suppress civil unrest would be illegal. Can you just walk us through first the pertinent laws for that versus what's being used right now?

ELIZABETH GOITEIN, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF THE LIBERTY AND NATIONAL SECURITY PROGRAM, BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE: Sure. The Posse Comitatus Act is the law that generally prohibits federal armed forces, and that includes the federalized National Guard from directly participating in core law enforcement functions. And those are things like arrests or searches or seizures. And this is an absolutely vital protection for our democracy and for our individual liberties.

But there are exceptions. Congress has legislated exceptions. And the one that is probably most common that people have heard of the most is the Insurrection Act. And that's what allows the president to deploy federal troops to quell civil unrest or to enforce the law in a crisis.

But as you said, that is not what President Trump used here. He used a very obscure provision 10 USC 12406 that has not previously been used in this. In fact, it's pretty much always been coupled with the Insurrection Act.

It's been treated and used as sort of a technical call up authority that the president can use when he wants to deploy troops under the Insurrection Act. So this is unprecedented to sort of uncouple those things and rely on that authority to deploy the National Guard to, you know, conduct these federal protective activities.

ABEL: OK, so now that you've given us what this mechanism is that he's currently using, could there be any legal challenges to it?

GOITEIN: Absolutely, there could be legal challenges. I mean, again, this is really an unprecedented use of these laws.

And so we are wading into uncharted legal waters. Obviously, there has been a lot of consternation around the deployment of these troops. Governor Newsom said that this was going to be inflammatory, that this was going to escalate tensions rather than deescalate them. And we have seen that. And some of the resulting, really, chaos we've seen with reports of National Guard forces now throwing tear gas canisters and using flashbang grenades.

These are the kinds of situations that have a tendency to prompt lawsuits because, needless to say, they're negatively impacting things in Los Angeles and there are legal challenges that can be brought.

ABEL: And Elizabeth, we are seeing live images right now with like fireworks, it looks like that are exploding right in front officers there at a line right next to a police car. I know you know this. In 1992, National Guard was federalized in L.A. following the acquittal of white officers beating Rodney Keane. But that was at the request of the Governor.

And during those riots, there were dozens of people killed, thousands injured and thousands arrested. Property damage estimated to be north of a billion dollars then. So that's not where we are right now. If you can you give us the historical context that we need to be aware of in this moment? When was the last time a president deployed National Guard troops without a governor? When was the last time they were used in this fashion and the differences between those moments and now?

GOITEIN: Yes, so it was last used in 1992 in Los Angeles, as you say. And yes, that is not a model that we would necessarily want to replicate. It has only been used 30 times in U.S. history, and it has not been used without a state's request since the 1960s during the Civil Rights era.

So this is an authority that's been used quite sparingly, and it's been used even more sparingly over time. The reason we haven't seen it used for the last 30 plus years, there are actually several reasons. But one is that the capacity of local law enforcement, especially when we're talking about these large municipal police departments, has really grown exponentially.

And frankly, there aren't that many civil unrest scenarios that these large police departments cannot handle today with the capacity they have, with the equipment they have, they have a lot of military equipment.

And this is what we saw in last Angeles. We saw the Los Angeles police, the sheriff's department, saying, we've got this. Yes, there have -- there have been incidents of violence and property damage sort of at the edge of these protests. But we have them under control. And that really appeared to be the case as of this morning before the National Guard was deployed. And since then, things have just gone south very quickly.

ABEL: And we are waiting to see if they go south. Further hearing from the president today, Elizabeth, it sounds that this, the presence of troops, of National Guard troops may not be just relegated to Los Angeles. What are the implications of that?

[23:40:02]

GOITEIN: Right. So the memorandum that the president issued actually doesn't mention Los Angeles. It authorizes the deployment of federalized National Guard forces and active duty forces anywhere in the country where protests over ICE activity might be occurring, regardless of whether there's any violence associated with the protests. There was nothing about that in the memorandum and even in places where no protests are occurring yet. But the government determines that protests might occur.

So what we have is this sort of massive, preemptive, potentially nationwide deployment, authorization of the military to effectively police protests. And that is absolutely unprecedented. It's extremely dangerous, and it's an abuse of any law that the president might invoke to try to do that.

ABEL: And Elizabeth, lastly, based on your experience and maybe what history tells us, do you believe we've seen the worst of this yet?

GOITEIN: I would hope that the answer is yes. But unfortunately, I think as long as President Trump continues to try to up the ante here, it's going to some of these negative effects that we've already seen, I fear are going to continue.

And this is really one reason why the military does not actually perform police functions in this country. This is not their job. They're not trained for this. Frankly, the military is the best fighting force in the world. They're trained to fight and destroy an enemy, but they are not trained to deescalate civil unrest situations while respecting the constitutional rights of the Americans involved.

And so these kinds of deployments really do pose risks, safety risks, not only to civilians, but to the soldiers themselves.

ABEL: All right. Elizabeth Goitein, appreciate your expertise. Thank you.

GOITEIN: Thanks for having me.

ABEL: And we will be right back with more on this breaking news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:45:47]

ABEL: Back to our breaking news in Los Angeles. These are live pictures as we monitor the ongoing clashes between demonstrators and federal law enforcement agents. We are told police were working to clear protesters before nightfall, which has now hit. And we are seeing traffic moving and what appears to be crowds thinning out at this moment at least.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, says the state will file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump over what he described as an illegal, immoral and unconstitutional deployment of the National Guard to address unrest in the state.

In an interview on MSNBC, Newsom accused the president of quote, putting fuel on the fire of the crisis. More images now at a gas station in Los Angeles here with some crowds as well. But this appears at the moment to mostly be under control. This is the third day of protests against immigration raids that have swept across California over the weekend.

The Trump administration has deployed about 300 members of the California National Guard. That's down from the 2,000 that was initially, as of now at least, the U.S. Northern Command also says about 500 active duty Marines are standing by.

As the protests have escalated. In Los Angeles on Sunday, multiple self-driving vehicles have been set on fire and vandalized with graffiti. You see one here. The video you're seeing appears to depict Waymo cars suffering heavy damage.

Joining me now to discuss is CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter. And Brian, I know you are hearing from various tech companies about what's happening in Los Angeles. What can you tell?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, what a 2025 sight, right? What a strange mixture of state of the art technology with the worst of human impulses to go ahead and set these fires ablaze. It was so striking seeing these multiple Waymo cars all lined up on a street in downtown L.A. as vandals set them on fire. These cars are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece and they've been driving around L.A. for the past several months as this company tries to roll out state of the art Robotech -- robo taxi technology. This has been an SF for a while now in LA.

It's been going really well up until today, to be quite honest. But Waymo, in a statement, told me that it is in touch with law enforcement about this matter.

The reason why that's relevant, it's obvious, but it's relevant because Waymo was able to turn off the app and turn off the cars in the protest area, thereby making sure other cars could not be ordered and brought down to that street and then set on fire. Because there was online speculation that some of these vandals were actually ordering the cars, like the way you'd order an Uber, and then having the cars show up so they could deface and vandalize and set them ablaze. A very weird case of 21st technology being weaponized during these demonstrations.

And it's not the only example we've seen tonight. You were showing pictures earlier of the 101 where people were taking Lime scooters, throwing them over -- from the overpass onto the highway to trying to damage those highway patrol cars.

I checked in with the company Lime that makes those scooters. No immediate comment from Lime. But there's not so much they can do, to be quite honest, in a situation like this where those scooters that are on the sidewalks in many major cities end up getting weaponized by these vandals, Brian.

ABEL: And I know that's an ongoing problem for companies like Lime. Living in Detroit, near the Detroit River, we've seen often that police pulling them out of the river as well.

I do want to talk about something else. You have a Write up on cnn.com about misinformation that is being spread, some of it by politicians. What can you tell us about that?

STELTER: Yes, absolutely. Look, one level, protests are always about images, about spectacle. You might even say it's about theater. And we are seeing that play out in L.A. and I think it's valuable to have that perspective as we see some of these pictures, especially as we zoom out and we recognize that the unrest isolated, is not overtaking the entire city of LA. L.A. is home to millions of people, most of whom are having a normal day here on Sunday.

But in these pockets where there has been unrest, these images on social media have been spreading quickly and some have been very misleading.

[23:50:00]

There have been some sensational videos from today, from 2025, but there have also been old videos from 2020 that are resurfacing, that are misleading people on sites like X. For example, Senator Ted Cruz here writing, this does not look peaceful. Here's his caption on X. He's linking to a video that's not from today. It's from 2020. This is a video from the George Floyd uprisings.

We've seen a number of conservative influencers today sharing this old video clip and as if it is brand new. And what they're doing is they are lumping together peaceful protesters with violent rioters and arguing the whole thing is a mess. And thus President Trump is right to send in the National Guard. There's a lot of that conflating going on.

But if I learned one thing during the 2020 uprisings, it's that all the good faith attempts to separate peaceful protests from violent bad faith actors, it kind of falls apart. A lot of people don't want to hear it. A lot of Americans don't want to hear it and don't want to distinguish in a moment like this.

And I've seen a lot of dialogue on social media sites tonight, including from people involved in the L.A. protests who were saying, when cars are being set ablaze, when Waymo cars are burning in downtown L.A., that is not helping the cause of these protesters.

ABEL: And we know the governor's office, in response to some of that misinformation, was saying and reminding us all check sources before sharing information.

STELTER: Right.

ABEL: All right, Brian Stelter, appreciate your time. Thank you.

STELTER: Yes, thanks.

ABEL: We will be right back with more on this breaking news.

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[23:55:18]

ABEL: We continue to follow breaking news out of Los Angeles where California's governor is accusing President Donald Trump of adding fuel to the fire with his deployments of the National Guard. State and local officials are calling for calm after protests over federal immigration sweeps turned violent on Sunday with clashes between some protesters and police.

You're seeing vehicles on fire there, thousands of demonstrators filling L.A. street, some even forcing the closure of the 101 freeway. Governor Gavin Newsom says the state will sue President Trump over what he described as an illegal, immoral and unconstitutional deployment of the National Guard.

President Trump's border czar says California officials could be arrested for impeding ICE raids. Tom Homan told NBC News that the mayor of Los Angeles or Governor Newsom rather, would be arrested if necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, U.S. BORDER CZAR: I'll say about anybody, you cross that line, it's a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It's a felony to impede law enforcement from doing their job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you think that the mayor of L.A. is doing that?

HOMAN: Cross that line? We'll ask DOJ to prosecute. Do I think she's crossing? I don't think she crossed the line yet. But I'm telling you, the warning we're sending is we're not going tolerate people attacking our officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Thank you for watching. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta. Our breaking news coverage will continue after a short break.

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