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Anthropic CEO Warns: Slow Down A.I. Amid Safety Concerns; Saudi Oil Pipeline Shut Down After Attack Triggers Fires; Workers: Recruited To Georgia Auto Plants With False Promises. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 12, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:47]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I am Omar Jimenez in New York.

Tonight, we have a stark warning from Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's leading A.I. companies. He sat down exclusively with CNN's Anderson Cooper after posting an essay saying, we must immediately, collectively slow down the pace of developing A.I.

Amodei admits there is a risk humans could lose control of it, and it could be misused for "cyberattacks and bio terrorism and serious economic disruption."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Jacob Coxon, who recently resigned from Anthropic, made headlines last week, saying the people building A.I. earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. There is a current employee, Evan Hubinger, an alignment science lead. He agreed, saying, "We really do earnestly believe A.I. could kill all humans. I personally think it is greater than 10 percent chance within the next decade."

Do you believe -- earnestly believe that A.I. could kill all humans? And what percent chance do you think it is?

DARIO AMODEI, CEO, ANTHROPIC: So, you know, I -- it is funny, I agree with Jacob much more than I disagree with him, you know, and it is an interesting resignation because when he left, he said, you know, I think Anthropic is the most responsible player, right? I think Anthropic is the most aware of these issues.

He wasn't calling out us. He was calling out the dynamic of the industry as a whole moving too fast. Now, you know, I think I already said, you know, these sort of unconditional probabilities, you know, I -- you know, I used to kind of talk in that way because it is kind of an easy way to express, I think there is some chance that things go wrong. But, you know -- but you know, but -- but, it is not all that high.

But again, I think it is more illuminating to think in terms of, you know, how do you decompose those probabilities? What are the paths in which things go well? And what are the paths in which things go poorly?

And so instead of saying, you know, it is a 10 percent chance, that sounds like it is a roll of the dice, I think it is much more illuminating to say, well, that forks into different paths. And if we take the right paths, then the chance of something going wrong is very low. If we take the wrong path, then the chance of something going wrong could be even higher than that.

And so let's focus on our agency and our ability to take the right paths instead of the wrong paths. And I think that the way to take the right paths is for the industry to work together. Again, you know, we will talk about the proposal that I put out today. But at the end of the day, the industry has to work together and it is harder, but to some extent, the world has to work together.

If we go too slow, I still believe that the wrong people will be in charge of the technology. And you know, that again will bring the probability of things going wrong very high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Be sure to tune in Mondays, AC360 for much more of this exclusive interview with Dario Amodei. That's at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Monday right here on CNN.

But plenty to talk about right now. Jacob Ward, a CNN contributor, technology journalist and founder of the RipCurrent.com. He joins us now.

So Jacob, Amodei even suggests an A.I. swarm could be capable of taking over the internet in the next six to 12 months. Those are his words. What is your reaction to this strong warning from A.I. leaders here?

JACOB WARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think, Omar, that we are -- certainly, I mean, it is an amazing thing to live at a time when -- you know, I've covered this industry for more than 20 years and it used to be that, you know, industry leaders would just duck this kind of moment, you know, deny that there is the danger or insist that the good is always going to outweigh the bad. And the fact that this guy is speaking as frankly as he seems to be about this, I think is pretty admirable, not to mention terrifying.

I will say it is important to look at the language that he is using. One word that the industry is trying to get into all of our brains and trying to make, I think the standard way we talk about this is the word "pacing." Pacing the frontier, we need to pace ourselves.

[18:05:02]

And what that suggests is not that the race is going to come to an end, or that anyone is willing to walk away from that race, just that they all need to agree to run at a certain pace. He, in fact, says in his essay, to be clear, I am quoting him here, "... pacing does not mean halting model training or technical progress, but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models." So this is not a guy saying, I am willing to stop. What he is saying is, I am concerned enough about what is happening here that I need help. And we saw even a couple of months ago, Omar, in July, a letter went out with more than 1,300 signatories on it, including Dario Amodei and the top people in the industry basically saying, we can't slow ourselves down. The competitive pressure we feel is too great here for us to slow down.

And so this is a guy who clearly feels caught between, you know, going public in a few months as he is about to and what he clearly seems to understand is a big, huge risk, not just to our jobs, but maybe to our lives and he is trying to find his way through it here.

JIMENEZ: You know, there is an interesting distinction that the world will have to wrestle with at some point, which is it does seem industry leaders agree that, okay, maybe this is going too quickly. Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI as well seem to agree with that notion, with at least two of the companies even pledging to let independent safety monitors into their systems. We haven't gotten word on that from Elon Musk's, xAI, but bottom line, I wonder, do you see any challenges in these companies actually implementing some of these pacing mechanisms, given the fact, look, there are personal disagreements between them. There are technological disagreements between them, strategy disagreements.

Even if the top line goal is the same, do you think it will be difficult to align them in terms of how to actually implement this?

WARD: Oh, Omar, where to even begin? I mean, right, because not only are we talking here about, you know, even if these guys were just robots and you were trying to get them to all agree to one another, that's the classic prisoner's dilemma where you're trying to decide whether to flip on your buddy for, you know, a better treatment from the police. Right?

And that is not what we are looking at here. This is a very complicated set of relationships.

Dario Amodei used to work for Sam Altman, broke away when he considered OpenAI to be too dangerous a company and not safety minded enough. Those guys famously hated each other for quite a long time. Meanwhile, you know, I sat in court and watched Elon Musk and Sam Altman square off over who created OpenAI, and those two also, no love lost there. The desire for credit here, I think, should not be underestimated.

And so the idea that these guys are going to somehow agree to a set of standards and, you know, shake hands in public and make that the -- you know, make an agreement on that, we have just never seen that. Right?

In the history of capitalism, you have never seen, I think, for profit companies with this much money at stake, make those kinds of agreements and stick to them. That is where the role of government steps in. And then, of course, the larger question, which Amodei is bringing up here is how are we going to deal with China, which is the other big difficulty here, right? That is an authoritarian regime.

I am not somebody that believes that -- you know, I've cynically watched this industry use China as an excuse for continuing to, you know, hurt kids through the development of social media and all kinds of other predatory stuff. But it is true that if China were to sprint ahead and suddenly be in, you know, in possession of swarms of A.I., you know, powered-drones that it could use to harass warships so we don't have that. That's not a good thing either.

So we are talking here about needing to thread that needle as well, but Amodei is the guy you'll recall, Omar who, who refused to give the Pentagon exactly what it wanted in terms of A.I. and got himself, as a result, blacklisted from doing business with the U.S. government for a time there, and so he is not exactly a popular guy in Washington either.

So it is difficult. This is a guy who has clearly been trying to take a very principled stand, and I respect that. While also, of course, defending his shareholders who are going to be the lifeblood of that company coming up in a few months and at a time when he has made himself deeply unpopular by taking those principled stands, you know, in a group of people who are famous, I would say, for their narcissism, their self-involvement, and their determination that only they and they alone should be determining the safest and most ethical use of this stuff.

JIMENEZ: And Jacob, just quickly before we go, and I don't mean to be a pessimist on a Saturday night, are we too late? Can I really be reined in?

JACOB: You know, I think we are not too late. I am constantly told by people, well, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. And I would just like to point out to you, Omar, we put oceans of that stuff into tubes every year. The United States is tremendous at that. You and I would be smoking cigarettes right now if it hadn't been for the injunctions levied against those companies. Right? We are good at undoing this kind of stuff.

So don't let anybody tell you we can't do that and I think this rhetoric around pacing or anything else shouldn't distract us from the possibility that we might not want this stuff to be built and that we do as a civilization and certainly as a legal system, have the power to make that possible if we choose to. So I think this thing is far from over, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right, I am back on board. I appreciate the optimism on a Saturday night.

WARD: Stay with me, brother. Appreciate you.

[18:10:09]

JIMENEZ: Yes, let's do it. Let's do it. Good to see you. Thanks for taking the time.

Also this week, Anthropic says it blocked multiple accounts to try and get its A.I. agents to develop bioweapons and Anthropic says this could actually be one of the most serious risks to humans of artificial intelligence.

So I want to bring in Dr. Ashish Jha, a physician, scientist and biosecurity expert, who is with us now.

So Dr. Jha, in Anthropic's message today, he wrote about the possibility of catastrophic threats like cyberattacks and bioterrorism. How would that play out? Is there a risk that bad actors could use A.I. for harm in that specific way?

DR. ASHISH JHA, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, BIORADAR: Yes, so first of all, Omar, thanks for having me back.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is just a risk. We know bad actors are using ai to try to build very dangerous biological weapons and this is why I think what you've heard in the last few days is so important and concerning, because the truth is, Anthropic is actually doing a very good job of monitoring that, putting in guardrails. That is not happening across the industry and I am very concerned that people are going to use other models to build those kinds of agents.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, there are multiple sectors that are clearly going to have to work together here. There is the private sector, there is the U.S. public sector, there is a diplomatic international sector as well.

You've worked in the U.S. government, you're The White House COVID-19 response coordinator, what would you be advising the Trump administration now? You're also a biosecurity expert, I should say that, too. So speaking in that capacity as well, what would you be advising the Trump administration do to, to prepare for those coming frontiers?

JHA: Yes, so we worked on this pretty extensively when we were -- when I was in the Biden White House. We have had conversations with the Trump White House. Weve had conversations with the DoD inside the Trump administration. Look, of course, we all hope that we can prevent somebody using A.I. tools to build bioweapons. I think it is going to be very hard to keep that genie in the bottle, as it were. I worry a lot that somebody, somewhere is going to figure this out, and we are going to see the use of these things.

So we've got to get very serious about detection, having a strong surveillance system, having a strong response system. There's a lot we could be doing. Unfortunately, I think parts of the administration have taken their eye on the ball. We've had Secretary Kennedy cut mRNA vaccine research. mRNA is going to be critical as a response if these things get out. So there is a lot of work for the administration to be doing and my only concern is they are not moving fast enough.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, with innovation, obviously, we've been talking a lot about the pessimism side of this, the very real risks that are tied to this as well. But you could also talk about some of the benefits that A.I. has had in maybe possibly trying to cure diseases faster and that of course also takes extreme innovation and sort of pushing the limits on that front.

Where is that balance? Where do you believe that balance is?

JHA: Yes, look, I am not an A.I. Doomer at all. I actually think A.I. has incredible potential in two different ways. One, of course, is, as you said, lots of new therapies that are possible. We are already starting to see some of that beginning to happen. Very exciting.

I also think A.I. has a really important role to play in biosecurity in the biodefense, in helping us build really strong surveillance and detection systems and helping us build countermeasures. So A.I. is not going away, and A.I. should actually be used as defense, but we should also be very clear that some people are going to use A.I. for nefarious reasons and we've got to be ready for that.

JIMENEZ: Dr. Ashish Jha, I really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for being here.

JHA: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right, still to come, new concerns overseas as the Iran- backed Houthis capture another key shipping route in the Red Sea and threaten to push oil prices even higher. We will bring you those details. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:49]

JIMENEZ: Tonight, some intensifying pressure on global oil markets with further disruption in the Middle East. President Trump says Iran was likely behind an attack that prompted Saudi Arabia to shut down a critical oil pipeline, and the Saudi Foreign Minister says the East West Pipeline was attacked by several drones coming from Iraq on Thursday.

This comes as this week Iran-backed Houthi rebels captured a strategic island at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. This is on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz.

CNN's Nic Robertson recently got exclusive access to Perim Island as you can see on your screen, and has more on the significance of the Houthis' advance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It gives them more power. It gives them an ability to support Iran as Iran tries to drive up oil prices globally and put pressure on President Trump. The Houthis are saying that they're letting all international shipping except Saudi shipping, to go through the Red Sea.

But that belies the reality. The Saudis are the only ones shipping oil out of the Red Sea, which means there's no oil now getting through out of the region, either through the Strait of Hormuz or through the Red Sea. That's the leverage that the Houthis have here. And now, the finger-pointing about how they made these rapid gains. That's beginning.

[18:20:10]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice over): In a lightning land grab, Iran's most powerful regional ally, the Houthis, stormed into Yemen's Red Sea port of Mokha early Thursday, quickly capturing military equipment left by the fleeing forces loyal to the country's internationally recognized government.

(PEOPLE shouting "Allahu Akhbar!")

(UNIDENTIFIED MALES speaking in foreign language.)

ROBERTSON (voice over): Houthi T.V. reporters traveling with their troops excitedly showing what they say is a captured Saudi gun truck used to back the anti-Houthi forces.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

ROBERTSON (voice over): But the Houthis' main forces quickly pushing south along the Red Sea towards their prize, Perim Island and the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which we visited last week, giving them domination of the narrow shipping lanes and an easier block on the only oil leaving the region.

TAHYA SAREE, SPOKESPERSON, HOUTHI MILITARY (through translator): Maritime navigation is safe for all companies except Saudi vessels, which were previously declared subject to a ban.

ROBERTSON (voice over): A Houthi spokesman later clarifying for CNN the blockade could be expanded if Iran asked.

ROBERTSON: But if they asked you and said you -- we really need you to do this, would you do it?

NASR AL-DIN AMER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ANSAR ALLAH MEDIA COMMITTEE (through a translator): We are friends with the Islamic Republic. What harms Iran harms us and what benefits it benefits us. In any given instance, we consider whether a decision serves the interests of the entire Muslim nation. But Iran does not impose its will on us.

ROBERTSON (voice -over): In the days prior, the Houthis swept through a string of government outposts. But the attacks towards the Red Sea have been building for a month, destroying the strategic Mokha Port as we saw when we reported from the coast of Yemen, concerns were growing.

Commanders telling us this was the moment they needed international help, which didn't come.

AMR AL-BIDH, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PRESIDENT FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, YEMEN: I would blame definitely the Yemeni government. At the same time, Saudi Arabia, who are the main country, who are responsible for the Yemeni fire.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

ROBERTSON (voice over): As the chaos of the past few days, high speed advance settles, new realities are going to become clear. Top among them, the Houthis have more power than ever before.

MOHAMMED AL-BASHA, YEMENI SECURITY ANALYST: The Houthis now have a tool to target those countries and to pressure the international community to play according to their game. So, this is the trump card. And they've realized that.

ROBERTSON (voice over): Yemen's war is far from over and risks growing Houthi clashes with government forces in the East continue drawing in Saudi airstrikes. And with it, Houthi retaliation inside Saudi Arabia on their oil facilities.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (on camera): And I think just to give some sort of big picture context here. It was just about a month-and-a-half ago. I remember being called in to a press briefing with the Deputy Saudi Foreign minister, who said Saudi's belief is that Iran's IRGC is directing both Iraqi groups supporting Iran and the Houthis in actions against Saudi Arabia.

Now, you have this situation emerging where the Houthis are striking inside of Saudi Arabia at oil facilities, and the belief at the moment, although it is rejected by these Iraqi pro-Iran groups, have struck this vital East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia. So, exactly what the Saudis said and feared was going to happen appears to be happening, which does escalate the situation.

And President Trump today, when he was asked about all of this, said, look, the Houthis have contacted us, and they say they don't want to fight with us. The economic reality on the ground is they are -- the Houthis are part of what's driving up the price of oil. And that's an alignment the Saudis believe with what Iran wants.

JIMENEZ: All right, Nic Robertson, really appreciate that exclusive reporting.

Coming up, a bait-and-switch lawsuit filed by immigrant workers. We will tell you how 600 Mexican engineers got tricked into jobs at auto plants based in Georgia, that they never signed up for. That coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:29:00]

JIMENEZ: Hundreds of Mexican workers say the promise of the American Dream turned into a bait-and-switch. According to a class action lawsuit, which included auto companies, Kia and Hyundai as defendants, workers claim they were recruited to Georgia for skilled engineering and technical work. But after arriving in the United States, it became a completely different story, and there won't be a trial because the defendants settled for more than $11 million.

CNN's Rafael Romo has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISIDRO ARELLANO, ENGINEER: You are like 24 or 25 years old, and you see an ad that says, hey, you can go to work in the United States. Obviously, it's going to sound like -- I don't know, like a dream job, like an amazing offer.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Isidro Arellano says he was in his last year of engineering school when he saw an ad at his college in Mexico.

He says the ad was for engineering jobs at car factories in the United States, the ideal candidate, young engineers or technicians from Mexico willing to work north of the border.

[18:30:02]

ROMO (on camera): Can you tell me what happened after you applied?

ARELLANO: They called me and they told me that they have a job opportunity to work in a plant that makes parts from the automotive industry.

ROMO (voice over): Full of dreams, Arellano says he traveled to the United States in 2021 for what he describes as a quality engineering job whose duties included taking precise measurements for auto parts.

ROMO (on camera): Did you at any point feel like this was a little too good to be true?

ARELLANO: Yes, it crossed my mind like a couple of times.

ROMO (voice over): A class action lawsuit filed in 2022 in federal court in Atlanta alleges that Arellano and about 600 other Mexican workers were induced to move to the United States with false promises of a skilled job, but relegated to performing assembly line work, subjected to six 12-hour work days per week with mandatory overtime, while American-born workers were not, and paid half of what American- born workers earned for the same job in the same location.

JULIA SOLORZANO, LEGAL AND POLICY DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MIGRANT RIGHTS: We're receiving calls from workers talking about issues that they were having in the auto supply industry in Georgia and Alabama.

ROMO: Julia Solorzano is the legal and policy director of an organization that advocates for migrant workers.

SOLORZANO: These workers allege that they were recruited for professional jobs doing engineering and technical work in auto supply plants in Georgia. And so these are workers who had degrees and professional qualifications to do that kind of work.

In fact, the terms of their visa required them to do that professional work.

ROMO (on camera): According to the class action lawsuit, the workers came to the United States with what is known as a T.N. visa, which, according to the U.S. State Department, allows eligible Canadian and Mexican professionals to work in high-skilled jobs in the country under the free trade agreement between all three countries known as the USMCA.

DANIEL WERNER, CIVIL AND LABOR RIGHTS ATTORNEY: What it turned into, as is claimed in the case, was a bait-and-switch. The workers ended up, these engineers ended up in the United States working at these plants and were doing manual labor. They were not working as engineers.

ROMO (voice over): Just before trial last month, the defendants, including Hyundai Mobis and Kia Georgia, as well as Georgia-based staffing agency SPJ Connect and Georgia recruiting firm Allswell, reached an $11.5 million settlement.

In a statement to CNN, Kia says they resolved the matter, saying: "The court made no finding of liability of wrongdoing by Kia, and no fines or judgments were entered against the company. Kia denies the allegations and denies it played any role in recruiting the claimants."

CNN reached out to Hyundai Mobis and Allswell, but got no response. SPJ Connect appears as dissolved in state of Georgia documents.

WERNER: The allegation is that they use the T.N. visa program to provide a supply of labor at their plants. And the way they used the T.N. visa program, according to the lawsuit, was to circumvent the immigration laws.

ROMO (on camera): What is the message that this case sends to foreign workers in general, workers who may be in the same situation these Mexican engineers and technicians were?

WERNER: Even in this environment, we have this group of workers who stepped forward and decided that they were wronged and did something about it and achieved justice.

ROMO (voice over): Isidro Arellano returned to the United States and is legally working as an engineer. Other workers in the class action lawsuit who left jobs and family have not been as fortunate.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right, Rafael Romo, appreciate the reporting.

Still ahead, digging through rubble and debris to help identify victims of 9/11. Twenty-five years later, the FBI agent who helped lead the forensic investigation joins us to talk about this massive undertaking and where things stand decades later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:39:07]

JIMENEZ: Nearly 3,000 people died at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, and as of last year, only 60 percent of the victims have been positively identified and when the Twin Towers fell in Lower Manhattan, two 110-story office buildings were reduced to rubble. Nearly 10 million square feet of office space, enough for 35,000 employees at 430 companies.

In the weeks and months that followed, 1.8 million tons of debris would be moved from Ground Zero by truck and by barge to a landfill in Staten Island, and workers from several agencies would be brought together, sanitation crews working side by side with investigators, everyone digging through the rubble and sifting through the debris.

Over 11 months, those workers would end up processing 75,000 personal effects. The operation would be led by this man, now retired FBI supervisory special agent, Richard Marx, who is with us now.

Thank you for being here.

[18:40:10]

Given all the work that that you put in post the day itself, I just wonder personally, professionally, what does 9/11 mean to you?

RICHARD MARX, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: It is a time to reflect back on when this country, after the attacks came together unified in a mission to identify the missing and to recover as many victims from this horrific attack as possible. I mean, when a chill hits the air this time of year, it is always a reminder to all of us that were there, I mean, this was a huge undertaking.

JIMENEZ: Yes. I mean, this was a massive forensic investigation of a terror attack of really unbelievable proportions. Daunting task to say the least. But just what -- what was that work like of beginning that investigation when I am, sure, like most people, you didn't really know what was going on in terms of the threats to the country.

MARX: Sure. I mean, you think back to that time 25 years ago, all air traffic was stopped. We had shown up knowing that the debris would be coming out to Staten Island to be sifted. We knew that the towers had fallen and most of us, we had a mission like myself and my co-lead, now retired Chief Deputy Chief James Luongo of the New York City Police Department, we had a mission, and the mission was to build this city that would be receiving all of that 1.8 million tons of debris and try to sift through it and recover as many victims as possible.

So we had to build a city on top of a hill out in Staten Island.

JIMENEZ: What were some of the things your team found? What sticks with you even after all this time?

MARX: Sure. I mean, you know, everything. You have to look at this thing. It was everybody's life interrupted. People were just going to work doing what all of them do. You would find, you know, things from people's desks, things that you take for granted every day. You know, pictures, photographs, I.D. cards, keys, but, you know, some of the things that stand out to us that were brought out there, a van that belonged to our agent, Lenny Hatton, that was killed in the line of duty, as well as John O'Neill, the FBI agent that retired just a couple of a week beforehand died in the terror attacks, we had his vehicle.

So a lot of things, I mean, it could be anything from a wedding ring. You just saw how powerful everything was when you would give it back to the victims because it had a link to that person. No matter how small the item was to give it back to them and, you know, give the family a little bit of hope at that time.

But, you know, in reality, you were giving them back something to cherish and to hold on to for the rest of their lives.

JIMENEZ: You know, as you know, many of those who responded to the World Trade Center after 9/11, especially in the immediate time after developed some serious health problems. You all were obviously working pretty closely to the area, but also with a lot of some of that material. Did those who worked at the facility in Staten Island that you worked with develop some of those same issues?

MARX: Yes, they did. There has been a lot of healthcare risk -- as a matter of fact, I lost a friend of mine, a dear friend of mine about a week ago, Roger Morrison. He passed away from brain cancer. And I just want -- look, I want to thank you know, Jon Stewart and John Feal and all of the people that have been pushing for continued funding for the healthcare for these people. It is really important to me as well as the people that are there.

So I am glad that that's part of what has come out of this is a push for the care for these victims, the ongoing victims, if you will.

JIMENEZ: Yes, and you know, we had John Feal on the show yesterday and, as you can imagine, tough day for him personally for so many others. But you think about all the work that he, and as you point out, Jon Stewart had put in to, to help just really fight for those who were suffering long after 2001.

But before we go, I want to ask a little bit about your professional life because, you know, you were part of some other high profile investigations. You're talking about the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, the crash of Egyptair Flight 990 back in 1999.

How was the 9/11 investigation different in your mind?

MARX: So a lot of those cases build. If you look at those cases, there was a lot of like the embassy bombing in 1990, there was a lot of the same players, like Bin Laden was behind all of, you know, influenced a lot of these attacks at the time.

Obviously this one, the FBI learned a tremendous things at each scene.

[18:45:10] We tried to incorporate those techniques as we moved forward, but 9/11 was a whole different scale of operation.

I mean, you know, a bombing in Nairobi was kind of like Oklahoma City, but this eclipsed the size, the length of duration, the number of people, 24,000 workers came through of all the agencies that we had up there, all of them are kind of faceless parts of history, much like the people that went in and cut open the ships at Pearl Harbor and saved victims and recovered people from that.

So, you know, it was a huge undertaking that we had never done as far as our agency or any other agency at that time or since. But it became a benchmark, for a lot of the following big crime scenes and big natural disasters.

JIMENEZ: Richard Marx, I really appreciate you being here and explaining that for us. And I am so sorry about the loss of your friend, so I appreciate it even more for you taking the time, but it means a lot.

Thanks for being here.

MARX: Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me on.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

And as we remember, the September 11th attacks 25 years ago, it is natural to focus on everything that was lost, but a lot of people found comfort in seeing how people across the country came together.

CNN Hero, Jeff Parness started a nonprofit to pay that goodwill forward by bringing grateful New Yorkers to help other communities hit by disasters.

Anderson Cooper shows us how that work also helped resurrect a one of a kind artifact, which became a tangible symbol of resilience and unity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice over): One of the most unique artifacts in the 9/11 Museum's collection isn't currently on display. It's a 500 square foot flag from ground zero that was repaired through an ambitious effort led by CNN Hero, Jeff Parness.

JEFF PARNESS, 2011 CNN HERO: It's emotional. Each one of the patches reminds me of all the people who stitched the flag.

COOPER (voice-over): Now known as the National 9/11 Flag, it was hanging across from the World Trade Center and was destroyed when the Twin Towers fell. Jeff lost a close friend that day, but he was also deeply moved by the unity people showed after the attack.

PARNESS; The day after 9/11, there were no Democrats or Republicans. We were just Americans. We were at our very best.

COOPER (voice over): This led Jeff to start "New York Says Thank You," which brought New Yorkers to help other disaster stricken communities.

In 2008, the group helped rebuild Greensburg, Kansas, after a devastating tornado. A volunteer who worked at Ground Zero brought along the tattered flag and local residents started stitching.

PARNESS: They had gone through their own 9/11, right, and they took it upon themselves to start healing the flag.

COOPER (voice-over): It was patched with flags that had survived the tornado. Then, for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 --

PARNESS: We decided we were going to return it to its original flag format.

COOPER (voice over): For more than a year, the flag toured all 50 states where patches and threads from historic flags, including the star-spangled banner, were sewn in by more than 30,000 people.

PARNESS: People lined up for hours for the privilege of putting one stitch in. It's kind of like the best of what America is about. People chose to strengthen our national fabric.

JAN SEIDLER RAMIREZ, CHIEF CURATOR, 9/11 MUSEUM: The National 9/11 Flag was the first artifact walked into the newly opened 9/11 Museum in May of 2014. So, it was a very moving, beautiful ceremony. It's just a tremendous symbol of good.

COOPER (voice over): It was on display for a year and a half and is now being safely preserved. Jeff hopes the flag will be exhibited again soon so people can appreciate its powerful message.

PARNESS: It's a symbol of not just resilience, but of compassion. This is living proof that love is stronger than hate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: To learn more about Jeff's work, you can go to Cnn.com/Heroes.

We will be right back.

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[18:53:38]

JIMENEZ: A water crisis is intensifying in Puerto Rico. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens are struggling to find clean water daily. Residents are blaming severe drought, aging infrastructure and mismanagement for the widespread service interruptions, but they say they are still paying for water service that is virtually inaccessible.

CNN's Isabel Rosales takes us inside their new reality.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES speaking in foreign language.)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are living just like Carmen, struggling with no reliable water for months. She says this is not hygienic living like this, and its uncomfortable and she can't cook because she can't make dirty dishes, dishes that she can't wash.

(CARMEN speaking in foreign language.)

ROSALES: This is what is happening across Puerto Rico. The reservoirs are shrinking and the water is disappearing and that's a problem because this is the Carraizo Dam and as you can see, there is no water coming out of it and the reservoir here is the largest source of drinking water supply for the San Juan Metro Area.

ROSALES (voice over): But Puerto Ricans say the severe drought is only half the story.

(ISABEL ROSALES speaking in foreign language.)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

[18:55:07]

ROSALES: The anger and frustration growing by the day. The crisis they blame on mismanagement and the government's failure to maintain the island's aging leaking pipes.

A 2019 report on Puerto Rico's infrastructure showed that nearly 60 percent of treated water is stolen or lost to leaks, or just unaccounted for.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

ROSALES: Governor Jennifer Gonzalez has said at least $7 billion has been committed to water infrastructure improvement projects.

What are we looking at?

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

ROSALES: Yes, so she is showing me her bill here.

(ISABEL ROSALES speaking in foreign language.)

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

ROSALES: Inside Puerto Rico's largest public housing community, Carmen's neighbor fills up her jugs and bottles from a water tank.

This is not drinking water. This is what she uses for daily life, making sure that the home is hygienic.

(ISABEL ROSALES speaking in foreign language.)

(SANDRA speaking in foreign language.) ROSALES: And as Sandra is about to leave.

(PEOPLE speaking in foreign language.)

ROSALES: Her neighbor just shouted out, "Hey, the water is coming! The pressure is being turned on." That's literally how it goes. People shouting it from the street. The water is back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right, Isabel Rosales, appreciate that important reporting.

Still ahead for us, President Trump making waves during a visit to Ireland, wading into a politically sensitive debate that's been brewing for decades. We will tell you about it. Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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