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Lauren Folkerts is Interviewed about the Boulder Attack; Matt Priest is Interviewed about Taxes on Footwear; Mount Etna Eruption Sends Tourists Fleeing. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired June 03, 2025 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:30:54]
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, investigators say the man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and using a flamethrower in an anti-Semitic attack in Colorado had been planning this morn a year. Investigators say he yelled "free Palestine," and a court affidavit alleges he said he wanted to kill all Zionist people.
Joining me now in Boulder, Colorado, Mayor Pro Tem Lauren Folkerts. Thank you so much for being here with us this morning.
First of all, you signed onto a letter after the attack. What was the message that you were trying to send?
LAUREN FOLKERTS, MAYOR PRO TEM OF BOULDER, COLORADO: Thank you for that question. I signed on to this because I believe that we all need to come together. We can all agree that this was a horrific event and this kind of hate has no place in our community.
I've already seen this lead to communication or to conversations in our community that wouldn't have happened a month ago, and I'm hoping that this call to action can help us continue to bridge divides in our community. I know that won't be easy, but that's what I'm hoping for.
SIDNER: How was the community responding to what was a blatantly anti- Semitic violent attack, 12 people injured, including someone who survived the Holocaust?
FOLKERTS: I think, you know, I've seen a whole variety of reactions. We're all in different stages of grief. This impacted not only who are present but has ripples that touch every corner of our community. Those present at the courthouse are dealing with physical and emotional injuries and have a long road to recovery. We pledge to support them and their families in this ordeal ahead.
And for our Jewish community, I've -- they're not a monolith, but I've spoken to many in this community who have been deeply affected by this attack. There is anger, sadness, and frustration, both for the violence itself and for feeling isolated in their grief and uncertain about their safety in our community. SIDNER: The suspect in this case, according to DHS, overstayed a visa, so was here in the country illegally. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted something overnight on X and said, in light of yesterday's horrific attack, all terrorists, their family members and terrorists sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump administration, we will find you, revoke your visa and deport you. Is this the kind of action and reaction you think needs to be taken here?
FOLKERTS: Boulder is a welcoming, place for people from all different communities, backgrounds, and cultures. We are not welcoming of violence. We do not accept acts of violence in our community, period, no matter what, no matter where it comes from, where they come from. But I don't think that these divisive words are helping us get to a better place where we avoid violence in the future.
SIDNER: I wanted to ask you about what has been happening at the city council meetings. I know you were a council member and now you are mayor pro tem. And in January, the city council voted overwhelmingly to stop doing in-person meetings for over a month and go virtual due to ongoing disruptions from protesters demanding the council adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Council members used a city code to limit in-person participation when a public health or safety concern exists. That is what they used, and I'm quoting here. So, some council members had noted that they received a lot of feedback from community members who didn't feel safe anymore attending open comment periods because of all this. What were the safety concerns and what is the climate in those council meetings?
FOLKERTS: This is tricky, balancing free speech and making sure all community members feel safe.
[09:35:04]
I wouldn't say that we have perfected that yet, but it's something that we are continuing to work on. We respect the rights to everyone, to differences of political opinion.
I believe that's part of what makes our democracy robust, is holding up our First Amendment rights to free speech, which also include freedom of religion. And people are allowed to peacefully protest even in our council meetings.
Occasionally, the tenor of that is problematic, but I, you know, support their First Amendment right and I continue to look for ways to make those meetings productive and encourage dialogue that helps move us forward.
SIDNER: Lauren Folkerts, thank you so much. I know that your community is grieving and afraid. Thank you for coming on and talking us through this. I really appreciate your time.
John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, quote, "Donald Trump, Meek Mill, Lil Wayne, please help me." The new message from a man claiming to be one of the inmates who escaped a New Orleans jail.
And tourists, they had to run for their lives during the biggest volcanic eruption in more than a decade.
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[09:41:07]
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new report out this morning from a key group of the world's 38 most wealthy nations, sharply downgraded its current year growth forecast for the United States, going from a forecast for 2025 up 2.2 percent growth projected to now just 1.6 percent growth in March. The group adding further dismal projections for the future. And they expect the global economy to slow markedly both this year and next.
A big part of what decides that, the currently stalled trade talks between the United States and China. Those negotiations are a huge focus as well for one industry in particular, footwear, calling tariffs an existential crisis and trying to hold on to hope from recent comments made by President Trump, like this.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not looking to make sneakers and t-shirts and -- we want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to make -- do the AI thing with the computers and the many, many, many, many elements. But the textile, you know, I'm not looking to make t-shirts, to be honest. I'm not looking to make socks. We can do that very well at other locations.
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BOLDUAN: And joining me right now is Matt Priest. He's the president and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, a leading footwear trade group that represents dozens of companies like Nike and Crocs.
Thanks for being here.
I've checked -- we've kind of been checking in --
MATT PRIEST, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FOOTWEAR DISTRIBUTORS AND RETAILERS OF AMERICA: Yes.
BOLDUAN: With you throughout from before they -- all the tariffs were imposed --
PRIEST: Right.
BOLDUAN: To all throughout this very long and not yet their journey.
You sent a letter to the White -- to the administration about those remarks applauding hearing that the president isn't interested in maybe pushing you to try to manufacture -- companies to manufacture in the United States right now.
PRIEST: Right.
BOLDUAN: And asking for an exemption for the footwear industry from the reciprocal tariffs. Have you heard anything back?
PRIEST: We have not heard anything back, Kate. But this started a process back in January where we asked the president to exempt us. We've been concerned about these tariffs. We pay billions of dollars in tariffs anyway, right. We have for 100 years. So, for us, we wanted to encourage the president as he made that statement that, yes, the policy should actually line up with the rhetoric. Stop tariffing and taxing Americans on their -- on shoes and socks and t-shirts, as the president said, and focus more on those strategic industries.
BOLDUAN: Look, I mean, the fact of the matter is, tariff rates have not changed, right?
PRIEST: Right.
BOLDUAN: They are -- they're -- they're -- they're still on. They're still going to -- hitting the industry and going to hit the industry. What happens if things do -- if you do not get the exemption? What happens in the industry?
PRIEST: Costs will go up. This is an inevitable fact. In fact, we're here this week at a big market week in New York. We have this every -- four times a year. All the conversations, Kate, around, what are we going to do for costing for products sold in 2026. And no one knows. None of our brands or retailers know how they're going to be able to price goods in this environment when you're not sure what the tariff or the tax at the border is going to be.
BOLDUAN: Is the uncertainty worse or is the tariff rate worse?
PRIEST: The uncertainty is typically worse. Now, when you're at 145, 154 percent tariff, which we saw just a few weeks ago --
BOLDUAN: Yes.
PRIEST: That's an embargo. So, that's -- that's obviously terrible.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
PRIEST: But if you're just not knowing where the tariff rate is going to land, between 30 percent, 15 percent, 10 percent, then that uncertainty makes it very difficult to understand how to cost those goods.
BOLDUAN: Have prices gone up?
PRIEST: No. Prices have not gone up right now. In fact, we're in this -- this era where they're pretty muted. And that's our big concern is because even with prices not up at this moment because the tariffs haven't had a full impact on -- on the cost of goods, our consumers have pulled back. And so we see declining sales. So, our concern is that as prices go up, that's going to tamp down on consumer demand. And so what's going to happen when those prices do go up, particularly at back to school and holiday.
BOLDUAN: So, that's -- becomes the big question, right?
PRIEST: Yes.
BOLDUAN: I mean we can -- we -- let's ask this in kind of like in two buckets.
PRIEST: Sure.
BOLDUAN: What this means for American business, American footwear companies --
PRIEST: Right.
[09:45:03]
BOLDUAN: And what this means for the American consumer. If -- if nothing changes, and that's the only thing you can work with when it comes to reciprocal tariffs, what is that going to mean for anyone who is out there shopping? I -- I -- in the letter you mentioned -- that I read that the average American spending on average $30 to $50 on -- when they're -- on -- on buying shoes.
PRIEST: Yes.
BOLDUAN: What is that going to mean for people when they're doing back to school shopping?
PRIEST: It's going to be higher costs, of course. And the bigger concern, Kate, is this is on everything. So, even if we think that we are recession proof as an industry, we know that because costs and tariffs have gone up on every single consumer goods sold in this country, the discretionary income, right, the stretch of the dollar for the American consumer is going to start to shrink back. And so that's going to, you know, (INAUDIBLE).
BOLDUAN: What's the estimate that you're hearing from companies, from Nike, to Crocs, to, I mean, you represent all the big names in the industry.
PRIEST: Sure.
BOLDUAN: If things don't change, how -- what -- what is it going to go up by? I mean, I just had the CEO of e.l.f. Beauty cosmetics on last week --
PRIEST: Right.
BOLDUAN: And they are planning on raising their products -- each product by a dollar starting August 1st. What are you hearing? How much are companies saying they fear they're going to have to raise prices by?
PRIEST: Yes. So, every company is different.
BOLDUAN: Yes.
PRIEST: They're all in a different part of our market. But, in a general sense, we're looking 15 to 20 percent to cover. And so, you think of -- multiply that across e.l.f. products, footwear, toys, et cetera, that's going to have a compounding effect on the consumer.
BOLDUAN: You mentioned that this -- and you'd also said that this is an existential crisis for American footwear companies.
PRIEST: Yes.
BOLDUAN: How many -- or how many companies are you hearing from that this could put them out of business?
PRIEST: A lot. And what the viewers need to understand, Kate, is that, even if you're buying product at a big box retailer that you see as publicly traded and you think they're worth billions of dollars, a lot of the suppliers and vendors that sell into those markets, that sell brands that people know and love are small, family-owned businesses.
BOLDUAN: Why can't the companies eat the tariff like Donald Trump says you should be able to.
PRIEST: Because the margins are two, three, 4 percent at best. And so, we have one company, New York-based, third generation, $1 million worth of goods every single month. Their duty bill used to be $60,000. It's now $360,000 a month. Anyone --
BOLDUAN: It's mind blowing.
PRIEST: It is mind blowing. It puts it into perspective what the impact could be.
BOLDUAN: Matt, it's good to have you here. Thank you very much.
PRIEST: My pleasure.
BOLDUAN: Really appreciate it. Please let us know if you -- what you hear back. I'm sure we will also hear it from Donald Trump's social media. If you hear back from the administration on this.
PRIEST: You got it. Thank you.
BOLDUAN: Thank you.
Sara.
SIDNER: All right, ahead, this morning, we have some new details about the man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to injure at least a dozen people in an anti-Semitic attack.
All right, and new reporting just in to CNN. Why President Trump has been privately complaining about Supreme Court justices that he appointed. Those stories and more, ahead.
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[09:52:14]
SIDNER: New CNN reporting this morning. CNN learning President Trump has been privately complaining about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and other justices that he appointed. Why? You guessed it. The sources say he doesn't believe Coney Barrett, along with Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, have sufficiently stood behind his agenda, even though the Supreme Court is a co-equal branch of government that's not supposed to be under the president's control.
But in a statement to CNN, the White House is responding to this report saying, quote, "President Trump will always stand with the U.S. Supreme Court. The president may disagree with the court and some of its rulings, but he will always respect its foundational role."
John.
BERMAN: All right, hundreds of tourists went running for safety when Mount Etna in Italy suddenly erupted. It shot a volcanic cloud an estimated four miles into the sky. Experts say there has not been an eruption of this magnitude there in more than a decade.
Let's get right to CNN's Derek Van Dam.
Not sure those tourists should be there if the things going to explode every once in a while.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John, this is what I call too close for comfort. These tourists, about 1.5 million of them, visit this area per year. They were too close for comfort. That is certainly the case. Even some of them trying to get a closer peek there. You can see them running over the crater edge there. But most of them starting to evacuate the location. And good thing they did to, safely evacuated off the mountain.
But Mount Etna is actually the worlds -- or one of the world's most active volcanoes, with 1.5 million visitors per year. They better be prepared for volcanic eruptions because this happens frequently.
What they did is they actually pointed a thermal imaging camera at the side of the volcano. So, what you're looking at here is called an explosive eruption. Think of it as nature's fireworks display. It's very loud. It sends these intermittent bursts of magma into the sky.
But fast forward and you can see some of that magma protruding down the side of the volcano. This is known as a pyroclastic flow. It's a fast-moving current of volcanic matter that moves away from the volcano on the ground. So, it's different than that explosive eruption.
If that's not cool enough, check out this view from space. This is captured by European's Copernicus satellites. You're looking from a birds eye view of Mount Etna. There's the eruption. We're going to put on this kind of a false color so you see the magma right here. It actually created its own weather pattern. That is a pyrocumulus cloud that takes advantage of the extremely hot updrafts from the magma erupting from this particular volcano.
So, here's another example just to show you. The ash cloud is different from a volcano. But as this erupts into that kind of an updraft because of the warm, warm magma, it creates a cloud that can actually alter the weather patterns and create lightning, even precipitation.
[09:55:08]
And when that mixes with ash, it creates tephra. And that can be very dangerous for the communities and villages below.
So, Mount Etna, a very, very active volcano, certainly in Europe, but across the world. And that ash and smoke, by the way, John, reached several hundred kilometers into the atmosphere. Good thing it's not impacting the airlines at this moment in time, at least.
Back to you.
BERMAN: That's a -- that's a big ash cloud. No doubt about that.
VAN DAM: That is.
BERMAN: And we have both magma and a pyrocumulus cloud, right? I mean that's a lot going on in one place at one time.
VAN DAM: And a -- and a strombolian eruption. It is the Mediterranean (ph) version of a lighthouse.
BERMAN: Now you're -- you're making stuff up.
SIDNER: That's just being cute.
A strombolian eruption.
BERMAN: He's making it up. I think he's -- I think he's pranking us here.
SIDNER: I'm sorry that sounds --
BOLDUAN: Well, that's the best part. He could and we'd be, like, really fancy.
VAN DAM: Oh, Google it. It's a thing.
BERMAN: Stromboli.
SIDNER: And everyone here is going out to their favorite Italian joint tonight after hearing that.
BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM," up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
