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Trump Kicks Off G7 By Criticizing It For Kicking Out Russia; Trump Meet With Top Allies Amid Spiraling Mideast Crisis; Source: Trump Won't Sign On To G7 Statement On Iran; FBI Gives Update On MN Shooting Suspect; FBI: Suspect Planned Attacks, Surveilling Homes, Taking Notes. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 16, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, converging crises. President Trump is meeting with top U.S. allies on the world stage, amid crucial flash points on trade, immigration and the new wave of strikes between Israel and Iran.

Plus, gripped by fear. Officials are struggling with how to keep public leaders safe after two lawmakers were gunned down in their homes. And a MAGA milestone. Exactly 10 years ago today, a reality TV star rode down that golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his presidential campaign. We're reconvening the people who brought you that news about the wild, norm shattering decade that would follow.

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

We start in the Canadian province of Alberta, where the two-day G7 summit officially begins. This hour, trade and the economy had been at the top of the agenda, but now it is the spiraling crisis in the middle east. President Trump started his day with a one-on-one meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, where he was quick to criticize his G7 counterparts.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is there? Kristen, it was quite an entrance that the president made at G7 today.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. It was incredibly striking. Remember that we're at a time here where these world leaders, once our closest allies, aren't really sure where exactly they stand when it comes to President Donald Trump. They aren't sure where he stands on the issues that they once knew where the United States was.

But he walked into that room, second the cameras -- he really started criticizing not only the G7 but also President Barack Obama for annexing or for kicking out Russia -- excuse me, 11 years ago and it was what then the G8. Now, of course, as we know, they had Russia leave because they had annexed Crimea at the time. This is what Donald Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Used to be the G8, Barack Obama, and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in. And I would say that that was a mistake because I think you wouldn't have a war right now. If you had Russia in and you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He also blamed Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, for having Russia leave the G8 but just so we're clear, Trudeau was not in office for another year until after that happened.

But the other thing that might put him at odds and will likely put him at odds with these other leaders, is the fact that we've just learned that he's not going to sign on to a joint statement with other G7 leaders, calling for de-escalation between Iran and Israel, something that he has singularly unilaterally done, but that he's not going to actually sign this statement that says that Israel has a right to defend itself. Iran should never get a nuclear weapon, and that they should deescalate.

Now it was interesting during the Q&A portion of that brief time with reporters there, he did make a lot of news. He said that they -- being his administration had heard from Iranian intermediaries, that they wanted a de-escalation, that they might come to the table. He also said they should have already made a deal there. This again, as you said, is likely to be the forefront.

Now, while this was contentious, I will tell you the talk about trade between Prime Minister Carney and Donald Trump was much nicer this time than what we saw in the Oval Office. Donald Trump saying, he was a big tariff guy, and that Carney does not like tariffs, but he has another idea, which is also a good idea.

Obviously, not what we heard last time when you and I actually were sitting around that table watching Carney and Donald Trump kind of have a devolving meeting in the Oval Office. And Carney clearly learned from that. He cut the questions off himself. That's not usually something you see. You don't see a world leader cutting off the questions so that he can have time with Donald Trump. Donald Trump seemed willing to continue going there.

But as we saw last time, the more questions that came, the more the situation had kind of started to devolve. We know that for Donald Trump, one of his big things that he wants out of this meeting with Carney and out of this next two days is trade deals. So that's likely to come out of there. We can see him being a little bit more effusive in his conversation with Carney the last time when he started trying to goad him saying that Canada should be the 51st state and insult them when it came to trade.

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BASH: Yeah. And it's one thing to be sitting in the Oval Office as President Trump's guest. This time, it was the prime minister who was hosting the president, so he had the ability to do what he did. Certainly, very interesting, and most importantly, a lot of news that we heard from the president on Iran. Thank you so much. Kristen, appreciate that reporting.

I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, Nia-Malika Henderson of CNN and Bloomberg, CNN's Phil Mattingly and CNN's very own, Jamie Gangel. Happy Monday, everybody.

I just want to kind of start where Kristen left off, particularly about what we heard about the news, Jamie, that the president isn't signing on to a statement by the rest of the G7 members regarding Iran and Israel, and we don't know what he doesn't like about it. Is it that he's -- that the statement says deescalate? Is it that the statement says, Israel has a right to defend itself? Probably not that part, or that Iran should stop its nuclear capability. I guess, not that part, probably the first.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Not that part. A national security -- a former national security official just texted me during Kristen's report. I'm shocked, shocked, shocked that Trump is not going along with this. And also, I talked to a former Canadian official who said to me, look, we're used to his being unpredictable. In a turn of phrase, he said, we hope for the best, we prepare for Donald Trump.

So, I think going into this, they know it's going to be difficult to navigate. But just to the Iran and Israel of it all. When I talked to Israeli sources late last night, they said they are carefully watching and monitoring everything Trump says. So, a moment like this is going to mean a lot to the Israelis.

BASH: And the fact that he said in the Q&A, Phil Mattingly, that he is hearing from Iranians, they do want to talk, but it didn't sound like he was interested in talking right now.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Certainly not at this point. And I think one thing it's been difficult, I think, from an observational perspective, to understand exactly where the president is on this issue over the course of the last several days. And whether or not, he was misleading people intentionally at one time or another, whether or not he changed his mind, at another time, what his actual in game or outcome goal is here as this moves forward.

And I think in part, there's been a recognition inside the White House that that can be to their advantage as this continues to play out. War is unpredictable in every way, shape or form. But I also think that there's a recognition inside the White House, which isn't necessarily exclusive to this White House, that the U.S. role here is very different than the other six countries in the G7.

The U.S. role, in particular, in this Trump administration is very direct when it comes to Israel, and obviously, they have outreach or intermediaries working with Iran. And the idea of maybe putting themselves into the larger group, I think there's a genuine concern that it would undercut on some level their role and kind of their authority within that kind of prison. BASH: And let's just take a step back and talk for a moment about the dynamics within the G7. You touched on it a little bit, Jamie. And let's go back -- well, let's first of all look at where we are now. We're talking about the people that he has met with, and he has relationships with of various kinds, of course, the Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada. These are the meetings he's having, Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, and Zelenskyy of Ukraine.

Let's go back to 2018, to an image that I think is probably seared in the minds of a lot of the members of the G7 there. Now many of them are, you know, are new. They weren't in this picture. But that is an image and a moment that there's no question President Trump revels in. He was at the center of it back then. And he is now -- that is generally true for any American president, but that had a different feel to it.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It did, and I will never forget this picture. It was released by Angela Merkel's office. It was not released by the White House, and that's the genesis of this picture. It was a private meeting. This was not at a press event, but it was also coming at a time when he was declining to sign on.

So, I'm not sure we know exactly what he doesn't like from the joint statement. He just doesn't like to join. That's a big part of it. He wants to be on his own. And it is an entirely new makeup. But him talking out of the -- just out of the gate, about the G8 and he longed for the day that Russia. He has been talking about this for a very long time. This is a hobby horse of his. He talks about it, and we should point out.

Russia was expelled from the G8 in March of 2014 because of the illegal annexation of Crimea. And Russia was only added to the G8 back in '98, I think, when it was becoming more of an economic power, but he cannot get over the fact. But it's unclear if there's no movement actually, obviously to enter them in.

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BASH: Stand by for one second. We're going to go to a press conference by the FBI in Minneapolis, discussing the idea that they are going to press federal charges against the suspect in the murder and attempted murder of state lawmakers.

JOE THOMPSON, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY: Our state and our elected representatives. Political assassinations are rare. They strike at the very core of our democracy, but the details of Boelter's crime are even worse. They are truly chilling. It is no exaggeration to say that his crimes are the stuff of nightmares. Boelter stocked his victims like prey. He went to their homes, held them out as a police officer and shot them in cold blood.

There's been a lot of information and misinformation out there about Boelter's crimes. We have filed a detailed 20-page complaint, an affidavit that sets forth what happened in this case. I'd like to share some of that information with you now. In the early morning hours of June 14, Boelter went to the homes of four Minnesota state politicians with the intent to kill them. Boelter first traveled to the home of Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman in Champlin, Minnesota. Boelter arrived at the senator's home, disguised as a police officer.

He arrived in a black SUV with emergency lights turned on and with a license plate that read police. Boelter wore a black tactical vest and body armor. He carried a flashlight and a Beretta nine-millimeter handgun. He also wore a hyper realistic silicon mask.

Senator Hoffman had a security camera. I've seen the footage from that camera, and it is chilling. Boelter knocked on Senator Hoffman's front door and repeatedly shouted, this is the police, open the door. Senator Hoffman and his wife Yvette came to the door. When they opened the door, Boelter shined the flashlight in their faces and said there had been a shooting reported in the house.

Boelter asked if they had any weapons. When Boelter lowered his flashlight, which he had shined in their face, they realized that he was not a police officer. They shouted out. You're not a cop. You're not a police officer. Boelter then announced, this is a robbery and forced himself into their home.

When Senator Hoffman attempted to push Boelter out and stop him from entering his home, Boelter shot him repeatedly. Boelter then shot Ms. Hoffman repeatedly. Boelter fled the scene, and the Hoffman's daughter called 911. Unfortunately, the Hoffman survived, although they remain hospitalized.

After shooting Senator Hoffman and his wife, Boelter traveled to the home of another Minnesota state Representative in Maple Grove, Minnesota. Video surveillance showed that Boelter rang the doorbell at the state representatives' house at approximately 2:24 am, on Friday night. Again, he was dressed as a law enforcement officer, wearing a tactical vest and body armor, carrying a handgun and a flashlight and wearing that same hyper realistic silicon mask.

Again, the images, as you can see on the screen, are haunting. Fortunately, the state representative was not home. She and her family were gone on vacation, and so Boelter left. Boelter then traveled to the home of a Minnesota state senator who lived in New Hope, Minnesota. He parked in the street in that same black SUV with the police license plate.

At about 2:36 am on Friday night, after learning of the shooting of Senator Hoffman, New Hope police dispatched an officer to conduct a wellness check on the state senator who lived in New Hope. When the New Hope officer arrived at the scene, she saw Boelter's black SUV parked down the block with the lights on. The New Hope police officer believed that Boelter was a police officer who had been dispatched to the scene to check on the status of the state senator.

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The New Hope police officer pulled up next to Boelter in his car, rolled down her window and attempted to speak with him. Boelter did not respond. According to the officer, he just sat there and stared straight ahead. So, the New Hope police officer who had been dispatched to the scene proceeded to the state senators' home and she waited for other law enforcement to arrive. When they did -- by the time they did, Boelter had left the scene.

Boelter then traveled to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and the home of Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman. At approximately 3:30 am, Boelter arrived at Representative Hortman's house in his black SUV with the police license plates. He parked in the driveway and let the emergency lights on his SUV flashing, as if he was a police officer.

Boelter approached Representative Hortman's home, again dressed as a police officer, wearing the tactical vest and body armor, and wearing that hyper realistic mask. He was armed and carrying a flashlight. Before he entered the home, two Brooklyn Park police officers arrived at the scene. They too had dispatch -- been dispatched to check on Senator and Representative Hortman after learning of the shooting of Senator Hoffman.

When they arrived at the scene, they saw Boelter's black SUV parked in the driveway with the emergency lights flashing, and they saw Boelter standing in front of the house, several feet from the door. When Boelter saw the officers get out of the car, he drew his weapon and began firing. He rushed into the house through the front door, firing into it. He repeatedly fired into the house, and when he entered, he murdered representative Hortman and her husband Mark.

The Brooklyn Park police officers fired at Boelter as he rushed into the home, but he escaped into the home and out the back. Officers recovered Boelter's nine-millimeter Beretta, along with the body armor and the mask behind the home, along his path of flight when he fled on foot. They later searched Boelter's car, where they found five more firearms, including assault style rifles and a large quantity of ammunition. Boelter also had in his card notebooks, containing a list of more than 45 Minnesota state and federal elected officials, including Representative Hortman.

Now Boelter planned his attack carefully. He researched his fam -- his victims and their families. He used the internet and other tools to find their addresses and names, the names of the family members. He conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes about the location of their homes.

He also prepared in other ways. He concealed himself as a police officer, outfitting his black SUV with police lights and a police license plate, wearing a black tactical vest and body armor, carrying a police flashlight and a handgun, and of course, he wore that hyper realistic silicon mask, as seen on the surveillance videos. The video of his arrival and shooting of Senator Hoffman is truly chilling. Again, it's no exaggeration to say this is the stuff of nightmares.

There's a photo of the firearms found in Boelter's abandoned SUV. Based on these crimes, we brought a federal complaint, charging Boelter with an array of federal charges. Counts one and two, charge him with stalking. Count one, charges him with stalking Representative Melissa Hortman, using interstate facilities, and that's Title 18, United States Code 2261, the statutory penalties there are life in prison.

Count two, similarly contains his charge use as him with stalking state Senator John Hoffman, using interstate facilities. The statutory -- the maximum penalty of that count is 20 years in prison. Counts three and four, charge Boelter with the murder of Melissa and -- of the Hortman, using a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. 924 (j) count. And these are punishable by term of life imprisonment or even death. In counts five and six, charge him with shooting the Hortman' and the Hoffman's using a firearm and both of those counts also carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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Before I finish my remarks, I want to say a little bit about law enforcement and the manhunt that we heard about the last two days. Over the past 48 hours, federal, state and local law enforcement from throughout the state of Minnesota have worked together to carry out the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.

Now, a lot has been said about law enforcement in recent weeks but make no mistake. The men and women of our federal state and local law enforcement put their lives at risk and on the live -- on the line to keep Minnesota safe. They work tirelessly day and night to make sure that the tragic events of Friday night and that without further violence or bloodshed. We owe them all a debt of gratitude, and they will forever have my respect and admiration.

Let me turn it over to Special Agent Alvin Winston from the FBI.

ALVIN WINSTON, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE FOR MINNEAPOLIS FIELD OFFICE: Thanks, Joe. Good morning. My name is Alvin Winston, and I serve as the special agent in charge of the FBI Minneapolis field office, which covers the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. I want to begin by extending my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the community that has been shaken by this devastating act of violence. Our thoughts remain with those who are grieving and all who have been impacted by this tragedy.

Over the weekend, the people of Minnesota and the nation have been watching closely as this case has unfolded. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension provided a detailed update yesterday, so I won't repeat those specifics. This was a targeted attack against individuals who answered the call to public service.

The FBI role in moments like this is clear, to stand alongside our partners, bring federal resources, intelligence capabilities and reach to the effort, not just to apprehend the individual responsible, but to understand the full scope of the threat, that work continues. This case became the largest coordinated manhunt in Minnesota's history.

We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with our law enforcement partners across the state. No single agency could have done this alone, and because of that unified effort, a dangerous individual was taken into custody. Let me say this clearly, political violence has no place in this country. The FBI, alongside our partners, will remain focused on the work ahead and on ensuring justice is served. And with that, I'll hand it over to Drew.

DREW EVANS, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BUREAU OF CRIMINAL APPREHENSION: Thank you, with those comments, and we're thankful today to see these charges filed. Early on, with our partners from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal partners from the ATF United States Marshals Service and others, they provided assistance to the team of local investigators from the Brooklyn Park police department, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and the BCA that were working on this right to begin with -- along with all the other hundreds of people that stepped up with Champlin police department as well in this to pursue this justice.

You might be asking because we see a lot of times these cases, you know, go in various orders when they are, but this is an indication that the United States Attorney's Office stands along with us in the state of Minnesota, that when somebody and an evil individual decides to move this and create fear in our communities and commit evil acts that we will pursue every possible charge that we can from the state charges that you learned about today to these federal charges that were discussed early on.

And I'm grateful for the leadership, the United States Attorney's Office and the FBI for helping us move that forward so quickly in a coordinated approach. We do that because, as SAC Winston said, in situations like this, we have individuals that step up to serve their communities. They are elected officials across our state, and when an individual chooses to target them for their role in representing all of us.

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It's an incumbent upon all of us to put all the resources forward to hold that accountable, to seek justice and to make sure that we are working together to show the community across Minnesota and the United States that political violence is never OK. We as a country are formed on the basis that we have political discourse and that we have debates ongoing on what we do, and that we elect people day-in, day-out to represent us.

And when somebody tries to undermine that, it's important for all of us to hold that person accountable, so that we can move forward as a country and have a system in place that a representative government and that we provide the protections for those individuals and their families moving forward. And so, I'm thankful for these charges today to move this forward, and the great work that the United States Attorney's Office partnering with us to move forward on this.

And with that, we'll take some questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Question Inaudible)

THOMPSON: Why is it not a terrorism charges, the question? You know, we brought the charges that we think are appropriate right now. Obviously, these crimes are about 48 hours old, so we have an ongoing investigation. And I can't comment as to what other charges may or may not be brought.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you seek the death penalty?

THOMPSON: Thank you for the question. Will we see the death penalty? It's too early to tell. That is one of the options for several of the charges though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does Mr. Boelter have any assistance? Are you looking into whether he may have had assistance? And if he did, what are the potential consequences for anybody who may have assisted him, either before or after these tragic shootings.

THOMPSON: Our investigation remains ongoing in several areas, including whether or not he had anyone helping him, assisting him in either carrying out these attacks or fleeing from them. I can't comment on that at this time. There's nothing in the complaint suggesting that someone did, but the investigation is ongoing. In fact, it's just in its infancy. It's been 48 hours, most of which we are primarily focused on finding him.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- Minneapolis shortly after these crimes occurred. Do we know how he got from Brooklyn Park to Minneapolis? Was it on foot?

THOMPSON: I don't know the answer to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a clarity about the state charges concurrent with the federal charges. How does that all work? Does this -- you know, you may know the state charges or take precedence over the state charge?

THOMPSON: It does not nullify the state charges. They remain in place. Today, he was brought into federal custody. He'll make his initial appoint -- initial court appearance in federal court over in Saint Paul at 1:30 central time this afternoon. And my expectation, based on prior cases, is the federal case, the federal charges will be litigated first, but the state charges won't necessarily go anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you speak just why investigators believe he carried out this attack and for how long he may have been planning these attacks?

THOMPSON: Well, it's pretty clear from the evidence that he's been planning these attacks for quite some time. There's voluminous writings, as you've seen in the reporting that were found both in his car and his house, about his planning, lists of names and individuals. In terms of the why, it's unclear.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His interaction with the New Hope police. What had law enforcement been told at that point? Were they aware to be on the lookout for a dark SUV. They've resembled a police vehicle?

THOMPSON: I don't know. I can turn that. I don't know if one of my colleagues here know. I know that they had heard about the shooting of Senator Hoffman and being the diligent law enforcement they were, knowing that they had elected officials living in their communities. They went out to do a wellness check. I don't know more than that.

EVANS: You know, what I can say, and as you can, I don't know the specifics of the question. What on that, whether it is. What I will tell you is that Hennepin County law enforcement, working together at that time, knew of that. And so, as the different jurisdictions are on duty, some of them did proactive. You know, as we've heard, you've heard from Chief Drew on this, in Maple Grove, for example -- in Brooklyn Park, I'm sorry, for example.

They went out proactively to check on the status and the wellbeing. And that's how we encountered this and prevented additional attacks, which we believe certainly could have occurred from occurring. So, we don't know the specifics on the new hope as to what they were doing, but they were tracking the shooting that happened, and so several of them were being proactive and checking on various people that they knew resided in their city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers in Brooklyn or the Brooklyn Park officer, they shoot at them, or was he shooting into the house and they kind of like chased him into the house?

THOMPSON: My understanding is it's unclear at the moment whether or not he shot at them. It's possible that he did. It's not clear. Obviously, it was a chaotic scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was he wearing the mask when the New Hope officer interacted with him?

THOMPSON: I believe he was, although I can't say for certain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a reason to believe that there was plans to commit additional violence at say the protests that were going on.

THOMPSON: I've not seen evidence of that. It's hard to say what his plan was. Obviously, he went to the homes of no less than four elected officials. He had a list of other elected officials, their home addresses, so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To make sure that we connect the dots properly, could you name the other two officials?

THOMPSON: You know, we can't at this time. I wouldn't surprised if they publicly identify themselves, but it's not really my place to do that if they want to protect their own privacy.

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