On Monday morning’s broadcast of CNN News Central, predictably lazy excuses were made for the violent anti-deportation riots that ravaged Los Angeles this weekend. While these protests have been labeled "demonstrations" by California Governor, Gavin Newsom and the media, peaceful would be fake news. CNN would have you believe that these protests are peaceful demonstrations, and that President Trump's decision to call in the National Guard is government overreach and authoritarian, like Newsom stated on his X account yesterday. Over the weekend, social media was flooded with videos taken by onlookers of protesters throwing concrete chunks at cop cars and officers, as well as setting structures and vehicles on fire. 

In the first minutes of the broadcast, correspondent Julie Vargas Jones stated the protests were generally peaceful, citing an LAPD press conference from Sunday night (Click “expand”):

VARGAS JONES: You know, we know these protesters started because of the immigration operations that took place starting on Friday and then Saturday and escalating. You know, that's what initially sparked the will from so many people to come out and protest initially peacefully, but then some then took to those acts of violence. I want to play a sound bite from the Los Angeles Police Department chief on just how bad that was.

[CUTS TO VIDEO]

LAPD CHIEF JIM MCDONNELL: When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that's not the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue.

However, in the same press conference, LAPD’s Chief Jim McDonnell highlighted the need for the National Guard to assist the LAPD in their efforts to keep the violence under control, contrary to what Newsom assured. “We are overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity,” McDonnell reported, referring to the acts of violence aimed at police officers. A quick look at the official LAPD X account from over the weekend reflect how frantic and stretched thin the department was in responding to the violence-- post after post declaring unlawful assembly orders, major roadway closures, begging citizens to alert the department of any violence across the city-- a result of the absolute chaos.

Shortly after Vargas Jones's statements downplaying the obvious reality, co-host of CNN's News Central, John Berman interviewed Hilda Solis, the pro tem chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who stated it is up to the Sheriff and LAPD to decide if the violence necessitated federal intervention. If so, they should utilize the National Guard to ensure protection:

HILDA SOLIS: But if we do need more people– I think more law enforcement– I think our sheriff has already let our local PD’s in the surrounding cities come in to help to provide additional support. If that doesn't work, then obviously they're going to look to– trying to get the National Guard to work under the purview of the state and the county. And I think that's really where we want to go, because right now, the National Guard is just protecting federal property. That's what they're assigned to do.

Calling in surrounding police departments was not sufficient to quell the violence. The most interesting part was the response from Newsom, the media, and other leftists-- calling Trump's actions "unprecedented" and "authoritarian", despite the historical precedent to do so and that the local law enforcement could not control the violence themselves.

Trump can invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, which gives the Commander in Chief the authority and right to deploy U.S. military or the National Guard domestically in specific circumstances, such as the suppression of civil disorder, of insurrection, and of armed rebellion against the federal government of the U.S. Presidents have invoked this Act before without the consent or request of a state's Governor, like Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. More recently, the act was invoked during the 1992 Los Angeles race riots to assist with extreme violence that the police could not handle, which sounds familiar. 

CNN's framing of the violence was misleading, and implications that local police had the situation under control was misleading. McDonnell acknowledged the presence of peaceful protesters, but he also highlighted the overwhelming nature of the violence, thus the necessity of the National Guard to enforce peace. His statements showed just how desperate the situation was, contradicting the narrative that these were largely peaceful demonstrations presented by CNN. 

The entire transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.

CNN News Central
June 9, 2025
9:02:34 AM EST

 

(...)

MCDONELL [AT LAPD PRESS CONFERENCE]: When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that's not the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue.

 

(BACK TO LIVE)

 

JULIE VARGAS JONES: And that distinction is important, John, because we have seen peaceful protests and we have seen these stunning images of violence happening overnight, and that goes to show how quickly things escalated here from– from Friday into Saturday and Sunday overnight. It was a response not just to these immigration raids, but also to the announcement that the National Guard was coming to California and to their arrival. We were here when that announcement came out, and we saw the reaction from protesters. They have been saying no to these immigration raids and also asking the National Guard to leave. And so is the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, saying that this is an intentional– intentionally chaotic situation. She is blaming the president for the escalation of these tensions here, and so is the governor. As we've mentioned before, governor Gavin Newsom saying that this is not necessary, and now saying that he will sue the federal government over the legality of bringing the National Guard to Los Angeles.

 

(...)

 

9:28:22 AM EST

 

JOHN BERMAN: All right, the sun is now up over downtown Los Angeles after a night of protests and some clashes between protesters and law enforcement. President Trump has deployed the National Guard there amid these protests over sweeping ICE raids. Now, the National Guard is something neither the city's mayor nor California's governor asked for. With us now is Hilda Solis, the chair pro tem of Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. What is the current situation on the ground in downtown Los Angeles, and what have been the reports you have heard about the damage overnight?

 

HILDA SOLIS: Well, I know that last night was probably one of the most volatile nights that we had in the city of Los Angeles, but now things have calmed down. There was a– kind of a– emergency situation where people needed to be removed, or told to leave the city of Los Angeles because so much destruction and chaos was going on. That has since been lifted. There are still major freeway on-ramps, off-ramps and road closures. People are coming back into the city to work, but it's very– it's very measured. I will say that I heard, on our own reports, that there were about 50 people that may have been arrested. There could be more. And yes, you're correct in saying that the governor and the– our local law enforcement did not ask for the National Guard to be deployed. 

 

So that is a point of contention. However, I do know that our sheriff, Sheriff Luna, is really taking command over all of this. And if there is necessary, more legal assistance that we need, law enforcement, he is able to call on our local police departments that surround our cities– our city of Los Angeles. So those can also be made available. And I think he's already working on that. And that may not rule out the possibility that, if appropriate, if there are more disruptions, as we saw last evening, that they may have to make a formal request for National Guard, but that should come through our protocols that the sheriff understands, and so does LAPD. And they have worked through, they use that method during the fires here in Palisade and in Altadena. 

 

So that's what we're trying to do, kind of quell it, get people to understand: please do not be violent. We understand people need to express their– their concern and their emotions, we know that. But– but control them, and don't be don't be disruptive. Don't feed into this narrative that we don't care, that we are going to hurt each other, and hurt our city. We don't want that to happen. Definitely, we want to have calm. 

 

So there will be several different press conferences today. One even at L.A. Unified School District, because we have a lot of families and children that are very much impacted and scared and frightened that somehow they're going to have ICE agents coming into the school. We know that that happened almost a month ago. We want to allow for– for our students and our parents to be able to speak, but we think they should demonstrate in a peaceful manner and do that in accordance with our laws, a rule of law, and obviously to take note that we still have a ways to go here.

BERMAN:  I will note you said that it may come to the need to call in the National Guard, although they're already there– the president put them there. I will say the Los Angeles Police Chief and I understand that the city and the county are separate. But the police chief did say overnight there may be a need to reassess. Let's listen to Jim Mcdonnell.

 

[SCREEN WIPE]

 

MCDONELL [AT LAPD PRESS CONFERENCE]: We have tremendous capability here to say that we– we would go to that right away. I'd say we're not– we wouldn't have been there yet. Looking at the violence tonight, I think we got to make a reassessment.

 

[BACK TO STUDIO]

 

BERMAN: We got to make a reassessment, he says, based on what he saw overnight. So maybe you think the National Guard should be there after all?

 

SOLIS: I– at this point, I would defer to our sheriff and to Jim McDonnell, the chief of police for Los Angeles. They know how to– how to carry this out. And I do think that if we can kind of make sure that there is more peaceful– if there are demonstration– demonstrations, peaceful and that they can– they can be secured, and knowing that people won't be hurt and there won't be more vandalism, I think I think we can move that route. But if we do need more people– I think more law enforcement– I think our sheriff has already let our local PD’s in the surrounding cities come in to help to provide additional support. If that doesn't work, then obviously they're going to look to– trying to get the National Guard to work under the purview of the state and the county. And I think that's really where we want to go, because right now, the National Guard is just protecting federal property. That's what they're assigned to do.

 

(...)