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8 Hurt in Flamethrower Attack at Colorado Event for Israeli Hostages; Ukraine Hits Air Bases Deep Inside Russia in Operation Spiderweb. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 02, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's why you see that kind of accentuated sun and sunset when you have smoke in the sky. 182 wildfires burning out of control. This is 100 acres or larger.

The visible satellite from yesterday shows the culprit. It's this low pressure system that is driving the smoke with that counterclockwise rotation, pulling it further and further south. Remember, smoke, very tiny particulates, so it can get deep within the lung cavity. This impacts people with respiratory issues and that's a concern for places like Minnesota into northern Michigan, my home state.

So here's the current air quality. You can see moderate to sensitive across much of the north and the southeast. In fact, we've got this hazy start to our day here in Atlanta. Just driving into work, you could see the smoke overshadowing much of the horizon. And again, that is all thanks to the wildfires to our north and our neighbors -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right let's see how this continues to develop. Derek, thank you so very much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning. Witnesses speak about the chaotic moments following the attack on a parade. A man used a flamethrower attacking elderly marchers, I should say, in Colorado. A march to support Israeli hostages. One victim is said to be a Holocaust survivor.

Politico calls it Russia's Pearl Harbor. Ukraine launches its most ambitious round of surprise attacks on Russia deep inside Russia. The most ambitious attacks since the war began.

And manipulation singing in the emergence of a criminal enterprise revealing new testimony in the criminal trial of Sean Combs as one alleged victim is set to take the stand.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: Very tragic breaking news that we are following this morning. The FBI is calling it an act of terror in Boulder, Colorado. At least eight people injured in an attack on a peaceful gathering in support of the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.

The images emerging are disturbing. Smoke seen at the scene, seen rising at the scene. And this comes after the FBI says a man used makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd. Witnesses described a horrifying scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED VICTOR, WITNESS: From my point of view, all of a sudden I felt the heat like it was a Molotov cocktail equivalent, a gas bomb in a glass jar thrown. I saw it, a big flame as high as a tree. And all I saw was someone on fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A suspect is under arrest. Law enforcement have identified him as 45-year-old Mohamed Soliman.

CNN's Whitney Wild is at the scene in Boulder. She's joining us right now. Whitney, first and foremost, what are we learning about the victims this morning?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know is that horrifyingly one of them was also a Holocaust survivor, as you had mentioned earlier. They range in age, Kate, from 52 to 88 years old. What we know right now is very little about the extent of their injuries.

But the little we do know, according to police, is that two people were airlifted to Denver area hospitals. One victim was very seriously injured.

This was a horrifying attack, Kate, as you described, this man holding what were basically spray bottles full of what looked like incendiary material and then throwing that onto the crowd.

And when he initiated that attack, Kate. These are not people who run away from their neighbors. They run to them to try to help. This is a community that will need to lean on one another as they move forward.

Here's more on that from the Boulder Police Chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF STEVE REDFEARN, BOULDER, CO POLICE: Boulder is not immune to tragedy, sadly, and I know a lot of people are scared right now. A lot of people are upset and questioning how this happened and why. All I know is Boulder has recovered before from acts of violence and we will again recover.

I urge the community in this time to come together. Now is not the time to be divisive and we will continue to ensure community safety along with all of our partners.

WILD: OK, that help, that sense of community will be more important than ever as they try to move forward after this tragedy -- Kate. BOLDUAN: And what more are we learning about the suspect right now?

WILD: Well, some of these details are coming to light. Our law enforcement sources are telling CNN's John Miller that he had applied for asylum in the United States in 2005.

[08:05:00]

The White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tweeted that he was here illegally, saying that he'd overstayed a tourist visa.

We've reached out to ICE to try to find out more information on that, Kate. At the moment, he is in custody in Boulder. He was booked just before midnight last night. He's booked on multiple charges, including one count of explosive incendiary devices used during a felony.

Again, much, much more to learn here and we expect that more information will come forward at his first hearing at 1:30 this afternoon, local time -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Whitney, thank you very much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now our CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe and the aforementioned John Miller, senior chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst. John, what else are you hearing from your sources right now?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they're digging into the background of this individual, particularly looking at how he got here, when he got here, how he stayed here. But what you gather from careful viewing of the videos taken by people at the scene is, and this is going to be a large factor about charging decisions and motive, is he's yelling free Palestine, according to police. But our review of the tape is also, he says twice, he yells, we have to end Zionists.

So that goes directly to motive. The chief called it, it's a targeted attack of hate. The FBI director called it an act of terrorism.

And the fact that we see him at the scene, remaining on the scene, he didn't attempt to flee. Nobody seems to be holding him back now. Now bear in mind, he's holding two different bottles of liquid with red rags coming out of them that could be other incendiary devices.

But he remained on the scene. He did not resist when police took him down and handcuffed him. Very much like what we saw at the Jewish Museum in Washington, just several days ago, in an attack involving a gunman.

Whereas we're seeing what appears to be people answering the call from multiple platforms, from foreign terrorist organizations, calling on people to act alone on U.S. soil against public events with rudimentary tools. And we're seeing them remain on the scene, apparently to underscore that message and that motive.

BERMAN: So Andrew McCabe, how do you go about an investigation like this? What are the key parts of it? And to that point that John Miller was just bringing up, these people being urged by organizations around the world to act on U.S. soil.

How do you fight that?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, John. So what the investigators are doing right now is very similar work to the things we discussed in the aftermath of the shooting here in D.C. at the Jewish Museum. They, as we know, executed a search warrant at this person's residence last night.

And that's an effort to collect all of the devices and things he might have in his house that indicate who he's been in contact with, what he's been looking at on the internet, what he's been writing, things that he's been searching in his online search history. It uncovers both his motive and it gives investigators a view into his network of contacts. Because what they're looking for right now is exactly what you just suggested, to see if anyone helped him plan this event, helped him train for it, helped him acquire the materials that he needed to pull it off.

Or was he simply inspired by events he saw and was, you know, harboring grievances about things that he saw online and that were happening overseas in Gaza and other places? This is going to help investigators understand whether or not he had co-conspirators who might also have culpability in this attack, or if he simply acted alone, lone offender, driven by grievance and you know, went down this path towards extremism by himself.

So a lot of very important questions for them to uncover in the next few days and hours, really. And we know that they're well on their way to doing that with that search warrant.

BERMAN: And John, you know, we use the term lone actor. In your experience, you both have, unfortunately, a lot of experience, fortunately for us, because we get to lean on your expertise, unfortunately, because these things have happened before. When we talk about someone acting alone, how alone?

I mean, completely alone, no contact with anyone else. Or how often do you start to see some tentacle spreading?

MILLER: Anything is in the range of possibility, including that a handler from a foreign terrorist organization or someone else directed him, told him what to do and how to do it.

But what we're seeing pretty consistently is the opposite of that, which is people are going online. They are taking in the propaganda. They are considering the calls to violence. And they are going to public events, the Jewish Museum attack. They are picking specific targets.

[08:10:00]

There's a person who is believed to be mentally unstable with a history of drug addiction who jumped over the fence with Molotov cocktails, set the Pennsylvania governor's house on fire after Passover dinner.

So we're seeing these repeated incidents of individuals who are working with low cost firearms, edged weapons, Molotov cocktails, low tech, not putting together a complicated IED, high impact in that these rudimentary attacks garner a lot of attention.

BERMAN: And the targets, Andy, I mean, you know, soft targets. I mean, you're talking about a mixer in Washington, D.C. You're talking about effectively a peace march in Boulder with elderly marchers, including potentially a Holocaust survivor there.

You know, if you were still the FBI, what would your outreach be to Jewish organizations around the country engaged in honestly everyday life?

MCCABE: John, this is the dilemma that's confronted the Jewish community for years, and it is getting markedly worse. The ADL clocked over 9,000 anti-Semitic incidents last year, which was up 5 percent from 2023. The Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism tells us that 68 percent of the religious motivated hate crimes in this country, 68 percent are committed against Jewish people, while at the same time Jewish people comprise only 2.5 percent of the population.

No one has done more than the Jewish community to try to protect their institutions, their community centers, their synagogues than the Jewish community with organizations like the Secure Communities Network that does an amazing job of providing security assessments to Jewish communities around the country and helping them build up the sort of systems they need to stay safe.

But the facts are what they are. Targeting of the Jewish community has increased markedly, particularly in the wake of the October 7th attack on Israel, and there is no sign that this is going to stop.

So they need to kind of continue this very expensive, very labor- intensive effort to secure their institutions, but they also need to think about these soft targets. Anytime there is a public gathering of Jewish people to do anything, to commemorate a Jewish holiday, to speak out about the hostages currently held in Gaza, as we saw yesterday, the public knowledge of that event turns it into a target, and they need to think very carefully about how they're going to secure those events.

BERMAN: Unnecessary but tragic commentary on the situation. Adrew McCabe, John Miller, thanks to both of you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us, Ukraine launching one of its broadest attacks yet against Russia, hitting deep inside Russia and targeting airfields in five different regions. What that attack means now for a new round of peace talks between the two sides that's about to get underway right now.

And the federal sex trafficking racketeering trial against Sean Diddy Combs starts back up today. We'll tell you who's taking the stand next. And we are also watching stock futures this morning and keeping a

close eye on that as President Trump is attacking the courts again, this time for blocking his tariffs and attacking China again for not bending to his tariffs. Can a phone call that's being talked about between the two leaders fix this?

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BERMAN: All right, this morning, Russia is said to be reeling from the unprecedented and audacious drone attacks by Ukraine. Ukraine hit multiple air bases deep inside Russia in what they're calling Operation Spiderweb. Ukrainian officials say that dozens of Russian warplanes were wiped out by the drones, drones that have been smuggled into Russia and hidden on trucks.

There is another round, a new round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia just getting underway in Turkey. So it's an interesting backdrop, these drone attacks. Let's get right to seeing a chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, for the latest on all this -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, extraordinary how deep inside Russia this daring, sophisticated Ukrainian attack took place, hitting an airfield halfway across Russian Siberia at one point and up near the Arctic Circle too.

These 117 drones, Ukraine's security services say, hidden inside wooden mobile homes, the roofs of which seem to have slid off, releasing this cloud of attack drones. Video, in fact, showing how they flew over Russia's Tupolev-94 propeller-driven strategic long- range bombers, essentially what Moscow uses to wreak havoc across Ukraine's civilian targets every single night, taking out one by one.

Now, Ukraine says it destroyed 41 aircraft, including a kind of AWACS- style A-50 aircraft. But really, I think some of the bigger damage here is to Russian military pride. The sense that these valuable aircraft, whose loss may prove a significant problem for their war effort, were somehow impregnable, hidden deep inside of Russia. And that, again, we're seeing Ukraine use extraordinary ingenuity.

Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian President, saying this took a year and a half worth of planning and, indeed, that everyone involved in that planning had left the country before the attack happened. That kind of technological advance being used to strike a heart at the Russian military beast that likes to betray itself as being impregnable. Here's what President Zelenskyy had to say at a summit with his European allies in Vilnius earlier today about the attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Europe, together with America, has better weapons than Russia. We also have stronger tactical solutions. Our Operation Spiderweb yesterday proved that. Russia must feel what its losses mean. That is what will push it toward diplomacy. And when Russia takes losses in this war, it's obvious to everyone that Ukraine, it's the one holding the line, not just for itself, but for all of Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, you can see Zelenskyy arriving in Vilnius, a bit of a spring in its step, really. This is a much-needed boost to Ukrainian morale after months of exceptionally bad news, not only diplomatically, but on the front lines as well. And he's making a point there, I think, which will be welcomed and agreed with by all of his European allies in the room, but somewhat different to the Trump administration's approach, who seem to feel the better their relationship with Moscow is, the more likely peace is.

Zelenskyy, with his European allies, think you have to inflict this sort of military damage on Russia to make it think it can't exist in this war indefinitely. We'll have to see, though, what these hugely embarrassing strikes do for Russian morale, Russian planning inside the Kremlin, and also, too, for its war effort -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, it's an extraordinary operation. I mean, one question is, is it repeatable? Can Ukraine do it again in short order if it wanted to? These are all some of the things we'll be watching. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And all of this, as John said, happening as they're heading back to Ukraine and Russia for another round of potential peace talks today.

Joining us right now, CNN Global Affairs commentator, former Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh, and CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. It's good to see you both.

Colonel let's start with what's happening as we speak, which is talks are about to get underway in Istanbul between Ukraine and Russia. Low expectations from everything I've seen going into these talks as they get underway. Do these unprecedented Ukraine attacks inside Russia, do you think, help, hurt, or have no impact on the direction that these talks are headed?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Kate, good morning. I think in some ways they will help the Ukrainian position because the Ukrainians have proven once again that they actually do hold some cards when it comes to this fight with Russia. And, you know, any other evidence to the contrary indicates that the Ukrainians have certain unconventional capabilities and the Russians are definitely noticing those capabilities.

The one thing that you have to consider, though, is that the Russians may see this as an excuse to mount counterattacks of their own and that could very well stall out any peace talk efforts or ceasefire talk efforts at this particular juncture.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and Sabrina, I mean, their positions -- the positions going into these talks, though they're supposed to be trading conditions, if you will, they really are quite well known. Ukraine wants a ceasefire first before moving to negotiate a broader peace deal.

Russia seems uninterested in anything temporary in terms of a ceasefire and continues to say it wants to discuss the root causes of the war, which is their way of saying they want to discuss, you know, the just mere existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state.

Is this a show today? I mean, I don't want to be overly pessimistic or cynical here. Talking is always better than not. But what do you think?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that's right. I mean, having both sides come to the table and meet to discuss this war and potentially discuss a close, that is a good thing. You want to see engagement.

But I think what Ukraine showed overnight is the fact that they have this cheaper drone technology that was able to inflict incredible damages, you know, probably in the millions to billions of dollars on Russia's long-term strategic weapons capability. And at the end of the day, Russia is at the table and going to have to think about how long they're willing to continue to send their soldiers into, you know, what's becoming a meat grinder of this war and basically where the lines are basically stagnant, while potentially a third of their military air force has been wiped out.

So it is a good thing that these conversations are happening. Ukraine has showed time and time again that they're serious about negotiating an end to this war. But what remains an outstanding question is, is Putin really serious about that?

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. And Colonel, Politico described this operation as Russia's Pearl Harbor. And I think the way Nick Paton Walsh was kind of characterizing it is an important one, which is there is real damage that is apparent to Russian military aircraft. That's no question.

But NPW says maybe the more damage was actually done, bigger damage to Russia's military pride. I mean, how big was this from your perspective?

LEIGHTON: That was very big, Kate.

[08:25:00]

And one of the things to keep in mind is that for each TU-95 bomber, it has a capacity to carry eight cruise missiles. So what the Ukrainians did was every single bomber that they were able to basically eliminate or damage in an irreparable way. That is something where they are basically securing their own airspace, their own civilian population. So what the Ukrainians did was incredibly ingenious, and it did impact Russian military pride.

There are Russian social media posts where you see Russian soldiers basically saying, hey, we really screwed up here. We were not watching what could happen here.

So the Russians are definitely on the back foot when it comes to this, and it's definitely showing in the types of activity that you see among Russian military bloggers, as well as the Russian media.

So they're hoping for a major Russian response, whether or not Russia can really mount that, because the cost equivalent, as Sabrina mentioned, is really quite something. This is basically asymmetric warfare at its finest. And this is what the Ukrainians have basically put on the table here.

They can do this, even though they're the smaller country. They can inflict significant damage on the Russians, and that damage could potentially stop the Russian war effort if it continues.

BOLDUAN: And Sabrina, you're getting at this, but the question then becomes, does any one operation as big as it is, does it hurt Russia, i.e. Putin, enough to have him rethinking his approach? Because at the same time, I have consistently heard lawmakers and those kind of in the space talking about how this bipartisan sanctions bill that's moving through the Senate being spearheaded by Lindsey Graham and Senator Blumenthal, they see this maybe, a lot of people saying this is really maybe the only way to get Putin to rethink anything. I mean, what do you think?

SINGH: You know, I think Putin has made his, you know, decisions pretty clear. He wants to continue this war as long as possible. And you know, many of his people that serve in his government have also said the same thing.

But it is really the cost. How much is this going to continue to cost men and women being expended on the battlefield? I mean, he's had to turn to the North Koreans for more bodies to literally put on the battlefield.

So I think it's a calculation of how much more is this going to cost? And then looking at this, you know, the Spiderweb operation that the Ukrainians launched last night or over the weekend, how much damage is that going to inflict in the long term? I mean, these are aircraft that are not easily replaceable. They're Soviet era aircraft that are incredibly costly to replace.

And what the Ukrainians did was use these cheap, you know, very effective drone technology to potentially wipe out a third of the fleet.

So, you know, today, as this administration is also getting briefed on what the Ukrainians did over the weekend, this is really an indication of where modern warfare is going, using this cheaper drone technology to take out what was or is Europe's, you know, one of their largest militaries, a third of their aircraft.

I mean, that sends an incredible message, not just to Russia, but I think, you know, European allies and to the United States as well about this capability that the Ukrainians have developed.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's good to see you both. Thank you so much for coming on.

Ahead for us, two business owners. They're seen on camera confronting masked ICE agents who were detaining a gardener on the job. What we know about what happened here, why the man was detained, where he is now, what the circumstances are around all of this.

And there's also this ahead. More than 25,000 people across three Canadian provinces have been forced to evacuate. More than 170 active fires now burning across Canada, with nearly 90 of them still burning out of control.

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