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California Senator Pushed To The Ground And Handcuffed After Interrupting, Asking Question At DHS Press Conference; Trump Celebrates Appeals Court Pause On Order Returning National Guard To California Control; Israeli Strikes Target Iran's Top Military And Nuclear Leadership; Millions Expected At Nationwide "Day Of Defiance" Protests Saturday. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:44]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, and my smart panel is still here. And Seung Min, you have spent a lot of time in security perimeters, like a lot, covering events with the Secret Service and other security agencies there. A friend of mine and Isaac's just sent me a note reminding -- he has also been in these situations before, that if somebody is in a security perimeter not wearing a pin, not clearly a member of the press, and it's not, you know, not really immediately understanded who he is, that this kind of thing could happen.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, sure. But I also want to point out --

BASH: Understood, not understanded.

KIM: Right.

BASH: That's not a word.

KIM: But I also want to point out the context of obviously who Senator Padilla is and who Secretary Noem is. I mean, he is -- he's not some backbencher House freshman, you know, member of the House. I mean, he is one of 100 people that Secretary Noem had to ask to get her current job.

He is the top Democrat on the subcommittee who oversees immigration policy, which obviously DHS has a lot to do with in this time. And he is the senior senator of a state that she is currently in, that has been such a focus of her department's actions for the last several days.

So, you know, whether she should have immediately recognized him or not, I just kind of present all those information to you. But also -- and you know, speaking more about Senator Padilla, because I've also spoken to him this week about what's going on in Los Angeles. And Jamie is right. He is very mild-mannered. He's not the type of person who would necessarily do this. But, you know, every conversation he points out that this -- what's going on with it -- what's going on in Los Angeles is very personal to him. He is a child of immigrants. This is his home community. And that's why I think you see him compelled to speak out in such a way.

BASH: If this had not happened, not to mention what happened in the Middle East overnight, probably our top story would be this lawsuit that is going --

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BASH: -- making its way through the federal courts --

ALVAREZ: Yes.

BASH: -- about whether or not the president has the right to send the National Guard, U.S. military troops to California over the objection --

ALVAREZ: Over -- right.

BASH: -- of the governor. It was stopped by the federal district court, and then an appeals court had a ruling that effectively said, OK, everybody hold on. Here's what President Trump said in a post. "The appeals court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe. I didn't send the military to Los Angeles that if I didn't, that city would be burning to the ground."

I'm not going to read the rest of that. But that's not really what the appeals court said.

ALVAREZ: Well, and there is still more to come on all of this. But, yes, this is paused until more -- until these proceedings --

BASH: It's paused, meaning the appeals court did not say send the troops.

ALVAREZ: Correct. Right.

BASH: Which is the opposite of what he said.

ALVAREZ: Right. But I want to make the point here, which I think is really -- there has been a buildup that led to Los Angeles. And I think we're starting to enter a new chapter of the Trump immigration enforcement agenda, which is in the last several weeks and months, the administration was making a ton of tiny changes.

A lot was happening behind the scenes in terms of their planning, in terms of policy changes, different regulations. But now we're seeing it spill out publicly. And we're also seeing what the pressure looks like when there is pressure to ramp up arrests. And that includes National Guard being part of immigration enforcement, even if it is on the periphery and serving as security perimeter.

[12:35:09] That is all to say that the public is paying attention to the methods the administration is using now in a way they could not see just a few weeks ago. And that is going to be a telling moment in this administration's history when it comes to immigration.

BASH: You're so smart. You're also smart. You're smart, too. Don't go anywhere.

We have more on the breaking news out of the Middle East as Israel warns its colossal attack inside Iran is far from over. I'm going to talk to a former Pentagon and White House strategist who has written books on Israel and has one of the most listened to podcasts on this topic. Don't go anywhere.

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[12:40:20]

BASH: More on the breaking news. Israel is warning it will continue its game changing assault on Iran after damaging the regime's nuclear and military capabilities. I'm joined now by Dan Senor. He is a former Romney campaign foreign policy adviser, co-author of two books on Israel and the host of the very popular podcast, "Call Me Back".

Thank you so much for being here, Dan. First, I want to get your --

DAN SENOR, FORMER ROMNEY CAMPAIGN FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: Great to be with you.

BASH: -- big picture takeaway about the moment we're in. It feels different for a lot of reasons.

SENOR: Yes, for two big reasons, I would say. One is if you go back up to October 7th, 2023, my biggest concern about October 7th was not just that Israel felt shattered and Israeli society felt shattered in an extraordinary human catastrophe, although that was paramount on all of our minds.

But from a strategic level, Israel was perceived to be in the region to be a paper tiger. And if you look at so much of the gains Israel had made diplomatically, geopolitically in the region, the Abraham Accords, path towards Saudi normalization, so much of that was about Israeli strength that these other, you know, enemies of Israel or former enemies of Israel or future friends of Israel, however you want to explain in the region or skeptics of Israel wanted to partner with Israel because Israel was viewed as so strong militarily from an intelligence standpoint.

And suddenly Israel on October 7th looked like a paper tiger. And I think you saw a lot of players in the region pulling back from Israel. That's all going to be changing. And you saw some of that, obviously, with the pager attack against Hezbollah and the way Israel systematically took out Hezbollah and Nasrallah, what Israel has done to Hamas. And now this operation we're witnessing over the last 24 hours, I think you're seeing a transformation in the Middle East and Israel's relationship in the region. I don't think we've seen any kind of transformation like this since I'd say the --

BASH: Wow.

SENOR: -- Israeli Six-Day War in 1967.

BASH: Wow. I mean, that's a big statement. You're right. I mean, first Israel showed that it's not a paper tiger, at least tried to do that by going after Iran's proxies, Hezbollah really, really decapitating that. And we know what's going on in Gaza with Hamas. And now to sort of the mothership, which is Iran.

You talk about relationships, Dan. I do want to talk about the U.S. relationship around this strike and maybe involvement. And what was really interesting was the statement that the Secretary of State put out just moments after the strikes last night. And he said, tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran.

We are not involved in strikes against Iran. And our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. I spoke with President Trump this morning briefly about that and asked about Rubio's statement and the fact that it didn't include that mention that we always see of the U.S. support for Israel. And he told me, we, of course, support Israel and obviously supported it like nobody ever has supported it. What's your take on that dynamic?

SENOR: Yes, two things going on there. One was, I think last night, there was some concern within some parts of the administration that there could be reprisals against U.S. energy assets, U.S. energy infrastructure, oil assets in the region.

And so they wanted to make it clear to Iran that the U.S. wasn't involved. But of course, the U.S. was involved. And we'll be learning more in the days ahead. We're already starting to learn about ways that the U.S. was involved specifically, at least in the deception campaign, which was key to catching Iran off guard, which President Trump directly appears to have been involved with.

But I also think, and this is something that is important to keep in mind from my earlier point, when Israel is strong and on the march and successful and almost dazzling -- I mean, that's what we talked a moment ago about the pager attack -- it was dazzling. The fact that only -- a sense that only Israel and the Israeli intelligence capabilities, the Mossad could pull something off like that.

Same thing with the operation last night. Only Israel could have pulled something like that off. And when it does, I think you see a lot of people, including leaders of our own country who want to gravitate to that success and be part of it --

BASH: Interesting.

SENOR: -- and associate with it. And so I think Israel actually wins friends when it -- and deepens ties, including with the U.S. government --

BASH: Yes.

SENOR: -- when it does things like this.

BASH: That's so interesting. And on that note, it's not an accident because clearly Israel sees that as well, that it is sharing video. CNN has it and will show it now. It's by the Israelis, by Agency Mossad, showing Israeli operatives smuggling weapons into Iran in advance of the strikes. And we're seeing this.

[12:45:02]

And I was listening this morning to your emergency podcast overnight, and you were spoken with the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Ronen Bergman. And he said, that his reporting is that Iranians believe that indeed there is a Mossad agent under every bed and around every corner.

SENOR: Yes. And that the Mossad has been -- you know, Tehran has been crawling with Mossad assets and agents for a very long time. I mean, you go -- the Iranians started to have that concern when Israel took out Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, which they did at the president of Iran's funeral in Tehran, just, you know, in close proximity to the supreme leader.

It was well -- the Iranians were well aware that Israel could not have pulled off that operation unless they had Mossad agents on the ground. And I think that, you know, events over the last 24 hours have only heightened that concern. There's a sense that Israel is everywhere there, which gives them extraordinary capacity, not only to target the nuclear sites, but to take out Iranian military personnel, as they've done, Iranian nuclear scientists and really disrupt communications.

That's the other thing they're doing inside Iran, disrupting communications, which makes it harder for the command and control system to remain intact while the Iranian leadership is trying to make decisions on how to respond.

BASH: And Dan, before I let you go, just again on that note, the operational decisions that Israel made in this particular attack, obviously focusing on the nuclear assets, what they were worried about would be quickly become nuclear weapons, but also the leaders of the military who would be responsible for retaliation to this very strike. How has that sort of changed or altered what we may see coming back from Iran?

SENOR: Well, this is similar to what they did in against Hezbollah, is they took out key personnel first, then they took out the military assets and the infrastructure, because it makes it harder for the Iranian leadership to make decisions when nobody knows who's talking to who, whose calls can be trusted, which leaders who have decision- making authority are being taken out.

So the key -- the sequencing of the personnel first and then the assets. I do think Israel, and I'm hearing from folks I'm talking to in Israel across the board, I mean, across the, you know, within the government and the journalist community, that Israel is bracing for a serious response. They should brace for a serious response.

We don't know, obviously, how robust that response will be, but Israel's operating assumption is there will be a serious response. Now, keep in mind that Israel could have probably taken out the Supreme Leader, and it didn't. It took out the military leadership and the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, but it did not take out the Supreme Leader. I think part of what Israel is signaling is we could take out the Supreme Leader.

BASH: Wow.

SENOR: So think long and hard about how you respond. And Israel did not really tackle the economic infrastructure of Iran. Same thing. Think long and hard about how you respond and how you retaliate, because we have other cards to turn over.

BASH: Tactical and quite strategic. Dan Senor, I am so grateful that you came on. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SENOR: Great to be with you.

BASH: We'll be right back.

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[12:52:30]

BASH: As seven million pounds of military hardware roll through D.C. and President Trump's massive military parade, millions of Americans are expected to protest nationwide. Their message, quote, "In America, we don't do kings."

Ezra Levin is the co-founder of the Indivisible Project, which is organizing that No Kings protest. And you see there, he joins me now. Now, you've said this could be the largest show of opposition since President Trump took office.

And you're mobilizing, but you're also very carefully urging protests to stay peaceful safety and de-escalation training. That's part of your plan here. What else are you telling organizers as they descend in cities all over the country?

EZRA LEVIN, CO-FOUNDER, INDIVISIBLE PROJECT: Look, this isn't our first rodeo. This is our second major mobilization this year. On April 5th, for the hands off protest, we had protests in 1,300 communities. Three and a half million people came out and it was a great time.

People were chanting. People were cheering. People were dancing. There wasn't a single incidence of violence or property destruction reported. That is what we're looking for on Saturday. Just bigger.

And because it's Flag Day, because it is the 250th anniversary of the Continental Army to push back against one mad king, we want to see people waving American flags. We want to see people featuring veterans on the stage.

And most importantly, we want to see people exercising their First Amendment rights, because when those rights are under threat, if you don't stand up in defense of them, you don't have those rights. So I expect to see a lot of crowds out in small communities and big communities standing up for those rights.

BASH: Yes. And Ezra, you talked about, the first massive protest that you organized, that was before the moment we're in now, of course, which is California. L.A. is the way it is, protests across the country, specifically on the president's deportation policies. And of course, the president deploying the National Guard there over the objection of the governor.

So the timing is certainly a bit different. And it seems as though there is maybe more of a focus on that and the potential for people who are not part of the training that you are doing to come in and try to disrupt. How are you going to stop that?

LEVIN: Look, we knew Trump was escalating. A normal presidential act is not choosing to spend $50 million to $100 million taxpayer dollars on a military birthday parade through the streets of D.C. That's not normal. It's the kind of thing you would expect to see in authoritarian country.

[12:55:11]

Well, I did not know that he was going to escalate in L.A. and militarize in blue communities. We could have guessed that this escalation was coming. I think he is testing the boundaries of his power right now. I think L.A. is a rehearsal for what he would like to do in communities around the country.

And what we're trying to do is pass the message to everybody. The only effective response to this kind of chaotic escalation from a would-be authoritarian is massive, peaceful, people-powered protests. I want people of all walks of life, all ideologies, whether you agree with me or not on education policy or tax policy or climate policy, that's irrelevant at this moment.

We need to be able to come together, put aside our differences, and say, in America, we don't do kings. So, as you mentioned, we're doing a lot of trainings on safety, on de-escalation, on how to be a volunteer marshal. And we're going to make these peaceful, empowering protests so that people join up and get involved in their own community.

BASH: We will be watching. Ezra Levin, co-founder of the Individual Project, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

LEVIN: Thank you.

BASH: And thank you for joining Inside Politics. Please join me on Sunday for State of the Union. Former Vice President Mike Pence will be my guest, along with Democratic Senator Alex Padilla and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. I hope to see you Sunday at 9:00 a.m. right here on CNN.

CNN News Central starts after the break.

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