The Latest on the Colorado Flamethrower Attack
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It is Monday, June 2nd, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. It was chaos. People were writhing on the ground. Multiple people set on fire by a man with a makeshift flamethrower. What police say the suspect yelled during the attack. Plus this. I would be very surprised if the bill at least is not modified in a good direction.

President Trump demands that Republican senators fall in line over that big beautiful bill, but will hardliner holdouts block it? Then today's peace talks overshadowed by a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack deep inside Russia. Is there any hope for the negotiations? And a sports rivalry for the ages, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Is this feud just what the WNBA needs or is it fueling excitement for all the wrong reasons?

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the sunrise over New York City. Good morning, New York, New York. Good morning to you. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for waking up with me. We're going to start with some breaking news. That horrifying attack in Boulder, Colorado, where police say a man used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to set people on fire. At least eight people were injured.

Police identified the suspect as Mohammed Sabri Suleiman. They say he shouted "Free Palestine" before the attack. This happened at a weekly gathering to support Israeli hostages, and he was arrested at the scene. The victims include four women and four men, and they range in age from 52 to 88. One of them is a Holocaust survivor.

It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism. The person who threw the Molotov cocktail had two more in his hand and he was holding them and he was yelling and he was screaming at everybody that you're killing people is what he just kept screaming. You're killing, I think he was saying you're killing my people.

Online jail records show the suspect has been booked on two counts of murder. So far, no deaths have been announced. And CNN, of course, is working now to find out more ahead of the suspect's court appearance that's happening later today. Chief Charles Ramsey joins me now. He's a CNN senior law enforcement analyst, the former commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department. Thank you, Charles Ramsey. And I want to start about what investigators might be focused on.

And so far, what's known about the suspect? Well, number one, they're focused on making sure that he's acting alone, that there's no one else that they should be concerned about. So they're taking a deep dive into his background, is my understanding. He may have overstayed a tourist visa, but they'll be going into his social media. They'll be interviewing family, friends.

uh witnesses uh obviously but they're gonna try to find any connection he may have to anyone else so they can make sure that this is just an isolated incident as far as he is concerned i'm sure search ones have already been served probably at whatever location he's been staying at if he had a car uh anything like that trying to get as much information about him as uh as possible

Now, witnesses are saying that it actually took the police quite some time to arrive on the scene. I want you to listen to someone who was speaking about police response. Seeing the person still holding two Molotov cocktails, the police, like, let's be honest, like, where are they? And it felt very frustrating. I want to say it always feels like time slows down, and maybe it wasn't 10 minutes, but it sure felt like 10 minutes.

Charles, can you talk about that? Obviously, it is a witness on the scene. They're witnessing something horrible. What do you make of this conversation about law enforcement response? Well, one minute can seem like five minutes when you're under stress. I doubt if he looked at his watch to find out exactly how long the response. But we'll find out because they're radio tapes.

that are associated with the first call for service and when the officers arrived on the scene. But like everything else, you know, police can be stretched pretty thin during these times in terms of staffing and things of that nature. I'm sure they arrived as quickly as they could. The same with the fire department, as quickly as they could to the scene. So we'll get more information on that as this unfolds, because again, it's all a matter of records.

This was a weekly event, this demonstration. I'm sure there are others that happen around the country. Do you think that we're going to see police around the country ramping up security around communities of Jewish people and even at protests like this?

I think you'll see an increase in security by many departments. And again, this proves one thing doesn't have to be a major city like L.A., Chicago, New York or something like that. Now, Boulder is a pretty good sized city, but still it proves that it can happen anywhere under any circumstances. Now, this happened every week.

where they had this particular march or walk. And it had gone without incident for a long time. So it's not something that probably caught the attention of the department immediately, knowing that this march was going to take place today. But again, in this current environment, you have to do everything you can to make sure that people can participate

engage in this kind of activity and remain safe. This is not a good period of time. And it's pretty frightening when you really stop and think about it. You look at the attack in Washington, D.C., coupled with this one. We're just that summer hasn't even gotten here yet officially. So, you know, this could be just the beginning. I hope I'm wrong.

of even more incidents. Hate is something that you cannot contain. I mean, today it's against the Jewish people. It could be against immigrants. It could be against African-Americans or Spanish. It could be against anyone. You can't contain it. And you've got a lot of nuts out there that are waiting for an opportunity to do something like we saw. Thank God so far no one has died. That's Chief Charles Ramsey. Thank you.

Coming up on CNN this morning, senators actually returned to work today to review that budget bill. Are the fiscal hawks going to hold things up? Plus, Sean Diddy comes back in court. In just a few hours, his ex-assistant returns to the stand for cross-examination. And runway construction wraps up early at Newark. But will this help with all the chaos at the airport?

It was so bad, some controllers took trauma leave. And I really hope they spent that time recovering in a place more comforting than Newark, very much the New Jersey of places in New Jersey.

This podcast is sponsored by Rocket. The American dream of homeownership feels further and further out of reach. For many people, homeownership feels impossible. But Rocket is on a mission to help everyone get home. They've got a range of products and services designed to turn renters into owners. From lowering down payments to as little as 1%, to helping turn your rent check into a forever home. Find out more at rocket.com. Rocket.

Own the dream. I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service. Self-driving cars have hit the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Phoenix. Even in human-driven cars, giant tablet screens and automated driver assistance features can make it feel like a computer is your co-pilot. So what does all this mean for the future of driving? And with our cars becoming more like computers, do we need to worry about them getting hacked?

Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts. Congress is back today as President Trump's agenda now hangs in the balance. It was just before the Memorial Day recess when House Speaker Mike Johnson managed to squeeze the package through the House by a single vote. Some Republican senators are already pointing out the problems.

What the agreement is on the rest of the bill, and it doesn't have to be perfect to my liking, but I can't be, if I vote for the $5 trillion debt, who's left in Washington that cares about the debt? We will have lost. The GOP will own the debt once they vote for this. Also complicating the path forward, a new nonpartisan analysis finds the tax provisions in the bill would actually increase the deficit by almost $4 trillion over the next decade. House Speaker Mike Johnson is challenging that math.

This is very easy to explain. The CBO sometimes gets projections correct, but they're always off, every single time, when they project economic growth. It's not going to add to the debt, but I can tell you that President Trump is laser focused on two primary things: delivering on his campaign promises and the America First agenda,

Joining me now in the group chat, Courtney Brown, Axios economics reporter, Kevin Fry, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News, New York One, and Sabrina Rodriguez, national political reporter for The Washington Post. Okay, so we heard a couple things just in that statement. One, casting doubt on the Congressional Budget Office, which is the favorite pastime when the math doesn't work out for your legislation.

But what was interesting in that is number one, in another clip he actually says that he was like texting with Elon to be like, actually, no, this bill math, it really works. But financial markets are spooked too, right? Like who's buying the math here? Well, the financial markets,

They do not buy the math. They're extremely spooked by the size of the bill. We've seen yields go up and down and up and down. And it's this crazy volatility that's freaking out Wall Street. And the fear is that, you know, the budget is just getting out of control. And, you know, ironically, the more that the financial markets get spooked about the size of the bill, the more expensive the bill actually gets. The borrowing costs go up. Right. And, you know,

It matters for Americans, too. These are the rates that set mortgages and, you know, the rates to borrow for auto loans. So it matters. And yet they keep trying. Here is OMB Director Russell Vogt telling CNN this weekend that

I love Elon. This bill doesn't increase the deficit or hurt the debt. In fact, it lowers it by $1.4 trillion. We continue to work with people in the Senate as to working through the specifics of the bill, what it does and what it doesn't do. We'll continue to do that. And I think at the end of the day, the Senate will have a resounding vote in favor of a substantially similar bill.

How are people preparing to counter this message? We know what they're saying. No matter what, post through it. Say that it's going to lower everything. But Sabrina, I know you were like out reporting. I think it was in South Carolina. Do people hear that or are they busy thinking about Medicaid specifically? Like what do average people talk about at these town halls?

Yeah, I was down in South Carolina and Columbia for the Democrats convention. So this is a big conversation right now. This is a big talking point. Of course, Democrats are mad just to begin with that they weren't involved in the process around this bill. But there is really that, you know, as Trump calls it, the air quotes, big, beautiful bill. There's a lot of messaging around, you know, Medicaid cuts,

Specifically and saying you know now as this hits the Senate and there's going to be a debate over The funding and debate over okay, how much does this add to the national debt? Are there going to be even more cuts in place? What exactly is going to happen because right now we are hearing you know senators aren't on board with this and even as you hear Speaker Johnson Trying to you know the math is not mathing here, but while he tries to make that happen

happen you actually do have some Republican senators a select few but enough to tank the bill who are saying no we we know that this is not correct that's a whole line to exploit right I mean do you see actual conversation now like okay there every time a Republican speaks some Democratic consultant gets their wings and you get to have an ad about Medicaid yeah I mean look

There's going to have to be changes to comply with what these senators are concerned with. You have a group that's the Lisa Murkowskis of the world, but also the Josh Hollys of the world, who are very concerned about-- Of Missouri. Of Missouri. And very much a Trump supporter. Correct. And who has gone so far as to suggest that major cuts to Medicaid amount to political suicide, as he said in the New York Times in an op-ed.

And an op-ed. Correct. So it's not just a quote in the New York Times. It's like, hit send. He wrote and sent. On top of that, there are probably going to be changes to the state and local tax deduction, which is important for these key Republican House members that you need, let alone other changes. So this faces a very complicated path forward. And obviously, some Republicans are getting skittish.

as we were just hinting at, about the Medicaid portion. - Yeah, and more and more pressure ramping up. Group chat, stay with me. We're gonna talk a little bit more about this later, how it's playing out. But still ahead on CNN this morning, fragile peace talks today between Ukraine and Russia. President Zelenskyy pulls off a major attack thousands of miles inside Russia. So what does that mean for these negotiations?

And it's one of the biggest rivalries in sports right now, so why does it sometimes feel like a bad thing? And good morning, Pittsburgh. Looks like a nice start to the day there. CNN News Central, today at 7 Eastern.

Yeah, I was down in South Carolina and Columbia for the Democrats convention. So this is a big conversation right now. This is a big talking point. Of course, Democrats are mad just to begin with that they weren't involved in the process around this bill. But there is really the, you know, as Trump calls it, the air quotes, big, beautiful bill. There's a lot of messaging around, you know, Medicaid cuts specifically and saying, you know, now as this hits the Senate and there's going to be a debate over the funding and debate over, OK, how much does this add to the national debt?

are there going to be even more cuts in place? What exactly is going to happen? Because right now we are hearing, you know, senators aren't on board with this. And even as you hear Speaker Johnson trying to, you know, the math is not mathing here, but while he tries to make that happen, you actually do have some Republican senators, a select few, but enough to tank the bill, who are saying, no, we know that this is not correct. And that's a whole line to exploit, right? I mean, do you see actual conversation now? Like, okay, there, every time a Republican speaks, some Democratic...

consultant gets their wings and you get to have an ad about Medicaid. - Yeah, I mean look, there's going to have to be changes to comply with what these senators are concerned with. You have a group that's the Lisa Murkowskis of the world, but also the Josh Hollys of the world who are very concerned about-- - Of Missouri, and very much a Trump supporter. - Correct, and who has gone so far as to suggest that major cuts to Medicaid amount to political suicide, as he said in the New York Times in an op-ed.

And an op-ed. Correct. So it's not just a quote in the New York Times. It's like, hit send. He wrote and sent. On top of that, there are probably going to be changes to the state and local tax deduction, which is important for these key Republican House members that you need, let alone other changes. So this faces a very complicated path forward. And obviously, some Republicans are getting skittish.

as we were just hinting at, about the Medicaid portion. - Yeah, and more and more pressure ramping up. Group chat, stay with me. We're gonna talk a little bit more about this later, how it's playing out. But still ahead on CNN this morning, fragile peace talks today between Ukraine and Russia. President Zelenskyy pulls off a major attack thousands of miles inside Russia. So what does that mean for these negotiations?

And it's one of the biggest rivalries in sports right now, so why does it sometimes feel like a bad thing? And good morning, Pittsburgh. Looks like a nice start to the day there.

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We want every person that comes into our arena, whether player, whether fan, to have a great experience. So I appreciate the league doing that. Hopefully the investigation will leave that up to them to find anything and take the proper action if so. All right. I got to go off script for a second to talk about basketball, trash talk, rivalries. WNBA stars Caitlin Clark, you just heard her there, and Angel Reese are elite athletes. They draw massive crowds, TV time, rabid fans to this league and attention to their rivalry.

Of course, some of those fans have now taken things to a dark place. The WNBA investigated reports of alleged racist fan behavior towards Reese during a game against Clark. Reaction to a play that both have said was just basketball. But online, it turned into a proxy culture war about race. Three-time national championship coach Don Staley weighed in on the rivalry. I think it's great for our game. Yeah, like it's a sport. Treat us like a sport. Don't treat us.

Anything other than being a sport. It happens in every sport, soccer, basketball, football. It happens in every sport. So let it be. Joining me now, CNN contributor Carrie Champion. Welcome back. Good morning. Good morning. All right. So you just heard Dawn say, let it be. And as a person who grew up in Boston in the 80s, I feel like sports rivalry is the air in which I breathe. Like that is how I grew up. So, number one, do you agree that it's just a good thing?

You know, Adi, first off, I love that we're having this conversation because I really, truly believe what Dawn said. And I said it since the beginning. This rivalry is good for the game. And what she's essentially saying, what Dawn essentially is saying, these are athletes and you should not treat them anything, any way differently in the sense that we're

When we watch men play basketball, we are not having these conversations that are so simple, that have nothing to do with the game. And we're not having these perceived and made up beefs. We know that

Magic Johnson and Larry Bird didn't like each other. We know that was good for the NBA. We need this type of tension. We need these storylines. We need these characters. The problem is, is that there's so many new WNBA fans and they're all weighing in on the conversation that has been that makes it seem as if it's an issue. But it really isn't. It really is something that's good.

No, it's interesting you say that because we were looking at the numbers and like that game between Reese and Clark, it had a record breaking 3.1 million viewers. Right. So we're not just saying like, gee, a lot of people are watching the game or gee, there's a lot of people who are kind of like new fans entering the chat. Right.

Not to be a hater, but is this the fans? Is this sports media? Like everyone who plays the sport, I feel like has a sense of what we're looking at. And the chatter around it though is vicious. And you do see racial commentary around it.

You know what's happening? I think what Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are doing are showing, one, and this is great for women's sports in general, that women can compete, that women can be aggressive. I think that when you think of women's sports, I'm old enough to remember when people only talked about women's sports when they were referring to how hot the women were, the top women.

10 hot ladies who play whatever game, whether it be tennis or, you know, you never really hear about them being athletes and competing in the way in which these two women do. And the reason why the chatter is so vicious is because, unfortunately, this is America, and racism is something that we know oh so well, and it forces us

to take a side, it forces us to be invested. And while the conversation is so low in the sense of why are we calling these women names? Why are we pitting them against one another? Why can't they just compete like regular athletes? Unfortunately, this is what will get the attention going. And it started in college for both of those young ladies. They played a really good college game. Angel Reese trolled her and did this movement about she's gonna get a ring. The whole world, they were up

in arms. Heaven forbid if we watch LeBron do that on a Saturday. We don't even think twice about it. It's not even a conversation. That's why it's so unfortunate. But this is the part of the growing pains of this sport. It's getting all of this attention. We have new eyes. And so this is just a part of what we're going to get. The growing pains of people weighing in that don't really know the sport until they're tired of having that conversation. All right. Let's hope so. Carrie Champion, host of Naked Sports with Carrie Champion. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Thank you. Still ahead on CNN this morning, we're going to bring you the latest on that breaking news of the attack in Boulder, Colorado. How one man is accused of using a makeshift flamethrower to terrorize a gathering in support of Israeli hostages. Plus, more Americans want to see the government get more done. Fewer trust either party to actually do that. We're going to dig into the numbers.

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. This morning, law enforcement in Colorado investigate a violent attack at a pro-Israeli rally in Boulder. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's now half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now.

Police in Boulder, Colorado say a man with a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails attacked a peaceful crowd, setting several people on fire. And it happened at a weekly rally to support the hostages still being held by Hamas. The suspect allegedly yelled "Free Palestine" during the attack. At least eight were injured, including a Holocaust survivor.

We want to make sure that, again, no matter what your viewpoints are in our state, that you feel safe. And in particular now, a lot of members of our Jewish community feel particularly threatened by this act of terrorism.

The suspect has been arrested. The FBI was searching his home overnight. No deaths have been reported just yet, but he is currently booked on two counts of murder. That's according to his online jail records. And in just a few hours, Sean Combs' ex-assistant returns to the stand for more cross-examination. On Friday, the defense suggested that she made up the sexual assault allegations against Diddy, but she said that she hasn't, quote, "lied to anyone at all about the accusations."

And today, after weeks of delays and cancellations, Newark Airport closed runway will reopen ahead of schedule. The project began in March and was scheduled to be done by June 15th. The construction, along with air traffic control tech issues, caused the FAA to limit flights there this summer.

and this morning russian and ukrainian officials are in turkey giving peace talks another try so far it's unclear what will come from the negotiations given that these talks come after ukraine launched a major drone strike it's called operation spiderweb took a year and a half to plan ukraine's president says they used 117 drones

to strike air bases deep inside Russia. A source says that they had been smuggled into the area and hidden. This caused $7 billion in damages, according to Ukrainian sources. A brilliant operation was conducted on the enemy's territory against military targets only, against equipment that was used to deliver strikes on Ukraine. Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so, as they deserved it.

CNN global analyst Kim Dozier joins me now to discuss the latest developments. First, let's talk about this attack that you heard Zelensky essentially crowing about, saying that 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers were at this air base. So what kind of impact could this have?

It's actually multiple air bases across the country all the way to Siberia. Russia hasn't confirmed the extent of the damage, but they confirmed it happened. And Russians also uploaded their own video of these drones swarming, destroying $100 million planes.

I've seen Ukrainian drones operators in the field, but this would have taken Ukrainians being inside Russia, infiltrating all the way to Siberia because these quadcopter drones

can't be controlled from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. So for all our talk of long-range missiles, the Ukrainians have innovated, so to speak, when it comes to battle force use of drones. With little quadcopter drones with a few pounds of explosive loaded on them, they took out $100 million bombers that are supposed to carry nuclear weapons.

So here's where we stand now. A few weeks ago, there were attacks on Kyiv, right, in Ukraine, attacks hurting civilians by Russia. Now you have Ukraine replying in kind, saying, look, we're going to attack the bombers that were coming for us. And now these two sides are supposed to sit at a negotiating table.

How? Well, actually those attacks, they continue every night. I had a friend last night saying they were moving their mattress out into the hallway because there were warnings of ballistic missile strikes against Kyiv. So each side continues to strike each other.

These talks in Istanbul probably will not produce a ceasefire, but the last talks produced a massive prisoner exchange. So it is useful for them to keep talking. Russia, though, has not presented their proposal based on their public statements, though. It's likely to have a number of things that Ukraine can't swallow, recognizing all the territory Russia has seized since 2022, and some of it it still doesn't completely hold.

agreeing to disarm, agreeing to not take foreign aid for its military anymore. They want a demilitarized and almost a de-allied Ukraine. Is Ukraine bothering with demands? Ukraine has circulated its draft widely and it offers an unconditional ceasefire and then all the normal things you'd expect a country that been attacked would want. So

It's good that they're going to continue to talk because it's a signal to the Trump administration that Ukraine is still willing. But this is Kyiv with this latest attack showing Trump, we are innovative and we are worth backing. You say we don't have all the cards. Look, we just landed a straight flush. Okay, Kim Dozier, CNN Global Affairs Analyst. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Now we're going to talk about the conflict in the Middle East because at least 31 Palestinians were shot dead, dozens more injured near an aid distribution site in Gaza. Now according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, and we want to warn you that this video may be disturbing, this video came into CNN overnight and it shows the chaos as it unfolded.

The ministry and eyewitnesses say the Israeli military opened fire near the aid hub. But the IDF says its forces did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the aid site. Over the weekend, Hamas said it was ready for indirect negotiations to reach a ceasefire. But Israel's defense minister told the military to continue advancing in Gaza, quote, regardless of any negotiations.

CNN's Paula Hancock joins me now. Paula, I want to start with a quote from the defense minister who told the IDF to "employ all necessary means by air, land and sea." And this comes after Hamas is pushing back on the latest U.S. proposed ceasefire plan. Can you talk about some of the obstacles here, the most recent ones anyway, in terms of sticking points?

Well, Lordi, the basic difference between Hamas and Israel is that Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire immediately and they want the IDF to move back from population centres, move out of Gaza, and Israel is simply not prepared to do that. They say they want to continue fighting, as we heard from the defence minister, as Hamas has not been completely destroyed.

What we've seen now is Hamas pushing back against what we heard from Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy for the Trump administration, saying that Hamas was pushing the process backwards and saying it's simply not true. We are willing to negotiate immediately. But they want to have some guarantees. They want to make sure that this proposal, which would see 10 living hostages and a number of deceased hostages being released for a 60-day ceasefire, is the latest

version that we've seen they want to know that that temporary ceasefire is going to become permanent they want to make sure there is more humanitarian aid coming into Gaza and they also want to make sure that the Israeli military is pushing back to certain positions so they're not just staying where they are but we don't appear to be any closer than we were a number of weeks ago although Doha and Cairo say that they are intensifying efforts

And over the weekend on Sunday, we saw just how desperately needed this ceasefire is when some 31 were killed near to an aid distribution site. Let's listen to one of those people who was in the vicinity.

Let them stop these massacres, stop this genocide. They are killing us. Kill all of us together and let us get rid of this life instead of getting hurt for this and that. Our beloved ones are dying. Enough. Who is left? Nobody is left. We cannot resist anymore at all, I swear.

Now, in addition to those that were killed, some 200 were injured. The International Red Cross Field Hospital, where many of these patients were taken, said there was the highest number of weapon wounded in a single incident in the past year since that field hospital has been assembled. There is some confusion, though, as to who exactly was firing. That's CNN's Paula Hancock. Thank you.

A record number of Americans want the government to do more. They don't seem convinced either major party can lead the way. According to a new CNN poll, 58% of U.S. adults believe the federal government should be trying to do more. That number is a record high, up 25 points from 2011. But when asked which party can actually deliver those things, 44% believed neither could. Democrats only polled at 19% as party leaders predicted.

continue to grapple with lessons from the 2024 election. They keep telling us we have to learn how to talk to people. Yeah, you gotta go talk to people. That's pretty obvious, but we gotta make sure that we're talking and listening at the same time. We are being called on to act and to lead. The people want a growing middle class and they cannot wait.

Group chat is back. It occurs to me the problem is not wanting more. It's what is more? Like, I feel like it's not clear. Partisans, the average person, what they mean when they say they want more. More spending, more cuts, more what? I mean, how are Democrats talking about it?

one of the biggest themes from this weekend and seeing you know governor tim walls and and governor westmore talking about this is they're trying to understand what exactly it is that people want which of course is sort of standard reflective mode after an election especially when you have a bruising defeat like they did but

I think the conversation is really they're realizing there are things to learn from the Trump playbook. That was one of the common themes that you heard from Walls and from Moore this weekend, is saying, wait, something that Trump had right here is being really impatient, moving quickly, being decisive. One of the biggest frustrations that I heard from Democrats this weekend and on the campaign trail last year is a feeling that...

Democrats promise all these things, but then they only do little incremental changes or they're very deferential to the system and to kind of the procedural. And one of the things that we heard from these governors now is saying, OK, no, we got to learn from Trump that he's impatient, breaks things, moves quickly, does things swiftly and dramatically. And we need to do that. You know, Governor Moore, he kind of summed it up as saying, if Trump can do bad in so little time, can't we do so much good in little time? Yeah.

- Yeah. - The poll also asks which party best reflects their view on a range of issues, and when it comes to crime, the economy, immigration, Republicans still hold an advantage, although actually those numbers are starting to slip. How did you think about this poll as you were looking through?

I couldn't help but be reminded about a big problem in my part of the world, the econ part of the world. We can't get a clean read on how consumers feel about the economy because the data has been infected by partisanship, really in an unprecedented manner.

Meaning your partisanship reflects whether or not you think the economy is good or not? Do people think the economy is not doing well or do they just not like who's in the White House? This is a huge problem right now and it's making it impossible to get that clarity that economists like to

about how consumers are doing, do they intend to spend, makes it impossible to forecast. Because we also think like math should solve things. Numbers should tell us the facts. It should not be hard to figure out. But pollsters were also asked if people believed which was the party of the middle class. And going back to 1989, Democrats used to be the lead in this. And now it's actually tied with Republicans.

Republicans, which is saying something. How are you thinking of these? I mean, there's like a couple of threads to pull out here. I mean, one thing that I think this is reflective of and kind of building off of what you were saying is Trump came in promising that I alone can fix it. Kind of this this actionable man. You saw Congressman Jeffries over the weekend with Dana Bash saying that the people are his takeaway from this sort of polling is that the people are frustrated with the system and how it's working.

And so you combine those factors, which arguably are somewhat reflective of some of the other items in this poll, including the economic inequality, people feeling like they don't have upward mobility. All of those competing factors come together, and suddenly this kind of populist urge emerges.

kind of becomes an undercurrent. And Trump plays into that really well, which kind of alters how these parties are maybe appealing to different bases. Yeah, there's so much focus on communication. It's a little bit like complaining about the pipes when really the water is bad. Like, it's not clear to me what this message is they want to pass on. We're going to hear more. Group chats stick around. In the meantime, we're going to talk next on CNN This Morning about the FBI investigating this attack in Colorado as an act

of terrorism. We're going to tell you what we know about the man who police say set people on fire while they were showing support for Israeli hostages. Plus the apology that triggered an angry backlash against Iowa's Republican Senator Joni Ernst. More on that. The attacker was pretty erratic in walking, pacing around, yelling things like F the Zionists or F you Zionists. You're killing all of my people.

We're following breaking news. Bail is set at $10 million for the man accused of using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a crowd of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, who are showing support for the Israeli hostages. Stay away. Stay away. He's right there. He's throwing Molotov cocktails right there. That's boss of s***.

According to witnesses, the suspect, identified as Mohammed Sabri Salman, shouted, free Palestine before the attack. According to online jail records, he's been booked on two counts of murder. Authorities have not officially announced any confirmed deaths. They have said that eight people were injured, and one of them is a Holocaust survivor.

I jumped over this like tiny little fence over to these two ladies on the grass and it was two older ladies just like kind of rolling around a little bit. They were in their underwear because they had like stripped their pants obviously and yeah I was just like how can I help and they have like really bad burns all up on their legs.

Dr. Danelle Harvin is with us. He's a Homeland Security and Public Health emergency expert, also a member of the faculty at Georgetown University's Emergency and Disaster Management Master's Program. First, I want to start about the threat of attacks like this. Right now, investigators are trying to figure out if he acted alone, et cetera. But as you see more political violence, what are your concerns? We can't do nothing.

My concerns are that this is hot on the heels of the targeted assassination of the two Israeli embassy staff.

just over a week ago we've seen over the last few years a spike increase in anti-semitic incidents specifically and i don't want to bore the audience with stats but i think it's really important to quantify this stuff last year alone there were over 9 000 anti-semitic incidents that were logged by the fbi of that 1700 were direct attacks against synagogues and schools and jewish community centers hundreds of bomb threats that represents an

and over 350% increase over the last few years of anti-Semitic incidents. Now, if you and I's gas prices or egg or any other staple prices went up 350%, there would be a huge uproar. The Jewish community is actively under attack. We've been warned by the DHS and the FBI, and these things keep on happening.

Today is a Jewish holiday and I want you to listen to a rabbi in Colorado Springs because the emotions that are brought up in this moment are very powerful. - I thought about the murder in Washington, DC recently, about other attacks that have happened against Jews here in the United States and around the world. Frankly, this is on the mind of every rabbi around the world since October 7th, 2023.

We've talked about the attempt to ramp up security around Jewish communities, but how should we think about this? What should happen now? Well, unfortunately, and this is from many years of working in this type of business, I believe that the state and locals will have to really shoulder the burden and the community groups themselves, the Jewish community. While the federal government has talked about anti-Semitism and stamping out anti-Semitism, they've done actually everything to the complete opposite.

We've seen a decrease in state and local funding for law enforcement intelligence to do this work, to root out these type of acts of violence, targeted violence, anti-Semitic hate. And on the other hand, on the federal law enforcement side, many of the entities that would be engaged in counterterrorism are now looking at issues revolving

around other extremist groups like MS-13 and TDA. So we're really taking our eye off the ball of the real problem. - That's Dr. Danelle Harvin, Homeland Security and Public Health Emergency Expert. Thank you. - Thank you.

I'm going to turn now to a moment that's actually getting a lot of attention. It's from a town hall meeting with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. So she was making a case in support of the president's bill. And of course, that bill is going to bring a lot of changes to Medicaid. Here's how she explained it to the crowd.

When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million, they're not, they are not eligible. So they will be coming off. So people are not, well, we all are going to die. Okay, going well. The backlash came quickly. She later apologized. That triggered even more uproar.

made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all 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.

Group chat is back. I think that was live from a graveyard, just to underscore the point. Sarcasm is my love language, but it feels like this is not the moment. Like, it's kind of a... You guys are just, like, head-shaking. What's head-shaking about this in this moment for this bill? Let me do it that way. So...

Two things. One, this seems to be maybe symptomatic of kind of the Trump iteration of the Republican Party that you never apologize for anything. That's clearly what was going on there. Two, this kind of only underscores what clearly is a reality of this bill that the Republican Party is

is just not quite sure of how to navigate in terms of a messaging standpoint, because we know Democrats are eager to exploit this Medicaid aspect of this. We know Democrats spoke over the weekend, Schumer and Jeffries on Sunday. We know that the House Democrats are going to go over to the Senate this week to kind of show ways to exploit this bill. Medicaid's going to be front and center of it. But what you're saying is like the Medicaid question isn't going away? No. Just like the cost question isn't going away.

The thing here though is like this is a short-term response to something because the reality is if this bill passes and millions of people do lose Medicaid, this is going to be an issue we're talking about. Right now it's a hypothetical about if it happens. So she can do the sarcastic apology and can kind of double down and sort of. But the reality is for Iowans when next year this bill, if it does pass and they're

are cuts, there's going to be a real answering and a real reckoning around what was the impact and will people actually die? Will this actually impact these communities? Because the internet never forgets. And notably, the timing of these, the Medicaid cuts, the way they've moved them up as part of the compromise in the current status of the bill would land right around midterm season.

Okay, you guys, I want to, since it's Monday, talk about what you are thinking about the rest of this week, what you're keeping an eye on. Kevin Fry, let me start with you. I'll be the Debbie Downer of the morning, which is that hurricane season has officially kicked off, but we are now seeing cuts at FEMA. We are seeing cuts at NOAA. And notably, I... So these were the doge cuts, which we've talked about a lot, right? Doge cuts, the residual of that. People exiting.

Craig Fugate, a former leader of FEMA over the weekend, warning in the Associated Press that he has concerns that this is going to be likened to 2005, notably the year of Katrina, because of essentially the brain drain at FEMA and the folks that have knowledge of how to navigate these disasters. Okay, Courtney, what about you?

We get the May jobs report on Friday. Yes. So far, the economy has held up pretty well as far as the indicators are concerned. But, you know, all my sources tell me that this is a mirage. The economy is weakening under the weight of tariffs, and we've all just been waiting

for it to show up in the economic data. So we'll see what happens on Friday at 8:30 AM. - Yeah, here in the business community, I was talking with the CEO a few weeks ago and he said it's really about the jobs numbers. That's what he's keeping an eye on. I am keeping an eye on credit debt and sort of how people are increasing their spending. Sabrina, you?

I think during the break we were talking a little bit about the tariffs and just the roller coaster we're on of one day Trump kind of doubling down, the next day his administration officials talking, they're open to negotiations. So I think there's a big question right now in the coming weeks. And he was very upset when someone brought up the term taco trade, which stands for Trump always chickens out. So I think there's a real question right now as we head into this crucial month for them having potential negotiations with other countries.

I think there's a question will they actually come to fruition on some deals or are we just gonna see way more tariffs in July? Yeah, and it's also supposed to the long-range vision is supposed to help improve the economy over time, right? That's why you could have Johnson saying like the CBO numbers They're not good because they don't talk about the US economy growing which it has always done Is it a fair assumption to just go it's always gonna grow no matter what?

I don't think that's a fair assumption at all. I think on the one hand, you have, you know, however little the tariff revenue offsets the cost of the of the bill, they kind of need that tariff revenue. They've bragged about that tariff revenue. But on the other hand, this is exactly the thing that economists are worried about.

as far as throwing the economy into a recession. We have no hint of that so far. - Yes, but also makes global markets and people around the world who always trusted our economy to be stable, not to have uncertainty. They've got a lot of questions now. You're seeing that in the bond market as well. You guys, thank you so much. We've talked about a lot today on a very busy and difficult news day. I wanna thank you for being with us today.

I'm Adi Cornish, and we're going to have more headlines on CNN News Central. That starts right now.

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