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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Washington Post: Trump Took Secret Flight From Turkey Amid Iran Threat; Trump Calls For Three Separate MMR Shots; Trump Falsely Claims "Jihadists" Being Elected "All Over The Place"; Trump Attack El-Sayed After Progressive Dem Wins MI Senate Primary; NY Times: Trump Crypto Took $100M From Businessman With Red Flags; Zuckerberg Shares Vision For AI, Pushes Back On "Doom" Outlook; At Least 132 Killed After Powerful Earthquake Strikes Colombia. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired August 10, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Of 2020, no matters how false it is, or you might just have to get out of the party, because he is not going to want you there -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Tom Foreman, thank you very much. And all of these matters so much, tomorrow night is election night.
Key primary races across several states, and polls start closing at 7:00. That is why we will have special coverage starting here on "Out Front." So we will see you tomorrow at 7:00 Eastern.
Thanks for joining us. AC360 starts now.
[20:00:31]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening from the Newsroom.
We begin with a remarkable new twist to a story already full of them. New reporting in "The Washington Post" about the President's return from the NATO Summit in Turkey, which already included a change of planes with the President or so we thought, taking his old blue 747 for the first leg of the trip instead of this new Qatari gift, Red 747, which he boarded for the second leg from England back to the U.S.
Now, we were told at the time it was to give troops in England a better look at the new plane, which had left Turkey earlier. That wasn't true, and everybody knew it wasn't true at the time.
The switch was for security reasons, and now "The Post" is reporting that the threat was so severe there was a second switch onto a third plane. The President was not on this plane at all.
Instead, according to "The Post," even as members of the press were boarding from the rear door, the President who we just showed you climbing the front steps, was leaving the plane, leaving on one of these, quoting now from "The Post," "He was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane, an Air Force C-32 via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, according to a U.S. official and corroborating material reviewed by "The Post."
"The Post" asked The White House for comment. The White House instead provided a statement about the new 747, saying, "The new Air Force One is a state of the art aircraft that has been fitted with high level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff as the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats."
Joining me now, our chief White House correspondent and anchor of "The Source," Kaitlan Collins.
Is there any precedent for this kind of deception?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it is remarkable because even when the President goes to war zones before, which Trump himself has done, the reporters who are traveling with him are sworn to secrecy, but they know where they're going.
But, you know, looking back on this and in that moment, it was so odd when the President said that they were sending the new Air Force One ahead, so troops could --
COOPER: It was a ridiculous --
COLLINS: Right.
COOPER: -- explanation.
COLLINS: And when they were so angry over the reporting, I mean, this prompted an entire leak investigation where they subpoenaed reporters who reported on the security threat. You know, one conversation I had with The White House was its pretty obvious something happened because the President didn't fly on this new plane that he has been touting for months.
But what this speaks to is, one, you know, the seriousness of the threat that they got when it came to this Iranian threat against the President's life. And, two, the levels that they were willing to go to, to put the president in a catering truck and to deceive the reporters who were on board and even some White House staff, according to "The Post," who thought the President was on board that plane.
And, you know, when you're boarding Air Force One, I was just on the plane with the President last week, traveling with him, reporters watch the President get on, and then once he is up and boards the plane, we go around back and get on the back of the plane.
And typically, when the President is getting off the plane, we get off first, and then we wait for him to descend and he comes and gaggles or, or whatnot, gets in a motorcade.
We looked back at the pool notes from the day of this trip, and the President's -- the plane landed and it was a good amount of time before the reporters exited to go and watch the President. And he got off that day and you watched him board -- deplane the old Air Force One, and get on the new one. That is something pretty unusual because when i was flying with the President a few months ago and there was an electrical issue with the Air Force One, we had to change planes, they did not let us record the President changing planes. So they made a point of showing him getting on the new plane here.
But the other part of this is that on the old Air Force One, reporters are seated on the right side of the plane. During this trip, they were asked to lower their window shades on the plane, which is very unusual. That's never happened to me, the only time I can remember that happening is when reporters go to war zones with the President.
COOPER: Right.
COLLINS: With all the shades lowered. But obviously, this was the scenario where the catering truck was on the other side of the plane, they didn't want reporters to see that because there is never a catering truck for Air Force One. That's very unusual.
And when the President was asked later, when he was gaggling with reporters about them lowering their shades, he said, because there was a threat against them in the plane. And so it is just remarkable to read this "Washington Post" scoop on the levels and lengths that they went to, to not just to see the press, but everyone about where the President was and effectively, the reporters and staff who were on that plane, I mean, it is serving as a decoy while he is flying on this other military aircraft.
COOPER: Is he ever going to use the new plane?
COLLINS: Well, now it is being retrofitted --
[20:05:07]
COOPER: Right, yes.
COLLINS: But the whole -- I mean, to the point of a threat --
COOPER: Yes, the amount of time it is going to take to retrofit it even more, it seems like it is going to be a while.
COLLINS: But it is being retrofitted for security upgrades. But I mean, clearly they didn't even feel that he could be on Air Force One, the old Air Force One. That is up to all of their standards, because they took him off of that and put him and the Defense Secretary on a separate plane.
I mean, it really shows you why there was that leak investigation and the anger that the President had over this. It will be remarkable to see how he responds to this, because I don't know if you remember, but during the George Floyd protests that happened at The White House when there was -- when they forced the protesters out of the park in front of The White House, the President was sent to the bunker briefly. He was so angry when it was reported that he had gone to the bunker underneath The White House.
I mean, this is showing clearly how seriously they took these threats from the Iranians.
COOPER: Yes. Well, we will see how he feels about being in the catering truck. Kaitlan, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Join Kaitlan at the top of the next hour for the stories she will be speaking to "Washington Post" journalist, Dan Lamothe on his reporting about this.
Also joining us now is retired FBI special agent, Richard Kolko and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.
Richard, what is it -- this level of security about the President's movements? What does it say to you about how seriously the Secret Service was taking this threat?
RICHARD KOLKO, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, we haven't learned enough about what the actual threat was, but certainly they thought it was credible enough to take these extraordinary steps.
In reality, I think it may have been the smart move to do based on what information they had. But as Kaitlan mentioned a moment ago, it was the decoy thing that bothered me a little bit. There is what is called the Duty to Warn. You can't use civilians as decoys without letting them know.
So there may have been additional options, whether it was delaying the departure of the Air Force One that the President was not on, and letting people know what the issue was. But certainly, there were steps that needed to be taken to make sure everybody was in the loop as best they could, but protecting the President is the job of the Secret Service.
COOPER: The Duty to Warn, what? There is a Duty to Warn anybody who may be in harm's way.
KOLKO: Basically, yes. Well, certainly civilians, if there are military folks on the on board, they may not have to be notified. I am not positive what the ruling on that is. But if you have civilians, they are not -- in any case, they're not allowed to be used as decoys for protection purposes.
COOPER: Colonel Leighton, as we said, "The Washington Post" reports the President was flying in an Air Force C-32A, which is a modified Boeing 757 normally used to transport government officials.
Does that type of plane have the type of security upgrades and defensive countermeasures a traditional 747 Air Force One does? I ant imagine that it would.
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Actually, it normally does not. Anderson, so that also raises some interesting questions, because a lot of our reporting concerning Air Force One, the new Air Force One, the old Air Force One, has been based on the security requirements that Air Force One normally brings with it, and also the capabilities, such as the defensive capabilities, as well as things like chaff and, you know, other capabilities that the Air Force One, at least in the past, has had.
It also normally does not have aerial refueling capabilities, which is something the old Air Force One had, it is seldom used, but definitely something that is good to have if the President is going to be in the air for an extended period of time.
COOPER: Richard, does the effort the Secret Service went to in order to make it look like the President was on the former Air Force One. Does it -- does that surprise you? I mean, have you seen something like this before?
KOLKO: It doesn't surprise me. Many of the Secret Service people I worked with and in joint operations as well, they uncover every possibility that they can do.
I like the catering truck, the one Kaitlan brought up that they don't normally bring a catering truck to Air Force One, I thought that was interesting. So I am sure some of the alert people on board thought something was a little unusual that day, but they are going to take every step they have to, to protect the President, no matter who that person is.
COOPER: And Colonel Leighton, if the C-32A was not using the Air Force One call sign, how many people do you think in the U.S. National Security apparatus even knew the President was on that plane?
LEIGHTON: Very few people, Anderson, would be my guess in this particular case, because normally, Air Force One is the call sign that is used when the President is on board a particular aircraft and in this particular case, they used the call sign Reach 18 and that is a common call sign for military aircraft. U.S. Military aircrafts.
So in this case, the deception was, you know, all the way to include the call sign and it would make sense in a case like this where there is a probable Iranian threat that could be exercised through Intelligence and interception of communications.
So this is something that, you know, showed the thoroughness of their preparation, at least in this instance.
COOPER: Richard, how much time and preparation between agencies does it take on an overseas trip like this? I mean, would there be a decoy plane like this on the shelf in case of emergency?
KOLKO: Well, the C-32 was there and available. They fly several airplanes in when the President makes any trip, as you know, for logistics.
[20:10:10]
But, you know, having spent plenty of time in Washington, when you see the helicopters arrive at The White House, you'll see two, sometimes three helicopters. Those are up there as in case one helicopter breaks down or as decoys.
So this is an operation that certainly people have thought through. They've utilized in the past. We talked about it in "The Washington Post" story, where something similar with President Clinton in some of the war zone travel, again, they are going to take the steps they need to, to protect the President.
COOPER: Yes, Richard Kolko, Colonel Leighton, appreciate it. Thank you.
Coming up next, the President's new executive order on vaccines and your kids, the claims he is making about why he wants them to get fewer shots spaced further apart, and the evidence he is or is not citing to back it up and the real harm experts worry this new order could cause.
Later, what it is like on the still unsteady ground in Colombia after the worst earthquake to hit the country in a decade.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:15:20]
COOPER: Keeping them honest tonight, the new executive order from the President on vaccines and four words he had for parents today about the health and well-being of their children, "Nothing bad can happen."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You know, the expression is we have really no choice and nothing bad can happen from what we are doing. Nothing bad can happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the President said that while issuing an executive order calling for all children to be vaccinated against fewer diseases than the CDC now recommends, 11 instead of 18 and stretching out the shots over a longer period of time.
Now, the President is obviously not a doctor, nor is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of HHS. But Mr. Trump is someone that millions of Americans, many of them parents of small children, voted for and say they believe in, meaning they may actually believe the stuff he says like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Very simply, large amounts of vaccine, large amounts of like vats of vaccine are currently pumped into your child's body. I saw this early on and I've seen proof of it where they have a vaccination. It looks like the size of a bottle of soda poured into a little child's body and bad things happen in many cases -- too many cases, because this is an explosion. This is an epidemic.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: Saying "vats of vaccine" are pumped into a little child's body -- vats. He also says he has proof of a vaccination the size of a bottle of soda. You know, this is not true. Whether he is talking about a two liter bottle or a 12 ounce can or a vat.
Keeping them honest, the pediatric dosage of, say, the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is about 0.5 milliliters. It would take 354 doses to fill a 12-ounce can. So no, kids do not get soda bottle size amounts of drugs pumped into them. If you have kids, you know this. You've seen this with your own eyes.
But staying with the MMR vaccine, the President's order calls for it to be broken up into individual shots for each of the three diseases and he was asked why that is. And listen carefully, because his explanation is both meaningless and quite terrifying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: I think I heard you say that the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella is quite lethal. Is there any evidence of that?
TRUMP: What I've heard is that there are some people that say it is that way. I've heard when you put them together, they can be explosive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So he was asked, is there any evidence it is lethal? He says, what I heard is that there are some people who say it is. He said he heard it can be, "explosive."
Now, here is what the CDC says: MMR vaccination is the best way to prevent measles, mumps and rubella. The MMR vaccine is very safe. That's what the CDC says.
What is the president basing his statements about vats and soda bottles and explosive lethality on? What he has heard. But also, back in September, he cited another source for medical decisions impacting the lives of kids. Here he is last September.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The MMR, I think, should be taken separately. This is based on what I feel --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: This is based on what he feels, that's the second source or sense that he is using to determine policy affecting kids.
Two senses actually feeling and hearing. He has heard what some people say, and he also feels that the vaccine should be taken separately.
Enough parents either already believe what the President feels or were persuaded by what he said he feels that they decided not to vaccinate their kids, and as a result, measles cases as of last Friday are approaching 2,500. That's more than all of last year and 20 times higher than the 121 cases in 2022.
In addition, separate measles, mumps and rubella shots are no longer made and could take as long as a decade to develop and test for safety, meaning parents who decide to wait for them may be waiting for a very long time.
After the President's announcement today, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy weighed in. He is a doctor. Here is what he posted today. He said: "This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines do not cause autism. Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe."
The President says nothing bad can happen from the changes he is ordering. Dr. Cassidy and the evidence suggests otherwise.
Joining us now is former Trump White House Communications director, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Dr. Craig Spencer, an emergency physician and Public Health Professor at Brown University.
So, Dr. Spencer, you've had a chance to review the Executive Order now. What stands out to you?
[20:20:10]
DR. CRAIG SPENCER, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN AND PUBLIC HEALTH PROFESSOR AT BROWN UNIVERSITY: Well, let me start by saying as a physician and a public health professional, I want to make sure that we are constantly looking at the science and updating the guidance for parents like myself.
But what I saw today is not doing that for a few reasons. One, this was a political event, not a public health event. It was based on ideology, not immunology or epidemiology. And there was no new science revealed. In fact, no one in the room was a practicing physician. There was a whole host of outright lies and misleading statements. RFK, Jr., The White House and Trump couldn't even agree on the inflated number of vaccines they say kids get and this is going to be confusing for parents like myself and others who are trying to navigate this chaos of guidance right now.
It is also going to fail operationally because presidential executive orders are not what determines vaccine guidelines in the U.S., it is the CDC, the ACIP.
MMR cannot be given a separate shots in the U.S. as the executive order said today, because we don't have them and if you wanted to have separate shots, you'd need to create them, have the FDA approve them, do clinical trials, which is a lot of money and a lot of time. And I think lastly, and most importantly, this is likely to fail legally because much of what we saw today is a rehash of what we've seen over the past year, including a case brought against the administration by the American Academy of Pediatrics. A judge found in that case that many of the same decisions we heard today changes to the vaccine guidance and schedule were likely illegal and I don't suspect that this executive order is going to emerge any different than that case.
COOPER: Alyssa, I mean, do you think this administration, especially the President and the HHS Secretary can be trusted to make the right decisions about childhood vaccinations?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen, I think your other guest said it perfectly, there were no practicing physicians in that room. So you did not have the experts there to weigh in. And what I thought was notable is Donald Trump's first term Surgeon General Jerome Adams weighed in on this, and he questioned the science and the validity of it. He said it would make it far more likely that patients, children would skip or miss getting vaccines by breaking them up into three shots.
But he pointed out something very important that I think we should note. If this is a boon to anyone, its likely insurance companies and big pharma, because you will be able to charge for every additional visit that people come in for to get their kids, these three separate vaccination shots.
So if anything, this makes it logistically harder for parents. It makes it more uncomfortable for children. And I can see the only upside or benefit potentially being for insurance companies that can bill more and expense more to have kids come in.
And I would just say anecdotally, yes, as a mom, but also someone who is pregnant, as we've seen these increases in measles cases, I am someone who was vaccinated and had the not rare, but uncommon occurrence that my vaccination sort of wore off over time and I was advised by my OB to stay out of places that were considered hot zones because we are seeing such increases in measles, in particular in this country. That is not something that you should be seeing in the Year of Our Lord 2026 in the United States, but that is the reality because of this fear and this misinformation that's been spread around vaccine efficacy.
COOPER: Dr. Spencer, I mean, if this order is carried out, will the parents who want their children to get the full course of vaccines and in the way that science recommends in the schedule recommended by physicians, still be able to get that?
SPENCER: I think so much of that is unclear and we have seen an unrelenting attack over the past year-and-a-half primarily by RFK, Jr. on vaccines. But if you remember, it was about a year ago that internal polling in the Trump administration kind of forced the administration to back off on pushing vaccines.
It showed that last August, 80 percent of all voters said it was important to get the MMR, the tetanus vaccine, and that includes an overwhelming majority of Trump and Independent voters. Electorally, we know most parents continue to support vaccines and school mandates for vaccines, and we've seen how the admin has backed off vaccines over the past year.
But then over the last two weeks, we've seen Dana Bash interview with RFK, Jr. A few weeks a year ago on CNN. Weve seen Dr. Fauci kind of pulled in front of a kangaroo court. We've seen how public health has been subsumed into politics. I don't know if this is an electoral strategy, but let me tell you, this is not the fight Americans want, but Americans want across the aisle and conversation after conversation and poll after poll is a fight on healthcare affordability. That's the number one issue and this admin has done nothing for that.
Cuts to programs like Medicaid are going to make it harder for people to keep their insurance. And as has been pointed out, taking vaccines, making people go five times to the pediatrician to get the single set of vaccines that they would normally get in one visit, it is not only inconvenient, it is going to be a lot more expensive.
People want to fight on affordability, and unfortunately, this is not what this is.
COOPER: And Alyssa, I mean, you heard the social media post from Senator Cassidy there. He has obviously been defeated in a primary by a Trump-backed challenger. Do you think his comments carry much weight with other Republicans?
[20:25:10]
GRIFFIN: Listen, the time for his perspective on this to carry weight was when he voted to confirm RFK, Jr. He raised very serious and very real concerns as a practicing physician and pretty much everything that he asked for, for promises about were later ended up reversed by the HHS Secretary.
So while I appreciate him saying it, I don't think it helps in this moment.
But, Anderson, i do want to point out to, you know, having served in the first Trump administration, the greatest achievement of Donald Trump's presidency's first and second was Operation Warp Speed and getting the life-saving corona vaccine and the amount of time that we got it. The fact that to this day, he will not really just stand wholeheartedly behind that whole of government, private sector and government effort that saved millions of lives and just take credit for it, it astounds me.
If I were advising him, I would say that is your legacy and your crowning achievement. But instead he has decided to buy into this what was once fringe, but is now very much a growing part of the American right and portions of the American left that just genuinely call into question the efficacy of vaccines that we have trusted for decades in this country.
It is unfortunate, and it is having very real demonstrable effects on vaccination rates.
COOPER: Alyssa Farah Griffin, Dr. Spencer, as always, thank you. Up next, the President's new attack on progressive democrats and Meta founder, Mark Zuckerberg shares his positive vision for A.I.'s future, even as A.I. companies reveal startling issues with the technology.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:47]
COOPER: Midterm elections, less than three months away. President Trump is testing new attacks on Democrats now saying, quote, "jihadists are being elected." The President seems particularly focused on Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
The race is crucial to Democrats' hopes of retaking the Senate majority, and the President is attacking his attacks to include El- Sayed's wife -- or expanding, I should say, his attacks to include El- Sayed's wife. CNN's Arlette Saenz has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Less than a week since Abdul El-Sayed's victory in the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, the race is getting ugly. With President Donald Trump turning to inflammatory and personal attacks. In a Truth Social post over the weekend, Trump featured this photo of El-Sayed with his wife in the caption, "Two Very Different America's."
El-Sayed pushed back on CNN's State of the Union.
ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Yes, he's right. One in which your overlords are two people who don't like each other, but joined in the interest of making billions of dollars off of you or two people who genuinely love each other, enjoyed some pancakes together, want to come together to build the kind of America where they can raise a family and know that that family is going to have the good things. So, yes, you've got two different visions of America.
Donald Trump's vision is the one you're living in right now. Can you afford your gas? Can you afford your groceries?
SAENZ (voice-over): Just today, the President said this in the Oval Office.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One thing is we have jihadists being elected all over the place. We have this -- whether it's communism, jihadism, it's -- a lot of -- a friend of mine called up, he said, you know, really, you should use the word jihadist because that's what's happening."
SAENZ (voice-over): Though he didn't say El-Sayed by name, the President's comments come as he's railed against the Michigan Democrat.
TRUMP: When I watch Abdul, he's full (INAUDIBLE). He's a man of hate. SAENZ (voice-over): With the GOP's Senate majority on the line.
TRUMP: They want to skip socialism. They want to go right down to the bottom of the barrel. That's communism.
SAENZ (voice-over): El-Sayed does not identify as a socialist or communist, but hails from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He's advocated for Medicare for All and opposes U.S. military aid to Israel. His mission now -- uniting Democrats after a divisive primary.
EL-SAYED: This is the opportunity right now to unite around what needs to be done. And that's holding the Trump administration accountable rather than sending a guy who's going to be a rubber stamp on everything that Trump wants to continue to do.
SAENZ (voice-over): The Republican attacks against El-Sayed are pointed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, the most radical Senate candidate in America.
EL-SAYED: I'm pretty damn dangerous.
SAENZ (voice-over): The Michigan Democrat argues the GOP is engaging in familiar tactics.
EL-SAYED: Notice how they chose to use the -- my full name in echoes to exactly what they did against President Obama. They're going to try and paint me as a certain thing given my name. But I also think it's important for us to recognize that America has a long history of embracing. America is a lot bigger than very small people like Donald Trump or JD Vance or Mike Rogers.
SAENZ (voice-over): Arlette Saenz, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Joining me now is CNN Political Commentator S.E. Cupp, and Former Michigan Republican Congressman Peter Meijer. Congressman, appreciate you being with us. Is that attack effective, you think, the jihadist?
PETER MEIJER (R). FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE - MICHIGAN: I don't think jihadist is. I mean, you saw the President be like, oh, my friend calls it jihadism or communism, whatever. The reality is that Abdul El-Sayed's coalition, he may not identify himself as a socialist, and he said that he's a capitalist. I don't think he is so much in the DSA vein today as he is a Bernie bro. I mean, that was when he first ran his identity back then.
Bernie Sanders is a socialist. He identifies as a socialist. The folks who are in Abdul's camp are socialists. Some call them communists. They represent not just the progressive wing, but really an unseen force that we haven't had in this country for decades, which is folks who openly apologize for communist regimes, for authoritarian regimes abroad. And at the end of the day, I don't think like America. That is not Abdul, but he needs to distance himself or else I think he will be very effectively targeted with the company that he keeps.
COOPER: Do you think it's about the company he keeps?
[20:35:05]
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen, it would be smart for Trump and Republicans to tie every Democrat running to DSA candidates, paint them with the same brush, use their own words against them. Instead, he's doing this. And I just don't think there are a lot of voters who still have this connection to the post-9/11, you know, radical Islamist boogeyman that he's using.
It didn't even work against Obama all this many years ago. I think he's trying to scare the wrong voters. Instead of scaring Republicans, who are probably going to vote for Republicans, scare the Democrats that voted for Haley Stevens. The black Democrats, the moderate Democrats, the working-class Democrats, they are scared of candidates like Abdul El-Sayed, like Bernie, like AOC. They're scared of socialism.
That's all you have to do. I don't know why he's going to this cartoonish place that's really only capturing people that I think he's already got.
COOPER: I mean, it plays to the, you know, labeling somebody as jihadist, it plays to sort of the worst stereotypes of --
CUPP: Yes, but I don't think voters are scared of the Muslim doctor and his wife in the hijab. They're scared of the white billionaire bully in the White House, whose dumb tariffs and dumb Iran war are ruining their personal economies. That's who they're worried about.
So I just, again, I think this is like a throwback to 2001. It's been 26 years since 9/11. I don't think it has the impact that it once had.
MEIJER: Well --
COOPER: Go ahead.
MEIJER: Well, I mean, it will be 25 years this September.
CUPP: Yes.
MEIJER: And you have one of the most prominent backers of Abdul El- Sayed, you know, saying -- and he has since kind of corrected this, but the emotion is there, that America deserved 9/11. And I think if you polled a lot of these folks and really, you know, scratched the surface, you'd get into this argument about root causes.
You'd get into this argument that centers the U.S. at the center of all of the ills of the world, which, again, is why I say, I want proof that these people actually care about the future of this country, because those same voters who are out there who are scared of the Bernie Sanders vision, a lot of it's because it is the antithesis of the pride and the belief in the future that they feel.
COOPER: The President actually just posted online a photo of Sayed with the caption, "They are coming for your home and belongings." That's the image.
CUPP: Well, again, again, these are boogeymen, and they can be effective, I think, especially for older white voters, but, again, I think those people are already going to vote for a Mike Rogers or a Republican. I would be -- the Democrats have this weakness inside their party right now, where the moderates are fighting with the progressives, exploit that. There's already a divide. Put a bigger wedge in between them.
COOPER: It is interesting. Mike Rogers is starting to engage in sort of 2020 election skepticism. Does that surprise you? I mean, Mike Rogers has been around most.
MEIJER: I think -- yes, the closest I saw about that was Mike Rogers talking about the fraud investigation in Muskegon, which, yes, it was during 2020, but it was a legitimate investigation about fraudulent voter registrations. I mean, I was somebody who was in a primary with Mike Rogers in 2024.
You know, this guy did not endear himself to the Trump White House --
COOPER: Right, yes.
MEIJER: -- for how he criticized, you know, January 6th and talked about the election not being stolen. So I dispute the categorization of him in this camp of folks.
COOPER: Yes. Appreciate it. Thanks very much, both of you.
MEIJER: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, the remarkable story of how an otherwise little-known businessman who'd come under investigation for money laundering reportedly became one of the biggest buyers of tokens from the President's crypto company.
And later, even after a string of AI stories straight out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, Mark Zuckerberg's new rosy assessment of the technology. Kara Swisher joins us with more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:43:00]
COOPER: New reporting today on how the President has been pulling in the billions he's made since taking office, a second time comes from the New York Times. The headline reads, "Trump crypto took $100 million from a businessman with red flags."
Russ Buettner is on the byline. He joins us with details. So what more do you learn -- who is this person? And what is his connection to World Liberty Financial? Where did he come from? RUSS BUETTNER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, his name is Guren "Bobby" Zhou. He goes by Bobby. He was born and raised in China and Shanghai. His father had a company that manufactured hardwood flooring. And he moved to London in about 2005 and then opened a series of businesses, most of which failed.
His connection to the Trumps right now is that he had started a new company. He had moved to Abu Dhabi in about 2024 when his citizenship in a court ruled he could no longer remain in England. And that decision also revealed that he was under investigation for money laundering there.
He moved to Abu Dhabi, started a new company, and very quickly, within a few months, he had $100 million in that company to buy tokens from World Liberty, the Trump and Steve Witkoff's sons' primary cryptocurrency company. And about $75 million of that went to the Trump family.
COOPER: So of the $100 million, $70 million went to the Trump family and the Witkoffs, either directly or indirectly?
BUETTNER: The Witkoffs get more. There's $75 million that goes to the Trumps and then the Witkoffs' sons, Zach and Alex, get another share beyond that as well.
COOPER: Why would he buy all these tokens?
BUETTNER: Anderson, this is the craziest story I've ever reported in a very long time I've been a reporter. I cannot figure that out at this point in time. It was difficult for myself and other reporters just to figure out who he was and then when you go through his career, you know, usually when somebody has access to $100 million, there's a pretty good public record of things they were involved in that were a success.
[20:45:10]
But with Mr. Zhou, like, everything just melts away. He claimed at one point that he had had a relationship with a Chinese-owned financial institution, a state-owned one, that formed a billion-dollar fund with his company. I thought, maybe that's it. Maybe it's Chinese money.
But that thing never happened. When I chased that down, everyone involved said, no, that was a false announcement. He made it up, and we asked him to retract it. That happened again with some institutions based in the United Arab Emirates that were tied to the royal families there.
He made announcements, suggested he had access to sovereign wealth there. Those also turned out to be not true. So where he got his money and who -- what he wants or what the people behind him want just remain a mystery.
COOPER: And is there any -- I mean, has he -- do we know if he's been in contact with President Trump or Witkoff? BUETTNER: Well, we were -- because we were following him closely, we were able to figure out that he attended the World Cup final in New Jersey with the Witkoff brothers, and he was in a luxury suite with them. We managed to get photos of that. So we do know he's been in touch, very close touch it would seem. That's puts you very close to sort of the levers of power in the United States of America.
Whether he's ever had contact with President Trump, we don't know. Reuters reported they thought -- the Reuters reported I think last year that in a little mention of him that he had met Eric Trump during a crypto conference in the Emirates at some point in 2025, I believe.
COOPER: Is it naive to think that red flags on someone's past or prior legal troubles would be disqualifying for someone looking to invest in the President's crypto venture? I mean --
BUETTNER: No, it's not naive at all, Anderson. You're exactly right. There are rules to -- that are intended to stop money laundering. This is separate from the money laundering case that Mr. Zhou is a suspect in England. Those rules require someone taking this kind of money to vet sources of their money under certain circumstances, to vet their background, to try to figure out where they're getting their money from, and that's intended to prevent money laundering.
World Liberty says that they did that, but I spoke to some experts, one of whom was wonderful and was quoted in a story who said that there are so many red flags in this, it's very difficult to tell how they could have done that and not either refuse to take his money or reported it as a suspicious transaction to regulatory authorities.
COOPER: That's incredible.
Russ Buettner, as always, thank you. Appreciate it.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is out with an open letter today outlining a new vision for the future of artificial intelligence at his company. Zuckerberg argues the best way to avoid an AI doomsday scenario is to make the technology accessible to everyone. He writes, "Most other labs are focused on building AI for companies, governments, or other institutions, so if those labs lead, then the balance of power will favor larger institutions over individuals. Meta's mission since our founding has focused on putting power in people's hands."
I want to talk about it with CNN Contributor and Podcast host Kara Swisher. What is this announcement about? Is this just -- he's not playing -- doesn't have the same, you know, record as --
KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No.
COOPER: -- these others?
SWISHER: No, he's just selling you something else. I mean, it's, you know, for the low, low price of what we're going to charge you and steal your privacy, we'll give you an agent that's your own. I mean, it's just -- the problem is Meta's been real behind in the AI wars. Others have surpassed them, and so they're trying to find an in, either through open source or through giving everybody an agent, but the agents will be linked to privacy and advertising and everything else they already do.
And so it's just a way in to try to talk his own book. He's done it twice. There was an essay in the Wall Street Journal. Some of it is word for word for this one. This is a longer one, a 6,500 word memo.
He's does these from time to time. They're usually in desperate need of editing, but they're sort of outline how he's different from they are, and it's largely because he's behind.
COOPER: He also put out this -- you know, and we've talked before about him kind of rebranding himself as a Manosphere-type figure. Over the weekend, he posted --
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: -- this video of himself, which is very relatable --
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: -- sparring with a UFC fighter on a lake --
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: -- on what looks like a specially --
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: -- built padded barge for this purpose.
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: What is the purpose of this?
SWISHER: Yes, I like this Mark Zuckerberg.
COOPER: You do?
SWISHER: I don't know. He likes to do it. This is the one I'm fine with. This is like -- this is a hobby he enjoys, and that's fine. I'm not sure why he has to show us pictures of him doing it. That guy looks like he's not trying that hard.
COOPER: Yes, I know. I know.
SWISHER: If he really was doing 100 percent, he'd be way off, you know, about 100 feet in the water. But, you know, it's fine. I don't know what to say about this, Anderson. I've never seen you do this, but I'm looking forward to it.
[20:50:10]
COOPER: Yes. If I had -- I would love to take some fighting lessons. Zuckerberg, so he --
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: -- attempts to address the growing sense of anxiety --
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: -- around AI replacing jobs.
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: In the letter, writing, quote, "Company sizes may shrink just as they did in the transition from industrial giants to tech companies. But this doesn't mean fewer jobs overall. It applies to a larger number of companies with fewer people each." He also talks about Meta creating a fund to benefit communities where it operates data centers.
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: Do you buy that? I mean, didn't they just lay off thousands of employees?
SWISHER: Yes, they did themselves, but he doesn't know just like none of us know because the government's not been very involved in trying to figure this whole thing out and we're leaving it to these companies. I mean, he's just guessing and he wants to have a sunnier view of AI.
The more -- the darker one by, say, Dario Amodei from Anthropic is sort of what people have caught on to and they're having real problems getting these data centers through. I just did a big show on it and it's really becoming a real political issue. And so they're going to try to change their tune.
It's not going to kill people. It's not going to get rid of jobs. All that -- all those gas-powered engines are really good for the air, that kind of stuff, and so they're trying really hard to make this into something, including this fund that will, you know, try to convince communities that it's OK to have one of these things next to you if we give some money to teachers.
You know, he's done this before in lots of areas. This is just a bigger version of that.
COOPER: Yes, you just did a really fascinating episode with Erin Brockovich about these data centers.
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: Do --
SWISHER: Yes. Not just her, but some others. Yes.
COOPER: I've heard like others talk about putting data centers in space. I mean, I think, like, Musk and --
SWISHER: Yes, others. COOPER: -- Bezos.
SWISHER: Yes. Well, they've talked about it. Again, they're just -- you know, everything they say, we have to believe. I don't -- it's very difficult to put data centers in space according to people who are scientists. They might be able to do it someday. That would be interesting.
I think the question is, can we build data centers with guardrails? And, you know, I had the mayor of Lansing, Michigan on. He did one that was considered, you know, top of the line, environmentally safe, closed-loop system. And even his constituents didn't want it there in this part of Lansing.
And so it's become a political issue, largely as a proxy for people's worries about AI in general, and including these billionaires sort of buying their way into the government the way they've been doing. Just the way that Russ did that great piece, you know. It's a coin-operated presidency, and that's what voters are feeling, that they're not getting any say.
COOPER: Yes.
SWISHER: And now it's physical. And so it's physical, whether it's noise, pollution, whether it's, you know, pollution, gas, and things like that, whether it's NDAs all over the place where nobody gets any say in it.
COOPER: Yes.
SWISHER: Voters are pretty pissed about this issue.
COOPER: Yes. Kara Swisher, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
SWISHER: Thanks.
COOPER: Coming up, race to find survivors after deadly magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Colombia.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:22]
COOPER: Those some horrifying scenes from today's earthquake in Colombia. It struck about 170 miles west of Bogota. People several cities away reported feeling the tremors, which went on for nearly a full minute. Authorities say it's the strongest quake to hit the country in a decade. At least 132 people have been killed, a number which has been rising all day.
Joining me now is Richard Emblin, he's the director and founding editor of The City Paper Bogota. Richard, what's the latest you know about damage and casualties?
RICHARD EMBLIN, DIRECTOR AND FOUNDING PARTNER, THE CITY PAPER BOGOTA: Hello, Anderson. Yes, the latest figure now is 134 deaths, widespread extensive damage to infrastructure in Cali. In actual fact, recently inaugurated President Abelardo de la Espriella is on -- is now on the ground in Cali, showing that's the top priority.
Strangely enough, Cali was never really within the direct impact zone of such a large earthquake. Clearly, the coffee region has been badly hit. The three major capitals of the three coffee-growing departments, Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindio. However, Cali seems to have borne the brunt.
We felt it very strongly in Bogota. I mean, you know, tower, you know, office buildings are swaying, construction workers were on the top of their roofs, kind of in panic. I was out on the street, and I was -- people were just orderly, but filing out of their buildings even before the working day had started.
So we are seeing widespread destruction now. It's almost becoming --
COOPER: How accessible --
EMBLIN: -- as the hours go by, more dramatic.
COOPER: Yes, how accessible are some of these areas? Have rescuers been able to get into the hardest-hit areas?
EMBLIN: Well, the coffee-growing region of Colom is quite interconnected with good highways, you know, a lot of modern infrastructure, so they are getting there. The mayor of Bogota, Carlos Fernando Galan, has dispatched 60 search and rescue teams to these hardest-hit towns.
Now, right now, we're dealing with at least 40 communities in the coffee-growing region that are kind of incommunicated, or we don't know much what's happening, but what's coming out right now is that a lot of these graceful colonial farms, these historical landmarks have all fallen down. That's including the more modern architecture in large, dense urban areas.
So as the hours go by, and it's been nine hours since we've had this earthquake, we're beginning to see more and more images of the destruction, of people trapped in their buildings. And just moments ago, the announcement that one of the mayors in one of these very small towns, his young boy was killed in -- with this earthquake and was trapped in the rubble.
So these are local, vulnerable communities that we're beginning to now see that it's actually impacted everybody.
COOPER: Yes. Richard Emblin, I really appreciate your reporting on this. And obviously, we're going to continue monitoring it throughout the night and through the day, tomorrow, and in the days ahead.
Appreciate it, Richard Emblin.
That's it for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
