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- [00:05]
Gideon Resnick
Good morning. It's Monday, June 16th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, how Israel pulled off its surprise attack in Iran and what comes next? California Governor Gavin Newsom takes center stage against Trump. And Pope Leo addresses Americans at a gathering of the faithful. That is, if you're a White Sox fan. But first to Minnesota, where police arrested the man suspected of assassinating a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband and wounding another Democratic lawmaker and his wife over the weekend. Law enforcement have identified a 57 year old man as their primary suspect and apprehended him near his home. They say that he dressed as a police officer and he first went to the home of Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife early Saturday morning and shot them multiple times. They survived, and authorities say they're now in stable condition. Then, after the shooting at the Hoffmans, the police say the suspect traveled a few miles to the home of Melissa Hortman, the former top Democratic lawmaker in the Minnesota House of Representatives. There he killed her and her husband, orphaning their two children. Authorities haven't released an official motive for these attacks, but they found a list in the suspect's car that included dozens of other lawmakers from Minnesota, many of whom were Democrats, including Governor Tim Walz. He has described the attack as politically motivated and said he had lost a friend and colleague.
- [01:35]
Molly Ball
Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota.
- [01:49]
Gideon Resnick
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told Meet the Press yesterday that the suspect appeared to be targeting lawmakers and institutions linked to progressive causes. There clearly was some through line with abortion because of the groups that were on the list and other things that I've heard were in this manifesto. Locations for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers were reportedly on the list of targets. The suspect's roommate told the Wall Street Journal that he opposed abortion. The 19th writes that Hortman, who very recently served as the state speaker of the House, was a champion of progressive policies, playing a role in policies that provide free school meals, expanded the child tax credit and more. And Hortman supported policies that expanded protections for abortion and gender affirming care. In 2023, she led the House in passing the PRO act, which codified the legality of abortion and other forms of reproductive health care in the state. More recently, Hortman had to deal with focusing on her priorities while also working in the most closely divided state legislature in Minnesota's history. She spoke about this challenge and the responsibility after making concessions in a recent budget vote. We tried any other way we could to come to a budget agreement with Republicans and they wouldn't have it. So, you know, I did what leaders do. I stepped up and I got the.
- [03:07]
Isaac Stanley Baker
Job done for the people of Minnesota.
- [03:08]
Gideon Resnick
The current Republican speaker of the House said that Hortman, quote, battled fiercely but never let it damage their personal relationship. Senator Hoffman, Meanwhile, during his 12 year tenure in state office, has spent time on committees that crafted policy on education, energy, agriculture and family care. He entered state politics after struggling to obtain insurance for his daughter, who is spina bifida, and Hoffman was motivated to help other people who were having the same challenges. Lawmakers of all political affiliations have condemned the attacks on Hoffman and Hortman, and they are the latest in a string of alarming political violence in recent years, like when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband was brutally beaten in 2022, when two assassins targeted President Trump last summer and earlier this year when an arsonist set fire to the home of Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania. Trump, Shapiro and other victims of political violence like Republican Representative Steve Scalise and former Representative Gabby Giffords have condemned these attacks. And according to data compiled by the United States Capitol Police, threats against lawmakers climbed last year for the second year in a row now to the Middle east, where Israel and Iran continue to trade attacks after Israel's surprise assault on Friday, and both sides are vowing they won't relent. Most of Tehran's missiles have been intercepted by Israel's air defense system, but some have slipped through and hit major cities. Israel reports that at least 14 people have died, including several children. Iran says Israel has killed hundreds of people and wounded over 1,000, 90% of whom they say are civilians. Iran confirmed that among the dead was the chief of its Armed Forces Intelligence unit, one of several senior leaders killed since last Friday. Isaac Stanley Baker, a staff writer at the Atlantic, told us the number of senior leaders killed so far suggests that Iran was not prepared for Israel's attack.
- [05:09]
Isaac Stanley Baker
The attack both illustrated the really successful way in which Israel has been able to leverage extensive and high level intelligence gathering into military maneuvers and then also illustrated Iran's relatively limited self defense and ability to counter strike immediately. The thinking in Tehran was that it would not unfold before this latest round of nuclear talks, which had been scheduled for this Sunday in Oman.
- [05:39]
Gideon Resnick
Those talks were canceled. Israel has justified its attack by saying Iran was not serious about the talks and that it was close to producing a nuclear bomb. For decades, Israel has described the country's nuclear program as an existential threat to its survival.
- [05:54]
Isaac Stanley Baker
Now there are more detailed and intricate disagreements having to do with intelligence about Iranian capabilities and intentions.
- [06:02]
Gideon Resnick
International watchdogs have expressed concern about Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel and nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency recently concluded that Iran has enough enriched uranium to potentially produce nine nuclear bombs. But the U.S. director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress in March that she did not believe Iran was seeking to build nuclear weapons with its uranium stockpile, and Iran denies that it's developing them. Israel, however, says it has intelligence indicating otherwise.
- [06:34]
Isaac Stanley Baker
And I think that it's even made even more complex by the fact that there are disagreements within the foreign policy establishments in Washington and in Israel about what some of the latest tracking and intelligence means and disagreements within Israel about what its own intelligence means and shows.
- [06:50]
Gideon Resnick
And there are questions about whether Israel has a secondary objective to force a regime change in Iran. Netanyahu told Fox that, quote, could certainly be the outcome of their efforts, though that could put him in conflict with Washington. U.S. officials told Reuters that President Trump rejected Israel's proposal to kill Iran's supreme leader when he was notified last week of their attack plan. And Trump still had hopes in making progress in the talks.
- [07:14]
Isaac Stanley Baker
We know that President Trump and some of the key people around him had tried to persuade the Israelis not to do this, really, going back a number of months, had tried to prevent military action, had said, let this diplomacy play out.
- [07:27]
Gideon Resnick
Trump, however, has publicly supported Israel since the initial attack.
- [07:31]
Isaac Stanley Baker
He's pleased by how the strike has unfolded thus far. At the same time, he's urging a return to the negotiating table. So he is still trying to position himself as a peacemaker and as a dealmaker.
- [07:44]
Gideon Resnick
Trump said on Sunday that it's possible the US Would get involved in trying to mediate a deal between Israel and Iran. But Stanley Baker says it's less clear if the US Would also back Israel militarily, which some say is necessary for Israel to truly eliminate Iran's nuclear facilities. Trump says the US Is not involved at this moment. Let's turn now to California, where protests against federal immigration raids and the Trump administration more broadly continued over the weekend. In the state, Trump's militaristic tactics have met resistance from Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. He and his attorney general asked a federal judge to block the president's deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. The judge granted the request, but an appeals court then overrode that decision, meaning that for now, troops are allowed to stay. In a nationally televised address last week, Newsom compared Trump and his administration to leaders of non democratic governments.
- [08:46]
Molly Ball
Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
- [09:01]
Gideon Resnick
This marks a sharp turn from where Newsom's relationship with Trump started.
- [09:05]
Tulsi Gabbard
Newsom tried to make nice with Trump.
- [09:08]
Gideon Resnick
That's Molly Ball, senior political correspondent with the Wall Street Journal, who recently profiled the governor.
- [09:12]
Tulsi Gabbard
The devastating wildfires that broke out in Los Angeles in January meant that the state was going to need a lot of assistance from the federal government. And when Trump went to Los Angeles to see the fires, Newsom welcomed him, actually hugged him on the tarmac, and then traveled to Washington in February and had a very long discussion with Trump and some of his advisors in the Oval Office.
- [09:37]
Gideon Resnick
But in this moment, Newsom is positioning himself as a fighter against the administration, and that, in turn, could help his own political ambitions.
- [09:44]
Tulsi Gabbard
For almost as long as he's been in public office, Newsom has been talked about as a potential presidential candidate. But when I interviewed him, really for the first time, he acknowledged that it's something he could see happening, even if it's not something he's actively planning for.
- [09:58]
Gideon Resnick
Some would argue that Newsom's been trying to grow his national profile for a while, and indeed, he launched a podcast earlier this year where he says he wants to diagnose what went wrong for Democrats in the 2024 election. His guests have included people tied to the MAGA movement, including Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. And Newsom put himself against some Democrats, especially in his state, for questioning the fairness of transgender women participating in female college and youth sports.
- [10:22]
Tulsi Gabbard
On policy as well, he has said and done some things that seem to be sort of positioning him more toward the center than the left. But when the unrest started in Los Angeles, Newsom just became more and more vocal, saying that the violence and rioting that were happening were actually Trump's fault for inflaming the situation. But then he's got to think about when and if he did become the Democratic nominee for president. How does all of this look to swing voters to people in middle America, considering that, you know, California really represents to a lot of people sort of the excesses of liberalism?
- [10:56]
Gideon Resnick
Recent polling makes that tension that Newsom could face as a presidential candidate all the more clear. A poll by YouGov found that a plurality of Americans disapprove of the LA protests, but also a plurality disapproved of Trump sending in National Guard and Marines and Trump's handling of deportations. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. An estimated 5 million people in big cities and small towns across the country turned out for largely peaceful marches over the weekend against the Trump administration. No Kings, no Kings. No Kings. The Washington Post spoke with one demonstrator in Philadelphia about why he decided to join what organizers called the no Kings protests. You know, deploying the National Guard and the Marines against citizens who are obviously, you know, with minor exceptions, peacefully protesting. It's just overreach, and we gotta stand up to them now while there's still an opportunity to do so. The protests coincided with a military parade in Washington, D.C. celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary. As protests have continued against federal immigration raids across the country, there could be an adjustment in policy coming from the administration. The New York Times reports that senior ICE officials were ordered to pause raids and arrests across the agricultural, hotel, and restaurant industries. Trump wrote on social media that he's been hearing from leaders of those industries who've told him the administration's policy is taking very good, longtime workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. The move could impact the administration's stated goals of arresting thousands of undocumented people per day. And finally, on Saturday, thousands of Chicagoans listened to newly elected Pope Leo XIV's first, first domestic address. Not in a church or any kind of historical cathedral, unless, of course, you worship the Chicago White Sox.
- [13:00]
Molly Ball
My dear friends, it's a pleasure for me to greet all of you gathered together at White Sox park on this great celebration as a community of faith in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
- [13:14]
Gideon Resnick
He also nodded to the conflict in the Middle east, saying it was every country's duty to pursue the path of peace and initiate paths of reconciliation. After it was revealed that the new pope had attended the World Series in 2005 to support his beloved hometown team. The Sox fully embraced the moment, even selling shirts with the number 14 on the back. And the senior vice president of the franchise told ABC News that the pope was even invited to throw out a ceremonial pitch whenever he'd like to. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening to the News app right now, we have a narrated article coming up next. The Wall Street Journal examines how the US Military fabricated some evidence of alien technology and in some cases fanned the flames of UFO conspiracies to create a smokescreen for real secret weapons programs. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.