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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Faces Back-To-Back Losses On Kennedy Center, $1.776B Fund; Interview With Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA); Trump Working On Long List of D.C. Renovation Projects; Soon: Divers Resume Perilous Rescue Of Villagers Trapped In Cave; Trump's Meeting On Iran Ends Without Announcing A Decision; Iran Is Quickly Unearthing Its Huge Missile Arsenal, CNN Analysis Shows; Blue Origin Rocket Explodes On Launch Pad. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired May 29, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOSH TUREK, (D) IOWA SENATE CANDIDATE: The amazing opportunity that people would have thought would have been blasphemous to talk about a year ago is to flip the U.S. Senate, we need four seats. But we know what those four seats are. We've got a road map. North Carolina, Maine, Ohio. Seat number 51, it's right here, it's Iowa. And this isn't pie in the sky.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us on this Friday night. Have a good weekend, we'll see you Monday. AC360 starts now.
[20:00:33]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening from the Newsroom. Topping our CNN Global coverage, a string of legal setback from the President on two things he holds dear. His name on buildings and money. We start with money. Specifically, his so-called weaponization fund, which could put taxpayer dollars almost $1.8 billion of it into the pockets of people like these who stormed the Capitol.
A pair of rulings today on that one, putting it on hold, the other, according to our senior legal analyst, Elie Honig could spell the beginning of the end of it entirely.
In Virginia, a federal judge froze all aspects of the fund until she hears evidence challenging its legality two weeks from now. Now, her ruling bars, "any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the anti-weaponization fund which includes putting money into it, considering claims or making any payouts."
And in Florida, the federal judge who was overseeing the President's lawsuit against the IRS, which ended with the creation of the fund, weighed in. She directed the President, his adult sons and the Trump organization to respond to accusations about the case and how it was settled. Those accusations were made by 35 former federal judges appointed by Presidents of both parties.
They say that in suing the IRS, while he oversaw both it and the Justice Department, the President was essentially suing and settling with himself. This, they argue, amounted to collusion and fraud against the court. So, in just the space of a few hours, action in two legal challenges to the fund, House Democrats, as you know, are also pushing legislation to stop it.
Lawmakers and leaders in four blue states are working on measures to impose 100 percent taxes on the proceeds if it goes forward, because as the nation's top law enforcement official himself has admitted, nothing stops those proceeds. Your money again, almost $1.8 billion of it from going to violent insurrectionists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Well, individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill Police Officers be eligible for this fund.
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, as it makes plain, anybody --
VAN HOLLEN: Just let me know if they're eligible for the fund.
BLANCHE: As was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were a victim of weaponization.
VAN HOLLEN: Mr., let me ask you this. Are there going to be rules that say that if you've assaulted a Capitol Hill Police Officer or committed a violent crime, you will not be eligible? Why not make that a rule?
BLANCHE: I expect that, well, because I'm not one of the commissioners setting up the rules. I expect there will be rules --
VAN HOLLEN: You're appointing four of the five members, Aren't you, Mr. Attorney General?
BLANCHE: Pardon me?
VAN HOLLEN: You're appointing four of the five members?
BLANCHE: I'm appointing all four members.
VAN HOLLEN: You can finally set up the rules. I would hope you would make a --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's appointing all five, is what he said. The President can fire them all at any time for any reason. Money can go to anyone. This hand-picked panel decides the names of the recipients will not be made public. All part of a settlement agreement that the President's personal lawyer reached with the Presidents Justice Department lawyers. Democrats are calling it a slush fund, as you know and there's new reporting in "The Wall Street Journal" tonight that the President's top aides have talked about whether he should kill it.
"The journal," citing people familiar with the matter, saying this comes at the urging of more than a dozen Republican Senators including Lindsey Graham. He's not saying so in camera but other Republicans certainly have.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BRAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): You know, I represent a very minor district in Bucks and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania, and they're going to get independent minor representation. They don't like this fund.
REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): I do not want $1.00 of that going to anybody who physically assaulted police officers, period.
SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): From all outward appearances, this doesn't pass the smell test.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I do not support the weaponization fund as it has been described.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This whole thing smells.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, just to underscore the so-called weaponization fund the President wants stems from the leak of his taxes by an IRS contractor not during the Biden administration, but during the first Trump administration. The leaker was subsequently investigated, prosecuted, sentenced and jailed for the maximum sentence by the Biden Justice Department and the President did not get around to suing until he was back in office and was overseeing the agency that he was suing. So, that's a data point you should consider.
There's also today's federal court ruling, which bars him from putting his name on the Kennedy Center, as the judge put it, Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it. Short time later, the President probably caved his 580-word social media post, starting with the words shockingly, a judge appointed by Barack Hussein Obama. It ends with this, "I have instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this institution, giving them the responsibility for its operation, maintenance and management.
Joining me in the Newsroom, former Federal Prosecutor Berit Berger. Also with us, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.
Elie, how big a deal is this order from the original judge in the Trump lawsuit against the IRS?
[20:05:20]
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I think it's a turning point in the case, Anderson. Here we have the judge who's directly in charge of the case that gave us the weaponization fund, taking a concrete step towards blocking it.
Now, the reason we got the weaponization fund in the first place is because Donald Trump, private individual, sued the IRS in the Trump administration, and that case was assigned to Judge Kathleen Williams, Federal Judge down in Florida.
Early in the case, Judge Williams started asking questions. She said, is this a real lawsuit? Is this collusive? You have the same party on both sides. Shortly after that, the parties came to the judge and said, actually, we've reached a settlement, judge. You can dismiss this case. That's what the judge did.
Now, after that, we all started to learn that this was in fact, the weaponization slush fund. And importantly, as you mentioned earlier this week, a group of 35 retired federal judges wrote a letter to Judge Williams saying, you actually have the power to reopen this and block the fund if you find that there was fraud, you were given incomplete information or this was a collusive lawsuit. And in today's ruling, which just came out two hours ago, the judge said, I'm going to do just that.
There is a definitive note of skepticism in the judge's ruling. She said, I need to hear from you, Donald Trump and the administration within two weeks. Why this is not a fraud, why this is not collusive. And if the judge finds that it was collusive or fraud, she can reopen the case and she can block the weaponization fund.
COOPER: Berit, the judge wants them to address the question of "whether the case should be reopened because the court was the victim of a fraud." How extraordinary is it to hear a judge even using that phrase?
BERIT BERGER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, EASTERN AND SOUTHERN DISTRICTS OF NEW YORK: Yes, this idea of fraud on a court is not something you hear very often. And it's sort of only used in the most extreme circumstances, right? Evidence was withheld. The court was lied to, something that has this high standard. So here by saying that the court may have been a victim of fraud, the judge is really saying there was a lot of red flags about how the government handled this case.
First, that they settled for this really astronomical sum without any real clear injury to Trump or his children from this. And then second, that, you know, there are some serious considerations about whether the two sides of this litigation were actually adverse or whether they both really wanted the same thing out of this litigation, which potentially was the creation of this almost $1.8 million fund.
COOPER: And if they found there was fraud, what would that mean?
BERGER: Well, it's interesting, right? So, if there was fraud, the judge can potentially reopen the litigation, say this dismissal is no longer granted. And then say I, you know, now need more on from the party's sort of a fact-finding mission about why this isn't just a collusive litigation, which would put the burden back on the government then to have to prove why this was an appropriate disposition of the case.
COOPER: Elie, the judge made the decision in response to a filing by this bipartisan group of 35 former federal judges who we mentioned, who urged her to reexamine the case. Does that give the Trump family potential argument against reopening the standing come into play?
HONIG: So actually, this is sort of an end run around standing, which has been a problem with some of the other lawsuits, because these judges who wrote this letter, they're not parties to the lawsuit. They're not saying where parties. What they're saying is we are people who are experienced jurists. They wrote it as what we would call an amicus brief, meaning a friend of the court brief, just to let you know, judge, you do have this power and here's how you would do it. They cited the rules, and they sort of laid out a roadmap for the judge of if you have a problem with this, there's a way you can undo it and block the fund.
And today, if you look at the judge's ruling, it really just follows that roadmap. It says, I do want to go down this road, and this judge seems to have taken the advice of those former judges quite seriously.
COOPER: So, if, you know, there's this reporting in "The Wall Street Journal," Berit, that that the White House aides are discussing whether to kill the entire fund, basically in exchange for congress voting on an immigration enforcement. Even if they did that but a judge found that there was fraud, would a judge still want to know what happened? Would that be then an avenue they would go down?
BERGER: Absolutely, the government saying, okay, fine, we don't want this anymore, doesn't necessarily unwind the potential fraud that was committed against the court. I mean, just play this out to its natural consequence. If the court found that they were lied to, that they were misrepresented, that the government had essentially started this litigation for the sole purpose of getting this fund, the court could potentially order sanctions, both in the form of monetary sanctions or other kind that they could impose. So, they'll definitely still want some more of that.
COOPER: Who would a court order sanctions against?
BERGER: I mean, again, it kind of stretches your mind. It's like a law school hypo. Theoretically, it could be against the government, the IRS and DOJ who resolved the litigation and or the plaintiffs, whoever the court finds was the one to make misrepresentations. I'm not saying they will find that if they found it, the sort of end result could potentially be sanctions.
COOPER: And Elie, earlier this morning, a separate federal judge in Virginia blocked the -- or temporarily blocked the administration from moving ahead with plans to create the fund. How much does that case matter now that the judge from the original IRS lawsuit has weighed in?
[20:10:08]
HONIG: Well, they sort of dovetail because what the judge in Virginia said, and this is a lawsuit brought by a former January 6th prosecutor and others. The judge in Virginia said, okay, I want to hear arguments as to whether this whole thing is legal or not. But in the meantime, nobody does anything. I don't want the government moving forward with this commission. I don't want a single penny going out the door. And it turns out, by the way, that both of these cases are going to culminate two weeks from today, on June 12th.
So, they actually sort of make sense in concert with one another. The one judge has said while this is pending, no money goes out the door. I'm not going to trust you. Do nothing. Maintain the status quo. And now well get rulings as to whether this is lawful or not.
COOPER: Nice to have a ruling before the big Octagon showdown on Flag Day. Berit Berger, Elie Honig, thanks very much.
Coming up next, in the wake of the Kennedy Center ruling, more on that and some other new developments concerning what you might call the Presidents edifice complex.
Later, CNN has exclusive access. As the first man rescued from a flooded cave in Laos sees the light.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:15:29]
COOPER: Tonight's breaking news, a court ruled the President cannot put his name on the Kennedy Center and cannot close it for renovations. The President then throwing in the towel, saying his next step is to hand the center over to Congress to manage. It's not as though he doesn't have plenty of other irons in the fire, though. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have two jobs.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He has become a President, moonlighting as a developer.
TRUMP: I have a construction job which gives you, which is really like relaxation for me because I've been doing it all my life.
SERFATY (voice over): In his quest to remake Washington in his distinctive style and flair, President Trump has become fixated on his side gig.
TRUMP: We've done a lot of work. We've redone a great marble floors that were beat to hell.
SERFATY (voice over): Absorbed with every detail, color, material.
TRUMP: They were missing medallions. You see the medallions. SERFATY (voice over): As he prioritizes a handful of renovations and
changes across D.C.
TRUMP: So, this is a Greek more or less. It comes out of Greece.
SERFATY (on camera): All across D.C., there are projects that are popping up. President Trump is painting the reflecting pool from gray to now an American flag blue.
TRUMP: So, we're putting a beautiful surface on. It's called the coloring is it's like a swimming pool, but industrial strength.
SERFATY (on camera): He also wants to paint this pool here at the World War II Memorial.
TRUMP: On the bottom we're going to duplicate it. I think with maybe with a slightly different color. Actually, we'll go with a lighter color.
SERFATY (on camera): And in this empty circle, he's building a huge 250-foot arch, the tallest in the world.
TRUMP: We have an unbelievable arc that I think will be the most beautiful in the world being built there.
SERFATY (on camera): And this space will be the President's sculpture garden with 250 statues of historic Americans. And, of course, here at The White House, where the President has demolished the East Wing and is building a massive 90,000 square foot ballroom. And hints of another project just behind us. That's a temporary installation on the South Lawn, where the President will host a UFC fight.
SERFATY (voice over): Inside The White House, the President has also flexed his design muscles.
TRUMP: I'm going to show you, so, this is the Presidential walk of fame.
SERFATY (on camera): Now, whose idea was this?
TRUMP: My idea. Everything's my idea.
SERFATY (voice over): Built a Presidential walk of fame along the White House Colonnade. Gilded the Oval Office and paved over the Rose Garden, creating a Mar-a-Lago type patio. But Trump says ambitions are hitting multiple hurdles.
Americans are overwhelmingly unhappy with many of the changes. There's concern on Capitol Hill about the growing cost of all the construction, and the White House has been hit with at least multiple lawsuit's challenging whether Trump can move forward without proper approvals. Despite all this, Trump is pushing forward fast.
TRUMP: Department of Interior, he and his people have done a fantastic job on D.C., D.C. is looking beautiful. The fountains are almost all open. (END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY (on camera): And a source tells CNN that the President specifically waited until his second term to tackle all these projects, and he's defending them so that they can be completed as the foundation of his legacy -- Anderson.
COOPER: Sunlen, thanks.
My next guest is looking to halt one of the President's many projects that Sunlen just mentioned. The 250-foot Triumphal Arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He introduced a bill today that would block its construction and prohibit the use of federal funds for the project.
Joining me now is Democratic Congressman from Virginia, Don Beyer, who represents the district that includes Arlington National Cemetery. Congressman, thanks for being here. Obviously, a busy day in terms of pushback, legal and political to some of the President's big priorities. Can you just talk about your opposition to this arch, particularly the impact you believe it would have on Arlington National Cemetery, where I understand your parents and grandparents and sister are buried?
REP. DON BEYER (D-VA): They are all there, Anderson. Although the real concern is the tens of thousands of others, men and women buried there who gave their lives for our country. It's supposed to be a place of honor and respect and repose. People that come, remember? But the arch, which will be 250 feet tall, as you mentioned, I mean, that's half the height of the Washington Monument, two and a half times the Lincoln Memorial, right across the bridge. It will be one of the most tasteless things that we have in our lives.
COOPER: Is it all, I mean, is part of that the issue just the tastelessness of it? I mean, the enormous size, the kind of gold statuary that I mean, even the full amount of the statuary the President wanted has not been in the final project, I guess. But the, you know, the stuff on top of it as well.
BEYER: That's part of it, you know, the notion that yet another thing has to be part of Donald Trump's legacy, but it's also the airport, National Airport, the busiest runway in America is about two miles south of that.
So, planes are coming in and over it every single day, every two minutes. And then it's one of the intersections, the busiest intersections in metro Washington, the GW Memorial Parkway Memorial Bridge. It's already a traffic nightmare. You put that thing up; it will be just that much worse.
[20:20:25]
COOPER: According to "The Washington Post," The White House says that it can build the arch without legislative approval because of a recommendation to Congress back in 1924 that said, the Memorial Bridge project should include a pair of massive columns with statues on top, which never happened. White House says building the arch would be carrying out those
lawmakers wishes. For more than 100 years ago. Does that mean does that pass muster with you?
BEYER: Well, I don't think it does. Plus, in the meantime, there was a Commemorative Act passed sometime back in the Johnson days that forbid anything being done on that site without Congressional approval. But then my legislation also, we have 31 co-sponsors at the moment. It's just to make it abundantly clear that Congress does not want this to go forward without its permission.
COOPER: Your district is obviously just across the Potomac from D.C. I'm sure plenty of your constituents have gone to the Kennedy Center over the years. What's your reaction to the judge blocking the President's takeover of the institution? And then essentially the President seeming to wash his hands and turn it all over to Congress.
BEYER: I was thrilled. We saw the Kennedy Center ticket sales fell in half, and most of the really great artists who wanted to come all canceled. It had become a shell of its former self.
That doesn't mean there aren't constant need for renovations and investment, but Congress has done that and will continue to do that. But when he got to be sworn in again, he fired everybody on the Kennedy Center Board, put all of his own people on it, and they just rubber stamped what he wanted to do.
I was thrilled with the judge's decision today.
COOPER: So, what do you think, will those people who were on the board, I mean, if he turns this over to Congress, what do you, what does Congress do? Will they appoint their own board? Or do all those people who are on that board remain?
BEYER: At the moment, I think they'll all remain. I believe there's already legislation in Congress to have Congress appoint the members of the board, or to mix it up, where Congress appoints two thirds and the President appoints a third. Something much more typical for our national boards.
COOPER: And I'm wondering what you say to those who look at all these things the Kennedy Center, the reflecting pool, the ballroom say, well, look, that's Trump being Trump does that risk minimizing what all this means for the identity of Washington?
BEYER: Well, it does, but even worse, Anderson, is there are so many other things he should be doing with his time, rather than picking up how many gold statuettes he can have in his office. I mean, we have an affordability crisis. We have millions of Americans losing their health care. We have an unresolved war in Iran. There's a lot of things the President should be doing other than deciding what color the reflecting pool should be.
COOPER: Congressman, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
BEYER: Thanks, Anderson. COOPER: Another project with connections to team Trump is facing a
hiccup. At least five artists are pulling out of a concert series this summer on the National Mall in Washington and celebrate America's 250th anniversary as part of the great American state fair. There are issues what several call it's political links. We put the red "X" next to those who have canceled after the partial lineup was announced. Country music star Martina McBride; rapper, Young M.C., The Commodores, Morris Day and The Time and Poison frontman, Bret Michaels.
The concert series is being run by Freedom 250 a White House organization launched by executive order of the President. Among those explaining why on social media is Young M.C. who will, "bust a move" like his 90s hit and skip the event, says the artists were never told about any political involvement with the event.
McBride says in part, "Things started changing and what we were told is in fact not what is happening." And Michaels won celebrity apprentice in 2010 and has supported the President in the past writes, "Unfortunately, what was presented to us as celebration of our country has evolved into something more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of." But Vanilla Ice is still set to perform.
Next, exclusive CNN reporting as the first of five known survivors is taken out safely after more than a week in that flooded cave in Laos and the others could be in just hours.
Also, with the President weighing a deal to end the war in Iran, a new assessment of just how much of Iran's missile capability may have actually survived the air campaign.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:28:32]
COOPER: The first survivor has been rescued from a flooded cave in Laos. You're looking at some incredible video of that man taking his first steps outside. He says he's feeling strong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUED, SURVIVOR speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: My name is Mued. I'm all right, I'm still strong.
(RESCUER speaking in foreign language.)
TRANSLATION: We'll move on to the next chamber.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Rescue operations to save four more men are set to resume around 10:00 P.M. Eastern tonight. The villagers became trapped in the cave by flash flooding over a week ago. Now, the journey to rescue them has been incredibly difficult. The stranded men are over 800 feet from the caves entrance, down a cramped, sloping tunnel. Rescuers also have to contend with pitch black darkness. The conditions are very miserable. CNN's Will Ripley is exclusively reporting from the scene.
Earlier, he interviewed one of the Thai divers on the rescue team by phone about the status of the operation early.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOCHA OLARN, CNN PRODUCER: All the divers and rescuers are very, very tired. So, the guys that he retrieved today has some problem with his, hands and foot because of it's been in the water and damp area for a long time. And he has some problem at his stomach. He says that this is one of his most difficult job that he has to do as a rescuer in his entire career.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And Will Ripley joins us now. So, I understand rescue operations are expected to resume shortly. What have you seen?
[20:30:02]
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we actually are staying at an area where some of the divers are and they've been assembling this morning. They're going to be heading over to the rescue site. There are other divers that have actually been camping out on the site and they're going to go back into the cave once they come up with their game plan.
They're basically -- they've set up this kind of pulley system where there's two divers that go in and then they take a villager. The plan is at least they'll have one diver in front, one diver behind. So when they try to go through this pitch black, ice cold water, which stretches for about 100 feet from the chamber that the divers in to the next chamber where they can then get out and prepare for the rest of the climb, the 800-foot climb at sometimes at a 45 degree angle to get to the cave.
Basically, if there's -- if the villager is to panic or tries to pull, which can often happen during diving rescues, which can be fatal, it can cause fatal accidents. They'll have two divers to try to maintain and stabilize that situation. Obviously, it's very touch and go.
None of these villagers have any experience with this particular type of diving equipment. And they were telling me last night, even if they were to like smile and kind of move their mouth just a bit, this muddy water could flood in, they could drown.
So it's really -- it's not a guarantee. The divers said, frankly, that everybody that the remaining four are going to make it out alive, but they're going to do everything they can to try to keep the situation inside the cave, very calm and controlled, try to make sure that they're in good spirits and have the right mindset before they undertake basically something that never had to do in their lives.
This very, very sensitive and difficult dive followed by a very physically arduous climb, which of course faces its own challenges to try to have to pull yourself up out of a cave after you've been trapped underground for 11 days with very limited food and health problems, it could really be a very dangerous situation for these four villagers who need to be rescued. And it's really unclear whether all of them will be able to get out today.
COOPER: What do we know about the conditions of those still trapped in the cave? And there were two others who they hadn't found. Are those guys still missing?
RIPLEY: Yes, those two are still missing. It's unclear where they are in the cave. If they are in the cave and divers say they just -- they don't know because they haven't been able to go down far enough to the chamber where they were doing the gold mining before these monsoon rains broke out 10 days ago.
They were there -- that's an area that's been too dangerous for the divers to access. So they don't know if they are still there. Obviously they would have now gone 11 days without any food, without any medical care and the chances of finding them -- and finding them alive are growing slimmer really by the hour.
As for the health conditions of those who are still alive, frankly, they're not in good shape. They've got, in some cases, digestive issues. They've had problems with their skin. They're also reporting problems with breathing because the air in the cave is quite rancid. There are things that are decomposing. So they're breathing in a lot of toxins that have even made some of the rescuers sick.
So the -- it really is urgent to try to get them out of the cave as quickly as possible, but it's just not going to be possible to do quickly because each individual villager, it could probably take several hours for each one to get out and they have to go one at a time. You can't do it multiple --
COOPER: Yes.
RIPLEY: -- because the -- some of these caves are so narrow, you're talking about 23 inches across. They're going to have to basically crawl on their side to get through these spaces.
COOPER: Yes. It's incredible what these divers are trying to do.
Will Ripley, thanks very much.
After saying he was going to the Situation Room to make what he called the final determination on a potential deal to end the conflict with Iran, the President emerged this afternoon with nothing to announce. Several hours later at 6:00 p.m., the White House put out the following brief statement, quote, "The Situation Room meeting has concluded, lasted approximately two hours. President Trump will only make a deal that is good for America and satisfies his red lines. Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon."
They've said nothing since. Meanwhile, as for what the U.S. could be facing, should all-out fighting resume, a new CNN analysis shows that Iran is quickly digging out its vast underground missile arsenal, which was buried by American and Israeli airstrikes. CNN's Tamara Qiblawi reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR REPORTER (voice-over): These are recent satellite images of Iran's missile bases, taken after the start of the ceasefire with the U.S. and Israel. Dump trucks and excavators digging through piles of rubble along the mountainside. But it's what lies beneath the surface that makes this significant.
A vast stockpile of missiles trapped by U.S. bombs and likely intact, according to weapons experts, with satellite images showing Iran quickly regaining access to them, casting doubt on U.S. President Donald Trump's claims of having all but vanquished Iran's formidable rocket arsenal.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces. Very few of them left.
QIBLAWI (voice-over): CNN previously identified a pattern of U.S.- Israeli strikes to put Iran's missile complexes out of commission, not by destroying them, but by blocking the tunnel entrances leading in and out of them, leaving the rockets trapped inside and severely hampering Iran's ability to wreak havoc on U.S. allies in the region.
[20:35:00]
But that was only a temporary solution. Iran is already undoing the effects of that strategy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has acknowledged that Iran has been repairing the damage.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You are digging out your remaining launchers and missiles with no ability to replace them. You have no defense industry.
QIBLAWI (voice-over): But the recovery is widespread and it is happening quickly. CNN looked at 69 tunnels across 18 underground missile bases. At least 50 of those access points appear to have been cleared, and many others are being repaired.
Take this base in Western Iran. Just weeks ago, U.S.-Israeli fighter jets destroyed all four entrances to the underground complex, but now, two of them appear wide open. The roads needed to wheel out its trapped rocket launchers repaved.
And Iran is already in the process of clearing the remaining two. It's also repaired some of the more than a dozen craters left behind by U.S.-Israeli munitions. The craters indicate that a large amount of firepower was used to destroy just two tunnel entrances.
And all Iran needs to reopen them? Dump trucks and bulldozers. As Iran rallies around the missiles that survived the war, weapons experts say it will continue to come up with new ways to protect its arsenal from any renewed U.S.-Israeli bombing. Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: In response to a request for comment on our reporting, the Pentagon referred CNN to a previous statement. It reads, "America's military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place the President's choosing. We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests."
Up next, a massive blast and a serious setback for Blue Origin's rocket program during a ground test at Cape Canaveral. Kara Swisher joins us to talk about the larger impact.
Also, an exclusive interview with an American doctor exposed to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He shares what he's facing in quarantine.
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[20:41:14]
COOPER: You're looking at the massive explosion of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket last night in Cape Canaveral. No one was hurt, thankfully. Jeff Bezos says that his rocket company, Blue Origin, is working to find the cause of the explosion, the root cause.
The same rocket had an issue in April when it failed to deliver a satellite far enough into space, causing it to burn up in Earth's atmosphere. Blue Origin currently has hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts with NASA, including the newly announced Moon base plans and the Artemis III mission. NASA's chief, Jared Isaacman, said the agency will assess near-term mission impacts.
CNN Contributor Kara Swisher is with me now. I mean, this is obviously a terrible thing for the company. How big of a setback --
KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes.
COOPER: -- do you think it is for Blue Origin?
SWISHER: Well, it's not great because they don't have as many rockets and this was a big deal for them to get these satellites. They need to get up for their LEO installation of satellites around the globe to compete with Starlink, among other things. Everyone focuses on the Moon and Mars.
But a lot of this is about satellites, putting satellites into space. And Amazon is promising a lot of different things along working with Blue Origin to do this. So it's a real problem because there's not a real competitor to Starlink, which is the satellite part of SpaceX. And this was an effort to catch up, and they had been catching up in a lot of ways. But this is a setback. COOPER: It's interesting because, I mean, Elon Musk has talked about, you know, explosion. I mean, SpaceX has seen a number of explosions as well.
SWISHER: Yes.
COOPER: And he sort of chalks it up to, like, this is what happens. He actually posted on social media about the Blue Origin explosion. He said, "Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard." He also said, "Sorry to see this. I hope you recover quickly."
What are the dynamics of the space race between SpaceX and Blue Origin? How much are they actually in competition?
SWISHER: Well, nobody's competing with Starlink right now and SpaceX at this moment. It doesn't mean there's not efforts like this one by Blue Origin underway because it's a great market to get these satellites up there and get these communications, these advanced communication systems and do things for the government and things like that.
And so everybody wants a competitor. And of course, Jeff Bezos is very competitive. The problem here is Elon blows up rockets all the time. That's why he was saying it that way, because they've had a lot of problems with their big -- they just this week had one or last week.
And sometimes they're successful, but often they blow up. But unfortunately, this one blew up on the launch pad, which isn't great because Bezos has been spending a lot of money on -- like $1 billion on that launch and reviving a NASA launch pad. I think it's at Cape Canaveral.
And so that's a problem because they'll have to build the launch pad. And I don't -- they don't have another one for these big rockets. They have some small rockets and things like that that can take up fewer satellites. But this is a real problem. I mean, it would have been better if it had taken off and blown up in the air, really, because this is a real setback. It'll take a while to rebuild.
COOPER: And SpaceX is expected to go public on the Nasdaq in two weeks.
SWISHER: That's right.
COOPER: I know you've been very focused on this. Obviously, companies go public all the time. What makes SpaceX different?
SWISHER: I don't know if it does. I mean, they've got a lot -- it's a -- you know, as Professor Gallon (ph) and I have talked about, there's a real math problem here. There's a really successful Starlink business. There's a rocket business that's not as successful in terms of finances. And then there's a money furnace of XAI, and they're thinking of adding Tesla onto it.
So he's shoving sort of a lot of questionable companies in with some promising ones, which is very typical of him, and which I predicted last year, and they made fun of me. But here they are doing it. So, I mean, they need to go public. This is really important.
There's some daisy things in there, like they buy -- SpaceX buys cyber trucks for unknown reasons. It's sort of -- there's a lot of questions about governance. Basically, Elon Musk is the monarch of this company, and it's going to be a public company, which is unusual.
[20:45:02]
COOPER: Kara Fischer, it's -- Kara Swisher, it's always good to talk to you. Kari --
SWISHER Thank you.
COOPER: -- I almost call you Kari Fischer.
SWISHER: Kari Fischer, people have done it a lot.
COOPER: I know, well --
SWISHER: Yes, I should put something on my head.
COOPER: She's pretty awesome. She's awesome, too.
SWISHER: Yes, she is. She was.
COOPER: Yes. She was, indeed.
Kara, thanks very much. Have a good weekend.
Now, some new and worrying developments in Central Africa's Ebola outbreak. Today, a World Health Organization official estimated the fatality rate is 30 to 50 percent, but 1,000 people have died so far, mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Separately today, Kenya's high court temporarily froze U.S. plans to set up a quarantine and treatment center there for Americans potentially exposed to the virus. Earlier this month, Peter Stafford, you know, an American doctor working in the DRC who tested positive, was evacuated to Germany for treatment.
Another U.S. national with high-risk exposure was transferred to the Czech Republic for care. His name is Dr. Peter LaRochelle. Both he and his wife and family, a nurse practitioner, have been living in the DRC since 2015. We spoke shortly before airtime.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Doctor, first of all, how are you doing? And are you still asymptomatic?
DR. PETER LAROCHELLE, AMERICAN DOCTOR EVACUATED FOR EBOLA EXPOSURE: I am. I'm doing great. No symptoms. Tolerating this, the bio box, quite well. So -- and thrilled that Peter's doing better.
COOPER: And the facility you're in, what is -- the, like, the room you're in, I can hear kind of air vents, is that -- are they pumping air in? I saw a picture that there's kind of a spot for arms with gloves that can go over you in case you need medical attention.
LAROCHELLE: Yes, I can give you a tour, but it's --
COOPER: Sure, yes.
LAROCHELLE: -- basically three rooms. I'm in one of them. So here's my bathroom, bed, fridge.
COOPER: And those giant yellow stripes, is that like plastic -- I mean, is there plastic coating over everything?
LAROCHELLE: I think it's like PVC or it's almost like rafting, whitewater rafting material.
COOPER: But you're like in a plastic room inside a room. Is that right?
LAROCHELLE: Yes, exactly. It's something -- it looks like it's something that's mobile that they can set up in a different place. And so there's the room I stay in. I think I can go in the room next to me where they have the stretcher, the isolation stretcher that I came in.
And then there's a decontamination room where they have to -- after coming in here, they have to shower, I think, in bleach water for like 20 minutes.
COOPER: And how often are you able to talk to your wife, to your kids, to colleagues back in DRC, in Congo?
LAROCHELLE: Every day, multiple times a day. So, yes, I talk twice a day with my wife. And then pretty much the whole day is spent communicating either text or phone calls with colleagues in Congo.
COOPER: What is the situation you're hearing from them in Congo?
LAROCHELLE: It's really confusing. I have a hard time knowing exactly what's going on on the ground. It's a lot of patients. There's been a lot of waiting, not knowing whether, you know, this is malaria or Ebola. There's been frequent lack of PPE at the hospital.
So, you know, the other day we were contacted by some of the nurses and doctors at Nyankunde, and one of their colleagues was bleeding, but they didn't have any PPE. They couldn't go in and help them. And so just messages like that are pretty brutal.
And so I've spent a lot of time trying to source PPE and understand why it's not arriving at the hospitals. And, yes, but it's been difficult.
COOPER: I mean, it's amazing to me that you're in isolation, and yet you are still trying to help folks on the ground there. You've lived in DRC Congo with your family, what, 11 years? Is that right?
LAROCHELLE: Yes.
COOPER: Can you just -- I think there's a lot of people who don't -- I mean, can't imagine that and don't even maybe understand your calling. And I think not only is medicine a calling, but your faith. Can you just talk a little bit about why you want to do this work? Because this is not your first brush with Ebola.
And it's heroic that you have -- I mean, your entire family lives there. Your kids are growing up there. Can you just talk about what kind of the calling you have?
LAROCHELLE: I think for multiple reasons we felt called. You know, I think we are called to take risks for other people. I don't think there's anything good in human life without risk. And I think the Congolese are worth that risk.
But there's also a lot of really good, beautiful things. So we have not generally felt like we're sacrificing, other than sacrificing family and friends. It's been a joy to live in Congo. There are certainly times of difficulty, though.
[20:50:16]
COOPER: And just finally, I know you talked to Dr. Stafford. You've worked with him closely. How is he doing?
LAROCHELLE: He is doing really well. You know, still weak a bit. But he's now had a negative viral load, I think, for three days now, at least two days. He's up and about, trying to move around more.
No -- hasn't had a fever, I think, since maybe the day he arrived. So we're thrilled.
COOPER: Well, Dr. Patrick LaRochelle, I really appreciate your time. And I'm glad you are doing OK right now. And I thank you for all the work that you have done and will continue to do. Thank you.
LAROCHELLE: Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: You can watch my full interview with Dr. Patrick LaRochelle on Instagram at andersoncooper360.
Coming up, a new Scripps spelling bee champion is crowned. I'll talk to 14-year-old Shrey Parikh, who won the title after he pulled off a record-setting final lightning round.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Torrone
SHREY PARIKH, 2026 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMPION: T-O-R-R-O- N-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enthymeme.
PARIKH: E-N-T-H-Y-M-E-M-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iguape.
PARIKH: I-G-U-A-P-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Denebola.
PARIKH: D-E-N-E-B-O-L-A.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fais-dodo.
PARIKH: F-A-I-S-D-O-D-O.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shrey, you are the two-time (INAUDIBLE). Congratulations.
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[20:55:47]
COOPER: An incredibly impressive win at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The 14-year-old champ correctly spelled 32 words in a nail-biter of a 90-second spell-off. Here's some of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Melengket.
PARIKH: M-E-L--E-N-G-K-E-T.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Teraglin.
PARIKH: T-E- R-A-G-L-I-N.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Homelyn.
PARIKH: H-O-M-E-L-Y-N.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Shrey Parikh, the 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, joins me tonight. Shrey, congratulations. I know last night came down to a spell-off, which you weren't thrilled about, but I just want to play a little bit more of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So your first word is torrone.
PARIKH: T-O-R-R-O-N-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enthymeme. PARIKH: E-N-T-H-Y-M-E-M-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iguape.
PARIKH: I-G-U-A-P-E.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Denebola.
PARIKH: D-E-N-E-B-O-L-A.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So were all of those words that you already knew in -- I mean, that you had, you know, I guess, practiced at some point in your life? And or -- because, I mean, you're thinking -- you're answering them so fast, you can't have been waste, you know, spending a lot of time figuring out, like, you know, the various parts of the word.
PARIKH: Yes. I had definitely seen those -- most of those words before because I had, like, encountered them while studying. So --
COOPER: Right.
PARIKH: -- yes, I -- those words, I was not figuring out on the spot. I kind of just knew the words.
COOPER: So do you -- I mean, how many words do you think you have studied over the course of your long life?
PARIKH: That's hard to say, but I've probably done like around 160,000 words that --
COOPER: Wow.
PARIKH: -- are unique. So, yes.
COOPER: And how many of those do you think are in your head still that you could spell out?
PARIKH: Probably like around 158,000-ish. So, you know --
COOPER: Wow.
PARIKH: -- I think I could get most of them.
COOPER: Wow. Do you have a favorite word or favorite word to spell?
PARIKH: So one of my favorite words to spell is zyzzogeton.
COOPER: Say -- can you just say that again?
PARIKH: Zyzzogeton
COOPER: What does zyzzogeton even mean?
PARIKH: It's like a genus of South American leafhoppers. COOPER: Huh. OK. How do you spell zyzzogeton, zyzzogeton?
PARIKH: Zyzzogeton --
COOPER: Z-I-Z? Z-I-Z?
PARIKH: Close. Z-Y-Z-Z-O-G-E-T-O-N.
COOPER: I would -- yes. I would never have gotten that. Let me play another moment from the spelling bee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bhubaneswar is the only pran (ph) I have. It's a geographical entry. It is a South Asian geographical name. And Bhubaneswar is a city in eastern India, south of Cuttack. Bhubaneswar is the capital of the state of Orissa and is known as the temple city for its abundance of temples.
The start of that second syllable. Bhubaneswar. B-H-U-B-A-N-E-S-H-W-A- R.
PARIKH: Bhubaneswar, B-H-U-B-A-N-E-S-W-A-R.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is correct.
PARIKH: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's so cool. So when you're asking those questions, how much of that is buying for time and how much of it is, like, trying to get clues that actually will be helpful? And were there certain clues that he told you that were -- that actually helped you?
PARIKH: So, definitely. So when I ask questions, it's kind of a mix of both just calming myself down as well as gaining info that would help me with the word. So especially with that word, the information that it was like a place in India was really helpful because I was able to use some language patterns to kind of sort out the places where I had doubts.
So, you know, it helped calm my nerves as well as kind of consolidate the spelling that I had in my head.
COOPER: Shrey Parikh, it's really an honor to talk to you. It was just incredible to watch. And I know it's the result of a long, I mean, years and years of hard work and studying. So congratulations.
PARIKH: Thank you. Thank you so much.
COOPER: That is so cool.
Well, that's it for us. I hope you have a great weekend. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. I'll see you Monday.
