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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

President Trump Calls It Mission Accomplished In Syria; Chlorine And Sarin Gas Were Used In The Attack Outside Of Damascus Last Weekend; Pentagon Says 105 Missiles Were Launched In The Strikes Against Syria Including Dozens Of Tomahawk Missile Launched From Ships And To Submarines; Michael Cohen Has Been Ordered To Appear At A Hearing On Monday. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired April 14, 2018 - 19:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, SITUATION ROOM: Nick, be careful over there. We will stay in touch with you. Thanks so much.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. A special ANDERSON COOPER 360 starts right now.

[19:00:15] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening.

President Trump calls it mission accomplished in Syria. Tonight, new detail on the mission and what it actually accomplished. New questions about what if any larger strategy served and whether 105 U.S., French and British cruise missiles. Later, the people of Syria and across the region are any safer tonight.

Also, we will talk more about the historical residents of those two words, mission accomplished, which the President used nationally in his tweet. A perfectly executed strike last night, he write. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine military. Could not have had a better result. Mission accomplished.

This day today, it was for punishing Syria for using chemical weapons and destroying their capacity to do so in the future. We will look if whether that mission was accomplished tonight. And what if anything comes next as well as the continuing questions about proof, evidence that justifies the strike. Namely, did Bashar al-Assad use a nerve agent on his own people?

We have correspondents and experts across the board tonight. Lot to cover. Let's begin with Barbara Starr tonight at the Pentagon.

So what's the Pentagon's assessment of the mission, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Anderson.

Well, you know, there are several military saying we hit the targets we aimed at. And that was what was accomplished last night in these strikes. The U.S. military, the French, the British, they hit all the target they aimed at by all accounts. Three sites that were Bashar -- part of Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons program. That mission was accomplished, but it was the broader mission

accomplished? We are told the military objective is to issue a stern warning to Assad not to use chemical weapons on his own people. Will this deter him? Is this a message that he heard?

I will tell you, there are a lot of people with a lot of doubt about that. The Russians may not want him to go further, but will he stop using his chemical weapons? By all account, he has a considerable inventory, a capability. He has the delivery mechanism, senior craft, the helicopters that can launch their bombs.

So while the broader mission of hitting the targets was accomplished, was the message sent, was it really received? What was really achieved here? Very much remains an open question.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, do we know what the next steps are, if there are in fact any next steps? Because last night in his talk on television, the President talked about, you know, military diplomatic, economic moves. Are there next steps?

STARR: Sustained effort according to the President. A one shot deal according to the defense secretary. So this is now the key question. What is Trump's red line in Syria on chemical weapons? If there is another chemical weapons attack, perhaps with chlorine and there have been many of them, the U.S. hasn't responded to those in the past. Will they do so now? If there's another nerve agent attack, will the U.S. do so?

One of the key things right now on next steps is to calibrate this very carefully. The U.S. succeeded last night in not drawing the Russians in, at least now if the now. There was a lot of concern that the Russians might react. That this could all escalate. Big worry of the Pentagon here last night. And for now at least, there's no reaction from Moscow on the military front. A lot of angry words, but no military moves by Moscow. And that is a very worrisome next step they are going to try and avoid, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Barbara Starr, thanks very much in the Pentagon.

President Trump spent part of the day speaking with Theresa May as well as French president Macron.

CNN's Jim Acosta has the latest tonight from the White House.

So Jim, the President seeming very confident today with the results of these strikes.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Anderson. You showed the President's tweet from earlier today when he said it was mission accomplished in Syria. I talked to one Trump adviser earlier today, who was really sort of reacting with surprise and some disgust that the White House would allow them to tweet something like that because it conjured up all of these memories of George W. Bush landing on the aircraft carrier in 2003 and declaring mission accomplished in Iraq when that war dragged on for another eight years. Anderson, I will tell you that there was a conference call with

reporters earlier today. Senior administration officials indicated that it may not be mission accomplished. They were saying if Syria does go ahead and use these chemical weapons again on its civilian, that it does run the risk of taking another hit from the U.S. and its allies. And that of course raises the question, well, perhaps this wasn't mission accomplished.

Then the administration has to get to the other question, which is what is mission Crete (ph) and can they do this every time? Can they continue to hit the Syrians every time they do this and what happens with the de-confliction with the Russians? Can they stay de- conflicted as they like to use the term over at the Pentagon if the U.S. has to go back and hit Bashar al-Assad's forces again?

COOPER: Has the White House had anything else to say tonight about the strikes?

ACOSTA: Not at this point, no. The one thing we heard today was really going after the Syrian government, the Syrian regime. Nikki Haley, the U.N. ambassador. She was speaking earlier today talking in some pretty stark terms saying that the President is locked and loaded essentially if the Syrians were to dare to use chemical weapons again. And that when the President draws a red line, this President draws a red line, he keeps it. That's obviously a reference to Barack Obama and the criticism that Barack Obama did not enforce his red line.

But of course, Anderson, when you use terms like locked and loaded and saying that the President is going to enforce his own red line, that really raises the question as to whether or not the Syrians, the Russians, the Iranian in that region might be tempted to test this President again and that obviously is going to put the President back in the situation that he was in all this past week.

I can tell you from talking to various officials here at the White House, there was a pretty vigorous debate that was going on between the President, his adviser, general Mattis over at the Pentagon, as to how serious, how widespread these airstrikes should be and it seems as though general Mattis, who wanted a more measured response, won that argument in the end and it gets back to this question of mission. If the Syrians use these weapons again, how does the U.S. respond and how entangled does that get the U.S. in the situation of Syria in if future, especially when the President in the last couple of weeks has been saying he wants to pull the troops out of Syria. That does not appear to be the strategy right now with this kind of activity going on. It seems the U.S. forces will be committed there for some time -- Anderson.

[19:06:33] COOPER: Jim Acosta, appreciate it tonight. Thank you.

Last night's strike may have been about twice the size of the one last year, but it's just a small part of a larger conflict, obviously, that's taken hundreds of thousands of lives.

And Nick Paton Walsh joins us from northern Syria where the war goes on. Nick, first off, what are the Syrians on the ground are saying as far

as the reaction to the strikes last night?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Nothing much we have seen. There's been a bit of those regime (INAUDIBLE) to show that life kind of carries on normal to some degree. We saw Bashar al-Assad sauntering into work having nice clean shiny marbles floss, holding his briefcase as though nothing had really changed his daily routine at all.

It showed pictures of rubble on state television, particularly of (INAUDIBLE), the research facility. That's the area in sort of the area of defenses, the potential ones of the capital Damascus that was penetrated, the research facility there.

But the Syrians claim that in fact, the home research facility escaped largely unscathed. That's really absolutely opposite of what the Pentagon showed from aerial satellite pictures. But I think (INAUDIBLE) this could have been a lot worse. Certainly, I think a red line drawn around chemical weapons. So that really is the extent of the red line frankly. And it was mission accomplished and locked and loaded. Great for international and Domestic U.S. consumptions but mean little here after six years of intense conflict. This is clearly is a sign that might barbaric weapons known to man and used by Bashar al-Assad. That mainly is a response. But you can go on killing your people with conventional weapon, frankly, indefinitely.

COOPER: The other question of course is, you know, what sort of weapons are, would trigger a U.S. response in the future? Sarin is obviously one thing. Chlorine attacks have occurred frequently without any sort of response.

WALSH: Yes, I mean, this is the outstanding question of the last week or so. It's been absolutely clear that from Nikki Haley that she says the U.S., U.K. and French have analyzed the samples or substances from here. Now it appears that senior U.S. officials talking that much of their diagnosis of sarin being used stems from observing the videos of individuals and the symptoms that they have called the muscular spasms, the twitching of people who exposed to the gas in Duma last weekend.

Now we have heard two samples tested suggest maybe a mixture of chlorine and sarin. It was sarin used to spot the (INAUDIBLE) bombings back in April last year, the 59 tomahawk missiles and Barack Obama's red line was crossed by its use in 2013. So are we talking about a new moment here in which the use of chlorine possibly sparks international response? Well, the U.S. itself has canceled 50 separate instances of the Syrian regime using chemical weapons since the war began. Are we now into moment where every time a strange gas or substance is smelled, there's a risk of a cruise missile being launched. That is the worrying potentially in the world. You may argue the U.S. is leaving that question open. Put pressure on Damascus that stay away from anything resembling a gas or corrosive substance in war here. But it may also simply be that the actual concrete information on what was used last weekend is still not concretely known enough to put around publicly -- Anderson. COOPER: Yes. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks very much. Be careful.

Here to help fill in the military picture for us now, retired army general, James "Spider" Marks. General Marks, thanks for being with us. Take us through the targets

hit that we know about by the U.S. and coalition forces, if you would.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely, Anderson. Let me start with what was briefed earlier today. What we surmised last night. Clearly, there were three targets sets. They were right here at the Barzah research facility, which was critical. I think that was probably top of the priority list in terms of destruction. And the briefing today, I might add, indicated that these were facilities that were destroyed. It is critical when you look at them, it is not that they were degraded, it is not that they were limited, they were destroyed. And that's what's most important. We will get into this for more details.

And clearly, two strikes up here in the vicinity Holmes which were the storage facilities which was where the chemical actual munitions exist. So when you are looking for a shiny thing that is going to be used, that is where they would be located. Developed research here and ready for delivery from these locations. Let me walk you through the very --

[19:10:48] COOPER: Yes. Go ahead.

MARKS: I was going to walk you through the specific targets if you want me to, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, please.

MARKS: Yes. OK. First of all, this is imagery before of the Barzah research and development facility. Let me highlight. As you can see, the entire complex is about like that. Pretty sprawling. Inside, I want you to pay attention to these three buildings right here. One, two, and three. That's where the targeting took place. After the strike, this is what happened. As you can see, very precise targeting in this very specific area going after those three buildings. The rest of the facility as you can see is untouched. That's the nature of these strikes that took place.

The next target was Holmes and there were two strike packages (INAUDIBLE). Two locations that were used in the Holmes area. I want you to pay attention to these three buildings right here. Also, these storage facilities you can see right here, this location here. What's interesting is this is where the strike took place. Not here. Very clear that after the strike, again, damage to the point of destruction there. These areas. Untouched. Obviously, these were not significant to the development and or the delivery or the storage of the chemical weapons.

Then if you look at next facility in Holmes, pay attention, Anderson, if you will, to this location. Not these buildings or vehicles. And again, it is very, very interesting when you look at the before imagery then you look at the after imagery, here's what happened on the strike. Very clearly, this area was damaged. This was an understood ground facility. Looks like that's where the penetration took place. Same vehicle located here. Same vehicle located here. I'm sure those folks were awakened by the blast, but they were untouched. That's the nature of a precision strike.

COOPER: And obviously, this was a coalition, U.S. military along with French, along with British. Is it known despite of what sort of resources came from each country and where?

MARKS: It is, Anderson. Let me walk you through that critical when we look at what the alliance was able to bring to bear. The location is kind of routine in terms of where the U.S., the French and U.K. patrol. We routinely have a presence there. So what we had if you walk through all the assets located here in Dubai, but the assets from the strike were here and here and if we were going to go through tomahawk missiles, about 120 missiles in total up to this range. And then we had b-1s and from U.K., we had the storm shadows and from the French, we had scalp. These are just proper names of the type of missile. This is joint air to surface standoff missile. What that means is this b-1 was not over Syrian air space for the strike.

COOPER: General Marks, appreciate it. We will check in with you later.

Coming up next, how the strikes fit in with the larger strategy, if in fact it does.

Later, new revelation about what the feds found when they raided Michael Cohen's office and hotel. The reaction from Stormy Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:10] COOPER: And with everything at the airstrikes on Syria, they don't exactly reflect a long standing strategy from the President or consistent tone. Some or all of it might just reflect the kind of day-to-day nuances more than one person at time articulates policy. We will talk about it shortly.

In any case, so recall that as a private citizen, Mr. Trump counseled against any involvement in Syria. Back in 2013, he tweeted in all caps again, to our very foolish leaders, do not attack Syria. If you do, many very bad things will happen. And from that fight, the U.S. gets nothing.

Once in office, President launched an airstrikes and truce. But then just a couple of weeks ago said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way, we are knocking the hell out of ISIS. We will be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now. Very soon. Very soon. We are coming out. We are going to have 100 percent of the caliphate as they call it. Sometimes, referred to as land. Taking it all back. Quickly. Quickly. But we are going to be coming out of there real soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Then of course came the attack on Duma and the President's tone changed. It turned out (INAUDIBLE) not so much for Bashar Al- Assad, but Vladimir Putin. Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. And get ready, Russia, because they will be coming nice and new and smart. You shouldn't be partners with a gas killing animal who kills his people and enjoys it.

And intentionally, not that tweet and others gave Russian forces plenty of time to get out of harm's way. And as Spider Marks showed us, the strikes were tailored to avoid hitting Russian assets or personnel. Yet last night, the President promised sustained action diplomatic, as well as economic and military, a few minutes later, his defense secretary said last night's strike was it. Today, his U.S. ambassador said perhaps, but only for now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: Last night, we obliterated the major research facility that it used to assemble weapons of mass murder. I spoke to the President this morning. And he said if the Syrian regime uses this gas again, the United States is locked and loaded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:20:09] COOPER: Of course, the day began with the President's mission accomplished tweet, which drew attention, whether or not the President anticipate the action, we simply don't know. What does seems clear is that the message on Syria has varied. The question is, how much of that has to do with the changing facts on the ground or perhaps a bit of good cop/bad cop diplomacy? And how much reflects the lack of the truth strategy which was the criticism also with the Obama administration?

Joining us now is Mike Rogers, former chairman of the House intelligence committee and CNN political analysts Gloria Borger and David Gergen.

Chairman Rogers, Was the mission in Syria accomplished by the strikes last night?

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, in military par lens, I'm sure it met their objectives. And I think that's what he was talking about. I'm not sure it weighed too much into the mission accomplished. I think to the broader strategy in Syria, I think that's a whole other question.

COOPER: That's been the thing which has bedeviled, frankly, you know, the Obama administration as well as this, a broader strategy in Syria.

ROGERS: Completely. And one of the things this different messages coming out of different segments of the national security team and the White House really isn't very helpful. Gearing troops up to go into Syria to back up forces on the ground has been changed when the President said we are getting out and we are pulling out. That changes command, attention and energy on the ground there for what would be the ground solution. And then saying we will go back in.

Now, the one consistent thing I will say is last year, chemical weapons used 59 tomahawk missiles were used this year. And the one important thing that I think might be missing in this, even though, I agree there's no greater strategy, they did clearly demonstrate, the United States military demonstrated, they can hit a target inside heavily fortified Damascus with Russia an anti-air weapons. Not too far away from where Assad lays his head at night. I think if they take advantage of this, apply a strategy, which I hope is coming, I think they could get a lot out of this.

COOPER: Yes. David, I mean, is it clear right now to you what the mission is for the U.S. when it comes to Syria beyond degrading or preventing them from using chemical weapons?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Not at all. I do think, Anderson, in the media and the aftermath, the big sense. And there are a lot of Americans will have is relief.

Given the volatile, brash and often dangerous sounding President, so many people in the country have been scared that he is going to get us into a big war and use weapons, you know, without restraint. And instead in this case, he did listen to his defense secretary Mattis, General Mattis. He showed caution. And I think for a lot of people waking up, thank goodness he didn't do it any harder. He sent the message.

But, he now has to go back to work and with Mattis and others, he has got to figure out what the strategy is. Is she still going to pull out? And many of his advisers feel that if he follow and pulls out of eastern Syria where the Americans - where we Americans have or dominance on the land, that it will rapidly become a vacuum and be filled up with not just Syrian troops, but a lot more fighting. And it will be very destructive to the Kurds. He seems to be still on that path toward pulling out. And that, that has long-term negative ramifications.

COOPER: Gloria, I mean, were you surprised the President chose to use the phrase mission accomplished today given, you know, the obvious reference to, you know, the blowback George W. Bush received when he appeared in front of the banner (ph) using the same phrase, you know, regarding the Iraq war, though the President of that time, George W. did not use that phrase.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it has a certain ring to it, doesn't it, Anderson? Even Ari Fleischer, who was George W. Bush's press secretary at time, tweeted, I would have recommended ending this tweet not with those two words. And I think it shows you that, you know, the President is not thinking about history when he did that. That kind of blowback that George W. Bush got.

But it does give us this sense that the President is kind of saying OK, we did this. And maybe now it's over. The question that I have is what do we do if Assad uses barrel bombs? Is that OK? And chemical weapons are different. What if our allies, and I think, you know, to David's point, a lot of people I have spoken to have some relief that this was not done unilaterally. That this was done with France and with the U.K.

But what happens if there's more and we decide because the President because the President decides I don't want to get involved in anything that sustained. That he is not going to be a part of something else, even though he talked about saying we would sustain this. I think the question is the predictability of the President. And the question also is the disagreement within his own national security apparatus, between somebody like a John Bolton, for example and the secretary of defense, James Mattis.

[19:25:11] COOPER: Yes.

BORGER: And so, we don't know how this issues are all going to get resolve.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, Chairman Rogers, last night the message from the Pentagon was these wave of airstrikes is over. Today, the U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley said that the United States is locked and loaded. I mean, do you think those are mixed messages? And just in terms of a longer term strategy, it doesn't seem like there is any appetite for this administration of frankly from the last administration to try to a sustained effort to end the Syrian civil war or certainly have a regime change.

ROGERS: Yes. I think the broader strategy here, Anderson, is they have not gotten this right. The Obama administration didn't get it right. And I don't think Trump is getting it right.

I will say I'm not as worried about what I saw today. I think the defense secretary came out and said hey, this is a one off. That wasn't Assad, it was to Putin. That listen, we are not going to expand it. We don't expect you to come back at our folks.

Then what Haley I think did, that the U.N. ambassador, she came out and said listen, if you do it again, however, we will come back. That piece I though was them just kind of correcting the record in setting the stage on what their position is on the use of chemical weapons. I think that's pretty limited. I mean, the strikes here were very, very limited to the.

The broader strategy again, I hope they take advantage of what they showed they could do last night, the U.S. military in the Trump administration by trying to push a said diplomatic solution - I think is David said -- Syria. I think that would be a big mistake. It would create more chaos than it solves and it would show that they don't have a strategy other than I'm leaving. And we have tried that before and we paid a big price for that.

COOPER: Yes. Chairman Rogers, Gloria Borger, David Gergen, thank you.

Up next, U.S. senior officials say they are confident that both chlorine and sarin gas were used in the attack outside of Damascus last weekend. We are going to talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about what chlorine as well as what sarin can do to the body when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:41] COOPER: Well, it bears repeating that the stated reason for last night's strike was for a poison gas attack by Bashar al-Assad on his own people. But since video which we will show you in a second, first emerged, the question has been what sort of gas was actually used and to the U.S. and its allies have evidence. And today, senior U.S. officials reveal today in a call with reporters that they are confident that both chlorine and sarin gas were used by Syria on Damascus suburb if Duma one week ago today. They say they have the video evidence.

And before we show you some of it, we do want to remind you, this can be tough to watch. Children and adults gasping for hour. Eight groups say at least 48 people were killed last weekend, 500 others displayed symptoms similar to exposure to toxic gas.

I want to get some medical inside though on this poison. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me tonight.

Sanjay, can you just explain what it is about sarin that is so particularly awful? I mean, what it does to the body?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is sort of like a pesticide on humans, Anderson. This is something that's extremely lethal. Something that works really fast. I think the best way of putting it is that your bodies are constantly getting these signals that basically tell your motors, for example, to turn on and to turn off. That's constantly happening.

What this does, it sort of sticks everything in the on mode. So everything just goes on and stay. And your eyes starts to water. You nose runs. Your lung start making fluid. Your muscles start to seize up. It's very painful. Ultimately, the diaphragm which allows you to breath, that also becomes paralyzed and that ultimately can cause someone to die. So it's a terrible thing. And what I described this sort of pesticide like effect on the body can happen within minutes.

COOPER: Why is it harder to detect when it's used?

GUPTA: When you look at sarin gas, we actually look at it, it's a liquid. And you know, it is in a liquid form. When it is use as a weapon of terror like this, it is put out there, it starts to basically turn into this gas. It is colorless. It is odorless. It's not something that you can obviously detect just with the naked eye.

So you wouldn't know you have been exposed until you start to have symptoms. That makes it really, really, frightening. And also, because it starts to vaporize quickly, it can be hard to find enough to actually test. When you do test it, you have to find those samples quickly. And sometimes, it will break down and you have to find the by-products quickly. All that it's just a lot of testing and typically what happens is you just don't have time for that. You're in a dangerous situation and you can't get the samples.

COOPER: What about chlorine? How do the effects of chlorine differ from sarin?

GUPTA: Yes. Chlorine can cause some similar symptoms but for totally different reason. What chlorine does is when it hits water or in some of the areas of your body that have more water rich, it will essentially turn into hydrochloric acid, which is terrible, obviously. You can imagine breathing in this chlorine gas. It is interacting now with the back of your throat, (INAUDIBLE) where some of that water dense tissue is. And it is turning into acid. It's awful. It is painful. It can obviously get into your lungs and you can have some of those same breathing problems. It might be confused initially with sarin. But again, with sarin, you know, your pupils will constrict, your nose will run, your muscles will seize up. There are going to be clearly different symptoms, more symptoms, quicker symptoms with sarin versus chlorine.

COOPER: I mean, how do you treat people who suffered from that?

GUPTA: Well, one thing you have to keep in mind is that if it gets on the skin and it gets on the clothes, then even the people who are now treating someone who have been exposed to sarin are also at risk. So right away, if you suspect a sarin attack, and you know, the medical community, doctor, nurse who are first responders have to do things to protect themselves. Make sure it doesn't get on their skin, that they are not breathing in, number one.

Number two, you have got to basically try and reduce as much of the exposure that the individual has. Taken off their clothes. Basically scrubbing them down. Making sure you get all the sarin that you off of them.

There are antidotes, Anderson. You may remember when we have been covering conflicts overseas, we are typically given packs including substance called trephine (ph). And Trephine (ph) is an antidote that can used for sarin. It has to be given very quickly. So if you don't have it, obviously, you are not going to have it. But even if you have it, you may not suspect, you may not know you have had a sarin in a sarin attack. So it may be too late by the time you use it.

[19:35:48] COOPER: Just awful. Sanjay Gupta, appreciate it. Thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you, Anderson.

COOPER: Coming up, a closer look at the tomahawk missiles that were used in the strikes on Syria. We will take you inside the factory where they are made and show you why they are so powerful.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:23] COOPER: The Pentagon says 105 missiles were launched in the strikes against Syria including dozens of tomahawk missile launched from ships and to submarines.

Gary Tuchman got a look inside the factory where tomahawk missiles are made. It is where he found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The tomahawk is considered the world's most advanced cruise missile. It's been used in combat more than 2,000 times by the U.S. Navy from Syria to Sudan to Serbia and all the new tomahawks come out of one factory. This one. In a city and state we have been asked not to reveal for security reasons.

The 20 foot long tomahawks are manufactured by the Raytheon Company. Kim is one of Raytheon's top missile executives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the final configuration before it goes out the door to our customer. And this facility is where we do the integration of the rocket motors and the warheads. What we call the energetics elements of the missiles. Other components inside assembly come from our other factories located here and then we do the final assembly here. Test it, fuel it and get it ready to go out the door.

TUCHMAN: How soon will these be going out the door?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the next couple of days.

TUCHMAN: In this factory, 14 tomahawks are about to be shipped out. Workers here are performing what they call a war test to make sure there's nothing loose inside the missile and that everything is connected properly.

Historically, breaking on its contract with the Navy is for at least 196 missiles each year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tomahawk can fly 1,000 plus miles. So it can get launched from a ship or submarine. It can go up and loiter, as we call it, where it can fly around in a figure eight.

TUCHMAN: So in other words, once it's sent off, of you want to change where it is going, it goes in a circle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can be redirected and rerouted to a specific target.

TUCHMAN: The tomahawk has been around since the 1980s, but this is the newest version. Manufactured since 2004. It can be used for up to 30 years. And tomahawks that haven't been used come back after 15 years for recertification and upgrades.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So this is the rocket motor that launches it out of the vertical launch system. So it is what propels it out. So when you see the footage, then a missile coming out of the ship, it's the flume that gets it out of that vertical launch. As you more up toward the front is the navigation, communication system. And then ultimately, up here at the very end is the warhead and it is 1,000 pound warhead.

TUCHMAN: With their GPS guidance, the tomahawk can strike within near feet of a target. They are launched from ships or submarines.

TUCHMAN: It comes from a submarine. IT will then swim to the water. The rocket motor will take it up out of the water and then will eventually get it up into the airplane mode, which is where it will fly and performs its mission from there.

TUCHMAN: So it swims and it flies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Swims and it flies.

TUCHMAN: The price tag? $1.1 million. Each tomahawk weighs about 3500 pounds. So when 66 are fired towards Syria, that was about 231,000 pounds of fire power. People who work here tell us this isn't just a job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is an honor to be able to work for the men and women in uniform and to be b able to supply them with a competitive advantage when they are put in harm's way. And that's what we do. We make sure they have an unfair advantage out in (INAUDIBLE).

TUCHMAN: So that is what you said that this gives the U.S. military an unfair advantage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. And we want to keep it that way.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: We will have more on the Syrian strike in a bit.

But back in the United States, another storm the brewing. The President's lawyer Michael Cohen under criminal investigation has been ordered to appear at a hearing on Monday. We will have the latest on that, next.

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[19:48:16] COOPER: The President's lawyer/fixer is in a bit of a fix himself, you can say. Michael Cohen has been ordered to appear, as you may know, at a hearing on Monday as lawyers for him and the President try to keep prosecutors from using some of what FBI agents seized in the raid on Cohen's home, his office and hotel room.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us now with the latest.

So, what's the judge hoping to learn from Michael Cohen in federal court on Monday because she had a lot of questions on Friday that apparently, his lawyers couldn't answer?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: Yes, that's right, Anderson. And that's why she ordered Michael Cohen himself to appear in court because she grew increasingly frustrated that these attorneys were not able to get answers to the questions. Essentially, what she wants to know is who Michael Cohen's clients are. You would think it would be something simply Michael Cohen can answer. Can tell his lawyers and that he would be able to relay that to the court so that the government can use that as a way to check who privilege could apply to in this case. It's this whole argument in this case that the FBI should not have access to these documents because of privilege issues.

And you know, Anderson, quite frankly, it seemed like even his attorneys, Michael Cohen's attorneys, were having a hard time getting that information out of him.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, it's hard to argue (INAUDIBLE) privilege if you can't name who your client -- actual clients are. Cohen's lawyers, I mean, they are trying to prevent material that was seized in the raids from being used in court. Do they want it all stopped or I mean, how do they, how do they want to determined?

PROKUPECZ: Right. That's a great question, Anderson. And that seems to be the issue, right. They are claiming in their court documents that there are thousands of documents that were removed from Michael Cohen's possession by the FBI. The government is saying not so much the case. They feel that essentially pertains to privilege and even the government there, the prosecutors said that Michael Cohen's attorneys are exaggerating that number.

The judge seemed to agree because she asked the attorneys, you are saying that there are thousands of documents that pertain to privilege, where are you getting that from, where are you getting that information from? And the lawyers, quite simply, did not have any answers for the judge.

The government, Anderson, views this as a stall tactic by Michael Cohen's attorneys. They want to get to work here. The government said the FBI, they have these documents. They have this information. They have his phones. They need to get to work and start reviewing this and they feel that Michael Cohen's lawyers are just stalling right now.

[19:50:38] COOPER: Shimon, we will see you on Monday. Thanks very much.

The lawyer for Stormy Daniels was also at the hearing yesterday. The raids on Cohen included a search for records related to a $130,000 payment to Daniels right before the election to keep her quiet about the alleged affair with the President. Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti joins me.

Michael, you indicated that - yesterday, that Stormy Daniels may join you in court on Monday or Tuesday for hearing connected to the federal government's raid on Michael Cohen's office. Is this something she needs to be there for or something you just want her to be there for?

MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' ATTORNEY: We haven't decided, Anderson, whether she is going to attend on Monday afternoon at 2:00. That's the time of the hearing. It's really ultimately going to be up to her as to whether she wants to attend. She feels very passionately about this case and wants to ensure that these documents are handled appropriately and also wants to ensure that the American people understand that her goal is to make this process as public as possible as it relates to the disclosure of facts and information. It's a pretty important issue for her.

COOPER: CNN is reporting that the FBI seized recordings that Michael Cohen made between himself and Keith Davidson, who an attorney who represented at one time your client, Stormy Daniels, and also Karen McDougal. Do you have any avenues to actually obtain those recordings from the federal government? Is that something you can get access to?

AVENATTI: Well, we could subpoena those recordings, if they existed, from the federal government. You know, Anderson, we are very, very concerned about with each passing day the information that is coming out related to Michael Cohen and others. If we discover that in fact Michael Cohen recorded either my client or her attorney Keith Davidson, we are going to be bringing another action likely or another claim against Michael Cohen for wiretapping.

COOPER: Were you -- I know you were in court yesterday for a hearing related to the raid on Michael Cohen's office. What stood out to you from that hearing? Because clearly there were a lot of reports about how irritated the judge was with Michael Cohen's attorneys and their lack of answers.

AVENATTI: Well, two things stood out, Anderson. First of all, the judge posed a number of simple questions to Michael Cohen's attorney relating to -- or attorneys, relating to his law practice. And they were not able to provide the most simple answers in response to those questions. The judge became fairly frustrated and ultimately ordered Michael Cohen to court on Monday at 2:00.

I find it ironic that at the same time they were not able to answer those questions. The judge actually asked if they had contact with their client and they hedged. It was unclear whether they were able to actually reach him to have him participate or not. Meanwhile, we are all in court doing what we need to do. And then it comes out that at the same time Michael Cohen is basically sitting with my guess his friends, enjoying cigars on the upper east or west side of New York.

Very bad, bad scene for Michael Cohen. I don't know what this guy is thinking. If he is going to skip court, he shouldn't be photographed or videotaped out on the stoop, if you will, with his buddies.

COOPER: I want to ask you about Cohen's involvement with a Republican donor's payment to a playboy playmate who he gotten pregnant, who the donor had gotten pregnant. What do you make of the fact that Michael Cohen used the exact same pseudonyms, David Dennison and Peggy Peterson to identify the parties in your case as he did this payoff? I mean, legally, I guess it doesn't matter, but does it seem odd to you?

AVENATTI: Well, it does seem odd. You know, I broke this story on Thursday night by way of my twitter. And then "the Wall Street Journal" reported it on Friday. To be fair, it's unclear whether it was Michael Cohen that utilized those pseudonyms, whether it was his idea for that in that instance, or Keith Davidson's. It's unclear at this time.

But I did want to go back to one thing, Anderson. The other thing that stood out to me from the hearing that took place on Friday in federal court is as follows.

Michael Cohen's attorneys have stated that thousands if not millions of pages of documents that they maintain are attorney/client privileged were seized by the FBI. They also claim those documents may span 30 years.

To put that in context or to really put a fine point on this, Anderson, Michael Cohen right now is radioactive. I'm going to repeat it. Radioactive. Anybody that had any contact with this attorney, this man, for the last 30 years, their information may now be in the hands of the FBI. And there is going to be a lot of people that are going to be very, very nervous. And the more contact you had with him during that time period, the more at risk you are. And we know who the person is that had the most contact. And that's the President of the United States.

[19:55:36] COOPER: Michael Avenatti, appreciate it.

Michael, thanks.

AVENATTI: Thank you.

COOPER: Well. Up next, the strikes in Syria. We will have the latest from the Pentagon, from the White House, as well as Moscow, after the President claims on twitter, "mission accomplished."

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