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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

FBI: DC Attack was Targeted, Antisemitic Violence; Business Jet Crash in San Diego Neighborhood Leaves Multiple People Dead. Pres. Trump's Memecoin Gala Underway; Sen. Murphy: Trump Memecoin "Just A Mechanism For Bribery"; Image Of Dead "White Farmers" Came From Reuters Footage In Congo; DHS Bars Harvard From Enrolling Foreign Students; Kid Cudi On The Stand In Combs Trial; Makeup Artist Says She Saw Cassie Ventura Injured After Sean "Diddy" Combs Stormed Into Hotel Room In 2010. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired May 22, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... experts believe it may rely on tugboats for movement. Of course, raising serious doubts about the ship's real operational capability and undermining North Korea's claim of this advanced naval modernization as if the dock accident didn't already do that.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Absolutely incredible and what General Marks had to say and we'll see what happens in these next few weeks and timing incredible. Thank you so much, Will Ripley, and thanks so much as always to you for being here with us, AC360 starts now.

[20:00:30]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, breaking news from Washington on the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers, what investigators and witnesses are revealing about the suspected gunman, as family and friends remember the couple who were killed.

Also, searching for clues. San Diego officials looking to what caused a private jet to crash into a neighborhood in the middle of the night, killing people on board and leaving a trail of destruction.

And the President having dinner tonight with hundreds of the top buyers of his meme coin but who are they? And what do they hope to get from their unprecedented access to the President?

Good evening, we begin tonight with the breaking news on the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the capital Jewish Museum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN J. JENSEN, FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR IN CHARGE: Make no mistake, this attack was targeted antisemitic violence and it won't be tolerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: We're not naming the suspect because we don't want him to get the notoriety he was so desperately seeking. When he was arrested, he shouted "Free, free Palestine." He is in custody facing federal murder charges tonight after his first court appearance. He's accused of killing Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, last night.

The young couple met while working at Israel's embassy in Washington in the difficult days after October 7th. One Israeli official described them as the cutest love story. Yaron was planning to propose to Sarah in an upcoming trip to Jerusalem. Instead, their families are now planning their funerals.

Coming up, you'll hear from Lischinsky's supervisor at the embassy, who's also a friend, and will be escorting his body back to Israel tonight. I'll also speak with the woman who talked with the suspect just after the attack, right before police took him into custody. She didn't realize he was the alleged shooter. She recorded this video of his arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIAS RODRIGUEZ, ALLEGED SHOOTER: Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: People are shocked. They didn't realize that's the alleged shooter. CNN's Brian Todd has more from Washington. But first, a warning some of the details are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Eyewitness Yoni Kalin says he was inside the Capital Jewish Museum the moment shots were fired just outside.

YONI KALIN, EYEWITNESS TO SHOOTING: Inside, we could hear about 10 or 15 shots.

TODD (voice over): Kalin says, just seconds later, in the chaos, a man entered the museum and appeared to be a witness. He sat down, Kalin says, and appeared pale and unwell. Bystanders offered him water. Then Kalin says, police entered the museum and there was a bizarre, chilling encounter.

KALIN: As soon as the cops came in, he walked right up to them and said, I'm unarmed, I did this. He pulls out a red Keffiyeh and he says, "Free, free Palestine."

TODD (voice over): A chant the suspect repeated as he was handcuffed by police.

RODRIGUEZ: Free, free Palestine.

TODD (voice over): The two victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two staffers at the Israeli Embassy in Washington who the Israeli ambassador says were about to become engaged.

An Israeli official tells CNN, at the moment Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot, there were two young women right next to them, also staffers at the Israeli embassy who were uninjured. Multiple law enforcement sources tell CNN a lengthy letter that authorities are investigating as potentially being authored by the suspect was posted to social media advocating violent retaliation over the war in Gaza, calling it, "the only sane thing to do."

The letter was posted shortly after the shooting. It's not clear who posted it or if the post was prescheduled set before the incident. Today, the suspect was charged with multiple federal murder counts, firearms charges and murder of foreign officials. Court documents detail the horrific acts of violence allegedly perpetrated by the suspect. According to the documents, officers on scene viewed surveillance footage showing the suspect walked past both victims before shooting them.

Then, as the victims lay on the ground, the suspect was seen, "leaning over them with his arms extended and firing several more times." According to the documents as Sarah Milgrim tried to crawl away, he followed behind her and fired again. The documents say the suspect traveled to D.C. from Chicago one day before the shooting, with a nine millimeter handgun in his checked baggage, which he purchased march 6th, 2020.

JEANINE PIRRO, INTERIM U.S. ATTORNEY FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.: This is a horrific crime, and these crimes are not going to be tolerated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Brian Todd joins me now from outside the Capital Jewish Museum. So what are Israeli and American officials saying about security concerns going forward?

TODD: Anderson, they're saying there are considerable security concerns going forward, possibly about copycat attacks in the wake of this, as there usually are in the wake of these kinds of antisemitic and anti-Muslim attacks across the United States. We do have reporting that security has been increased at Jewish facilities in New York and elsewhere.

Also, we can tell you, Anderson, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the reinforcement of security at Israeli missions around the world in the wake of this shooting, which Netanyahu says was committed by a "vile antisemitic murderer." We can also tell you tonight that the U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has told Netanyahu that President Trump is, "personally involved in managing the response to this attack."

[20:05:34]

COOPER: Brian Todd, thanks very much. Let's turn to our chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. How does the suspect have the gun in his checked luggage on the plane? Is that -- can people do that? JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: That is very rare, especially in a case where somebody is traveling to commit murder, but he did it by the book. So, as an extension of the 1986 Gun Owners Protection Act, you can fly with a gun if you put it in checked luggage and you declare it both to the airline and to TSA.

Now, the rub here is if you, in this case, have a legal gun in Chicago that's registered to you, and you're flying into Washington, where if you're going to get out, load that gun and use it, its immediately illegal. Why do they let that happen?

But the airlines and TSA have taken the position that that's for the person with the gun to sort out with local authorities at whichever end, you know, that destination is. You're supposed to keep it locked with the ammunition separate. And he did all that for the flight. But clearly when he got on the ground, he loaded it, used it to stalk and murder these victims.

COOPER: And what do we know about his plan?

MILLER: We know he's been planning it for a while. You and I have talked about this in prior incidents. You know, there's this idea that these people snap, they don't snap, they simmer, they boil. He's put some thought into this, and you can tell by getting to Washington, allegedly for a work related trip. But then this incident -- this gathering didn't say where it was. So, you had to buy the tickets, you had to go online, give your information. Then once you registered, they gave you the location.

So, he went through all those steps so that he would be there when it ended with his loaded gun, which he flew in legally with to act very illegally with it.

COOPER: And is there any sense of what brought him to this point?

MILLER: You can tell from the manifesto and, you know, you've read these before. This one is very carefully written, I dare say well written. It talks extensively about the plight of the Palestinian people, the brutality, the suffering. It's filled with empathy and sympathy. It makes no mention of the events of October 7th. But the question is, you know, how does a person who emotes all of that feeling for others become the same person who can walk up behind the victims, shoot them in the back as they go down?

As Brian Todd told us, continue to shoot, drop the magazine, slap another --

COOPER: She's crawling away --

MILLER: As Milgrim is crawling away, he reloads and continues to shoot. She sits up and he fires some more. That level of brutality shows, you know, from a behavioral science perspective. He made a decision. He was a different guy, and he wanted to own this. It's why he stayed. It's why he chanted. It's why he said, I did this.

COOPER: He wants the recognition. MILLER: This is his new identity.

COOPER: Yes, John Miller, thanks very much. My next guest was at the museum, says she spoke with the alleged gunman before he was arrested, not realizing who he was. Katie Kalisher joins me now.

Katie, can you just walk us through what happened when you heard the gunshots?

KATIE KALISHER, WITNESS WHO WAS ABLE TO TALK TO GUNMAN: Sure, so, well, we were at the Capital Jewish Museum for an event that was focusing on how were combining different, organizations that are working with Mina Aid and Isra Aid and all of these different organizations that are working together in order to provide humanitarian aid to Gazans. It was a very inspirational evening. They're focusing on how they can make sure that the maximum amount of aid is provided into Gaza. So I'm not super caring about it at the moment because I'm having a great time at this event.

But I quickly understand, okay, this was really, in fact, gunshots. And were starting to get concerns when suddenly a man comes in and he looks very distressed, very scared. And, I think we all generally assumed that he must have just been out in the street when there was gunfire or he heard shots, and maybe he saw someone get shot. We don't know, but we let him in because we just assume most people are good.

And we didn't have any idea that he was, in fact, a murderer. So, here he was in the room for at least 15 minutes, sitting with us before we --

COOPER: Wow, was he saying anything or --

[20:10:17]

KALISHER: Yes, he came over to where I was sitting, and I'm trying to relax him. My friend even asks him, like, are you okay? Can we get you some water? And he's like, you know what, actually, that'd be great, sure. So she goes and gets him some water and I'm talking to him and I'm like, so how do you like the museum? How is your day going? And he's like, oh, what kind of museum is this? And I understand now. He was kind of playing dumb with me.

So, I told him, oh, it's a Jewish Museum. And he asked me, do you think that's why they did it? Like in reference to the rounds that we had heard and I didn't really put two and two together, but then I'm thinking about it. Okay, we're at the Capital Jewish Museum, antisemitic attacks are not something that we've never heard of before.

COOPER: Right.

KALISHER: So, I'm thinking, okay, maybe, maybe that is why. And then suddenly he reaches into his backpack and pulls out a Keffiyeh and looks me in the eye and says, I did it, I did it for Gaza. And that's when I understood that something was terribly wrong. And I got out my phone and started recording him. So that video that you've seen going viral of him shouting "Free Palestine, free Palestine, long live the Intifada!" This was my video and my friends are in the video. And it was really --

COOPER: Yes, we're really were playing that right now.

KALISHER: Yes.

COOPER: Were police already on the scene at that point?

KALISHER: Yes, so, he waited until police arrived in order to make his big debut announcement, because he was very proud of the work that he's done. I think that this was a bad actor who is not helping the Palestinian cause. And what we were gathered there for that night was to talk about building bridges, how we can make the world a more peaceful place, how we can help Gazans who so much need humanitarian aid. And the last thing I want is for us to lose sight of that.

COOPER: Katie, thank you. I really appreciate your time.

KALISHER: Thank you so much, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah were supposed to be traveling to Israel tomorrow together, but after both were murdered outside the Israeli embassy last night, Yaron's body will be making the journey alone without Sarah to be buried. Again, both worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Joining me now is Yaron's supervisor, Noa Ginosar.

Noa, I'm so sorry for your loss, and I'm so sorry were talking under these circumstances. What was Yaron like?

NOA GINOSAR, FRIEND AND WORK SUPERVISOR OF SHOOTING VICTIM YARON LISCHINSKY: You know, there's no one who ever had the chance to meet Yaron or just come across him and wasn't struck by what a kind and gentle soul he was. He was someone who was quiet and calm, but he cared so much about everyone who he came across. He always said hello and asked how people's days were it didn't matter if you know they were friends before or not. And he always tried to find the common denominator, those things that make people connect.

And he did it from the goodness of his heart, from a very, very pure place. He truly believed in the power of connection between people, no matter where they come from. And he believed in the power of that to be an agent of change.

COOPER: I understand you knew his soon to be fiance also. Sarah. What were they like as a couple?

GINOSAR: Sarah and Yaron met at the embassy following October 7th When Sarah joined our team. They were both taking part in what we were doing then real, you know, round the clock shift work at the embassy. And Yaron had volunteered to take part in what was the very, very difficult, monitoring of the video evidence of the crimes of October 7th that Hamas had broadcast and released to the public. And it was that from that place of suffering and, you know, watching this, the horrors of what took place that he and Sarah met and, you know, in this brief, they found each other and very quickly it was evident that this couple was going to be together, you know, for good.

Well, sometimes people just complement each other, you know, they, they fit together. They had the same aura. They had the same positive energy, the same calm and quiet, but desire to do good things and to do important things and to live a life of purpose.

COOPER: And you're talking to us from a car. You're going to be accompanying Yaron back home now to reunite him with his family.

[20:15:08]

GINOSAR: Yes, I'm on the way to the airport to accompany Yaron on his final journey back home. You know, I've lost a very, very dear friend. And it is -- it's an honor to be able to accompany him and to be able to be there and try to support his family as much as I can. Because, you know, I spoke with them over the phone yesterday after we gave them the news of his killing, of his murder and they, they wanted to hear about what his day to day life was like because, you know, they created this amazing human and they raised him.

I'm a mother, you know, I know what that's like. But then you release them into the world, and sometimes it's just someone else who ends up knowing the day to day and the details and how that person acts, and they have this appetite to hear who he was.

So, I hope that we're going to be able, from the embassy to supplement their picture of Yaron and tell them about all the wonderful things that he did. What a great friend he was, what a great colleague he was.

COOPER: Well, I'm sure it'll mean a lot to them to meet you and know that he had somebody in the embassy who he worked with, who cared so much about him as, as you did and, and saw him for how he was. It's also remarkable to me that, I mean, I remember, you know, October 8th, October 9th, October 10th, so many people, I mean, myself included, watching those videos for, you know, looking for people looking for so many people in Israel looking for family members and the horror of those videos and that they met during that process and that they had each other throughout that process. It's a comforting thought.

GINOSAR: It's a very comforting thought. And I think that its, you know, at the backside of that is the fact that they met their death, you know, and as a result of an antisemitic attack you know, terror attack in the part of the capital of the United States of America. Two embassy staff members who are attending an event organized by a Jewish organization for young diplomats at the Jewish Museum. That's what's you know, that's what's so difficult to comprehend. And that's what's so unjust in thinking that this is how their fate ended.

COOPER: Well, Noa, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. And I know this is going to be a difficult journey for you, and I wish you the best. Thank you. GINOSAR: Thank you very much.

COOPER: Up next tonight, more breaking news.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God, a plane just (bleep) crashed right here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: What investigators are now saying about the deadly plane crash in San Diego neighborhood and hear what the pilot said to air traffic control just before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:22:30]

COOPER: You are looking at the aftermath of a private plane crash in a San Diego military community early this morning. The NTSB says the jet struck power lines and then collided with a house about two miles from the Montgomery Gibs Executive Airport, where it was planning to land. A number of vehicles caught fire after jet fuel rained down on the residential street, six people were on board the Cessna 550. The San Diego fire assistant chief believes no one on the aircraft survived.

Among those killed in the crash was music booking agent, David Shapiro, according to the Associated Press. A fire officials said it was foggy at the time of the crash, and air traffic control recordings showed that the weather system was not working at the airport where the plane was attempting to land. Here's part of what the pilot told air traffic control shortly before the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: I've got the Miramar automated weather. For 0955 Zulu with wind calm, visibility one half and indefinite ceiling 200.

PILOT: All right, that doesn't sound great, but we'll give it a go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Joining me now to discuss the CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean, and CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector, David Soucie. Pete, what more do we know about the leading up to the crash? And just listening to that recording, what does it mean to you?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The recording is really telling here, Anderson, and it says that the pilots used the weather report at nearby Marine Corps air station Miramar and that the weather was very poor, 200 foot cloud ceilings, a half mile visibility, much too low to make what would be an acceptable landing in what's called instrument conditions, meaning pilots flying in sole reference to the instruments. The pilots used that weather report from Miramar and not Montgomery Gibs Executive Airport, the point of their intended landing. Because we learned this afternoon that that weather system at that airport had been out since Tuesday. But perhaps the biggest finding here is the finding this afternoon from the NTSB that this plane hit power lines before it slammed into that neighborhood.

It was that low. We went back and looked at the flight tracking data. And if this plane was on the proper approach path at the point of the crash site, should have been at about 1,300 feet. The last return on the open source flight tracking sites shows the plane at 500 feet, much too low here, and opens a whole can of worms, when it comes to questions in this investigation.

COOPER: David, what stands out to you at this point?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, the fact that he was that low and the fact that this aircraft was a 1985 aircraft. Now, typically an aircraft will have ground position warnings that will tell them how low they are to the ground.

So I have a feeling that he really didn't know what altitude he was at, at the time. And typically you would get a warning that says you're too low, you're at this many feet, you're at that many feet. But in 1985, that wasn't required on the aircraft and I don't see that we've got any information that was upgraded as required in 1992 when aircraft after that level had to have it installed.

[20:25:31]

COOPER: So, it should have had an automatic warning with an upgrade.

SOUCIE: Correct, yes, if it had been upgraded to that new system, it would have had ground positioning radar, which tells it how far it is off the ground. And if you get too close and you're out of that ILS, it will tell you you're too low, you're too high. Wherever it is, it'll tell you where you're at with it.

And it doesn't appear to me that he had that with him. But again, that's a backup system. That's after the fact that you're not where you're supposed to be in the first place.

So, the critical thing that stands out to me is once again, FAA facility, the SOS, the weather reporting, the automated weather reporting was not working at the airport. And in that area, the fog moved so quickly. You really have to have localized, three miles isn't even enough to get a good weather report of what's going on at that airport.

COOPER: Pete, I didn't understand you were saying that it should have been at more than 1,000 feet of elevation, but it was at 500. How high was it when it struck power lines?

MUNTEAN: That is the big question here, Anderson. We know the power lines were not much higher topographically in that canyon there near the neighborhood. And so, this is something that investigators will really keying on, why this flight was so low. We were able to interpolate this by looking at what's called the approach plate. It's essentially like a dance by numbers card that pilots use to descend them down to the runway if they're in what's called instrument conditions, meaning they can't see the ground until the last second. They're in clouds. They're only flying in reference to what's in front of them, what the indications are on the instrument panel there.

And if you interpolate that, if you sort of extend the path out, the plane should have been at about 1,300 feet there. Now the plane can do something called a step down approach instead of following a gradual glide path down to the runway. But even still, the weather report at the time exceeds the minimum, meaning that there's a legal baseline that the plane can't continue into if the weather is so, so bad.

This weather was below the minimum, meaning that it couldn't have gone in there. This flight, theoretically should have landed at what's called an alternate, meaning divert to another airport where you can make a successful landing. Play the ace, find a place that has a better weather condition and land there.

COOPER: Pete Muntean, David Soucie, thanks very much. We'll try to learn more.

Coming up, more breaking news. President Trump's meme coin contest is underway at one of his golf clubs, where hundreds of anonymous investors spent millions for access to him. We'll have the details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:32:43]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The President of the United States has just left the meme coin dinner that he has held for top investors in his meme coin, many of them believed to be foreign. We don't know the identity of most of the people who were at the dinner.

I spoke about it with Senator Chris Murphy shortly before air time.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Senator, in terms of your concerns about potential corruption in the federal government, where does this rank?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), CONNECTICUT: This might be close to the top of the most corrupt things that the President has done. You know, there are 200 plus anonymous individuals who paid their way to meet with President Trump. We think that more than half of them are foreign individuals, these, you know, could be agents of Russia, these could be foreign oligarchs, these could be individuals with sanctions lodged against them that they are trying to get lifted.

And because they know that their names wouldn't be disclosed, it is likely that there's probably a bunch of bad people, corrupt people in that room who, you know, don't want their audience with the President to be public, who want it to be secret.

And we just know that the President is in the business of giving favors to people who pay him. If you look at all the folks who were standing with him on inauguration day, the people who wrote him checks for his inauguration, many if not most of them have had investigations dropped against them, lawsuits withdrawn against them.

So this is corruption, old-fashioned corruption, but out in the open for everybody to see. And I wish we knew who was there. I wish they would release that list.

COOPER: A Chinese-born billionaire claims to be the top Trump memecoin holder. According to CNN reporting, he had more than $22 million in Trump's memecoin. He'd put apparently $75 million into a Trump family- backed token. He was charged by the SEC, regulators said was selling unregistered securities, fraudulently manipulating the price of a digital token back in 2023, which he said was meritless, according to the Wall Street Journal.

But about a month after President Trump returned to the White House, the SEC pulled back on its crypto enforcement and a government attorney asked a judge to put the case against this person on hold. Is that one of the things that makes you suspicious?

MURPHY: Well, imagine that happening at scale. So this is an individual that we know is there tonight. We know he has paid Trump money. I mean, that's all they're doing. The crypto coin is just a mechanism for bribery.

People just send Trump money. It's through these memecoins, but it's just a way to get cash in the President's pocket. And then he magically gets charges dropped against him.

[20:35:09]

The problem is there are 219 other people at that dinner tonight. We have no idea who they are. And so over the next few weeks, you may see investigations dropped. You may see lawsuits withdrawn against people you've never heard of.

They might have been in that -- at that dinner tonight. They might be asking the President for that special dispensation. And the trick here is pretty simple. If you have the money to get access to Donald Trump, if you have the money to put cash in his pocket, there's a different set of rules that apply to you. But if you're an ordinary American who's caught up in the legal system and you can't buy a million dollars worth of Trump memecoin, you're going to jail.

COOPER: There's some people may hear this and think, well, look, is this any different than, you know, a big money donor to a political party or to a candidate getting access because they give, you know, tons of money?

MURPHY: Well, a, we should get that big money out of politics. It's been the Republican Party that has been standing in the way of the kind of restrictions on big donors and transparency on big donors that is necessary. But yes, to your specific question, there is a difference between money that is going into a candidate's campaign.

There are lots of laws around what that money can be used for. It can never be used for the personal benefit of the candidate versus a check directly into the pocket of the President of the United States. It is estimated that 40 percent of Trump's entire net worth today is due to these two crypto coins that he just launched months ago.

So this has been maybe the most lucrative venture he has ever endeavored to begin. All of this money is going straight into his pocket and he is, as we've seen, trading favors, trading U.S. policy in order to get paid. That is different than a contribution to a campaign that can only be used for political purposes.

COOPER: Yes. Senator Chris Murphy, thanks for your time.

MURPHY: Thank you.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: More on that contentious meeting between South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Trump from yesterday afternoon. You'll remember the White House played a video purporting to back up claims that Afrikaners in South Africa are victims of genocide.

Mr. Trump showed a video of crosses lining the side of a road claiming it was a burial site of murdered white farmers. It wasn't.

Today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed about it -- pressed about the video by NBC Reporter Yamiche Alcindor.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

YAMICHE ALCINDOR, NBC NEWS REPORTER: The President showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of white South Africans that he said were murdered. We know that that was not true and that the video wasn't doing that. So I wonder, why did the President choose to show that?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What's not true, Yamiche?

ALCINDOR: It's not true that the video was showing a burial site. It is unsubstantiated that that's the case.

LEAVITT: No, it's -- it is true that that video showed the crosses that represent --

ALCINDOR: (INAUDIBLE) what the President claimed.

LEAVITT: The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin.

ALCINDOR: The President claimed that -- LEAVITT: And those crosses are representing their lives. Those crosses

are representing their lives in the fact that they are now dead and their government did nothing about it. Are you disputing that there is no --

ALCINDOR: I'm disputing the fact that the video showed what the President claimed it showed because it did not show that. But even more, what I'm asking you is who at the White House --

LEAVITT: No, it did show that. It showed white crosses representing people who have perished because of racial persecution.

ALCINDOR: Because the White House verifies the videos that the President shows. And what protocols are in place when there's unsubstantiated information being put out for the world and world leaders to know?

LEAVITT: Yamiche, what's unsubstantiated about the video? The video shows crosses that represent the dead bodies of people who were racially persecuted by their government. In fact, the Associated Press, of all places, has a picture of that very monument.

And the caption from the Associated Press is, each cross marks a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder. So it is substantiated, not just by that video and the physical evidence that everybody saw on display in the Oval Office, but also by another outlet in this room, the Associated Press.

So you should take it up with them if you believe the claim is unsubstantiated. And that's a ridiculous line of questioning.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: Well, keeping them honest, it's not what President Trump said yesterday. Let's listen to what he actually said.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over 1,000 of white farmers, and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross.

And there's approximately 1,000 of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren't driving. They're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it's a terrible sight. I've never seen anything like it.

Those people were all killed.

[20:40:01]

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA: Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?

TRUMP: No. RAMAPHOSA: No, I'd like to know where that is because that's I've never seen.

TRUMP: I don't.

RAMAPHOSA: OK.

TRUMP: I mean, it's in South Africa.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COOPER: The South African president there at the end asking where the burial site is because he'd never seen it. It's because it does not exist. It's not a burial ground. It's video from five years ago of a vigil created after a white farming couple was robbed and murdered. That was a tragedy, as is any murder.

And the people actually who killed them were convicted of it. It was not ignored. The killing shook the Afrikaner community, and a neighbor of the couple erected the crosses to honor them and other farmers who had been killed across South Africa.

It's not a burial site, he told the BBC today, the person who made this memorial. It was a memorial. It was not a permanent memorial that was erected. It was a temporary memorial.

Now, in addition to the claim of a burial ground, there was an article that President Trump held up as further proof of genocide of white farmers in South Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

TRUMP: These are all white farmers that are being buried.

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COOPER: Well, we tracked down the source of the image in that article, and it's actually not from South Africa. It is a screen grab of Reuters' video from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was from February, when over 2,000 people were killed in clashes between the government and a rebel group.

Now, the sick irony is that none of the black people fleeing violence or persecution in DRC Congo or anywhere else in Africa would be allowed into the United States right now as refugees. Only white Afrikaners, based on claims of a genocide, which is not actually occurring.

Next, the Trump administration taking new action against Harvard, now banning the university from enrolling international students and forcing those students there to transfer. It's leading the university and the students scrambling into a lot of legal questions. We'll talk it over with Jeffrey Toobin.

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[20:46:35]

COOPER: A sharp escalation tonight, the battle between the Trump administration and Harvard University. The Department of Homeland Security has revoked the university's ability to accept international students. This also means any current foreign students have to transfer or lose their non-immigrant status.

Here's what DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said about the decision.

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KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURIY SECRETARY: Today, I sent them a letter that said they will no longer be allowed to participate in this student exchange visitor program, and that's up to 27 percent of their enrolled students. So it's significant. Any foreign student that wishes to get an education in this country that is attending Harvard and not participating in this criminal activity, they will have to find another university to go to.

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COOPER: A White House spokesperson says, quote, "Harvard has turned their once great institution into a hotbed of anti-American, anti- Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators." Adding, "They must face the consequences of their actions". Harvard calls the decision unlawful.

Joining us now is Former Federal Prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin. The White House says that enrolling foreign students is a -- they call it a privilege, not a right. Is this lawful?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, it is true that for foreign students to get into -- to study at an American school, they need a visa.

COOPER: Right.

TOOBIN: And the United States government controls the visa. But as with so much that we've seen with the Trump administration, they have to follow the law in how they allocate visas. And it certainly seems to me that the Trump administration has not followed the law in banning all these students overnight.

They haven't given Harvard or these students due process. And they have asked for information about these students that they're not entitled to. So now we have a situation where like a quarter of the student body, 7,000 students, have effectively been expelled, not only from Harvard, but from the United States for nothing that they did. I mean, it's incredibly cruel to these students. And it's, of course, very damaging to Harvard as well.

COOPER: It's also damaging to the United States. I mean, the number of people, like incredibly bright students from all over the world who want to come to the United States and then work in the United States and, you know, create -- be on the cutting edge of technology and all these things, this helps the United States. TOOBIN: One of the reasons we are the United States, the most powerful country in the world, is because we have undoubtedly the best universities in the world that do the most important research. And that's why students are rushing to come here.

And remember, you know, most American students who go to Harvard and other, you know, fancy schools get financial aid. The international students do not. They pay full freight. So this is extremely important to the bottom line of Harvard, which is another reason why the Trump administration is going after Harvard.

COOPER: I mean, is it likely a court would strike down -- strike this down?

TOOBIN: You know, I do think so. I do think Harvard would win a challenge. But remember, the damage will accrue to Harvard even if they win, because students around the world are going to say to themselves, why do we want to put ourselves up for this kind of danger, aggravation?

Why don't we go to some other school where there's less controversy or go to another country? I mean, that's what's really going on here. It's going on with tourists. It's going on with students.

[20:50:01]

They are worried about how foreigners are treated in the United States. So why not go to college at Oxford instead of Harvard? And that's, you know, that's a big loss to this country.

COOPER: You wrote a piece recently on sort of update on the attack on the law firms and the targeting of law firms, which we've talked about a lot, which is a lever that's never been pulled by any administration. It's -- and it seems to be incredibly effective. It has a chilling effect on all law firms. What is -- I mean, I assume some of these law firms might be asked to pursue lawsuits against Harvard.

TOOBIN: Well, what the -- you know, the -- what nine law firms, you know, starting with Paul Weiss, agreed to is that they will work on pro bono projects in association with the --

COOPER: The administration.

TOOBIN: -- administration. So the question is, what kind of cases will they work on? The law firms say, oh, we're only going to do cases, you know, fighting anti-Semitism, helping veterans, sort of very anodyne projects.

The Trump administration has said very explicitly, no, no, no, we want you defending cops who are accused of violence against individuals. We want you representing coal operators, you know, to fight environmental regulations.

So the question now is, are these law firms actually going to do the work of the Trump administration or are they going to do what they said they signed up for? And that's very much uncertain at this point.

COOPER: And who will decide that? I mean --

TOOBIN: You know, that's a great question. I mean, the law firms say, well, we're only going to do the projects that we feel comfortable with.

COOPER: Right.

TOOBIN: But then Trump is going to say, well, then we're going to impose the sanctions on you that were demanded in the first place. So, you know, that -- these law firms who think they escaped problems by agreeing --

COOPER: Right.

TOOBIN: -- their problems down the line coming.

COOPER: Jeff Toobin, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Next, the federal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, rapper Kid Cudi was on the stand today, accused Combs of breaking into his house and being involved in destroying his Porsche. Details of that ahead.

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[20:56:46]

COOPER: The second week of testimony in the federal sex trafficking racketeering trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs has wrapped up. Among the witnesses called today a celebrity makeup artist and Scott Mescudi, known as rapper Kid Cudi, who testified that his house was broken into and his Porsche was set on fire in 2012 after Combs learned he was dating Cassie Ventura.

With me is CNN's Kara Scannell who's in the court today. So what did Kid Cudi say in the stand?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So his testimony all centered around what happened after Combs found out that he was dating Cassie Ventura. Cudi said he didn't know that Ventura was still dating Combs, and Combs apparently just found out about their relationship.

So that set into events this series of things, which was Ventura calling Cudi saying that she was scared. And so he picks her up, and then he gets the phone call from a mutual friend who says that Sean Combs is at his home. He's broken into it.

So Kid Cudi gets in his car. He calls Combs. He says he wants to talk to him. He says -- Cudi says when he gets to his house, there's no evidence of Sean Combs, but the security cameras moved. Some gifts that he got for his family for Christmas were unwrapped and that his dog was locked in the bathroom.

So he calls the police, and he thinks about confronting Combs, but then he realizes that that might be dangerous. He then -- the next thing is in February. He's at someone else's home. His dog sitter calls him and says, your Porsche's on fire.

So Cudi gets in the car. He drives to the home. And the jury saw these photos from the damage to the car. The roof is slashed in. There's smoke damage.

COOPER: Those are the pictures there. Yes.

SCANNELL: Yes. There's smoke damage on the driver's side on the door, and he says there's a Molotov cocktail there. And when he gets there, he again calls the cops, and he testifies that he thinks that Combs was behind this.

And so to kind of resolve the situation, he had not been dating Ventura at that point, but he asked Combs to meet him at the Soho House in Beverly Hills. And he says he walks into the room to meet Combs. He's there staring out a window with his hands behind his back, and he said he looked like a Marvel supervillain, which drew some laughs from the jury.

And he said that they settled it then, and he they shook hands. And Kid Cudi said to Combs, what about my car? And Combs said, I don't know what you're talking about. And so Kid Cudi said he thought that Combs was lying.

And this all goes to this racketeering conspiracy charge. One of these elements is arson, and that's what his testimony was intended for.

COOPER: And what did the makeup artist say?

SCANNELL: So she corroborated a story that Cassie Ventura gave on her testimony last week about leaving a party that Prince had thrown, and she's at a hotel room. Combs comes in. He and Cassie Ventura go into the bedroom, and then the makeup artist testifies. Combs leaves, and Ventura has a fat lip, bruises to her face.

And she then takes her to go home with her, and she said, the makeup artist testified that she had a friend who's a medical doctor come and examine Ventura and recommended she go to the ER. And she was asked, why didn't you go to the police? And the makeup artist testified that she was scared for her life because of Sean Combs. So trying to get at this fear factor of the dangerousness that he portrayed.

COOPER: And who's expected next week on the stand?

SCANNELL: So next week, the prosecution said they're going to call more witnesses that would go to corroborate what Kid Cudi testified about today. So someone from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department, and an employee of Combs who is the person who called Kid Cudi and said Combs is in your apartment right -- in your home right now.

So she's expected to be the next witness on the stand when court resumes on Tuesday.

COOPER: So it's all trying to build out on this racketeering idea. SCANNELL: Yes. We've heard a lot about the sex trafficking charge, all the testimony to kind of back up that. Now this is trying to bring the jury's mind into the racketeering charge. There are a number of different elements. One of them is arson, and that is what this is really focused on.

COOPER: All right, Kara Scannell, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

That's it for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.