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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
House Oversight Committee Releases 33K-Plus Pages of Epstein Files; Interview with Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY); Trump on Sending National Guard to Chicago: "We're Going In"; Now: Xi, Putin, Kim Attend Military Parade In Beijing; Pres. Trump: U.S. Military Killed 11 In Strike On Alleged Drug Boat Tied To Venezuelan Cartel; Pres. Trump Addresses Speculation About His Health; Dr. Sanjay Gupta On His New Book "It Doesn't Have To Hurt". Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 02, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HARRY ENTEN CNN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: We are down 89 percent from the January peak. So yes, it is a hundred percent true that Trump has made a lot of money off of crypto. But if you got in on the Trump meme coin when it was at its top, you have lost a ton of money off of crypto.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Well, all right, Harry, thank you very much.
ENTEN: Thank you.
BURNETT: And thanks so much as always to all of you for being with us on this Tuesday. AC360 with Anderson begins right now.
[20:00:29]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight on 360, breaking news in the Epstein case under bipartisan pressure, the House Oversight Committee publishes thousands of files related to the case but how new are they and how full is the disclosure we're getting?
Also tonight, is a federal judge says the President cannot send troops into one big city. The President says he is sending them into another.
Later striking videos. The U.S. Military makes a deadly hit on what President Trump says was a drug boat in the Caribbean.
And, 80 years ago today, Japan officially surrendered, ending World War II. Tonight, meet one of the last Americans alive to know the terror of naval combat in the Pacific, including the site of a Japanese Kamikaze coming straight at his ship.
Good evening, thanks for joining us. First, the breaking news. The House Oversight Committee tonight making more than 33,000 pages of the Jeffrey Epstein case records public. CNN has them. We've been going through them as we speak. So far, we've determined that they contain flight logs and court filings and surveillance footage. Now, there's reason to believe these are the materials the panel received from the Justice Department a little more than a week ago, which you'll remember, Democratic committee member Ro Khanna said was just a fraction of what the DOJ actually has.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Our lawyers were up all night, and we now have fact that only three percent of the documents that were given to us were new, 97 percent were already in the public domain, and less than one percent of the Epstein files have actually been released.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: This comes with the house back from a five-week recess and Congressman Khanna, along with committee Republican Thomas Massie, starting to gather signatures for to force a floor vote compelling the DOJ to release all the Epstein files it has.
Now, in addition, some of the women who survived Epstein's abuses spoke to lawmakers today and planned to hold a press conference tomorrow. We'll hear more from them in a moment. We begin our coverage at the Capitol with CNN's Manu Raju. So, what more are you learning about these documents and whether any of them contain actually new information?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Anderson, we are still going through it. I mean, a huge amount of records here, 33,000 pages. But in our initial review of this, it appears that a lot of this is information that has already been public or has been publicized in other ways. Court filings, some surveillance footage from some information relating to the depositions and the like that have come out in various other settings.
So, it's unclear at the moment just how new this information is. But this comes as the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and other top Republicans and including in the White House, have been trying to stop this effort, this bipartisan effort to force a vote calling for the release of all of the Epstein files.
That is an effort that is being led by, as you noted, Congressman Thomas Massie and Congressman Ro Khanna. They are trying to circumvent Republican leadership and get the support of a majority of the house to force a vote on their bill calling for the release of these documents. I caught up with some members in the aftermath of the release of these documents, including Congressman Massie.
I asked them whether or not they will continue to support this effort to vote on this bill, or whether or not they are satisfied with the information that was just released.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): It's like only one percent of what they possess, and 97 percent of it has already been released. I'm afraid this is going to be like Pam Bondi's binders. These people are going to dig into it and say, there's nothing new here. They haven't given us anything. They've given us the sleeves off their vest.
RAJU: The President has called it a hoax.
MASSIE: He's called it a hoax. I hope he doesn't say that after tomorrow, when ten of the survivors testify in public, that that would be very disrespectful.
REP. LAUREN BOEBERT, (R-CO): American people have been demanding answers. I've been demanding answers. And I would like to see what's actually there.
RAJU: The President has called it a hoax.
BOEBERT: And maybe it is. We'll see. but I think that we should have transparency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And that Congresswoman and Congressman both Boebert and Massie trying to call for the release of these documents by supporting that legislation. In order for Thomas Massie to move forward and actually force a vote on the full House, there needs to be six total Republicans who will sign on to this effort. Already, about a handful have. So, he still has a work to go because some other republicans who have previously indicated they will back this plan told me tonight, Anderson, that they are not sure if they would. In the aftermath of the release of these documents.
But tomorrow, Massie indicated there he believes something will change the dynamic. That's when he will have a press conference with ten of the victims from Epstein's sex trafficking ring will join him for this news conference on Capitol Hill tomorrow morning.
Those same victims meeting behind closed doors with House Oversight Committee members earlier today. But Massie thinks that could propel some Republicans to vote with him on his plan.
[20:05:20]
COOPER: All right, Manu Raju, I want to thank so much.
Joining me now is New York Democratic congressman and former federal prosecutor Dan Goldman. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the Justice Department. We mentioned the House -- received from the DOJ. Congressman, do you think, I mean, it seems like there's nothing really new in these so far.
REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): There's nothing new. This is all a charade. This is all an effort by the DOJ at Trump's direction to collaborate with Chairman James Comer and the top Republicans in Congress to give the Republicans enough so that they have political cover to conceal the Epstein files and whatever it is in there that Donald Trump is so desperate to hide after he was so desperate for it to be released.
COOPER: I heard there are some Republican congressmen who are saying, well, look what Massie and Khanna are trying to do is going to, you know, it's going to release all this information without redacting information about victims and that's inappropriate.
GOLDMAN: That's complete bogus. First of all, we know that the FBI spent hundreds and threw all of these materials back in March and April when there was a house on fire to get them out and they had to be reviewed and redacted. So, I believe they're already redacted for the victims' information.
What is interesting, though, is you would not ordinarily redact other associates or other, potential unindicted coconspirators or accomplices if you are releasing those and the interesting thing for me is, are they releasing witness testimony, witness statements, not the grand jury testimony, but when the witnesses and the victims came in and met with the FBI and prosecutors and they went through their stories, that's all written in FBI 302s, that's all going to be there.
That, to me, is where the most important information would be, as well as potential video recordings. If there are -- if Epstein did take any -- and there's no sign of those being released. And that's where Donald Trump's name would be if his name is going to be in there, it almost certainly would be in the witness statements of the victims and others.
COOPER: What do you make of Todd Blanche's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell?
GOLDMAN: It's embarrassing for him. It's absolutely humiliating. When you meet and I was a prosecutor for ten years, many of those with Todd Blanche, when you meet with any kind of defendant who is interested in cooperating, the first thing you do is you say, tell me what you did. Normally, you do it before trial, and so they have to admit and confess to what they did in relation to that crime and other crimes. She actually said she did nothing wrong. And this is after she's been convicted by a jury. It's been upheld by the appellate court. And it was Todd Blanche's DOJ that convicted her.
In an ordinary course, if you come in and that would be the first question, which it wasn't in this and she says, no, I didn't do anything wrong. I don't -- you know, the verdict is wrong. You end it, you go home because the jury speaks and you also, of course, as the prosecutor, have been on so many witnesses and so much evidence to the contrary that there's absolutely nothing credible that she could say if she can't even admit to her own conduct.
The litany of other errors and malfeasance and just gross, politicized, weaponized misconduct can go on and on. And it's so clear that her only chance of getting out of jail is a pardon. So, she's going to say whatever they want her to say. But I think you take those transcripts, those recordings, you throw them in the trash, they're worthless.
COOPER: What do you think is actually going to happen? I mean, here, not with in Congress, I mean, do you think these files, these reports are ever going to really come out?
GOLDMAN: Look, I've learned in my two-and-a-half years that it is impossible to put yourself in the head of the Republican majority and the leaders of the Republican Party, they continue to come up with different ways of caving to Donald Trump, of doing whatever he wants. Mike Johnson shut down Congress a week early because he didn't even want to deal with these Epstein files. But the fact of the matter is there -- this is a cover up. This is a massive cover up. They're not just stonewalling. They're trying to do it through charades and sleight of hand, so to speak, but they are covering something up.
This Donald Trump was hot to trot and Kash Patel and Dan Bongino were leading the charge to release the Epstein files. Now, all of a sudden, they don't want them released. They are trying to hide something, and by releasing these documents, most of which have been released before, others will not have any relevant information. My suspicion is that the Oversight Committee is colluding with the Department of Justice.
[20:10:41]
If you look at a resolution, an alternative resolution, they're going to present this week, it does not call for the witness statements. It gives all sorts of -- it goes through many different sections, types of information that should be released. It doesn't include the witness statements. If it doesn't include the witness statements, then it doesn't include the core of the Epstein files.
COOPER: Congressman Goldman, I appreciate your time. Thanks very much.
More now on what some survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse say, some going public for the first time about what Epstein put them through, what they want to see from the government and the concerns some have about such disclosure. Randi Kaye has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Between 15 and 17.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was 14.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fourteen.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Ashley (ph), you've never shared your story publicly. Why is the right time now to come forward, do you think?
ASHLEY, JEFFREY EPSTEIN ACCUSER: I think now is a good time because of how the climates changed in the public towards us. Every time we see on my social media or when we go out anywhere, it takes you back to when you were molested by him.
KAYE (voice over): The women's therapist joined them for the interview.
THERAPIST: It's almost a form of imprisonment.
KAYE (voice over): Even now, decades later, it's still difficult for these women to comprehend what happened to them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's been a sense of detachment there. I have to remember that this was me, that this happened to. This wasn't like, just Courtney, you know, this is actually me. He was good at that. And he was good at making that very weird situation. Maybe not the weirdest thing until the abuse happened. The first time the abuse happens, I just remember how traumatized I was and how disgusted I felt within myself. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I associated re relationships with men with
money. It's a very big manipulation thing when you're 14 and broke and then you put those two and two together and it kind of runs your life.
ASHLEY: And everybody that signed my yearbooks before I went was like, have a great summer, let's chill. It was, you know, all positive and then after I went, all the comments were different. It was I'm really worried about you. So, I just became very angry and I acted out a lot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just digs deep. You're figuring out life, who you are and just to be used and abused is just so painful.
KAYE (voice over): There was more pain in 2007 when Epstein who was facing federal charges for abusing young girls cut a sweetheart deal with the government to avoid federal prosecution. The deal was signed off on by then U.S. Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, who in 2017 became Labor Secretary in the first Trump administration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like Alex Acosta needs to be --
KAYE (on camera): Held accountable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Held accountable.
KAYE (voice over): And these days, with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who served as Epstein's madam, back in the headlines.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's worlds of emotion. So, one day it can be like, I'm super angry, and then one day you're like, I'm going to lay in my bed and I'm going to cry forever because this is never going to go away.
KAYE (voice over): None of these women ever met Maxwell, but they have strong opinions about her. Do any of you have any doubt about Ghislaine Maxwell's role in Epstein's crimes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard the interview that she just gave with the Assistant Attorney General and the things she said, I thought was absolutely disgusting. It just makes me sick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That she had no idea anything inappropriate had ever gone on.
KAYE (on camera): Which you don't believe.
ASHLEY: There's no way anybody was in his house and is oblivious to anything that happened.
KAYE (on camera): She kind of fawned over President Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The exact manipulation that she did to her victims.
KAYE (on camera): Why do you think she said those things about President Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because she wants the pardon, the fact that she's even got changed prisons. I mean, she should be in the worst prison in the United States.
KAYE (on camera): Maxwell, in her interview, was asked if Epstein was a creepy guy, and she said that women would not have been there if he was creepy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were children. We were not women. We were not adults.
KAYE (on camera): At one point, she also says that Epstein preferred younger people. Not because of anything sexual, but because they were, "invigorating and up-to-date on music." Did he ever talk to any of you about music?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
KAYE (on camera): And if he did, he was naked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was creepy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He talked about what he wanted sexually, not about music.
[20:15:06]
KAYE (voice over): Last week, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Epstein's estate as well as its two executors. The committee is seeking documents, including the so-called birthday book Epstein was given for his 50th birthday, as well as flight logs from his aircraft. Any potential client list and videos or images from security cameras at his homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why hasn't it been done before? Why has it taken this long?
KAYE (on camera): I think it was a wonderful idea.
KAYE (voice over): Still, despite them wanting transparency, there is some concern about what could be made public.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there video footage from my own stuff that happened to me? Is that -- are they all sitting on that child pornography?
ASHLEY: When the FBI or the government, whoever is going through all the files, I'm like, do they see me, you know.
KAYE (on camera): Did Epstein ask all of you to recruit other young girls?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He asked me, and I did recruit.
KAYE (on camera): How do you feel about that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel so disgusting about that. I felt like I was making him happy or proud. And it was like just somebody I wanted in my corner that I could count on. I felt like he was there for me at the time. My parents were homeless.
KAYE (voice over): These women say they were all surprised in 2019 when Epstein was arrested in New York on federal sex trafficking charges. He was found dead soon after in his jail cell. Authorities ruled it a suicide.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt guilty when he died because I asked the judge not to release him, and he did.
KAYE (on camera): Even after what he had done to you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know, it is gross, right?
KAYE (on camera): Wendy, how do you explain that?
THERAPIST: That is what grooming looks like. There was a lot of, conflictual feelings when Epstein died. For many, many of the survivors.
KAYE (voice over): This week, many of Epstein's survivors will have their say in the nation's capital when they speak to the house oversight committee. They are encouraged that the focus for a change will be on them and not on Jeffrey Epstein.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really sad because he has just been glamorized, sensationalized, celebritized. Yes, he had the money. He had the mystery. He had this operation that everybody turned their cheek. It's like he just had the world under his thumb.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: And Anderson, two of the women I interviewed there are in D.C. and they plan to press Congress on this sweetheart deal that Epstein got back in 2007 and how it all came to be. They also hope that they can get a bill passed that would notify crime victims if there was a deal in the works like Epstein got, and if those victims were not notified, there would be some type of financial compensation.
But Anderson, regarding Alexander Acosta, who signed off on that deal, he testified about it during his confirmation hearing as Labor Secretary. And he said that his office decided that a plea that guarantees someone goes to jail is a good thing. But keep in mind, when Epstein went to jail, it was for 13 months on a prostitution charge in a state run facility, and he was able to leave on work release for 12 hours a day and go home. So, no doubt Alexander Acosta will have to answer to that when he testifies before the House Oversight on September 19th. COOPER: Randi, thanks very much. Coming up next, a judge rules against
the Presidents troop deployment to Los Angeles as the President talks about sending more troops to Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Chicago is a hellhole right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Later, the global summit that China hosted with Russia and India, and what it suggests about Beijing and Russia's ambition of recasting the global order at America's expense.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:23:00]
COOPER: With troops patrolling the streets in Washington and 300 still deployed in Los Angeles, the President today made it clear where else they'll be going.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Have you decided you're definitely going to send National Guard troops to Chicago.
TRUMP: I didn't say when, but the answer is, look, Chicago is very interesting because I watch Pritzker get up and say about we don't need help, were safe -- but two weeks ago they had six people murdered, murdered, and they had 24 people hit by bullets.
Last week, as you know, it was seven people, 24 people hit and seven people died. Chicago is a hellhole right now, but were going in. I didn't say when we're going in. When you lose, look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing. I have an obligation. When we lose, when 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks, and 75 are shot with bullets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We're going in, he said. He didn't say when. We do know he's expected to surge ICE and other law enforcement officers into the city of Chicago on Friday. He's also said that Chicago might not be the last of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Not that I don't have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the President of the United States. If I think our country is in danger and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, a federal district judge in San Francisco just said that he cannot do it, at least not in California, not the way he did it in Los Angeles. This morning, in the case of Governor Gavin Newsom, the Trump judge, Charles Breyer, ruled the President has been illegally using troops there in a law enforcement capacity with the intention of doing the same elsewhere. And I'm quoting now from the judge, "President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal service and other cities across the country, thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief."
Judge Breyer order bars the federal government from using troops anywhere in the state from engaging in arrests, apprehension, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants. The order takes effect ten days from now, giving the administration time to appeal, which the President says he will, and allows the 300 some troops to stay in Los Angeles pending that appeal.
Meantime, Governor Newsom late today filed papers with the court asking the judge to stop the President from extending the deployment through election day. And in Chicago, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker weighed in on crime in the city and the President's characterization of it as a hellhole.
[20:25:31]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): One violent crime is too many and we have more work to do, but we have made important progress on safety that Trump is now jeopardizing. Just during the last week, the President's absurd characterizations do not match what is happening on the ground here. He has no idea what he's talking about. There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops. He is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole. And anyone who takes his word at face value is insulting Chicagoans too.
COOPER: By contrast, Washington's mayor tonight is taking a different approach issuing an order requiring the district to coordinate with federal law enforcement "to the maximum extent allowable by law."
Joining me now, CNN political commentator and first term Trump communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, also CNN's senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig.
Alyssa, how do you think this faceoff between the President and the governor of Illinois is playing out so far?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen two things can be true at once. Chicago has a crime problem, there's no doubt and Donald Trump knows that this is a smart fight for him to pick, not just with his base, but with the country. When you hear that stat Labor Day weekend alone, seven people killed, over 20 people shot with bullets. You think something needs to be done?
What Pritzker seems to be getting right that I don't think in some of the other instances we've seen early on is acknowledge that there is a problem. It's not right or left to say we need less crime. We need fewer people to be shot in American cities. But then have the debate over how to do it. National Guard has never been the first step that we should go to. You could coordinate with federal law or law enforcement, work with the ATF, with the FBI. But again, this should be happening with the White House and with the governor of the state. And at this point, there's really been very little communication, it seems, both in Los Angeles with Gavin Newsom and the President and in this case, in Chicago.
COOPER: And, Elie, just I mean, you hear all the time about, you know, a district judge says this, a federal judge says this then gets overruled. What's going to happen here?
ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: This was a setback for Donald Trump today, but temporary and limited in scope. Trump lost -- excuse me -- Trump won the big issue, which is whether he could constitutionally send National Guard troops into California in the first place.
Today's ruling. Judge Breyer uses to reinforce this fundamental wall of separation that exists in this country between the federal military on the one hand, and civilian law enforcement on the other. And what Judge Breyer says today is okay, fine. He doesn't like the opinion, he got reversed. He doesn't like the fact that National Guard is there. But he says the way they're being used crosses over that wall. They can't be helping with search warrants and arrests and traffic stops and that type of thing.
So, it puts a limit on what these National Guards can do. Clearly, with an eye towards Donald Trump's announced intention to send them into other cities.
COOPER: There is, I mean, to your earlier point, Pritzker certainly wants to make Trump look like an authoritarian and I mean, do you think is he ready for this? I mean, is he relishing this battle, given clearly he has Presidential ambitions?
GRIFFIN: Yes, it's a big test for 2028 for Governor Pritzker, who clearly has ambitions in how he handles this, is going to matter. You can throw around the word authoritarian. I don't think most Americans like to see U.S. troops on American streets. I think it signals chaos. It makes people think of dark moments in American history, but they also don't like to hear that seven people were shot and killed over Labor Day weekend.
There is a place in the middle, and this is where it kind of comes down to the messaging wars, which Donald Trump is remarkably good at. He is good at convincing people that the way that they feel is true, that things are more dangerous than the stats may appear in these places. And so, I think Pritzker is going to need to find something better than -- we've got this under control. He needs to step up the competition.
COOPER: It's also interesting, you know, the Police Union in Washington came out attacking the stats. I mean, we're getting to an age where now no facts can be ascertained as facts because everybody just says, oh, well, the stats aren't real. The Labor Department stats aren't real, we'll fire that person. It works into the administration's favor.
GRIFFIN: There is that, I think the stats can be argued with, But there's also you can't get around people's feelings too. If people feel unsafe in certain cities, that's just they're going to be more affected by how they feel in their local community than what the macro statistics tell them.
COOPER: Elie, I mean, short of strong words, do the governor or the mayor of Chicago really have much say in this?
HONIG: Sure, they can sue, and I expect they will sue if and when Trump deploys National Guard troops into Illinois. But I really want to make this point. So far, Trump has prevailed in D.C. and California, right? The courts allowed him to put National Guard troops, but they're different. D.C. is unique. The President runs the National Guard there and in California Trump cited the then ongoing anti-ICE protest, which sometimes got violent.
[20:30:05]
And the reason Trump won in the Court of Appeals, the Court of Appeals said, well look, there are some examples of these protesters assaulting federal officers and damaging federal property.
But guess what? Trump's not going to have that hook in Chicago. Instead, he's going to be talking about those crime statistics. But I don't know, nobody knows because it hasn't come up before, but I'm doubtful that citing crime statistics is going to satisfy the emergency law that Trump has used so far.
So, yes, he's succeeded thus far in California and D.C., but the rest of the country is literally a whole different landscape, legally as well.
COOPER: Elie Honig, Alyssa Farah Griffin, thanks so much.
Coming up next, a massive show of force by China, and this is only the rehearsal. Take a look. A parade at the top of the next hour. President Trump might envy, and meetings in Beijing, that might not be anything for him or the world to celebrate about.
Also, what we're learning about the U.S. military strike on a Venezuelan speedboat carrying the administration says drugs headed for this country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:35:39]
COOPER: In China, a flex of power. The leaders of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, India, and other countries gathering for a group photo at their summit aimed at deepening their ties and showcasing what they see as a new world order. China leader Xi Jinping also meeting one-on- one with Russia's President Vladimir Putin today calling him an old friend. And North Korea's Kim Jong-un got a warm welcome as well after arriving at China's capital on his armored train. Also a rehearsal for China's massive military parade, the largest show of military might in years will kick off next hour from Tiananmen Square.
Joining us from Beijing is CNN's Ivan Watson. So what do you expect to see in this parade, and what message are these leaders trying to send to the U.S.?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I think we've just seen what's going to be an enduring image from this gathering, and that is of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping walking up a red carpet flanked by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a number of other heads of state like Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, and leaders of Kazakhstan, for example, other heads of state, all walking just seconds ago, quite literally.
And now as I see on a screen overlooking Tiananmen Square here, and they are approaching the Tiananmen Gate, the gate of heavenly peace, from where they will most likely be viewing the parade that is expected to begin at 9 o'clock, that's 9 o'clock in the U.S., 9 o'clock in the morning here in Beijing. And this is described as a massive parade that's going to have thousands and thousands of Chinese soldiers, and of course these foreign leaders viewing it.
This is a big moment for Chinese people, for some of the thousands of people who have gathered. The spectators have been watching them enthusiastically taking photos next to uniformed soldiers, taking selfies, overlooking the square. And I just can't stress enough what a massive undertaking putting this ceremony on is.
You're locking down the capital city for the most part, shutting it down and its roads, beyond the soldiers and the weapons that will be displayed on this boulevard behind me, which is known as the Avenue of Eternal Peace. You also have just an enormous amount of bureaucrats and security officers who have been working all around this to secure this ceremony to make sure that absolutely nothing can go wrong.
So a big moment as China commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II. And important to note that China was a bloody battleground for eight long years as the Japanese invaded in 1937. There are estimates of some 20 million Chinese who died throughout that long conflict. Anderson?
COOPER: And I'm -- just briefly, I mean, the images we've seen just during the practice parade, the rehearsals, I mean, the numbers of troops involved in this is huge.
WATSON: It is huge, this is a big, big show of military might, and it comes just days after the Chinese leader Xi Jinping made a show of diplomatic might by holding a -- hosting a regional summit in a nearby city of Tianjin. At that, he and the Russian President Vladimir Putin, they were calling for a new world order. They were directly criticizing a world that has long been dominated by the U.S. and its Western allies. COOPER: Yes.
WATSON: Their buzzword is a multipolar world. They want a world where they have more say in international affairs. Anderson?
COOPER: Yes. Ivan Watson from Beijing. Thank you, Ivan.
Now some new videos showing the moment President Trump says the U.S. military carried out a strike in international waters on an alleged drug boat tied to a Venezuelan drug cartel killing 11 people. The President writing on a social media site, "Let this serve as notice to anybody thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America."
CNN Military Analyst Retired Army General James "Spider" Marks joins us now. So how unusual is it for the U.S. military to strike an alleged cartel vessel in international waters?
MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, counter-narcotics operations between using both naval forces and the Coast Guard is not unprecedented. That has taken place many, many times.
[20:40:06]
And in fact, they're embedded together in these kinds of operations. They share platforms. Communications is completely wide open.
So there's a lot of rehearsals that have taken place. There's a lot of scar tissue, and there's a lot of learning that has taken place. So that by itself is not unusual.
What's unusual in this particular case is that this is a strike. Normally, what has happened as a result of bilateral legal agreements between the United States and individual nations in South and Central Americas will go after operations like this. Coast Guard will take the lead. Navy will help support, and then those guys will be apprehended and taken to somebody's court to be -- all that will be adjudicated.
In this case, it was a strike. So clearly, this was as a result of the designation of the TDA as a terrorist organization and certainly the connection to Maduro. This was a killer capture mission, and they just went right after it.
COOPER: So, do you expect to see more like this? I mean, clearly, and the fact that the President is releasing this on his social media, he wants this video to be seen, wants this message to get out. You know, there's been some talk about greater U.S. military involvement in actually fighting drug cartels in Mexico, in other countries. That's something the U.S. has always been reluctant or generally been reluctant to do, isn't it? Oh,
MARKS: Absolutely. Now, the United States has conducted operations along the border with the military men in -- on a personal level. I did that on a number of occasions as a young officer -- as a commander at multiple levels. But I did that on the U.S. side, and I did that in concert with the CBP, the FBI, local law enforcement, et cetera.
And all that we were doing was providing intelligence support. We would gather targets, we would see movement, and then we'd hand that information over to them, and they'd put their hands on whoever was conducting these operations. We were not directly involved in terms of the apprehension.
So the United States certainly has a great capacity to do that. Now, strike missions into other nations, such as Mexico, et cetera, with the designation of cartels as terrorist organizations, that certainly becomes an option.
COOPER: Yes. General James "Spider" Marks, appreciate your time. Thanks.
Up next, what the President said today about the conspiracy theories about his health, and our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me to talk about that and more.
And later, as the world marks 80 years since Japan surrendered, you'll meet a U.S. veteran who witnessed that historic moment.
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JON DELEO, WWII VETERAN: And as soon as the Japanese signed the book, "Surrender," he slammed it shut. He said, these proceedings are closed. That was the end of surrender.
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COOPER: Well, rumors over the President's health were at the forefront this weekend after he went several days without official public appearances. Much of the speculation came from recent photos showing the President with recurring bruises on his hand. Earlier this summer, the White House said the President was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition in which valves inside certain veins don't work the way they should.
But the President's unusually quiet schedule last week sparked some conspiracy theories that he was seriously ill or he even died. Obviously not true. The President addressed those concerns today.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's sort of crazy, but last week I did numerous news conferences, all successful. They went very well, like this is going very well. And then I didn't do any for two days, and they said there must be something wrong with him.
It's also sort of a longer weekend, you know? It's Labor Day weekend, so I would say a lot of people know I was very active this Labor Day.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
Joining me now CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. His new book, "It Doesn't Have to Hurt," is out just today. I'm going to talk to him about that. But, first, what you're thinking about the President's health here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, a lot of speculation. Not a lot of substance to these things, obviously. We saw him today. He did this long press conference. Seemed to be doing fine.
I think these two issues, one being the bruising on the hand and the second being the swelling around the ankles have been the things that have gotten the most attention. You know, and we've talked to a lot of doctors about this. His doctors addressed that. As you point out, they said that the swelling around the ankles is caused by something known as chronic venous insufficiency.
Blood's just not getting back from the extremities as easily. That's what happens. You get swelling. Pretty common in people as they get older.
The bruising on the hands is interesting because it's pretty significant bruising. But his doctors did address that as well. And they said, you know, he's on aspirin. Aspirin is a blood thinner. Shaking hands a lot, doing things. And people, again, as they get older, that skin gets pretty elastic. If you get a little bit of blood back there, it can spread.
COOPER: Is that also a place where people get IVs?
GUPTA: They can, yes. And so, you know, that's been one speculation as well. Is this a sort of function of recurrent blood draws, for example? Don't know that for sure, but that can happen. And when the -- when you get the blood drawn, you can leak a little blood into the skin.
COOPER: I want to ask you about the book. "It Doesn't Have to Hurt" is out today. I like that idea as a title.
GUPTA: Yes.
COOPER: What doesn't have to hurt? What --
GUPTA: This book's about pain.
COOPER: Yes.
GUPTA: And I have just become really fascinated with this. I think much of my career as a neurosurgeon is spent taking care of people in pain. But I realized a few years ago we don't really know how to measure this. Everyone's experience is so different.
And one of the holy grails here has been trying to figure out a way to make a biomarker around pain, so I could really understand your pain. And that's what some doctors in San Francisco have been trying to do.
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GUPTA (voice-over): In the fall of 2024, Ed had electrodes implanted deep into his brain.
DR. PRASAD SHIRVALKAR, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, UCSF PAIN NEUROMODULATION LAB: You're seeing here Ed's brain. And all of these little colors represent probes.
GUPTA: And there are as many neurons in your brain, if not more, than there are stars in the sky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly.
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GUPTA: It's like throwing a telescope up at the sky and just seeing what you see or hearing what you hear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's exactly, yes.
GUPTA: It's quite a daunting task.
SHIRVALKAR: And we're actually recording activity from each one of those 140 contacts to try to identify where to stimulate but identify what is the signal, the biomarker, that tracks his pain.
GUPTA (voice-over): And for the first time ever, they obtained a real- time pain map. What you're looking at is Ed's brain in pain. And then they pass an electrical current into Ed's pain centers. And watch what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both dropped to zero.
GUPTA: To zero?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
GUPTA: You don't feel pain --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I don't feel nothing. I feel my feet.
GUPTA: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like I can, but --
GUPTA: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the pain's gone. The pain's stopped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not kidding me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm kidding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not kidding. It dropped. I mean, it's barely poking at a one on both of them.
GUPTA: That's incredible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a veil lifting. And it was like a ton of bricks falling off your shoulders. It was all at once -- all that all at once. And it was euphoric.
GUPTA: But that was the first time in a long time, Ed, that you had not been in pain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's like the best drug I ever did, and I didn't do any drugs.
GUPTA: Right.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
GUPTA: I should point out, Anderson, for 20 years, basically, he had pain with no obvious injury. It's a condition known as chronic regional pain syndrome. So the pain would just be there constantly, just this lightning bolts of pain. And ultimately, I think what this showed was that pain all resides in the brain.
If your brain doesn't think you have pain, you don't have pain. And the brain can even make pain in areas where you don't even have a limb, like phantom limb pain, for example. So that's -- I think that's what these guys have really been trying to show. By predicting pain, by measuring pain, and then we saw, in Ed's case, interrupting the pain. They basically made him pain-free after decades.
COOPER: Sanjay, I look forward to the book.
GUPTA: Thank you.
COOPER: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Sanjay's new book is out, "Doesn't Have to Hurt," out today. You can also watch a special, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, "It Doesn't Have To Hurt" this Sunday, September 7th, at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
Next tonight, marking 80 years since the end of World War II and the Victory Over Japan Day, meet a U.S. veteran who served in the Pacific and witnessed attacks by Japan's kamikaze pilots.
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DELEO: He had a 500-pound bomb. He didn't create any damage because he hit the strongest part of where the ship meets it, so the steel is like that. It just bounced off.
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[20:56:49] COOPER: Eighty years ago today, the Japanese officially surrendered to the Allied Powers, including the United States, marking the end of World War II in the Pacific. Now, the signing ceremony took place on the USS Missouri. And today, on that ship, there was a ceremony to mark the occasion, including a very special group, some of the service members who watched that signing so long ago, heroes of the greatest generation.
CNN's Tom Foreman has one of their stories.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Near the thundering end of World War II, in a scrap of film that captures the moment, it's difficult to see the Japanese plane streaking toward the American battleship and bursting into flames.
DELEO: We got hit by a kamikaze.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But it wasn't hard for John DeLeo. He saw it firsthand on board the USS Missouri.
DELEO: He had a 500-pound bomb. He didn't create any damage because he hit the strongest part of where the ship meets it so that the steel is like that. It just bounced off.
FOREMAN (voice-over): That was a while ago.
DELEO: Well, right now, at the present time, I don't feel my age. I'm 99.
FOREMAN (voice-over): A boy from Rhode Island, just 17 when he joined the Navy, DeLeo was part of the original crew for the Mighty Mo, seeing battle in Iwo Jima, Okinawa, learning the ways of war and life at sea.
DELEO: I fell in love with my ship. She took me out there. She took me back. She had her curves in the right place. She had two coats of paint on her.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Amid the fighting and fear, he was homesick at times.
DELEO: The Pacific's a big place. And I really thought I could swim home. Then I figured the best I could do was make it halfway and then turn around and come back.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But DeLeo stayed on his ship and was once again on deck for one of the biggest moments of the entire war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The Japanese surrender under the watchful eye of General Douglas MacArthur. DELEO: And as soon as the Japanese signed the book "Surrender," he slammed it shut. He said, these proceedings are closed. And that was the end of surrender.
But the table that they signed on was an ordinary mess table, an old one. Could have been one I ate on.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Back home, a combat veteran at 20, DeLeo got married, raised a family, and over decades watched his old shipmates fade away.
So many that as he boarded the Missouri for what may well be his final visit, John DeLeo was among the last living witnesses to the Japanese capitulation. Among the last to truly know how this ship, his ship, and crew made history.
Tom Foreman, CNN.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COOPER: Wow, what a life.
The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
