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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump Purges DOJ Officials Seen as Enemies Who Prosecuted Him; House GOP Launch Investigation into Sanctuary Cities. Trump Purge At DOJ; Officials Who Prosecuted Him Fired; Holocaust Memorial Chair Condemns Musk's Comments That Germany Should "Move Beyond" Nazi Guilt; Lawsuit Alleges Video Points To Origin Of Eaton Fire; Auschwitz Survivors Mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 27, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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


ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: ... hysterics after its explosive debut on the stock exchange. I mean, what it did to Nvidia, which is the most valuable tech company in the world, which has a new AI chip coming out that this apparently throws into question. It fell 17 percent more than $600 billion in value wiped out in one day. That is the biggest loss in American history. The equivalent of the value of Bank of America and American Express combined.

One of Silicon Valley's top investors are saying the reason why is this, DeepSeek RI is AI's Sputnik moment owing to China not America. China spent only six million dollars to develop DeepSeek, compare that to the US tech-companies, right now on track already to spend a trillion.

Thanks so much for joining us. AC360 starts now.

[20:00:44]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, breaking news, a purge at the Justice Department officials who prosecuted President Trump are out. New word on a new investigation to those who prosecuted some of the January 6th defendants.

Also breaking tonight, nearly a thousand arrested in nationwide immigration raids conducted by ICE. More raids said to be coming, and now, a House investigation.

And later, Elon Musk under fire on Holocaust Memorial Day for comments he made to a far-right German political party about, "too much focus on past guilt."

Good evening.

We start with breaking news. Almost two years after he vowed to a crowd of supporters, "I am your retribution," President Trump has launched a massive shakeup at the Justice Department.

Sources tell CNN that more than a dozen officials who worked on the criminal investigation surrounding the president before they were effectively ended by his election have been fired.

Each has said to have received a notice of removal from the acting attorney general. A portion of which reads as follows: "You played a significant role in prosecuting President Trump. The proper functioning of government critically depends on the trust superior officials place in their subordinates. Given your significant role in prosecuting the president, I do not believe that the leadership of the department can trust you to assist in implementing the president's agenda faithfully."

Now, this news comes on the heels of a separate investigation launched by the president's newly installed interim US Attorney for the nation's capital. Sources say Ed Martin is investigating prosecutors who brought obstruction charges against some who rioted on January 6th.

Now, last year, the Supreme Court limited the use of a particular obstruction charge about interfering with an official proceeding. Ed Martin, you may remember, was an advocate for January 6th defendants and previously raised money for some of their defense.

Joining us now is CNN anchor and chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, and our chief legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid.

So, Paula, what more can you tell us about why these prosecutors were fired and if they have any recourse?

PAULA REID, CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, they say that these officials cannot be trusted to implement Trump's agenda.

Look, I've been talking to Trump's legal advisers for years, and they have a deep distrust of career officials at the Justice Department, but there is an especially strong disdain for anyone who worked with Jack Smith. They believe that Trump was treated unfairly by his team, should have been granted more deference. I mean, that disdain is stronger than anything I have seen in any of the other Trump investigations.

But look, Smith and most of his top prosecutors, they've already left the Justice Department. So today's move, we learned it impacts over a dozen officials, but these are career officials. They are supposed to be protected from political retaliation across administrations.

So, the fact that they are fired here likely violates their civil service protections, and they likely have legal recourse.

COOPER: Kaitlan, I mean, what does the White House say to the pushback? I mean, these were prosecutors, just I mean, they were doing their jobs. They're not operating at a personal animus. And these firings, I mean, they undermine the rule of law.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's safe to say the White House does not see it that way. And they're not really worried about the blowback here. Paula noted, that certainly is an avenue that we could see these prosecutors go down, given the protections that they do enjoy.

So, the question is how the Justice Department is going to handle that, because its being run by an acting attorney general right now. Pam Bondi has not been confirmed. But what's fascinating about this is just the level to which Trump's legal team knows all of these people.

I mean, a lot of them have been in the courtroom with the attorneys who are now going to go into the upper echelons of the Justice Department.

Trump has hired several of his own personal attorneys to go in and top positions, not just the deputy attorney general, but also right underneath that, Emil Bove, who has been currently working inside the DOJ and was on the ground in Chicago, for example, this weekend when it came to immigration arrests.

But all these other Trump attorneys who are going into the administration, who have been in the same room, the same courtroom as a lot of these prosecutors who were working for Jack Smith's team.

And so, Paula has a point there that they absolutely do not trust them and do not believe they can continue to serve in these roles.

But the question is the mechanics here and how this was carried out, because obviously, everyone kind of knew this was coming. Certainly, these prosecutors knew it was potentially likely or possible. But what I had heard a few weeks ago was that maybe they would just reassign them to, you know, positions that no one really wanted, that did not appeal to anyone and kind of forced them out that way. That is not what's happening here.

So, there is a real question of what they take and if anything, avenues-wise, when it comes to potentially responding to this with lawsuits.

[20:05:05]

COOPER: Paula, there's also, as you mentioned, this so-called special project that's been launched by the Trump appointed interim US attorney in DC to investigate prosecutors who've handled some of the January 6th rioters cases. What do we know about that? I mean, who are they targeting?

REID: So here, the interim US attorney in Washington is looking at prosecutors who charged January 6th rioters with obstruction of justice. This is a charge that was used in a few hundred of the cases.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that that charge can't be used related to January 6th, that it was actually designed to mean people who tried to interfere with congressional investigations and withhold or obstruct documents. They said, you can't use that in this context.

But now the Trump Justice Department is asking for e-mails, documents, notes anything related to those decisions to prosecute individuals with this charge. One administration official tells me, they need to get to the bottom of, "poor decision making." But obviously there are concerns that this is part of a larger effort to undermine the entire January 6th prosecution after Trump came under a lot of criticism for pardoning or dismissing the cases of everyone involved in this.

COOPER: And, Kaitlan, as you mentioned, this all happened before Pam Bondi, the pick for attorney general, and picks for other key roles are even confirmed. How much more of a shakeup is in store in the DOJ in the days and weeks ahead, once their confirmations are in?

COLLINS: Well, I think it's kind of the question of, if they are going to try to front load a lot of this before Pam Bondi is actually installed at the Justice Department and other staffers in there, because the question of who is going to really get the brunt of this and bear the brunt of the responsibility for these decisions.

There's also questions that I've heard being raised from former people who were in top positions at the DOJ and have worked at the Department of Justice of whether the acting attorney general is personally liable to any lawsuits that may be filed for decisions that they made.

And then, of course, Pam Bondi once she is confirmed, you saw her confirmation hearing where she was quite bullish on a lot of her exchanges with these senators because they felt very confident that that she had no issue getting confirmed and that she was going to easily win that and not really lose any Republican support given the wide swath of the Cabinet members -- of the Trump Cabinet members and the nominees that they've picked. They felt very confident about that.

And so, I think there's a real question of what that looks like once she's actually in that role and how she carries it out, and whether or not it aligns with how she testified and what she told senators when she was questioned about her independence as the top figurehead at the DOJ.

COOPER: Paula Reid and Kaitlan Collins, thank you. Kaitlan, is coming up at the top of the hour on "The Source", Kaitlan is going to talk one-on-one with President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan. He was on the ground in Chicago this weekend when federal immigration agents arrested nearly a thousand people.

Prospective on the Justice Department firings from two former federal prosecutors, Jeffrey Toobin and CNN legal analyst, Jennifer Rodgers; also, former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Jeff, do these firings pass muster?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, AUTHOR AND FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: They are unprecedented in American history. New presidents come in and they replace political appointees like US attorneys and that is routine. Trump has done that. Biden did it, all presidents do that. But coming after assistant US Attorneys, career people who are not even accused of any misconduct, they simply were part of a case that was proceeding and the new president didn't like those cases.

So, the idea that they could lose their jobs simply for doing their jobs in an appropriate way is genuinely shocking. And it may well be illegal because assistant US attorneys, unlike political appointees, do have civil service protection and you just can't fire them because you don't like the cases they've been working on.

COOPER: Jen, I mean, the acting attorney general said that these people can't be trusted to implement the president's agenda.

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, so, the president shouldn't have an agenda for criminal cases, right? It's one thing to say there are some agenda items for the civil side of DOJ, certainly under a Republican presidency, you would expect voting rights not to be a top priority, Civil Rights, that sort of thing. But in the criminal realm, you are not supposed to have priorities there. You are supposed to follow the facts and apply the law and charge who needs to be charged. So, that's not a good enough excuse here.

COOPER: Alyssa, I mean, this is kind of what he predicted -- said he would do.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, listen Trump supporters would say promises made, promises kept. This is what he ran on. He telegraphed that he was going to do this. And he did talk at length about this schedule as executive order, which would make it much easier to fire civil servants.

COOPER: What you talk about a lot -- a lot of people said that --

GRIFFIN: I told people, this is what -- this is exactly why he wanted it, because Donald Trump never appreciated that as the president of the United States, he didn't have -- he could be blocked by unelected bureaucrats, for lack of a better term at different federal agencies.

And the second time he's coming in not wanting to make the same mistakes, whether its DOJ or DoD, he wants to get rid of some of the some of those people and install his loyalists where he can.

And I don't think he's got a deep appreciation for or respect for, I should say, the independence of the Department of Justice.

[20:10:09]

We saw this the first term with Jeff Sessions, when he ended up firing him because he didn't want to intervene in the Mueller investigation.

It's just not something core to Donald Trump's beliefs that there should be a separation there, and that it's independent from the White House. And you're going to see that in some of the staffing that we are already seeing happening as it pans out once Pam Bondi is there.

But frankly, I don't think this is going to raise a lot of eyebrows with Republicans because he did say he was going to do this.

COOPER: Andrew, what kind of effect do these firings have, not just other prosecutors in the Justice Department, but also investigators in the FBI and other law enforcement agencies?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, so the immediate effect of this is terrible for these people who are being thrown out of their jobs, without any cause, without any reason based simply on politics. I know what that feels like, and this is a tough day for them.

But much more broadly, this is an effort to bring the entire system, the entire Justice Department and those that work with them, like my former colleagues at the FBI under heel.

Prosecutors will see this happening to their colleagues, and it will introduce a level of fear and uncertainty in the type of work that they do going forward. All of a sudden, for the first time, you're introducing this idea in this prosecutorial environment of what's going to happen to me if I pursue this case against this politician who's affiliated with the president, or if I go down this direction on and I charge under this statute and is later disfavored by the White House.

These are not things that people in the Department of Justice have ever had to consider before. They should not have to consider these things. But now, the concept of self-preservation and avoiding ending up on the enemies list has been planted in the minds of everybody who works in the Department of Justice and the FBI and that is not a good thing for the country.

COOPER: And, Jeff, this -- President Trump's interim US attorney for DC, who was himself a "stop the steal" ally, as far as I understand, he is now apparently looking to investigate prosecutors who handled rioters on January 6th.

TOOBIN: And, look at what look at what he's doing. He is saying that this one statute was overturned, that some of the January 6th protesters were charged with this statute, 1512, and that was overturned. It was -- one of them, not one of the obstruction of justice statutes and the Supreme Court said, you can't charge that.

The Supreme Court says that about statutes on a fairly regular basis. They have overturned a number of political corruption cases in recent years. No one has even suggested that the assistant US attorneys who brought those cases engaged in some sort of misconduct.

Plus, virtually everyone who had his conviction overturned under that statute was also convicted under other statutes that have stood the test of appellate review.

So it's not like they were innocent people prosecuted. It was one statute among many that these people were prosecuted.

COOPER: And someone might. say, Alyssa, well at least there's inspector generals at all these departments that can look at this kind of, you know, internally what's happening. But now he actually fired them on Friday.

GRIFFIN: No, you're watching in real time as Donald Trump's gotten a lot smarter about how to make the government work for him. When he was first in office a lot of this, there was a learning curve. He didn't know the roadblocks he was going to run into.

And he comes into office with a team that's very aware of them, and they're going to push the limits and challenge the limits of what they can legally do.

But the reality is, where is the check? Where is the balance? Republicans have the House and the Senate and the White House. And I just want to point out one thing Kaitlan said that is fascinating, just can't underscore enough, in both the January 6th and documents' cases that the Department of Justice was looking into, people they interviewed for that are now in senior roles in the White House, in some cases in the Department of Justice and elsewhere.

So, it's this very interesting kind of overlapping of people you were once interviewing, potentially as a witness or even somebody you were investigating is now in a serious position of power.

COOPER: Jennifer, what do you make of the inspector general thing?

RODGERS: So, this is a huge disaster. I mean, inspectors general are the principal internal watchdog of the executive branch of government.

So, before you go lawsuits and go outside to the Judiciary, before you want Congress to investigate, these are the people who are in the agencies looking for fraud, waste, abuse, corruption, right, and he has taken them out. Why? Because he doesn't want scrutiny on what he and the agency heads that he's putting into place are going to be doing over the next four years.

And that is a disaster, billions and billions of dollars, taxpayer dollars every single year are distributed by these agencies. I mean all sorts of corruption, they've overturned sometimes ways that he likes. I mean, he used Michael Horowitz as the DOJ IG reports in a lot of instances when he felt that it benefited him.

So, they go both ways. They're apolitical, they're independent. He doesn't want those people. He swept them out.

We need to look at the people he's going to bring in and the real question for the Senate, they may not push back on these firings, which they should because they were illegal. They really need to look at these nominees. And I think this is where they need to the line. These people should be independent. They should be apolitical. They should have experience in the IG community and that's what I'm going to be watching for.

[20:15:26]

TOOBIN: I mean, you just sort of rushed past and it was illegal. You can't fire inspector generals the way Trump did. The law is quite clear --

COOPER: First notify Congress.

TOOBIN: -- and go through a go through a procedure --

COOPER: Explain why they're --

TOOBIN: -- explain why, there's certain time limits. But, you know, all of these things may wind up in court, but I think it's quite clear that the approach here of the administration is to just simply flood the zone, do as many of these kind of things as possible, and just hope that, you know, they can't all be challenged in court and that people sort of throw in the towel and don't protest.

COOPER: And, Andrew, I mean, can you just explain how much unilateral power Pam Bondi and Kash Patel will have if and when they're confirmed for the attorney general and FBI director, respectively, to reshape law enforcement and the justice system in this country?

MCCABE: Yes, I mean, enormous power -- enormous power.

So, the attorney general sets the tone for the entire Department of Justice and all of its component parts, of which the FBI is one. She can reshape the attorney general guidelines and fundamentally change the tools that investigators have to use all over the country. She can put in new procedures that take authority away from prosecutors to make decisions about what to charge based on the facts and the law, and start injecting politics into those decisions.

And Kash Patel can basically cobble together any group of investigators who are willing to follow his direction as FBI director if he's confirmed to investigate people for just about anything. The threshold to open an FBI investigation is very low, and those investigations, as they are open, even if they're not going anywhere, can be incredibly wearing on the people that they are focused upon.

So, there is a wide, wide buffet of options for Bondi and Patel to pursue if they are completely committed to Donald Trump's retribution agenda. And I would say all indications are that they are committed to that agenda.

COOPER: Andrew McCabe, Jeff Toobin, Jennifer Rodgers, Alyssa Farah Griffin, thank you. Jeff Toobin's new book, by the way, "The Pardon; The Politics of Presidential Mercy," is out two weeks from tomorrow. We'll have more on that coming up.

More breaking news today after the nationwide federal immigration raid, where almost a thousand were arrested, late word of a new House investigation. Details on that and the prospect of more raids.

And later, Elon Musk, facing criticism for what he told a far right German political party about their country and the holocaust.

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[00:22:09]

COOPER: More breaking news tonight, the Republican led House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into the actions of the so- called sanctuary cities, a loose term that typically refers to cities and states that limit how much they cooperate with national authorities trying to deport undocumented immigrants.

It comes a day after the highly publicized crackdown on illegal immigration, led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Almost a thousand people were arrested in Chicago, as well as at least six other states and territories. The enforcement is expected to continue this week.

Tagging along on Sunday's raid was TV personality Dr. Phil. He posted video on social media from Chicago, which were not going to show. It shows him not only traveling with the authorities, he was allowed to question at least one of the people arrested during the crackdown, as authorities watched.

The TV friendly aspect of the raid is noticeable, along with reports from sources familiar with the operations who tell CNN that at least two agencies assisting immigration authorities have told personnel to ensure their clothing depicts their respective agencies in case they're filmed.

It's not uncommon to wear that kind of clothing during raids, but the sources say even agents on the perimeter of the operations were instructed to wear raid jackets in full view of the media.

Rosa Flores joins us now with more from Chicago. What have you seen and heard there in Chicago?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the words that I'm hearing from community members to describe the feeling in the migrant community is terror and fear and heightened anxiety because of these law enforcement actions happening.

I mean, I can tell you that some organizers tell me that some migrants are not going to work. They are not sending their children to school.

In fact, the situation has gotten so dire that some volunteers are dropping off groceries at some apartments where migrants are staying that have children because they're cooped up, they're not going to work, they're not going to the grocery store. And that, of course, I mean, just imagine this is America, Anderson, and there's children cooped up and relying on volunteers to drop off groceries at their doorstep because their parents are so afraid to go to the grocery store.

Now, immigration attorneys that I've been talking to say that this could also create a cycle where migrants will not want to check in with ICE, that's something that that happens all the time. Migrants have to go to an ICE office, walk in, say hi, I'm here, I'm still here, I'm complying. Well, immigration attorneys say that this is going to make it very difficult for migrants to do that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BINDHU VIJAYAN, CHICAGO IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY/BEYOND LEGAL AID: Individuals will be fearful, petrified of whether or not they're walking into not come back out of that building. And if you have a family, if you have a support system that is relying upon you, that's such an -- it's an impossible choice to make. It's an impossible choice to make of whether or not I'm going to be returning home that day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FLORES: And Anderson, she said it best, if you're a parent who needs to feed your child, it really is an impossible choice to make.

COOPER: Rosa Flores, thank you.

Joining us now is former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He's also a former congressman and served as chief of staff in the Obama White House until very recently, was Ambassador to Japan.

Ambassador, I appreciate you being with us. The president promised during the campaign he would deport undocumented immigrations on mass. Do you think it's possible to limit these deportations to people who've committed crimes here only, or do you think it's inevitable that nonviolent, undocumented immigrants will be swept up?

[20:25:25]

RAHM EMANUEL, FORMER US REPRESENTATIVE: Well, that's based on intent, Anderson. I mean, is it possible? Sure it's possible and you'll get a lot of support for people that not only broke the law gutting here but more importantly broke the law while they were here and committed crimes. You'll get support in making that happen. I think that Governor Pritzker was on the show yesterday and talked about that.

But here's the point, look, as a former chief-of-staff, if you want to score points, that's one thing. You want to solve a problem, that's another thing.

And here they're scoring points and as a former chief-of-staff, a former congressman, I get it, I get that. But actually if you look at this, if you want to do shock and awe is how they kind of named it. I'll give you shock. Support bipartisan legislation, it would be awe inspiring if you did that.

And I can tell you right now, having looked at the political landscape around the issue of immigration for years, you have a consensus now, bipartisan as the Laken Riley legislation showed, as the legislation in the spring showed between the senators on how to police the border and stop illegal immigration.

The issue now is whether you want to actually, as I said, you want to score political points? That's easy, I get it. You want to solve a problem? It's hard work, but there's actually a consensus now, not only in the country but in the Congress on how to do that. And that's the real question that the administrations has got to solve.

I mean, you said it in your introduction, Dr. Phil was there to film this. I get the theater as somebody who's done his own choreography of this, but you actually have the opportunity now because you have a consensus forming on how to actually move legislation, you haven't passed immigration laws and immigration legislation literally since Reagan's era.

And we are a nation of laws, and we are a nation of immigrants.

COOPER: As you know -- EMANUEL: You have to reflect and respect both of those.

COOPER: Then candidate Trump stopped the bipartisan deal that had been negotiated among Republicans.

EMANUEL: Because it wasn't good for him, he said, politically.

COOPER: It wasn't at the time, do you think, do you see any sign, though, that he sees a political reason to do that now?

EMANUEL: Well, look, I mean, you just had in the House the legislation named after Miss Riley that was killed by an illegal immigrant down in Georgia. There was, I think, forty-five or forty-three Democrats in the House who supported it. You have a lot of Democrats now in the Senate who support that as well and did support that.

So, it exists, you have bipartisan agreement in the Senate for legislation in the spring, so I do -- you looked at this issue for 30 years, it's been around for 30 years. There was a lot of disagreement before. You actually now have a consensus. I think you could actually create a bipartisan consensus around legislation that seems to be both building around both the legal side of it and the illegal side of it.

I think one thing is interesting, in his Inaugural Address, I mean, put aside the question of whether President McKinley is a great president. He praised him for what he did on tariffs and on talent for making America wealthy.

Well, his approach on talent is a little interesting. Now, look, his family's an immigrant family from Germany. His wife is an immigrant family from Eastern Europe. He had Elon Musk there at his inaugural and has him hanging in around the White House, who's an immigrant from South Africa.

He had the CEO of Google, who's an immigrant from India. It's clear that immigrants play a role, they have to abide by the law, which is the legal process. And also, it's true to the history and the rejuvenation of the American entrepreneurial spirit and operation. So the question is based on his own words. He's very heavy on the tariff side and very light on the talent side in my view.

COOPER: As we mentioned --

EMANUEL: I think that's self-evident.

COOPER: We talked about this earlier in the program. The administration fired more than a dozen DOJ officials who worked on criminal prosecutions against him. You know what it's like to run a White House. Is there any precedent for this kind of action against civil servants who are doing their jobs?

EMANUEL: Well, look, I mean, you know that. I mean, you asked the others, there is no precedent. This I think there's a pattern of practice, both between the firings at the Justice Department and the firings of inspectors general. The inspectors general police against waste, fraud and abuse, you're fired. Those who committed, you know, violence against our police officers, you're pardoned. That's the pattern and practice here. That's the message going out.

Now, if your whole big effort is to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse and find $2 trillion, "of savings," you can't do it without inspector generals, and its' against the law, people noted that and spoke earlier to that. That's not interesting -- not to me -- that's what others have spoken about.

To me, though, these two fit together, the heads and tails of the same coin, and he does not want any oversight in this effort. And it's going to be an interesting question. You know the history of Senator Grassley, who has held up inspector generals as God's gift to the world. The question is whether that committee will stand by and Senator Grassley, who's been an advocate and I say it admirably, will he actually throw in the towel on this, or will he speak up for the independence of the inspectors general?

Look, I had him as a mayor. I dealt with him as chief-of-staff, they are a pain, they're a good pain. They do their job. They keep us on our toes. They keep us sharp. And they do find things that are valuable.

And their reason for firing is, no oversight. You beat up 147 officers on January 6th. Many lost -- a number of them lost their lives.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

EMANUEL: You get a pardon for that? What kind of -- my uncle was a police officer in Chicago. What kind of message is that being sent out there, that if you literally commit violence against a police officer, some of them losing their lives, you're going to get a pardon? But if you're actually there to save taxpayers money, you're going to get fired for doing your job?

COOPER: Let me ask you, just in terms of the Democratic Party, what is your message to the Democratic Party? I mean, you know, I don't know who the leader of the Democratic Party is at this point, I don't know if that's a problem.

EMANUEL: Well, when you find him or her, will you call me?

COOPER: Well, I mean, what is your message? What do Democrats do?

EMANUEL: Well, look, I -- you know, there's a number of things to do, but to me, like, look at this. He's talking about the price of Greenland. I'm interested in the price of groceries. The whole campaign, he talked about the price of groceries. Now, all of a sudden, you don't hear about it.

It's the price of Greenland. It has nothing to do with what people pay. Now he's talking about another thing, getting America out of World Health Organizations, and we have literally the bird flu, which is maybe on the precipice of another pandemic. Where are we going to get the vaccines? Where are we going to get the cooperation for this? Now, the other thing -- and take a look at the fight he's going to have with Canada. Up in the Midwest, the bulk of our oil and gas comes from Canada.

COOPER: Yes.

EMANUEL: You're going to see that at the pump. Every one of these problems, to me, things that you do early on, and I say this as a former senior adviser to President Clinton and chief of staff for President Obama, things you do early on have the seeds of your demise later on.

You're going to see literally everything he talked about, which is the primary thing, was the cost of living. From energy at the cost -- at the pump with the fight with Canada, it's going to come right in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, battleground states. They're going to pay more for it.

The price of Greenland has nothing to do with the price of groceries. And here now with bird flu, you're going to see egg prices go way up, and we are ill-prepared because we're not part of the World Health Organization.

Each one of these -- and I think there's a pattern also here that you should take note of having just come back from Japan. China made a massive mistake on their wolf warrior foreign policy, and it literally woke up our allies and brought them close to the United States.

I understand everybody's high-fiving about what happened with Colombia, but Colombia has an alternative. You know, Peru just opened a major --

COOPER: Yes.

EMANUEL: -- port that's a security threat with China. Peru has, as you saw the Chinese ambassador in Colombia say, well, this is a great opportunity for us.

COOPER: Yes.

EMANUEL: So you won a victory today, don't go spiking the ball on the 20-yard line.

COOPER: Yes.

EMANUEL: This is a real challenge for us, and we shouldn't have our own wolf warrior strategy that literally takes what could be allies and friends and turn them over to our adversary, China. That's a real mistake.

And so I think on all these things for the Democrats, one, you have a secretary-treasurer who said he was against the minimum wage when CEOs' prices pay is going up 40-60 percent. Two, deal with the price at the pump, and that's going to cost us with Canada. And three, deal most importantly also with the price of groceries, and don't listen to all the shiny bauble -- don't focus on the shiny baubles. What is ahead of us? We're going to have major price increases at the grocery store, and you're not going to hear President Trump talk about it at all for one simple reason, because he's going to have these shiny baubles that's going to distract you.

Keep your eye on the price. That would be my message.

COOPER: Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, appreciate it. Thank you.

Coming up --

EMANUEL: Thank you.

COOPER: -- Elon Musk once again under scrutiny for his support of a far-right political party. What he said during a surprise appearance at a campaign event for that party in Germany on Saturday.

And as investigators continue to search for the cause of the deadly Eaton fire in Los Angeles, details on a new lawsuit that alleges video evidence of the sparks that may have lit the blaze. We'll be right back.

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[20:38:39]

COOPER: Elon Musk is under fire for comments he made over the weekend addressing a campaign event for Germany's far-right political party. Musk appeared to support views espoused by group that Germany should no longer atone for past crimes committed by the Nazis.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA MOTORS: I think there's like, frankly, too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that. People -- you know, children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let alone their parents, their great grandparents, maybe even. And we should be optimistic and excited about a future for Germany.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Joining me now is Deborah Lipstadt, the former State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. She's also a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University.

Professor, I'm wondering what your thoughts are about what Elon Musk said.

PROF. DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT, FORMER STATE DEPT. ENVOY TO MONITOR AND COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM: Oh, I was very disturbed. You know, there was a lot of discussion a few days ago about his hand gestures, and I sort of ignored that. But this is far more serious. I'm not -- I don't think any young German should feel guilt about something that happened before they were born, whether it's a year before they were born or 40 years before they were born.

But responsibility and a sense that this is part of the history of my country, this is something that happened in my country, is something that I think is crucial. I was -- my family was not in the United States during the 19th century when slavery, and before that, slavery reigned in this country. Yet I know that I've benefited from the legacy of that crime in the United States.

[20:40:13]

In other words, if you're part of a country, you're part of its history. And for him to do that is feeding into neo-Nazi beliefs, neo- Nazi sentiments enough. We don't know -- we're tired of hearing about this and it's very disturbing.

COOPER: Where does this group, Alternative for Germany, rank in terms of your concerns over anti-Semitism?

LIPSTADT: Well, they are -- look, anti-Semitism comes from the right and from the left, from Islamists, from Christians, from Muslims, sometimes from Jews. It comes from all over. But they certainly are part of the panorama of sources of anti-Semitism, particularly in Germany.

COOPER: In terms of what you've seen throughout Europe, I mean, there has been a rise of, in a number of countries, of anti-Semitism.

LIPSTADT: There's been a rise in anti-Semitism in many countries. There's been a tsunami of anti-Semitism, including in this country. We see anti-Semitism being normalized, things that we never thought people would say people are saying freely. We see comparisons.

Sometimes it's made in connection with Israel, and differing with the policies of the state of Israel is not being anti-Semitic, just like differing with the policies of the United States government is not being anti-American.

But when you begin to house that criticism in terms of anti-Semitic rhetoric, in terms of anti-Semitic tropes, in terms of anti-Semitic charges, then it does cross the line. And we're seeing it across the board. We saw it before 10/7, October 7th, and we're seeing it certainly more since October 7th.

COOPER: I mean, I don't know if you -- have you been following the loosening of restrictions on what can be said on social media sites like X? I mean --

LIPSTADT: Yes.

COOPER: -- people are complaining that anti-Semitic propaganda has exploded on the platform.

LIPSTADT: That much more -- the anti-Semitism I see on X, it comes into my feed, even though I'm against it, somehow the algorithm has figured out that I'm interested in it, and it's really disturbing. And what happens on social media, you know, sometimes I'm asked, especially on a day like today, are we back in 1938 Germany?

And I say, no, I think that's an exaggeration. I'm not even sure it's 1933. But it's a bad time. It's a very bad time. There are two things that are different today. They are -- governments are much more concerned. I just finished it's -- close to three years since as an ambassador with the job of special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.

So that's the good news. Many, many countries, the E.U., European countries, South American countries are responding and taking this seriously. The bad news is we now have a delivery system, an online delivery system, which can spread hate, can spread misinformation, can spread disinformation in a nanosecond.

COOPER: Yes. Professor Deborah Lipstadt, I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Coming up next, we have new details on a new lawsuit. The alleged video could provide a clue to the origins of the deadly Eaton fire in Los Angeles County. And as we mentioned, we're going to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Holocaust Remembrance Day with an interview with Irene Weiss, who was 13 when she was forced to go to Auschwitz with her family, most of whom died there.

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[20:47:29]

COOPER: The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has updated the death toll from this month's wildfires to 29. The latest death reported was related to the Palisades fire. A new lawsuit alleges the Eaton fire was started by electrical sparking from a utility transmission tower.

Now, the suit was brought against Los Angeles's primary electrical utility by a woman whose home was destroyed. Video obtained by the law firm representing her shows what they say is the start of the blaze. Now, the official cause of the Eaton fire remains under investigation.

While reporting from Los Angeles, I spoke with a Pasadena couple who saw a fire at the base of the utility transmission tower, and here's what they told me.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

MARCUS ERRICO, SAYS HE SAW THE EATON FIRE BEGIN: As I got closer, I could see right across from us on the hillside in Eaton Canyon, there are a series of transformer towers with power lines stretching up into the mountains. And at the base of one, there was just a small ring of flames around the whole base.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Well, Veronica Miracle has more on the lawsuit.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A flash on this gas station surveillance camera is at first hard to see, but a new lawsuit alleges this is the start of the deadly Eaton fire that tore through Altadena. Video obtained by law firm Edelson PC allegedly shows sparking electrical power lines, they say eventually erupted into the fire that killed 17 people and damaged or destroyed more than 10,000 structures.

The video is a centerpiece in a lawsuit filed against utility company Southern California Edison on behalf of an Altadena woman who lost her home.

MIRACLE: At this point, are you confident that SCE is responsible for the Eaton fire?

ALI MOGHADDAS, ATTORNEY, EDELSON PC: Absolutely. We filed a lawsuit against them. We believe they're responsible.

MIRACLE (voice-over): SoCal Edison has repeatedly denied claims that their equipment started the catastrophic blaze. Monday morning, the company filed an update to the California Public Utilities Commission saying they found a fault on a transmission line 5 miles away from where the fire allegedly started.

MIRACLE: Even though there was an issue 5 miles away from the alleged starting point, could that have impacted that area and cause arcing and sparking in that area and cause the fire?

KATHLEEN DUNLEAVY, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON SPOKESPERSON: So this is an ongoing investigation and we will continue to inspect and review our equipment.

MIRACLE (voice-over): While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, more videos of the alleged origin of the blaze are emerging all around the same time. This new surveillance video is timestamped at 2:10 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time or 6:10 p.m. Pacific time.

[20:50:01]

Pedro Rojas (ph) took this video just a few minutes later at 6:24 p.m. It shows flames exploding at the base of an electrical transmission tower. Jennifer and Marcus Errico captured pictures from a similar vantage point at 6:15 p.m.

ERRICO: I can't say definitively that it was the power lines that caused it, but Eaton Canyon is right on the edge of Altadena in Pasadena. That's where the fire began. It was under that tower. It began as a small little blaze underneath, and within 10 minutes the whole hillside was engulfed in the fire.

MIRACLE (voice-over): In court Monday, Southern California Edison agreed to keep this transmission tower and nearby equipment de- energized to preserve evidence. It gives Edelson's lawyers 21 days to have their own experts inspect these lines.

MOGHADDAS: What we learned today was that there could be potentially physical evidence 5 miles away in this other line that they reported experienced the faults at the same time as the fire.

MIRACLE: How is that possible if it's 5 miles away?

MOGHADDAS: All these lines are interconnected. These transmission lines, they all feed together. And so when one experiences an issue miles down the line, this is traveling at the speed of light. It has implications. It impacts lines down the way.

DUNLEAVY: Our hearts are with everyone who has been impacted by the wildfires in Southern California Edison. Right now, this is an ongoing investigation and we're at the beginning of it. And we are committed to working with local investigators and finding out, you know, what happened here.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COOPER: And Veronica Miracle joins me now. This isn't the only lawsuit that's been filed so far, right?

MIRACLE (on-camera): Yes, that's right. The judge in this case said that there are at least 19 other lawsuits against Southern California Edison. And when I spoke to the plaintiff's lawyer in the case today, he said that he has hundreds of other clients. He expects to file more lawsuits.

He also said he expects all of these cases to be folded into one big one because they don't want a bunch of different judges making a lot of different decisions. And Anderson, just for reference, we're standing in front of the ARCO where you saw from that surveillance video at the beginning of this story. That's where this came from.

And we're about over a mile away from the transmission tower in question. So that spark had to be incredibly bright for it to be picked up here on this surveillance video. Anderson?

COOPER: And are all those customers still without power?

MIRACLE (on-camera): There are -- yes, there are a lot of customers without power here. And I spoke to Southern California Edison after the case today. They said for now, because they have 21 days, they have to keep these lines up here de-energized. It will impact customers, but it should be OK for now. Anderson?

COOPER: Right. Veronica Miracle, thanks very much.

Coming up next, the solemn 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The important message from survivor Irene Weiss. When I spoke to her last year, she and her sister seen here survived Auschwitz. Nearly all her other family were murdered.

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[20:57:07]

COOPER: Today in Poland on Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, dozens of survivors made the difficult journey back there to the largest of the Nazi extermination camps. Some wore striped clothing similar to what they wore as prisoners during World War II.

Mourners placed candles to honor the more than 1 million people who passed through its gates to their deaths in the gas chambers or by firing squad or starvation. In total, 6 million Jews were murdered in concentration camps run by Nazis. Survivors want no one to forget what they endured.

Survivors like Irene Weiss, seen in this photo on the right with her older sister, her only sibling who survived. They were headed to the United States after the war ended. Their parents and four other siblings were murdered at Auschwitz.

Irene was just 13 when she and her family arrived. I spoke to her for a 60 Minutes report last year and shared her story again on my podcast about grief All There Is. Here's part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

IRENE WEISS, AUSCHWITZ SURVIVOR: There's a lot written about Auschwitz and it can never be fully described. Somebody labeled it a metropolis of death and that's what it was. It was a metropolis of death. It worked like an assembly line factory and it just ground up people, mainly families, mainly children.

COOPER: How do you live with this?

WEISS: Well, you see, I am 93. There hasn't been a day that I have not lived with it. It's very difficult because to reconcile that, that man can be so cruel, so like an animal, really changes your way of thinking of mankind and life daily. I know that people can turn on you, can turn on you because of a label.

COOPER: The 13-year-old girl that you were, do you still feel that little girl at times? Or did you bury her early on in Auschwitz?

WEISS: No, that's a good question. That's really a very good question. I am stuck there. I'm really stuck there. That's really the biggest fight and that's where all the grief is.

COOPER: Have you been able to cry in subsequent years?

WEISS: Still not, still not. You know, people say broken heart. The heart keeps working, but the soul never forgets. There is a soul that does not forget any of it. It's imprinted on the soul that keeps it the memory, the pain, the grief, it's just always there.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: The soul never forgets, nor should we. Irene Weiss, Auschwitz survivor, now 94. She's remarkable.

You can listen to the full interview on my podcast, All There Is, wherever you get your podcast, or watch the full video interview on the CNN channel on YouTube.

The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.