Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Eight Injured In Flamethrower Attack At Colorado March Supporting Israeli Hostages; FBI: Suspect Used "Makeshift Flamethrower," Molotov Cocktails; New CNN Poll: Few Have Confidence In Democrats; Jeffries Blames Bleak Poll On Frustration "With The System"; Walz: "Nobody Is Riding In To Save Us". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 02, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, gripped by hate. The FBI is investigating a horrifying attack on Jews in Colorado, as an attack -- a terror attack there after a man allegedly screaming "Free Palestine" set people on fire who were marching to support the release of supporting Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. And we have new developments on the suspect ahead of his first court appearance today.

Plus, playing hardball. Tim Walz says Democrats still licking their wounds need to take a page from the Trump playbook by getting, quote, a little meaner. And storms ahead. America's extreme weather command centers have been gutted by deep DOGE budget cuts. Will it leave the public in danger with hurricane season now underway.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We do start with terror on the streets of Boulder, Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: 1325, Pearl Street, the courthouse, reports there's a male with a blow torch setting people on fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The Boulder police just released this mug shot of 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman. Officials say, he used a makeshift flamethrower to attack a crowd gathering to support Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The FBI says, the suspect shouted quote, free Palestine. And told police, quote, I did it to avenge my people. At least eight were injured. According to a person at the event that includes a Holocaust survivor.

Here's how another witness described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AV KORNFELD, WITNESS: Person who threw the Molotov cocktail had two more in his hand, and he was holding them, and he was yelling, and he was screaming at everybody. I think he was saying, you're killing my people. As he was holding and I was only trying to make sure people were getting away, because I saw another bomb going off that was in his hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And we're getting new reporting on the scope of this attack. Multiple law enforcement sources say, police found 16 additional Molotov cocktails in the area where the suspect was spotted, carrying a garden sprayer filled with gasoline. Investigators believe he stopped at gas stations in the area to fill the bottles and sprayer up before the attack. Officials also tell CNN the suspect appears to be in the country illegally. The work visa he was granted expired in March.

Joining me now is retired FBI Special Agent, Daniel Brunner. First of all, can we just start with this new reporting about the fact that there were 16 other Molotov cocktails found. And what he did on the way there by going to these gas stations and filling up everything he could with gasoline.

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Thanks, Dana. This clearly shows that he had a premeditation. This clearly shows that he was planning this attack. This is not an inspiration, you know, a spur of the moment type of attack. He knew where the event was likely to occur. He was planning. He was going along, getting 16, just getting the bottles to hold the Molotov cocktails. That, in itself, is part of the conspiracy of preparing for the attack. Then getting the gasoline and then placing those in different locations.

[12:05:00]

The investigators, the FBI, working with Colorado state law enforcement, are going to be looking at all of these. They're going to be looking at his digital footprint. They're going to look at his media, his social media. Who knew about this attack? So, these are all the things that are going to clearly show that he had a premeditation to conduct this attack. Now, whether it rises to the level of a terrorist attack, that is yet to be determined.

At this point, I think that the direction that it's going, it's going to be a civil rights violation. But if one of the victims who was severely burned and in critical condition, if they die, then it'll change it and that he'll be -- he could get charged under U.S. Code 242, which is deprivation of civil rights under color of law, which will take a lot of a higher punishment. So, there's a lot to get to be determined.

BASH: We don't know all of the facts. We're just gathering them, and we're just reported, of course, to our viewers, what we know so far. But on its face, it appears to be that he was a lone wolf with makeshift flamethrowers. If that is true. As a former FBI agent yourself, how does law enforcement protect people from -- again, if he is a lone wolf from -- lone wolves like him?

BRUNNER: Without a doubt, the lone wolf attack is the most difficult to defend against because it's their own motivation, they're not receiving, you know, instructions. They're not coordinating other individuals as part of a group. They're just self-motivated to conduct the attack for their ideology.

It's the same as the attack in Washington, D.C. The individual just took it upon themselves to conduct the attack. This is the scariest possibility. This is the scariest scenario because they don't provide tips to the law enforcement. There isn't someone else in the group that could alert law enforcement. So, it's very difficult.

The best way that the FBI is able to help the community is what we've always been doing, is coordinating, reaching out to the community and instructing them, providing them training on how to prepare, how to better be ready for this. Have individuals at these type of, you know, protests these gatherings that their job is security, that their job is to look out from the group as whereas the group is together.

So, there are lots of different ways to reach out to the community, to coordinate with these local organizations, especially in the Jewish community, with these antisemitic attacks are on the increase, on the rise here in the United States. So, there's a lots of different ways that we could reach out, but getting to the lone wolf within itself is very difficult. Is one of the most difficult to protect against.

BASH: Very scary indeed. Retired FBI Special Agent, Daniel Brunner, thank you so much for being here. Appreciate it. And joining me now is Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman from Ohio. Thank you so much for being here, sir. I wanted to speak with you today to help put this attack in context.

As we have been talking about, eight people at least, at that Jewish community event in Colorado were injured. Less than two weeks ago, two Israeli embassy staffers were fatally shot at a Jewish Heritage Month event here in Washington. Sadly, I could fill this entire segment by simply listing recent examples of antisemitism that were far less violent but also egregious. What is your message today?

GREG LANDSMAN: (AUDIO INAUDIBLE)

BASH: Forgive me. I thought maybe it was just I who could not hear the Congressman. We're having some audio problems with him. Please, please, hold on one second. We are trying to fix that. But in the meantime, the reason why I was talking to Congressman Landsman, is because, not only has he had a lot of protests at his house. He has been very outspoken about the antisemitism that has been going on more broadly in this country, and his reaction and his prescriptions for trying to combat that.

We are going to try to fix his audio. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BASH: Apologies for those technical issues. We were having with Congressman Landsman. We're going to bring that interview to you as quickly as we can. But in the meantime, we're going to talk about a new CNN poll that paints a pretty bleak national picture for Democrats.

Only 19 percent of Americans say Democrats are the party that can get things done, 36 percent say the same of Republicans. Even fewer, 16 percent say Democrats are the party with strong leaders. What drove those numbers so low is that most Democrats seem to have lost faith in their own party and its leaders. I asked one of those leaders, the House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, about this on State of the Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We don't have the presidency right now, so that's always going to be challenging a few months after a presidential election. But we have to continue to make the case, one, that Democrats, of course, are the party that is determined to make life more affordable for everyday Americans. There's real frustration amongst the American people. They should be frustrated. Housing costs are too high --

[12:15:00]

BASH: But they're frustrated with you as well, with Democrats as well.

JEFFRIES: Of course, they're frustrated with the system. But what is interesting, Dana, I think you're aware of this. Every single public poll that has come out since the Trump presidency has had congressional Democrats winning the generic ballot against congressional Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here. CNN's Manu Raju, Ayesha Rascoe of NPR, Eli Stokols of POLITICO and CNN's Kasie Hunt. Happy Monday, everybody. Kasie, what do you think about -- first of all, just big picture on this poll and how people out there feel about the Democratic Party, and even more specifically, what the House Democratic leader said about it.

KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think Democrats really dug themselves into a hole with this election. I think people were -- voters were telling them that they didn't trust what was going on with President Biden, that they didn't believe what they saw before their eyes. And then the way the campaign played out, I think, underscored a lot of people's fears about what was going on. And now that is the challenge that they have to, you know, I don't think Hakeem Jeffries is incorrect in his assessment there.

But I feel like -- and Dana, I mean, you've been out -- you're out on the campaign trail as much as any of us. This is not a new thing that Democrats are saying is the way to fix things. So, to my ear, it sounds like many people are basically saying, keep doing what we were doing before. We've just got to figure out a better way to get people to believe what we're saying, to believe. You know, they pull test the messages. People like the messages, but they're sure a messenger to deliver on it. And I'm not sure any of it gets fixed until that piece does.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What a gut punch this poll is, with one gut punch after another. So many polls just showing that Democrats really in the abyss right now and just the notion that they're viewed as a party that can't get things done by a significant portion of the country, believe they can't, and believe the Republicans can.

I remember, in the first two years of Joe Biden, they passed a lot of legislation, and they kept saying, you know, we got all this stuff done. We just need to communicate this better to the American public and sell them on what we're doing. They fail to do that. Very clearly, the public does not believe that they can get things done.

I think another thing is a warning sign for that poll, but they're still losing to the trial to the Republicans on the economy, and of course, that's going to be the number one issue. The margin is slipping a little bit for the Republican advantage on that but that's going to be a concern going into the midterms.

BASH: And usually in politics, it's a seesaw, right? When someone -- when one party goes down, the other party goes up, it's not happening now. I mean, there are people who are happy with what Donald Trump is doing, but there are a lot of people who are unhappy. I mean, his poll numbers, which is a point that Hakeem Jeffries is making. They're not good, but Democrats aren't benefiting from that.

AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST": I mean, Democrats are really adrift right now. And I think that, you know, in 2020 when the Republicans lost that election, they had to figure out where they were going to go, but their base pretty much was like, look, we're still with Trump. We're going to be with Trump, and that's where we're at.

The Democrats don't have that advantage because their base is kind of all over the place. And that's kind of the issue that they have. It's like, well, they get the message, are they too to the left, or do they need to fight harder to go to the left? Is it that they aren't actually, you know, is it that they're not progressive enough or they're too progressive?

And I think that that idea of the messenger is really key because I don't know that people really vote too much on policy. They really -- at this point, we are in a personality driven political cycle and I think they need a personality.

BASH: OK. I'm glad you mentioned that because we saw a couple of personalities go to South Carolina over the weekend, potential candidates for president in 2028. One was the governor of Maryland, Wes Moore. Listen to part of his message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): Gone are the days when the Democrats are the party of no and slow, we must be the party of yes and now. Gone are the days when we are the party of bureaucracy. Gone are the days when we are the party of multi-year studies on things that we already know. Gone are the days when we are the party of panels. Gone are the days when we are the party of college debate club rules. We must be the party of action, and that action must come now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELI STOKOLS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, if people need a personality, they need somebody who translates in this media environment. You know, Governor Moore could be one of those people. Clearly, the Democrats are in this ditch because for four years, they had a president who could not drive any message. So, he could not -- as Manu said, explain to people, you know, all the things that they did legislatively, that, you know, in the Biden White House, he did so many things, we had a historic presidency. Why don't people get it?

Well, they didn't get it because you couldn't explain it and because things took too long, which is another thing that Wes Moore and a lot of Democrats are talking about. As you can pass an infrastructure bill, but if it takes a decade to see the improvements, you know, you're not tackling inflation the here and now. It's not really going to amount to much politically.

[12:20:00]

There's a long way to go. There is reason for Democrats based on the experience of Trump's first term and what they saw in a couple one-off special elections. Democrats outperforming expectations just in the last few months with Trump in office. Maybe they will benefit from that, but they need a coherent philosophy. They need somebody to kind of step up and capture people's imaginations and break through. And right now, they don't have that.

HUNT: One thing, Dana, too, in being opposed to Donald Trump and the way that he has broken many norms, done all sorts of things that obviously many Democrats find to be straight up dangerous. In a lot of instances, they have wound up attacking Trump by defending the status quo. And that is not necessarily what Americans are telling them. Even the base of the Democratic Party are telling them what they -- that they want from them, right?

They may not want Trump to break things the way he's breaking them or do the kinds of things that he is doing, but they don't want Democrats to fight that by just doing the same thing that they've been doing for the last few decades because it's not been working.

BASH: So, it's what they fight, and then it's how they fight. Tim Walz, who was on the ballot with Kamala Harris in 2024 was also at that South Carolina event. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): Nobody's riding in to save us. No great orator is going to come and make it happen. Nobody's going to have a consultant that gave them just the special word that all these people are going to say, oh, yeah, I'm going to vote for Democrats now. They keep telling us. We have to learn how to talk to people. Yeah, you got to go talk to people that, you know, that's pretty obvious, but we got to make sure that we're talking and listening at the same time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, look, right now the Democrats best hope is for Republicans to overreach and mess up really. That's really their strategy and so --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Which may have already happened, right?

RAJU: Right. The public has been concerned. Polls show that Trump has slipped on a whole wide range of issues, including on the economy, and the overreach is a real thing. When single party rule to single parties tend to overreach, and there's a backlash in the midterms. And really that's ultimately what may have to happen here, until that personality emerges and becomes a standard bearer and can actually drive a message. But until then, some of them just say, let's sit back and watch.

RASCOE: And I mean, ultimately, you know, Trump, as far as we know, won't be on the ballot again for the presidency.

BASH: As far as we know.

RASCOE: And I mean, I think Republicans could have the same issue because Republicans have not been able to find someone to capture their base in the way that Trump has. And so, I think, you know, they may be looking -- Republicans may be looking for their next Trump, the way that Obama -- I mean, the way that Democrats are looking for their next Obama.

STOKOLS: I think one of the reasons, though, Democrats need a big personality is because right now, they're just completely absent from the conversation. It's Republican control in Congress. Republicans are arguing amongst themselves about the big, beautiful bill in the White House, Democrats are completely left out of that conversation. So, I think the poll partly reflects the fact the public doesn't hear much from Democrats at the moment.

BASH: Which is part of your point, which is some people are just fine to be left out of this particular conversation. At this time, we'll see if that bears out. Don't go anywhere. Coming up. We are going to go back to our top story. I will speak with a top Jewish lawmaker about that heinous attack on innocent people in Colorado. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: We're getting new details on the terror attack against the Jewish community in Boulder. The suspect is 45-year-old, Mohamed Sabry Soliman. Officials say, he used a makeshift flamethrower to attack a crowd gathering to support Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Multiple law enforcement sources say police found 16 additional Molotov cocktails in the area. Back with us is Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman from Ohio. Thank you for your patience, sir. What's your reaction to what we saw in Boulder yesterday?

REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): It was terrible. And, you know, it's what a lot of us thought was inevitable with the rise of antisemitism and some of the language that we've been hearing. I mean, as a Jewish member of Congress, I've been living this for the last, you know, 18 months.

But also, as a -- you know, I have a master's in theological studies. I went to divinity school. I studied the history of Christianity and Islam and Judaism. And so much of the history of Judaism is the history of antisemitism, and we're seeing all of this play out again, which is, there's language where Jews are otherized, and these tropes are used where all of a sudden, we're not only otherized but demonized to the point where people start to exclude us.

We get expelled from places or killed, and you're seeing that, and the way to fight back is through understanding, trying to get people to understand better in addition to better security and way better leadership nationally.

BASH: So, he allegedly used the term free Palestine, which is what the suspect here in Washington who killed two people at a Jewish Heritage Month event said, allegedly after he -- actually we saw him saying it on tape after that murder. Today, we also -- according to police, know that this suspect said, I want to avenge my people.

Can you connect dots there? And can you explain not just from your perch as a -- as a lawmaker but also given the background that you have in your studies and your schooling.

[12:30:00]