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Eight Hurt In Flamethrower Attack At Colorado Event For Israeli Hostages; Politico: Sen. Chris Murphy To Launch New Anti-Trump PAC; Gaza Officials: Dozens Shot Dead, Injured Near Aid Hub. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 02, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were getting away because I saw another bomb going off that was in his hand.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That man -- the man who is now in custody -- he's facing multiple felony charges. Booked in the county jail, he'll be before a judge this afternoon.

Joining me right now is CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig to talk more about this.

Among the charges that we're aware of right now is one count of explosives or incendiary device used during a felony. Obviously, we know the FBI is calling this a terror attack. Talk to me about state and federal charges that he could be facing.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: OK. So as of this moment this individual is facing state-level charges in Colorado. You have the incendiary device charge. There's also been reporting that he's been charged with murder in the first degree. That can't be correct though unless someone has died, and the reporting is nobody has died.

BOLDUAN: OK.

HONIG: What I do expect to see is attempted murder in the first degree charges coming out of the state because this apparently was an intentional premediated attack.

Now, separate from that I also expect to see federal charges, and you can be charged -- a person can be charged with both state and federal charges at the same time. I think the Feds are going to -- likely to weigh in soon. We could see incendiary charges there as well. We could see charges relating to use of a weapon of mass destruction. I know people hear that phrase and maybe think of nuclear weapons.

BOLDUAN: Right.

HONIG: But this would meet the technical federal definition -- a device that's intended to explode or propel flames.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

HONIG: And then the big issue I think is will we see hate crimes charges and will we see terrorism charges? And there the Feds and state authorities are going to have to get into this person's motivation. If he committed the crime out of an anti-Jewish, antisemitic bias, that would be a hate crime. And if he committed this crime in order to try to influence American public policy that would be terrorism charges.

BOLDUAN: If he faces -- if he's charged both state and federally --

HONIG: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- is -- who goes first? What's the order here? How doe they coordinate that?

HONIG: So, good question. There is no law or rule on this.

BOLDUAN: OK.

HONIG: Coordination is the -- is the key word here. Ordinarily, what you would do -- and I've been both federal and stateside of these things --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

HONIG: -- you call up each other and you work it out reasonably. But in a case like this where you do have what to me is a strong federal nexus, I do think they're going to bring terrorism charges. I do think they're going to bring federal hate charges. If I -- I would make a strong push here federally to try him first. You have more serious charges. You have more serious potential punishments.

You don't have bail in the federal system. You can get someone locked up without any money bail. You don't have parole in the federal system for early release. So it would make most sense to me for the Feds to go first here.

BOLDUAN: There's also -- I was watching a lot of the local news coverage and in the local news coverage there was a -- they were talking about how there was many, many eyewitnesses. It was a very busy day on a very busy street in Boulder. And the fact that as it was discussed he was -- the suspect was described as -- like, he didn't flee. He hung around after the fact. I mean, you can kind of see this in the videos.

That offers the investigation or prosecutors what?

HONIG: An opportunity to investigate and establish his motive.

So first, you need to talk to everyone who was in the area. It seems they're doing that already.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

HONIG: You want to hear what was he saying, how was he acting. You're also going to, by the way, want to search his phones, his social media accounts because what you're looking for is any race-based or religion-based antisemitic bias here.

The fact that he didn't flee is interesting. I mean, I think it depends on what he says to law enforcement, right?

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

HONIG: I would want to know that. And again, he may have reiterated that his motives here were hate-based or were terroristically-based. So look for all that evidence to weigh into whatever charges we see.

BOLDUAN: The fact that he -- and the reporting is overstated tourists.

HONIG: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: These sources say that he applied for asylum and was denied asylum in 2005.

How does that weave into how things proceed now?

HONIG: So that again pushes me towards a federal prosecution --

BOLDUAN: Right.

HONIG: -- here, right? It is actually a federal crime to be in the country illegally. If he did over --

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

HONIG: Yeah -- if he overstayed a tourist visa, he is here illegally.

The other thing it does is it absolutely ensures he will not get bail in the federal system. I mean, he wasn't going to get it anyway --

BOLDUAN: Right.

HONIG: -- given the nature of this attack, but if you're here illegally you won't be released anyway.

So he will be -- by the way, he will be first, prosecuted and punished and serve his jail time and then deported. It's not like he's going to get deported and therefore avoid criminal prosecution.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, all right -- and going to be before a judge in Colorado this afternoon.

HONIG: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Elie.

HONIG: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New this morning the class of 2025 facing a huge challenge finding a job in what is one of the worst job markets for new college graduates in years. Hiring is down at many entry-level jobs and businesses have slowed hiring over uncertainty around the president's tariffs.

CNN's Matt Egan is with us. So for the class of '25, congratulations -- question mark as opposed to exclamation point?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah -- maybe, John.

Look, it is a really hard time to be getting out of school and trying to land your first job, which is kind of surprising, right, because at a high level this jobs market looks pretty healthy, right? The unemployment rate is low. Wages are up. There's been more than four straight years of uninterrupted job growth.

[07:35:10]

But beneath the surface there are some cautionary signs, including the fact that when you look at the unemployment rate for recent graduates, three years ago it was just under four percent. Now it's at nearly six percent. And part of the problem is that entry-level hiring is down, especially for some of those technology jobs that a lot of people are in school right now trying to get when they -- when they graduate.

And yes, economists are saying that this is one of the worst jobs markets for recent college graduates in years.

This is a telling statistic. This is the -- in orange is the national -- in blue -- green. Green is the national unemployment rate, 4.2 percent. But look at the orange line. That's the rate for recent graduates and it is --

BERMAN: Wow.

EGAN: -- significantly higher, which is very unusual. In fact, this is the first time in data going back to the 1980s that it's -- there's been a higher unemployment rate for recent graduates than the overall unemployment rate. So that is pretty telling.

And look, I've talked to a number of parents and students who found this very frustrating, obviously, right, because going to school is so expensive. A lot of people are leaving school with a lot of student debt.

I talked to Gabriel Nash. He's a 24-year-old in Orlando. And he said he's applied to about 450 jobs since graduating a year ago and hasn't landed anything. He said, "It's stressful. There is this social pressure of needing to get out and get a job. But if nobody is hiring, what am I supposed to do?"

And John, I'm sure he is not the only one feeling like that -- like that right now.

BERMAN: Yeah. I've got to say it's interesting. You can really see it on --

EGAN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- on this chart here. It's the first time you see this noticeable gap.

EGAN: Right.

BERMAN: Wow, all right.

Matt Egan, thank you very much.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: President Trump is lashing out against the courts right now warning of an economic downfall if the legal battle over his aggressive and sweeping tariffs are blocked. White House officials were out in force this weekend to try to defend the president's economic policies.

On Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said tariffs are "not going away" and that "Trump has so many other authorities," he said, "that he will find another way to enforce his trade agenda if it is needed."

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us. They were definitely pushing the message and pushing to defend the president's tariffs this weekend and economic policies. Alayna, what are you hearing from there today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, that's exactly right. And the president continues behind the scenes to be very frustrated, of course, with that court decision from the International Trade Court that essentially said that the president did not have the authority -- or at least the authority that he tried to impose these tariffs with -- to have these sweeping tariffs be in effect.

Now, what we have now heard from many different White House officials, including the president's top economic advisers, is that essentially, they believe that the president will win that on an appeal.

However, you heard this from Lutnick. You kind of referenced this Kate that there are other ways potentially that they could try to get these tariffs through if the courts do not go along with the Trump administration's appeal. You know, this idea of reclassifying the tariffs. Because the key issue that the court took issue with was the way that the president imposed them, which was declaring a national economic emergency and trying to go around Congress. So that is something behind the scenes that they're thinking about.

But you could really tell from the major tour that his economic advisers did on the shows this weekend is that they are trying to show that they are still committed to this tariff policy even as we have continued to see the president kind of continue with his imposed tariffs and then back off from the threat.

Now one of the key, of course, major issues -- in countries really -- that this administration is still grappling with is what to do with China. Because we've now seen the president and this administration come out and say that they are very frustrated that China is not really following the commitments that it agreed to after U.S. and Chinese officials met in Geneva last month. Now we did hear many of his different advisers talk about this as well.

What I'm hearing also behind the scenes is that they are actively trying to set up a direct call between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. His advisers reiterated that this weekend. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, we will see what the consequences are. I am confident that when President Trump and party chairman Xi have a call that this will be ironed out.

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Donald Trump and President Xi -- you know, our president understands what to do. He is going to go work it out.

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. But the bottom line is that we've got to be ready in case things don't happen the way we want because if we have cannons but not cannonballs then we can't fight a war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So a few things to take note of all of that, Kate.

[07:40:00]

One is that the president has been saying for months now that he believed that he could help settle this by talking to Xi Jinping, but they have been unable to get the Chinese leader on the phone thus far. So they are moving toward actually having this happen this week. And really, from my conversations with Trump administration officials, they do believe a call between the top two leaders of both countries is necessary to kind of unlock where they are right now. This status of not really sure how to move forward.

And there's other moves I am told that they can take on China if they do not respond in turn. I was also told that they are not expecting to reimpose the 145 percent tariff figure on China. That there's other tools at their disposal. But this is really going to be a huge week for those talks with Beijing -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: It sure seems it. Alayna, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning a new report from Politico. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, is set to announce a new PAC ahead of the 2026 midterms. Murphy said that this PAC is unique because it's not focused on funding campaigns. Instead, it's exclusively working to mobilize people against the president's agenda. It's called the "American Mobilization Project." His group is set to dole out $400,000 to organizations that oppose cuts to Medicaid and to register young people to vote.

Now, Murphy insists this is not a calculated move to lay the groundwork for a future presidential bid.

With us now Republican strategist Doug Heye, and Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross.

Ameshia, every time someone says something is not intended to help a presidential bid, I automatically assume it is but leave that aside for a moment.

How effective do you think this type of strategy is -- spending money to mobilize young voters?

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER OBAMA CAMPAIGN ADVISER (via Webex by Cisco): (Audio difficulty)

BERMAN: I think -- I think -- I'm not hearing Ameshia. I assume that the millions and millions of you out there are not hearing her as well.

So Doug, I'll put that question to you. What do you think of it?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: John, thank you so much. I have so much to say on this topic and more time to do so.

Look, any time any politician says, as you said, I'm not planning to run for president -- clearly, this is part of their focus. And it's a good, smart way of doing this. Tactically, it's a good, smart thing for Sen. Murphy to do.

But we don't know what the results are going to be in part because the election is a year and a half away. And so, yes, Democrats are down in the dumps right now obviously very concerned about not just Trump's agenda but their own political standing.

I remember, John, being at the Republican National Committee in 2010 where we had no hopes of winning back a House majority. Time magazine ran the Republican logo -- the elephant logo -- and declared us an endangered species. Eighteen months later we won back -- not just won back the House of Representatives, we did so by picking up 63 seats.

Now, there aren't really 63 seats at play for Democrats but clearly, history says that they should win back the House. So if you're Sen. Murphy you want to be a part of that effort and you want to be able to take credit if you are able to take back the House. The Senate is too much of a bridge too far for Democrats, but the House is certainly in play. If they take it back every Democratic politician is going to say I was there and I helped make this majority happen.

BERMAN: Ameshia, quickly, what do you think about what Murphy is doing here?

CROSS: Well, I think that he definitely plans on running in '28. But beyond that young voters have always been somewhat a fool's gold for both parties. For the most part, their turnout is negligible, and it gets larger during every presidential term. They turn out in bigger numbers every four years, but they don't really show up in large numbers during midterms.

What we do know is that young voters have showed up and showed out across social media and that their leanings tend to speak towards not only being upset with the Democratic Party but also wanting them to fight --

BERMAN: Yeah.

CROSS: -- and wanting them to do more. Wanting them to really take hold of what they see as a changing economy and maybe even personal economies offer up opportunities and not just be the party that says we don't like what Trump is doing.

So I think that what he's trying to do is really speak to what younger voters are asking for but also kind of give them a symbol to come out during the midterms. This is also a turnout push because again, younger voters aren't necessarily the large number of voters that actually show up in midterms. They're a little bit more general election activated.

BERMAN: So one of the focuses of this new Murphy PAC is on cuts to Medicaid.

On that subject Iowa Republican Joni Ernst -- she held this town meeting that got a lot of play at the end of last week where she was being pushed on Medicaid cuts. Someone yelled from the audience that the cuts are going to leave people to die. And her response was, "Well, we're all going to die." And immediately Democrats seized on that and started speculating that would show up in ads across the country.

Well, Sen. Ernst -- over the weekend, she -- I don't know if tried to clean it up is the right way to say it but address it further. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we all are going to perish from this earth. So I apologize. And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [07:45:10]

BERMAN: So, Ameshia, how effective is that in terms of clean-up?

CROSS: She wasn't trying to clean it up. She was trying to call everyone who -- everyone in that audience ignorant. I don't think that Joni Ernst is trying to clean up anything.

She's someone who stands by Medicaid cuts no matter how many people, no matter how many people are no longer able to receive their medical care and attention at rural hospitals because they'll be closed. She's saying at the end of the day the Lord is going to call you home or you're going to go in the other direction. It doesn't matter whether Medicaid exists or not.

That's a very brutal thing coming from an elected leader. I also think that calling out people who are speaking to the real devastation cutting Medicaid would cause -- calling them essentially ignorant and then bringing up the tooth fairy is random, it's offensive, and the American people should be highly upset.

BERMAN: Doug?

HEYE: Look, it's a bad comment. There's no way to sugarcoat it. And I'm a Joni Ernst fan. I wish she actually were our Secretary of Defense right now.

It was a bad comment and the cleanup, which my understanding is this wasn't a staff-led decision. This was Sen. Ernst doing this on her own. It wasn't an attempt to clean up and will only keep this going on further.

And Ameshia is right. The issue of rural health care is an important one that doesn't get discussed enough in the country. Very critical in Iowa.

BERMAN: Doug Heye, Ameshia Cross, great to see both of you this morning. Thank you very much.

All right. This morning Harvard expected to lay out the most detailed account yet of the impact of President Trump's crusade against the school.

And beekeepers racing to capture millions of bees after a truck carrying, like, a lot of them -- millions and millions of them -- flipped on the highway.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:13]

BERMAN: All right. Today, Harvard University takes on the Trump administration in court. The university is expected to lay out how badly it says it is being hurt by the loss of billions of dollars in federal funding and grants at the hands of the Trump administration.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is with us now. Talk to us about this hearing today, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well John, it's not a hearing, it's a filing -- but it's a crucial day in this ongoing set of court battles between Harvard University and the Trump administration.

Today what we expect to see filed in the federal court in Boston is the full argument from Harvard -- not just their full summation of why they think what the Trump administration is doing to them is retaliatory and illegal but also what they've learned from the administration about how these decisions have been made.

There have been documents about different agencies. How they were talking -- maybe even the White House talking about Harvard to pull grant funding. That all is in the hands of Harvard University's lawyers. Now we're going to get the legal arguments.

Remember John, last week we were talking about the student visa program issue at Harvard -- whether international students could come to that campus. That fell flat in court almost immediately.

But there is this bigger lawsuit now where Harvard is accusing the Trump administration of trying to gain control of academic decision- making at that campus by pulling more than $2.2 billion of federal funding. That's the type of federal funding that comes from agencies like the NIH -- health care agencies. National Science Foundation, Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Defense, Housing and Urban Development.

And Harvard says the federal funding that comes into them that the Trump administration is now pulling -- it funds things like cancer and infectious disease research. Research into neurological conditions like Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis.

Also, work that they do in national security and military medicine. Anesthetics for wounded servicemembers. Technology for military advancement for use on the American -- the use of Americans in the battlefield.

All the sort of things that they say that now the Trump administration, because they want to pull funding from Harvard, because they are being critical of how Harvard was treating antisemitism on campus -- that now the Trump administration is harming the country and not just the university itself. This is a case that will have oral arguments later this summer.

But this is a document I am very much looking forward to see because I am really interested in seeing exactly what went on within the Trump administration in making these decisions, and also the full arguments here of the impact on the university.

We do expect the Trump side of things to eventually come in later and for their argument to be hey, he's the president. He can do what he wants. It's federal funding and that's something that the White House and other agencies are able to cut if they choose -- John. BERMAN: All right. This filing coming later today. As you say, it will

be extensive. We expect it to be. I know you will be poring through it.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you very much for all of that -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: We also are learning new details this morning on the deadly chaos at an aid distribution site in Gaza. Palestinian health officials say the death toll from Sunday is now at least 31 Palestinians killed and dozens more injured in the chaos that ensued as people were trying to get aid. This is the latest incident of people killed just while trying to receive aid from this -- these new distribution sites.

At the same time Israel's defense minister has instructed Israeli forces to advance operations inside Gaza.

CNN's Paula Hancocks has the very latest on this and she's joining us now. Paula, what more are you learning about the incident at this aid site this time?

[07:55:00]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Kate, what we do know for sure is that the people caught up in this violence were desperate Palestinians trying to get food, to get water for their families.

That is really where the certainty ends though because there is a very confused narrative or conflicting narrative I should say. We heard from the Palestinian Ministry of Health saying that Israel was responsible for firing onto the crowds. The IDF says that is a false report and that they weren't firing within or near the aid distribution site itself.

Footage though -- you do see people hitting the ground as you hear the gunfire in the background. Thousands of Palestinians had gone to that area predawn to try and get as close as they could to the distribution site and hopefully get some food.

Now we do know at this point -- so we have asked the Israeli military for further clarification. An Israeli military source has told CNN that they were firing towards individuals a couple of hours before this site opened, and that was more than half a mile from the distribution site.

But what this is is a confirmation really of what the United Nations has been saying, what the NGOs have been saying that GHF -- these four distribution sites which is a U.S.-backed, Israeli-backed distribution site -- isn't working. The fact that you don't want to have thousands of Palestinians moving to these four different sites in the middle of an intense warzone. Instead, they want to go back to the tried and tested method of hundreds of distribution points from the U.N. From other NGOs who go to where the people are to distribute this aid.

So there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this. And as you mentioned there Kate, just last week as well we also saw some shooting. We saw loss of life. We saw injuries at different distribution sites.

Now, at this point, GHF says that there has been no shooting near their sites and that they are going to continue as they have been -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Paula Hancocks. Thank you very much. We'll keep updating on this one, absolutely -- John.

BERMAN: New information this morning that an aide to New York Congressman Jerry Nadler was handcuffed and briefly detained by federal agents. It happened during protests against migrant detentions. The agents allegedly went into his office because they were told protesters were there and the agents were concerned about the safety of employees in the office, they said.

Nadler called the incident deeply troubling. And Congressman Jerry Nadler will be a guest of Kate Bolduan later this morning on this broadcast.

So who does not love a food fight? This one was on purpose. The annual Gran Tomatina Food Festival in Colombia, a long-held tradition where people hurl overripe tomatoes at each other for three days -- three days. I'm not saying that's excessive; I'm just saying it's more than two days.

This morning, bees on the lam --14 million of them. Now it's been hard to come up with the exact count here, but it is 14 million. It happened in Washington State. A truck flipped. You can see that truck was carrying a whole bunch of bees. Not the kind of truck you want to flip. It flipped making a turn. The bees got loose. They are on the run this morning.

Officials say the area could stay closed for a few days while what they expect to happen is the bees to regroup to find their queen and return to their hives.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: I actually read the Seattle Times. This has happened once before. Another 14 million bees.

BERMAN: It happened before?

BOLDUAN: It happened before.

BERMAN: It's the kind of thing maybe you ought to take some precautions.

BOLDUAN: There is actually. The head of the Beekeepers Association of Washington State said they should have a standard protocol when this happens.

BERMAN: I'm with the beekeeper -- the head of the Beekeepers Association. BOLDUAN: CNN NEWS CENTRAL stamp of approval.

BERMAN: That's right.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next for us massive wildfires in western and central Canada still burning out of control. Thousands have been forced to evacuate. The hazardous smoke from the fires is now moving into the United States prompting alerts across cities in the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes region.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the very latest on this one for us. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. The question is Kate whether or not this will be yet another summer of smoke here in the United States. It sure appears that way because it's already filtered into much of the northern parts of our country -- even the southeast.

Look at this satellite image. The smoke is, of course, coming from fires in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to our north, but all of that some settling into the northern and southeastern parts of the U.S. Just an incredible sight to see.

Here's a live look at the appearance here in -- just north of Chicago. This is Winthrop Harbor, Illinois. You can see the smoke settling in on the horizon just a few minutes ago. The sun right up the horizon was this bright red color and that's because smoke actually scatters the blue visible wavelengths and leaves only the longer wavelengths, which are orange and red. That's why you see that kind of accentuated sun and sunset when you have smoke in the sky.

One hundred eighty-two wildfires burning out of control.