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The Situation Room

Soon, Supreme Court to Release Opinions; Trump and China's Xi Jinping Hold Long-Awaited Phone Call; Videos, Expert Analysis and Witnesses Reveal New Details of Deadly Gaza Aid Incident. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired June 05, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, critical trade talk. President Trump and Chinese leaders Xi Jinping speak on the phone amid an escalating trade war. We're going to bring you all the late breaking developments.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Trump travel ban, which nations are being targeted, the president's reasoning in the country not on the list that's raising eyebrows.

Welcome to 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.

At any moment, the U.S. Supreme Court will announce rulings as it enters the final weeks of a very, very busy term. The remaining opinions are some of the most consequential parental rights, gender affirming care for minors and the power of courts to check the president's policies.

CNN's Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is standing by for us. Paula, we never know the opinions that are about to be released but what are you expecting this morning?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it is the best time of the year, it is Supreme Court decision season, they still have over 30 decisions outstanding. And today we expect to get a handful of those, maybe five or six.

Usually the Supreme Court though leaves its biggest cases to the end of the term, so the last week in June. Those would be cases like the scope of judicial power to check presidential policies. Specifically here, they're looking at that issue in connection to President Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship, also questions about transgender care for minors, also questions about whether you need to present an I.D. to access a pornography in Texas, lots of big interesting questions.

What we don't expect, we'll likely get answers to those until the end of the month. So, we'll see what they give us today. Maybe they'll give us one of those big cases among the half or dozen or so that we'll get today. But as we've seen this term, it hasn't been quite the blockbuster that we saw last year where there were about a dozen cases that really had an impact on the lives of millions and millions of Americans.

What we have seen though this term are a lot of questions related to President Trump's use of executive power going before the conservative super majority on an emergency basis. So, questions about whether he can conduct mass firings, reshape the federal government, and a lot of questions about his power when it comes to immigration.

But none of those questions have been fully briefed and fully argued before the court, but some of those issues could come up over the next few years. But everyone is watching the Supreme Court today. This conservative super majority is such a part of President Trump's legacy. Even though our colleagues are reporting, he is not always happy with even the justices he appointed. We are watching and waiting to see what they decide over the next few minutes and maybe the next hour.

BLITZER: We'll check back with you very soon. Paula Reid, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And let's continue this conversation Wolf. Joining us now is CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor. Elie, what do you expect from the court today?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Pam, we've officially entered the stretch run of the Supreme Court season. In total, they took 62 cases this term that have been fully briefed and argued, but there are still 33 of them left undecided. That's a lot for this time of year because the Supreme Court typically tries to wrap up its calendar by the end of June or early July.

Now, what'll happen is starting right about now, those cases will publish one by one. We don't know how many, as Paula said, usually around five or so. We don't know which ones. They'll come out every five or ten minutes or so.

The three big ones that we're watching for, first of all, in connection with Donald Trump's effort to narrow birthright citizenship, there's a big question about how far can district courts, federal trial courts go to block nationwide presidential imperatives. That's question number one.

Another big case we're watching for relates to a Tennessee state law that prohibits gender affirming care for minors. So, that's another big one we're watching for.

And finally, there's a case about religious freedom out of Maryland, which involves parents who want permission to remove their students from public schools, elementary schools, when there are lessons taught featuring LGBTQ storylines or characters.

And beyond that, Pam, these decisions impact all of us. There are decisions pending about the rights of criminal defendants, about voting rights, about equal discrimination cases in employment context. So, these cases impact all of us, and we will be hitting refresh on our Supreme Court opinion screen every few minutes.

BLITZER: And, Ellie, beyond these cases that which you're mentioning they've been fully briefed and argued, the court also has other cases on the so-called emergency docket, emergency docket.

[10:05:06]

Explain what that is and what we should be watching for.

HONIG: Yes. So, those are cases where we are in a temporary emergency status. And we've seen major rulings already this term coming from that shadow docket, as some people call it.

Now, these are cases that have not been fully briefed and argued in contrast to the other cases, but there's some really big ones. And, by the way, these decisions can drop at any time. We've even seen them drop in the middle of the night in certain instances.

So, the big ones relate, first of all, to Trump's immigration policy. There's a question about whether people can be deported to third countries. And another one I want to highlight that's not yet on the emergency docket but will arrive there soon is the tariff cases. That's still in the lower court. But watch by the end of next week or so, we could be waiting for a tariff decision on the emergency docket as well.

BLITZER: All right. Elie Honig explaining for us, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Breaking news, President Trump finally speaks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The long awaited phone call comes after weeks of escalating trade tensions between the two nations.

So, let's go live now to the White House and CNN's Alayna Treene. Alayna, what are you learning about this call?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Pamela, this is still breaking news and it's actually unclear if they've already finished speaking or are still speaking. We're waiting really to get some more details from the White House. But a source familiar with this conversation said that it is -- it had been begun.

And so this is incredibly significant because this is something we know that Trump administration officials and the president himself personally has been wanting to happen for not only weeks, but months now, this idea of getting on the phone directly with China's President Xi Jinping.

And, of course, many people, and we've heard this now publicly from people like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, but also I'm hearing this in my private conversations with them, they really believe that a leader to leader meeting between Trump and XI is necessary to kind of unlock the current stalemate they are facing between these tariff negotiations with China. Now, of course, a key question, and this is really why we've seen it take so long for this call to happen, is who initiated the call? We've started to see some Chinese state media reports arguing that it was the president, President Donald Trump who had initiated it. Unclear if the White House is actually going to confirm that. But that's really been kind of this game of seeing who would blink first. But, again, we are waiting to get more details.

We will see President Donald Trump publicly today. He is expected to take questions from reporters for the first time this week when he meets with the leader of Germany. So, stay tuned for that.

BROWN: All right, a lot going on there at the White House. President Trump just announced also this new travel ban. The White House says the final call was made after the Boulder attack. That suspect is from Egypt. So, why isn't Egypt part of the ban?

TREENE: Yes, he did say that. He said that that was really what motivated them to move quicker with this ban. But, Pamela, this is actually something that the president and his team has been working on for months now. They had really wanted to revive the travel ban that the president during his first term had imposed. Although I'd note that this goes much farther than that. This band is restricting -- fully restricting nationals from entering the United States from 12 different countries, mainly those across the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. That includes places like Haiti, Iran, Libya, Yemen, among others. And then there's seven countries that are facing partial restrictions for having them enter the United States. Among those are Venezuela and Cuba.

Look, again though there are very important things, including exceptions in this that I think are important to note here. The proclamation includes, quote, exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories and individuals who entries serves U.S. national interest. All to say this is something that we could actually see expanded. We heard the president say this yesterday as well. They are saying that this is necessary due to national security threats that they perceive, and that if they believe other countries are determined to be a national security threat as well, we could see them being added to the list of countries that are barred from having their people come into the United States. So, stay tuned for that.

But I would also note that we saw the president's travel ban during his first term face a series of significant legal challenges, likely to see that again with this one and probably in the coming weeks. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Pamela. A federal judge is now blocking the deportation of Boulder attack suspect's family. Mohamed Soliman's wife and five children were detained this week and were being held in ICE custody. They have not been charged in the attack. The Washington Post reports, their lawyers said they were held without access to representation. In a statement to CNN, the family's lawyer said this, punishing individuals, including children as young as four years old, for the purported actions of their relatives, is a feature of medieval justice systems or police state dictatorships, not democracies, end quote.

[10:10:09]

New this morning, the fight between President Trump and Harvard is clearly escalating, the president signing a proclamation suspending the majority of international visas for new students.

CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood is here with us in The Situation Room. So, what does this proclamation layout?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Two specific things, Wolf. First of all, it puts a halt on all new international students headed to Harvard from entering the country at all. And then the second part of it, the White House is now directing the secretary of state to potentially revoke the visas of international students currently at Harvard based on certain criteria.

So, this is a really drummed up move from the White House. We've seen this back and forth with Harvard. This is a presidential proclamation. So, President Trump using his own presidential authorities to now enter into this battle.

A few things to consider here. The first of which is that Harvard has a student body of 27 percent international students. So, there are many students who could be impacted by this. Harvard, of course, is saying that this is illegal, retaliatory action taken against the university. Of course, there's going to be a legal battle that they will try and fight this with. But the impact could already be undertaken because some students who were coming to the university might decide to go elsewhere.

The other thing to consider here is that when the State Department rolled out a halt on all of the appointments for new student visa appointments in recent weeks, not just for those international students going to Harvard, but for all international students, they said that they were going to be upping their social media vetting. And they said that the pronounced look at students who were going to Harvard, those intense vetting that they were going to be doing of students going to Harvard was going to be the pilot for that.

Well, now if the administration is saying that none of those new students can be coming to Harvard, there are going to be implications for all of those international students who are looking for their visa appointments to get rolling. That process now on halt. So, we'll watch to see how this plays out.

BLITZER: Very significant development. Kylie, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, very busy day. Still ahead, held over a 17-storey balcony. That's what the latest witness on the stand says Sean Diddy Combs did to her. More on her testimony and what we can expect from today in court.

BLITZER: And there's more news we're following up next. Gaza and the question of what happened in a shooting that killed what Palestinian Health Ministry officials and doctors there say were at least 31 people. What 17 eyewitnesses told us, and what video, audio, and ballistics evidence reveals.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[10:15:00]

BROWN: Breaking news, the Supreme Court is releasing opinions. I want to go straight to CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid. What are you learning, Paula?

REID: All right, Pam. We've already gotten four decisions from the court, and among them is one of the big ones we have been watching. This is a unanimous opinion that will make it easier to file so-called reverse discrimination claims here in the U.S.

Now, here, the Supreme Court sided with a straight woman in Ohio. She filed a reverse discrimination lawsuit against her employer when her gay boss declined to promote her and instead promoted another gay individual.

Now, this is mostly about the bar that members of majority groups, so in this case, a straight white woman, need to meet in order to file these kinds of claims. And here, in a unanimous opinion, they have sided with this woman. So, she will, it appears, be allowed to continue to proceed with this.

And as you know, diversity, equity and inclusion, this is something that has been really politicized. During the Trump administration, which is one of the many reasons that we have been watching this particular case so closely.

Now, we have gotten a few other opinions, not necessarily blockbusters, but, for example, the Supreme Court shut down the Mexican government's lawsuit against American gun makers over violence at the border. I mean, this shields the companies from a suit that could have claimed billions of dollars potentially in damages.

And just a moment ago, we haven't even gotten through the whole opinion. We learned that the Supreme Court sided with Catholic charities as they fight to not have to pay certain types of taxes. So, we are expected to get about five or six opinions so far, but definitely notable that we got this discrimination opinion because this has been one of the big ones that we've been watching this term.

BROWN: All right. Paula Reid, busy day for you, thanks for bringing us the latest.

And now to the Middle East, a controversial aid operation reopened two of its sites in Southern Gaza today after a long hiatus, a day after a long hiatus. The U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says aid distribution was completed within an hour. Yesterday's pause followed three straight days of Palestinians coming under deadly gunfire on their way to a food distribution site.

The GHF said it would use the time to focus on logistical work to better handle the massive number of Palestinians seeking food. Also the foundation said to give Israeli forces the opportunity to make, quote, preparations on the access routes to the centers.

BLITZER: And as you know, Pamela, the first shooting was on Sunday. Palestinian Health Ministry and hospital officials say at least 31 people were killed. Israel has said no one was killed at or near the distribution site.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has new expert analysis of the sound video and eyewitness accounts of what happened. Here's his exclusive report.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Palestinians take cover as pulses of automatic gunfire crackle overhead. Others try and crawl to safety as explosions ring out.

For several hours on Sunday, this was the terrifying reality hungry Gazans faced as they tried to reach an American-backed humanitarian aid site in Southern Gaza, I can up.

We are bringing our food drenched in blood. We are dying to get food, Amin Khalifa (ph) says, amid a hail of gunfire.

The aftermath is grizzly. Bullet riddled bodies lie scattered on the beach as others emerge carrying sacks of aid these men died trying to get. Health officials and doctors report at least 31 were killed.

17 eyewitnesses told CNN it was the Israeli military that opened fire on the crowd. A CNN analysis of video from the scene, audio of gunfire and ballistics evidence all point to the Israeli military.

In Gaza, more families made to mourn. They lure us in just to kill us there, this man says. What's happening is wrong. Wrong. Why? Why are they doing this? We go there just to get our daily bread and they kill us.

In the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, masses of Palestinians began trekking down Al-Rasheed Street, hoping to be among the first to reach the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation site in Tel Al-Sultan before limited aid supplies run dry.

But as they reach the Al-Alam roundabout, a hail of gunfire forces people to the ground. Eyewitnesses say much of the gunfire came from tank mounted machine guns.

We asked a forensic audio expert to analyze the gunfire in that video, and this analysis shows bursts of gunfire at a rate of 15 rounds per second. Weapons experts say that's consistent with the F.N. MAG, a machine gun used by the Israeli military and commonly mounted on Israeli tanks.

Those experts say that rate of fire also appears to rule out weapons used commonly by Hamas. And then you have bullets like this one, which doctors at Nasser Hospital pulled from the bodies of the dead and the wounded. Weapons experts also say this bullet is consistent with the F.N. MAG.

The Israeli military said they did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the aid site. But that statement is misleading. An Israeli military official acknowledged Israeli troops did fire toward people about one kilometer away from the aid site. The Al-Alam roundabout where people were killed is also about one kilometer away from the site.

This entire area with an Israeli military base right here is under Israeli control. This post warns the Israeli military would be active in the area at the time of the shooting. It's from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates the aid site and closely coordinates with the IDF, alerting Palestinians that using the passage before 5:00 A.M. is prohibited. But they posted it at 4:00 A.M., as people were already being fired upon.

Eyewitnesses described volleys of Israeli military gunfire from snipers, tanks and drones beginning as early as 3:00 A.M. on Sunday. More were shot at 4:30 A.M. Others described being shot as late as 6:30 in the morning.

They were shooting directly at us everywhere, this man says, from the sea, from snipers and from all directions.

Four people were injured and one was immediately killed. I tried to stand up and escape or go back, but I was hit in my left side.

I've seen a lot of soldiers in this war. When they want to clear an area or warn you, they shoot around you. But yesterday they were shooting to kill us.

At Nasser Hospital, fear and pain are still etched across the face of 13-year-old Yazid (ph) Musleh, who was wounded by gunfire from a tank his father and brother say was stationed near the aid site.

I saw the tank from afar, Ihab says. He was standing, waving his hands to the tank. And within seconds, gunfire was directed at him and he was lying on the ground.

Two days later, despite the dangers, tens of thousands of Palestinians continued to stream towards that same aid site, a testament to the hunger and desperation, still gripping so many.

And once again, in the early hours of Tuesday, dozens were killed en route. This time the Israeli military acknowledging it fired warning shots, and then opened fire, claiming suspects advanced towards troops in a threatening manner.

[10:25:00]

The military said it was looking into reports of casualties. It need look no further than this boy crying out over his mother's body, begging her to wake up.

Today, she went to get aid. She went to get aid to feed us, he cries, and this is what they do to us? The Americans said, come to the safe area to get your aid. Who should trust them?

As for Amin Khalifa, the man who documented Sunday's gunfire, his quest for survival ended abruptly on Tuesday. He was killed while trying to reach that aid site once again. He was 30 years old.

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DIAMOND (voice over): The Israeli military declined to answer questions related to our findings, but as recently as Tuesday, the Israeli military's top spokesman, General Effie Defrin, categorically denied that the Israeli military opened fire on Sunday, saying it, quote, simply didn't happen.

But after a week during which more than 60 people were killed while trying to make it to that aid site, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation now says it is having conversations with the Israeli military to, quote, support civilian safety. Among them, a spokesman tells me that they are asking the Israeli military to, quote, enhance force training and refine internal IDF procedures.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

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