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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
White House: Trump Acquiring Greenland is a "National Security Priority"; Interview with Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA); Whitewashing January 6th; George Conway Launches Run For Congress As A Democrat; New Concerns Over Judge In Maduro's Case; Former Uvalde School Cop Adrian Gonzales Goes On Trial; Judge Cancels Tomorrow's Testimony In Uvalde Trial After Defense Says Prosecutors Withheld Evidence; Inside The Infamous Jail Holding Venezuela's Former Pres. Maduro; White House: Trump Acquiring Greenland is a "National Security Priority"; Interview with Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA); Whitewashing January 6th. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 06, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Many fear that Greenland could be next in Trump's sights.
Some Danish rule makers have called for Europe to take a tougher stance against President Trump.
RASMUS JARLOV, DANISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT: I don't think it's strong enough. I'm afraid the Americans are not going to stop. We don't know if they're going to attack Greenland militarily or not. We will defend it and in that case we would be at war.
BELL (voice over): Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Incredible. In that case we will be at war.
Thanks so much for joining us. AC360 starts now.
[20:00:39]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360. Breaking news, just three days after the mission in Venezuela the capture of Maduro, President Trump says the country has agreed to send tens of millions of barrels of oil to the U.S.
Also, is Greenland next? New reporting the Trump administration is considering buying Greenland and the White House says that, "The U.S. military is always an option at the Commander In Chief's disposal."
And later, the White House website officially rewriting the history of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, we're keeping them honest.
Good evening, thanks for joining us. We begin tonight with breaking news. President Trump going after Venezuela's oil now that former leader, Nicolas Maduro has been deposed by the United States. Posting on Truth Social, "I am pleased to announce that the interim
authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of high quality sanctioned oil to the United States of America. This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me as President of the United States of America to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States. I've asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan immediately. It will be taken by storage ships and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States."
At today's prices for oil on the open market, a shipment of that size would be worth approximately between $1.8 billion and $3 billion. CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, joins us shortly with more on this.
Also tonight, the Trump administration stating in no uncertain terms that it is considering a variety of options on possibly acquiring Greenland and that the deployment of the United States military is not off the table. Of course, this is coming just days after the military successful capture of Venezuela's leader, Maduro.
In a statement late today to CNN, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a National Security priority of the United States, and it's vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region."
"The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal and, of course, utilizing the U.S. Military, as always, an option to the Commander-in-Chief's disposal."
Now, Greenland is more than 830,000 square miles. It's got a lot of natural resources, including rare earth minerals, which are increasingly crucial to the global economy. It's a former Danish colony and now an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Today, America's major European allies expressed support for its current status, saying Greenland belongs to its people and it's up to Greenland and Denmark to decide its future. Denmark's prime minister says that Greenland does not want to be part of the United States, but President Trump has been talking about this, as you know, for some time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We need Greenland from a National Security situation. It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of National Security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And the President's top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, said this to our Jake Tapper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, DEPUTY CHIEF-OF-STAFF FOR POLICY AND HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Greenland should be part of the United States. The President has been very clear about that. That is the formal position of the U.S. government --
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": Right but can you say that military action against Greenland is off the table?
MILLER: The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There's no need to even think or talk about this in the context that you're asking of a military operation. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, tonight, a source tells CNN that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told lawmakers that the Trump administration is considering buying Greenland and that he's downplaying concerns about U.S. military intervention in the short term.
We start tonight with Kaitlan Collins, CNN's chief White House correspondent and the anchor of "The Source."
So, the President says he'll control this money made from those 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil, and that will benefit the people of Venezuela and the U.S. Is it clear to you at all how that would work? Exactly what that actually means?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND THE ANCHOR OF "THE SOURCE": No, and I'm not even sure it's clear inside the administration what they would do with the money made from this oil. This is very real, this deal that is coming together to deliver this oil from Venezuela, tens of millions of barrels to the United States. I've been talking to some officials about this tonight, Anderson, and basically what I'm told is that a majority of this is already produced and stored in barrels right now, it's actually -- a lot of it's on boats currently. It's headed for U.S. facilities in the gulf. That's where it's going to be refined.
And they're basically making the argument that the reason this is happening so quickly is that it can't be stored for very long. It's very heavy crude that comes out of Venezuela.
But I do think the question going forward is, is this the one step of many that is going to happen going forward? Is this what the new U.S. Relationship with Venezuela is going to look like and what the President plans to do with the profits from that Venezuelan oil that he says is being handed over to the United States.
[20:05:27]
And so, those are all still big unanswered questions that we don't really know. But I think the one thing that has broken through ever since Saturday, but really, Anderson, long before that, when the President made clear that he thought Maduro should not be in power in Venezuela, is that this oil is of high importance to the President. He's in a meeting with oil executives. We are told by sources, as soon as this week at the White House. And his Energy Secretary has been working on this, and so has the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, as well.
And so, what this really is evidence of -- is just how quickly they are putting this in place. I mean, it was only a few days ago that Maduro was ousted from power and now this oil to 30 to 50 million barrels, according to the President's post, is already on its way to U.S. facilities in the gulf.
COOPER: And on Greenland, I mean, this was talked about a while ago, now, it seems back to the fore. How real is this drumbeat from the White House?
COLLINS: It's always been real. I think this is one thing that maybe has not fallen out of the headlines at points, but what I've been talking to officials at The White House, this is something that the President has been pretty consistent on since he took office. And it is something that when you speak to officials, they say he is serious about it.
And so, I think just the calculation of what's happened in Venezuela has changed peoples perspectives on this in terms of lawmakers and how seriously they're taking this.
But you hear a lot of skepticism or just, you know, sidestepping from Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill when they are asked whether or not this is even necessary, as the President argues, it's against U.S. adversaries and it's to benefit the National Security of the United States. That hasn't always been well articulated, but there have been working groups at The White House working on this very issue.
And so, we'll see how Secretary Rubio's comments to lawmakers, according to "The Journal," that they want to buy it, not invade it. It pans out because, again, we've heard from Denmark that they have said it's not for sale, and so, that would likely cause some issues. But what Rubio seemed to be arguing, according to "The Journal," is that the military bluster and what you've been hearing is to try to get those officials to work with them on actually purchasing it.
COOPER: Kaitlan Collins, thanks. We'll see you at the top of the hour on "The Source."
Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts. He's a Marine who served in Afghanistan as well as in special operations in Panama. Congressman, as we mentioned, the market price of 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil would be somewhere up to $3 billion. For perspective, the Pentagon budget is about $900 billion. The U.S. National Debt is more than $38 trillion. Does the money from that oil justify the cost of America's involvement there, militarily and otherwise?
REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): No, and I don't think either the American people or Venezuelan people are ever going to get the benefit of that money regardless. My guess is it gets closeted up in some Trump meme coin somewhere. Congress right now, Anderson really has three jobs amidst this chaos created by The White House.
Number one, we've got to prevent boots on the ground in Venezuela. We don't want jungle warfare. Number two, we've got to prevent Latin American Nations, particularly Brazil, from further drifting towards China, ironically, in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. And then third, we got to protect our alliances. We have to make clear that the military is indeed off the table in regards to Greenland.
COOPER: If this sanctioned oil deal plays out the way the President says it will, does that signal the U.S. is likely to get cooperation on access and infrastructure, from what he referred to as Venezuela's interim authorities? I mean, without further U.S. military action, I mean, do you see there being any actual change in like, the human rights situation in Venezuela? There were an awful lot of people arrested by Maduro, tortured who are in jails.
AUCHINCLOSS: No, I don't, and this is what's so alarming is that Marco Rubio is trying to project this sense of calm and competence. But to quote his predecessor, Colin Powell, from two decades ago, before the disaster of Iraq, you break it, you buy it. Well, the United States just deposed the strongman of Venezuela. They left in charge the same gang of thugs who have been helping him to brutalize the Venezuelan people and there's no plan.
The President says he wants Chevron to go drill oil. Well, Chevron is going to ask for security assistance. Does that mean that U.S. troops are going to be armed guards for a bunch of oil executives? That's not what service members signed up for. It's not going to help the Venezuelan people. There's no strategy here. And yet, Republicans in Congress continue to acquiesce to their dear leader as opposed to doing their constitutional job.
COOPER: I mean, literally, when President Trump ran the first time, I remember interviewing him way back when, more than ten years ago, and he was saying that in Iraq, the U.S. military should have just surrounded oil fields and the U.S. sucked the oil out, while the U.S. military kind of held a perimeter. That was his plan back then. Do you have any sense of I -- mean, is there a plan from this administration?
[20:10:17]
AUCHINCLOSS: What I'm hearing are the negatives. And what I mean by that is the President refused to rule out boots on the ground. Now, my boots have been on the ground in Latin America. I've seen what the tactics of jungle warfare would require.
Now, remember that two generations of the U.S. military have trained in long line of sight tactics, navigation, and close air support. You can see for long distances in the desert. Dense canopy in the jungle, very different. Our troops would be dealing with close-in combat against enemies who have grown up and practiced in jungle warfare. You would be dealing with malaria. I know RFK doesn't believe in it, but it exists.
And these are not things that this administration has planned for. These are not things that Congress has debated. These are not things that the American public supports.
COOPER: With regards to Greenland. What do you make of what you're hearing from the White House? The President has consistently said since the start of his second term, the United States needs Greenland due to National Security, Denmark is a NATO ally. I mean, if the President wanted to station additional U.S. military assets or radar stations there, I assume you could negotiate with Denmark to do so?
AUCHINCLOSS: Yes and indeed, Denmark has never rejected a U.S. request for an expanded military presence on Greenland. We're the only military presence there. I don't know what the President is talking about.
Yes, we are an Arctic power. Yes, we need ice cutters in the polar. Yes, we need to push back on Russian and Chinese expansionism in the Arctic. We can do all those things.
That's the thing about NATO is that were actually super close allies with Denmark. And this belligerence is only undercutting the united front that we need while NATO is facing two conflict points now, not just Ukraine, but also the Western Balkans. The last thing it needs is a third caused by its own member, the United States.
And this is something, Anderson, that Republicans in Congress should be able to do. They're too weak to take the President on regarding Venezuela. But goodness gracious, they should be able to say the military is off the table against a NATO ally.
COOPER: Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thank you for your time tonight.
Coming up, more on the breaking news, President Trump says millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil will be bound for America. I'll talk to the former top American diplomat in Venezuela about how that might work and how it's going to play in Caracas.
And the President and The White House, marking five years since January 6th by trying to rewrite history, we're keeping them honest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: First of all, the election was rigged. You ought to have voter I.D. You ought to insist on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:16:49]
COOPER: The breaking news tonight, President Trump posting on Truth Social late tonight that interim authorities in Venezuela, as he calls them, will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S.
Now, a shipment that size would be approximately worth $1.8 billion to $3 billion in today's oil market. The President says hell control that money for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the U.S., but other people not only in the U.S. but around the world, are asking, what's the next part of the Trump administration's plan for Venezuela now that it's actually deposed Nicolas Maduro?
The Senate's top Democrat, was fairly harsh in his criticism of the administration.
Joining me now is CNN national security analyst and former deputy director of national intelligence, Beth Sanner, and Todd Robinson, who was acting U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela during President Trump's first term until he was expelled by the Maduro regime.
Beth, is it any more clear to you tonight what the White House plan may be for Venezuela?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I mean, I think it's pretty clear that this plan is narrow, right? It is very specific about oil and taking oil from Venezuela instead of our adversaries.
I don't think that the plan goes much beyond that. And I'm not sure that this deal alone really gets us where we're going to be. It's hard for me to see how the Venezuelan leadership is going to sever all economic ties with these really important players in Venezuela. And remember, like, the regime hasn't changed except for one person on top, isn't there anymore.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, ambassador, the whole infrastructure is still is still in place to Beth's point. Is it possible that there would actually be change in Venezuela beyond just paying fealty to the U.S. and with oil?
TODD ROBINSON, FORMER ACTING U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA: I think it's going to be very difficult. I mean, the regime is still there. The security that the regime levied on the ordinary Venezuelan people is still there. I think it's very difficult to trust that they are going to do the administration's bidding on this.
COOPER: Beth, I mean, can American oil companies run large operations and invest, you know, large amounts of money to upgrade operations in Venezuela without security guarantees from the U.S. military? What would that look like?
SANNER: Well, I think that there are two sides of that equation, right? One is, is the Venezuelan government going to fight back because oil is the lifeblood of this country and also their own personal pocketbooks. And then the other part of it is, you know, will Big Oil in the United States take the kind of risks of doing large scale investment that is required, you know, maybe over 100 billion over a decade? We're talking big and long term when there are other places they could go quite nearby, like Guyana, right next door, and maybe do these investments in a much safer environment.
So, I think it's kind of complex and maybe there will be some baby steps. But to expect this to turn around in 18 months or something, as the President has said, it is just kind of hard for me to get my head around. [20:20:07]
COOPER: Yes, we're looking at sort of pictures of armed thugs, pro- government militia guys with guns you know, who were policing things in Venezuela as they were before. Ambassador, I understand you're still in touch with some of your contacts there. What's your sense of the mood there?
ROBINSON: I think there's a real sense of apprehension. People don't know, quite frankly, whether or not they're going to be safe. You know, on the one hand, you had a message from The White House saying, Venezuela was free. But on the other hand, you still have the same thugs, frankly, who were supposedly bringing security in the streets of Venezuela. They committed human rights violations. They were disappearing people. They're not talking about freeing the political prisoners, as far as we can tell.
So, the people that I know are still very concerned about what the future might hold.
COOPER: And, Beth, obviously, we've heard different explanations from the White House administration officials. Of course, the President, on why this mission to capture Maduro was carried out. I mean, everything from drug trafficking to migration to electoral fraud to oil. How problematic is it that the government doesn't really have a straight answer or a clear plan, or even who they want to be in charge there?
SANNER: Right, I mean, I think the big issue here is this, you know, when you get these different stories and you have the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and the Secretary of State, National Security Adviser Rubio with really different framings for why and what's next. It makes it hard for this operation to have legitimacy in the eyes of the Venezuelan people and in the eyes of, many Americans and certainly the international community.
And so, yes, I think that this is such a contrast to the way that George H.W. Bush had such a concise and clear message of why and what was next in the aftermath of the Panama taking Noriega.
COOPER: Yes. Beth Sanner and Ambassador Todd Robinson, thanks very much.
Up next, January 6th, the whitewash continues. The Trump administration officially rewriting the history of the violent and deadly attack on the Capitol just five years ago on their website, we're keeping them honest.
Also, prominent attorney George Conway, long an outspoken critic of President Trump is now running for Congress. He joins me just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:27:13]
COOPER: Five years ago today, on January 6th, 2021. This was the scene at our nation's Capitol. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO CLIP OF JANUARY 6TH, 2021 RIOT AT CAPITOL HILL.)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: A mob of Trump supporters lied to by the President and his allies stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the lawful certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 Presidential election. Instead of the solemn remembrance of a day that should live in infamy for all Americans today, the President continued to dodge responsibility and peddle falsehoods.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Nancy Pelosi was offered 10,000 soldiers, National Guard soldiers, whatever you want. No, I don't want them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Blaming Nancy Pelosi for January 6th is nothing new for the President. What is new is an entire page launched today on the official White House government website. That is a one-stop shop of disproven conspiracy theories and frankly, lies about January 6th, including the one about then House Speaker Pelosi.
Now keeping them honest, there's no evidence she ever turned down an offer of 10,000 National Guard troops by President Trump. In fact, it's the President, not the Speaker, who is in charge of the D.C. National Guard. There's also no evidence the President called in the National Guard, either, despite desperate pleas by his own allies to do so, including some who were under attack inside the Capitol.
There's documentation, however, President Trump, watching the violence erupt on television, "Fanning the Flames".
In the felony indictment against him for January 6th, one section reads, "When advisers urge the defendant to issue a calming message aimed at the rioters, the defendant refused, instead repeatedly remarking that the people of the Capitol were angry because the election had been stolen," went on to say, "... after advisers had left the defendant alone in his dining room, the defendant issued a tweet intended to further delay and obstruct the certification".
That tweet read in part, "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and the Constitution." That's Mike Pence right there, being hustled out of the building, down to a garage. The indictment notes that Pence was evacuated to that secure location one minute after that tweet.
The new White House website also claims that Capitol Police were responsible for escalating tensions with the mob, not the rioters themselves, who were at fault. Approximately 140 officers were injured that day, five died in connection to defending the Capitol, defending our democracy. The violence also led directly or indirectly, to the deaths of four Trump supporters. Now, the time there was outrage from all corners of the political
spectrum about what happened, here's how some in the President's party reacted on January 6th or in the days afterward, beginning with Senator Lindsey Graham, who in this moment tried but soon just couldn't quit DJT.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (D-SC): Trump and I, we've had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it.
SEN. JAMES LANKFORD (R-OK): We do not encourage what happened today.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Chaos, anarchy. The violence today was wrong and un-American.
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): There is no excuse for it. A woman died and people need to go to jail. And the President should never have spun up certain Americans to believe something that simply cannot be.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the President and other powerful people.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): The President bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:30:42]
COOPER: Five years later, the new White House webpage celebrates that mob and takes a victory lap for releasing all those convicted back onto the streets, writing, and I quote, "On his first day back in office, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued sweeping blanket pardons and commutations for nearly 1,600" what they call "patriotic Americans prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol."
Now, a number of those pardoned by the president, those "patriotic Americans," quote unquote, have not gone on to see the error of their ways. Like this man circled in the video. His name is Christopher Moynihan, and he was convicted of breaking into the Capitol. He eventually made it onto the floor of the U.S. Senate.
And I want to play a part of what a reporter captured him saying and doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's got to be something in here we can fucking use against these scumbags.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, Moynihan, who you see there standing next to the so- called QAnon Shaman, was eventually sentenced to nearly two years. Back in October, he was arrested for threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
And highlighted in this video is Edward Kelley, one of the first insurrectionists to actually breach the Capitol. He was found guilty of assaulting a police officer. He was pardoned by President Trump before he could be sentenced. He then went on to conspire to kill the FBI agents who'd investigated his case.
According to an affidavit, Kelley had a list of 37 law enforcement members he wanted to assassinate and spoke of attacking an FBI office with drones and car bombs. He's now serving a life sentence for that crime and so far has not been pardoned.
Images from January 6 appear in the new campaign video for prominent attorney and outspoken Trump critic George Conway. He announced his candidacy for an open House congressional seat in New York, which is heavily Democratic and encompasses most of central Manhattan.
Conway is running as a Democrat. He's a former Republican who gained a lot of attention criticizing President Trump. He went on to co-found the anti-Trump group's Lincoln Project and the Society for the Rule of Law. And George Conway joins me now.
I mean, it's no coincidence you chose January 6 to declare you're running. What message are you sending to American voters with that? And what do you think of this White House website?
GEORGE CONWAY (D), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: These are the lies of a criminal. The message I'm sending is that the president of the United States is a criminal. He's not just a convicted criminal. He should have been convicted for the crimes that he led on January 6, as Jack Smith demonstrated in his recent testimony.
And now, you know, you would have thought that January 6 would have been the height of his criminality. But it's worse now. He is running the United States government like a mob operation. We don't have government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have a government of the boss, by the boss and for the boss. It's all for him. And that hurts people. And it's threatening to our democracy, threatening to the rule of law.
COOPER: You're running for Congress as a Democrat. I mean, there's a lot who look at, you know, Democrats in Congress, Republicans in Congress and just see there's not much they've done.
CONWAY: Yes. And that's part of the problem. I mean, I think there are a lot of Democrats who are doing, trying to do a lot like Jamie Raskin. I want to work with him if I'm elected. But the Republicans, absolutely. You saw them on January 6. You saw them criticizing January 6.
And we saw Mitch McConnell basically say that the criminal law can take care of Donald Trump. He said that (INAUDIBLE).
COOPER: It's crazy to see Lindsey Graham there --
CONWAY: Right. COOPER: -- saying that --
CONWAY: Right.
COOPER: Lindsey Graham was just on Air Force One --
CONWAY: Yes.
COOPER: -- literally next to Trump --
CONWAY: Right.
COOPER: -- like --
CONWAY: Right.
COOPER: -- giddy with excitement.
CONWAY: They are spineless, shameless people who have abdicated their constitutional responsibility. When they take the oath of office, they have, as members of Congress, as members of the House, and members of the Senate, they have the obligation to remove a criminal president. And they had the obligation in 2021 to make sure that the criminal president who had just left office could never take office again. And they abdicated that responsibility.
COOPER: Do you think in any other -- I mean, in any other administration in modern history before, like, back in the backroom days of, you know, the old days, there has been such like kleptocracy? I mean --
CONWAY: No, no, it's not at all. And this is a man -- look, I mean, this is -- Donald Trump is a man who basically represents all the we teach our children not to be. He's a liar. He's a thief. He's a molester. He's -- he has no remorse, no shame, no empathy. And he has no loyalty to the law, to the Constitution.
[20:35:12]
He lies to people, telling them he's working in their interest. He got elected lying about how he would do something about inflation. And now he tells everybody that affordability is a hoax. I mean, this man is the lowest character of all. And --
COOPER: You want to point out just legally, he was found liable for sexual --
CONWAY: He was.
COOPER: -- abuse.
CONWAY: Yes, which which the judge found three times -- held three times would have been considered rape in any colloquial terms. And so, this criminal is running the government as a criminal operation. And the reason why I am running is because -- and I don't tend to do this for very long, I'm 62 years old and I never intended to go into public office.
Just nothing I ever wanted to do. But this is something where we need people who are willing to call this man out, willing to say he's a criminal, willing to go he -- go toe to toe with him. And we need lawyers. Because the two things that have to happen in order for us to save the republic from him is, first of all, accountability, investigating and impeaching the president and his other executive officials who are committing high crimes and misdemeanors every day as we speak.
And the second is to pass laws, legislation, carefully drafted legislation within the four quarters of the Constitution that will make sure we never have this autocratic, kleptocratic, authoritarian threat ever again. And it's a lot. But this is what we have to do, because this is -- our survival as a republic depends on it.
COOPER: George Conway, I appreciate being with us. Thanks very much.
Just ahead, exclusive new reporting on the minutes leading up to the 2022 Uvalde school shooting and what the initial officer was told the moments he arrived and why -- well, you'll hear that ahead.
Plus, what we know about the infamous Brooklyn jail housing the deposed Venezuelan president and his long list of notorious high profile inmates. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:41:26]
COOPER: Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are not expected back in court until March. There are already some concerns about the judge overseeing the case. His name is Judge Alvin Hellerstein, and he was appointed to the bench by President Clinton in 1998.
He's overseen a lot of very significant cases, including some that emerged from the 9/11 attacks. The questions being raised about him, however, are not about his qualifications, but about his age. The judge is 92 years old.
Former federal prosecutor, bestselling author Jeff Toobin argues in a piece just out of The New York Times that the judge should step aside. Jeff Toobin joins me now.
So, 92 years old. Are there a lot of 92-year-old judges on the bench?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Not zero, but not many.
COOPER: And there's no age limit.
TOOBIN: There is no. I mean, the Constitution says that federal judges serve during good behavior, which means they serve as long as they want. And there have been judges who serve into their 90s, but there has never been a judge in such a high profile demanding case as this one where -- who in that age group. It's just never happened before. And as I argue in this piece in The Times, I don't think it should happen here.
COOPER: And, I mean, the -- how difficult is a case like this for any judge? And are there any examples of this judge showing signs of his age?
TOOBIN: I don't think most civilians realize how demanding it is to conduct a trial.
COOPER: Yes, I think a lot of people think you're sitting there.
TOOBIN: You're just sitting there in your robe. You know, you have to listen to every question. You have to rule on all the objections and to rule on all those objections, you know, that go on moment to moment, you have to know the whole record of the case. And then, at the end of the day, and these are very exhausting days, you have to go back to your chambers and deal with the legal issues that come up through the course of the day. It's incredibly demanding.
This judge has a good history. He is known to be a good judge, an honorable judge, but he's 92. And in recent years, according to my reporting, he has starting to fall asleep on the bench in the afternoons. And that's something that's happened before with him. It sometimes happens with other judges.
But I think given the stakes in this case and given the importance of the case, not just in the United States, but around the world, if you have a judge who's going to be falling asleep in court, that's going to be the story that the world hears. And I think that would be a bad thing.
COOPER: It's interesting, though, because lawyers on both sides, prosecutors and defense, I imagine, would be loathe to actually raise objections unless they anger the judge.
TOOBIN: This is why it's very hard to deal with this issue of judges aging, because the people who see them are the people who have a stake in not offending the judge. And this is why I was glad to be able to write this piece because, you know, I'm no longer a practicing lawyer. I'm a journalist. I get to talk to people who see -- who saw Judge Hellerstein, you know, falling asleep.
And that's the kind of thing that, you know, that's a good value of --
COOPER: Yes.
TOOBIN: -- journalism as opposed to lawyers who have a stake in the outcome.
COOPER: It's a great piece. It's in the New York Times.
Jeff Toobin --
TOOBIN: Thanks.
COOPER: -- thank you very much. Now some new exclusive reporting about a story we have been following from the beginning about the minutes leading up to the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 kids, two teachers dead. Former Uvalde school official police officer Adrian Gonzales is on trial. He's Facing 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment.
Now, prosecutors alleging that he failed to follow his training despite being told where the shooter was before the gunman entered the school and began killing kids. Gonzales's attorneys argue only the shooter is responsible for the deaths.
[20:45:05]
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz who's done remarkable reporting, has exclusive reporting again tonight looking at what Gonzales did during those crucial moments on May 24th, 2022.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: When you guys made that entry into the hallway, there was four of you. Did anyone in that group of four say, hey, we need to go down this hallway and we need to find this shooter?
ADRIAN GONZALES, FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE OFFICER: No.
PROKUPECZ: No?
GONZALES: Yes.
PROKUPECZ: OK. Did you think about that or did it ever cross your mind?
GONZALES: It did cross our mind, you know, but we just never -- nobody ever made -- you know, we're just covering each other, you know, that's what basically we're doing.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): That's Adrian Gonzales in an interview with investigators the day after the shooting. It was video obtained by CNN through sources. Now on trial for child endangerment, prosecutors argue Gonzales should have done more to try and stop the shooting before the gunman can make entry inside the classroom.
Our team analyzed his movements using unredacted body camera and security footage after we obtained the entire investigative file. It shows opportunities to stop the gunman before he entered the classroom might have been missed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be advised, the subject has jumped the fence they're going to be in the school.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Gonzales arrives on scene here less than two minutes after the shooter began walking toward the school with an AR- 15. You can see his white cop car slow down where the gunman crashed this truck, then speed up toward the school.
The shooter at this point is still outside now in the school parking lot. As he pauses among the cars, Gonzales drives right past him.
PROKUPECZ: And when you drove through it, did you see anybody?
GONZALES: I didn't see anybody.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Gonzales continues to the school south entrance and slams on his brakes. What happens next is not captured on camera, but is recounted by Gonzales and a school coach, Melody Flores, who saw Gonzales pull up.
GONZALES: I made contact with her and she tells me they're -- he's over here. She's pointing this way. He's over there. He's dressing black. I go, where? And she goes to the teacher parking lot.
I want to say I saw a black car at that end. And then I started hearing the rounds go off and then like banging, like somebody hitting a metal door. You know, I can't see nothing because it's behind the building. I can't see it.
So, I notify everybody on the radio the best I could.
Shots fired, shots fired, Uvalde at Robb School.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): At that time, the gunman was still outside the school, firing his AR-15 at the walls. The coach also told investigators about this conversation with Gonzales. She was unable to identify which officer she spoke to during the interview.
MELODY FLORES, ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: That's when one of the cops with this car just slams his brakes there, and I'm telling him. I said, he's going into the fourth grade building. We need to stop him. We need to do something. We need to do something.
And he comes out and he's panicking, too. He's running back and forth. And I told him, I said, we need to go in. We need to stop him before he goes in.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): It's now a race to stop the killing before it could even begin. But Gonzales, armed with his Glock pistol, calls for cover and warns fellow officers to stay back.
GONZALES: Take cover, guys. Take cover. Shots fired.
Under my radio, I don't know if I brake. I said, hey, shots fired, shots fired at Robb School. And then I tell him, you know, the general location where he's at. So I start moving up, trying to get from front of my vehicle to the back. There was the only thing that was a tree and then a building.
So I started walking towards there. And then I see an officer, one of the PD officers coming. And then all of a sudden, I see like glass coming out and firing. You know, somebody firing at a glass, you know. A couple of rounds come out of the glass. And I told the PD officer, get back. It's coming from over there.
He's going to be on the west school -- on the west side of the school by those vehicles. He's wearing all black, all black.
PROKUPECZ: As the rounds are being fired, is there a reason why you don't fire?
GONZALES: Because I don't see where the rounds are coming from.
PROKUPECZ: OK. That way we can explain.
GONZALES: Yes. I know they're coming from the back over here. I just don't know where they're coming from.
If somebody could give me some cover unit over here. The back perimeter by the (INAUDIBLE).
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Gonzales does not find the shooter who has made his way to the west door, which was unlocked. The shooter is now inside, more than a minute after Gonzales arrived on scene.
GONZALES: He may be inside the building.
FLORES: And then by the time he knew it, he already had made his way into the fourth grade building. And all you heard, it was just shots, shots, shots. And I told him, I said he -- and I did cuss, you know, and I am going to say, you know, he fucking made it into the fourth grade building. He's in there already. You know, we need to do something. We need to stop him, stop him.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Twenty-three seconds after the gunman entered the school, he would use his high-powered rifle to unleash more than 100 rounds. One of the worst school shootings in American history was unfolding.
CNN analysis of body camera video from arriving officers shows that Gonzales did not enter the school for another 2.5 minutes. When he did enter, it was more than 4 minutes after driving onto the scene.
[20:50:09]
He's behind another officer and just in front of the chief of the Uvalde school police, Pete Arredondo. While officers were finally approaching the classroom from the other end of the hallway, the gunman fires at them and they all retreat, even though the gunfire had stopped. The gunman would be left alone with those children and teachers, some dead or dying for 77 minutes.
A key part of prosecutors' evidence against Gonzales is his interview with investigators, where Gonzales admits he made a mistake.
GONZALES: Now that I can sit back, I went tunnel vision, like I said, with the lady that was running. But like I said, they said she was -- they were running to the school. And that's where I saw. And, you know --
PROKUPECZ: I locked in on her.
GONZALES: -- I locked in on her. Yes, that was my mistake, but it was just the adrenaline rush going and, you know, shots fired and stuff like that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And Shimon joins me now from Corpus Christi, where the trial is taking place. I want to go back to your exclusive reporting. The fact that there was this crucial information given to the arriving officer, the shooter was still outside, has any of this come up yet at the trial?
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): Yes, it's actually interesting, Anderson. The prosecution started presenting their case today. So, obviously, they addressed it in opening statement. But it was really interesting to watch the defense team try to go through this entire timeline that we just presented and try and explain how there was so much confusion and how much -- how difficult it was really for this officer to really figure out what was going on. So it seems like the defense here right now is using this timeline, trying to use this timeline for their advantage.
COOPER: The thing I don't understand is, I mean, everybody knows the training for law enforcement in any police department is, whoever the officers on the -- first officers on the scene, you get one or two or three of them and you go in and you have to stop the shooting as soon as possible because everybody usually is killed within the first minutes.
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): Yes, and in many cases, it's not even waiting for anyone. You yourself have to go in. But the big question here is, yes, there were failures here and how they responded. But does it rise to criminal negligence? That's something that this jury is going to have to grapple with.
But, you know, Anderson, there was a major development here today that I think it's important to mention. There was a witness that was testifying, a school teacher that was testifying, and she presented evidence, new information that she had seen the shooter on the day of the shooting. And that was new to the defense. They said they had never heard of this.
And this could potentially cause a mistrial here. It's unclear if the defense is going to ask for that, but that is certainly something that they could. The judge has canceled testimony tomorrow to deal with this issue. And we'll see what the defense here does and what they ask for. But it's certainly just another moment here in this Uvalde situation for these families to have to deal with yet another significant development that really just causes so much pain for them over just how things have been handled here.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, what these families have been through.
Shimon Prokupecz, thank you very much.
Coming up, Nicolas Maduro and his wife have for now traded the presidential palace in Venezuela for this infamous jail in Brooklyn. We'll detail more about what their life behind bars may be like.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:45]
COOPER: The federal jail in Brooklyn now holding former President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores is a far cry from the sprawling palace they called home back in Venezuela. The Metropolitan Detention Center has a history of power outages and staffing shortages and living conditions that are often described as deplorable. It's also held a number of high profile detainees.
CNN's Brynn Gingras has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From palace luxury to prison hell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Venezuelans in New York are ecstatic about this.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC, is where nearly 1,300 inmates, now including ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, bide their time as they await federal trial in New York. Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried, music stars Sean Diddy Combs and R. Kelly are former MDC detainees. Accused murderer Luigi Mangione is there right now.
Maduro isn't even the first president of a country to be held there. Former leader of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez also stayed at MDC while on trial for drug trafficking charges. Inside MDC, conditions have been described as barbaric.
SAM MANGEL, FEDERAL PRISON CONSULTANT: It truly is hell. There's very little HVAC. There's very little heating. Every inmate gets one wool blanket, which means they're probably wearing the prison jumpsuit that you saw him in yesterday to sleep as well.
GINGRAS (voice-over): The Bureau of Prisons doesn't comment on current inmates, but Maduro and his wife are likely housed in a segregated area of the prison, not with a general population, in separate cells and alone.
MANGEL: His case, he is a security risk in general population. No one knows what other inmates might think of him, other gang members, other drug cartel members. So putting him in general population at any time, I think, would be a tremendous security risk for the facility.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Now, instead of being catered to according to a Bureau of Prisons handbook, their life likely includes a 6:00 a.m. wake up, with time scheduled to meet with their attorneys daily, outdoor exercise five hours a week, and daily visits by health personnel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. GINGRAS (voice-over): In recent years, judges, attorneys and activists have sounded the alarm about the horrific state of MDC, including staff shortages, stabbings and killings.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Bureau of Prisons has an obligation to take care of prisoner health and safety and is really historically quite poor at it. But, again, in this case, they better be on top of it.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, that's it for us. The news continues. I'll see you tomorrow. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. Have a good night.
