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CNN This Morning
Suspect In Minnesota Lawmaker Shootings Captured; Israel-Iran Conflict Escalates: 8 Killed In Missile Strikes Overnight; Today: Trial Against Sean Combs Enters Seventh Week. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 16, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:00]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Monday, June 16, and here's what's happening right now on CNN, this morning.
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GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): After a two-day manhunt, two sleepless nights, law enforcement have apprehended Vance Boelter.
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CORNISH: A trail cam, drones, hundreds of officers. How officials captured the man accused of killing a Minnesota state representative and wounding another.
Plus Israel and Iran trading attacks overnight. Iran targets an oil refinery and a power grid as the world calls for diplomacy. Is there any hope for de-escalation? Then.
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MAYOR KAREN BASS (D-LOS ANGELES, CA): Construction industry cannot function without immigrant labor.
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CORNISH: Is the Trump Administration feeling the backlash from its immigration crackdown? The locations ice is being ordered not to raid anymore, and later, President Trump in Canada with the goal of scoring trade deals. But will he actually get any of them? 6:00 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the White House.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me on this Monday morning. We're following that breaking news out of Minnesota, the largest manhunt in the state's history, is over. Late last night, Vance Boelter, the suspect in the assassination and attempted assassination of two Minnesota lawmakers, well, he was arrested. Officials say 20 different SWAT teams, hundreds of detectives all took part in the search. Boelter surrendered almost 43 hours after the shootings, as hundreds of tips poured in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF MARK BRULEY, BROOKYLYN PARK, MINNESOTA POLICE DEPT: We started
to deploy resources, including the Brooklyn Park SWAT team, and along with many other SWAT teams, to contain an extremely large area, knowing that this was a very dangerous individual. During that we got privy to additional information of an individual that was in the woods, and that search went out for many hours until ultimately, we were able to locate him in the woods.
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CORNISH: Suspect is now facing charges for the killing of State Representative Melissa Hortman and the shooting of State Senator John Hoffman. Both were shot in their homes, early Saturday morning, along with their spouses. Governor Tim Walz says the attacks were politically motivated.
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WALZ: This cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. Now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country, and each and every one of us can do it. Talk to a neighbor rather than arguing. Debate an issue, shake hands, find common ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss, Juliette Kayyem, CNN Senior National Security Analyst. Juliette, earlier, you and I were both talking about the Boston Marathon bombing, where there was a massive manhunt back then. Things have changed a lot. We were hearing about these drones being involved at the moment of his surrender. Can you talk about sort of how these things play out today?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DHS: Yeah, so these sort of multi-day man hunts are going to always use a combination of tools to try to get the suspect. This was different. Of course, in the Boston Marathon, it was shorter, even though it felt long. And this combination of use of technology, I have to say, there was still sort of crowd sourcing.
They were talking about someone calling in the technology with the drone use and trying to identify him, and then the surge of law enforcement to surround him so he ultimately surrenders without harming anyone else and -- and not harming himself, so that now he can be prosecuted and put before court and potentially he's speaking.
The other similarity is, of course, this lockdown aspect to the weekend. Over the course of the weekend, parts of the community were locked down because these kinds of crimes, these essentially terrorism or terror crimes, don't just impact the victims, but of course, whole communities who do not know what to anticipate next.
CORNISH: Yeah.
KAYYEM: That lockdown was lifted there in just a short while. CORNISH: And what you're saying is significant, because if I'm looking
at the last year, there's multiple assassination attempts against President Trump, an arson attack against the Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Of course, the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington. I mean, how do you -- how does law enforcement start to approach protecting people?
[06:05:00]
KAYYEM: You really can't. I mean, I'm just going to be blunt here. I mean, there's going to be VIPs, senior executives or CEOs and other high profile corporations. But, I mean, look at what happened this weekend. This is a state senator that most of us nationally never heard of a state leader in the House and reading their bios is just a reminder that there's all these amazing people, Republicans and Democrats alike, who are committing to their communities, serve -- serving their communities.
You can't protect every single one of them. For a short while, I bet in various states there will be considerably more detailed protection for high profile state politicians, but -- but defense is only going to work for a short period of time. We really do need to go to offense in terms of what's going on.
CORNISH: I just want to ask you one more thing, which is about what Governor Walz said at the top of our conversation here, talking about finding common ground, raising this issue of people coming together, but I have seen wildly sort of conflicting approaches on social media in talking about this. Speculation about the shooter's motivations, certainly about his politics.
Can you talk about how that can affect how these things are seen by the public?
KAYYEM: Right now, in this case, we have considerable evidence, supported by the FBI, verified by the police, that he attacked Democrats. Had a bunch of Democrats and progressives on the list and -- and that was his plan. This is not to say that that he represents non-Democrats, right?
It's simply to say, in this case, it that is where the investigation goes. But in social media, you people -- you see people trying to mute that ideology, his ideology. They try to confuse it. Say that he you know, he was this or that, or he wasn't a devout Christian, or whatever it is, as a way, in some ways to apologize or make it unclear to audiences and the American public the nature of the harm that occurred this weekend.
It is -- it is dangerous, it is unfair, and it also does nothing to stop the next attack, which could go to a Democrat or a Republican legislature. It was shameful what we saw online, including by senior members of the Senate who were speculating or just trolling.
And I think everyone needs to just, just grow up a little bit, know what their responsibility is as a leader, be clear that this is actually a black and white issue. It is very clear we do not use violence to attack politicians or as part of our democracy, and we can all align around that. I don't get why senators, for example, do such things.
I don't get why White House officials do such things. It is -- it is -- people are interpreting what they are doing and becoming radicalized by it, and they either are ignoring that, or they, or they approve of it. Those are the only options now, and we got to -- we got to lower the violence.
CORNISH: Juliette Kayyem, CNN Senior National Security Analyst, thank you.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
CORNISH: Coming up on CNN this morning, the death toll rising overnight as Israel and Iran launch new attacks on each other. How President Trump blocked a plan to kill Iran's Supreme Leader.
Plus the prosecution, nearing the end of their witness list in the case against Sean Combs as a juror is dismissed, and shifting focus where President Trump is urging ICE to ramp up raids, and where he's saying they should steer clear.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It could be my parents. It could be your neighbor, and I really wish people were a bit more compassionate to that.
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CORNISH: Another night of bruising strikes between Israel and Iran as the deadly conflict stretches into a fourth day. New waves of Iran, Ian missiles rain down on Israel overnight, with some striking residential buildings. At least eight people were killed. This is new reporting in -- to CNN reveals that President Trump opposed a plan to kill Iran's Supreme Leader. He says he wants de-escalation.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it's time for a deal, and we'll see what happens, but sometimes they have to fight it out, but we're going to see what happens. I think there's a good chance there will be a deal.
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CORNISH: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, defended Israel's attacks as part of an attempt to dismantle Iran's nuclear program.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER: Once they go that route,
it's too late, and we will not have a second Holocaust, a nuclear holocaust. We already had one in the previous century. The Jewish state is not going to have the Holocaust committed on the Jewish people. It's not going to happen. Never again is now, and we have to act now.
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CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat. Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics Senior Reporter; Karen Attiah, a Columnist at the Washington Post and Mike Dubke, former Trump Communications Director. Mike, I want to start with you, because the pressure is really ramping up in different directions for Trump.
You have someone like Tucker Carlson saying that the U.S. was complicit in an act of war. And here is what the former Vice President Mike Pence told our colleague, Dana Bash, yesterday on State of the Union.
[06:15:00]
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MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And at the end of the day, if Israel needs our help to ensure that the Iranian nuclear program is -- is destroyed once and for all, the United States of America needs to be prepared to do it, because this -- this is about protecting our most cherished ally.
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CORNISH: What do you make of this kind of conflicting argument? One kind of don't get involved. What are you doing? And one look, this is our role.
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Well, I think if you look at Tucker Carlson and the wing of the -- of the MAGA movement, or the Republican Party, however you want to describe it, that he's representing, it really is a retrenchment. It is a pulling back, not just in Ukraine. It is a pulling back from all international arrangements that the United States has. This -- this relationship with Israel is too important, I think, for the world, for the President to pull back.
There's several decisions he needs to make, one of which you alluded to at the beginning of this, and the targeting of the leader of Iran, but it's also using U.S. munitions that actually could make a difference long term in this conflict, in going after the nuclear facilities in the (inaudible).
CORNISH: Yeah.
DUBKE: So I think at this moment, the President is balancing not only his base but also expectations on the world. And he's -- he's walking a very fine line, but he seems to be walking it in a -- in a way that benefits the United States and benefits the world at the moment. I think for now --
CORNISH: For now and I should let Stephen jump in here, because you were writing about this. You were saying to Mike's point, this is a line of his own making meaning, this is how he has transformed the party.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITIC SENIOR REPORTER: That's true. I don't think Donald Trump perhaps would be present, were it not for the long term hangover of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deep fatigue among the American people for overseas ventures which drag on for years and that the U.S. ended up losing.
CORNISH: Yeah.
COLLINSON: Look at the speech the President gave last month in Saudi Arabia.
CORNISH: Oh, let me play some of it.
COLLINSON: OK.
CORNISH: I thought the same exact thing. He was speaking in Riyadh. Here is what he had to say.
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TRUMP: Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos, where it exports technology, not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence.
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CORNISH: He dismissed the nation builders and Neocons.
COLLINSON: Right. He's very conscious that when you take an act, perhaps attacking the leader of Iran, trying to topple the regime there, you don't know what happens. What comes afterwards.
CORNISH: Yeah.
COLLINSON: You end up with chaos. You get sucked in. The question, though, that a lot of Republicans are saying is, if you have the decisive ability with one of these big, massive U.S. bombs that could get rid of the Fordow plant for good, do you not take that opportunity? Because that then could lead to that kind of --
CORNISH: Yes.
COLLINSON: -- golden age of the Middle East, the President's talking about.
CORNISH: Karen, I want to give the last word to you. What do you see here? KAREN ATTIAH, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yeah, I mean, I think,
you know, as we've all alluded to, I mean, a desire for something new. A foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, that is not driven by war, even, you know, going back to Trump's message in Riyadh, even looking at Saudi Arabia, right.
Over the last several years, Saudi Arabia, which has been a very staunch, you know, opponent, counter to Iran has begun to counter, or starts to soften, rather, its approach towards Iran, right? And so it's really -- we're in a changing --
CORNISH: Environment.
ATTIAH: -- environment, for sure. And this is something that America also needs to, you know, be a leader, perhaps in, and you know, having to say Trump might be on to something.
CORNISH: OK, group chat, stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about. Straight ahead on CNN, this morning, the manhunt is over. Today, the man accused of killing a Minnesota state lawmaker and injuring another is going to face a judge. Plus several people are actually missing in West Virginia after significant flooding hit parts of the state.
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[06:20:00]
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CORNISH: It is almost 23 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. In just a few hours, the Sean Combs trial enters its seventh week. The prosecution seems to be nearing the end of its witness list. This week, three summary witnesses and another ex-personal assistant to Diddy will take the stand. On Friday, the judge dismissed a juror due to inconsistent statements about where he lived. Today, an alternate will fill that seat.
And five people are dead, several others reported missing after flash flooding in northern West Virginia. It started Saturday night, when about four inches of rain fell in around 30 minutes. More rain fell overnight, and the governor has declared a state of emergency.
And that nasty weather and a brutal course, but J.J. Spaun turned a sloppy and rain soaked U.S. Open into the win of a lifetime with an improbable comeback. He posted five bogeys in the first six holes on Sunday. In the end, two stunning shots helped him secure the debut (ph). This is Spaun's first major championship win.
Ahead on CNN this morning, Israel claiming Iran is enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons. Iran's leaders say the Israelis has -- have it all wrong and had no right to target them. Plus President Trump changing course when it comes to his crackdown on immigration. And good morning, Des Moines, you've got a beautiful sunrise there.
[06:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You really want to de-escalate, then enable. Enable -- enable us and work with us to get the nukes out of Iran.
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CORNISH: Israel has a message.
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