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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Refuses to Sign Housing Bill, Demands Action on Voting Bill; Interview with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); U.S. Park Police Seeking Help Identifying Person Seen in Video at Reflecting Pool; Trump Says Reflecting Pool Vandalized, Will Need to Be Drained; Trump Kicks Off Great American State Fair With Rally on National Mall; Deadly Heatwave Smashes Records, Broils European Cities; Powerful Earthquakes Hit Venezuela. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 24, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: ...upended, that now there could be something like this that could work. And that was, thanks to the great reporting of our Elex Michaelson there on the ground in the Palisades. And thanks so much for joining us. You can check us out on X and OutFront, CNN, and also were on Instagram and TikTok, Erin Burnett OutFront, thanks so much for watching. AC360 with Anderson Cooper begins right now.
[20:00:26]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening from the Newsroom. President Trump is soon taking the stage to kick off the great American State Fare on the National Mall. Tonight's festivities are being built as a celebration that will "bring together Americans from across the country."
It comes on a day when President threw down the gantlet with his own party. He was set to sign a landmark bipartisan housing bill that Republicans hope to run on this fall. His own White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt late last night called it, "one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history."
She went on to say, "... tomorrow's historic bill signing is another promise made promise kept." If that was a true statement, then today a promise was broken. He canceled the signing, posting this on social media, "Today's housing news conference and signing is hereby canceled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA Act, which I consider to be a national emergency.
The SAVE AMERICA Act, which critics say will make it harder for millions of Americans to vote, has become the legislative priority for President Trump, even as allies contend it has no chance of passing the Senate.
He canceled the Housing Bill, signing just 90 minutes before the ceremony, there was a podium set up a desk, both with the Presidential seal already there. House GOP leadership was in the middle of a press conference actually touting the bill at the very moment the President canceled his plans to actually sign it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. FRENCH HILL (R-AR): Let's show the American people how you bring together and do something on a bicameral basis. And we did that, and we did that in conjunction with President Trump and his priorities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the bill has bipartisan support in the senate. Republican Tim Scott and Democrat Elizabeth Warren led negotiations before canceling today's event. The President called the bill Warren Centric.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Americans are paying more for groceries, more for health care, more for electricity, more for housing and this was at least one chance to push back against that. And Donald Trump, we got all the way to the finish line. And like a petulant child, he says he's not going to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The President had a closed-door luncheon with Senate Republicans after his surprise announcement. He emerged from it speaking of party unity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think we had a really great meeting, and we're very proud of the party. We like our leader; we like everybody really in the room. I don't like a few people, but that's okay. I think you know who they are, but we, I'll give you that information someday. But for the most part, we have a really well unified party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Republican Senator John Cornyn came out of the meeting saying, "The President closed by preaching unity, but he spent the entire hour talking about things which were not exactly unifying." Senator Bill Cassidy, who helped pass a resolution yesterday to limit Trump's Iran war powers, described a tense exchange with President over the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I felt like I was trying to get answers for the American people, and I'm not going to be bullied when I'm trying to get answers for the American people. And so, it escalated from there, at some point it de-escalated.
REPORTER: We're told the President called you a lunatic.
CASSIDY: Can I imagine that the President called me things that would be set on a school, on a playground? Yes, I can imagine that. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Cassidy, who has become one of the President's sharpest critics after losing his primary to a Trump backed candidate, also said he and the President shouted at each other.
As far as the Housing Bill late today in the Oval Office, the President was asked if he would veto it, and he did not rule that out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I said, I'm not signing that Housing Bill is -- I made billions of dollars with housing, I know housing better than anybody maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rate, lower the interest rates, you can have all the housing you want. We're doing well with housing, but where were really doing well is oil is plummeting and costs are coming down. Affordability, we're doing great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Joining me now is, CNN chief White House correspondent and anchor of "The Source," Kaitlan Collins. So, what are White House officials saying behind the scenes about why President Trump did this and what comes next.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN'S CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND THE ANCHOR OF "THE SOURCE": I mean, mainly, Anderson, because the President does what he wants, and they're not really sure what's going to happen next, because it was a lot of these White House officials who were pushing this bill and advocating for it and trying to get it passed, because they very clearly realized what the poll numbers look like, and that we are only a few months away from the midterm elections. And they realize that something like this is something that would help the President they believe that's why they organized this entire signing ceremony to happen on Capitol Hill today.
They had already put all the infrastructure in place for that to happen and obviously, as we know, the President likes to sign things publicly, especially things that they want him to get credit for.
And so, when the President tweeted that he was calling it off today, it was obviously a surprise to a lot of White House officials, not those close around him, especially after last night when he was calling it this Warren-Centric Bill was sounding very down on it and was basically arguing, that he actually doesn't think this is going to do that much for making affordable housing more affordable and more accessible. That instead, he believes the solution to that is to lower interest rates, and that is a message directly to his new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh.
[20:05:38]
And so obviously, this is the position they're now in. But, you know, Anderson, at that lunch today, a lot of the Republican Senators walked into it thinking they were about to get an earful from Trump on the SAVE AMERICA Act, something that he has been talking about nonstop, that he has been going off on John Thune about publicly, privately saying if he was a leader, he'd get the votes in order to pass that.
They were expecting to get that. And the votes just aren't there for that. But instead, the President came in and the main thing that he was incensed by, based on a Senate Republican I spoke with, was the war power's vote that happened last night. And that stands out in and of itself, because the White House really downplayed that vote when it happened and said, you know, it's not really enforceable, it's not going to really do anything when it comes to what's happening with the war in Iran.
But the President himself clearly saw it as a major rebuke from his own party. And he was so angry at those republicans who crossed over, obviously got into a shouting match with Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. And I think a lot of this, Anderson, has to do with what happened in New York last night and the victories that Mayor Mamdani is getting credit for, for the people he backed, because the President is seeing these Democratic wins.
And obviously, there's so much consternation about the fact that democrats could take back the majority come November. And that's why he's pushing the Save Act, torpedoing a bipartisan bill, a bipartisan bill that would have actually, you know, the White House believes, been good for him to run on in the next several months. The President doesn't believe that's a winning message and clearly didn't think that that bill was worth signing today.
COOPER: Kaitlan Collins, thanks very much. We'll see you at the top of the hour for the source. Kaitlan is going to speak to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.
With me here now in the Newsroom, S.E. Cupp, host of the "Off the Cupp" podcast. And joining us, former Trump campaign adviser David Urban and former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod. Axelrod, does it make any sense for President Trump to refuse to sign a bipartisan bill aimed at making housing more affordable?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: None and I can only imagine how people who are on the ballot and have competitive races in Congress felt about what happened today because they need a boost when it -- affordability issue. Right now, the President's grades on that issue are very low and there seems to be no action coming out of Washington to help, only to hurt. And this was an antidote, at least a partial antidote to that and it was on impulse.
Right now, we have this period of governance by tantrum and impulse and it hurting the President and his party. So, it's really inexplicable, and I can't imagine the conversations that are going -- hill and even within the White House tonight about what to do.
COOPER: Yes, David Urban, I mean, it's a political gift for Democrats, isn't it? I mean, the President now on record downplaying a major piece of bipartisan legislation that could make it easier for Americans to buy homes in the middle of an affordability crisis.
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, you know, Anderson, I think the President hurt himself here, not just Democrats, excuse me, not just Republicans at large, but if the Republicans want to fight back and have a chance at holding the House, and there is a chance that we're pushing a big rock up a hill because of the structural impediments we face in the midterm election.
You know, this is the kind of things that need to happen. We need to pass these bipartisan kinds of easy bills, right? This is wildly popular amongst, you know, both parties. It's something that would have been a nice win for the for this administration, which people could have campaigned on and which makes the House less likely to flip and there be less oversight of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump does not want to see those Mamdani backed candidates, those three Democratic Socialists, that won last night, you know, with a, you know, a subpoena power, right. And that's what's going to happen if Democrats take over in the House. And so, by doing what he did today and kind of stepping on his own message, you know, it really, in fact, hurts the President just as much as down ballot Republicans.
COOPER: Well, S.E., I mean, Republicans would like the conversation today to have been about Democratic Socialists on the slate that Mamdani supported in New York and that's not the conversation.
S.E. CUPP, HOST, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Republicans got a huge gift last night, and they are aware of it. And then Trump sort of swatted that gift away today by canceling this vote. Republicans want to go home and brag about something, and they have nothing to brag about.
We're in a war that no one asked for, with a resolution that most people don't think is good. Tariffs have wrecked the economy. Donald Trump's out there talking about reflection pools and ballrooms and arches, they want something to go home and celebrate, and he just yanked that away from them.
And I've been saying this for, I don't know, the better part of ten years that Donald Trump doesn't really care about voters, but he also really doesn't care about lawmakers and the health of the Republican Party or the majority, because he keeps screwing them on a daily basis. This was such an easy gimme.
It was bipartisan all he had to do was sign it. All the work was done. This was a huge issue that he ran on in 2024, one of the few economic wins he could point to, and he decided he had other things on his mind.
[20:10:58]
COOPER: You know, David Axelrod, it was interesting talking to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan last night about their new book, "Regime Change".
They were saying, you know, I don't want to I'm paraphrasing, essentially, the President isn't that focused on the midterms. Is there any reason to think Senate Republicans will eventually capitulate, gut the filibuster to pass the President's elections bill? AXELROD: I don't think the votes are there to do that. I don't think
that's going to happen. He's been told that many times. And, you know, he's taking hostages in the form of bill threatening and tantruming and he keeps getting the same answer, even from his own allies on that.
But, you know, if he doesn't terms, he sure doing a lot of things to try and tilt the playing field in his advantage. I think what's happened is he's been told about the extremists that he and the party are in because of his low ratings. And he's looking for ways to intervene, process that will improve Republican chances. And he doesn't understand why people won't just break rules and fire the parliamentarian and get rid of the filibuster and so on to get this done because they think that this helped them in terms of impeding, voting in places where they need to, but it's just one of the things that they're doing in this regard.
So, obviously he cares about the midterms. He just doesn't think he can win them on the legit.
COOPER: David Urban, yes, go ahead David.
URBAN: Yes, Anderson, I was going to say also, you know, I think the President just misunderstands, you know, the Senate isn't the House. You can go to the House. The President casts a big shadow. You can go to the House. You can shake the cage. People kind of cower and fall in line. The Senate, you know, there's the old joke. You walk into the Senate, say, Mr. President, and a third of the senate turns around, right? Because each of them view themselves as potential Presidential candidate.
These Senators, if people remember, have six-year terms. In the Senate they remember on a daily basis that they are a co-equal branch of government. And so, when you walk into the senate, even a Republican caucus room, you try to start, you know, breaking knees.
A lot of those Senators take umbrage at that, and they push back. They will not, you know, blow up the filibuster because they saw what had happened. When Harry Reid did it, it turned around and, you know, bit Democrats in the butt repeatedly. So, that's not going to happen. And I think going to the senate and trying to, you know, throw your weight around is probably not a great strategy because he's got a lot of folks up there in, in the form of, you know, Senator Cassidy, Senator Tillis, Senator Cornyn, who, you know, who aren't too favorably disposed to the guy that just sent him packing. So, Senate's a lot different than the House.
I don't think you'll see the voting integrity act get passed. There just aren't the votes there. And so, this Housing Bill will become law because the President's not going to veto it, it's just going to, there's not going to be the pomp and circumstance and the good feeling about it that could have happened today and that's a real missed opportunity for Republicans.
COOPER: Does it surprise you at all? I see that it turned into a shouting match with Senators. CUPP: No, I think they're really frustrated. They're really angry
because, you know, Republicans care about their majority. They care about the party. And I think he obviously doesn't. And so, I think they're very frustrated. And David's right, the Cassidy's the Cornyn's, the Tillis's no longer feel tethered to him. And, you know, no longer feel altruistic in terms of what they'll do for him.
So, they're kind of fighting their own fight for the first time and hoping that it has some legs. We'll see though.
COOPER: David Urban, are you alluded to this earlier. Do you think the President fully grasped what his agenda will look like if the Republicans lose control of one or both chambers of Congress this fall?
URBAN: No, I don't, I really don't think so. I think that, you know, the President is very, he's overly optimistic about their chances. You know, this is, as everybody knows, you know, there's only two times in modern history where the party in power has been able to kind of retain control. And that's been in extreme circumstances.
You know, there is, you know, the redistricting has presented some benefits for republicans and it depends on, you know, candidates do matter in some of these races but if the economy, if peoples pocketbooks don't change, if you stick your hand in your pocket, you pull out a 20 and you get to fill up your gas tank and get your kids something to eat. If that doesn't change, then the things are in trouble.
And, you know, if Hakeem Jeffries now, that's another thing here. You know, the three endorsed candidates, Hakeem Jeffries endorsed candidates lost last night.
[20:15:42]
So, we'll see how much power he has over his caucus. But if they can withhold their urge to impeach the President, if they do take control and just conduct aggressive oversight, it will be a completely different, you know, for the next two years, the White House will be simply responding to subpoenas. Now, the question is, Anderson, what happens when the White House doesn't respond to the subpoenas? Will the Trump Department of Justice enforce them?
I mean, that's a whole another layer of like three-dimensional chess that will be played out and we'll be talking about, I'm sure at some point.
[20:15:20]
COOPER: David Axelrod, how do you see that playing out?
AXELROD: Well, look, I think there are going to be lots of checks even in this election. I think how the post-election period is handled and how the speaker of the House, the because the speaker has a quite a bit of authority to these elections, if they're close and the precedents have been rigged and so on. And then after that, yes, I think.
Listen, here's the bottom line. And, and I've said this many times here and elsewhere, the President does not believe in rules and laws and norms and institutions. He thinks they are for suckers. And he can't understand why you wouldn't just throw them aside and do what's necessary for your side to win. And by your side, in his case, he means himself.
And that's why he's frustrated. He doesn't understand why they're not responding. I think he's headed with the Senate majority leader, over in the next few months over some of these issues.
COOPER: David Axelrod, David Urban, S.E. Cupp, thanks so much. We'll see you a little bit later on in the program. Coming up, we'll talk more about President trump's fight against his own party with the Senator on the other side of the aisle.
Later, the reflecting pool drama continues. Could President Trump's massive and weighty motorcade driving on the reflecting pool last month? Could that have contributed to any damage? I'll speak to one reporter from scientific American about his investigation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:22:06]
COOPER: Looking at live pictures of the great American State Fair kick off celebration on the National Mall, where President Trump is expected to take the stage soon.
Back now to our breaking news, the President appeared to be on the verge of a political victory after Congress passed a landmark bipartisan Housing Bill at the center of his affordability agenda. Less than two hours before the planned bill signing, he canceled it, insisting lawmakers first move on the Save America Act.
The President dismissed the Housing Bill as something, "of minor importance compared to the Voter I.D. Bill he's been pressing the Senate to pass.
Joining me now, Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen. So, Senator, the President says he's not going to sign this housing bill until the senate passes his elections bill. But the Senate Republican leader says the math just isn't there. What happens now?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): So, Anderson, what the President was telling the country is that it's more important to him to try to pass this Elections Bill, which is really designed to try to rig the midterm elections in Republican's favor.
I mean, President Trump has said that if you pass this bill, it will, "guarantee republicans the midterm". And so, what he's saying now is that he will not sign a bipartisan Housing Bill that will help address the affordable housing crisis in this country until the Senate passes this bill, to try to help rig the elections, which is not going to happen. And so, the President is just saying to, you know, people who can't
afford housing, but he doesn't give a damn. I mean, he said the other day that he didn't think about American's finances. And obviously, that was one of the few moments he was telling the truth.
COOPER: Do you think there's a scenario in which senate leadership eventually buckles and guts the filibuster as the President is demanding, so the election bill can be passed?
VAN HOLLEN: I don't think that they will do that, Anderson. I mean, everything that we've heard to date indicates that they probably would not do that. So, I don't see that as a path forward. What we do want to see happen right now is the Speaker of the House needs to send the bill to the White House. This is now passed to both houses of Congress. I'm standing right outside the door to the House Chamber. It's closed right now, but the speaker needs to send the President the bill, and then the President can decide whether to Veto it, if he does, we had the votes to override a veto here on Capitol Hill. This was a big bipartisan victory. And if the President doesn't veto it, it goes into effect after a certain period of time.
So, Speaker Johnson needs to send this bill down to the other end of Pennsylvania avenue. Republicans obviously would have preferred to spend today focusing on Democratic Socialist candidates backed by the New York's mayor who won Congressional Primaries last night. Are you comfortable with those victories, or are you glad the President redirected attention elsewhere?
VAN HOLLEN: No, Anderson, I am glad for those victories because you saw candidates who are clearly saying we need to shake things up, that we have a real affordability crisis. That's, of course, the platform, the mayor himself went on to begin with. And you have other candidates who believe the status quo is completely broken. And when I say the status quo, I mean, we need to fight this lawless Trump administration, but we also do need to deal with these other big issues in our country. We see a huge concentration of economic wealth and power at the very top, and everyone else is getting screwed. And so, I think that's the message that was sent last night.
[20:25:42]
COOPER: We mentioned President Trump and your Republican colleague, Senator Bill Cassidy, and the President helped defeat in a primary last month, got into a shouting match in that closed door meeting today apparently stemmed from, at least in part, from Senator Cassidy's vote to constrain the President's war powers, I'm wondering what your reaction is to the confrontation.
VAN HOLLEN: Well, you know, President Trump doesn't like anybody, you know, taking a position that's different than his and it's been very rare that anybody in the Republican caucus stands up to him and in this case, you know, Bill Cassidy did. Of course, Bill Cassidy was defeated by a candidate backed by Donald Trump. But we need to end this illegal war, and we need to do it right now. And, you know, Bill Cassidy was one of the senators who understood that this law, this this war was hurting Americans, that we're a lot worse off because of it than we were before it started.
COOPER: Senator Chris Van Hollen, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you.
COOPER: Up next, could this moment, the Presidential motorcade, driving over the reflecting pool when it was still under construction have led to or contributed to its current problems, as some are claiming online speak with a reporter who's raised that possibility.
The President again today claimed vandals have caused damage to the reflecting pool.
Later, the President on the National Mall tonight to kick off the, he's calling it the great American State Fair, part of the Nation's 250th birthday with a political rally. Donie O'Sullivan will join us from there, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:31:40]
COOPER: The U.S. Park Police are asking for the public's help in identifying the person seen in this video at the Reflecting Pool in connection to, what they call, quote, "A destruction of government property" investigation. They say this video was recorded last Friday at approximately 3:36 p.m. This comes after the president again claimed on social media today that vandals damaged the Reflecting Pool.
Also, the president said six people have been arrested in connection with that alleged vandalism and seven others have been cited for the damage. That's after parts of the blue sealant have been seen floating in the water with the president now claiming there's a 350-foot long gash. There's also been the algae that turned the pool green last week, but no proof given yet that vandals poured fertilizer into the pool to feed the problem as the president has also claimed just days after work was completed on the no-bid $16 million-plus renovation.
However, there's been speculation or questions raised online asking if the presidential motorcade driving in the pool during the construction early May, along with other equipment, may have caused or contributed to the problem with the blue coating. Recently Adam Kovac, a reporter for Scientific American, wrote, quote, "The bottom of the pool may also have been affected by the presence of heavy equipment and trucks and a presidential motorcade that drove through at one point, while the coating was being prepared and applied.
Adam Kovac joins me now. So, you talk to engineers and pool experts. What did they say about the possible impact of the motorcade, other equipment driving over the Reflecting Pool during its -- when it was put down and after?
ADAM KOVAC, REPORTER, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: So that could be just one of many factors that caused what we've been seeing over the last couple of days. Probably by itself, it wouldn't be enough, but there's a few things that are going on in terms of, you know, the material that's been floating to the top. It's a material called polyurea, which is -- it forms watertight seals and so there's questions about how it was applied, whether the material underneath the concrete was properly prepped for the first coating because you have to apply several coats.
And so you have to be very careful with how you apply those additional coats and you have to be kind of careful with how the material is treated. So if there was heavy machinery, like a motorcade, driving over it, you know, that could affect whether water could seep in and then affect the structural integrity of the coating.
COOPER: And in terms of the layers of coating have to be applied within a certain amount of time, is that right?
KOVAC: That's what a number of chemists and just experts in kind of pool waterproofing told me. You have somewhere between -- it can be like three hours, 12 hours, 24 hours depending on the variety of polyurea that you're working with. But it essentially bonds with the previous layers that have already been layered down to kind of create one substance, but you have to be applying it correctly and following the manufacturer's instructions very closely.
And if you don't do that, then you're not going to get the watertight seal that you're -- that you're going for.
COOPER: The National Park Service has been pouring hydrogen peroxide in to help with the algae. Could that have had any kind of negative impact on the coating, on the peeling?
[20:35:00]
KOVAC: Yes and no. You can use hydrogen peroxide as a paint stripper. It's really good for that. But by itself, the people I spoke to kind of dismissed that. They said, you know, it could be a factor. It could have maybe weakened the substance. But by itself, that likely wasn't the sole cause.
But there probably isn't any one sole cause. They all stress that there's going to need to be some form of investigation once this is all over and done with to really figure out all the different things that kind of contributed to this mess happening in the first place.
COOPER: And did like the specialists you talked to, the experts you talked to, they have an idea for fixes, how long they could take, how much they may cost?
KOVAC: Nobody really hazarded guess because the people I spoke to didn't have direct access to the pool. You know, these are complicated projects to undertake. So they didn't want to go out a limp (ph) on too much. But the consensus did seem to be that, like the president has said, that the pool is going to have to be at least partially drained to fix the problem.
Nobody wanted to venture and put a price tag on that. I guess we're just going to have to see how this all develops.
COOPER: Adam Kovac, appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Up next, the president is at the National Mall right now, kicking off a celebration for America's 250th Birthday with a political rally. We'll take you to opening night of what's called the Great American State Fair. Also ahead, the latest in the deadly heat wave hitting France and other parts of Europe, with some areas topping 100 degrees where air conditioning is not common. We'll have the live report ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:40:45]
COOPER: You're looking at live pictures there of the kickoff celebration to the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, includes flyovers from fighter jets and self-bombers, musical performances by the U.S. Army and Marine bands, Lee Greenwood singing "God Bless the USA" and President Trump delivering remarks.
Somewhere down there in the crowd is CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and he filed this report for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the fun of the fair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very excited. I have come all the way from Honolulu, Hawaii.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: This is the Great American State Fair.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to see the president and we're really excited. This is a great day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember as a kid celebrating 1976 and the Bicentennial, you know, and I'm here all these years later probably dressed as stupid as I was back then. But I'm very proud of the United States and no matter who the president is, I love the country.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Ostensibly, this is a celebration of America's 250th Birthday. But like all things here in Washington, D.C., President Trump has made it about himself.
Trump is kicking it all off with a campaign-style rally, one that he says is the rally to end all rallies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today will be my 116th Trump rally. A Trump rally, it's the greatest show on earth.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Now, there was supposed to be a whole slate of musical artists playing at this fair over the next few weeks but many of them pulled out because they said it was too political an event. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I mean the artists who pulled out, you know, they have the right to make their own choice. We're allowed to make our own decisions, you know, but we can also get along as far as that.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Instead Trump favorite, Lee Greenwood will be performing and Alexis Wilkins, she's the girlfriend of the FBI Director, Kash Patel.
O'SULLIVAN: Lee Greenwood is performing tonight and so is Kash Patel's girlfriend. She's a country singer. So --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no.
(LAUGH)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Country music? Well, I think the army band is in the choirs. I'm sure they're going to be really good.
O'SULLIVAN: You are looking forward to that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
O'SULLIVAN: All of this is happening with a backdrop of a split in MAGA about Israel, Iran and the economy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm never happy with war, I will say. However, I have chosen to trust that the administration knows things I don't know and I can only hope that it's over soon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And Donie O'Sullivan joins us now. Donie, how's it going? Has Kash Patel's girlfriend performed yet?
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): Hey, Anderson. Yes, she sang the National Anthem. Seems to go down pretty well here. And we've had B-52 bombers flying overhead all night. Trump is about to take the stage. And just to give you a sense of what this Great American State Fair feels like, this is sort of a lot of the setup. You see these sort of fake pillars and fake gold American Eagles there.
That in there tomorrow is where the pavilions for the states that are taking part are being set up and also there is a miniature version of Trump's proposed Arch that he wants to build here in Washington, D.C. So a lot for all the family to see and do here in the next few weeks.
COOPER: All right, Donie O'Sullivan, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Back with the panel, S.E. Cupp and David Urban. I guess, I mean I see no one would be surprised that President Trump would turn this kickoff event into a giant, what do you call, a kind of rally of all rallies.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I mean one of the things that Trump has done that's impressive, if lamentable to someone like me, is he's managed to redefine a bunch of things. He redefined conservatism for conservatives, right? They jettisoned the things that had really held conservatism together because he didn't care about them. He's redefined Christianity in a way that sort of reshaped how evangelicals behave and what they think of a man who has cheated on his wives and sells Bibles and is a convicted felon.
He's also redefined patriotism and loving country has to now mean loving him. And I guess that's fine, but to a lifelong conservative like me, who you know was raised up in conservatism, thinking about limited government, right, small government. We don't like government.
[20:45:00]
We don't worship at the altar of government. He's really redefined that and convinced a lot of people that loving this country means you have to love him and everything he says about it. It's, again, impressive.
COOPER: David Urban, do you think if President Bush, who we saw at the Obama Presidential Center opening last week, or President Obama were in office, that the 250th anniversary would look very different?
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm not so sure, Anderson. Look, I think this turned into a rally because all those artists decided to bag, right? That's what happened. This was supposed to be a concert, right, originally.
And you know, Milli Vanilli and a bunch of other artists I've forgotten about since the 1980s had decided that they weren't going to show up.
(LAUGH)
COOPER: Oh, come on, David. You haven't forgotten about Milli Vanilli?
(CROSSTALK)
URBAN: I will admit, you know, C&C Music Factory, I would have been there.
COOPER: Yes.
URBAN: If they were coming tonight, I would be there, Anderson. But, you know, sadly, I'm going to miss it now.
(CROSSTALK)
URBAN: But, you know, I think that it was supposed to be a celebration. I didn't, up until the big brouhaha, I didn't know there were two -- there was a Trump-funded one and a, you know, just a U.S. government-funded function. And I think what happened was, when all those folks decided to bail, there were no acts, right? You have Lee Greenwood. He only sings one song, and then you'd have a bunch of dead air time.
And so the president said, screw it. I'm going to turn it into a rally. And look, you saw the woman who showed up there. She's all kind of resplendent in her paraphernalia, her, you know, red, white and blue. And she's like, look, I don't care who the president is. She kind of rolled her eyes at Lee Greenwood and some of the things. She's there to clearly celebrate America's 250th, not necessarily Donald Trump. I'm sure there are plenty of MAGA supporters there, but I bet it's a mix.
I was down there this afternoon in the Mall, and it's a pretty festive feeling. And you know, listen, if we can't celebrate, you know, 250 years of America, whether it's Trump or not Trump, I'll give the guy a pass on this one. I, you know, believe in American exceptionalism, love the country. And, you know, if it was Obama doing it or Bill Clinton doing it, I would applaud him and say, great.
Like, let's celebrate the good things about our country and let everybody come together for a couple of nights and, you know, cheer at planes going over and fire engines like you're a little kid again.
COOPER: It's interesting the extent to which the president is putting his stamp on Washington. And I talked about this with Maggie and Jonathan Swan yesterday, the idea of legacy, you know, really wanting to get that giant arch up.
CUPP: Yeah.
COOPER: In that book, they report he questioned somebody about the idea of putting, like, a giant fist on top of that arch for the fight, fight, fight symbol, even the Reflecting Pool --
CUPP: Yeah.
COOPER: -- which is, you know, an interesting drama playing out.
CUPP: Well, he is interested in legacy, but it's the artifice of legacy, right? It's the things you can see, you can put his name on, because I think that's how he came up, this idea that if he put his name on things, it would project the strength and power. He would call people up and pretend to be someone else, right, to project strength and power that he didn't have.
This is very much who he is, but he's not actually guarding his actual legacy of policymaking and governing. And all the stuff that he's concerned with, the Reflecting Pool and the arch and his name on the Kennedy Center, even his name on money potentially, that could all go away. That could all be undone.
But the legacy you built while in office, the things you've done, the policies, the bills you've passed, the changes you've made for people, that lasts forever. If I were him, I'd be a little more worried about my actual legacy and not the architectural legacy that he's building.
COOPER: S.E. Cupp, David Urban, guys, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Coming up, Europe's deadly heatwave, record-breaking temperatures at iconic sites in Paris, like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, both forced to temporarily close because of the heat. Not a lot of folks have air conditioning there, more on what's going on in Europe ahead. Plus, details on the two powerful earthquakes that have hit the northern coast of Venezuela, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:53:47]
COOPER: We have more Breaking News. Venezuela was struck tonight with the two back-to-back powerful earthquakes, a 7.2 quake at around 6 p.m., followed just 40 seconds later by a 7.5 quake. Venezuela's interior minister said the earthquake could be felt in a number of states and the quake collapsed homes and buildings in the capital of Caracas.
Security forces have been deployed across the country to respond to emergencies "as many structures are at risk of collapse" according to the Ministry of Communication and Information. The U.S. Geological Survey said that high casualties and extensive damage are probable.
Stefano Pozzebon joins us now from Bogota, Colombia with the latest. What are you hearing, Stefano?
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we managed to speak, Anderson, with our team down in Caracas and what they're telling us is that they have verified that at least three separate buildings have partially collapsed in the east of the city. They've shown us a footage and they've sent us sound bites from people on to the streets.
The first earthquake, by the way, was occurring when there was a religious procession going on, taking place in that particular area of the city. I want to give you a little bit of context around Venezuela.
[20:55:00]
This is, of course, these two earthquakes have hit a country that is still reeling from more than a decade of dramatic economic crisis under Nicolas Maduro, the authoritarian president who the United States removed from office in January this year.
Now, when we talk about the infrastructure and the damage to the infrastructure of Venezuela that these economic collapse have caused, well, today is the day and tomorrow, when we'll be counting the damages, is the day that we will know really that damage to the infrastructure. I'm talking here about buildings, I'm talking about homes, I'm talking about, for example, highways and bridges, but also the electronic and technological infrastructure in Venezuela is extremely fragile.
That is a country that goes through blackouts and power cuts almost on a weekly basis. And of course, after an earthquake, after such a tragedy takes place, one of the first urge is to try to get in touch with your loved one, making sure that your important people, your dear ones are safe. And we've had a very, very hard time trying to be in touch with Caracas, trying to speak with our colleagues on the ground who are filming for us or who are there. Luckily, in the last hour or so, and it's been already three hours since the earthquake struck, well, in the last hour, we were able to speak with all of the members of the CNN team in Venezuela and so they are all -- they are fine and it's important that there are specific -- there is a specific context when it comes to Venezuela that will make these earthquakes, these impacts much more heavily felt than in any other country, at least in this region, at least in Latin America because of this collapse.
And that's why the United States Geological Service is already talking of catastrophic damage --
COOPER: Yeah.
POZZEBON: -- and perhaps a very high death toll, Anderson.
COOPER: And that's a live image that we are looking at in Caracas, you see emergency personnel on the scene. We'll continue to follow this story throughout the night.
Stefano Pozzebon, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.
To Europe now, where a record-breaking and deadly heatwave is smashing records. France is seeing its hottest ever national average. In Paris, temperatures topped 104 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing iconic tourist sites to close. More than 40 drowning deaths have been reported over the last two weeks as people are desperately trying to cool off in water.
Meanwhile, the U.K. roasted on its hottest ever June day, a record that was broken three times today. Air conditioning is, as you may know, is not as common in Europe as it is in the U.S. Only about 20 percent of homes have it across the continent. Max Foster joins us tonight from a sweltering London.
Max, can you just explain how extraordinary this heatwave is and how it's impacting London?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the whole of Europe's been affected. France has really been the epicenter. It had a record temperature today, the highest temperature since yesterday. So they are talking about temperatures well above 40-degrees Celsius, 100- degrees Fahrenheit in certain regions in France. People are dying. Dozens of people are dying either from drowning trying to cool off or elderly people suffering in the heat.
And a very sad story about two young children locked in a car as well. We've had the tourist sites, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower having to close early. There are power outages because the nuclear power plants in France rely on water pumped in from a river where the water is too hot. So they've had to reduce the output of the nuclear power station. So this is something that we've never seen before.
And it really hit the U.K. today, having our highest temperatures for a June ever on record.
COOPER: It's also impacting people's commutes to work.
FOSTER: It certainly is. I experienced that today. So the highest temperature in the U.K. was in Hampshire, which is where I live. It was about 36-degrees Celsius, so nearly 100-degrees Fahrenheit. My first experience was getting in the car and having to avoid a road because it was melting.
And then I got to the station and had to wait an hour and a half for the first train. When it did arrive, it was traveling so slowly because they were worried about the rails buckling under the heat. And eventually, I did get into London and I walked into this wall of human odor on the underground.
Anderson, you've been on the underground. Imagine it full of people in the boiling hot, no air conditioning. I couldn't get the tube to where I wanted to go, to our bureau here. So I had to get a taxi. And that took forever. So it took me nearly four-and-a-half hours, when it would normally take just over an hour.
And the big issue in the U.K., I don't know if you can see in the pub behind me, people are in pubs. So they're talking about football or they're talking about air conditioning. So on average, one in 10 homes has air conditioning here. It's not something we'd normally need because the lovely Victorian and Georgian architecture is designed to keep heat in, not let it out.
So people complain all winter about there not being enough insulation. And they complain all summer about, you know, them being too hot.
[21:00:00]
And actually, one of our colleagues, Anderson, had to sort of go to her window today because the glue started melting around her window and it's now falling out.
COOPER: Wow, Max Foster, I'm so sorry. Stay cool. Thank you.
(LAUGH)
COOPER: That's it for us. The news continues. "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" starts now.
