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Shooting at School in Austria; California Sues Trump Over Deployment; Trump Says Protests Could Have Led to Insurrection; Phyllis Coven is Interviewed about Trust Between Communities and Law Enforcement. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 10, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: After days of immigration protests in L.A., cities across the country, from New York to Texas, now seeing their own rallies.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's now half past the hour on the East Coast, and here's what's happening right now.

Several protesters in Los Angeles have been detained with their hands bound in zip ties and loaded on busses. Law enforcement was -- was pushing people back from the federal building overnight. Now hundreds of Marines are on the way after the president deployed them yesterday.

Overnight, Russia launched a new drone attack on Ukraine. A large number of strikes reached the capital of Kyiv and the southern port city of Odessa, where Ukraine says a maternity ward was damaged.

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This comes one day after the biggest drone strike on Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

And right now, trade talks between the U.S. and China are underway for a second day. It began about an hour ago, and we've learned so far things are going well.

And we are following breaking news out of Austria, where officials say eight people have been killed in a shooting at a high school there.

We're going to go straight to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who is following the story.

Fred, what are you learning so far?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Audie.

Well, this is still very much a developing story and something that only happened a couple of hours ago. In fact, the Austrian police on the ground there in Graz, which is in the southern part of Austria, said they got the first call around 10:00 a.m. local time, which is 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time, saying that shots had been fired at this high school.

Now, the police are now saying that they are confirming that eight people have been killed, among them children between the ages of 14 and 18. There was also one report by the mayor of the city that apparently a teacher had been killed as a -- as well. But the police have not confirmed that yet.

They also say that as of right now there is no more danger because the shooter is also dead. He's not among those eight killed, but he is also apparently dead. And that's why the police says that right now they don't believe that there's further danger to other people on the ground there.

However, one of the things that was seen there on the ground is a lot of people being evacuated from that school, and also people who apparently were wounded as well being taken to hospitals. And the latest that we're getting is that the hospitals there are overwhelmed because this is obviously a mass casualty event, Audie.

CORNISH: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.

Now, the Justice Department says it has nine open cases related to the clashes between protesters and law enforcement in California. Attorney General Pam Bondi says one of those cases involves a masked man accused of throwing rocks at federal officers. She says they have identified him and searched his home. The administration says it will take a hard line with demonstrators.

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PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We can prosecute federally people who assault state law enforcement officers with a maximum of five years in prison, and we are going to do it. If you assault a police officer, if you rob a store, if you loot, if you spit on a police officer, we're coming after you.

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CORNISH: Bondi did not specify whether any charges have been brought.

This comes as California is actually suing the administration for sending National Guard troops to L.A.

Joining me now to help explain, Alyse Adamson, former federal prosecutor.

Alyse, good to talk to you this morning.

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Good morning, Audie. Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: So, let's talk about the very premise of this suit, because I can imagine there have been times in past history where local governments, say during the civil rights period, did not want the federal government sending troops to their state. So, what is the jurisdictional question here? What is California asking?

ADAMSON: That's right. So, I think you're referring to 1965, of course, where the federal government sent troops over the objection of a Democratic governor who did not want to protect peaceful civil rights marchers, that would be Martin Luther King, as they did their -- their famous march.

This is very different than that, right? And we just need to make clear that the similarity there is that it was of -- it was -- it was invoked at the objection of the sitting governor. But here what we're talking about is a demonstration of force against largely peaceful protests.

So, Governor Newsom had already made clear to the government that California had the situation under control. And as the previous reporting earlier, Audie, on the show, usually civil law enforcement powers are reserved to the state, and they are not reserved to the military. That is counter to the founding principles of our Constitution and our country.

So, Governor Newsom had told the Trump administration they didn't need that. So, what he has done is rightfully initiated a lawsuit, because fighting this in a court of law is the appropriate venue. And the lawsuit simply says this, look, we don't need the help. We have the situation under control. Yes, there is discrete incidents of violence, but that's why we have the Los Angeles Police Department. And this is an unconstitutional power grab that is infringing on the sovereign space of the states.

Furthermore, the lawsuit also goes on to say that the statutory elements for when a president has the authority to invoke the statute have simply not been met. There is no invasion, there's no rebellion, and that the government is not having trouble enforcing the laws of the United States. So, that's a long answer, but I think it is very important to contextualize both what is happening and why Governor Newsom feels like this invocation is inappropriate given what we are seeing on the ground.

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CORNISH: So, that's at the state level. I want to give an example of a protest from the lower level.

David Huerta, the union leader, I believe, SEIU, his arrest gained national attention. He's now out on bond after he was arrested Friday for rallying protesters.

But here's what he said after his release.

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DAVID HUERTA, PRESIDENT, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION CALIFORNIA: I don't know what they have in store for me. I imagine at this point in time I am there project and they're either going to put me as their example of what happens. But I'm prepared to take on that journey, and I'm prepared to face that.

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CORNISH: He's charged with conspiring to impede an officer. This comes after the arrest of a judge in Wisconsin. What he is saying is he's being prepared to be targeted. Can you talk about that in light of the changes that Pam Bondi has made at the Justice Department?

ADAMSON: I mean, this is a tough situation, Audie, and I'm going to -- I'm going to talk to the -- talk to the audience for the prospector -- perspective of a prosecutor, which is, if an individual truly, and this is the important part, right, truly has impeded a law enforcement officer, that being resisting, pushing, maybe throwing things at a law enforcement officer, that is a crime. And I think that is where myself and the attorney general agree. We saw it in Jan 6. You -- you cannot assault police officers.

That being said, when we talk about targeting, I think what Mr. Huerta was saying was that he is going to be used as a poster child. He's going to be used as an example.

What we are seeing from this department, we are seeing weaponization, the very thing that they came in and said that they want to ferret out. They are making examples of people. We have the congresswoman from New Jersey who was arrested at the I.C.E. facility. Again, the allegations are that she physically put her hands on an I.C.E. agent. That is why we have due process. She is going to go to court, and she will be able to mount a defense to that if -- if she did not do it.

But I think the overarching message here is that people are being used as an example for the government to show their strength and to kind of tamp down these protests by saying, we will prosecute you to the full extent of the law. And so, we just need to make sure that those prosecutions are righteous and they are not indeed weaponization as it appears some of them might be.

CORNISH: Right, as they fall on many leaders in these various communities.

Alyse Adamson, former federal prosecutor, host of the "At-lyse You Heard It" podcast.

Thank you.

ADAMSON: Thank you, Audie.

CORNISH: OK, we're going to talk more about that word "insurrection." We're hearing it fairly often from the Trump administration. Merriam- Webster defines it as "an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government."

So, we want to talk about how this is being applied to what's happening in Los Angeles. President Trump has referred to the protesters as professional

agitators and insurrectionists. On Monday he was asked to clarify his position.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I wouldn't call it quite an insurrection, but it could have led to an insurrection. I mean that was a serious -- that was a lot of -- that was a lot of harm that was going on last night. I watched it very closely.

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CORNISH: The group chat is back.

Guys, this feels like one of those words that's lost all meaning, but originally it came into the mainstream consciousness around January 6th, specifically because this -- the riots that happened then, the protests that happened then happened at the Capitol building on the day that the government was certifying the election, right, literally involving a political process.

Ashley, I need to start with you, just because you kind of understand the world of -- of homeland security. Why are they raising it here? What is it that they think is going to connect these protests to insurrection?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I think the reason they're saying that is why -- why they're justifying taking in the National Guard or now the Marines. And that's because the -- the destruction that happened -- started four days ago was around the I.C.E. buildings.

And I do want to make sure that everyone doesn't lose sight on why this did start. Four days ago there were 40 people that were arrested, and all of them had pretty bad criminal records. So, it was an interesting way for this to start because there were a lot of other stories that could have happened that maybe weren't as -- the people weren't as bad as the ones that were arrested here. And I -- I think that we're losing sight of that.

But on the -- on the other side, what Homeland Security is doing right now really is -- and what the department's doing is coordinating the state and local activity with the federal government.

CORNISH: But to -- Ashley -- Ashley, just to interrupt for a second, is all violence insurrection?

DAVIS: No, I don't think so. Absolutely not. I think the reason they're saying this, just like January 6th, was because of the federal government, because of the federal buildings.

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CORNISH: OK.

Jerusalem, Chuck, how are you hearing or seeing -- when you hear that word come up, what are you thinking?

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes, I mean, I have a serious problem, obviously, with -- with invoking that word so casually as the Trump administration, particularly Stephen Miller, has been doing repeatedly in connection to what's going on.

It's not an insurrection to protest laws and rules and procedures that you disagree with. Having a political voice is not insurrection. It's only an insurrection when you are trying to overthrow the government, or acting in a way that would -- that would make it more difficult for the government to do its duly politically aligned duties. And that's not just, you know, trying to block a -- the -- the police from -- from acting in ways you disagree with.

That would mean civil rights protesters were all insurrectionists. It would mean folks who are protesting both on the right or the left when it comes to public health guidelines during Covid-19, are those people insurrectionists, too? Unless you get to the point where you're trying to kidnap the governor of Michigan, that would be maybe something that would rise to the question of -- of illegality, of course.

But I think it's important to realize what's trying to -- what's going on here is there -- there's an attempt going on right now to cast all forms of disorder, whether they're politically valid, whether they have -- they are -- they are used in democratic societies all the time to -- to include public voice as insurrection. That's really, really dangerous in my view.

CORNISH: Chuck, can you talk about then the context for Republican -- for Democrats and a, quote/unquote, response? We hear a lot of Democrats saying, look, this is not appropriate. We even heard the SEIU leader when he came out saying, violence is not what is the goal here. And so, what does it mean to protest when this is going on? What does it mean to be opposition when you have this kind of activity on the streets?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it's important to let the American people know of the overreach. We're not used to seeing military in our streets because of immigration policies. Folks know -- again, I went back to what I said when we started this segment in the top of the hour, $800 million spent telling the American people that were being invaded. This goes back to your question about what's the definition of this word.

The Donald Trump administration wants this fight. They want it to look like an insurrection. They want people to think we're at war. And sometimes when you see images of cars on fire and what we're showing on your screen right now, you're showing one-tenth of all the people. Most of the folks there are peacefully protesting what they disagree with, which is our right as Americans.

But you have a small group of people who just want to be on camera and on social media burning up cars. And that's what the American people -- and this is what I caution Democrats on, you should protest, you should stand up and fight back against your government when they think they're doing something wrong. But there is a professional class of activists out there who don't care about voting or immigrants or nothing else. You're going to get all the attention, and it's going to hurt Democrats at the end of the day.

CORNISH: We're actually going to talk about more of that later this hour. Chuck, thanks for bringing it up.

Group chat, please stay with us.

After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, a narrative that seems to pop up every time protests break out, are demonstrators being paid to cause trouble?

Plus, sweeping raids, mass deportations sowing doubt in communities across the country. A former homeland security official weighs in on how trust can be repaired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lets be clear, this is not about safety. This is not about law and order. This is about fear. It is about control. And it is about scaring our communities out of existence.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want I.C.E. out of our city. We want the federal government out of our city. And we are going to say shame every single time someone comes through here that's trying to take away our people.

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CORNISH: As tensions rise between local leaders and federal immigration officials, the casualty in all this, trust. Trust between law enforcement, emergency services and the communities that they serve. "USA Today" reports that I.C.E. raids contributed to attendance problems for school districts across the country, as some students stayed home from school this year, not because they were sick, but out of fear. With no sign that immigration enforcement is slowing down, what can we do about that trust?

Joining me now is Phyllis Coven, former U.S. citizenship and immigration services official.

Phyllis, you have worked and served at every kind of level of this system. Can you talk about what you're seeing when you look out at these protests and, for instance, see Mexican flags, or you hear people talk about who's on the street.

PHYLLIS COVEN, FORMER DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: Well, I think it's important -- I think when we see all the images on the TV, and no one is condoning the violence that we see, violence against the immigrants, violence against the citizens and the protesters or the police, that's for sure. But when we see all those very graphic images, it's easy to get confused that it is not immigrants that are protesting there and creating that kind of chaos. That's members of the community who feel betrayed by the administration because of the nature of the enforcement activities that have been going on.

The immigration enforcement that was going on was equally chaotic, but we haven't really seen the results of that. Whether or not it was effective enforcement. You know, enforcement is based on principles, on -- on proportionality, on accountability. And I think what the -- the community is concerned about is in doing these broad sweeps of the immigrants, that they're not seeing that -- that kind of care and consideration taken.

[06:55:03]

We don't know, you know, what the results were of the raids in L.A. really.

CORNISH: Yes.

COVEN: Yes. Go ahead.

CORNISH: One thing the mayor says, Mayor Karen Bass, is that the result was, in some way, fear and terror for people in the community. Here's what she had to say. Let's see if we have that.

She talks about this level in -- in fear among Angelenos right now. And I think what you hear conservative voices saying is that, look, if these states and local leaders had been doing their jobs and deporting people when it was appropriate, this situation wouldn't be happening now. What's your response to that kind of having worked in the system?

COVEN: Well, my response to that is that fear seems to be the primary law enforcement tool that the administration is using. They're creating tremendous fear. And it's very sad also to see the sort of -- the pictures of the federal buildings in these shots. Federal buildings should represent safety, not fear. They are places that should be based on principle, people should feel dignified and prideful when they go into them. And who, if you were an immigrant right now, would approach them now?

I think, you know, we have to remember that President Trump's campaign was about illegal immigration and about the bad hombres and about moving the worst of the worst. I don't think those were the folks that were hanging out at a Home Depot, right?

CORNISH: Yes.

COVEN: I think those were folks that were looking for work. So, the -- the -- and -- and -- and certainly not the -- the actions that have been taken against children that we hear about throughout the country. So, I -- I think that whereas there seemed to be very much support for the notion of mass deportations, anyone who really knows about the immigration business knows that mass deportations is not viable, it's not executable. And -- CORNISH: Right, and certainly as its playing out right now.

COVEN: Right.

CORNISH: Phyllis Coven is a former U.S. citizenship and immigration services official.

I want to thank you for being here. Appreciate your time.

COVEN: Sure. Thank you.

CORNISH: Now, since those protests began in L.A. on Friday, we've seen the demonstrations start out peaceful during the day, turn violent at night. The Trump administration says they, quote, "absolutely have evidence" that groups are being paid to cause trouble.

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KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: These are organized. These are people that are being paid to do this. You can follow how they behave, the signals they give to each other in these crowds, in these protests, to instigate violence. This is an operation, and it's professionally done. They've done it before, and we're going to stop it and make sure that we prosecute every single one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for detail on Noem's claims.

The group chat is back.

We heard this kind of framing of protests, certainly in Minneapolis in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. We hear it not infrequently when there are protests. How are you hearing this now, Jerusalem? I'm going to come to you because you talked about opposition earlier.

DEMSAS: Yes. I mean, this, again, the reason why you want to cast your opponents in a political battle as professional is because you want to deny the democratic legitimacy of the anger they're expressing. If you accept that there are a bunch of people in this country who are upset about how mass deportations are being carried out, even if they have problems with how immigration policy was happening under Biden, the fact that these mass deportations have been disrupted -- disruptive to communities is indisputable.

And as a result, the goal of the Trump administration right now is to try and cast this as professional, as not really, like, you know, a democratic, not coming from the people.

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: And importantly it's pretextual in many ways to start invalidating the actual voice of the people who are protesting right now. CORNISH: Ashley Davis, I want to give a word to you in our short time.

What are you looking forward to or thinking about as these protests continue and we head into this military parade?

DAVIS: Yes, I think my biggest concern is that this starts spreading. I mean, obviously, you saw smaller ones spreading in Dallas. You saw them, you know, a couple in New York. I mean, that's what makes me a little -- nervous the most, is that they will continue to spread throughout the country, and this becomes a serious problem.

CORNISH: Yes.

Chuck, to you, last minute.

ROCHA: I'm worried somebody's going to get hurt. I think somebody's going to get hurt bad. I think somebody oversteps. I think somebody in a military uniform mistakenly fires off a round. And I think it just leads to a whole bunch of things that Ashley is talking about, which is protests around the country. We're good intention. Folks are doing the right thing. But you have troublemakers who just want a bunch of trouble, just like Donald Trump.

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DEMSAS: The -- one thing I'll just say there, though, is that the protests are not the problem. Protests spreading across the country is democratic voice. I agree that I'm concerned about violence spreading, but I want us to keep our eye on -- on what is actually permissible from the First Amendment perspective.

CORNISH: Yes.

Well, people are going to be talking about this more. There are actually organized protests that are set for this weekend ahead of that military parade, from Indivisible and others.

I want to thank you all for talking with me today. And thank you for watching. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

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