Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Wars California to Face Large-Scale Fines After Trans Athlete Competes and Wins Two High School Girls' Track and Field Events; Disturbing New Details on Plot to Firebomb Jewish Event; White House Holding Press Briefing. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 03, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We're learning new details on an anti- Semitic attack in Colorado. Officials now saying it could have been worse. The suspect was allegedly plotting.

Plus, new numbers suggesting a reason for optimism in the U.S. economy. But despite more job openings than expected, another number ticked up, one that's actually worrying economists and investors.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And Ukraine hits Russia again, using underwater explosives on a key bridge to Crimea just days after Operation Spiderweb, showed Russia's vulnerability to attack.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to see you on CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: Thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Erica Hill in the nation's capital. Brianna Keilar is off this week somewhere sunny, enjoying mojito.

HILL: As she should be, well-deserved.

SANCHEZ: Indeed. We're glad to have you.

HILL: Our mojitos are coming. Just not right now.

SANCHEZ: At some point, at 4:00, roughly.

So, we begin this afternoon with President Trump ramping up his fight with California over transgender athletes. He says the state will face large-scale fines after a trans high school athlete competed and won several girls' track and field events over the weekend. He had threatened to pull funding ahead of this championship.

HILL: CNN's Alayna Treene joins us now from the White House. So, Alayna, what more is the president saying about how this might actually happen?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Look, I mean, days after the 16-year-old transgender athlete took first place in two different events in California State Track and Field Championship, the Trump administration is now, as you put it, saying that they would put, quote, large-scale fines over the state's policy to allowing trans athletes to compete in high school sports. They're also threatening legal action.

I do want to read for you some of that post you have up from the president himself who weighed in on this, this morning. He said, quote, a biological male competed in California girls' state finals winning big despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so. He went on to say, As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, I said Newsom, but he uses a different term there, just so you know, large- scale fines will be imposed.

Now, there's a couple very interesting things about this because the president has in the past threatened to withhold funding from California and other states that allowed and continue to allow transgender athletes to participate in high school sports. This comes after, of course, the president issued an executive order earlier this year barring that, his big push on no men in women's sports. That's a quote from the president that he often shared on the campaign trail. But it's not exactly clear yet how exactly they're going to go about it.

Now, a couple things to note that is very interesting. One is that we have now heard back from the governor of California. His office put out a response that essentially said that they have just a small number of transgender athletes in the NCAA and noted that the state is 1 of 22 that have laws requiring transgender students to participate in sports that align with their gender identity.

But all of this comes after, just to get a little more political here, after we did see California's governor, Gavin Newsom, go on a podcast with a conservative -- you know, far right conservative person, Charlie Kirk, and essentially said that he didn't personally believe that it was fair for transgender athletes to participate in sports.

All to say this has become a very big story in California, but mainly also for the president who has tried and really, you know, gone after repeatedly now Gavin Newsom, someone who has become kind of a foil to him as we look up at more politics across the country, nut still unclear, Boris and Erica, how exactly the president but also mainly his administration would move forward with legal action in some of these fines.

SANCHEZ: And, Alayna, you also have new reporting on a meeting that Vice President Vance had with Laura Loomer, this right wing activist who's pushed conspiracy theories.

TREENE: Yes. This is really interesting because the last time Laura Loomer, at least the last known time, I should say, that she was here at the White House, there were significant events that came after. One is she came to talk to President Donald Trump personally, and essentially told him, urged him really to fire a number of people she deemed as disloyal.

[13:05:07]

That included, and ultimately ended up in the president firing a number of different people on the National Security Council, including the director and the deputy director of the NSA.

But this morning, we are learning now that Loomer came back to the White House and met one-on-one behind closed doors with Vice President J.D. Vance. Now, three of the sources we spoke with would not divulge what exactly they discussed in the substance of the meeting, but they confirmed that the two met privately. She did not meet with President Donald Trump while she was here, and she's now no longer here at the White House.

But all to say the reason it's so important is because of the impact we know that she's continued to have. She obviously has a large falling online. She's someone who trades in conspiracies theories at time to time, and she's also now come to have a big influence on this president. So, newsworthy in of itself that she was here today and meeting directly with the vice president. Boris, Erica?

HILL: Absolutely. Alayna Treene live at the White House this hour, thank you.

There are disturbing new details in the Colorado firebombing attack revealing the ambush itself could have been much worse. We're learning the suspected attacker, quote, planned on dying during the targeted assault on this Jewish community event. And according to officials, he had turned to Molotov cocktails after trying to buy a gun but he was denied.

SANCHEZ: His arrest warrant goes on to say that despite bringing 18 Molotov cocktails to the scene of the attack, he only threw two, authorities say, because he, quote, got scared.

CNN's Whitney Wild has more on his alleged plans than the charges that he's now facing.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: We are learning quite a bit more about what led up to this attack and how it was actually carried out. Law enforcement says that Mohamed Sabry Solomon planned this attack for a year. At one point, he actually tried to get a gun. He'd taken a concealed carry class, he learned to shoot, and then when he went to purchase this gun, he was denied because he's not a U.S. citizen. That's when he decided to make Molotov cocktails. And what he told law enforcement was that he learned how to make Molotov cocktails basically by watching videos online.

He waited until one of his five children, his daughter, graduated high school to carry out this attack. And on the day of the attack, he drove to Boulder. He dressed as a gardener to try to get his close as possible to this group. And that's when he threw two Molotov cocktails at this group. He had 16 more Molotov cocktails he did not detonate. He's now facing a very long list of charges, 16 charges for attempted first-degree murder. He's also facing charges for the 16 Molotov cocktails he did not detonate. He's also facing charges in federal court. He's facing a hate crime charge. The law enforcement at the federal level and the state level has made very clear that the maximum sentences for these long list of charges that he's facing is in effect life behind bars. I mean, just the state charges alone if he gets the maximum sentence is more than 400 years behind bars.

We are also learning more about the victims. We know that they range in age from 52 to 88 years old. One of them is a Holocaust survivor. We now know the total number of victims is 12. And when we last spoke with Boulder Police, the latest information on the two victims -- there are two victims who remain in the hospital. We don't have much detail beyond that. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: Whitney Wild in Boulder for us, thank you so much.

Today, in Sean Diddy Combs' federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial, a former hotel security guard at the Intercontinental testified that Combs gave him $100,000 to hand over what Combs thought was the only copy of that surveillance video that shows Combs violently attacking his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

HILL: Eddie Garcia said that shortly after that assault in March of 2016, he received repeated calls from Combs' team about obtaining the video. After some back and forth and taking the request up the chain, Garcia says his boss then instructed him to tell Combs he could have a video for $50,000. Garcia told the jury Combs actually doubled the amount and made him sign a $1 million nondisclosure agreement.

Stacey Schneider is a criminal defense attorney and joins us now. So, Stacey, when we look at this, we knew going in each of these elements, right, how the deal was done, according to Garcia, the cash payment, the NDA, what stood out to you in terms of what we heard from him on the stand.

STACEY SCHNEIDER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The fact that the NDA supplied to him came from the Combs Enterprise. The letterhead of the NDA was from Sean Combs' business. So, prosecutors are trying to prove this is a racketeering conspiracy run by what they call in the indictment the Combs enterprise. So, these are little pieces of linkage to the business.

Now, of course, it's not the end all, be all, because even if he used an NDA from his business, the prosecution still is on the journey of proving that this is a conspiracy to allegedly assault women or coerce people into sexual acts, or engage in human trafficking, and Combs' lawyers are still arguing to the jury, this was a domestic violence private issue.

[13:10:20]

SANCHEZ: And, Stacey, how important are the NDA and this cash payment from Combs toward proving that racketeering took place?

SCHNEIDER: It's very important because from the prosecution's perspective, it shows what we call indicia of guilt, awareness of guilt. It looks like this testimony is being presented to cover up an alleged crime, that alleged crime is engaging with a prostitute, allegedly subjecting Cassie Ventura to the freak-offs and coerced sexual activity. So, it's a very important element for the prosecution to show.

But there was an interesting component today that the defense got in. Because in the NDA that Combs supplied to the security guard, there was a clause in there that said that if law enforcement was looking for information about what was contained on this videotape, that the security guard was free to disclose that to law enforcement. And the purpose of that was to get ahead of a potential allegation against Combs that he was obstructing justice.

So, that was pretty clever, and that may have been worked out by an attorney who drafted that NDA. It seems so. And that was a significant point scored by the defense today though.

HILL: Also on the stand, they're still on a lunch break right now, probably should be back soon, but is Derek Ferguson who will be back on the stand. He was the head of finance for these companies under Sean Diddy Combs. He could really be, I'm guessing, key to getting into the case that the prosecution is trying to prove, and that is racketeering in terms of tying all of these threads together. What do you expect from him?

SCHNEIDER: I expect his testimony to show the jury that the buck stopped with Sean Diddy Combs, that he was running the company, and therefore allegedly he was running this racketeering conspiracy that the prosecution is intending to prove up in order to meet its burden of the charges that were indicted.

So, this particular individual the former chief financial officer is a very crucial linking point from the business to commands from Sean Combs and from reporting to Sean Combs and from authorization to use allegedly business finances to pay for some of this alleged illegal activity that we've heard throughout the case that underlies this indictment for racketeering.

HILL: Stacey Schneider, I appreciate it. Thank you.

SCHNEIDER: Thank you.

HILL: Still ahead here, a sign of labor market resilience as job openings unexpectedly increased in April despite the economic uncertainty surrounding President Trump's trade policies. The new report though also shows some crude (ph) numbers.

SANCHEZ: Plus, a man claiming to be one of the inmates who escaped is now pleading to rapper Lil Wayne and President Trump for help on Instagram, posting videos claiming that he is innocent and has been framed. We'll tell you why he says that.

And later, video shows the moment Ukraine struck a bridge linking Russia with Crimea using underwater explosives. That and much more coming up after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:15:00]

SANCHEZ: Let's go straight to the wine house where Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is answering questions from reporters. Let's listen.

REPORTER: -- California, Connecticut, Maine, that are not allowing any religious exemptions for kids not only to go to school, but to participate in sports and extracurricular activities. Would the president want to see religious exemptions allowed across all 50 states? And how do you enforce that, especially with states like California that are already defying the president on the men and women's sports?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So, generally speaking, I know the president supports religious exemptions for families when it comes to vaccinations. As per the instances in those specific states, I'll have the administration and the White House look into it and see what executive action, if any, we can take on that front. Thank you. Kelly?

REPORTER: Good afternoon. We're now in afternoon. We're in hurricane season. And, obviously, there is great concern every year about the potential for that. Can you speak to how the president is planning to have the level of support, should it be needed, to be as it has been with a reduction in the workforce? And is he still comfortable with Administrator Richardson who had talked, whether joking or not, about not being aware of a hurricane season for this country? What is the president's level of briefings on what may be required, if you could give us kind of an overall update on that?

LEAVITT: Sure. Well, of course we know that we are into hurricane season now, and I know FEMA is taking this seriously contrary to some of the reporting we have seen based on jokes that were made and leaks from meetings. But Secretary Kristi Noem and the FEMA leadership are all over this. They are committed to ensuring that federal resources and tax dollars are there for Americans in need.

[13:20:00]

And the president continues to review requests for emergency aid and carefully considering them.

However, this president has made it clear we're not going to enable states to make bad decisions with federal tax dollars and then have the federal government later have to bail these states out. We want to see states be responsible with their tax dollars to do as much as they possibly can, and then the president will deeply and thoughtfully consider any requests for federal aid that come to his desk.

And I think some of the media reporting we've seen on this is frankly sloppy and irresponsible. There are serious people who are taking this issue seriously, starting with the president himself, who, as you know, on his first domestic trip back in office, visited both North Carolina and California, both of which were, of course, hit by natural disasters when he wasn't even president, but he took ownership of that and visited those places and those people immediately. Brian? REPORTER: Is it (INAUDIBLE) about Hurricane season appropriate though now that we're -- this is serious business, as you talked about?

LEAVITT: It's serious business, Kelly, and I'm not going to engage in such fodder with a question like that. Brian?

REPORTER: Thank you, Karoline. Reuters was reporting that there is a letter that is meant to be sent to other countries which would give these countries a deadline of Wednesday to produce their best offer on the trade matter. Why does the administration feel the need to send this letter? And I have one more follow-up on trade.

LEAVITT: Sure. I can confirm the merits and the content of the letter. USTR sent this letter to all of our trading partners just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up. And they are in talks. Ambassador Greer, Secretary Bessent and Secretary Lutnick are in talks with many of our key trading partners around the globe, as you know, Brian, I know the Wall Street Journal has covered this quite heavily. And they continued to be engaged in those discussions. And this letter was simply to remind these countries that the deadline is approaching and the president expects good deals and we are on track for that, I will emphasize.

REPORTER: On the trade side, though, when the deal with the United Kingdom, there was this idea of a reprieve on the auto tariffs. Is the president looking to do another similar deal on the sector-by-sector reduction tariffs, or is this more going to be deals related to the reciprocal tariffs that were announced months ago?

LEAVITT: Well, as I've said previously from the podium, and the president has discussed as well, each country has unique advantages, unique challenges to it based on their markets and what they export to us and what we export to them. And so that's why the president smartly advised his trade team to engage in tailor-made deal-making. And we saw that with the United Kingdom and we will see that with other countries as well.

HILL: So, you've been listening to part of the White House briefing there, a question just wrapped up also about a letter that was sent to trading partners as a friendly reminder that the deadline was coming up to make these deals with the United States. Karoline Leavitt says they are on track for good deals, didn't further expand on that. It says that they're on track.

There was also a question about these -- questions surrounding Fema, whether it was a joke or not, that the head of FEMA wasn't aware there was a hurricane season. We've been told that was a joke. But there was a question about just how prepared the government is, and Karoline Leavitt saying that the president will quote deeply and thoughtfully consider requests for aid from states when they come along, but wants to make sure that they are not making bad decisions with federal tax dollars.

We'll continue to follow that briefing, bringing any more of the headlines that come out of it. SANCHEZ: We are tracking more news related to President Trump's trade war. He actually got an unexpected boost as he now doubles down and we have confirmation of that letter that was sent to trading partners a friendly reminder, as Karoline Leavitt put it, of the deadline for Trump's tariffs to kick back in. The number of available jobs actually grew in April even as economists were predicting those numbers would fall again for the third straight month.

CNN's Matt Egan is here to break it down for us. So, Matt, what does this say about the state of the economy?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris, this paints the picture of a resilient jobs market during the month of April. Despite the trade war, despite all the confusion over tariffs, workers are still very much in demand. Those help wanted signs are not going away, at least not yet.

This report showed that the number of available jobs in April increased from 7.2 million the month before to 7.4 million. This is obviously very encouraging news for everyone who's unemployed and they're hunting for a job, for people who just got out of college, where we know it is a very tough market in terms of entry level jobs. It's also good news for every, everyone who has a job, but they want to upgrade to a better job.

We also found out that hiring unexpectedly accelerated in April, increasing by almost 170,000 versus March. So, this suggests that despite all the turmoil on Wall Street, despite all the chaos over tariffs, businesses, were not hunkering down in the month of April, and that is very good news.

As far as where the job openings are, we're seeing an increase in openings in a number of different sectors, including arts and entertainment, retail, healthcare. This has been a very strong area in terms of job growth.

[13:25:00]

One surprise is, look at this, the federal government had an increase in job openings, and that, of course, is despite the fact that DOGE has been trying to take an axe to the federal workforce.

Now, there were declines in job openings in a number of key sectors, including accommodation in food services. That's restaurants and hotels. That's something we should keep an eye on, state and local education, finance and insurance. This is significant. Manufacturing saw a decline in job openings in April. And that is despite the fact that that is the sector that the president is trying the hardest to prop up with these sky-high tariffs.

Now, despite the overall positive headlines here, there were some signs of caution that we should keep an eye on. Layoffs did increase significantly. And also quits, they fell sharply to the lowest level so far this year. That's something that we watch closely because the number of quits is a sign of how confident workers are about being able to get a job elsewhere. I think big picture, this report points to a jobs market that is still holding off, right, holding up, like it's not collapsing as a lot of investors had been worried about. But Boris and Erica, I think the focus now shifts to Friday's government jobs report, and that should give us an even clearer sense for where this economy stands.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Matt, I appreciate it, thank you.

EGAN: Thanks.

HILL: Another new report out today is actually raising some concerns about the impact of President Trump's trade wars. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says America's GDP will likely shrink from 2.8 percent in 2024 to 1.6 percent this year and 1.5 percent next year. Forecasters predicted that Trump's trade war poses risks to global GDP growth as well, and risks fueling inflation.

To take a closer look at what this means, Senior Columnist for Yahoo Finance Rick Newman joins us now. Rick, it's good to have you.

So, this feels like a bit of a mixed bag today when it comes to economic data. We've got job openings up, right, but some layoffs as well, as Matt just laid out, which is not great. Does it give you put together?

RICK NEWMAN, SENIOR COLUMNIST, YAHOO! FINANCE: No. It's very foggy where the U.S. economy is heading. And guess what? It all depends on one person. That's President Donald Trump. So, I think what those job numbers tell us -- and, by the way, those are job openings. That's not the same as hiring. We're going to get -- as Matt Egan pointed out, we'll find out more about hiring on Friday.

As a lot of job seekers know there are some phantom job openings out there. There are these jobs that are listed. Companies kind of feel like if the perfect candidate comes along, maybe I'll hire that person. But if the perfect candidate doesn't come along, some of those jobs to stay there unfilled.

But what the OECD said is they expect slower growth for United States. That's in line with what dozens and dozens of economists have been saying. And, again, it just all depends completely on what happens with Donald Trump's tariffs. I mean, he has threatened worse tariffs, but he has imposed some tariffs. Those tariffs are going to raise costs. And those higher costs are going to slow down the economy. They're going to slow growth, they're going to slow higher, and they're going to push prices higher, and nobody knows how far he's going to go.

So, I think one thing that is definitely happening is a lot of companies are just on hold. They are not necessarily hiring new people, but they're not firing people either, because maybe the economy will turn out better than expected. We just need more clarity about what Trump's going to do with his tariffs. And I'm not sure we're going to get clarity. I think Trump likes being able to threaten tariffs like Zeus throwing a lightning bolt from the top of the mountain anytime he wants. HILL: Well look the president has said repeatedly through both terms, I should point out, he likes that little bit of uncertainty and unknown when it comes to any deal because he looks at it as a way to do negotiations. Obviously, I'm paraphrasing there but the president does see it as coming from a point of strength to keep people guessing.

I do want to ask you about -- so, again, this was just confirmed in the White House briefing. Reuters had forced, reported on this letter that was sent out by the U.S. trade representative to a number of countries saying that, basically, we need your best and final. It's like a real estate transaction. We need your best and final by Wednesday as they look to move these deals, any deals along. Karoline Leavitt saying, yes, this was just a friendly reminder that that July 9th deadline is quickly approaching. How important is it to get a deal at this point, not just for the president, but because of all of this uncertainty?

NEWMAN: It's like literally more than a hundred deals. So, that's referring to the reciprocal tariff that Trump imposed on, I mean, honestly, like every country in the world on April 2nd, then he withdrew most of those on April 9th after the market's tanked, and that July 9th deadline. That's just Trump's own deadline. That's arbitrary. He put a 90-day deadline. He wants to hear from countries. And after he hears from countries, maybe he will go back and re-impose those reciprocal tariffs. Maybe he won't. Maybe he will create a new deadline.

[13:30:01]

So, that July 9 is the day.