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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
U.S. Stock Markets Close Higher After Week of Tariff-Fueled Chaos; Interview With Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY); Trump Suggest He'll Abide By Supreme Court Ruling Ordering Return Of Man Deported To El Salvador; Maya Angelou's Memoir Included In Naval Academy's Removal Of 381 Books As Part Of Trump Administration's DEI Purge; Legendary Writer Maureen Dowd On Trump, Musk And Power Players From Washington To Hollywood; 3 USAID Workers Fired While Myanmar Earthquake Zone; Myanmar's Earthquake Shows Void Left By U.S. Global Disaster Responses. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 11, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AISHA BOWE, FORMER NASA ROCKET SCIENTIST, ALL-FEMALE BLUE ORIGIN CREW MEMBER: They would never draw someone who looked like me. And what I realized over the course of my career is that what we look like matters. People want to see themselves in these fields.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: She's really fascinating and incredible, about to go to space. You can see our full conversation online. It's posted on our X account, OutFrontCNN, I hope you'll take a look at that and watch them blast off. Thanks so much for joining us, AC360 starts now.
[20:00:36]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, even as market pick up, the U.S. - China trade war deepens and confidence in the economy takes its worst hit since COVID.
Also, tonight is the administration on a collision course with the Supreme Court as their pushback grows over mistakenly deported man.
And later, first, the Pentagon erased Black heroes from its websites. Now, the Naval Academy is banning books, hundreds of them. Maya Angelou's autobiography is out, but a book by Hitler that is still available.
Good evening, thanks for joining us. We begin tonight with the ray of sunshine and the big dark cloud hanging over it.
Investors today went looking for good news to end the week and found enough of it. It seems to send markets up for the day. The Dow, S&P and NASDAQ all ringing up gains boosted in part by the Boston Federal Reserve President today saying the Fed would support financial markets if there were signs of distress.
They also seized on what in fact seems like pretty ambiguous news on the trade war with China, namely, word that the President would be, "Incredibly gracious if Beijing reaches out in pursuit of a deal and that he's optimistic about that happening," even though his Press Secretary would not elaborate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: IS he waiting for China to make the first move here?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not going to comment on communications that are happening or may not be happening, or either way, we'll leave it to that, our National Security team, to get these discussions underway. And as always, in the effort of transparency, we will provide updates moving forward. But the President has made it very clear he's open to a deal with China.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Given the trillions lost in 401(k)s and college funds and all the rest since the President launched his tariffs last week, it would be shocking if he weren't open to a way out. But when pressed further on the matter, here's all that reporters got.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Why is he optimistic that China's going to make a deal or wants to make a deal if they're not talking, where's that optimism coming from?
TRUMP: He's optimistic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)'
COOPER: And to that point, with the self-imposed 88 days now to hammer out trade agreements with nearly every country on Earth before re- imposing the tariffs he suspended on Wednesday, the President posted this online: "We are doing really well on our tariff policy, very exciting for America and the world. It is moving along quickly."
Whether that's true or not, neither he nor the administration has yet to reveal any agreement with any country, though we do know that some are pursuing them.
As for Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping today raised his country's retaliatory tariffs to 125 percent, which is just below the U.S. rate of 145 percent, and his Foreign Minister, he escalated the public relations war online, including this clip from the 1980s of then President Reagan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Over the past 200 years, not only has the argument against tariffs and trade barriers won nearly universal agreement among economists, but it has also proven itself in the real world, where we have seen free trading nations prosper, while protectionist countries fall behind. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry also posted this meme a Red MAGA hat labeled made in China. The price tag, as you can see, is $77.00 marked up from $50.00. And in that, and that in a meme is the dark cloud. The trade war with China is still on and Canada, that's still happening, so is the across the board 10 percent global tariff. And though yesterday, brought favorable inflation numbers for last month, today we got this, consumer sentiment dropping 11 percent, the second steepest decline since 1952.
And with that on the table, at the end of a punishing week for consumers and investors and anyone whose future is riding on the U.S. economy, White House Press Secretary Leavitt had this piece of advice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: So, trust in President Trump. He knows what he's doing. This is a proven economic formula.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He knows what he's doing. Just a short time ago, the President spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way down to Florida. CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak joins us now by phone. What specifically did the President say about the economy?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER (via phone): Yes, the President is feeling confident in his plan, Anderson. And I don't think that's any surprise. He has really sort of entrenched himself in this policy. And when the President was speaking to reporters on Air Force One tonight, he talked about his relationship with President Xi and he said -- he said that he is getting along with President Xi. He says, I think something positive is going to come out of his potential negotiations with the Chinese President.
And I think that's the best notable because our reporting shows that the President is waiting for Xi to call him there. There are some contentious discussions underway now about how exactly that will happen --
[20:05:23]
COOPER: You okay, Kevin.
LIPTAK: -- excuse me, Anderson.
COOPER: It's all right, it's all right.
LIPTAK: Yes, I'm sorry.
COOPER: It's okay, we're good on this. I appreciate the report. We're going to continue that, to follow that. Kevin Liptak, thank you.
Joining me now is New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres, who sits on House Financial Services Committee. Big picture, what do you tell your constituents about confidence, about in the U.S. about what they should do?
REP. RITCHIE TORRES (D-NY): There is a crisis have confidence, you know, and economy is as much about psychology as it is economics, you know, consumers who lose confidence no longer consume, investors who lose confidence no longer invest and Donald Trump is setting up the U.S. economy for a downturn.
I feel like our greatest enemy is not China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Our greatest enemy is ourselves, it's the deepening dysfunction of our politics, it's the erratic and chaotic presidency of Donald Trump which has been a risk to the global economy.
He's eroding confidence and the safety of U.S. Treasuries as the worlds reserve currency. And it's doing an enormous amount of damage.
COOPER: When the President talks about bringing manufacturing back to places where that have lost it. Do you buy that argument that he's making -- that this is going to bring manufacturing back?
TORRES: Well, keep in mind that half of all foreign inputs in the United States serve as inputs that support American manufacturing and so, if you tax those inputs, as Donald Trump is doing, you're not strengthening American manufacturing, you're weakening it and you cannot tariff your way to a manufacturing renaissance.
I recognize that we are dangerously dependent on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients, critical minerals, rare earth elements, clean energy technologies. What we need is industrial policy aimed at eradicating those strategic dependencies.
We need legislation like the CHIPS Act, which seeks to establish and advance semiconductor industry here in the United States. Donald Trump opposes that legislation while pretending to support American manufacturing.
COOPER: The idea -- I mean, do you think investors in the U.S. around the world, should they have been better prepared for this? You know, even those who support tariffs make the argument that there are ways to have instituted this that could at least have given markets a little bit more warning, a little more sense of what was to come.
TORRES: I mean, it's impossible to prepare for the unpredictable. I mean, you know, a tariff is essentially a tax. And imagine if the President of the United States had the power to set individual tax rates and corporate tax rates at whatever level he wants, whenever he wants, for whatever reason he wants, the uncertainty that would unleash would be impossible to overstate.
No family or business can plan for the future if the present is as unstable as an etch-a-sketch.
COOPER: They're saying that, you know, all these countries are coming to negotiate. Now, there's a 90-day freeze on the tariffs he had imposed, although there's this 10 percent across the board. And obviously, the others in China and Canada and Mexico. Do you believe that they can make trade deals with all these countries in the next. I think it's now 88 days.
I mean, given if you look at the record of how long it's taken to make trade deals with a lot of countries, it can take months or years.
TORRES: There's no reason to think that this -- and I find it notable the administration refuses to release the list of 75 countries. You know, were imposing a 145 percent tariff on China. You know, China can easily circumvent those tariffs by rerouting goods through Vietnam, Thailand and Mexico. And so, the end result is going to be an uneven playing field, in which we are going to pay a 125 percent tariff while China is escaping the high tariffs.
COOPER: Do you really, I mean, realistically, is there any legislation that would have enough Republican support to go anywhere to do anything about this?
TORRES: The Republican Party is worse than a rubber stamp, because at least a rubber stamp leaves an impression. There is no appetite on the part of the Republicans to hold Donald Trump accountable.
I feel like we in Congress have gone too far in passing too many laws that cede too much power to the executive. No President should have the authority to radically restructure the global economy without an act of Congress. That's not democracy, that's autocracy.
COOPER: Congressman Torres, I appreciate your time.
TORRES: Of course. Absolutely.
COOPER: Thank you very much. Now, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, she previously served as chair of the Federal Reserve and led the White House Council of Economic Advisers. I spoke to her shortly before air.
Secretary Yellen, what's your message tonight for Americans who are rattled by what they've experienced in the last days and weeks and are concerned about their retirement accounts and nervous about a recession?
JANET YELLEN, FORMER CHAIR OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, this is the worst self-inflicted policy wound I've ever seen in my career inflicted on our economy. The Trump tariff plans are doing immense damage to our economy. You can see that in the stock market, in the impact of these tariffs are expected to have on American households. And we're even beginning to see what looks like a flight away from dollar-based assets in the financial markets, which is a really scary development.
[20:10:37]
COOPER: How long -- I mean, the damage to the reputation of the United States, to the confidence people have or had around the world toward the United States is reflected in the dollar and investments. How long does that -- something like that take to rebuild? YELLEN: Well, I think that could take a long time to rebuild. Dollar assets have long been regarded as the safest in the world, especially U.S. treasury bonds and bills. They form the core of the whole global financial system. And what we saw this week was a sharp increase. One of the biggest increases on record over the space of a week in long term Treasury yields almost 50 basis points. And at the same time a decline in the value of the dollar.
This is really unusual pattern because in chaotic times, usually Treasury yields fall. The Treasury bonds are a safe haven. People buy them. That's not what's happening now. They're selling Treasuries. And there's also downward pressure on the dollar.
COOPER: There's pending litigation on whether the President can fire the heads of independent government agencies. And a major question is, depending on how that litigation is resolved, is whether he might try to oust Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. You served as the Federal Reserve Chair. What happens if that job becomes simply another political appointee who serves at the pleasure of the President?
YELLEN: Well, it's well understood that countries that have independent Central Banks exhibit better economic performance. And there's a very good reason for that. It's that independent Central Banks are not driven by politics. And when those Central Banks are politically driven, they tend to do things that are destabilizing to economies. So, this is a development that would greatly concern me and I think it should concern all Americans.
COOPER: Secretary Yellen, thank you very much.
YELLEN: My pleasure. Thanks, Anderson.
COOPER: Next, breaking news in the case of the mistakenly deported man now locked up in that notorious El Salvador prison. A federal judge had just issued a ruling. And as you'll see, she is not mincing words when it comes to the administration.
And later, more fallout from the gutting of USAID. The U.S. only sent three aid workers to Myanmar to help after their earthquake. And now we've learned they eliminated their jobs while they were there. Instead, now China is doing what the U.S. once did. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:50]
COOPER: There's breaking news tonight and some sharp words from a federal judge in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland dad, who was mistakenly deported last month to harsh imprisonment in El Salvador. You'll recall the Supreme Court just yesterday ordered the administration to facilitate his return. Well, today, the Justice Department failed to meet a lower court deadline for providing specifics on how they're going to live up to that order.
And the judge put her legal foot down. Quoting now from her two page ruling, "Defendants made no meaningful effort to comply," adding, "from this courts perspective, defendants contention that they could not answer these basic questions absent some nonspecific vetting that has yet to take place, provides no basis for their lack of compliance."
The judge then ordered the Justice Department to provide a sworn declaration every single day at 5:00 P.M. updating her with the answers she's seeking.
Now, on his way back to Florida aboard Air Force One, the President weighed in on the case, saying, and I quote, "If the Supreme Court said, bring somebody back, I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court."
Here with me, bestselling author and former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin, former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner and Jessica Roth, who teaches at New York's Cardozo School of Law and, like Jeff, is a former federal prosecutor. Jeff, I mean, what do you make of what the President just said? And does that sound like he's going to facilitate this?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, it doesn't sound like what's actually happening. You know, we've been thinking about this possibility ever since Trump took office again. What happens when and if the President simply disregards a court order? And we are almost at that point?
COOPER: That would be the constitutional crisis that people talk about.
TOOBIN: Right, and we are not quite there yet, but were awfully close. The Supreme Court says facilitate and expedite the release of this prisoner in El Salvador. The district court judge who was supervising the case says, okay, what are you doing? And the government attorney says -- well, it's too early. We don't know. We haven't done anything yet. And that's why she set this deadline of every day, update me.
And so, we'll see if the Trump administration actually begins to comply, notwithstanding the President's you know, if or if they just simply continue to disregard this order.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, Jessica, how do you square what the President said with the, you know, the attorneys not even having basic information for this judge.
[20:20:06]
JESSICA ROTH, PROFESSOR, CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW: So, the judge is incredibly frustrated with the attorneys for not having basic information about where he is, what efforts they've undertaken to try to get him returned, and what efforts they're planning to undertake to get him returned. What the President just said, though, is completely contrary to the position the Department of Justice been taking in this litigation. The Department of Justice has been saying that the court cant order, that no court can order the Department of Justice and the President of the United States to return somebody who is in the custody of a foreign country.
And so, if the President is actually saying that, oh, if the court ordered me to do so, I would do it. I mean, that's really surprising to me because the government's position has been that a court can't order them to do that because its beyond their control that at most, the court could order them to make efforts to work with the foreign country, El Salvador, to return him. And the Supreme Court was solicitous of that position and basically said that the district court's original order, which did require him to be returned, was exceeding her authority because a court could not require the executive branch to do that. So, that's surprising to me that that the President said that.
COOPER: Judge Gertner, I mean, what options does the judge have if the Trump administration continues to defy her orders to say nothing the Supreme Court order in this case?
NANCY GERTNER, FORMER FEDERAL JUDGE: Well, before I answer your question, I will answer your question. One of the things that I think that she's not only asking for, you know, what they're doing to effectuate this. But if I were in her shoes, I'd want to know proof of life. He has now been sent to the very place that the terms of his staying in the country prohibited him going to. He was sent to El Salvador in the worst imaginable prison, which is filled with gangs. So, I actually -- I worry very much about what's going to happen to him, which I think is hastening her concern here.
What can she can do? She calls the officials of the government into court, and she finds them, or she throws them in the clink, as they say. She, you know, until they comply and here, the compliance is information. But, boy, I think it really goes deeper than that. The notion that this is a foreign policy issue is laughable. Getting Brittney Griner back from Russia was a foreign policy issue. They have a contract with El Salvador in which they're paying El Salvador $6 million for the use of their prisons.
It is unimaginable that the President could not get him back with a phone call.
COOPER: Jeff, there's also this breaking news about a prominent law firm that was being targeted by the President. They've actually made a decision to fight back. And Susman Godfrey, they were involved in the defending Dominion Voting Systems. They were successful in that against Fox and others.
TOOBIN: You know, there is emerging a very clear split in the legal community in the United States between those firms, starting with Paul Weiss, that decided to capitulate to these clearly unconstitutional executive orders. And firms like Wilmer Cutler and Susman Godfrey, which is now defending itself. And I just --
COOPER: Just by the way, the White House says they've made now this additional deal with a whole bunch of other firms.
TOOBIN: -- of other firms and, you know, I don't know how this is going to all sort itself out, but I think this is going to have a lasting impact on our legal communities because it is so different in terms of what seems to me and every judge that's looked at this so far has said these executive orders are completely unconstitutional, but firm after firm is capitulating and a handful like Susman Godfrey and Wilmer Cutler, and starting with Perkins Coie, they are fighting back. And you know, there's just there's --
COOPER: There's a lot. Jessica, I mean, you're a law professor. Did you ever think that this was would be a lever that the President could pull, and that it would be so successful? I mean, it's kind of ingenious.
ROTH: Well, it's plainly unconstitutional, and its working in the sense of getting these large law firms to say that they will commit pro bono hours, millions, hundreds of millions of dollars, pro bono hours to causes favored by the President, but more significantly, right, they are, and this is the unstated part of the agreements, is they are implicitly agreeing that they're not going to take on clients and causes that are contrary to the administration.
COOPER: Why would these firms then take on a client who's going to be suing the administration, trying to get their job back and jeopardize everything --
ROTH: They'd be jeopardizing everything. And so, it's really sort of bringing to heel the power of the private bar. And that is a way to really defang any opposition. I just want to point one -- there's one line in the Susman Godfrey complaint tonight that's really poignant. It says, simply put, this could be any of us, when they're talking about the President putting into effect an unconstitutional order without any due process at all.
They're talking about anybody in our society is now vulnerable to this kind of arbitrary action, and it includes the people who are being deported without any process. And it includes the law firms and then anybody else who would be in the disfavor of the President. He could take this kind of unilateral, arbitrary action without any process.
[20:25:08]
TOOBIN: And if anyone should be fighting back against unconstitutional orders, it should be lawyers. I mean, lawyers should know better than to comply with this and that's why I think there's so much anger within the legal community at these firms that keep capitulating because, you know, they all know better. They know that these are unconstitutional orders, but they're doing it anyway.
COOPER: Also, Judge Gertner, there's no -- we don't know what the deals being made between these law firms and the President of the United States are. I mean, the President has sort of characterized it, but we don't know what kind of work they're going to be doing for the President directly. And we have no idea to even -- I don't know if these law firms have some sort of signed agreement that the President promises never to go after them again. Or is it going to be this sort of Damocles hanging over them forever?
GERTNER: I'm not sure that they know the stories of the Paul Weiss agreement is, you know, makes it clear that the goal line keeps on shifting. But at this moment, it is true, as Jeff was saying, the legal profession, first of all, it's not clear to me that the majority of firms have caved.
Right now, there have been five or six prominent firms, and there have been firms that are fighting, and then there are middle sized firms that are haven't even been gone after. But let me say one statistic, 346 federal judges, state judges, magistrate judges have signed an amicus brief to support Perkins Coie, which is the first the first lawsuit in this case, the first firm that the administration went after, 346 judges.
I mean, that's just extraordinary. Law students are mobilizing to not apply to these firms. I mean the -- also, by the way, the administration has gone after the American Bar Association.
I mean, this is a war on judges and on the courts and on lawyers, which should be resisted by every human being in the United States.
COOPER: Yes Judge Gertner, appreciate Jeff Toobin, Jessica Roth, thank you.
Coming up next, why Maya Angelou's autobiography was now banned from the Naval Academy library, along with hundreds of other books.
And later, what legendary columnist and lifelong Washingtonian Maureen Dowd makes of this moment were in. The man in the White House, Elon Musk, and a whole lot more from her remarkable new book. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:32:08]
ANDERSON COPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Naval Academy has now removed 381 books from its library at the direction of the Pentagon as part of the Trump administration's DEI purge. We're not talking about books being taught in classes at the Naval Academy. These are hundreds of books that were just on library shelves available if a midshipman wanted to read them.
One book banned, "Memorializing the Holocaust", looks at how women victims of the Holocaust were portrayed in memorials. Another book the Naval Academy doesn't want midshipmen reading, Maya Angelou's landmark memoir, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", that detailed her own trauma and suffering in the hands of racism growing up in the U.S.
Now, Maya Angelou was hailed by Americans across the political spectrum as a national treasure when she died in 2014. Former President George W. Bush, a Republican, said she was "among the most talented writers of our time. Her words inspired peace and equality and enriched the culture of our country".
Someone at the Naval Academy or the Pentagon decided she's too controversial or dangerous for the remarkable midshipman at the academy. And what's striking isn't just what's pulled, it's what's been left on library shelves.
According to the New York Times, books like "The Camp of Saints", which imagines a world where immigrants from developing countries take over the Western world, a book that's been promoted by white supremacists.
There's apparently two copies of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler on library shelves. When asked about the decision to ban certain books, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the AP, quote, "All service academies are fully committed to executing and implementing President Trump's Executive Orders".
Well, it's become increasingly clear for this administration, anti- diversity, equity and inclusion efforts also means removing references to the struggles of black people in American society, altering or ignoring black history or the black experience in America. Same with gay and lesbian history and obviously transgender Americans.
When the subject of Trump's DEI executive order came up in yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quickly took the opportunity to brag about the job he's done.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's out of the military, right?
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: Is it 100 percent out would you say?
HEGSETH: 99.9, sir. We're going to get that last point.
TRUMP: Get the rest of it out,.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: So now Maya Angelou is out, a woman who spoke at a presidential inauguration was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Joined by William Marks, a retired Navy commander and alumnus of the Naval Academy. He set up a GoFundMe campaign to buy books that were banned and provide them to midshipmen.
Commander Marks, what went through your mind when you heard about these books that were banned?
CMDR. WILLIAM MARKS (RET.), U.S. NAVY: Hey, Anderson, thanks for having me. A couple of things that immediately came to mind is first, this would be a bipartisan issue to be against the banning books. To oppose banning books, Conservatives should be just as angry as Liberals.
If you think of a classic conservative, think of John McCain, who is a Naval Academy graduate. I think he would be appalled to hear that books are banned at the Naval Academy.
[20:35:05]
So I'm asking not only the Liberal voices to speak up, but the Conservative voices too. The Conservative voices of small government or keep your hands off my stuff. Where are those voices? So to me, this is a bipartisan issue. We should all be opposed to banning books.
COOPER: And by the way, we should point --
MARKS: The funny thing --
COOPER: I just want to point out, though, that this isn't these books being forced down people's throats in classrooms that everybody has to read Maya Angelou's book, or this is just of the thousands of books in this library. That book is available if you want to read it. It was a bestselling book.
It's, you know, a beautifully written book. It's not like this is a class that everyone is forced to take. But continue.
MARKS: Agree. Yes, I completely agree. And if this is the right out of the fascist playbook is to suppress knowledge, to limit information, to suppress a diversity of ideas. So you cannot tell me that this is about educating midshipmen and you cannot tell me it's about protecting midshipmen.
Because if you think about it, these are amongst the most intelligent students in the world. These are amongst the most hardworking students that we have entrusted to lead our nation in the future. But at the same time, we're saying we don't trust them to read a book? Complete contradiction.
COOPER: Yes. It's also remarkable, I mean, these are midshipmen who in their naval careers will be serving overseas and other places. And there will be black people there. And there will be other cultures there.
And it's not a bad idea to read a couple of books about other cultures or to read other books about people who are not exactly like you. And not to mention that there are black, plenty of black midshipmen as well who might want to see their own life experiences reflected in some of the books they might like to read in in the library.
I get why Mein Kampf is there. I understand why a political science student would want to read that book. But there's just as good reasons to read Maya Angelou or any of these other books.
MARKS: I agree. And I think that's a classic conservative viewpoint is you don't have to agree with something, but we should not be suppressing this knowledge. This is history. This is our history. And you mentioned these students are going to be stationed throughout the world defending our country.
Ten years ago, I was stationed in Japan and we were talking and I was fighting against fascism in North Korea. And here I'm now, 10 years later, fighting against fascist tactics in my own country. So --
COOPER: So --
MARKS: I'm -- yes.
COOPER: So you've set up a GoFundMe to buy books, to make them available to midshipmen. How?
MARKS: Yes. So a couple of things. I'm working with a local bookstore. We want to support local businesses. So we're working with a local bookstore. What I would -- the first step, hopefully by graduation, we're going to have a table and it's the banned book table.
And if you're a midshipman or any of the staff members, you come on up and you get your choice of a free book. Also, maybe if you're a customer, you can pay it forward. Maybe you can buy a book for the future. So a future midshipman can walk in and get that book.
So working with a local bookstore. And then the second thing is for the fall semester, I'll be in Annapolis in person. Think public places, public spaces. So football games, coffee shops, bookstores.
Heck, I'll even stand outside Gate 1 of the Naval Academy on the public road if I have to, making sure midshipmen have access to these books.
COOPER: Wow. Commander William Marks, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
MARKS: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next, more on this historic moment in the Trump administration, a deep dive into the power players from Washington to Hollywood with legendary New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd.
And later, after the devastating earthquake in Myanmar, the President said, we're going to be helping. The question is, where is the U.S. help on the ground? Details on that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:43:54]
COOPER: From Washington, Los Angeles to Silicon Valley, few journalists have covered the famous and infamous as extensively and as with -- as much wit as my next guest. Maureen Dowd is a bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times.
Her new book, a collection of some of her best feature profiles, is called "Notorious Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion and Tech". It is such a joy to read this book. I mean, I read a lot of the profiles early on, but just to revisit, like with Paul Newman, and I -- I want to ask you about some of these people.
But first, just what do you make of the times we are in? I mean, I'm just doing a story about the Naval Academy banning Maya Angelou's book from the library.
MAUREEN DOWD, AUTHOR, "NOTORIOUS": I know when the Pentagon banning Jackie Robinson.
COOPER: Yes.
DOWN: And, you know, I mean --
COOPER: And do you know the pictures of the Enola Gay because it had the word gay in it.
DOWD: Well, the left could be oppressive with cancel culture --
COOPER: Sure.
DOWD: -- but then there's always the overreaction. And now the right is oppressive and doing absurd things.
COOPER: When you go into -- so this is a book of profiles of very well-known people.
[20:45:01]
And how much research do you do? Because I feel like you have done an extensive amount of research on them. But you're also going for people who are kind of at the height of their moment, of their fame. What interests you about that moment?
DOWD: Yes, I fell in love with Shakespeare early on. My brother took me to see Hamlet when I was 13. I thought he was my boyfriend, not realizing he's the worst boyfriend in literary history.
And I got fascinated with people who have super magnetism and burn through the screen. And I just really wanted to know what like you have this and what are you doing with your power. Do you use it for good or evil? And do you accept that power gracefully or as often happens with movie stars and presidents and Silicon Valley lords of the cloud? Do you become your own worst enemy?
COOPER: Do you find it? I find there's an arrogance in Silicon Valley, which is sometimes breathtaking.
DOWD: Well, Anderson, they are creating their own species.
COOPER: Yes, they are. Which I -- are you --
DOWD: Women used to have privilege. But now Silicon Valley guys, they are high on their supply because they're creating a whole new species.
COOPER: You've done -- you did profiles. You did Elon Musk back in 2017. You -- much of it had to do with the A.I. at the time. You said some in Silicon Valley argued that Musk is interested less in saving the world than in buffing his brand, that he is exploiting a deeply rooted conflict, the one between man and machine and our fear that the creation will turn against us.
What do you make of his brand now? I mean the guy you met then --
DOWD: Yes.
COOPER: -- compared to now?
DOWD: Well, the funny thing was, in 2017, he was interested in protecting humanity from the existential threat of A.I. He was looking for the kill switch. He wanted to watch and make sure that other people didn't develop evil A.I. And now he himself is the existential threat in Washington.
So, I was watching your town hall last night with Bernie Sanders, and he was saying, yes, Elon Musk is going to come and bring A.I. and robots and take over all the jobs for the working class. But, you know, this essay is at a time when he was the one thing standing --
COOPER: Yes.
DOWD: -- between us and --
COOPER: So that's why he created OpenAI --
DOWD: Yes.
COOPER: -- with Sam Altman early on.
DOWD: Yes. And now they're in a lawsuit. But --
COOPER: Yes.
DOWD: -- this one thing standing between us and becoming the family pets for our A.I. overlords.
COOPER: Yes. I just want to ask you about some of the people. Paul Newman, which -- I mean, your --
DOWD: Oh my gosh.
COOPER: -- the piece on Paul Newman is so good.
DOWD: Yes.
COOPER: He did this thing with his glasses. You start out by saying, like, at first when you sit down with Paul Newman, he doesn't know you, he would wear his dark sunglasses.
DOWD: Right.
COOPER: And then what would happen?
DOWD: Well, then the next day, if he trusted you, he would hang them on his ear. And then the third day, if he still trusted you, he would take them off.
COOPER: He would give you the baby blues. DOWD: Yes. I mean, he was in a struggle with his role as a sex symbol. And he would say that it was very rude. Women would come up and say, I want to see your blue eyes. And he would say, I would take off my glasses, madam, but my pants would fall down.
COOPER: Yes.
DOWD: You know, he would try and make a joke of it. But he really resented like being trapped in this sex symbol role.
COOPER: Which he really, I mean, came out of the things, you know, he did with the salad dressing, donating all the money to the camps.
DOWD: Yes, he was an amazing person.
COOPER: Yes, incredible.
DOWD: He was so generous. And --
COOPER: And his wife and their relationship, I mean, he was such a real person.
DOWD: It was so much fun to spend time with him. But you felt bad because he -- his whole body language was sort of to protect from incoming, you know, attention to him. And I don't know, you know, I just wish he could have had more fun with it the way George Clooney does --
COOPER: Right.
DOWD: -- where he just laughs about it and teases about being the sexiest man alive.
COOPER: Right.
DOWD: For Paul Newman, it was a burden.
COOPER: Let's see. You did a great one of Sean Penn. Recently, Al Pacino is fascinating because it was right after Godfather.
DOWD: Well, it's always interesting to see if these icons are like what you think they're going to be like --
COOPER: Yes.
DOWD: -- from their roles. And Al Pacino was sort of the opposite because he was very vulnerable and shy and intense. And Ellen Barkin said in "Sea of Love", he could barely do the love scene because he couldn't do a love scene unless he was in love.
COOPER: Wow.
DOWD: You know? And some of them are exactly the same, like Larry David.
COOPER: Right. DOWD: You know? He's different in some ways, but he's sort of the same. And George Clooney, I interviewed recently for five hours, and he, I think, is the same as what you would think. He's incredibly charming.
[20:50:01]
But then others like Kevin Costner, you think are going to be fine. And he turned out to be sort of a jerk.
COOPER: But the --
DOWD: I'm sorry, Yellowstone fans.
COOPER: It's --
DOWD: I still love to watch him on screen.
COOPER: Yes.
Maureen Dowd, thank you so much. The book's notorious. It's just so enjoyable. And --
DOWD: Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, I really am such an admirer. "Notorious Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion and Tech." That is the book. I recommend it.
Coming up next, the President said the U.S. would be helping the survivors of Myanmar's deadly earthquake. Where are the Americans? What happened to the very small USAID team on the ground? They were actually given termination notices when they were on the ground. That's what happened.
What CNN discovered coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:24]
COOPER: A 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar, killing more than 3,500 people. The country is struggling to recover, and the United States is facing some criticism, with this being the first major disaster since USAID was dismantled by the Trump administration.
On the day of the quake, when asked about what the American response would be, the President was optimistic.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to be helping. We've already alerted the people. Yes, it's terrible what's happened.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COOPER: Critics say the U.S. has abandoned its pledge to help. Other countries like China, Russia and India have sent aid and rescue teams.
CNN's Will Ripley has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What the earthquake didn't take, the fire did. This was Sein Pan, one of Mandalay's poorest districts, built over an old garbage dump. Survivors describe an inferno when the earth split open.
KYL THEIN, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translation): The fireball emerged from the ground just after the earthquake. It wiped out all 400 houses. Everybody ran. Now nothing remains.
RIPLEY (voice-over): More than 2,000 people homeless, a neighborhood vaporized in minutes.
I just want my home back, this survivor says. She sleeps outside. And like many here, prays for help.
Aid workers say help, from the United States at least, is nowhere to be found. No American rescue teams, no visible U.S. presence in Mandalay, no American flags on the food trucks.
FRANCISCO BENCOSME, FORMER USAID OFFICIAL: That the United States only sent a paltry amount of assistance. It sent only three workers, which then subsequently were fired.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Those three U.S. staffers arrived days after the quake. They were notified their jobs would be eliminated while in the disaster zone. The U.S. initially pledged just $2 million, later increasing it to $9 million. Compare that to 2023.
The U.S. pledged $185 million and full search-and-rescue teams to the Turkey earthquake, deploying more than 200 U.S. staff.
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not the government of the world. We are willing to continue to help in the humanitarian crisis. Other countries need to do so as well.
RIPLEY (voice-over): And others are China, Russia, India, Japan, more than 15 countries have boots on the ground. Search-and-rescue units, field hospitals, mobile clinics, heavy machinery. Chinese teams were pulling survivors from the rubble just 48 hours after the quake.
Beijing also pledged nearly $5 million more than the U.S.
TOM FLETCHER, HUMANITARIAN CHIEF, UNOCHA: So the fact that the U.S. is cutting back heavily hits us here. As you know, it hits us everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an embarrassment. But beyond that, it's deadly.
RIPLEY (voice-over): The U.S. used to be a leader in global disaster response, sending elite rescue teams, dogs, cranes, food and water. All that feels like a distant memory now.
EL MON KHINE, MYANMAR RECOVERY WORKER (through translation): We need proper machines to dig through collapsed buildings. Without them, people die. We can't save lives without real support.
RIPLEY (voice-over): This is the first major natural disaster since the Trump administration dismantled most of U.S. aid, firing thousands, freezing funding and ending contracts.
In Myanmar, almost 20 million people were already in need, displaced by four years of civil war. Then came the earthquake. The suffering is immense.
The United States, once a lifeline, now missing in action.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: And Will Ripley joins us now. I hadn't known that the three American relief workers who were sent there, they were let go and not replaced?
RIPLEY (on-camera): Yes, they weren't immediately pulled out. They're actually still working in Myanmar, but their positions are being cut. They've been told that there's no plan to replace them.
Some of the countries that are sending much more aid than the U.S. are also supplying hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons to the junta. Russia, China, Singapore, India, the U.S. actually documenting, Anderson, dozens of junta attacks since the quake, including some after they declared a ceasefire.
COOPER: Wow. Will Ripley, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
This weekend on The Whole Story, Donie O'Sullivan dives into the new world of American extremism. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: You mentioned Pelosi. What do you think she would be charged with in this scenario?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, simple statute. This is treason.
O'SULLIVAN: Treason?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Absolutely. And I would like to see at the end of the due process, lawful capital punishment.
O'SULLIVAN: Would you be disappointed if in 12 months from now, somebody hasn't been executed for treason?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the nation will be furious.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): He says even I could be a target (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure yet if you are or are not on the deep state target list, because I haven't consumed all of the information that you've put forth to determine what your status should be.
O'SULLIVAN: But we've been hanging --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we ruin you.
O'SULLIVAN: As you what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just like you ruined us. An eye for an eye. Look up Leviticus as a Christian man.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: Wow. Don't miss the new episode of The Whole Story, "MisinfoNation: Extreme America", this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. here on CNN.
That's it for us. The news continues. The Source from Kaitlan Collins starts now.
