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Downtown L.A. Declared 'Unlawful Assembly' Area as Protests Continue, Trump Calls in National Guard. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 09, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Three a.m. in Los Angeles after a third day of protests. At this hour, police are still out in the city, but only a few scattered demonstrations remain.
[06:00:14]
Police say 27 people were arrested after immigration raids sparked widespread anger in the city. Our crews reminding us that much of this activity concentrated on specific parts of downtown Los Angeles.
California Governo Gavin Newsom says that the state will sue the Trump administration over the deployment of the National Guard.
And from the team and I, want to thank you for watching EARLY START. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish, and thank you for waking up with me on this busy Monday morning.
We're going to start with that breaking news out of California. Protests over immigration raids have led to arrests in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Cars were set on fire. Flashbangs and tear gas were used to disperse crowds. Parts of a major freeway were shut down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go home! Go home! Go home!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go home! Go home! Go home!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go home! Go home! Go home!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: This morning marks the fourth day of protests. You're seeing some of those self-driving cars on fire.
Right now, all of downtown L.A. has been declared an unlawful assembly area.
President Trump called up the National Guard to protect federal personnel and property. It's the first time a president has done this without a state's request or consent in about 60 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you prepared to invoke the Insurrection Act?
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It depends on whether or not there's an insurrection.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is none?
TRUMP: No, no, but you've got violent people, and we're not going to let them get away with it. I think that you're going to see some very strong law and order.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Five hundred active-duty Marines are also prepared to deploy.
The entire National Guard situation is setting up a showdown with California's governor. He claims the president is putting fuel on the fire.
The mayor of Los Angeles accused the president of being heavy-handed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: When you raid Home Depot and workplaces; when you tear parents and children apart; and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you cause fear, and you cause panic.
RON GOCHEZ, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: For every single minute that we were here resisting against the Border Patrol, that was time that they were not out deporting people in our community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: But President Trump is urging L.A.'s police chief to bring in the troops right now.
Police say at least 27 people were arrested Sunday, most of those on the 101 Freeway that police shut down. They say protesters threw things onto the road and damaged police cars.
Also overnight, a large crowd protested against ICE in San Francisco. About 60 people were arrested there.
Joining me now, CNN senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.
Juliette, I want to start with some of the history here, because you've pointed out that usually a president can federalize the National Guard, for instance, when a governor requests those resources.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.
CORNISH: When a governor says, look, I'm overwhelmed. I think back to the L.A. riots. Also, Hurricane Katrina.
Based on what you've observed, is that where we were?
KAYYEM: Yes. I mean, that's -- this is -- this is a big distinction of what Donald Trump did. And there's a series of cases coming out of desegregation when a governor defied a Supreme Court order. And the president federalized the National Guard to get children into the schools. So that's a pool of those cases.
More recently, the time, and instances where a governor has requested additional federal support in the form of federalized National Guard assets or troops. That has always been with the cooperation of the -- of the governor and the federal government.
So, Hurricane Katrina, you exactly noted. And the L.A. riots. In the past, a Republican governor and a Democrat -- Democratic mayor of Los Angeles both requested this from the president. And they were deployed.
I want to say something clear, though. Simply because they're deployed doesn't mean it's been successful. I am in this field. The L.A. riot's deployment of federalized National Guard was considered chaotic and not very successful.
CORNISH: Can you get into that more? We have heard this argument that it can, in some cases -- actually, we've heard from the governor, I think -- can inflame or kind of further --
KAYYEM: Yes.
CORNISH: -- fuel backlash. What are you seeing?
KAYYEM: Yes. So, this is a -- the White -- it's hard to determine what the White House is doing right now. The president and his team came on very strong on Saturday, you know, using words like "insurrection." I think getting people really hyped up about what was going to be happening.
[06:05:02]
Then there was a delay, and now there's a couple hundred troops that are protecting federal buildings. That's an important mission. It could have been done with state National Guard. You didn't need to put them under the president or Secretary Hegseth.
And the reason why you don't do that is because state National Guard work regularly with state police and local police for crowd control, games. The -- L.A. is going to be hosting the Olympics. Think of a marathon or a big event. This is happening all the time.
So, there's training. There's understanding. There's what we call interoperability. The different teams can -- can communicate with each other.
When you bring a new entity in, there's no training. There's no cooperation. There's often chaos, and there's a higher probability of -- of friendly fire.
This is what happened in the L.A. riots, is that there was a -- there were two instances in which there was almost friendly fire.
So, we do this to protect -- or we don't do this in order to protect the troops and the, as well as the first responders.
CORNISH: Juliette Kayyem, CNN senior national security analyst thank you.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
CORNISH: Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we're continuing to, of course, monitor this breaking news out of Los Angeles.
California leaders say they're ready to sue over the president's deployment of the National Guard. Is the White House legally out of bounds?
Plus, a new poll shows most Americans are on board with the president's deportation goals, but not how he's going about them.
And we're watching protests unfolding in the early hours of the morning as police continue to make arrests overnight.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're making more arrests as we -- as we speak, and we're trying to get into that posture where we're able to make arrests. Right now, really, our officers are really under attack.
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[06:11:26]
CORNISH: President Trump has deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, and that's raised urgent questions about how far the White House will go to enforce its immigration crackdown and how far states can go in resisting.
President Trump posted on Truth Social that, quote, "order will be restored. The illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free."
The Trump administration is singling out California Governor Gavin Newsom's response to the protests as its main reason for getting involved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: If he was doing his job, then people wouldn't have gotten hurt the last couple of days.
Governor Newsom has proven that he makes bad decisions. The president knows that he makes bad decisions. And that's why the president chose the safety of this community over waiting for Governor Newsom to get some sanity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And the White House's border czar, Tom Homan, is threatening to arrest anyone getting in the way of immigration enforcement, including Newsom, who says he's ready for a fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: The fear, the horror. The hell is this guy? Come after me. Arrest me. Let's just get it over with, tough guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, CNN politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson; Republican strategist and CNN political commentator Brad Todd; and CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
I was talking during the break about whether or not this is still an immigration story, sort of how we're thinking about this moment. Can I kind of open it to you guys?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: This is a very perilous moment, because what we're seeing here is a fight that President Trump wants to have.
CORNISH: Meaning with blue states? Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: With blue states about immigration, about the rule of law and the way that he views it. And also using the threat of military force in a way that we haven't seen in this country, federal military force.
I mean, there's discussion of deploying Marines for what is a civil disturbance. This should be of concern, I think, to many, many people in this country.
And so, I think the context is that, yes, this is about immigration enforcement. Los Angeles is a city where 50 percent, almost, are Latinos. The people who have been protesting, peacefully protesting. I'm not talking about the violent protesters here. Violence should never be something that's condoned.
But the people who have been peacefully protesting, sometimes there are first, second generation, Latinos who are worried about this kind of immigration enforcement.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And so, you know, this is a complicated issue.
CORNISH: And something we heard earlier, I think, in a piece of tape was a protester saying, every moment that we're out here, they're not, he said, "in our communities doing raids," et cetera.
Brad, what are you thinking?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, we got to this moment, because California has a sanctuary policy. The state law forbids local law enforcement from cooperating with -- or local government, from cooperating with immigration enforcement.
We have immigration laws that govern the entire land, and California is willfully ignoring them. California's left-wing politicians set this up.
If California had long been cooperating and helping enforce immigration laws all along the way, this would not be --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's not the whole state, though. It's not the whole state. You do know that some of this is jurisdictions. There are certain towns that do.
TODD: It's a state law.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, but there are certain.
TODD: State law.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But there are certain towns that absolutely have cooperated with federal authorities.
TODD: Shouldn't they all?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, this is -- part of the issue that is always interesting here is, when Republicans want to talk about states' rights. It's about states' rights when it is something that they're interested in and not when it is something that perhaps Democrats and their states are interested in.
[06:15:05]
And so, I think --
TODD: We've all agreed on what immigration laws are.
CORNISH: Well, we're done. I don't --
TODD: It's not -- there's not a state. There's not a state --
CORNISH: We're going to talk about this more in the hour.
TODD: There's not a state write-off on federal immigration law.
CORNISH: I want to bring in Stephen, because there is something you mentioned earlier about militarization. We're going to come back to your point.
But having Marines waiting in -- in the wings is pretty wild, because this is not the L.A. riots so far. Not what I remember growing up with.
And Steve --
TODD: You notice, when -- once the president --
CORNISH: Hold on one second, Brad. So, Stephen brought up this thing, saying that the president's not just demonstrating his desire to militarize the crackdown on undocumented migrants, but also implying to use it against protest and dissent.
Is -- is that what you see when you look at these images?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: I think that's the imagery that the administration is creating.
The president tweeted in the middle of the night, or posted on Truth Social, or whatever it is now, bring in the troops. He wants us to have that imagery of troops on the streets, I think.
CORNISH: But that's because people are seeing this imagery, right? I mean, if you look at the cover of "The Post" today, "Dozens of thugs arrested as first National Guard troops" --
TODD: Gavin Newsom wants it, too.
COLLINSON: Yes, I think. I think you're right. That comment he said -- that we saw about him, you know, potentially being arrested. He clearly wants this political fight --
TODD: He's peacocking to try to become a national figure.
COLLINSON: -- as well. I mean, there's a lot of peacocking going on. But from the administration's point of view, Trump was elected on a mandate of strong border policy. He sees that. He wants to push that as far as he can. He's sending a message to other Democratic states who he believes do not cooperate with the administration.
CORNISH: To their leaders, or to people who might try and protest in the streets?
COLLINSON: How do you mean, exactly.
CORNISH: The message he's sending.
COLLINSON: Yes. And -- but I think, to that point I made in the story, you know, and to your point about the Marines, this is a dangerous moment. The idea of American active troops even being talked about on the street.
I remember I was in New Orleans after the hurricane. You had the 82nd Airborne there, and they were there on a much different mission. But seeing American active-duty troops on a combat patrol, walking through the streets of an American city, is a chilling image.
And I've worked in a lot of countries where that is the case, and it's not something you really want to bring on. TODD: No one wants that. And the way -- the way to avoid that is for
California law enforcement to work with immigration authorities.
CORNISH: But is it OK that it's been raised?
TODD: No one wants it. But I will note that, once the president said he might mobilize the National Guard, the LAPD suddenly got interested in stopping the demonstration.
CORNISH: OK.
TODD: It took that kind of -- that kind of a threat to get LAPD to do their job.
CORNISH: All right, group chats, stay with me. We've got a lot to talk about. We're going to -- actually going to talk about a different part of this later.
But up next on CNN THIS MORNING, as we monitor the situation on the ground in Los Angeles, as we've talked about, the National Guard has been deployed. In the meantime, there are at least 500 Marines now on standby. We want to talk about the rules of engagement for all this.
Plus, all of downtown L.A. has been declared an unlawful assembly area overnight. So, we're going to be live from Los Angeles in just a few minutes.
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[06:22:21]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a veteran. So, this angers me. This angers me. It's disgusting. They're using their own soldiers on their own people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Right now, the White House has National Guard members in L.A. in response to the protests against immigration enforcement raids.
And the Marines could be next, or at least at this point, on standby. That's according to U.S. Northern Command.
And the president did not officially invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 when he brought in the National Guard. L.A.'s police chief is disputing even the need for those troops on the ground.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is your position on the National Guard being deployed? Do we need them here?
CHIEF JIM MCDONNELL, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: We have great cops in Southern California here that work together all the time. So, we have tremendous capability here.
To say that we -- we would go to that right away, I'd say we're not -- we wouldn't have been there yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.
Thank you so much for being here.
So, people might be wondering why we have the global affairs analyst on this. First of all, how is this being seen overseas?
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It is being seen as an escalation of the dispute between Trump and the Democrats and the left, because Trump has said --
CORNISH: Are they seeing the violence on the streets and --
DOZIER: They're seeing the violence on the streets and the -- the choice to use troops, as opposed to just cops, as they're using words like authoritarian. The rise of the autocracy in the United States. All sorts of words like that.
When I speak to European officials in general, they were worried about a turn in this direction. And this -- the images coming out of L.A. confirm some of their worst fears.
CORNISH: I want to talk about what California's lieutenant governor said about this decision to send in the National Guard. This is Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis.
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LT. GOV. ELENI KOUNALAKIS (D), CALIFORNIA: Calling in the National Guard in the way that he did was -- was not necessary. Absolutely overkill and seems to now being escalating the problem because of Donald Trump's actions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The president, of course, bypassing the governor to -- to send in that support. One, is it legal? And two, does it do what she says? Escalate.
You and I have both covered riots before, and the crowd can change depending on who's there and how they respond.
DOZIER: So, under Title X, he can do this. He can decide where he wants National Guard troops to go.
As you said, he hasn't invoked the Insurrection Act. So, these troops can protect federal property and federal forces. They cannot arrest American citizens, unless the Insurrection Act is imposed.
[06:25:10]
So, right now, what we're seeing are these troops used in situations where they're supposed to be hanging back, but we're already seeing some face-to-face confrontations where protesters are calling out to them, reacting to what we call "full battle rattle."
When troops are deployed with helmet, masks --
CORNISH: Yes, you can see some of it here.
DOZIER: --- the -- the flak jackets, weapons in hand. When I would speak to troops in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, if they were going into community trying to win trust, they would do things like take some of that stuff off.
The moment you see that kind of a force deployed, it, especially -- I've covered riots from Northern Ireland to Palestinians in the West Bank to the Black Lives Matter protests that I think --
CORNISH: Yes.
DOZIER: -- both of us saw here in D.C. Whenever you see a line of troops arrayed like that, it creates fear, anger, and an aggressive reaction in the protesters. And it's the kind of thing that can turn a protest into a riot.
CORNISH: But isn't the point to have a show of force?
DOZIER: If you are on the conservative side of the House, you think that California is lawless, and that the governor and the mayor of L.A. didn't step in to impose discipline. And what has dominated your television screen are pictures of burning cars, et cetera.
If you're in another political side of the House, what you see are largely peaceful protesters with a few troublemakers being met with massive force.
So, President Trump isn't losing anything with his base by deploying these forces, but it is starting this -- this cleaving between the two sides that what I fear, because I've watched it happen in other countries, is that the protests snowball.
It becomes a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy for the conservative side. More and more force is used.
And what happens are the protesters end up, instead of working on political action, signing people up for elections, et cetera, they get caught in this cycle of destroying property and getting seen on television screens. And they think that's actually doing something. Because --
CORNISH: Yes.
DOZIER: -- this is this amorphous thing they're trying to fight. And here's a concrete thing that they can go and hit out against. CORNISH: I appreciate your point about how these things are depicted
and, in the media, social media age, what people are going to be seeing.
Kim Dozier, thank you so much. Kim is a senior CNN global affairs analyst.
Now, after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we're on the ground in Los Angeles as protests spill into a fourth day. What the situation is like in L.A. right now.
Plus, with the immigration crackdown center stage, Democrats are pulled back into a fight many have been avoiding.
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[06:30:00]
