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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Israeli-American Hostage Reunites With Family After Being Freed By Hamas; Interview With Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Trump Defends Qatari Jet "Contribution"; 59 White South Africans Arrive In U.S. After Being Granted Refugee Status By Trump Administration; Hamas Releases American Hostage Edan Alexander; First Two Witnesses Testify In Sean "Diddy" Combs Criminal Trial; Deputy AG Blanche Appointed Acting Librarian Of Congress. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired May 12, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: He had a strong message about defending freedom of the media, standing up for journalists who are persecuted or imprisoned. But he has his own style. He's approachable, has a good sense of humor, and I think he's clearly going to make a big impact -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Yes, thank you so much, Christopher. Incredible to see in a person that strength and humility can go so inextricably together. Thanks so much to all of you for joining us. "AC360" starts now.
[20:00:32]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening.
Thanks for joining us. There's a lot to get to tonight. The President's new plane and a whole lot of other strange things going on. But before we get to the surreal, I just want to take a few moments and show you something very real. A mom reunited with her son, who's been held hostage for 19 months in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(Edan Alexander reunited with his family.)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That is Edan Alexander, 21 years old, the last known living American hostage in Gaza, together, finally, with his mother, Yael, his father Adi, there his brothers and sisters are there as well. Hamas finally handed him over today in a deal made possible by the Trump administration. It cannot undo the long days and months of tears for this family and so many others on both sides of that border and it can't heal the broken hearts that came before it. But it is a moment to celebrate and a reminder of what's important.
Let's begin, more on the story just ahead. We begin, though, with our keeping them honest segment with the growing business of being Donald Trump and how it overlaps increasingly with the business of being President. And that overlap is embodied tonight in a replacement for Air Force. More specifically, this converted 747 and it's identical twin, which entered service during the George H.W. Bush administration. He's aboard it tonight enroute to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, including Qatar.
Now, as you may know, Boeing is working on a successor to the current Air Force One based on the latest model 747. But the complexities of turning it into the kind of secure mobile command post a President needs is taking longer than expected, pushing back the delivery first from 2024 to 2028 or 2029. But more recently, Boeing says perhaps 2027. In any case, the President isn't happy about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Boeing were not happy with the service were getting in terms of those planes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So that was February 12th. A few days later, on the 18th, Enter this 747, which happened to be at the West Palm Beach Airport near Mar-a-Lago, in which the President just happened to take a tour of, as one does, the White House at the time said it said it was so he could get a better idea of what the updated Air Force Ones might be like. The plane belongs to the Qatari Royal family.
Last night, the President confirmed the news, first reported by ABC, that the plane would be, in his words, all caps a gift free of charge of the Royal family.
Now CNN and others have reported the Defense Department would then have it modified and commissioned as a temporary Air Force One until Boeing can deliver theirs. After which, you might be thinking the Pentagon would find some use for that huge, enormous new aircraft but you would be mistaken. But before getting into what happens afterward to that new plane the President wants to get from Qatar. Listen to what the President said when asked about the ethics of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: What do you say to people who view that luxury jet as a personal gift to you? Why not leave it behind?
TRUMP: You're ABC fake news right? Only ABC -- well, a few of you would. Let me tell you. You should be embarrassed asking that question. They're giving us a free jet. I could say no, no, no, don't give us. I want to pay you $1 billion or $400 million or whatever it is or I could say thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So easy. Now, before telling you what he said next, it might be a good time to read you a passage from the Constitution which he's sworn to uphold and protect. No person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind, whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state. Qatar, by the way, has all three. Their leader isn't a king. They call
him an Emir. The prince is under him are called Sheikhs, and it is a foreign state. In a moment, well ask a former White House ethics watchdog about it, and he'll discuss it with -- we'll discuss it with our panel members. But just on the face of it, a $400-million late model 747 would seem to be a gift. Perhaps even the largest on record. And the Emir of Qatar would appear to be a king of a foreign country.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has signed off on the deal, on the grounds that this would not be covered under the emoluments clause that I just read you, because it is a gift to the Pentagon, not the President. Okay, except once again, the Pentagon will not be keeping this plane and before telling you who will, which you probably already know, listen to whose authority the President cites to get around the Constitution of the United States.
[20:05:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There was an old golfer named Sam Sneed. Did you ever hear of him? He won 82 tournaments, he was a great golfer, and he had a motto, when they give you a putt, you say, thank you very much. You pick up your ball and you walk to the next hole.
A lot of people are stupid. They say, no, no, I insist on putting it. Then they putt it and they miss it, and their partner gets angry at him. You know what? Remember that Sam Snead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So by the President's lights, in the name of "Slammin'" Sammy Snead and the PGA, when someone drops a 747 into your hand, close your ever loving fingers around it and say thanks. His press secretary, meanwhile, has another answer to all the questions this raises about a President being beholden to a foreign power that her boss during his first term accused of funding terrorism. And again, just to underscore in 2017, yes, he accused the very same country run by the very same royal family who just gave him this plane of backing terror groups. And now ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST, "ONE NATION": Do you worry that if they give us something like this, they want something in return?
PAM BONDI, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: Absolutely not, because they know President Trump and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Only works for the interest of the American public in mind. There's no way they would have any other interests, other just the kindness of their hearts. So, that explains the meme coin he issued the day before taking office, which millions of Americans have invested in, 764,000 of whom lost money. But only an estimated few- dozens have made millions from and for which the President is hosting a dinner ten days from now for the top 220 investors. That's the best interest of everybody.
Or perhaps it's the Trump connected crypto exchange World Liberty Financial, which recently closed a $2 billion deal with an investment firm in Abu Dhabi. Will that benefit the American public? If not, there's always his son's new crypto company, American Bitcoin, which announced just today that its going public.
They're all part of a growing Trump family business, none of which is meant to be in the public interest, none of which is in a blind trust, some or all of which could send or already is sending money. Donald Trump's way from almost anyone, anywhere. And then there's Qatar. Not the plane, though the golf resort.
Less than two weeks ago, Eric Trump was there on behalf of the Trump organization, closing a deal on it, part of a project worth an estimated $5.5 billion. But getting back to the $400 million used 747 here's the promised kicker, the Pentagon, meaning the public will not get to keep it. The public will not, as the press secretary suggested, benefit from this.
Taxpayers certainly will have the burden of paying to gut it. Check for listening devices and sabotage, and then bring it up to Air Force One specifications, essentially doing what Boeing is already doing. And then when he leaves office, the President will take it with him. He will take it with him.
He says it will go to his Presidential library, which has not been built. And yes, there is an old Air Force One right now at the Reagan library. So, it's not an outlandish thing to say, but it's a far, far smaller, smaller narrow-body 707, not a wide-body 747 or even the smaller, narrow bodied, aging two engine, 757 the President flew while out of office, kind of makes it an appealing trade off opportunity, no?
With a source familiar with the situation tells CNN, that's what it will be. He won't park it, the source tells us. He'll fly in it. But not to worry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Do you plan to use the plane after you leave office?
TRUMP: No, I don't, no. It would go directly to the library after I leave office. I wouldn't, be using it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Yes, he says that he won't -- won't after office fly in the gift from the country he once accused of funding terrorism and his attorney general, who was once a lobbyist and once lobbied for Qatar, says is it's ethically fine. And his press secretary, who says he only acts in the public interest, says Qatar won't ask for anything in return because he only acts in the public interest. Multiple Trump business deals, including in Qatar, notwithstanding,
it's a lot to take on faith.
Late today, two Republican senators expressed their doubts Josh Hawley of Missouri saying it would be better if Air Force One were a, "big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America." And Florida's Rick Scott saying of the arrangement, I mean, that seems pretty nice, but they support Hamas. So, I don't know. I just don't know how to make it safe. I don't want the President of United States flying on an unsafe plane.
CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins starts us off tonight from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She hosts "The Source" at the top of the hour. The Rick Scott quote is incredible.
So, Kaitlan, the President says he'd be stupid to not accept what he's calling a free gift, but he's not saying he'll get stuck paying for all these security and communication upgrades to the plane, namely the taxpayers. All of us by way of the Defense Department and the only thing more remarkable than that is the idea that when he leaves office, the plane is going to be gifted to his Presidential library, which won't be built for quite some time and seems highly unlikely he is not going to be using it. How fully baked is this plan?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's what he said, Anderson. Obviously, our understanding before all of this came under scrutiny when we were reporting initially about this deal and how this was set to happen over the weekend, was that he wouldn't be able to use it after he left office, and that would be the point of donating it to the Presidential library. That had raised questions because there was an older model that was donated to the Reagan library, for example, but he never used it. It was just on display.
And so, it raised questions of whether or not he would continue using it. It's just a matter of a few years from now, once he is out of office.
[20:10:28]
He is telling reporters definitively today that he will not be using it. That it will go to the library but obviously it's raised questions in terms of what this is going to look like in the immediate future, because initially, what we had heard was that Qatar had offered up this plane. The President had been very frustrated by the delays and Boeing building the new Air Force Ones.
They were going to be projected to not be ready until after he was out of office, despite being commissioned years ago. And he had even put Elon Musk in charge of it at one point. And there was some questions of whether or not they could just donate it to the library now, or whether or not it needed to go to the administration immediately.
And the understanding was that it needed to go within the administration to where it would not violate the emoluments clause in the constitution. For people who hear that word and think, you know, what is that? It essentially violates public office holders in the United States from accepting gifts from a foreign government.
And so, I spoke to some Qataris over the weekend on my way here, actually, about how this would work and they -- our reporting was that it would essentially go in a transaction from the Qatari ministry of defense to the Pentagon. And then, as you noted, it would be the Pentagon who was in charge of modifying it and making it usable for the president, making all the safeguards and modifications there.
And obviously that would come at the cost of the taxpayer dollar. And so that was really the settlement there. The President confirmed that today that it would be going straight to the Pentagon, but then eventually to his presidential library. And so it has raised a lot of questions. And we're even seeing some Republican Senate pushback on Capitol Hill, Anderson, which, as you know, is pretty rare these days of a lot of the moves that the president makes.
Rand Paul, just a few moments ago, was saying he doesn't think this is a good idea. And so, I do think that's a question going forward of whether or not that changes how this -- where this plane goes going forward. The Qataris over the weekend were essentially saying that this was still being worked out, this agreement, that was not what we heard from White House officials who essentially said, yes, the president toured it. He had been talking privately about how luxurious and beautiful and large this plane was. And now they do expect to get this and be able to use it within the coming years.
COOPER: Kaitlan Collins, thanks very much. We'll see you at the top of the hour for "The Source."
Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, the President says anyone who turns down a free 747 is a world class loser. What do you see when you read between the lines of this deal?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Anderson, this is grift, pure and simple. I mean, the reason we have the emoluments clause in the constitution is to guard against countries essentially trying to buy favor with the President of the United States. And that's exactly what's happening here in this transaction. So, you can be sure that there will be resolutions in Congress that those Republican senators that you just mentioned will have a chance to demonstrate their disapproval.
But this is all part and parcel of this larger scheme to sell the presidency for the President and his family's personal benefit. And as you mentioned, on this visit to the UAE, normally you would send your advanced team of diplomats.
In this case, it was the Trump family business representatives, Eric Trump and others that did the advance essentially to cut private deals to enrich the family and put the United States in conflict position with (AUDIO GAP)
COOPER: -- that there will be a bug or some sort of device in their monitoring device or the hotel room, somebody staying with in overseas. This is a ginormous aircraft. There's no telling the security issues that may be involved here
VAN HOLLEN: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, even when people get the smallest gifts, trinkets, when they're going overseas, the protocol is to have them looked at by security, to be screened to make sure that there are no bugs implanted or other devices. So, you're right, this is a massive jet that will require a huge amount of money and effort to go forward to make sure it's not compromised.
COOPER: If -- I mean, you know, is it up to the executive branch, though? I mean, I know, you know, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, some say they intend to force a vote condemning it. You know, if President Trump wants to accept a free jumbo jet from Qatar, retrofitted at taxpayer expense, and then donate it to his presidential library or use it for himself, can anyone actually stop him?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, you could stop it with a vote. Of course, you have to win the vote, and that does require, you know, Republican senators and house members ultimately joining us. But this idea is just so outrageous and so obviously a conflict of interest for the President that it's possible that some of the senators that you mentioned earlier, for example, would support it.
But I have to say, Anderson, I have to see it to believe it, because what we've seen as a pattern where Republicans may, you know, grumble about some of these things, but at the end of the day, there seems to be no bottom to their support for the President, regardless of the grift or corruption involved.
COOPER: Senator, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.
[20:15:46]
COOPER: Senator Chris Van Hollen. A lot more ahead, joining me now is Norm Eisen, co-founder and executive chair of the State Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit election watchdog who has worked on over 60 legal cases involving the Trump administration. Also, CNN political commentator, former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin and CNN chief political analyst and former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod.
David, do you know a lot of foreign governments who give away jumbo jets out of the goodness of their hearts?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Just a few, I don't really -- Listen, Alexander Hamilton, I was just looking at this as you guys were speaking, said about the emoluments clause, one of the weak sides of republics among their numerous advantages is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign corruption. This was a real concern of the drafters of the constitution.
When I came to the White House, by the way, because there were all kinds of things Trump has going on that essentially offers access to policymakers and to him, including this meme coin and this auction where you can have dinner with him if you're one of the top meme coin purchasers all going into the pocket of the Trump family.
When I came to the White House and Norm Eisen knows this because he enforced these rules. I sold my two small businesses in the weeks before I went there because there were strict rules to prevent conflicts of interest or people trying to leverage your businesses to get influence with the government and with the policymakers.
These are serious matters. This is why people should care about it. But I've said a million times on this program that the issue with Donald Trump is he does not believe in rules and laws and norms. He thinks they're for suckers. And he thinks if you can get a free plane, as he said today, why wouldn't you do it? You wouldn't do it because it's a bribe.
COOPER: I know.
AXELROD: You're trying to buy influence.
COOPER: I mean, he literally -- again, for we know this, he says these things out loud that most people don't. But I mean, norm, I want to play you more of what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox this morning about the plane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The legal details of that are still being worked out, but of course, any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency, and we will continue to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I mean Norm, is any of this legal?
NORM EISEN, EXECUTIVE CHAIR, STATE DEMOCRACY DEFENDERS FUND: Well, Anderson, as courts have found, more than 125 times this administration is trampling the constitution and laws of the United States, and this is one of the lows. You can tell that this is a gift, at least in part, to the President. Just listen to him. You played the sound earlier. I, I, I why shouldn't I take the thing?
It's going to follow him when he leaves the government. And he asked for a new plane. He toured this plane on the tarmac in Palm Beach.
COOPER: Everybody tours that plane on the tarmac. It was widely available to everybody.
EISEN: Everybody gets a $400-million plane from the government of Qatar. They give them out like the M&M's acts and I -- and Alyssa used to enjoy in the White House mess. I mean, it's so obviously, a violation of the emoluments clause. I litigated these issues in multiple courts that found Trump had implicated emoluments rules the first time around. It's unconstitutional and even his own party is calling him out on it. It's wrong. COOPER: Alyssa, would you -- I mean, during the first administration,
do you think this would have happened? I mean, like, you know, he talked about putting his business in sort of a trust in the first time around and all that just seems like now for suckers and losers.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, he's in much more of a YOLO phase in the second term. He really just kind of wants to push the limits of what he can do and honestly, what stood out to me when I heard this is -- that it's Qatar.
Right now, I mean, you started the segment talking about Edan Alexander the last --
COOPER: They support Hamas.
[20:20:02]
GRIFFIN: Literally, Qatar shelters the money of Hamas, keeps their leaders there and for a President who prides himself in being so pro- Israel, it just seems remarkable that you would take something that's likely paid for with blood money. But you are hearing backlash from some Republican senators. I'm not convinced that it's going to be enough to block this from happening, but it really does seem like he's willing to go much further this time around.
And I would just note before I would go on foreign travel with the President, with the Vice President, when I worked for him, they would tell us not even to take a pen from a foreign leader or from a diplomat, because it would likely have surveillance technology on it.
What you would have to strip this plane of and the inability you would have to actually be able to say, this is definitely secure and you don't -- they may not know security protocols on it. That would be incredibly hard to do.
COOPER: What is the possibility that he would get the plane and then hear that to retrofit is going to take three years and then be like, you know what, I'm just going it, I'm just going to ride it now?
GRIFFIN: I mean, that's actually, definitely a possibility.
COOPER: Why wouldn't that occur? I mean --
GRIFFIN: Definitely a possibility, and just as simple as security protocols on how it works, things that you would not want, a nation that we have a relationship with, but certainly isn't an ally or friend of ours to know all the details of.
COOPER: David, the plane, the crypto, the business deals in the Middle East -- Is the effect of all of this, that there's so much going on. You know, the fire hose analogy is often been used, that it just -- it's just too much to keep track of and, you know, people sign off at a certain point.
AXELROD: Yes, and I think there's an element of cynicism about government, some of which this President has fanned. I mean, let's think back. I'm old enough to remember the whole Biden crime family theme and Congress, because Hunter Biden had clients that were you know, operating in foreign countries in China and so on. And this was the constant source of investigation by the United States Congress. They never did find a link between that and the and the President and his own income or any influence that was leveraged.
COOPER: David, let me just ask you, if President Obama had suggested that he was going to accept a plane from Qatar, how would that have gone down? It's really hard for me to process, because I can't imagine that scenario. There's no other President I could imagine accepting a plane from Qatar, and if there was even a hint of it Norm Eisen would have chained himself to the White House from inside the White House.
COOPER: But Norm, is it true --
AXELROD: Listen.
COOPER: Sorry, go ahead, David.
AXELROD: I mean, no, I mean -- just, there are rules for a reason. They are not for suckers. They are to protect the American people and the United States from you know, undue influence domestically and from malign things --
COOPER: It's really a shiny big plane, David. It's a shiny plane. That's all I could think about while you're talking. It's a really cool, beautiful, gorgeous plane. Norm Eisen, Alyssa Farah Griffin --
AXELROD: It's okay for you to accept it. You know, you should --
COOPER: We have rules. David Axelrod, thanks very much.
Coming up next, there are the -- these are the first people granted refugee status since the beginnings of President Trump's second term. These are the first people that he's granted refugee status to. They do not look like the refugees already here who are losing their legal status. I should point out what the President has to say about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they're White or Black makes no difference to me. But White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What he says is not the case. We'll talk about that later. Edan Alexander's reunion with his family -- how his freedom came to be and what's being done or not about the others still being held by Hamas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:28:17] COOPER: You may recall that on the day he was sworn in President,
Trump signed an executive order effectively stopping any refugees from being allowed to come and resettle in the United States. Now, there's an act backed by passed by Congress called The Refugee Act, which allows for as many as 125,000 refugees in this fiscal year, people who can prove they're being persecuted or fear persecution because of race or religion or political beliefs. And nowhere near that number has been allowed in by the time Mr. Trump took office and shut it all down.
But just a few weeks later, President Trump announced that he was making an exception. And not only that, he would expedite the processing of refugee claims by one group of people from Africa.
Now, you might think it's some women and children who have been sexually assaulted in the conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic Of Congo, a place that's seen fighting for decades.
On this program, we reported on the violence, the plight of people there in a series of programs in 2006.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What has gone on here is simply extraordinary. Over the last 10 years here, there has been a major fighting between a number of different groups. It has been the deadliest war in our lifetime, the deadliest war since World War II. Some three to four million people have died in this country, and their deaths have virtually gone unnoticed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And there's a whole new round of fighting that's been going on in Eastern Congo between the government and an armed group called M- 23. Thousands have died, hundreds of thousands displaced and widespread reports of sexual violence against women. But President Trump hasn't allowed refugees from there, here, nor from Sudan, where there's been terrible fighting. The only Africans President Trump has paved a path for are these South Africans.
And yes, they are White. They are Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers to South Africa. This is the first group of people granted refugee status to enter the U.S. since the President entered his second term.
On February 7th, President Trump signed this executive order, carving out an exception for the Afrikaners, the White minority who created the Racist Apartheid Regime in South Africa and ruled there cruelly and brutally until 1994, when Black South Africans the overwhelming majority of South Africans, were allowed to vote for the first time and they voted for that man, Nelson Mandela.
Afrikaners took land from Black people in South Africa, repressed them, and in the three decades since the end of apartheid, they still have all the land they took. Black South Africans who make up over 80 percent of the population, still only own around four percent of private land.
Now, President Trump was asked why these Afrikaners were allowed to enter the U.S.
[20:30:41]
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you creating an expedited path into the country for Afrikaners but not others?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because they're being killed and we don't want to see people be killed. It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, but it's a terrible thing that's taking place and farmers are being killed.
They happen to be white, but whether they're white or black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa. And the newspapers and the media, television media, doesn't even talk about it. If it were the other way around, they'd talk about it. That would be the only story they'd talk about.
And I don't care who they are, I don't care about their race, their color, I don't care about their height, their weight, I don't care about anything. I just know that what's happening is terrible. I have people that live in South Africa, they say it's a terrible situation taking place.
So, we've essentially extended citizenship to those people and to escape from that violence and come here.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: The idea that there's a genocide of white farmers going on in South Africa is just not true. It's absurd and that's been debunked by a number of organizations both inside and outside of South Africa. But it's become a rallying cry for right-wing -- some right-wing elements inside the country and has echoed all the way to America.
Let me just go back to Sudan for a moment. An actual genocide has happened there according to the U.S. as two warring factions battle for control of that country earlier this year. The U.S. accused one side, the RSF, of committing genocide.
More than 11 million people have been internally displaced while millions more have fled the country, that's according to the U.N. They aren't allowed to be refugees here.
And on top of this, the Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops during the war as interpreters and guides and fixers, Afghans who fought for the United States, helped save American lives and were allowed here under a temporary protected status. Well, now we learned that status is not going to be renewed next week, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which means many who helped save U.S. lives may be deported starting in July.
Joining us now is New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof. Nick, you say this whole situation is upside down, the idea that there's a genocide of white farmers. I mean, why do you think the Trump administration is doing this?
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, I mean, he's completely turned refugee policy upside down in ways that reflect racial discrimination. I mean, he's not -- the Afrikaner farmers are not suffering from that. It is true that some have been murdered, but black farmers have been murdered at even higher rates. And, you know --
COOPER: Right. There's a huge crime rate in South Africa. There is a -- crime is a huge problem. And -- but according to organizations there, there's been no taking back -- forcible taking back of confiscation of land at this point.
KRISTOF: Not at all. And, you know, it is true that there was legislation passed in January that theoretically creates an opportunity to confiscate some land without compensation that has not been implemented, that nobody has had their land taken away. And these Afrikaners are among the most privileged people on the entire continent.
They are the -- you know, they are assets or the white South Africans have assets 20 times greater than those of black South Africans on average. And, you know, you just mentioned Sudan, the world's probably worst humanitarian crisis right now in Sudan. I've seen a man who had his eyes gouged out as a reflection of that genocide with a bayonet in Congo, which you also mentioned.
You know, I saw children who were gang raped because of their ethnicity. You know, that is the world's worst mass atrocity since World War II. In Myanmar, I talked to a Rohingya mom who had her baby pulled from her arms and thrown into a bonfire. Now, that is plausibly a genocide.
But none of those people have any right to be accept -- to come to the U.S. as refugees. And instead, we bring in, you know, a group of people who don't remotely qualify as refugees. But what distinguishes them is that they are white. And it -- as the son of a refugee, I just find this makes a mockery of the entire principle of refugee status.
[20:35:12]
COOPER: Also, the U.S. actually cut off its economic assistance to South Africa over this as well. So it's not just not letting black South Africans in or other people from other parts of the continent. There's now a cut off of aid for HIV medication. I think South Africa gets about 17 percent of their -- of the money that they use for HIV treatment in South Africa comes from the U.S.
KRISTOF: And that, as you know, has happened across the continent, that there are kids dying right now across the African continent because they can't get emergency food aid, which costs maybe $70 to save a child's life because they can't get AIDS medication, which costs $0.12 a day.
We can't afford that. But we were willing, America was, to provide a plane to bring 49 Afrikaners, white privileged Afrikaners, to the United States and give them expedited refugee status. When meanwhile, there are 12,000 other people who have already been approved and gone through a multi-year screening and have flights booked.
In some cases, these are these, you know, Afghans who saved the lives of American troops. And now they're held off and we're not admitting them.
COOPER: Yes. Nick Kristof, I appreciate you being with us. Thank you.
Coming up next, our report from Israel, where the final living American hostage in Gaza is free and back with his family.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language)
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[20:41:24]
COOPER: An American held by Hamas for 584 days. Edan Alexander, the last living -- last known living American hostage in Gaza, was released and reunited with his family earlier today. The International Committee of the Red Cross transferred the 21 year old from Gaza to Israeli authorities.
This was Edan's mom, Yael, speaking with him on the phone shortly after he was in safe custody of the Israeli Army.
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YAEL ALEXANDER, MOTHER OF EDAN ALEXANDER: They just released a photo of you. You look unbelievable. Wow. You look beautiful. I love you so much.
I love you. And I'm going to see you, like, soon.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Edan was then reunited with his mom and dad, Adi, and brother and sister.
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(Speaking in Foreign Language)
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COOPER: Later, a reunion with his extended family. Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv with more. (BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To Yael, Edan Alexander isn't just the last living American hostage in Gaza. He's her son. And this reunion is more than 19 months in the making.
Alexander, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas on October 7th, released unconditionally in a gesture that U.S. officials say could unlock a deal to free more hostages and deliver a ceasefire in Gaza. Before that emotional reunion, a phone call to U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's cell phone assuaging a mother's worst fears.
Y. ALEXANDER: Edan?
DIAMOND (voice-over): "You're out. My soul, you're out", she tells him, grasping at this new reality.
Y. ALEXANDER: They just released a photo of you. You look unbelievable. Wow. You look beautiful. I love you so much.
DIAMOND (voice-over): That photo of Alexander alongside a Red Cross official and masked Hamas militants gave his family the first confirmation that Edan was alive and well. In Tel Aviv's hostage square, hundreds joining in the family's joy, cheering at the first sight of the hostage whose name, Edan, they've all come to know.
TRUMP: Though his parents are so happy. They're so happy.
DIAMOND (voice-over): President Trump making clear he expects Alexander's release to lead to much more. Writing on social media, "This was a step taken in good faith. To put an end to this very brutal war and return all living hostages and remains to their loved ones. Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict".
A week after announcing plans to launch a major new offensive in Gaza next week, the Israeli Prime Minister now agreeing under U.S. pressure to send a delegation to Qatar to negotiate. But he is also vowing those negotiations will continue under fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): For the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza, their fight continues.
EINAV ZANGAUKER, SON HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: Mr. President, sir, all of the Israeli people are behind you. End this war. Bring them all home.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Yehuda Cohen's son Nimrod is the same age as Edan Alexander. They were even posted at the same base on October 7th. But Nimrod is still captive in Gaza.
[20:45:05]
YEHUDA COHEN, FATHER OF NIMROD COHEN: My son has only two titles, Israeli citizen and Israeli citizenship. The only difference is the American citizenship.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.
Up next, the first witnesses take the stand in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs. We'll take you there.
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COOPER: Today marked the first day of testimony in Sean "Diddy" Combs' federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial. Two witnesses took the stand, the first a former security guard who responded to a distress call in 2016 when Combs was captured on the surveillance video assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel.
The second witness was a man who says he was paid to have sex with Ventura as Combs watched on multiple occasions between 2012 and 2014. Now attorneys also presented opening statements today, Combs has pleaded not guilty on all charges.
Joining me now, Criminal Defense Attorney Arthur Aidala and CNN Anchor and Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates, who was in court today. What was it like in court?
LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, my goodness. To see Sean "Diddy" Combs, who is so well-known, all of a sudden no longer look like the young 20 or 30 face of bad boy, but instead all gray, gray suit with 14 people behind him, including his children, many of whom look like the younger version of himself. To see him in that courtroom coming out with a Bible and then bifocals to then read it before the jury came into the room, it was quite a scene.
As was the fact that you had for opening statements, you finally got what they were going to argue. We all had wondered, how would the defense reconcile that video? How would they address it? Would they do it at all?
COOPER: Right.
COATES: You know what they did? They said, we own it. We own domestic violence. They essentially said, he is a domestic abuser. He is a drug user. He has a horrible temper. He is jealous and a hypocrite, but none of that is charged and he's not a racketeer. He's not a trafficker.
And the jury was consuming all of this in real time, all while thinking to themselves, this is the man we've known most of our lives as a cultural icon, hip hop mogul.
COOPER: Was that wise to do, Arthur?
ARTHUR AIDALA, NEW YORK CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, we have a, I don't know if it's a silly expression, but it's an expression we use. You admit what you can't deny, but you deny what you can't admit. So you have to admit he's a jerk. He's a freak. COOPER: He made a video saying he did that on the video.
AIDALA: Correct. And they're going to see the video of her being beaten up on the floor. So you have to admit that and you'll have to own it. I mean, I think Teny Geragos did exactly what needed to be done. However, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, he's not charged with domestic violence.
He's not charged with drug possession. He's not charged with these types of sex crimes themselves. He's charged with running an enterprise with sex trafficking. So he's a bad dude and that's going to come out, but you can't convict him because he's a bad guy.
COOPER: Do you think that's effective?
COATES: Well, I think it could be to an extent, but the prosecution had a very robust opening when they talked about what an enterprise was. And for a lot of you, I thought, I think about the mob, thinking about the mafia, thinking about the -- RICO.
What was Diddy doing? They said it was an inner circle. This is someone who thought of himself as a king, wanted to be called as such, and treated as such, which meant that everyone was at his beck and call, either to bring him whatever he wanted, to appeal to every one of his desires and satisfy them, even if it was sexual. They said, listen, this is a king who tried to exploit and did exploit by force, by threats, by intimidation, by coercion, people, so they could not have any agency and control over their bodies.
COOPER: And is trafficking like bringing people across borders like that?
AIDALA: Yes, correct. But I'll tell you the racketeering part. I mean, you're right, Laura, I mean, that was meant for organized crime, all kinds of organized crime. The government, as of late, the last five years or so, they've been stretching the definition of an enterprise.
I mean, this is a businessman who's got some people working for him. This is not La Cosa Nostra or the Russian or the Chinese, but they're figuring out a way to use it. And Anderson, the other thing is how this case started. It starts from a lawsuit. That's what's going on with these cases.
People are going to personal injury lawyers who are bringing big lawsuits, that's what happened with Cassie here. And then the government says, let's take a look and see if there's any criminality. Usually it's the other way around. Usually there's a criminal investigation and then afterwards, like O.J. Simpson, there's a civil suit.
COOPER: Who's testifying tomorrow? Very quickly.
COATES: Tomorrow is Cassie Ventura, the star witness who will talk about her life with him, over a decade, about abuse. She will allege everything else.
COOPER: She's in that video.
AIDALA: She's the woman in the video. You see her on the screen right now. She is the key to this trial. And what she will say -- by the way, she is very pregnant as well, who will be there. And they were told this is the first time they have seen each other since they broke up almost six years ago. They called it their closure.
COOPER: Arthur Aidala and Laura Coates, thank you so much.
Be sure to join Laura for a special edition of Laura Coates Live. More developments from today in court and a look ahead at what comes when testimony resumes tomorrow.
Next, after firing the first black woman ever to serve as Librarian of Congress, the Trump administration appoints her interim replacement. He may look familiar. Next.
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[20:59:16]
COOPER: An update now on the shakeup at the Library of Congress. According to the Justice Department, President Trump has appointed the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as Acting Librarian. He was also President Trump's attorney during his New York hush money trial last year. Blanche was chosen as a temporary replacement for this woman, Carla Hayden, who was fired last week by the White House.
Hayden was appointed back in 2016, had about a year and a half left in her tenure term. She was the first woman, first black person to serve as Librarian of Congress. The White House accused her of being in pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books for children in the nation's largest library.
They cited one book in particular, which was a book for teenagers who were gay or lesbian. Should be pointed out, the Library of Congress does not lend books to children or adults.
Meanwhile, two other senior Justice Department officials were appointed by the president for other roles at the Library. They were denied access to the building this morning. Person familiar with what happens at the Library, which is part of the legislative branch, is waiting for guidance from Congress on how to proceed.
That's it for us. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you tomorrow night.
"The Source" with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
