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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Musk Takes Center Stage at Trump's First Cabinet Meeting; Interview with Sen. Angus King (D-ME); Trump Shares A.I. Video Depicting Real Estate Development in Gaza. Trump Shares A.I. Video Depicting Real Estate Development in Gaza; Southwest Jet Attempting to Land at Chicago Midway Airport Nearly Collides With a Private Plane on the Runway; American Airlines Flight Forced to Abort Landing at Reagan National Airport to Avoid Another Plane; Shiri Bibas, Two Young Sons, Laid to Rest in Israel Tonight; USDA Predicts Egg Prices to Rise 41 Percent This Year. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired February 26, 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: That is incredible. I am sort of stunned my mouth was open. Wow, you pay $250,000.00 a day. Wow.
All right, Will, thank you so much.
And thanks, of course, as always to all of you for being with us. It's time now for AC360 with Anderson Cooper.
[20:00:15]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, the President's first Cabinet meeting, starring non-Cabinet member Elon Musk, what he and the President said and what the White House is now signaling about where he ranks compared to all those Senate confirmed Cabinet Secretaries.
Also tonight, the President's plan for Gaza has been called absurd and now he has an A.I. generated video, obviously not real to prove the point with bearded belly dancers and more.
And later, how safe are the skies in the wake of a near accident on a runway in Chicago? Several more incidents and close calls, including at Reagan National scene of last month's deadly midair collision.
Good evening, thanks for joining us. We begin tonight keeping them honest with the President's first Cabinet meeting of his second term. Now, it didn't repeat the first term slavish display of devotion from one Cabinet Secretary after another as the cameras rolled, if you remember that.
Instead, it began with the President briefly outlining the administration's accomplishments for the first month, then quickly turning to the non-Cabinet guest of honor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'd like to have Elon Musk please say a few words.
ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I actually just call myself a humble tech-support here because --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Then with actual Cabinet members looking on, Musk proceeded to talk for about eight minutes. After that, he and the President took questions from the press, the first of which was whether any Cabinet heads were unhappy with Musk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Elon, let the Cabinet speak just for a second -- anybody unhappy with Elon? If you are, we will throw him out of here. Is anybody unhappy?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: They sort of applauded.
In all by our count, Elon Musk spoke or took questions for about ten minutes of the 65-minute proceeding. He and the President took several questions about that e-mail he was behind, the one demanding federal employees list five accomplishments in the prior week, or be presumed to have resigned, which sounds like they were being told to justify their jobs. But today Musk said no, no, no, no, it's not that at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: I think that e-mail perhaps was misinterpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse? Do you have a pulse and two neurons?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, keeping it honest, if you're just looking for dead people still on the payroll and you now have access to databases and records from all across the federal government, there are plenty of ways of finding them, I would think.
Additionally, if there is an expectation that these e-mails would be going out to more than a few dead people, then what's the threat of losing their jobs for? For a deceased federal employee, that would seem to be the least of their problems, unless that threat is for the likely to be many, many more living workers who have not replied.
The President today threw out a number a million, he said. And given that most, if not all of them are likely alive, not dead, what he said about those million men and women amounts to threatening their jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I'd like to add -- wait a minute, wait, wait. I'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded though, Elon, they are on the bubble. You know, I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it. They haven't responded. Now, maybe they don't exist. Maybe we're paying people that don't exist.
Don't forget we just got here. This group just got here. But those people are on the bubble, as they say, like maybe they're going to be gone. Maybe they're not around. Maybe they have other jobs. Maybe they moved and they're not where they're supposed to be. A lot of things could have happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: A lot of things, he says. But the likeliest reason they're not replying is simple. It's because all these agencies and Cabinet Departments have told their employees not to reply to these e-mails.
Justice, State, Homeland Security, the FBI and the Pentagon, which is nearly a million civilian employees on the payroll alone.
Musk today also made the same promise about fixing mistakes that he did earlier this month in the Oval Office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: So -- and we -- and I should say, we also we will make mistakes. We won't be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly.
So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola -- Ebola prevention, I think we all want Ebola prevention. So, we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, keeping them honest, that claim on Ebola is coming into question. Five days ago, Democratic senators wrote to Secretary of State Rubio, warning that the freeze on U.S. global health activities is causing "devastation to lives and livelihoods."
The letter cites Ebola as the first example. Here's two in a series of tweets today from Dr. Craig Spencer, who teaches at Brown University School of Public Health and is himself an Ebola survivor, quoting him now, "I've been told by a colleague that Uganda tried calling the White House to notify them of the outbreak for two days, but no one answered the phone. Two months ago we had amazing experts working on Global Health Security there. Now, there appears to be no one to pick up a phone."
Dr. Spencer continues, "You know who does Ebola prevention here in the U.S.? The CDC, hundreds of these frontline experts lost their jobs last week as part of indiscriminate cost saving firings. More cuts are expected. USAID has long supported Ebola response efforts overseas." He says, "Not no more." Late last month, during confirmation hearings for Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Spencer was on the broadcast warning of the funding freezes and cuts that he alluded to online today.
[20:05:22]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. CRAIG SPENCER, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Let me be very clear. This is pure stupidity. As someone that has worked around the world battling disease outbreaks from Ebola, hepatitis C, many others, I've seen the relationships that we've had, the CDC with the WHO, I've seen what where we benefit from having eyes on the ground and having those relationships.
At this point, our CDC folks can't talk to WHO folks about a Marburg outbreak in Tanzania, about a possible Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo, about what's happening with Mpox in countries around the world. We're not able to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, then there's the measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico. Health Secretary Kennedy was asked about the announcement today that an unvaccinated school aged child in Lubbock, Texas, died of it overnight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Were watching it. We put out a post on it yesterday, and were going to continue to follow it. Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. Last year there were 16. So, it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What Secretary Kennedy did not mention is that this child's death is the first since 2015, ten-years ago. He also said this, which is not true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: We're watching it and there are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's not true according to a Lubbock Hospital health official who addressed the Secretary's comment this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LARA JOHNSON, LUBBOCK SVC. AREA CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, COVENANT HEALTH: We don't hospitalize patients for quarantine purposes. Quarantine is not something that would happen in a healthcare facility. We admit patients who need acute supportive treatment in our hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's Dr. Lara Johnson. You may have seen her in our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta's recent report from Lubbock's Covenant Children's Hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: How do you even begin to approach as a patient comes in, what do you do?
DR. JOHNSON: Most of the patients who've been admitted have had respiratory issues. They've been needing supplemental oxygen and respiratory support to help them get over the viral pneumonia part that we see with measles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, one of those kids has died, and for the first time in a decade, a family is left to mourn the victim of a nearly 100 percent preventable disease of childhood.
One final note on the woman who holds the position in name, at least of DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason. Her name was announced yesterday and the White House, has not said how long she's been on the job. We did learn that she led a DOGE meeting last week, but did not say what her role or title was when addressing the staff.
For more, we're joined by CNN political analyst, Trump biographer and "New York Times" senior political correspondent Maggie Haberman.
Before we talk about the Cabinet, Amy Gleason, is she actually, I mean, do we know much about her?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We know some about her. She is the acting DOGE administrator. And I just want to point out that acting doesn't mean anything in this capacity. This is not a Senate- confirmed position, which is what acting refers to. She's just in that role.
COOPER: She was on vacation in Mexico, which seems --
HABERMAN: She might still be.
COOPER: -- which is weird timing.
HABERMAN: Yes, I don't think she didn't know that she was the DOGE administrator, which some people have been suggesting. I think she did know that. I certainly don't think that she expected it to get rolled out yesterday and announced yesterday.
And again, this is something that if the team involved in all of this and the White House was not so focused on secrecy, despite saying that they are being very transparent, this would not have been a day's long story. They could have just answered this, and this came up in court proceedings. And I think this is part of why they ultimately said it.
But look, she worked in the U.S. Digital Services in the first Trump term for a few years and then overlapped a bit into Biden. She has a long history with in the health care industry. I think she had a sick child at one point. She was actually honored by the Obama White House at one point as a champion of change.
I think that she is actually not unimportant in all of this, but that she is so in the shadows is pretty striking.
COOPER: What is your biggest take away from the Cabinet meeting?
HABERMAN: That Elon Musk has more significance in Donald Trump's eyes right now than almost any member of that Cabinet, at least while they were sitting there. I mean, look. --
COOPER: We didn't seem like anybody in that room, I mean, he's looming in the in the doorway over them. It's fascinating to see.
HABERMAN: And he's who Donald Trump turned to first. And I think part of that is to try to make Elon Musk answer questions that Trump doesn't want to have to answer himself about this e-mail that went out over the weekend. It's actually -- it's something that Trump is pretty deft at, which is trying to push blame for a problem over on someone else.
And this was something that Musk created, but it was also something Trump clearly endorsed and did again there. But then, on the other hand, say that if it goes well, it's something that he wanted.
We know that there was a lot of chaos within the administration around this e-mail. We know that Cabinet Secretaries and Cabinet agency officials were trying the White House repeatedly for guidance over the weekend because they weren't sure what this meant, and then they were sort of left to their own devices, putting out, in some case, multiple e-mails, you know, at least one at National Security agencies and so forth saying, don't respond to this for a variety of reasons.
Musk was pretty derisive of the federal workforce, just in a sweeping way. And so was Trump at various points in that meeting. And I don't know that that's necessarily long-term helpful for Trump. I don't know that it matters for Musk, because I don't think Musk is necessarily going to be there all four years. But Trump wants to be.
[20:10:47]
COOPER: What is the end game on that? I mean, is there a number of cuts? Is there -- because obviously any significant analysis of whose jobs are important, whose jobs are not? What's fraud, waste and abuse? That would take time. It would take coordination, none of which is it going on. They're just going in a sysadmin position and just culling people.
HABERMAN: And that's how Musk has operated at other companies. And so it's not surprising that he's applying it here. He is applying what has been a logic. It's not strategic in how he's approaching it, but certainly a logic to how he has handled budgets at companies he's taken over and tried to change them. It's a little harder in the federal government. To your point, you can end up cutting things that become politically problematic for you.
They are moving so fast that I'm not sure how much of this sinks in for readers or people watching us right now, but for people whose jobs are affected or whose programs are affected, they may care, and in some cases, some of them will turn out to have been Trump supporters.
COOPER: And a lot of people are veterans as well.
HABERMAN: That's right.
COOPER: I mean, you know, working for the federal government. I want to play something else the president said at the Cabinet meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Is it your view of your authority that you have the power to call up any one of or all of the people seated at this table and issue orders that they're bound to follow?
TRUMP: Oh, yes. They'll follow the orders. Yes, they will.
REPORTER: No exceptions?
TRUMP: No exceptions. Well, let's see, let me think. Oh, yes -- she'll have an exception. Of course, no exceptions. You know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It's interesting to hear kind of the forced laughter in with a lot of the -- maybe it's real laughter. It just sounds -- it just, it sounds odd to me.
HABERMAN: Look, I think that everybody in that administration knew that this was going to be a different type of administration than the first term.
I think that the people who helped pick these Cabinet Secretaries were looking for people who they who they believed were going to align with Trump, who were not going to try to stymie his agenda.
And Trump did feel stymied in his agenda and with reason in some cases. But in other cases, there were people who, you know, believed that he was asking them to do something that was out of the scope of what they could do or was inappropriate and so forth.
So, it depends on what we're talking about here, right. If he's calling up the Treasury Secretary and asking him to do something related to you know, something in the Treasury Department, or if he's calling up Howard Lutnick and it relates to Commerce, that's a little different than if he's calling up, say, the Secretary of Defense and issuing an order related to the military that somebody else in a different position might take issue with. And I think that's where this gets this gets unclear. COOPER: Maggie Haberman, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
After the Cabinet meeting, White House Chief-of-Staff Susie Wiles had a closed door lunch with Senate Republicans.
According to Senator Josh Hawley, who was there. She described Elon Musk's place in the administration hierarchy this way, quoting Senator Hawley, "Musk is working directly with the President, and the President then works with the Cabinet Secretaries."
Maine Independent Senator Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, was not at the meeting. He and I spoke, shortly before air time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Senator King, when you see the images today of the Cabinet meeting, Elon Musk, standing in the corner with the Cabinet, gather around President Trump. Where do you think the power lies in that room? Does this Cabinet have power over their own departments?
SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): Well, that's a really good question, Anderson, because Elon Musk seems to be sending the e-mails, sending the firing notices, all of these kinds of things, and they're coming from him. And he said something really interesting today that was sort of ominous.
They talked about Ebola and how they accidentally canceled an Ebola prevention program. And then he said, but we realized we made a mistake. So, we fixed it. We replaced it.
The implication of that is that Elon Musk decides what we are going to fund and what we aren't. And that's really what worries me about what's going on.
All this deluge of news about what's going on in Ukraine or NATO or, you know, firing people. We're missing something big, which is the usurpation of Congress' power by the President, by the executive, and the framers divided power between the Congress and the President for a reason. And they didn't want power all in one set of hands, whether it's the President or Elon Musk, because they realize that people get abused by their government if too much power is concentrated. So, that's what really bothers me about what's going on.
[20:15:13]
COOPER: President Trump won Maine's electoral votes in 2016, 2020, and 2024. What do you say to your constituents who say, look, Elon Musk is a tech genius who has helped -- you know, if he's helping to modernize the government and cut out fraud and waste, what's wrong with that?
KING: Well, I think -- a couple of things that I want to point out to them, and I was actually on the radio in Bangor, Maine this morning talking about this.
Number one, nobody elected him. We don't even know what his status is. Number two, we don't know who these people are or what they are doing, by the way, they don't know what they're doing making mistakes like Ebola or firing 350 people who manage our nuclear stockpile. They rectified that in a few days.
But the point is, this isn't being done in any systematic way. And I don't think Elon Musk should be given this power. He doesn't know anything about the government. He doesn't know anything about what agencies actually do.
COOPER: President Trump got into a tense back and forth with the Democratic governor of your state, Janet Mills, at the White House last week. The context was his ban on transgender women playing women's sports. It was really the dynamics of the confrontation that stood out. I just want to play that for our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I understand Maine -- is Maine here, the Governor of Maine?
GOV. JANET MILLS (D-ME): Yes, I'm here.
TRUMP: Are you, not going to comply with that?
MILLS: I'm complying with state and federal laws.
TRUMP: Well, we are the federal law. Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. So, you better you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any -- any federal funding.
MILLS: See you in court.
TRUMP: For every state -- good, I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one, and enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: After the exchange, Trump Education Department launched an investigation at the State of Maine, putting aside the issue of transgender athletes.
What did you make of the president threatening to withhold federal aid and the Governor and threatening the Governor's career and suggesting federal law basically begins and ends with the White House?
KING: Well, there are two problems. And you just touched on one of them, the statement we are the law. That reminds me of the King of France. You know, I am the law. And, we don't have a king here. We don't have a dictator and the very fact that he thought that, that he said that we are the law, that was pretty chilling. And it tells you the direction that their thinking is, is going in.
The second piece is these are funds that are coming to Maine by virtue of laws passed by Congress and signed by a President. An appropriations bill is a law. And that gets back to the original point I was making, that there's something much deeper and more important going on here. And that is the executive, the presidency pulling the power of Congress, which the framers put there for a reason, to protect our freedom, pulling it into his or her hands. In this case, it is President Trump.
Listen, the basic responsibility of the President is spelled out in Article II of the Constitution. And here it is. And it's a responsibility. It's not a power. It's a responsibility. The exact words are, "See that the laws are faithfully executed." That's in the end of Article II of the Constitution.
The President is to see that the laws are faithfully executed. It doesn't say, see that the laws he likes are being faithfully executed, or see that the laws that he doesn't like aren't going to be faithfully executed. That's his job. And that's what the Constitution assigns to him. And the Constitution assigns to the Congress, the power of the purse, the power to pass laws.
If he doesn't like the Department of Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, come to Congress and get us to repeal it. The presidency does not have the power to just arbitrarily say, we don't like this department. We're going to knock it out and if we allow the President, any president to get that power, we're in trouble, Anderson.
COOPER: Senator Angus King, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
KING: Yes, sir.
COOPER: A quick programming note. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is going to join Kaitlan Collins on "The Source" in the next hour.
Next, the President posted this A.I. generated fantasy video today, as he continue to promote his plan for developing the so-called Gaza Strip into the so-called Riviera of the Middle East.
Later, two more close calls -- close aviation mishaps less than 90 minutes apart. More ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:24:04]
COOPER: The President continues to push his Middle East mood board proposal to somehow remove all Palestinians from Gaza and turn it into what he calls the Riviera of the Middle East.
In a deeply divided and dangerous region, in a deeply difficult time, this proposal has been criticized as a deeply unserious, even ridiculous one. And overnight, the president seemed to double down on the ridiculousness.
He shared a fake A.I. generated video, unclear exactly where it originated on his social media. Now, if you haven't seen it, it's kind of a fever dream of a fantasy of what Trump Gaza would be like. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump is to set you free, bringing the light for all to see. No more tunnels, no more fear. Trump-Gaza is finally here.
Trump-Gaza is shining bright golden future, a brand new life. Feast and dance, the deal is done.
Trump-Gaza number one. Trump-Gaza shining bright, golden future a brand new light. Feast and dance the deal is done. Trump-Gaza number one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, as absurd as it is, the details such as they are, the broad brush strokes of the president's vision for Gaza are also astounding.
Under the President's proposal, the United States would take control of Gaza, effectively seizing a sovereign territory. One that Israel, by the way, has, of course, been fighting in for more than a year and still doesn't control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.
I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The U.S. is going to own the Gaza Strip, which, according to the President, would be possible without United States troop's boots on the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Basically, the United States would view it as a real estate transaction. Where will be an investor in that part of the world, and no rush to do anything. We wouldn't need soldiers at all that would be taken care of by others. And the investments are taken care of by others, also.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Others integral to the president's plan is removing the millions of Palestinians who already live in Gaza so that the development can take place. He mentioned Egypt and Jordan as relocation spots, something the leaders of those countries say is a nonstarter. And as for a right to return, according to the president, that doesn't seem to be in the cards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't think people should be going back to Gaza. I think that Gaza has been very unlucky for them. They've lived like hell. They lived like they're living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, later that night, our Kaitlan Collins attempted to get some clarity on the point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Just to follow up on what you we're saying about the Gazans leaving Gaza, going to other countries. One, where exactly are you suggesting that they should go? And two, are you saying they should return after its rebuilt? And if not, who do you envision living there?
TRUMP: I envision a world, people living there, the world's people. I think you'll make that into an international unbelievable place.
I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable. And I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world will be there. And they'll live there, Palestinians also. Palestinians will live there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Some Palestinians, along with the world's people, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, tried to clean up some of the debris the next day, claiming that Palestinians would just be temporarily located.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort. Again, it's a demolition site right now. It's not a livable place for any human being, and I think it's actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, that's what she said, not what he said days later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think that it's a big mistake to allow people. The Palestinians or the people living in Gaza to go back yet another time. And we don't want Hamas going back and think of it as a big real estate site. And the United States is going to own it and will slowly, very slowly. We're in no rush.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So he elaborated on that idea during his sit down with Bret Baier ahead of the Super Bowl, saying in no uncertain terms that Palestinians would not even want to come back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing, much better -- in other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them, because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could have, it's not habitable. It would be years before it could happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now, allies of the President have suggested this could all be the opening salvo in a negotiation or attempt to push our nations into formulating their own plan, and they are working on alternative plans, none of which, it seems, involve golden statues of Donald Trump and cash raining from the sky.
Joining me now is former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin. I mean, is this a sign that he just doesn't give an eff? And they put out this video overnight?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. so Donald Trump is in the trolling phase of his presidency. He has such popularity within the Republican Party, there is virtually nothing that he can do that is going to make folks walk away from him.
Just a few days ago, he called Zelenskyy a dictator, and Republicans kind of complained a little bit and are already some in Congress gearing up, hoping he'll run for a third term. That's the position he's in.
So, I think that he sort of backed up into this idea of developing Gaza. It was something that occurred to him. This is my theory. And then he now -- his staff around him have to backfill that and turn it into an actual policy.
It's an untenable position. I don't have to tell you that this has been disputed territory for millennia. There are extremist factions that will feel like they have claim to the land, but I really think this is --
COOPER: It's a potential mobilizing thing that terrorist groups around the world could rally around.
GRIFFIN: That was actually my thought when I saw the A.I. Generated video, because this White House, they love to troll and they kind of love the digital currency of the meme world. Like they put out an ASMR thing of people being deported, and now it's this.
But the problem is, there are extremist elements in this world who will see that. And that's actually inciting. That's actually something saying we are going to relocate Palestinians from their land, develop it and it is not -- there's not --
COOPER: It's sort of the core of the issue.
GRIFFIN: It's really -- it's really, yeah. It's not kind of dancing around the core issues there. But I think that Trump in this second term, he's seeing things through the sense of dollar signs. He's seeing things like the real estate developer he always was, and it's going to take advisors around him putting some guardrails on that, or he can walk himself into some complicated things.
COOPER: It is interesting though, I mean, given the amount of -- I mean blood and tears and, you know, decades and decades of global, you know, angst and meetings and thoughts on the region to just have a U.S. president just doing this, I mean, it's extraordinary.
GRIFFIN: It's extraordinary. But here's the thing. Donald Trump has a lot to be proud of in the Middle East. I think that a lot of Americans, like he's being more aggressive in getting Israeli hostages, including American hostages out. They think that the Abraham Accords were a tremendous breakthrough --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Right. And it wasn't. I mean, it was a different way of looking at the issue. And I mean, this had ripple effects that maybe were unattended, but I mean, it's -- it was a --
GRIFFIN: But these were the --
COOPER: -- bold thing.
GRIFFIN: And that was a -- that was a serious diplomatic effort between nations that took years to get underway. This now feels very ad hoc and it almost feels like a going backward in the way that he's approaching the region at a more tumultuous time than his first term in office.
COOPER: Because the U.S. was on the cusp, or Israel was on the cusp of a deal perhaps with Saudi Arabia for recognition, which arguably is one of the reasons Hamas decided to do what they did on October 7th, to stop that deal.
GRIFFIN: Yes. And I think what the Trump White House would tell you, this is all part of a negotiating tactic, and it's about putting pressure on Hamas to get more hostages out. I'm just not sure if I see it that way. There was a pause in the ceasefire after his first comments about basically leveling Gaza. And I think this very comfortable, confident Donald Trump, there are some strengths to it, but on the diplomatic stage, it can be incredibly dangerous.
COOPER: Yeah. Alyssa Farah Griffin, thanks so much. Appreciate it. A lot more ahead tonight. Several more accidents, incidents and near collisions in what's already been a deadly four weeks in commercial aviation. We'll have the latest on that and some perspective on what the problems are in the sky. And more in the Middle East and Israel memorial services for Israeli hostage, Shiri Bibas, and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, whose bodies were finally returned by Hamas who took them, last week.
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[20:36:55]
COOPER: 24 hours ago, this was the big story, a close call at Chicago's Midway Airport between a private jet crossing an active runway and a Southwest Airline 7 37, which as you see had to abort its landing to avoid it. What we know tonight is that it was actually the second runway incursion incident of the day, and the location of the first is haunting. More on those incidents and others from CNN's Brian Todd.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New details tonight on hair-raising incidents like this one, a Southwest Airlines jet had to pull up at the last minute on Tuesday to avoid a private plane crossing the runway at Chicago's Midway International Airport. Newly released data says the planes came as close as about 2,000 feet from each other before the Southwest plane initiated the go around. Just about 90 minutes before that, another incident occurred at Washington's Reagan National Airport. An American Airlines jet approaching from the north had to cancel a landing and turn away when it was just 450 feet off the ground, after it came within one-and-a- quarter miles of a plane preparing to depart on the same runway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American 2246, just go around, turn right, heading at 250, climb maintain 3000.
TODD (voice-over): Passenger on the flight telling CNN it was terrifying. All of this after a series of other plane mishaps. Toronto, February 17th, a Delta Airlines jet slides and flips over in a fireball upon landing. Incredibly, all on board survived. January 29th, an American Airlines regional plane and an army Blackhawk helicopter collide over Reagan National Airport. All 67 people aboard both aircraft killed.
Two days later, a private Medevac jet crashes into a Northeast Philadelphian neighborhood killing seven people. Passengers we spoke to shaken by these recent incidents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't really have much choice in the matter, but I'm not as confident as I was.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, it does make me nervous just, because I travel a lot.
TODD (voice-over): On Monday, passengers aboard a Delta plane were forced to evacuate down slides at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport when smoke or haze permeated through the cabin. In early February, the wing of a Japan Airlines jet struck the tail of a Delta Airlines plane while taxiing at Seattle Tacoma International Airport.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, I'm very scared to even get on the plane. I'm being honest with you. There is too many mishaps going on.
TODD (voice-over): Some of this is coincidence, safety experts say, but there is also an underlying crisis.
PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: It's a underscoring of just how stressed the system is. We've got a lot more traffic going on these days. We've got controllers and pilots under stress because of the increased use of runways.
TODD: What's the most immediate problem that needs to be fixed right now?
GOELZ: We need to make sure that our air traffic controllers have the personnel to do their jobs, so that they are not forced to be doing overtime, forced to be staffing more than one position at a time.
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TODD (on camera): Reflecting the overall volume of air traffic and just what air traffic controllers have to deal with, between January of 2023 and September of 2024, the NTSB investigated 13 runway incursions in the U.S. involving so-called for-hire flights, meaning smaller charter flights.
[20:40:12]
Those incursions ranged in categories from some with no immediate safety consequences to others where a collision was narrowly avoided. Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Brian Todd. Brian, thanks. Joining me our CNN Aviation Correspondent, Pete Muntean. So Pete, can you just put into perspective how close this near collision at Midway really was?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the preliminary data from Flightradar24 shows that the two planes were separated by only 2,000 feet, Anderson, when the Southwest crew admirably stopped the accident chain. But at that speed, disaster would've occurred in about five seconds time.
COOPER: Wow.
MUNTEAN: Believe it or not, this is not the closest near collision that we have seen since they started grabbing headlines two years ago. In February 2023, a FedEx flight came only hundreds of feet from landing on top of a departing Southwest Airlines flight. That incident in Austin's airport took place in the early morning in dense fog as the FedEx crew was making a landing entirely by their instruments. The first officer happened to look outside and saw the lights of the Southwest flight still on the runway. It is that vigilance that saved the day and investigators will likely find a similar narrative after yesterday's incident at Chicago Midway. What's clear right now, at least according to the FAA, is that the private jet was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
COOPER: Let me ask you, Pete, as a pilot, I mean the pilot who made that split-second decision to pull up and not land, which was clearly the right thing to do, how dangerous is that? I mean, would he have known or she have known what was in the sky above them?
MUNTEAN: It is really important to always keep your head on a swivel while flying. And the Southwest crew really needs some kudos here for knowing to make this go around, this aborted landing, and they're so common that NASA even studied aborted landings. They found about, out of about every thousand flights of a major U.S. airline in the United States, a go around happens between an average of one and three times.
So if you extrapolate that, 45,000 flights a day on average in the U.S., means about a dozen or so aborted landings each day. Most of them don't really make news because they're relatively routine for pilots of all levels. I teach people how to do them early on in their training. It's really a pilot's ace to play. If you don't like the way the landing is set up, you simply -- you don't like the way it looks or another airplane is too close for comfort or there are birds or what have you, you can always go around.
COOPER: I was sometimes wondering, are we seeing -- are we just seeing these near accidents more or are things becoming less safe?
MUNTEAN: The spotlight is definitely on aviation right now, but you have to remember that flying on a commercial flight in the United States is the safest form of transportation, hands down. You have a one in 11 million chance of dying on a commercial flight in the U.S. Put it into context, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning and a much better chance of dying in a car crash. The fatality rate in cars is about one in a hundred, which is a stat that surprised even me.
Remember that the crash that occurred four weeks ago tonight, National Airport was the first crash involving U.S. airliner since 2009. First fatality on a U.S. airline crash since 2009. There have been huge reforms since, and this crash will likely lead to big changes too. Safety is always evolving. That is not written in stone, but the rules in aviation are really written in blood, Anderson.
COOPER: Pete Muntean, appreciate it. Thanks so much, Pete.
Coming up next, services for Israeli hostages, Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, killed after they were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7th.
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[20:48:10]
COOPER: Four bodies believed to be that of Israeli hostages were transferred to Israel today from Gaza. If their identities are confirmed, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange. These are the four men believed to have been handed over. The day also saw the funeral for three members of the Bibas family, Kfir and Ariel Bibas along with their parents, Shiri and Yarden, were kidnapped. Yarden was taken hostage separately from his family and was released alive earlier this month. The bodies of his wife and children were released last week.
Ariel was just four years old when he was kidnapped. Kfir nine months old. They were the youngest hostages. Israel says confirmation will also mean that 59 captives remain in Gaza, although there's currently no deal in place to extend the current ceasefire deal beyond this Saturday to bring them home. Today, there was an outpouring of love and pain for the family -- the Bibas family today. Crowds of Israelis in mourning lined the streets, paying their respects to Shiri and her sons. Jeremy Diamond is in Israel tonight with more on the service.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His voice trembling with emotion, Yarden Bibas summons what strength he has left to say one final goodbye. His wife, Shiri and their two children, Kfir and Ariel are finally being laid to rest, 16 months after they were all abducted from their home near the Gaza border.
Apricot, Yarden says, calling his wife by her pet name, who will help me make decisions without you? Do you remember our last decision together in the safe room? I asked if we should fight or surrender. You said fight. So I fought. Shiri, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you all. Yarden was also taken hostage on October 7th, but held separately. Now, just weeks after regaining his freedom, heartbreak.
[20:50:00]
I'm sure you're making all the angels laugh with your silly jokes and impressions, he says to his eldest, Ariel. I hope there are plenty of butterflies for you to watch, just like you did during our picnics. Kfir, I'm sorry I didn't protect you better, and I need you to know that I love you deeply and miss you terribly. I miss nibbling on you and hearing your laughter. Yarden Bibas is not alone in his grief. An entire nation joined in mourning the deaths of the youngest Israeli hostages and their mother who came to symbolize the horrors of October 7th. Their bodies carried to their final resting place in a single casket, surrounded by Israeli flags and the orange balloons evoking those redheaded babies.
DIAMOND: Thousands of Israelis have been lining this entire procession as we now see these vans coming through, carrying the bodies of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas, their mother. As Shiri, Kfir and Ariel are laid to rest, their family are not done asking questions.
Our disaster as a nation and as a family should not have happened and must never ever happen again, the boys' aunt Afri (ph) says. They could have saved you but preferred revenge. We lost. Our image of triumph will never happen. This image instead, a nation in mourning and a family who will never be whole. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
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COOPER: And we'll be right back.
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[20:56:20]
COOPER: According to the Department of Agriculture, egg prices are now predicted to jump about 41 percent this year. That's about double the prediction of just last month. The average price of a dozen Grade A large eggs as of January nationwide was $4.95, almost double from a year ago. In New York, I can tell you the prices are a lot higher than that. Inflation started the upward trend and then bird flu only added to it.
So far, more than 166 million chickens have been slaughtered in an effort to stop the spread of avian flu, lowering the number of egg bearing hens affects supply, obviously. Just today the administration unveiled a new plan to combat costs, including almost $1 billion for biosecurity measures and former compensation, plus vaccines and even egg imports. But when asked when prices might finally come down, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins could only say hopefully by summer. Here's Harry Enten. We will look at some numbers.
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HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST (voice-over): In the Bronx, the borough where I grew up, we headed to Pamela's Green Deli.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good to see you.
ENTEN (voice-over): Where the price of eggs is a red hot topic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, it is $8, $9, $10, $11, $12. It's horrible.
ENTEN: What are you thinking about egg prices these days?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're too expensive. I haven't eaten eggs in about a month.
ENTEN: OK. That's incredible.
(LAUGH)
ENTEN: Did you use to eat a lot of eggs?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day. Every day. My children too. Not anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it's crazy that we can't afford eggs. It's a good thing that the owner is doing though. He is selling eggs loose, so that the community have access to them.
ENTEN (voice-over): Selling eggs loose, three at a time instead of a dozen.
ENTEN: So I heard you're doing something special here, something a little bit different so that people can actually get the eggs that they need to?
RADHAMES RODRIGUEZ, OWNER, PAMELA'S GREEN DELI: Selling a dozen for $12, $11, we decided to sell loose eggs. You know, like this package, $3 -- $2.99 for these three eggs. Sometimes the people only have probably $20, $25. If they are spending $12 just in eggs, so it's going to be difficult for them to buy the rest of the stuff. You know, like a bread, butter, oil, all the thing that they need to cook.
ENTEN: Are people telling you that they really like?
RODRIGUEZ: They buying, they buying, they buying. A lot of people coming and they buy it and they happy because we did that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And our Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten, joins us now. It's -- I've be hearing the woman say that, you know, she hasn't eaten eggs in a long time. How popular are eggs?
ENTEN: Yeah, I mean, you know, we talk about different ways to measure how good the economy is doing. Oftentimes we look at the stock market, right? But really only about three in five Americans own stock. How many Americans eat eggs at least once a week? We're talking about 80 percent of Americans. It's a big source of protein. It's a big source of nutrition. And when all of a sudden the price of eggs go sky high, it's felt across the entire economy, the entire socioeconomic spectrum in a way that I don't think stocks necessarily are. And you saw it there in that piece where there are people who are just changing their diets because they can't simply put -- afford the price of eggs.
It's something, when I went to my home, Borough, you really did feel it, that this is really, really hurting people, Anderson.
COOPER: Yeah. Well also that there's no end in sight to it. And now, the USDA is saying it could go up, I mean, hugely.
ENTEN: That's exactly right. There's no end in sight to it. I mean, the fact is, is that the prices are so much higher than they were just a year ago, right? And now, they're going to be even higher. I'm not sure how much more people (inaudible) --
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COOPER: What are substitute -- what are people substituting?
ENTEN: Yeah. I mean this is I think what's so interesting, right? What are you supposed to do about these egg prices being so high? I mean, it's not much of a surprise that Google searches for egg substitutes, you know, maybe we're talking about egg whites, egg beaters, maybe we're talking about, you know, even substituting in some mashed bananas in to substitute for the eggs. Or one of the guys that we spoke with actually said that, why don't you just buy your own hen? And indeed, a lot of people are Googling that right now.
COOPER: Yeah.
ENTEN: It's record high for that. So people are just trying different things. We'll see how it all works out.
