Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with Rahel Solomon

L.A. Police Make Mass Arrests As Protesters Defy Overnight Curfew; Abbott Deploys Texas National Guard Ahead Of Protests; ICE Protest In Chicago Winds Through Loop Streets; Musk Expresses Regret Over His Criticisms of Trump. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 11, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:00:31]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And a very good morning to you and welcome to all of our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval. It is Wednesday, June 11, 4:00 a.m. here in New York, 1:00 a.m. in Los Angeles. We are following breaking news.

For the first time in the last five days of protests, a nighttime curfew now in effect in LA. Police there on the ground saying that they've initiated mass arrests of demonstrators refusing to leave the downtown curfew zone. No word yet on how many people were detained recently, but police have arrested nearly 400 people since last weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KAREN BASS, LOS ANGELES: My message to you is if you do not live or work in downtown la, avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew and you will be prosecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And earlier, the California governor slammed the U.S. President for deploying the National Guard and mobilizing U.S. Marines. He says that, quote -- that is a quote, brazen abuse of power escalated the protests against the Trump administration growing immigration crackdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAVIN NEWSOM, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals. His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses. That's just weakness, weakness masquerading as strength.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: And during a U.S. visit, or during a visit to a U.S. army base on Tuesday, Donald Trump defended his decision to send federal forces in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: What you're witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace on public order and a national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country. We're not going to let that happen.

We will use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order right away. We're not going to wait seven days and eight days and wait for a governor that's never going to call and watch cities burn.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: California has sued the Trump administration over the troop deployments. On Tuesday, a judge denied the state's request to immediately stop mobilization and set a hearing for Thursday. CNN's Michael Yoshida has been covering the unrest on the ground in L.A. and just filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right by me, you can see we still have that heavy law enforcement. President this is mostly California Highway Patrol here, but we have been getting reports from the LAPD as well as from some of our other CNN crews that there are some arrests happening to those that are still defying this curfew. They're happening mostly off in the area.

We're pointing our camera that's several blocks away and it's near again, kind of where you can see the building right here. That's that detention facility where we've seen a lot of these protests focused over the last few days, the few nights and again even today.

I'll walk you through what we saw for most of the day. This street right here leads right up to that detention facility. And as the day progressed, we saw protesters fill the street. And then as we neared this curfew time, that's when we saw police start to push them back. And that's for most everyone we had in this area. That's when they cleared out.

We have helicopters overhead still from law enforcement. They've been putting their spotlights down in different areas here throughout the evening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: CNN's Michael Yoshida with that update from Los Angeles. You know, this mobilization of the National Guard and U.S. Marines will come at hefty cost to taxpayers. The current estimate now $134 million. And this is according to congressional testimony from a Pentagon official.

The price tag is largely comprised of temporary duty travel, housing, food and also similar costs for this deployment. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified before Congress on Tuesday that the Los Angeles deployment would last roughly 60 days.

Our next guest says that there are ways that money could be spent in a better way. Joseph Tomas McKellar is the executive of PICO, California, which is the state's largest faith based community organizing network. It's great to have you this morning.

[04:05:00]

JOSEPH TOMAS MCKELLAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PICO CALIFORNIA: Thanks for having me, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Joseph, so you've shared with us that you've spent the last week and a half or so witnessing this, what you describe as an escalating crisis which is family separation. Now, you're standing alongside clergy members, community leaders, immigration lawyers. I assume they're on the ground, all of these people who've been mobilized the last several days.

Joseph, give us a sense of the emotions, perhaps the feelings that you felt in your community the last few days.

MCKELLAR: Yes. You know, last night here in Los Angeles, we had over 1,500 clergy and faith leaders and community partners bearing witness to the pain that our city is going through, not so much because of the unrest, but because of the witnessing of families being torn apart by agents and officials who are sworn to protect and serve our communities.

So many clergy and community partners have been to immigration court, watching ICE officers in plain clothes, separate families whose only crime is seeking safety and opportunity. And, you know, we've seen people overwhelmed by fear, devastated by the rupturing of families, and really reeling from this militarized response to largely peaceful protests.

Last night's gathering, which you're seeing some pictures of, was just so powerful. It was such a unifying, nonviolent moment where were calling for family unity and an end to the occupation that is terrorizing so many people in our communities.

SANDOVAL: And, Joseph, just to give you a chance to really emphasize that last message, and to be clear, you're referring to the Trump administration's essentially widening their sights to include more than just undocumented people with a violent, criminal past. You're specifically referring to those who perhaps had even kept up with their appointments and now have this tremendous sense of fear.

MCKELLAR: That's right. I mean, I think all of us know something about the sacredness of family, which makes the tearing apart of families profoundly immoral. And there's been so many displays of, you know, kinship and solidarity over the past week. And it's amongst people whose hearts break when they hear stories of children who are now left without parents, who never came home from work, and parents whose children have now disappeared, and family members and fellow congregants and classmates and co-workers who have been destabilized by the disappearance of their neighbors, who are important nodes in the fabric of their communities.

And there are now innocent people, millions of innocent people, in our city, in our state, in our country, are forced to carry these burdens of constant fear and anxiety. And we know this is not accidental. It is a strategy.

The administration is seeking to instill fear in immigrant communities and reinforce this false narrative of a national invasion part of why you're seeing so much passion amongst people who know about the sacredness of family.

SANDOVAL: And now that we're five days into these demonstrations, Joseph, with the distractions in the backdrop, the ones that you just mentioned, the unrest, certainly, what is this back and forth between the state and the White House.

With all of that playing out, how confident are you that the message, the earlier message that you mentioned is resonating and will hopefully continue to resonate for the rest of the world who's watching what happens in Los Angeles?

MCKELLAR: You know, last night gave me a lot of hope. Seeing 1,500 people peacefully bear witness, pray, sing, share story, gave me a lot of hope that we can begin to turn the tide on the dominant narrative that is at play in our city, which is one being pushed by interests who profit off of the misery of people, frankly, including the most vulnerable amongst us.

And as people of faith, we just have a different vision for our country. We have a vision for a country where all people can belong, where all people can thrive. I will say to your point about the federal government spending $134 million to deploy hardworking members of our military to Los Angeles. Imagine what we could achieve with $134 million here in our city. You know, for 20 million, we could serve thousands of immigrants citywide to become citizens.

For like $5 million, we could expand free ESL classes, multilingual job training. For 50 million, we could build thousands of units of housing that's affordable. For 25 million, we could provide universal childhood education centers in most of our highest need communities. For 30 million, we could provide universal basic wages to 1,500 families for two years.

[04:10:04]

There's so many good things we could do with that money and yet here we are wasting it, frankly, on a strategy that is rooted in fear and separation and tearing apart of families. And that is why you're seeing people of faith, I think at least attempt change the story about our city and about who we need to be as Americans. SANDOVAL: Joseph Tomas McKellar, live from Los Angeles. Really

appreciate you sharing this extremely important perspective. Thank you for joining us.

MCKELLAR: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: We're still ahead here on CNN. Protests and arrests spreading across the country as demonstrators stand in solidarity with the people of Los Angeles. Plus, tensions fearing in a terrifying moment captured on video during one protest in Chicago. All that and more as we continue here on Early Start.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:22]

SANDOVAL: And welcome back to your Early Start. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wants the public to know that the curfew that's currently in effect in her city only affects about a square mile, or roughly two and a half kilometers. She says the violent protests usually happen at night in a very concentrated area. Officials confirming that the curfew impacts less than 100,000 people of well over 4 million.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASS: The city of Los Angeles is a massive area, 502 square miles. The area of downtown where the curfew will take place is one square mile. I think it is important to point this out, not to minimize the vandalism and violence that has taken place there. It has been significant, but it is extremely important to know that what is happening in this one square mile is not affecting the city.

Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a citywide crisis and it is not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: CNN's Nick Watt was among the crowds in downtown L.A. and he shows us what it was like on a day -- on day five of the protest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): A flash of anger on a hot, tense afternoon. A bus pulling into the detention center was the spark. The National Guard holding the line. Then a snatch squad out to make an arrest. Everyone ordered to leave the area. Another arrest.

Plenty of peaceful protesters. And local politicians also don't want the National Guard here or the 700 Marines deployed to L.A. but still awaiting orders.

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: These are the most experienced, highly blooded shock troops in the world. But putting active duty U.S. Marines into this situation I think is dangerous and they're not well trained for the mission.

WATT (voice-over): Mayor Karen Bass calls this a grand experiment.

BASS: If you can do this to the nation's second largest city, maybe the administration is hoping that this will be a signal to everybody everywhere to fear them, that your federal government that historically has protected you can come in and take over.

TRUMP: Very simply, we will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again. It's happening very quickly. What you're witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace, on public order.

WATT (voice-over): In reality, there has been violence, but it's been contained to a small area of the city.

BASS: The unrest that has happened are a few blocks within the downtown area. Having said that, though, the violence and the damage is unacceptable, it is not going to be tolerated and individuals will be arrested and prosecuted.

WATT (voice-over): Sparked and sustained says the mayor, by ICE immigration raids and the fear they're spreading. One state representative called those raids dark, disgusting events, adding, Los Angeles was targeted because they hate our immigrants for the color of their skin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: CNN's Nick Watt reporting out of Los Angeles and in San Francisco, a source telling CNN that protests are the reason that two immigration courts closed their doors early on Tuesday, and that's according to the Associated Press, that there were multiple arrests during those demonstrations. The local chapter president of the Service Employees International Union says that the arrests have left some workers fearful of going back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLGA MIRANDA, PRESIDENT, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION: They're just shaken by what they're witnessing of people's removal. It's not every day that you come to work and you hear people shouting for help or crying over they follow the rules and this is what's happening.

Some folks might not show up to work today, and there's a lot of folks that count on us. We want to be able to provide for our families with dignity, but how do you expect us to do that if they're not respecting the work that we do and what we contribute?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: We also find similar frustrations in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott is deploying the National Guard to various locations ahead of planned protests this week. We've already seen demonstrations turn to chaos and violence this week in the cities of Dallas and Austin, where police had to use tear gas as well as pepper balls to disperse the crowds there. [04:20:00]

Abbott says that peaceful protest is legal, but harming a person or damaging property will lead to arrested state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New York is not a fascist state.

CROWD: New York is all New York state.

UNDIENTIFIED MALE: New York is not a fascist state.

CROWD: New York is not a fascist state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New York is home. New York is tight.

CROWED New York is home. New York is tight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And anti-ICE demonstrators in New York filling the streets yesterday chanting New York is not a fascist state. And also New York is home. New York is safe. Police in riot gear arrested demonstrators who clashed with officers.

Video from the scene showing some in the crowd throwing water bottles and other objects at authorities. Crowds gathered in New York's Foley Square outside a federal building and ICE offices early Tuesday evening. From there, they march to another ICE office location and immigration court several blocks away. All of the traffic in the area was completely shut down, according to CNN Shimon Prokupecz, who was reporting from the scene.

And protesters got quite a scare in Chicago as a car sped through the crowd. CNN's Whitney Wilde with more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: We are down here right in the heart of downtown Chicago. This is Daley Plaza. Marchers have been marching for hours. You can see that law enforcement is flanking their side, trying to help, you know, control this crowd as they move through the city.

One thing we did see was that at one point police had formed a line that basically split the march in half. So some marchers kind of looped around one way, some another way. It was in that moment that there was a brief scuffle with just a couple protesters, one or two at most.

But for the most part, this has been very peaceful. What you see right now, again, is a, you know, crowd of hundreds, if not thousands of people. Right now, we are on Washington and Dearborn. This protest stepped off at 5:30 p.m. and it has been going nonstop since that moment. There has only been really one critical incident, and that was when a car at Wabash and Monroe drove through protesters and clipped a few. It didn't look like the car was driving into a mass of people, but rather sort of through people. And in that moment, that's when that car was clipping some protesters on either side.

We have covered protests here, you know, for a year and a half, really, since they kicked off after October 7th in 2023. And this is probably the biggest protest we've seen so far. Again, this protest has been going on for a few hours. It is peaceful. There was just that one incident with one protester or a couple protesters when the police line began and then the incident with that car at Wabash and Monroe.

But for the most part, this has been a it is loud, it is big, but this is a controlled protest. Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And we have some breaking news at this hour. Tesla CEO Elon Musk posting on X with a pretty significant reversal. He put it -- he posted, quote, I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far, writes the Tesla CEO.

Now this coming after Musk deleted some controversial posts about the president over the weekend, including a call for his impeachment and also alleging President Trump's name appears in unreleased files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now, he never provided evidence supporting that claim.

Joining me now, Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex. Professor, it's great to have you on with us again this morning.

I mean, can we just go straight to your reaction? How surprised are you? Is this a groveling apology clearly?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: I was really surprised. I was surprised at the speed with which Elon Musk folded because he has a lot of power. He's the richest man in the world. And I thought that he was going to be more of a risk taker and he was going to be a disruptor and a chaos agent and would try to bankroll an opposition party or support anti-Trump Republican candidates in the 2026 midterms. Or he even threatened that he was going to decommission his Dragon spacecraft, but then he rescinded on that.

But ultimately, all the threats that Musk poses to Trump are going to take a lot longer to bear fruit because it would be really not until the 2026 midterms where they may start to feel this. But on the other hand, Trump could do a lot of damage to Elon Musk.

You had the immediate damage or fallout from the Tesla shares falling by 15 percent, losing 150 billion in value. You also have the fact that Trump was threatening to cancel these government contracts that Elon Musk has across 17 different agencies, almost 100 different contracts worth 3 billion. [04:25:07]

And Steve Bannon was saying that Trump should investigate him, have him deported. So Trump was waving a lot of power, wielding a lot of power, and ultimately Musk decided to apologize, which is basically what happens every time someone who is interdependent with Trump within the Republican Party gets in a feud with Trump. They always capitulate at the end. Ron DeSantis did, Marco Rubio did, and Musk is doing the same.

SANDOVAL: Almost get a sense that this was a showdown. The power of social media versus the power of the U.S. Presidency. Here to your earlier point, you also spoke about the potential impact on the markets as well. What about the impact on the pending legislation, the so called, as Trump describes it, his big beautiful bill. We know Elon has spoken out against it. Do you think his tone will change given what he just tweeted this morning when it comes to that legislation?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, it's a good point. I think Elon Musk doesn't like this bill in its current form and I don't think he's going to start tweeting things supporting the bill in the form that it is. He's already done some damage by talking about the bill negatively, saying that it's going to add trillions to the debt, which it will. And he basically said on X that it was going to bankrupt the US.

There are already Republicans within the Senate that don't like the bill the way it is, that are worried about how irresponsible it would be to keep the bill in its current form. So, I don't know if this is going to be another arena of war of words going on. And I don't see Elon Musk doing a 180.

But where he had done or had made an interesting tweet was he tweeted in support of Trump's handling of the riots in, or the protests, I should say, in Los Angeles and said that, you know, he's doing a good job handling this. So he's tweeting other ways. He's finding other ways to support Trump even if it is not on this big beautiful bill.

SANDOVAL: No, that's a really good point too. When you look at his support on social media for the President's response to the Los Angeles demonstrations here, perhaps we should have seen this coming. But still, to what you said at the top, it is incredibly surprising. Finally, if you could just perhaps explore how Trump still relies on Musk, however.

LINDSTAEDT: Well, I mean, they are intertwined in many ways because of some of the things I outlined, because of these government contracts that Elon Musk has, and because Elon Musk has invested so much in these space projects. But I think ultimately where Trump relies on Musk is that he is hoping that Musk is not going to use the power of social media to undermine him, to undermine future policies, future agenda that Trump has.

And because Elon Musk has over 220 million followers on X, I mean, he can do a lot of damage to Trump by shaping narratives in ways that will make it more difficult for Trump to get bills passed or will sort of have Republicans really doubting some of the key policies that Trump wants to move forward with.

SANDOVAL: We cannot forget, ultimately, Musk still yields that power of social media and the power of potentially getting to Mars here, which has been, as we've heard from President Trump, a priority. Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much for helping us digest these early mornings morning tweets that have us all in a bit of shock this morning. We'll check back with you. Thank you.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: Well, still ahead on your Early Start, a curfew is in effect in a small part of downtown Los Angeles right now. We'll update you on the very latest situation on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]