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Suspect In Colorado Flamethrower Attack Due In Court Today; Palestinian Officials: Israeli Forces Killed Dozens At Aid Site; New MAHA Film Takes Aim At Ultra-Processed Foods, Fluoride, Seed Oils And Pesticides. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 02, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And the next hour of The Situation Room starts right now.

Happening now, shock and condemnation after a man set people on fire at a Jewish community event in Colorado. In just hours, the suspect will appear in court.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

BROWN: This just in to CNN, police have just released the mugshot of the suspect in a horrific attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado.

Police say a man shouting, free Palestine, used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack people gathered at an event calling for the release of the hostages in Gaza.

BLITZER: And among them, we're learning there was a Holocaust survivor among the eight victims. And video into CNN this morning shows first responders treating one of the victims right at the scene.

BROWN: Joining us now is CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. So, John, Homeland Security is saying the suspect was in the country illegally. What are you learning about how the suspect executed this attack and what we know about his immigration history?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, we've been talking to multiple law enforcement officials as well as witness statements. And what it puts together is a picture of the suspect arriving at the scene around 1 o'clock, about half an hour before the attack, working in that garden area outside the old courthouse, basically posing as a landscaper.

As the marchers got closer, this is when he wields this what authorities are calling a makeshift flamethrower. I think we can go to the pictures here of this device. You see he's got the two Molotov cocktails in his hand. But behind him, next to a tree, there is a device that looks like a garden sprayer or a weed sprayer. That's that white item that's against the tree. This is something he was carrying or wearing and then using to spray gasoline from inside by holding a -- a -- a lighter or -- or flame source in front of it. And that's how it had this flamethrower effect on people. Then he allegedly threw the two Molotov cocktails, spilling more gasoline and flame in that area, and -- and then started to actually ignite his own clothing.

So he took off the shirt. He took off a utility vest he was wearing. There you see against the tree what we believe to be the weed sprayer that he was using as the improvised flamethrower.

Investigators tell CNN that they believe that he came into town, stopped at multiple gas stations on his way to this event, getting gasoline to fill the weed sprayer and the 18, let's underline that, the 18 Molotov cocktails that they say he brought with him that were found near where you see this video.

So what we are starting to see is a picture of a well-planned attack, one that was based on a scheduled event, which it is entirely likely he had either studied online or perhaps even watched in person before, that he showed up this week well in advance where he knew they would be going by, and that he came equipped with basically the supplies he had created to carry out this act of terror.

BROWN: All right, John Miller, thank you. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. I want to continue this conversation right now with Rabbi Fred Greene, who's joining us right now. He's with Congregation Har HaShem in Boulder, Colorado. Rabbi, thanks so much for joining us. Our hearts go out to you and to everyone in the community. First of all, what are you hearing from your congregation today from members of your congregation?

RABBI FRED GREENE, CONGREGATION HAR HASHEM: My congregants feel wounded. They feel enraged and vulnerable and sad, all of the above. There's -- there's a lot of hurt.

BLITZER: I assume it's a relatively small Jewish community in Boulder, Colorado. Was there anything leading up to this that caused you concern, Rabbi?

GREENE: I think the rhetoric that we hear for months and months has been something of concern for all of us. Hearing people talk about a globalized Intifada and to think that bringing violence to America's Jewish community is going to help the dignity and save lives of Palestinians is ridiculous and harmful. And these are the results, the attack in Washington, D.C. on two young lovely people.

[11:05:06]

What happened here in our local community in Boulder, it's shameful. And I think people really need to have a sense of accountability. If we want peace, if we want dignity for people, there have to be other ways than this.

BLITZER: I know, Rabbi, you signed a joint statement with others about this horrific attack. And it reads in part this, and I'm quoting now, when events like this enter our own community, we are shaken. Our hope is that we come together for one another. Rabbi, how do you take the community's resilience right now and use it to pull people together?

GREENE: I believe in the power of accompanying people. We have to show up for one another. We have to figure out who's feeling vulnerable and who's feeling angry and respond to them. And we've gone through a lot of trials and tribulations as a people through history.

So this is another sad opportunity of coming together and making sure that we do have resilience, especially on this holy day, something that marks our Jewish calendar. It's supposed to be joyful and bringing people together, receiving Torah and Jewish tradition. But now we have to live lives of Torah and take care of one another, build that resilience and always strive for hope.

BLITZER: Yes. Today is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which is supposed to be a happy occasion, clearly not a very happy occasion on this day. The attack happened at a weekly event calling for the release of the hostages from Gaza. Do you expect that event will continue to take place this coming weekend?

GREENE: Honestly, I don't know what the planners are figuring out in terms of the national movement. But for me, I hope we show up. I hope we find a way to continue to come together, let people know that those hostages are still there. It was a humanitarian effort.

People always walking peacefully, just trying to remind people that there are still hostages. And we want them to come home. We want them to be reunited with their families. This should have never have happened. So I do hope that we figure out how to come together as soon as possible. Well, good luck to you. Good luck to all the people in Boulder, Colorado. Rabbi Fred Greene, thank you so much for joining us.

GREENE: Thank you. Pamela?

BROWN: Still ahead right here in The Situation Room, chaos at a U.S.- backed aid distribution site in Gaza. Dozens of people reported killed and many more injured by gunfire. And accusations are flying over who is responsible.

[11:08:02]

And from the margins to MAGA, a Situation Room special report on the anti-democracy blogger who says he's influencing people around President Trump. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Palestinian Health Ministry now says dozens of people are dead and many more injured. And the officials in Gaza claiming Israeli troops gunned down the victims at an aid distribution site. A quick warning to our viewers, what you're about to see is graphic. Video obtained by CNN of the incidents on Sunday. Take a look at this. It shows bodies being rushed away as the chaos unfolded. The IDF denies firing anywhere near the aid site. We're joined now by Arwa Damon. She's a former CNN senior correspondent and is the founder and president of the International Network for Aid, Relief, and Assistance. INARA, as it's called. Arwa, thanks so much for joining us.

There are many eyewitnesses who say it was Israel who fired on these Palestinians, but Israel denies it. What are you learning?

ARWA DAMON, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, INTL. NETWORK FOR AID, RELIEF AND ASSISTANCE: Well, look, it wouldn't necessarily be the first time that Israel denies something or tries to sort of fudge the details to -- to try to push forward its own narrative.

What we've been hearing from people on the ground is that this seems like it took place overnight. And we need to remember that accessing these hubs that have been set up by this Gaza humanitarian foundation that is backed by the U.S. and Israel is extremely difficult. And it takes people hours to actually walk to get there.

So if the distribution is set for the morning, as they quite often are, people will start walking in the middle of the night to try to secure a spot. And it does seem as if this all unfolded roughly a kilometer, you know, so less than a mile away from where the actual physical distribution itself was taking place.

But that doesn't mean that these were not people who were trying to actually access this distribution site. And if you speak to, you know, doctors and medics who arrived at the scene, it's all gunshot wounds. Multiple witnesses were describing how a quadcopter fired on them, how there were soldiers who had sort of positioned themselves on top of cranes who were firing into the crowd.

So there's a lot of eyewitnesses providing a significant amount of detail at this stage. But Wolf, this really underscores exactly why the humanitarian community is saying that these hubs don't work. This is not how you distribute humanitarian assistance to more than 2 million starving people.

BLITZER: There have been several incidents, Arwa, as you know, of violence at these aid sites. So help us better understand the role this U.S.-backed distribution operation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is actually playing in getting food and supplies into the hands of the Palestinians.

[11:15:09]

DAMON: Wolf, this is largely viewed by the humanitarian community as being a flawed attempt to try to divert from the large-scale starvation with the vast majority of the population being described as being on the brink of famine, quite simply because if you look at this logically from a humanitarian or any other perspective, it doesn't make sense, Wolf.

The United Nations on its own operates 400 distribution sites. And the reason why you have so many distribution sites is to prevent large crowds from gathering and to be able to get aid actually into the hands of the people. This Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has gone in, you know, set up four sites and somehow expects that there is not going to be complete and total chaos when people who are starving, remember, people are hungry.

Their children are crying out in agony for food. Of course, they're going to do anything possible to try to get their hands onto any sort of a food parcel. And this is exactly why we as the humanitarian community keep saying, let us do our job. The whole sort of logic that was established, you know, by Israel and the U.S. that allegedly dictated the necessity of these, you know, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation hubs is this false narrative that Hamas controls the aid. And that is absolutely absurd, Wolf.

Hamas does not control the aid. And you have organizations, let's set the United Nations and UNRWA aside for a second, but you have organizations like the World Central Kitchen, who has the capacity to feed hundreds of thousands of Gazans a day, who also is not being permitted to bring in its supplies.

BLITZER: Because, as you know, Israel says that Hamas was stealing the -- a lot of the aid coming in through these international organizations and selling that aid, making money and using that money to engage in terrorism against Israel. What -- what are you hearing from your -- your side? And you've been to Gaza now several times during the course of this war. You're still a very courageous person, as we all know and remember when you worked here at CNN. What are you hearing about that?

DAMON: Look, Hamas is not stealing the aid, Wolf. The aid ends up in our warehouses when we're able to get it past, you know, these criminal gangs that actually operate inside areas that are under full control of the Israeli forces.

And even if, Wolf, let's go along with this false narrative. Let's say Hamas is stealing the aid and selling it on the market and making millions. What is the one logical way to prevent Hamas from financially benefiting from humanitarian assistance? It is to flood the zone with aid so that aid no longer has a value on the market.

The only reason why aid even has a value on the market, why a can of peas costs, you know, $10, why a bag of flour costs $600, is because of this deliberate situation that has been manufactured by Israel. It's a situation of scarcity. So if the intent was truly to prevent Hamas from financially benefiting from the aid, one would have to argue, flood the zone.

Exactly like what we saw happening during the ceasefire when we were able to properly and humanely distribute assistance to the people.

BLITZER: All right, Arwa, I want you to stay safe over there if you go back into Gaza. Thanks so much for all the humanitarian work that you and your organization are doing. Appreciate it very much.

BROWN: I concur with that. All right, a new MAHA film, MAHA is, of course, Make America Healthy Again, it's exploring America's rise in chronic diseases. Toxic Nation takes aim at ultra-processed foods, seed oils, herbicides and pesticides, and fluoride, blaming them for chronic diseases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has to be an environmental exposure problem, and Robert Kennedy Jr. is going to put all of those exposures, the ones we eat, the ones we breathe, the ones we drink, we're going to put it out there and say, let the chips fall where they may.

And on top of that, take all the databases we're going to use to study and make them available to everyone in the public so all the scientists from around the world can check that science, can run it themselves, and see if it can be repeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, this film is an extension of the push by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to overhaul federal policy on food and chemicals to try to combat chronic diseases.

Six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, such as heart disease, cancer or obesity. But this push also comes as HHS is facing major cuts. A recently released proposal would slash the department's budget by nearly 40 percent.

[11:19:58]

Over the weekend, that document was removed from the HHS website. Joining us now to discuss Ken Cook, the president of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit focused on environmental health concerns. I do want to note that while RFK Jr.'s nonprofit MAHA Action is an advocacy partner for this film, the documentary was not released by the federal government. But can -- can HHS have it both ways, combating chronic diseases while also making these major cuts?

KEN COOK, PRESIDENT, ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP: Well, you've put your finger on a really important problem here. You know, Kennedy, when he campaigned for the election of Donald Trump, no one really imagined that there would be these deep cuts. But there are other concerns as well. I mean, can you have, in a Trump administration, the kind of focus on public health that Kennedy is calling for, specifically on pesticides, fluoride and these other issues? Will that really become a reality?

Secondly, there's a lot going on elsewhere in the Trump administration that is damaging human health and children's health, much of it outside of Kennedy's jurisdiction. But when you elect President Trump and you have the experience and the background that Bobby Kennedy has, you have to know that this is going to be a context where most of the emphasis will be on deregulation, reducing protections for toxic chemicals in health, reducing protections for pesticides in our food, our air, our water, on and on. So it -- it really is the question, and I think right now is, A, can these issues be pursued effectively during the Trump administration? So far, no real action. And secondly --

BROWN: Go ahead.

COOK: -- how does it offset the rest of what's going on?

BROWN: Just to follow up with something you said, Ken, you said there are things happening outside of this that are harming children's health. What do you mean by that specifically?

COOK: Well, the -- the deregulatory agenda at EPA, for example. If you're concerned about pesticides, you'd be concerned, I think, that EPA is opening the door to having federal law preempt state laws, which in many cases are much more protective of people when it comes to pesticides.

You'd be concerned about these forever chemicals in our drinking water that EPA has just postponed regulation of by two or three years. And in some cases, they've completely eliminated, for some classes of these forever chemicals, the regulations pretty much altogether. Same with a number of pesticide issues.

So these things are happening elsewhere in the government. Energy decisions being made to keep coal-fired power plants online, even though utilities don't want the power -- the coal plants burning online and the customers don't want it, it's going to cost more money. The Trump administration is intervening.

So you have all this pressure to relax environmental protection in the context of what Secretary Kennedy is trying to accomplish. I want to go back to this film because it is shining a light on what is clearly an issue in America. You know, there are -- there are so many health issues, right? And this poll from March finds that only 30 percent of Americans have at least a fair amount of trust in health topics from RFK Jr. You know, so what gives here?

COOK: Well, I personally and my organization, we agree with Kennedy on a lot of these issues. Ultra-processed food is a really serious issue. All the ingredients that are added by food companies that they self- approve without really any regulatory scrutiny, that's a concern. The lack of the nutritional quality of the food against all the calories you're taking in and the salt and the sugar, these are real concerns.

Fluoride in drinking water, we've taken the position over the years that we should be focused on getting people to brush their teeth. That's the most effective way to apply fluoride to deal with dental issues, not fluoridate water. We made the same mistake that I think Kennedy's making now. He needs to talk more about what's going to happen if we remove fluoride to all those kids out there who don't have good dental care.

So there's all kinds of ways in which I think what he's saying is right. We certainly need to do something about pesticides. We've been campaigning on that for years. We have a petition in front of EPA today where they could eliminate most of the dietary exposure to glyphosate, the chemical that is the focus of this documentary. Can he do it? That's outside his purview. It's at EPA.

And from what we have heard him say, he's not going to do anything to disrupt the business model around this chemical called glyphosate. So I think he's coming into a pressure cooker. We're out of the realm of videos and YouTube and Instagram now. He's a policymaker, and he's surrounded by policymakers. In a Trump administration, can you actually regulate? And my concern is that he's not going to be able to do it.

[11:25:15]

BROWN: All right, Ken Cook, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

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[11:29:44]

BLITZER: Now to a Situation Room special report. Curtis Yarvin is a blogger who's been a fixture of right wing circles around Silicon Valley. The computer engineer turned political theorist wants to see American democracy replaced by a monarchy led by a CEO. And now Yarvin has the ear of some of Washington's most powerful people. CNN's Hadas Gold has more.