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CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five. President Trump Says He Will Make a Decision on U.S. Military Involvement in Israel-Iran Conflict within Two Weeks; Tucker Carlson and Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz have Heated Discussion on Calls for Regime Change in Iran; U.S. Politicians State They Feel Unsafe Due to Recent String of Politically-Motivated Violent Acts; Democrats Officials Criticized for Staging Political Stunts over Trump Immigration Policy; Trump Administration Ending Specialized Suicide Prevention Services for LGBTQ+ Youth Who Call into Suicide Prevention Hotline. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired June 21, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the TV presidency, Trump off the cuff while determining to strike or not to strike Iran.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: I may do it. I may not do it.

SIDNER: Plus, a mega MAGA fight.

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT: Shame on you for suggesting otherwise.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX): You're the one that just called me, I think, a sleazy feline.

SIDNER: How the fear of another war is sparking a battle inside Trump's base.

Also, a slippery slope of autocracy, or political theater?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please step back.

SIDNER: As more Democrats are slapped in handcuffs, is it meeting the moment, or a political stunt?

And another attack after an assassination with an apparent hit list. The impact of America's growing political violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel safe as an elected official in this political climate?

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT, (D-TX): No.

SIDNER: Here in studio S.E. Cupp, Scott Jennings, Dan Koh, and Van Jones. It's the weekend. Join the conversation at "TABLE FOR FIVE".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, good morning to you. I'm Sara Sidner in New York in for Abby Phillip.

President Trump is keeping the world guessing. Will he or won't he order a strike on Iran? It's been a dizzying week, starting with Donald Trump warning Iranian civilians to immediately evacuate Tehran. He abruptly left the G-7 summit in Canada, then told Iran the time to make a deal is up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: Unconditional surrender. That means I've had it, OK. I've had it, I give up. No more. Then we go blow up all the, you know, all the nuclear stuff that's all over the place there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: But on Thursday, he pressed pause, at least for now, on potentially adding the U.S. military into the fight between Israel and Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: "Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The president setting a very familiar timetable as he faces a legacy defining decision on potential military action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: I'll let you know in about two weeks, within two weeks.

I could answer that question better in two weeks.

I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks.

I'll announce it over the next two weeks.

You know, in about two weeks.

It'll be out in about less than two weeks, probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, we've got our great panel here with us. I'm going to start with you, Scott Jennings, because you just returned from Israel. You were there trying to get out as missiles were coming in. Give us some sense of how you see Trump dealing with this. There are folks saying he blinked and Netanyahu is in charge. There are folks saying, look, this is prudent diplomacy. How do you see it?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, he's been extremely consistent on his views for a very long time. He does not believe Iran should be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. He has said it over and over and over again. And he said, this week I decide what is America first foreign policy, and America first foreign policy is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. There can be no peace if they have a nuclear weapon. So consistency is number one.

Number two, this cannot end at this point, in my opinion, any other way than them losing any ability at all to make a nuclear weapon. And so whether Israel winds up figuring out how to do it or whether we end up doing it on Donald Trump's order, that's the only way this can end. And I think he knows that at this point. And I think he's taking the amount of time that he needs to figure out the best way to achieve that outcome.

You know, there's been a lot of debate on the right about whether we should or we shouldn't, but allowing Iran, which has consistently over 46 years been at war with the United States, chanted "death to America," we're the great Satan, Israel is a little Satan, as I was sitting there in Israel watching the missiles fly over my head, I was thinking, I sure am glad they don't have nuclear warheads on them, but that's what they want. And we cannot allow it, and I think the president has been right on this all along.

SIDNER: Dan, how do you see it? I mean, there was a deal in place, that Obama put in place, and it was blown apart by Trump himself when it comes to Iran and the United States. How do you see this playing out right now?

DAN KOH, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CABINET SECRETARY, BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: I think the concern is how the president is making this decision, as well as the time in which he's spending on other things instead of focusing on this, right. I mean, it was reported by "The New York Times" that he saw on FOX News that Israel was getting a lot of credit for the work that was being done in Iran, and then changed his mind accordingly. Marco Rubio says that the United States has nothing to do with it, and then Donald Trump says something completely different.

[10:05:02]

And Van knows this. When you work in the White House, every single second of your time needs to be focused and focused on the goal at hand. Instead, we see things like the Defense Department spending time renaming civil rights warships like the Harvey Milk, like Medgar Evers. We see a DEI hotline so people can call if they want to report things that they don't agree with, with diversity and inclusion. That video footage there was from a press conference where he put in two new flagpoles, as if the White House flags weren't prominent already. So this is this is what I think is should concern a lot of Americans

is that instead of being focused on the task at hand, we see him doing these things that really don't help us advance the ball, nor does it make members of the military more safe.

SIDNER: Van, we've seen this timeline before many times, the infrastructure bill, health care bill. Two weeks has been used over and over again. What do you make of this use of these two weeks? Because it puts people on edge, right, for an extended period of time as they wait for a decision to be made.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, he's buying himself some time and some room. I was also in the holy land very recently. I think progressives underestimate how dangerous Iran is. Iran is not a normal country. Normal countries don't blind women because they showed some hair. They don't empower little gangs and proxies to surround the country and fire rockets and rape people.

So Iran, the two things are clear. The what -- they cannot have a bomb. And the why, because they say death to America, death to Israel, and death to all the Jews. One of those should offend you if you're a progressive, at least one should offend you. And so the question, though, is the who and the how. Is Israel going to take out this nuclear capacity by dropping people there who blow it up? Or is America going to take it out by dropping a bomb that blows it up? But the what and the why are clear, and I think progressives should get on board with that. We cannot have a nuclear armed Iran. I was in the region. You were in the region. This is a very dangerous power that cannot get a nuclear weapon.

SIDNER: Dan, you mentioned this, so I wanted to talk to you about it. You're seeing this schism that's happening with -- we'll go to the sort of MAGA schism in a minute. But within the administration, with Tulsi Gabbard, with Trump just very blatantly saying I don't believe her more than once. We haven't heard anything from Hegseth, for example. And he's apparently relying -- our reporting is that he's relying on the CIA Director Ratcliffe and the Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine. What do you make of how this is all happening and what he's listening to and who he's listening to?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thats the concern for me. Look, this is one of the most complicated, complex issues out there. Van talked about it very simply, and he's correct about that. But this is so complicated. We're trying to do it in between two commercial breaks, right, in eight minutes. This has befuddled the world for decades, a century. It's hard and nuanced.

And I'm worried because we have a president who doesn't think anything is hard and doesn't do nuance. So I'm worried about who he's listening to. Yes, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, but what does it look like? Does it look like regime change, nation-building? I'm very concerned about how this all happens.

And I was happy to learn, according to reporting, that Trump was worried this could be another Libya. That's a good worry. I was happy to hear I need two weeks. We complain about how impetuous he was. We have to give him credit when he takes a breath. This is hard. It should take some time, and it shouldn't be trigger-happy.

But who is he listening to? I hope it's not Laura Loomer. I hope it's not Tucker Carlson. I hope it's military experts. But he doesn't have a ton of good people around him. He's iced out Tulsi. I hear he's icing out Pete Hegseth. These are his people. He put them there. He's not listening to them. I worry about who he's engaging with.

SIDNER: Collectively I think you mentioned something that the two weeks, surprised that there was this pause because he said, everyone evacuate from Tehran. And then suddenly it's a backdown. What do you think caused that?

JENNINGS: He didn't say he was doing it in two weeks. He said, that's sort of the most time I would give. I mean, he could do it in two minutes, right, for all we know. And they shouldn't know the time or the place that we're going to do it. I guess they'll know the place in this case. but they shouldn't know when we're going to go. So I don't fault him for taking in as much information as he can here.

Also, you have to remember, he knows more than we do. He knows more than anybody. He has a lot of information we're not privy to. He's also consulting with the Israelis, who have tons of information that we're just not going to be able to discuss here at the table today. I have a lot of confidence, actually, he's going to make a good decision because he's been so clear-eyed on this for 20 years about the fact that they cannot have this.

[10:10:01]

I actually don't believe it's all that nuanced. We're either going to allow them to have a nuclear bomb or not.

CUPP: The idea that he's been consistent, let me just push back a little bit. You're right, he's been consistent on Iran can't have a nuke, but the way he's always defined America first, and you know this as well as I do. You talk to people who voted for him. This is not it. It is not --

JENNINGS: I disagree.

CUPP: Oh, I mean, OK, I'm hearing from lots of MAGA voters. I'm not talking about the Tucker Carlsons and the people representing the MAGA surrogates. I'm talking to Trump voters who are saying this is 100 percent the opposite of why I voted for him. Foreign adventuring, foreign wars. It's not just we're defending our ally Israel. It's now we're thinking about bombing nuclear sites in Iran, Iran with very bad proxies and bad actors in the region. That's not it.

JENNINGS: In his first term, we fired cruise missiles into Syria. We took out Qasem Soleimani. I mean, he was not an isolationist. He's for not -- he's for smart engagement. But that doesn't mean no engagement. He was pretty clear on that.

CUPP: But he got out of the Iran deal with the idea that it would stop them from enriching. And all they did when he got out of the deal was start enriching again. I'm not sure I trust his judgment on how best to deal with this particularly bad actor.

SIDNER: And we're going to talk about something that you just brought up, which is the schism within MAGA world.

Coming up, lawmakers from both parties say they don't feel safe in the wake of the devastating political violence in Minnesota and more and more political threats. We'll discuss what they're calling for now.

But next, well discuss the MAGA divide over U.S. action in Iran as illustrated by this intense interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT: You're a senator who is calling for the overthrow of the government and you don't know anything about the country.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX): No, you don't know anything about the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:16:25]

SIDNER: Welcome back. In one corner, the hawks. In another, the isolationists. And in the middle, a president caught between his fractured base. A heated discussion this week between Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz gave a fascinating showcase of the MAGA divide over potential military action in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT: How many people live in Iran, by the way?

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX): I don't know the population.

CARLSON: At all?

CRUZ: No, I don't know the population.

CARLSON: You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?

CRUZ: How many people live in Iran?

CARLSON: 92 million.

CRUZ: OK.

CARLSON: How could you not know that?

CRUZ: I don't sit around memorizing population tables.

CARLSON: Well, it's kind of relevant because you're calling for the overthrow of the government.

CRUZ: Why is it relevant whether it's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million? Why is that relevant?

CARLSON: Well, because if you don't know anything about the country --

CRUZ: I didn't say I don't know anything about the country.

CARLSON: OK, what's the ethnic mix of Iran?

CRUZ: They are Persians and predominantly Shia.

CARLSON: What percent?

CRUZ: OK, this is cute.

CARLSON: No, it's not even -- you don't know anything about Iran. So actually the country --

CRUZ: I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran.

CARLSON: You're a senator who is calling for the government and you don't know anything about the country!

CRUZ: No. You don't know anything about the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That was something. Donald Trump is shrugging off MAGA critics of potential military action, saying he decides what "America first" means. But it's worth noting that the decision to buy more time for talks came after lunch with America first firebrand Steve Bannon, who is against entering another war.

All right, to you, Miss S.E., because you said you had been talking to MAGA voters.

CUPP: Yes, yes.

SIDNER: Does the Tucker Carlsons of the world and the Steve Bannons of the world, do they represent what some of the MAGA base is saying?

CUPP: Oh, absolutely. They absolutely do. And you can think that's relevant or irrelevant, but they absolutely do. They're standing up for principles that I think a lot of people went to the polls and voted for Trump to uphold.

But this is -- this was, I'm sorry, hilarious. This was theater. First of all, Tucker, whom I know a long time, is a master debater, OK. Is it really important to know the exact population of Iran if you just think that country is an existential threat to America? Not really. But is it fun to watch Ted Cruz squirm? Absolutely. And Ted Cruz is a master deflector. Is Trump -- Tucker's loyalty to Trump really germane to whether or not we should go into Iran? Not really. Is it fun to watch him have to defend it? Absolutely. So this was theater of two guys who represent two wings of MAGA, and

the house is divided now. It feels a little bit like MAGA is getting divorced. These people feel very strongly on this particular issue. They are united around Trump's domestic agenda. On this one thing they're very, very divided.

SIDNER: Scott, I heard the -- from you.

JENNINGS: The polling on this is quite clear.

SIDNER: But will supporters still support Trump if he chooses action?

JENNINGS: Of course. Of course they will. I mean, the polling on this, we've explored it on CNN this week, is quite clear. Republicans support the idea that Trump has espoused for 20 years that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. And there's a big gulf between dropping bombs for one specific purpose, blowing up a nuclear facility, and regime change and nation-building. There's a huge gulf. And going in with going and going in with B-2 bombers is different than boots on the ground.

CUPP: Yes, it is. But what does Iran do next. And then what do we do next?

JENNINGS: I'll tell you what they won't do next is build a nuclear bomb. And that's the outcome we're trying to get here.

KOH: I think we should be concerned about how the president is deciding what to do next. This appears to be an administration where media personalities are informing foreign policy.

[10:20:04]

Typically, the last person in the room -- let's take a step back, OK. Tulsi Gabbard has been completely sidelined. Marco Rubio spent years talking smack about President Trump. He will do anything to stay in his good graces. The other two, Mike Waltz, who I barely remembered his name when I was thinking about it, was thrown out because Laura Loomer, by the way, his deputy as well, didn't like him, right. And so now we have Steve Bannon, who is now a media personality, coming to tell President Trump what he should be doing in Iran. And to Scott's point, these are not people with the information that is necessary to make an informed decision.

SIDNER: Should Congress be getting involved in this? Because I've talked to several -- right. I've talked to several members of Congress this week who are saying, hey, hi, we should have a say in this, and we are not getting the briefings that we normally would get.

JONES: Yes, I think the process does matter here. And I think there's a lot of smart people in Congress who can answer all of Tucker's questions and all of Senator Cruz's questions who are not being engaged. But there's a danger in both parties of trying to drive looking in the rearview mirror.

Iraq was an unmitigated disaster from the beginning. And by the way, 85 percent of black voters said, don't go into Iraq back then. But Iraq and Iran are not the same. And this is an important thing for us to keep in mind. We know for sure that they're enriching uranium. We don't -- I mean, they say it, the United Nations says it. I mean, so we're not guessing. Are there weapons of mass destruction? We know they're within breakout range.

We know that with literally guys with flipflops, box cutters have done horrible -- with that ideology. People with way less weaponry have done horrible things with 9/11, horrible things with October 7th. And so this is a real threat and a real problem.

Now, if the United States, which has the only bomb in the world that can bust that bunker, drops the bomb, it's true, Iran might do something and then we have to do something. You might get sucked in. But the idea we're going to get sucked in to the point of having hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground in Iran, I think is not right. And it should not color our thinking about a true existential threat for the entire world.

SIDNER: All right, we will be back with our panel in just a second.

Next, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saying they simply don't feel safe in the wake of growing threats and deadly political violence. We will discuss ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:26:51]

SIDNER: Congressman from Ohio Max Miller says he is the latest victim of political violence. He reported to police and then took to social media explaining the attack as he drove in his community. We've just gotten a hold of his chilling 911 call. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MAX MILLER, (R-OH): I was just driving to work and I was cut off by a man in a Tesla who held up a Palestinian flag to me and then rolled down his window and said that I'm going to cut your throat and your daughters'. And he said, you're dirty Jew. I'm going to -- kill you all. And I know who you are and where you live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Terrifying. This incident is the latest in a string of back- to-back acts of political violence this week.

Let's go through some of them. A man was arrested in Texas for threatening lawmakers. Another was arrested for the attempted kidnaping of the mayor of Memphis. The NYPD investigating car bomb threats made against one of New York's mayoral candidates. A former Coast Guard officer arrested for making threats against President Trump. In Georgia, a 25-year-old was charged for threatening sexual violence against Senators Cruz and Fischer. And now CNN is learning new details from a Minnesota lawmaker who survived the attack by the suspected gunman who took the lives of both State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband. All of this happened in just a single week.

To you, S.E., what needs to be done? Every single senator we've had on this week, every single representative we've had on this week, has said we have to do more. But what?

CUPP: It's so bad. And I've been doing this a long time. It feels -- it feels like it's at a fever pitch that all that happened in one week. And I don't want to both sides, but both sides need to take responsibility for this. I think Trump has convinced MAGA that violence and violent rhetoric are righteous. I think the insurrectionists on January 6th felt righteous in breaking into the Capitol, calling for Nancy Pelosi and to hang Mike Pence and assault police officers.

On the other hand, I think the left has decided that they're going to make their entire personality and platform resist, riot, protest, sit- in, take over campuses, as if that's a substitute for policy. I think they've decided were abandoning the policy, and we're going to stage altercations. We're going to get ourselves arrested. We're going to perform the theater of politics. And that is such a fool's errand. I'm sure it feels good for a lot of Democrats to perform it and to watch other Democrats perform it. But that is not bringing voters back to the Democratic Party, who felt as if Democrats were not listening to them about the economy, immigration, and crime. That's not it. That's not going to get them back into a position of power. And they're out of power. They have no power now. So the conversations Democrats need to be having is, how do we get back in power? It's not protests and riots.

JONES: Well, look, there's four political parties, not two. Thats the most important thing I can say, is that you have the worst of MAGA, which are very different than other conservatives.

[10:30:05]

And you also have the worst in the Democratic Party, which is very different than moderates. And so the problem is, you say all these Republicans are responsible for all this violence, all these Democrats responsible for the violence? No. The nuts in both of our parties are responsible for a lot. And the problem you have around the world is mean, dumb people are very loud and very active, and better people are quiet, naive, and confused.

And so it's not the voices of these idiots. It's that good folks are basically just shocked into silence too often. I think you need the people who are the best people in both parties to stand up and stand together and start pushing back.

SIDNER: Dan, is it too late? I mean, if you go online, you don't just have to listen to politicians and the things that they say about one another. But you go online and you see the discussions there whenever politics comes up, and it is a hellscape.

KOH: Well, look, I think -- I agree with Van that I think we need to take a step back and realize how much we have descended in this country with the rhetoric that we're seeing. The fact that there was two assassination attempts on Donald Trump is a tragedy and a disgrace, right? We should all agree on that. This political violence on either side has absolutely no standing.

But what I would say, respectfully, on the protests, I think, of my 89-year-old aunt. She's about to turn 90. She's never gotten civically engaged before. She's so fed up with what she's seen happen to her country that she wheeled herself to Boston, Massachusetts, for the Elon Musk protest. She wheeled herself to North Andover, Massachusetts, for this most recent protest. And people around her who have never seen her get that angry about what's happening is now getting more involved themselves. So I think, you know, I think protest is a bedrock of what we are as a country.

SIDNER: All right, we're going to talk more about some of what Democrats have been doing and the rest that have been made. Multiple Democrats have been arrested and detained over actions around immigration. And the question a lot of folks are asking, is it political theater or a slippery slope, or is there something else to this? We will debate it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

SIDNER: It's what a lot of folks are worried about that Donald Trump would do in his second term, that he'll cuff his critics and jail his opponents. So what should we make of that? Indeed, more Democrats are being arrested by his administration. And is this a Democratic stunt playing into his hands or a slippery slope to autocracy? This week, ICE agents arrested a mayoral candidate and the current comptroller of New York City inside an immigration court while he was trying to lock arms with an immigrant coming out of court, according to his wife. One of the accusations against Brad Lander is that he was assaulting officers in that scrum, something that he has denied.

This marks at least the fifth arrest or detention of Democrats by the feds, including Senator Alex Padilla, who got emotional on the floor, insisting these are test cases for how far Trump will go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ALEX PADILLA, (D-CA): Last week, for many, was a warning shot, but I pray that it also serves as a wake-up call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: In the aftermath Homeland Security is now changing its rules, asking lawmakers to give 72-hours notice before visiting detention centers.

All right, since you didn't get a word in last segment, it is to you. What do you see happening here? Democrats say, look, they are emotional. They are fed up, and they are going out and putting themselves in between ICE and some of the immigrants or making statements. Do you think it's political theater? Do you think, hey, this is something that they're really serious about and they want the public to see them out leading the charge?

JENNINGS: Well, I agree with some of that. They are emotional. And the last part, they do want the public to see. But what they're doing is clearly creating stunts. These are political stunts. I mean, this is designed to -- I mean, it's sort of like porn for their base. There's a lot of capital right now in the Democratic Party for getting arrested. In the case of Padilla, who if you handed me $10 million right now if I could pick him out of a lineup, I don't think I could do it. Charging into a press conference, lunging towards a stage. I mean, I'm sorry, but screaming that "I'm a senator, I'm a senator!" I don't know who you are. I still don't know who the guy is.

And so that's not good enough. He's a U.S. senator. If he wanted a meeting with her, he could have had one. And he did get one as soon as it was over with. I find it curious he had a staffer posted up in there to film the whole thing. These are clearly stunts.

The guy who went to lock arms and interfere with the detention of an illegal in New York City, I mean, the energy in the Democratic Party right now is around doing everything they can do to protect the illegal immigrant populations in the United States, which is still baffling to me. But more than anything, more than anything, the theater kids have taken over, and they are desperate to create theater, and that's all it is. It is not serious to try to lunge at the Homeland Security secretary in a press conference and expect any reasonable outcome.

KOH: I was in a government building, a federal government building. He is one of two senators in California. I think Mitch McConnell would be recognized throughout Kentucky. Alex Padilla was in his home state in a federal building.

And the thing that concerned me the most was not necessarily that part, which was already concerning. But when ICE tweeted it, ICE clearly said that he did not identify himself and tweeted a video where he clearly did.

[10:40:01]

What kind of confidence should we have in our government with any communication from the Trump administration going forward? Do you think that was correct?

JENNINGS: Do you think, do you think running into a press conference and lunging at the speaker and saying --

(CROSS TALK)

JENNINGS: -- in this environment is the way you get a communication with the federal government? I mean, it's crazy.

SIDNER: Van?

JONES: I see it differently than you do, but I just want to just lay out a couple things here. The reason that people, and not just the one who was arrested, are escorting immigrants, not illegals, immigrants, into these buildings and out is because the rule-followers, not the gang members, the people who are here on legal status, who have legal status --

SIDNER: Who are going to hearings.

JONES: Who are going to hearings, trying to follow the rules, are themselves getting snatched up and deported in a way that has never happened before. And so if you are trying to follow the rules, if -- and by the way, if the United States normal -- native born population had the same crime rate as the immigrants, we'd be the safest country in the world.

The reason that the Republicans are having such a hard time here is they said two things that don't go together. They said they're going to focus on violent immigrants and they're going to do mass deportations. Well, the problem is the violent immigrant population is very small. And the nannies, the day laborers who are not in any trouble is very big. And so what's happening is people are seeing neighbors, nannies, ordinary people trying to follow the rules and getting snatched. So people are going -- it's not stunts. They're going to try to show help and support.

And then what happens is there are these overreactions from law enforcement and then things get going. But to say that every single person who's escorting immigrants -- I know people who are escorting immigrants. They're not doing it for stunts. They are concerned about people's lives and their well-being.

CUPP: I think, But a lot of things can be true at once. I think the judge, I believe it was in Wisconsin, who tried to obstruct the arrest of an illegal immigrant after he left the courtroom, these are terrible ideas. In some cases, they're illegal ideas. And I think a lot of times they are stunts. And I just know from watching two elections where Donald Trump won, this is not it, Democrats. Let me ask the two Democrats at the table. What's the Democrats' policy on illegal immigration?

JONES: Well, we have two parties. One party wants to --

CUPP: Give me any of them. What is one of them.

JONES: One is open borders, which is nuts. And the other one is comprehensive immigration reform.

CUPP: What does that mean and look like? All I've seen are protests and people trying to obstruct ICE.

SIDNER: They almost had a bill that passed, right? Almost. But then Donald Trump entered, right, on immigration. This was a bipartisan --

CUPP: This was because Joe Biden was behind in the polls by 20 points.

KOH: It was a bipartisan bill --

CUPP: No, I agree. KOH: -- that did not get over the table. And that was the Republicans fault, not the Democrats.

CUPP: I agree that's what happened.

JONES: And the Republicans killed it.

CUPP: But we are six months into a Donald Trump term. We are very close to midterms. I cannot tell you what the Democrats policy on illegal immigration is. That's a problem.

JONES: I live in Los Angeles. I'm watching horrific things happening that if anybody at this table were there, they would raise their hand and say, please don't do that. Little Haiti, which is the safest neighborhood in L.A., is now empty of people going to stores. People are afraid to leave their homes in little Haiti in L.A. because Donald Trump, who said he was going to go after the gang members, is going after the people who are not in gangs. These are --

CUPP: We can say that's bad. And it is.

JONES: And so what I'm saying is, when people are now yelling at Democrats, saying everything you're doing is bad and dumb and stupid, I wonder what it is we're supposed to do in Los Angeles. We're just supposed to sit here and to have policy discussions while our neighbors are being mistreated? I don't think that's right either.

CUPP: No, but charging a cabinet member in a press conference that is not a Q&A, as our own Josh Campbell said on CNN, the legal -- the law enforcement was right to do what they did in that moment. Going into a facility as a mayor when you're not allowed to be there in New Jersey, that's not it either. Being a judge and obstructing justice, isn't it either.

JONES: I can see you're excited about this. I'm less excited about the three or four people who are getting on the news. I'm a lot more concerned about the people who are not on the news.

CUPP: Can, you're missing it. I want Democrats to win. This isn't how they win.

JONES: Hold on a second. They're going to be people who do stuff that looks dumb on television. We can't do anything about that. They're going to be people who are being hurt and harmed. People do need to bear witness for that. And my faith says you have to do that. And they're also going to be policy discussions. These things can happen at the same time.

CUPP: I'm looking for the policy discussions.

KOH: Here's what we need. We need more money for border security. We need more judges to help adjudicate existing asylum claims. And we need to take care of our Dreamers. That should be a universal agreement on both the Democrat and the Republican side. There was a commonsense bill that was proposed with Senator Lankford that President Trump killed. The last thing I want to make a point of. these people wearing masks

-- if you want to build confidence in our system, if you want people to believe in our government, having masked men literally tackle and take away mothers in the middle of the day is not the way to do it.

JENNINGS: Oh, you guys are against masks now. You know, the reason they have to wear them is because some of these violent protesters are trying to take their picture and dox them on the internet and put them in their families in harm's way. Do you agree with that? Because I don't.

[10:45:06]

JONES: I had not heard about that, and which I think we live in kind of different information silos. So I think you may not be as aware of the fact that there are like literally nannies out there with little kids in the neighborhood where I'm raising my family, they're being, the nannies are being snatched away and the babies are being put in police cars for four hours. That's horrible. I didn't know about this doxing, and that's horrible too. So a lot of bad stuff that's happening, the doxing should not be happening. But what's happening is those masks are terrifying people. But I wasn't aware of doxing.

JENNINGS: I don't disagree with you about mask being -- I mean, all the protests that are happening, you know, the free Palestine people now, who have now converted into the pro-Iranian regime people, a lot of them wearing masks out there. We don't seem to be exercised about that.

But in the case of these law enforcement who are being doxed and, I mean, they're only being doxed for one reason, because they want people to come along and do something terrible to them.

JONES: I'm from a law enforcement family, and I'm against that. And by the way, the Urban League is standing up against these mask protesters, too.

SIDNER: All right, next, why did the Trump administration cancel suicide prevention services specifically aimed at LGBTQ youth, a service that is used by over a million people a year who are from the LGBTQ community? We'll discuss.

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[10:00:00]

SIDNER: The Trump administration is ending specialized suicide prevention services for LGBTQ+ youth who call into the Suicide Prevention Hotline. The 988-lifeline will still provide access to crisis counselors for anyone who calls, but in July, it will no longer have specific services to help LGBTQ youth. Since July 2022, more than 14.5 million people have used that 988-lifeline. And of those calls, about 1.3 million were sent to the specialized crisis counselors for LGBTQ youth. And I guess the question is, why do this to a population who has a very long history of having more suicides than the general population? First, you. JENNINGS: Well, a couple of things. Number one, as you pointed out,

the hotline, the 988 service still exists. That's number one. Number two, the only thing happening here is that they're cutting ties with this group, The Trevor Project, which a lot of conservatives have problems with because of the way they handle some of their interactions with youth who call them, and the ideology that they push out. And so --

CUPP: So you're admitting it's political?

JENNINGS: I'm admitting that what they did is cut ties with the Trevor Project and keep the 988 service open so anyone can call that. So I don't see that any services have been cut. They are against this Trevor Project, I guess, that has been operating this particular silo. But you can still call the thing and --

CUPP: But a service is being cut, a specific service where --

JENNINGS: No, you can literally call the 988 hotline.

CUPP: If you're LGBTQ, you don't get then transferred to someone who -- let me finish -- to someone --

JENNINGS: You interrupted me. But go ahead.

CUPP: No, to someone who is --

JENNINGS: That's your favorite thing is to interrupt me and then say I'm interrupting you, but go ahead.

CUPP: No, no, no. Who is a member of the community and can speak to these issues to a group of people who are disenfranchised, in many cases ashamed, and don't feel comfortable talking about their depression, their suicide, their sexuality to their parents, to their friends, to their teachers. This was a lifeline for a very specific group of people who have very few people. If I called in, I could talk to basically anyone. That's true. But this is a group of people who needs a certain kind of advisor and counselor to understand the unique problems that they are confronting. And so this just feels cruel, and, as you said, political.

SIDNER: Is cruelty the point? Is it a feature or a bug?

JONES: Well, look, I don't know. And I would love to know what's wrong with this Trevor Project. Here's what I would say. If there is something wrong with the Trevor Project, they should find a different group to give these young people special help, because it really is the case -- I mean, I grew up in rural west Tennessee on the edge of a small town. Things haven't changed that much. And so I think that if you don't like one service provider, you can find another. When you don't find the other, then it seems like you're just picking on this group.

KOH: This is yet another gut punch to a population that, candidly, has been abandoned by both sides of the aisle these days because it's politically expedient. It speaks to a larger point, though, of these things that Trump is doing that get outshined by some of the bigger news items, things like the personnel director still hasn't submitted his background check, but no one is really paying attention to it. Him talking about phasing out FEMA, or Stephen Miller saying that there may be some conditions of patriotism to the Department of Education dollars that may be going to states. It's a trend from the Trump administration. We should all be concerned about it.

SIDNER: I want to thank you all for being here on this extremely filled news week. And we will see what happens. Everyone is sort of holding their breath, wondering what the decision will be from Donald Trump as to whether he involves the military in the Israel-Iran war. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate it.

And thank you for watching "TABLE FOR FIVE". You can catch Abby every weeknight at 10:00 p.m. eastern with the news night roundtable. But in the meantime, CNN's coverage continues ahead.

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[10:59:42]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to "THE AMANPOUR HOUR." Here's where we're headed this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the Americans decide to get involved militarily, we have no choice but to retaliate.

AMANPOUR: My exclusive conversation with the Iranian deputy foreign minister on how it could respond to U.S. involvement, and still holding out hope for nuclear negotiations once this war is over.