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Curfew Expires in Downtown L.A. Following Fifth Night of Protests; Trump Says, Trade With China is Done, Relationship Excellent; Musk Says, I Regret Some of My Posts About President Trump. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 11, 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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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, quote, went too far. Elon Musk now regretting some of his posts about President Trump. What the president just said about where their relationship stands now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Clash in California, protesters and police in the streets for a fifth night. This as Governor Gavin Newsom pushes a warning about the president's military intervention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: 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.

We started in Los Angeles, where just last hour, the emergency curfew in the nation's second largest city was lifted following a fifth night of protest. The Los Angeles Times reporting that 25 people have been arrested for violating that curfew, which impacts about one square mile of the city. Mayor Karen Bath says it could last several more nights, as President Trump insists the U.S. military will remain in the city, quote, until there's peace.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Stephanie Elam. She's on the ground for us in L.A. Stephanie, what are you seeing this morning?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf rush hour is underway as it would normally be at this hour. The difference is, though, you can still see that we have highway Patrol blocking off some of the entrance and exits to the 101 Freeway, which runs through downtown L.A. And this is where we've seen a lot of the skirmishes over the last few days. Even yesterday, in the afternoon, protesters managed to shut down the 101 here. And overall, looking at the number of arrests, there's been more than 200 arrests just yesterday. And it is above 400. I think, since we've started these protests and since we've seen some of this violence that has occurred. We do know about two dozen buildings and businesses have been looted during this.

And this is where you're hearing that they do not want to see any more of this. You're hearing that from local leadership, and you're also hearing it from California Governor Gavin Newsom. In fact, take a listen to what he said about this.

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NEWSOM: If you incite violence -- I want to be clear about this. If you incite violence or destroy our communities, you are going to be held to account. That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated, full stop.

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ELAM: And it's worth keeping in mind that this one square mile in downtown L.A. is a very small subset of the entire L.A. area and downtown as well. So, coming in here, it wasn't like most of downtown is barricaded off, but it was definitely clear that the streets were shut down. And there're still a lot of signs that yesterday did get a bit more of scuffles between the protesters as these rubber bullets are just throughout the streets. I've just been collecting them here. As you can see that they have been, you know, fighting with these protesters earlier in the day, during the afternoon, and then carrying into the evening, and that is something that was a little bit different, seeing that starting earlier in the day, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Stephanie Elam, I want you to stay safe over there, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And new this morning, Wolf, a big announcement from President Trump, saying a trade deal with China has finally been reached and the relationship between the two nations is, quote, excellent.

Let's go live now to New York and CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. Big develop here, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, significant development and coming from the president this morning confirming that U.S. and Chinese trade officials have worked out a framework. He posted on Truth Social this morning saying the deal is done, indicating that he expects that China is going to continue to increase the flow of rare earth minerals and magnets. And the U.S. is going to continue to include Chinese students in its universities and in its colleges.

He did reiterate though that the tariff rate was going to stay the same. You see 55 percent and 10 percent there. He's saying 55 percent because he's stacking all of the different tariffs that are on Chinese exports right now.

[10:05:03]

But this was a critical meeting, Pam. Because about a month ago, essentially, what's laid out in this framework by the president was agreed to in Geneva, but things sort of got off the rails and tensions started to escalate with China stemming the flow of these key rare earth minerals, making everything from cars to airplanes. And China really controls about 90 percent or more of the refining capacity of these rare earth minerals that the U.S. critically relies on. And in turn, the U.S. said that it was going to revoke a lot of the Chinese student visas that initially America had agreed to.

So, essentially, this framework is just really solidifying what was agreed to a month ago. No concessions though, Pam, on those higher tariff rates that we're still seeing, 30 percent in upwards on Chinese exports, and that 10 percent tariff rate on U.S. exports. This is something that obviously businesses were trying to pay attention to, seeing if there would be any breaks on that, but it doesn't look like it as of now the information that we're getting from the president.

BROWN: And given all the tariffs, we've been wondering what the inflation numbers are. They're just out this morning. Break it down for us.

YURKEVICH: Better than expected. Again, Pamela, we're seeing in the month of May inflation rising about 0.1 percent month over month. That is a deceleration from the previous month. And on an annual basis, inflation rising 2.4 percent, that is better than economists expected. And, of course, this is in the face of all of this tariff uncertainty really leading the way in terms of the decline in inflation on a monthly basis was energy prices coming down 1 percent, and that was led by gas prices dropping 2.6 percent.

Food, though, accelerating a little bit, especially food at home, which is the category of what you would buy at the grocery store, rising 0.3 percent, and shelter, that is what you pay for rent, that made up really the overall monthly increase that we saw.

But we want to pay attention to certain key category items a little more in the details. This could be the sign of the trade war playing out. You have appliances, car parts. Those are key categories along with tools that we've been seeing an increase. Appliances had been decreasing in price for about four years. In the last two months, we've seen that increase, 0.8 percent. Car parts, as we know, they have a 25 percent tariff on them, 0.9 percent in tools, 1.1 percent.

But economists are still saying this is really the calm before the storm. It's going to take a little while for these tariffs to get ingrained into the economy, but at face value, Pamela a, a really strong inflation report in the month of May.

BROWN: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Pamela. Happening now, a federal appeals court is hearing arguments in President Trump's New York hush money case. Last year, he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The appeal is one of the first major tests of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision on presidential immunity.

Joining us now, CNN's Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid. Paula, what are the two sides' main arguments?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This is really interesting Wolf. This is President Trump's most recent attempt to toss out his conviction from last year. And here, they're trying to move this case to federal court because they believe if they can do that, then they can use the Supreme Court's landmark immunity ruling to try to have it overturned. Because not only does that immunity ruling say you can't prosecute a president, former president for official acts, you also can't use official acts as evidence to support other charges.

So, here, they would argue that some of the evidence that came in, conversations he had with Hope Hicks and other White House advisers, that those should be tossed and that that would completely undermine the conviction.

The prosecutors are saying, no, no, no, this is too late. Like you've been convicted, you've been sentenced. You can't do this at this juncture. They also argue that even if you think that these conversations should be tossed out under the Supreme Court's ruling, these do not qualify as official acts.

So, most legal experts think this is a long shot bid, but President Trump does have a lot of other options in terms of his appeals that could potentially be successful. And he is not expected to be in court today. Of course, he is, you know, the president now, so he's not showing up to these hearings, which, of course, we know they've been very aggressive in trying to fight this case from the moment he was indicted.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. All right, Paula, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. New this morning, the world's richest man walks back some of his recent social media attacks on the president, quote, I regret some of my posts about President Donald Trump last week. They went too far, end quote.

A close alliance of the two men unraveled last week when Musk called Trump's signature spending bill, quote, a disgusting abomination. And he also shared on X an X post calling for the president to be impeached.

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And Musk even claimed without evidence that Trump's name appears in the files of convicted pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.

Let's go live now to CNN's Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak. It's interesting, Kevin, that Elon didn't point out specifically which tweets he regretted, but how is the president receiving this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. The president, the White House, have all made pretty clear, that they're ready to move on from Elon Musk. They don't seem particularly interested in dwelling on this feud between these two men.

This was a relatively terse expression of remorse from Musk. As you said, he didn't really say what specifically he regretted, whether it was implicitly calling for Trump's impeachment, whether it was tying him to the world's most notorious pedophile. There were some signs that this thaw was coming. Musk has backed up the president's actions in Los Angeles. Even Musk's own father said that his son had made a mistake in picking this fight with Trump.

Now, Trump himself does not appear all that interested in reconciliation. Listen to what he said in a podcast this week.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened with Elon? Is there anything that you can do that to forgive him? Could you see that happening?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, look, I have no hard feelings. You know, I was really surprised that that happened. He went after the bill that's phenomenal. It's the best thing we've ever signed in this country. And that's phase one, phase two, phase three, all of a sudden, as you know, it all comes together. It's coming together so well. And when he did that, I was not a happy camper. So, it was too bad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said he had problems. What kind of problems? I mean, is it the drugs?

TRUMP: I don't know what his problem is, really. I don't know. I haven't thought too much about him in the last little while.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, the president stopping short there of expressing any regret for this feud, but still taking a somewhat softer tone. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Kevin Liptak, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: We have some new CNN reporting this morning, Pamela, in the days surrounding President Trump's trade war announcements, a new CNN analysis reveals there was a spike in lawmakers' stock market transactions, raising questions potentially about whether lawmakers can and should play the markets.

CNN Senior Reporter Annie Grayer is joining us from Capitol Hill right now. Annie, excellent reporting. What did we learn from these financial filings?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Wolf, we went through all of the filings that lawmakers make about trades that they make, their spouses make are made by a third party financial adviser, and found significant spikes in their stock trading activity.

So, if you were to look from March 31st, which is two days before Trump's tariffs went into effect through April 9th, the day of his pause, we saw 35 lawmakers making trades. It's a pretty bipartisan group there.

Now, lawmakers only have to report a range of their trades. So, they bought into the market somewhere between $8 and over $27 million, sold somewhere between $5 and $22 million worth of stocks.

Now, looking at April 8th specifically, the day before the pause went into effect, when the market was extremely volatile and there was little known about what Trump's plans were going to be, 11 lawmakers were making trades in the stock market, again, a pretty bipartisan group.

So, this activity, Wolf, has just put a spotlight on an issue that has long loomed over Congress, which is can lawmakers buy into the stock market and enriched themselves without there being questions about their access to information? The lawmakers who I spoke to for this story said they weren't involved in their trades, that it was made either by a spouse or a financial adviser, but the legal experts and scholars who I spoke to say that this practice really does raise concerns.

And very rarely, rarely, Wolf, do you see President Trump House Speaker Mike Johnson and the top Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, all agree on an issue. This is something that they think needs to be banned.

So, we have a bipartisan group of lawmakers growing to ban this effort while there's this bipartisan group who continues to partake in it, a very rare dynamic here on Capitol Hill.

BROWN: Excellent reporting, as I said. Annie Grayer, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And coming up next, Wolf, we will be joined by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen about the escalating legal battle involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his return to the U.S.

You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: This Friday, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the wrongly deported Maryland man at the center of an escalating battle between the Trump administration and the courts, is set to be arraigned on charges of human smuggling. But the Justice Department says his, quote, newfound prominence is a reason to keep him behind bars.

Prosecutors are arguing against releasing Abrego Garcia from a Tennessee jail where he's been held since being returned to the U.S. last week, claiming, misguided strangers could help him evade prosecution.

I want to discuss more now with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He flew to El Salvador in April to meet with Abrego Garcia. Hi, Senator. Thank you for being here.

First off, have you been in touch with Abrego Garcia since his return to the U.S.?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): It's great to be with you. The answer is no. I've not been in touch with him. I have been in touch with his wife, Jennifer, who, for the first time, was able to talk to him, for the first time since he was taken off the streets of Maryland and sent to the Gulag in El Salvador.

BROWN: What else did she tell you?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I mean, she is glad that he is back on U.S. soil. Remember, President Trump of the Trump administration said he would never set foot back on U.S soil. I have said from the beginning this is about making sure we protect his constitutional right to due process.

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It's not about the man, Abrego Garcia, it's about those rights, because if you trample on his rights, you do threaten the rights of everybody who lives in the United States.

So, he is now in a court of law. He will be entitled to due process. And that's important, especially in light of the fact we had a 9-0 Supreme Court decision saying that the Trump administration had to facilitate his return, an order they had been flouting for a very long time.

BROWN: The government, as you know, alleges Abrego Garcia and members of the MS-13 gang, quote, knowingly and unlawfully transported thousands of undocumented aliens, quote/end quote, for profit over a nine-year period. They claim Abrego Garcia himself transported approximately 50 undocumented people throughout the U.S. How concerning are those allegations to you?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, these are new charges and the administration needs to bring them as they finally are in a court of law. They did not bring these charges previously. My fight from the beginning has been to make sure that his rights are respected. Again, we should all care about adherence to the Constitution of the United States.

I will leave it to his lawyers and the judge to deal with the specific charges. I will say it's important to distinguish between what the attorney general of the United States and others say from the podium or in social media versus what they're actually charging him with in this particular court.

BROWN: As you sort of laid out there, Abrego Garcia's, deportation to El Salvador really has become a lightning rod for both Democrats and Republicans. And as you just argued, you know, for Democrats, it's been a battle overdue process. You went to El Salvador to make that case.

But I'm curious, do you think that argument resonated with the American public? A majority of which a recent CBS poll shows approve of the administration's priority on deporting immigrants here illegally.

VAN HOLLEN: Actually, no, I don't have to guess about this when it comes to the Abrego Garcia case, because there was immediate polling and surveys were taken, and it showed that the majority of Americans and across the political spectrum believe that we should uphold the constitutional right to due process.

I think people can distinguish between the importance of protecting the right to due process and how that impacts all of us, and the question of making charges stick in a court. After all, courts are where we make sure that we punish those who have committed criminal actions. And there are also places where people who are not liable are able to make their case.

You know, President Trump should understand the importance of due process. He has been indicted over four times. He's been convicted in a court of law. So, you would think that the president of the United States would understand and respect the right to due process, something he clearly does not.

BROWN: I want to ask you about his immigration crackdown that is spanning protests across the country, particularly in Los Angeles. California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has gone right at Trump for calling in the National Guard, saying the president's actions are a, quote, unmistakable step toward authoritarianism. He said, the time of no checks and balances are gone. Those are really strong words. Do you agree with that? Or the time of checks and balances are gone, I should say. Go ahead.

VAN HOLLEN: I do agree with the governor and let's just establish a couple things. Number one, violence has no place in America. People are entitled to peacefully protest. The local and state law enforcement officials were on the ground to deal with those who were committing violence and engaged in any criminal activity. And what Donald Trump did was simply pour gas on the fire. They made a hard situation even harder. They are putting more people's lives at risk, not less.

And so the governor's absolutely right, that what Donald Trump wants is the political spectacle. And I think all Americans, again, regardless of parties, should be worried about the idea of deploying, for example, Marines who may become engaged in local law enforcement. We have a clear line legally and historically of keeping that separation.

BROWN: Democrats, as you know, have struggled to find their footing in Trump's second term. Do you think Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, is meeting this moment and providing a blueprint for Democrats?

VAN HOLLEN: Look, I'm not going to get into the future of Democratic politics. Again, I think we need to stand on --

BROWN: Do you think he's meeting the moment here? [10:25:00]

Do you think he's handling this --

VAN HOLLEN: Oh, I do. I think Governor Newsom is stepping up to meet the moment. I support the actions that he's taking, because he's pointing out that the president of the United States is abusing his office in the sense that he is throwing gasoline on the fire when presidents should be trying to deescalate the situation.

Again, local and state law enforcement authorities can hold accountable those who are committing violence and breaking the law. That is their job. What the president has done is tried to exploit this moment politically and in the process putting more people's lives at risk.

BROWN: Senator Chris Van Hollen, thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

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