Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump: Nothing Wrong with his Crypto Assets; Mary Trump on Her Uncle Making Billions in Office; Olympian Indicted on Alleged Vandalism of Reflecting Pool; NY Times: Firm Run By Trump Allies Is Organizing The 250th Celebration; Sources: Taylor Swift Wedding Rehearsal Dinner Underway; Couple Who Scaled Empire State Building Arraigned On Felony Charges; Man Pulled From Rubble 8 Days After Venezuela Earthquakes; Chef Jose Andres Pledges $1M To Help Venezuela Earthquake Victims. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired July 02, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

JEFF ZELENY, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): ...Theodore Roosevelt National Park, outside Medora, a tiny western town with a new landmark.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY (on camera): And Roosevelt, of course, was the conservation President. And he said he never would have reached the White House without the time that he spent right here in North Dakota. And that's what this library is celebrating him as a tribute. It formally opens in the public on Saturday.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: All right, Jeff, thank you and thanks to all of you for joining us tonight. AC360 starts right now.

[20:00:35]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening from the Newsroom. We begin tonight, keeping them honest with a billion plus dollars the President made while many investors lost nearly everything from something that he himself once called a scam.

Just moments ago, however, he told CNBC's Joe Kernen there's nothing wrong with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE KERNEN, CNBC HOST: In the disclosure this week, the amount of money that you and the family made in crypto, it was an outsized number. I was just asking, did you or you know about the crypto ventures? So that was just something that --

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: By the way, I could know about it, I didn't. I mean, there's nothing illegal. There's nothing wrong with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: Nothing wrong with making as President more than a billion

dollars from the cryptocurrency business. Four years ago, however, he was singing a different tune. He was calling crypto a scam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing against the dollar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was 2022, and he wanted no part of it back then. He was talking about Bitcoin by the way, back then, much of the money he made, $635 million comes from a far riskier, for scammers to use his term kind of crypto than Bitcoin.

According to his new federal ethics filing. That money, $635 million, came from the sale of his meme coin. Now, meme coins have no intrinsic value at all. They're not shares in a company, not tied to gold or silver, a commodity. They're neither backed by the Treasury nor insured by the government. Yet three days before taking the oath of office, the President elect was online selling them.

Quoting now, "My new official Trump meme is here. It's time to celebrate everything we stand for, winning. Join my very special Trump community. Get your dollar sign Trump now. Have fun."

Fun does not describe the experience that most investors have actually had, However, after seeing the President's pitch. One woman, a software engineer, told "Reuters" that his endorsement meant, "it must be a legitimate investment."

She put $2,000.00 of her savings into the meme coin, based largely on the President's good word. That investment is now worth about $100.00. In fact, during the same period, the S&P 500 went up 17.9 percent. The Donald Trump meme coin lost about 97 percent of its value since it hit the market just before inauguration day.

Yet somehow, the President made $635 million on it, plus hundreds of millions more on other forms of crypto last year. And if you're wondering how he could win so big while investors were losing so badly, it's because the money he made came from collecting transaction and licensing fees associated with the coins, not from owning them himself. He made out whether they went up or down, and so did his three sons from their ties to World Liberty Financial, the crypto exchange that they co-own.

Now, just as an aside, they also made hundreds of millions from the sale last year of 49 percent to the company linked to a firm from a company linked to the United Arab Emirates.

Now again, though, this all got rolling in the lead up to inauguration day. And even as the President and his family were selling the stuff, which he once called a scam, he was also in charge of regulating the market for it against scammers, until he decided just a couple months ago, just a couple months into office, that there was too much regulation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're ending the last administration's regulatory war on crypto and Bitcoin. Frankly, it was a disgrace. But as of January 20th, 2025, all of that is over. it's so big. It's I think, as big as you can get.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And he was in it. He said that in March of last year. A few weeks later, the Justice Department was gutting its team focused on crypto fraud. Quoting from the DOJ memo, "Consistent with the narrowing of the enforcement policy relating to digital assets, the market integrity and major frauds unit shall cease cryptocurrency enforcement in order to focus on other priorities such as immigration and procurement frauds."

The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement team shall be disbanded, effective immediately. That was April 7th. Two weeks later, the President announced what he billed as the most exclusive invitation in the world a chance for the top 220 buyers of his meme coin to have a gala dinner with him.

Despite how seemingly sketchy an investment it was just before the dinner, a small company with ties to China announced it bought more than a quarter billion dollars' worth of those coins. I spoke with "The New York Times" reporter who broke that story.

[20:05:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": So, this is a tiny company called G.D. Cultural Group, a company I certainly hadn't heard of until the last couple of days. But it announced completely out of nowhere that it has raised up to $300 million and it's going to spend it bitcoin and on the Trump meme coin.

COOPER: And is it clear why they're doing this? Have they said why they are --

YAFFE-BELLANY: I mean, what they've publicly said is that they just want to kind of embrace innovation and be part of the crypto industry. But, you know, you look into the details of how this company operates, and it looks like it has a clear incentive to curry favor with the administration, like many of the other kind of foreign based players who've gotten involved in the Trump crypto ventures, its business is pretty much entirely built on TikTok and of course, the fate of TikTok in the us rests largely with the President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, it's not clear what, if anything, this company got for its $300 million investment. The appearance, however, was hard to ignore at the time. Just as it's not clear what, if anything, Qatar got in exchange for the $400 million 747 it gave the President to take with him when he leaves office. Officially, it will go to the Presidential Library which won't be ready for many, many years.

The appearance of that to many is unmistakable, as are other items on the President's disclosure forms detailing other ways he's profited as President from licensing deals for watches and sneakers and Bibles, of course, not to mention the privilege of bumping into him at Mar-a- Lago, which rose to a million dollars just before his reelection.

When Harry Truman left office in 1953, he had no income at all beyond his Army pension, $112.56 a month, few remember that. Many, though remember the sign he had on his desk in the Oval Office that famously read, "The buck stops here."

It referred to accountability, not his bank account, but it is a quaint notion all the same, now that we've got a President for whom the buck never -- the buck seems to never stop and who's okay with that.

Perspective now from the President's niece, Mary Trump. She's the author of the book "Who Could Ever Love You" a family memoir.

So, Mary, the wealth that your uncle has amassed, does it even surprise you? I mean, there's obviously no precedent for a President making over a billion dollars of cryptocurrency or accepting a jumbo jet from the Emir of Qatar.

MARY TRUMP, NIECE OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, Anderson, unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me, and neither does the way in which he's accrued this wealth. This is from a history of corruption. I mean, at least Donald comes by it. Honestly, my grandfather also engaged in all sorts of illicit financial schemes to increase his wealth and his siblings, especially Donald and a couple of others, continued in that tradition.

The problem here is not so much the ways in which Donald and his family continue to rig the system in their favor. It's the number of people who are willing either to look the other way or to enable it. And let's be clear here, this is a very complex, and you have alluded to the many, many ways in which this family continues to enrich itself in ways that are potentially illegal and unconstitutional, but it's very simple.

This is the President of the United States endangering the National Security of American citizens because he's willing to take money from any foreign entity, no matter how potentially hostile it might be to American interests.

COOPER: Well, I mean, most of the countries that we know of have been allies of the United States. Certainly Qatar, UAE that he's engaged in business. I'm wondering, what do you make of the notion that the President was more concerned about conflicts of interest during his first term, but then discovered that, in his words, nobody cared.

M. TRUMP: Well, he's wrong, of course, a lot of people care. Unfortunately, no people in power, no people who could rein him in seem to care because they must be benefiting in some way. What I make of it is, and we can explain a lot of these things, the differences between his first and his second term.

In his first term, not enough people who were working with him had figured out how to protect him and their selves and their agenda from constitutionality and then they had four years to come up with a new game plan, which was in large part Project 2025. So, over the course of that intervening four years, Donald and many others were able to figure out how to bypass any of the systems that are designed to keep Presidential rapaciousness in check.

[20:10:12]

COOPER: It's not only the President who is profiting. You've written about your cousins, Don Jr. and Eric Trump, how they're also making money in ways no members of first families have done before.

M. TRUMP: Yes, and again, that's also a family tradition because let's be clear, Donald was never as wealthy as he claimed to be. In fact, his wealth came exclusively from my grandfather. Over the course of his lifetime before my grandfather died, Donald received over $400 million in gifts and unpaid loans. This was not because he was some brilliant, savvy businessman and one of the greatest disservices the New York media and the National media did over the course of the 80s and 90s was to portray Donald as this incredibly brilliant man and self-made man that, of course, he never was.

And we're seeing the same thing with his children. it's not again, that they are savvy or have any kind of specialized skills or knowledge, it's that they just happen to be related to people who have power and political connections, and that's what they're trading in on.

COOPER: It also seems clear that the President will plan to just pardon everybody or anybody around him who he wants when he leaves. I mean, they will cite, you know, the President Biden doing that for his son and others.

M. TRUMP: Yes, of course, the difference being that President Biden and people in his family were actually at risk of being persecuted by the incoming administration. So, Donald will absolutely be abusing the pardon power, as he has done since he came into office in 2017.

And, you know, it's just really, it's interesting I heard you refer earlier to Donald describing people as scammers. Anybody who invested in crypto, by the same token, my grandfather described renters as unwholesome people. Giving the impression that only people who own single family homes that he was trying to sell were upstanding citizens. And then he got a $9 million FHA fund to build rental properties in Brooklyn.

And now, obviously, Donald is thrilled about crypto, which, as you pointed out, is not a legitimate, safe investment. Just ask the people who invested in it. So, Donald is once again pushing the envelope and nobody, nobody is putting the brakes on it. And at the end of the day, because of his abuse of the Presidential pardon power, a lot of people are likely to get away with a lot of financial crimes that have done real harm to people who invested in Donald's businesses because they believed in him and what he was selling.

COOPER: Mary Trump, I appreciate your time tonight, thank you.

Coming up next, a felony grand jury indictment against a former Olympic canoeist accused of vandalizing the reflecting pool. He says all he did was dip his hand in the algae-filled water.

And later, new reporting on a company organizing some of the weekend's big events in Washington with deep ties to the President.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:17:57]

COOPER: Breaking news tonight, former Olympic canoeist, David Hearn has been indicted by a grand jury in Washington, D.C. after being arrested last month when he reached into the reflecting pool.

Hearn has been charged with one felony count of destruction of property, with a value of more than $1,000.00 which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison if he's convicted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Our evidence further shows that the National Park service employees observed Hearn actually forcefully and violently pulling up and removing the bottom-liner with both hands.

According to witnesses, Hearn damaged approximately two square feet of sealant from the bottom of the pool.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Hearn's attorney blasted the indictment, saying in part, "David Hearn is innocent of these charges are outrageous and should be alarming to every American. This indictment reflects the administration's effort to shift blame for their own failures."

During the press conference, Pirro was asked about the January 6th rioters, nearly all of whom President Trump pardoned on his first day in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: How do you square charging this alleged pool vandal when this is the same Justice Department that pardoned --

PIRRO: Already this is a problem.

REPORTER: --you know, over a thousand January 6th rioters who caused millions of dollars of damage at the Capitol?

PIRRO: You don't have to tell me about January 6th. Yes, calm down. Okay, who's next -- not you, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We should note that according to a government accountability office report, the events of January 6th "cost about $2.7 billion in estimated cost."

Joining me now, CNN senior crime and justice reporter, Katelyn Polantz. So, can you just walk us through the charge in this indictment?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, Anderson, it's one charge. It's a charge of maliciously destroying property, either private property or property of another entity. In this case, there were a bunch of choices that the U.S. Attorney's Office could make about how to charge this.

In Washington, D.C., the Federal Prosecutors, the Justice Department, they can take cases either to the local court or to the federal court.

They went to the local court here, and they did take it to a grand jury and this is a felony charge against David Hearn.

[20:20:11]

It's a felony charge because they're saying that the allegation here of him ripping up that bottom of the reflecting pool, that they're saying that that damaged more $1,000.00 worth of property. And so, they say that qualifies as a felony. It is the type of charge that could result in prison time that's written into the D.C. code. But that's a question that would be much later at the at a date, if there were to be a conviction, something a judge might have to confront.

But that charge, it did go through a grand jury. It's not in federal court, but it is being done by the Justice Department.

COOPER: And what about, like, do they have witnesses? They said the park service employees saw this. Do you know anything about the witnesses?

POLANTZ: Yes, actually. So, Jeanine Pirro at that press conference, she was asked, was she considering Trump's statements to want to charge this as a felony when she was making this decision? And she said, well, we have evidence. I'm not going to show you all of the evidence or talk about it all right now. But she did say she was going to talk about, having witnesses, that there were witnesses. She referred to some of them being at work there.

And remember the context of why this happened is that there was a flood of federal agents, law enforcement on the National Mall, because people were drawn to the Reflecting Pool, because the bottom of it was coming up and it was being filled with algae. Hearn was there as part of that, onlookers. And so, that is what resulted in the charge.

The other thing that I would point out here about the choices the U.S. attorney is making, it's not just this one guy facing this one charge. They're having a press conference about it. He is a man that had gotten a citation from the Park Police before. We know that there are others that have been cited for essentially misbehaving around the reflecting pool, as the bottom was coming up.

In this case, Jeanine Pirro is singling out David Hearn. She's having a press conference, and she's choosing to charge him with a felony rather than what he was first charged with by Park Police, which was a misdemeanor.

COOPER: All right, Katelyn Polantz, appreciate it.

Joining me now, former federal prosecutor, CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig.

Do you expect this indictment to lead to a grand jury.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it is notable. Yes, it's notable that a grand jury actually approved this because we've seen a recent history of D.C. grand juries rejecting cases where they see them as political. For example, several of the cases brought against anti-ICE protesters a few months ago were rejected by grand juries.

We also saw D.C. grand juries reject Jeanine Pirro's effort to indict Senator Kelly and Senator Slotkin over that video that they made. So, what we know from the fact that the grand jury indicted is the grand jury found probable cause, much lower standard than they have to show at trial. It's a one-sided process, so the real test will be trial.

COOPER: Do you know, is there a video of the alleged incident?

HONIG: So, I listened really carefully to Jeannie Pirro today, and she did say, as Katelyn said, she said, well, I'm not going to talk about the evidence, and then proceeded to talk about the evidence. She did say, we have witnesses. She said plural, she said their National Park service employees, I don't know if that's two or six or whatever. I'm fairly sure there's no video because if there was video, she would have said it at that conference.

So, I think this is going to come down to the credibility of those witnesses.

COOPER: I just want to play something that Hearn had previously said about what happened to the reflecting pool.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HEARN, FORMER OLYMPIC CANOEIST: My left-hand glove off and reached down into the water and sort of felt the end and bent it around a little bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So, could those comments about bending the end come back?

HONIG: Yes, anything you say can and will be used against you in court. This is why good defense lawyers tell their clients, don't say anything. Now, that's not an admission of guilt. That's not case over, but that's a piece of evidence prosecutors are going to use because it takes away any claim that he was nowhere near the water, that he was just riding his bike or jogging by.

Now, prosecutors will say, look, our witnesses say he reached in and ripped it. He admits part of that, he admits he reached in and touched the, you know, the lining. Why would you reach into the water? That's the argument prosecutors make so that's a good piece of evidence for a prosecution. It doesn't end the case, but it's worthwhile for them.

COOPER: How do you think it's going to play with the jury?

HONIG: So, to me, it's all going to be about nullification, meaning where sometimes juries and we've seen this happen in D.C. And elsewhere, we'll say we just don't think this is a fair case. The case I keep thinking of is you remember this, the protester who threw a foot-long a Subway sandwich at a CBP agent that's on film, right? I mean, he is -- it's a silly charge, but he's technically guilty and the jury said not guilty because the juries do this sometimes.

If they believe a case or a charge is overdone or unjust, they can throw it out. This is a D.C. jury. I would place no bets on this one.

COOPER: Elie Honig, thanks very much.

A firm run by allies of President Trump is organizing some of the biggest events celebrating America's 250th birthday. Events, funded in part by taxpayer money. That's according to a new report by "The New York Times". We'll have details on that.

Also later, the wedding festivities for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have begun. According to sources, a rehearsal dinner is happening now inside Madison Square Garden. We'll have an update ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:29:41]

COOPER: Washington, D.C. as celebration of America's 250th anniversary is facing its share of challenges, including brutal heat and sparse crowds. Now, questions are emerging about the company that was hired to run many of the most high-profile events. According to a report from "The New York Times," Event Strategies, a company that has deep ties to the President and his previous campaigns, is the organizer behind some of the largest celebrations taking place in the Nation's capital, including the Great American State Fair on the National Mall and the upcoming July 4th fireworks display.

Although those events are being funded in part by a $68 million dollar tax taxpayer dollars, according to "The Times," because they're being routed through an opaque nonprofit, it's unclear how much of the public's money this company will actually receive.

Joining me with more New York Times investigative reporter David Fahrenthold, who's the byline, has the byline on the story. So, what is this company and its connections to the President?

[20:30:36] DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: So it started out as a political advance company. They set up rallies for candidates and they set up Trump's first campaign rally back in 2015. They stuck with him through all his other campaigns.

They organized the rally at the Ellipse on January 6th, 2021, where Trump said, march on the Capitol. So, they've been with him through all of that. The people who work for them now includes people who are his former campaign staffers. So, this thing that they're being asked to do, though, is much bigger and potentially much more lucrative than the individual rallies they've set up for Trump.

COOPER: And is it clear about how they're being paid and like where's this money -- where's the money coming from?

FAHRENTHOLD: So, they're being paid by this thing called Freedom 250, which is controlled by the White House, funded by taxpayers, as you said, by $68 million from taxpayers. But it's not technically part of the government. It's a part of an independent nonprofit. So once the money goes there, it's basically a black box. It disappears.

And we know this, that nonprofit has hired event strategies to put on what they call signature events. But we don't know anything about how much they're being paid, the market rates they're charging, anything like that.

COOPER: Hadn't Congress created its own, a previous 250 -- a group that was supposed to organize all the 250th anniversary celebrations?

FAHRENTHOLD: It did. And that's -- it's called America 250. We had bipartisan members, there were Republicans and Democrats. The Trump people basically have shunted that off to the side. It still exists and is doing a few things. But this thing, Freedom 250, which is controlled effectively by the President, is putting on all the things that you're going to see on television, all the big events anybody's going to notice on Saturday.

COOPER: And that's previously something this other group would have supposed -- why did the President want to take control of -- well, I don't even know why I'm asking that question. Has this firm done other business? Other -- it's done just the advanced work.

FAHRENTHOLD: Well, the -- since Trump's come into office, this company's gotten a huge surge of contracts in the federal government. It had been -- previously been a very minor federal government contractor. It's gotten more than $38 million worth of contracts in the federal government just since Trump came back into office. A lot of those being no-bid contracts they didn't even have to compete for.

COOPER: And donors -- there was this thing -- I don't want to get it wrong -- didn't -- there were -- there was a report by the Democratic staff on the House Natural Resources Committee.

FAHRENTHOLD: Resources Committee, that's right.

COOPER: What did it find? FAHRENTHOLD: So they looked at how Freedom 250 is, as you said, sort of supplanted this bipartisan group as the people running the 250th celebrations and the insider dealing, like this company, and advanced strategies, but also talked about how that effort is selling access to donors. And they're saying if you donate a certain amount, I think it's over $5 million, you can get a meeting with the President. You can get a photo op with the President.

COOPER: This organization is actually selling access to the President.

FAHRENTHOLD: Right. For a photo op, they say, but it is a meeting with the President that you can get for your company or yourself if you donate enough money.

COOPER: Wow. Where does he find the time?

FAHRENTHOLD: It's a good question.

COOPER: David Fahrenthold, thank you, with New York Times. Really appreciate it.

Coming up, we'll take you live to Madison Square Garden, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are reportedly having their rehearsal dinner at this very moment. We'll see if David Fahrenthold has any new details on that.

Plus the -- no, just kidding on that -- plus the couple who climbed to the top of the Empire State Building arraigned on felony charges and new details on how they pulled the whole thing off and managed to evade security.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:38:20]

COOPER: You're looking at live pictures of Madison Square Garden where the wedding festivities of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are already underway, and that's according to sources. A rehearsal dinner for approximately 100 guests is being held in the theater at Madison Square Garden from 6:00 to 10:30 tonight.

There is a smaller venue beneath the main arena that hosts more intimate events. Let's get an update from Elizabeth Wagmeister.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's already being dubbed America's Royal Wedding. The highly anticipated marriage of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 1,000 percent excitement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just think it's really special.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The center of the Swifty universe is now playing out in Midtown Manhattan at Madison Square Garden. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I heard that it was going to be here, I was like trying to put in my mind how, how is she going to decorate that?

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Tonight, an event believed to be a rehearsal dinner is already underway for approximately 100 guests in MSG's Infosys Theater, according to people familiar with the planning. Celebrity guests were driven into a secluded tent and then admitted through a private entrance.

And sources tell CNN there will be an enormous celebrity studded event with as many as 1,000 guests on Friday. First, a cocktail hour beginning at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, followed by what's expected to be the big Swift-Kelce event, which is scheduled to start at 5:30 on The Arena floor. Then a reception to follow, lasting until the early morning hours.

Swift celebrity friends like Sabrina Carpenter and Suki Waterhouse have already been spotted in the city, as well as Donna Kelce, Travis Kelsey's mom. Hints about the setting for the lavish event. Seen on the backs of staff and on the boxes being loaded into Madison Square Garden, bearing labels for a garden party with giant tree branches peeking out.

[20:40:09]

New York officials teased about security and preps for an epic ceremony and a briefing about upcoming events in the city.

JESSICA TISCH, NY POLICE COMMISSIONER: I would be remiss not to mention an event that we are tracking at Madison Square Garden on Friday night. The NYPD will, of course, have a detail in place.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): According to the Associated Press, the mayor said a permit application for a, quote, "special event at MSG" was approved earlier this week and multiple people familiar with the plans confirmed it is tied to the wedding. The mayor also warning New Yorkers to prepare for a heat wave amid all the celebration.

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: We're ready. We want to make sure you are too. Especially if you're celebrating the World Cup or the 4th of July or renting out MSG to get married, hypothetically.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Anticipation has reached new heights for the first photos of the event, like the images that the couple released to celebrate their engagement. And even more Swifty celebrations are taking place far away from New York City. Bakeries in Kansas City, home of Travis Kelce's team, the Chiefs, are toasting the happy couple, too.

ERIN BROWN, OWNER, DOLCE BAKERY: And we have just been having so much fun celebrating them and their relationship.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): No word yet on where a honeymoon will take place. But if this wedding speculation is any indication, get ready for another legendary Easter egg hunt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And Elizabeth Wagmeister joins us now. So what is -- what more is known about this celebration plan for tomorrow evening?

WAGMEISTER (on-camera): Well, first of all, Anderson, I want to let you know this rehearsal event happening right behind me is still going on because we have not seen any of the black SUVs leave. And just a few hours ago, we saw them all arriving here. It is so secretive, Anderson.

The cars are coming underneath the tent and then the guests come in and they are concealed. So we can't see anyone coming in, at least yet. But tomorrow night, we hear that that is a giant wedding celebration, a giant party, most likely, with around a thousand people.

COOPER: And there are some reports that they are actually married already. What have you heard about that?

WAGMEISTER (on-camera): So there are some reports circulating tonight that the couple is already happily married. Now, we do not have that confirmed at the moment. But I have to tell you, Anderson, this is something that I've long speculated and it would make a lot of sense because if you are getting married somewhere as grand as Madison Square Garden, you would think that you would want to have a private moment before.

So it is entirely possible that the couple, at least on paper, is already married. But from what we are hearing from our sources, the rehearsal event is happening behind me right now. And tomorrow is, for all purposes, essentially their wedding day.

COOPER: All right. Elizabeth Wagmeister, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

CNN's Chief Law Enforcement Analyst John Miller joins us with a closer look at what's happening on the ground. The level of security, obviously, is off the charts.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: You know, it's interesting, Anderson. At the NYPD, one of the things that I did in the Intelligence Bureau and Counterterrorism Bureau was supervise the NYPD's end of presidential visits. And that's how we did them.

Tented arrival. You put up the tent, the President's car would come in, the flap would go up, the flap would go down. You wouldn't be able to see him enter. That was to protect from snipers and things like that.

You know, what we have here is Taylor Swift trying to maintain these three things, which is privacy for her and her guests, control of the event from paparazzis and, you know, fans, but also security. So that level of security is pretty unique.

COOPER: It's interesting, though, to have it in such a large venue because if you're -- for looking -- I mean, I get it for privacy, but there's got to be a lot of employees just in that structure who work there, who might have a vantage point, who might want to take a picture, try to sneak a picture.

MILLER: So this is a no-phones event. People, including employees, are scanned going in, the kind of scanning you'd go through at TSA. But what they're really trying to eliminate is, of course, any possibility of weapons, but, of course, any possibility of phones, because phones today are cameras and video cameras. That includes guests, by the way.

So that doesn't mean there won't be pictures, but the pictures will be controlled by the people that Taylor Swift wants to have taking those pictures, and she'll release them when she wants to release them. The use of such a large event for such a basically smaller or undersized event for the venue is also about the concentric circles.

Taylor Swift is protected by her close protection detail. That's the inner circle. The Madison Square Garden security is the middle circle, and the NYPD on the outside, that perimeter, includes counterterrorism teams, special weapons teams, observation posts, and a lot that you'll see, hundreds of cops, but a lot you won't. That's the background.

[20:45:05]

COOPER: And will the police be inside as well as outside?

MILLER: I cannot imagine a situation where police wouldn't be inside, but one of the rubs here was, you know, a lot of the big-name people who are used to traveling with their own security details said, well, I'll need to come with my security detail, and that was nixed as well, which is there'll be plenty of security inside. You'll be safe here, but your detail can't come.

COOPER: And how long is something -- I mean, how long does it take to plan something like this?

MILLER: Well --

COOPER: They have this -- this must have been in the works for a while.

MILLER: Yes. So certainly weeks, probably months, and, you know, a lot of this has been very successfully been kept under wraps as everybody, guests, staff members at the garden, probably not law enforcement, has had to sign an NDA saying they won't disclose anything ahead of time and probably after. I haven't seen the NDA, but I can imagine.

COOPER: So there are -- I want to switch over to the Empire State Building. The folks who scaled that yesterday, they're facing felony charges.

MILLER: Well, they are, and they're charged with burglary, possession of burglar's tools, criminal trespass, reckless endangerment, a number of those things. But we've also learned today there was a little bit of kind of a mission impossible touch to the mission. Meaning, they snuck in the night before, waited until after closing, hid in a machine room, found their way into another passage where video captures them at 5:04 a.m.

First her, Angela, coming out of a trap door out of the floor, you know, dressed in black, and then taking care of some pretty tough security measures, removing brackets that held cables together, blocking a stairway, metal cables, cutting the locks to the sphere. So --

COOPER: Had they cased that in advance? I mean --

MILLER: Like the Taylor Swift wedding on a smaller scale. This couldn't have been their first time there. They had to have visited at least more than once to figure out where is a machine room, are the doors locked, when do the people leave, and so on, to plan every step of this.

So they're looking backwards through videos to see if can we see them there on private days now that they've looked at the security videos that track their movements. And, of course, they set off alarms. But when security people then scanned, they said, well, we don't see anybody, it must be a false alarm, but by then they'd already hidden.

COOPER: And are there -- I assume there'll be some sort of security review and changes made.

MILLER: Oh, I am sure at the Empire State Building, where they've just done a security review, that's how those cables came in front of that stairs because of somebody's prior attempt, they will be looking that -- looking at that yet again. It's too attractive a target, if not for something sinister like terrorism, for a stunt like this.

COOPER: Right. John Miller, appreciate it. Thanks.

Coming up, a remarkable video of an all-too-rare moment now, a rescue in the aftermath of last week's earthquake in Venezuela. Also tonight, I hope you join me at 9:15 for All There Is Live. It's a streaming companion show to my podcast, All There Is. My guest tonight is ESPN writer, cultural critic, cultural writer and sports writer, Justin Tinsley, who lost his grandmother Clementine last year, what she taught him about grief and how it's never a straight line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Foreign Language)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:53:11]

COOPER: Incredible scenes earlier today of a rescue in Venezuela eight days after the devastating earthquakes. The man there was buried under 29 feet of wreckage from a collapsed shopping mall parking lot. He was finally freed after a 70-hour effort by local and international rescue teams. There's teams from Virginia and Los Angeles on the ground there.

That operation is being called miraculous. His rescue is one ray of hope in a country reeling from the death and destruction. Authorities are reporting that at least 2,295 people were killed. That number is certainly expected to continue to rise.

Help is coming from other countries and nonprofits, including World Central Kitchen, which was founded by Jose Andres, who joins us now from Venezuela. Chef Andres, I know World Central Kitchen has been in Venezuela for several days. What has your team been able to do so far? What are you looking at?

CHEF JOSE ANDRES, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Well, thank you for having me, Anderson. World Central Kitchen does food, does water. Today we did over 40,000 meals -- multiple sites. The situation is, as many of you see in these images, it's building after building in a very concentrated -- we're talking about high rises of 10, 20 floors that went down immediately, sometimes seconds after the first earthquake.

So the situation organized chaos is thousands of people, obviously the military of Venezuela, the police, but many, many countries that they send some of their best teams, not only to do the most important thing right now, which is search and rescue, but also hospitals, et cetera. World Central Kitchen is one more NGO trying to help in the efforts of this terrible earthquake.

[20:55:11]

COOPER: How difficult is it to kind of get to some of the worst off sites?

ANDRES: Well, I will say that actually in the ground zero, at least today, traffic overall has been very fluid. The thing right now is obviously the (technical problem) of people. I've been able to visit multiple sites in the process of bringing ice and water and food to all those search and rescue teams.

And very often you see that they will tell you that in different buildings are people they believe is people is still alive. They're able to know that sometimes because voices, but sometimes because they have very good equipment, that they are even able to hear a sound of a heart that is beating. This sometimes is the only thing they need for those teams to keep doing the impossible, to be able to save lives in these days, they believe is two, three, four more days window, where they hope like what happened in Turkey, that on the day and eight hours is still they were able to find people under the rubble.

So right now this is the most important thing. And obviously everybody is very focused in this at this moment.

COOPER: Yes. And obviously the fact that it's warmer weather, it increases the chance of survival trapped under rubble as opposed to freezing cold temperatures, which crews have faced in other places like Turkey and elsewhere. I understand you're planning to increase the number of meals per day that you're trying to serve logistically. What are the challenges? ANDRES: Well, we need to understand that Caracas is not really too far away even the traffic makes the arrival from Caracas to the ground zero longer. But we are using a lot of restaurants that they were before with us in different emergencies in Venezuela. But also right now we are able to have a (technical difficulty) 20 minutes away from ground zero.

So between the restaurants in Caracas, this hotel where our teams are staying, plus where we are using this amazing kitchen. On top of that, we have (technical difficulty) put in very strategic places. We never have any problem if we need to be increasing the number of meals.

Obviously, it's a lot of camps where people are staying, the people that lost their homes that cannot go back to the building because the buildings are badly damaged. Or even at times people don't want to be sleeping in a building because they are afraid that something may be happening after a possible shake or (technical difficulty).

So these are --

COOPER: Yes.

ANDRES: -- the people that also we are taking care of.

COOPER: Chef Jose Andres, I appreciate talking to you. Thank you so much for World Central Kitchen. Appreciate it.

In just about 15 minutes, I hope you join me for All There Is Live. It's my streaming show about loss. It's a companion to my podcast, All There Is. You can tune in tonight online at our grief community page, which is CNN.com/AllThereIs. I'll be up there at 9:15 p.m. That's when we start.

My guest tonight is Justin Tinsley. He's a sports and culture reporter for ESPN's Andscape who's caring for his mom with Alzheimer's while also working and raising kids and grieving his beloved grandmother Clementine who died last year. Here's just part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TINSLEY, SPORTS AND CULTURE REPORTER, ESPN'S ANDSCAPE: One thing my grandmother always said is like if you live long enough, nobody makes it out of this thing called life without scars. Nobody.

COOPER: Your grandmother showed you how to grieve.

TINSLEY: Yes, she showed me how to grieve and she showed me grief is not a straight line. Grief doesn't even have a road map. Grief doesn't even have GPS coordinates. Grief operates on its own schedule with its own fingerprint.

And it does not care about how you felt the day before. It's here now and you got to deal with it. You got to figure out, OK, how do I not let myself get consumed by this? You just wake up and however you feel in that day, that's what you got to deal with. Grief is always going to be part of who you are. The only time grief has an expiration date is when we expire. That grief is transferred to somebody else who really loves you or cares about you. And this is the hard part for me because now I'm still dealing with it about her, but she told me that you can't spend the rest of your life in grief because then at some point in time, your number is going to get called and you won't be here anymore.

So that's what I try to tell myself. What if I just look for the fleeting moments of joy that make life worth living? That's what I try to do. Some days are great, some days aren't, but grief is not a straight line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Once again, All There is Live starts in just about 15 minutes at CNN.com/AllThereIs. You'll hear more from Justin talking about grief building community at CNN.com/AllThereIs. I'll see you there 15 minutes from now.

The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.