Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Rewriting History; Wash Post: Criticism Of Confederate Statue Removed From Government Website; Friday Marks 25th Anniversary Of 9/11 Attacks; Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Is Interviewed About Officials Misled City About Air Quality After 9/11; Inside The Battleground For Colorado's Latino Voters; Thieves Steal Four Renoir Paintings From French Museum, Dropping Two As They Flee. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired September 08, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Conflict with earlier statements he made to federal authorities. The U.S. attorney also says that nothing has come to light to change Tirado's original account of what happened.

Daniel Tirado spent almost two months in immigration custody. He was just recently released, that's when he was interviewed. His family and his lawyer stand by what he has told us. They say this entire experience has been incredibly traumatic -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much in Dallas for us tonight, and thanks so much to all of you for being with us. AC360 starts now.

[20:00:34]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good Evening, from the Newsroom. We begin tonight keeping them honest with what appears to be another instance of the Trump administration promoting its own sanitized version of American history instead of the real thing.

It centers on new reporting in "The Washington Post" that the administration has removed language on signage and a webpage criticizing a memorial to the confederacy, formerly located in Arlington National Cemetery, a memorial they intend to restore and put back.

So, this is the memorial statue, which was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and unveiled in 1914. It was taken down in 2023 as part of a congressional mandate to remove names and symbols honoring the confederacy. It's going to be put back next year, according to the Pentagon.

Now, here's a close up of the part of the statue, the old sign and webpage explained as portraying a, "nostalgic, mythologized vision of the confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery."

The new plaque no longer mentions slavery. Here's how a retired army brigadier general in west point history chair describes this memorial statue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. TY SEIDULE (RET.), FORMER HISTORY DEPARTMENT HEAD U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY: The statue, when we went looking, was the most racist statue that we found anywhere on federal property.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That is Ty Seidule, former Vice Chair of the Bipartisan Commission that Congress charged with identifying military sites honoring the confederacy and recommending replacements for them.

He went on to describe what was so racist about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEIDULE: It features an enslaved mammy figure that's an overweight, enslaved woman cradling the baby of her enslaver with a tear in her eye to show that the enslaved people appreciated and loved slavery. It was clearly a confederate commemoration, and the United States Congress created the naming commission to get rid of anything that commemorated the confederacy, and nothing commemorated it more than this 1914 statue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: General Seidule points out that the year 1914 is important in explaining what this statue and others like it were about. It was, he said, the Jim Crow Era, the height of confederate monument building, and he noted the height of lynching.

Now, again, "The Washington Post" broke this story, and as part of their reporting, asked the Defense Department for comment. The Pentagon referred questions to Arlington National Cemetery, which "The Post" says did not respond.

As for the defense secretary, he has made it clear the statue is returning. Announcing it online last year, he wrote it never should have been taken down by woke lemmings. Unlike the left, we don't believe in erasing American history, we honor it.

Now, keeping them honest, a bipartisan congressionally mandated effort to remove monuments from federal property to the leaders of an insurrection against the federal government is not exactly erasing history. As for honoring history by restoring them, it's maybe a funny thing to honor, but a consistent one. Here's the President six years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monument. Tear down our statues and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: That's the President in 2020, shortly after "Black Lives Matter" protesters pulled down a statue of confederate General Albert Pike in Washington. Last fall, the administration put it back up. Now, the Pentagon also undid the work of the renaming commission at Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, both of which memorialize confederate generals. They did this by finding a different Benning and different Bragg to name them after, which isn't so much honoring history as muddling it.

By contrast, three sources familiar with the matter tells CNN that the Navy is working to rename an aircraft carrier that was set to honor a sailor in pearl harbor, hero named Doris Miller, and miller was Black.

As we reported, the administration from early on, was purging government websites and at the Pentagon of references to Black people or gay people taking books out of the library at military academies by Black authors, or about the Black experience in America.

According to "The New York Times," a Toni Morrison book was removed. Mein Kampf was allowed to stay. As for the Smithsonian, the President last summer called it, "out of control. All caps quote, where everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was.

More recently, in July, the President ordered signs to be put outside the Smithsonian's Museum of American history, warning that it does not accurately reflect American history. Just last week, the administration suggested federal agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian if its leadership does not change and now it is. Its Director, Lonnie Bunch III today said he is stepping down, but not, he says, because of any of that.

Joining us now, former special adviser to President Obama, Van Jones, and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings, who, full disclosure, is reportedly being considered to be the next White House press secretary.

So, what do you think the administration is trying to do here, Van?

[20:05:39]

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's very sad and it's very painful. You know, part of wisdom when you look at your own past is knowing what to be proud of and what to be ashamed of. It's not about erasing things, but, you know, you should be ashamed of some things in your past, and you should learn from them. Shouldn't hide them, you shouldn't celebrate them. There's some things you should be proud of.

You should be ashamed of the people who are doing things to human beings that you cannot talk to children about. We sanitize slavery all the time because you can't tell children about the castrations, the rapes, burning people alive, separating mothers from babies for centuries in America.

That's not something to be proud of, not something to honor. You should be proud of the people who gave their lives to free those folks. Those are the people you should be proud of, the people, Black and White, who laid down their lives in the bloodiest war in human history. To free those folks. That's who you honor.

And when you have a President that doesn't know the difference, how he treats shame in his own life, he covers it up. He denies it, he lies about it, and he wants to project that onto the country. I think it's, I think it's very, very painful for Black folks to see this pattern from the President of United States

COOPER: Scott, do you agree with the administration's decision to change the context for the confederate memorial and, frankly, bring this statue back? This commission says it's one of the most racist ones they've seen.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The memorial itself has an interesting history. It was born out of the reconciliation movement that started in the late 1800s. In fact, President McKinley, who was a union veteran himself, decided, I think in 1898, we need to have reconciliation as a country. So, they started this process to try to do things, to reconcile the people who lived in the north and people who lived in the south. They were fighting alongside each other in the Spanish-American War.

This statue came along in 1914, as part of that, they started putting confederate graves in Arlington. And it was all part of a process to try to get Americans back together after what was obviously an extraordinarily painful period, so...

COOPER: Wait a minute, it wasn't part of the lost cause movement, Scott? It wasn't part of like the kind of recreating the --

JENNINGS: That was my next point. So, they have the reconciliation idea. This statue is part of that. But obviously the imagery and some of the way it's depicted, I mean, you can easily see why someone in 2026 would call this a racist depiction. So, I actually think there's some complication with the monument itself, but I think it's important to remember that it goes back to a time when the United States was still trying to pull itself back together after the Civil War.

My view is, is that honoring the confederate dead is different than endorsing their cause. I think Americans are smart enough to handle a full depiction of our history, and I think we ought to follow the law. And so those are my sort of three ideas for how this ultimately ought to be handled.

I would point out that Arlington itself was segregated, I think, until 1948. So, the cemetery itself took a very long time to integrate the graves of African-American soldiers and white soldiers.

So, you know, over a period of decades, we struggled with this. I do think this statue was originally born out of a good idea, which was National reconciliation. But it's easy to see why someone would reach the conclusions about it today.

So, I guess, you know, I guess I sort of see both sides of the argument. I can see why people who revere history would say, well, this is part of an important period of our history. And I can also see Van's point and others' point about why this statue doesn't belong there. I see both sides of the argument.

COOPER: Okay, got it. Is this, to you, is this about reconciliation?

JONES: No and again, you know, this whole process, you know, what he refers to as reconciliation, we refer to as the end of reconstruction, the actual reconciliation was the reconstruction period where you're trying to actually integrate Black people, formerly enslaved people. By the way, some of the best agronomists, some of the best engineers in the world were Black enslaved people who ran that whole economy.

COOPER: It's also a statue. I mean, it's funded by The Daughters of the Confederacy to praise and sort of have this mythology of what the confederacy was about, like this Black mammy who's crying and giving the baby over to the --

Jones: Yes, that doesn't sound like reconciliation to me. I mean, the real reconciliation moment was reconstruction, where you try to integrate Black people and Black people were being elected to office. Black people were serving in Congress. Black people had rights respected. And what happened is the end of that was throwing Black people back into segregation, incredible violence, incredible lynching, and the reconciliation was among the people who wanted to further that process.

That's why you wind up with Jim Crow segregation. That's why you wind up with lynching. That's why you wind up with White terror organizations called the Klan running roughshod over people. That's why you have people like from the south fleeing up north of one of the most, biggest internal refugee populations in human history, is Black people fleeing this project in the south to reimpose racial domination.

[20:10:48]

And so, people wanted to pass that up and call it reconciliation. But you can see all of us are Americans, but the Americans who are shown in this thing are shown as subservient, and people who don't have enough sense not to love the people who are raping them and castrating them.

And so, look, I think this is an unfortunate thing for President United States to be focused on. I don't know why he's so obsessed with putting this back in our faces, but you got to know what to be proud of and what to be ashamed of. What's being, not only is the actual crime of slavery something to be ashamed of, but honoring it, celebrating it, pretending it wasn't as bad. You should be ashamed of that as well, and not putting these statues back up.

COOPER: Scott, should the federal government now be paying money to carefully restore the statue and put it back?

JENNINGS: Well, it was, I'll just point out that the statue was originally commissioned and it was approved by the War Department, I think, in like 1906 or something and it didn't get built until 1914. So, it was part of a federal project that I think at the time had good intentions and numerous U.S. presidents over a period of time, acknowledge that.

But I think Van makes excellent points, too. You know, if they put it back, I think you have to put it back and you have to tell the context of the period in which it was commissioned and why it was put there. If you don't put it back, I think it probably should go in a museum and in a museum, someone should say, here's why it was built. Here's why some people think it's offensive and here was the historical context going on over a hundred years --

COOPER: But they've already -- but this administration, sorry to interrupt, this administration has already redone the sign to take out any references to the contextualization of this. So, when they put the statue back, do you think they're really going to put that in?

Jennings: I don't know, I haven't spoken to anyone about it. I don't know what the sign will say, but I look, I'll go back to my original point. I think the American people are smart. And I think you can tell them the full context of just about anything and they're smart enough to handle it. And so, in this particular case, I think people really ought to know what we went through in the Civil War, what we went through to reconcile this country, the struggles with that over time. And I think some of the points that Van made ought to be included as well.

I think there's a full picture to be painted here, and I think that to sort of just come down on one side or the other, it requires a more nuanced conversation. But I think there's multiple voices that deserve to be heard here. And I think Van has made some excellent points as well.

COOPER: All right, Van Jones, thanks, Scott, stick around.

Ahead tonight, just days ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a stunning revelation, New York's mayor releases records showing that officials misled city residents and first responders about the air quality around ground zero.

Also next, two 9/11 stories from the President and a serious question about whether they happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'll never forget two firemen, we thought it was coming down on top of us and two firemen, big, strong guys. And I'm not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arms and said, "got to get out of here" and they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I'm big, they lifted me up and they started running with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:18:20] COOPER: Just three days from now, it will be 25 years since Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes, took down the World Trade Center, hit the Pentagon, and tried to do far worse. All week, we'll be reflecting on the anniversary honoring the fallen and everyone who rose to the moment, finding the very best in themselves that day and in many days since.

Today, while reading prepared remarks at a commemorative event near the White House, the President told a pair of personal call 9/11 stories.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I took a lot of -- I was building a big building in New York, and I took the whole crew down there right after this happened, and they were, they had no hesitation. Everybody went down with me. We went down as a big group of people. Wasn't too much we could do. I'll be honest, we had other buildings in the United States, steel building was creaking, really creaking, and we thought it was going to fall down. The truth is, it creaked a lot.

I'll never forget two firemen, we thought it was coming down on top of us and two firemen, big, strong guys. And I'm not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arms and said "got to get out of here" and they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I'm big. They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, fellas, I can run myself. But they were amazing, but they thought it was coming down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He said he took a team of his workers to offer help at ground zero to firefighters, saved him from potentially falling building. He has said both claims before. As to the first, there's no public evidence that it happened, a retired New York fire official told "The New York Times" in 2019 that he never saw Trump in the months he was on site and said there had been record. If a team of Trump workers had been helping out. However, "The Associated Press" reported in 2016 that, "news accounts from days just after 9/11 include references to Trump giving high fives to police officers and volunteers on their way to the World Trade Center Site."

[20:20:10]

As to the second claim, the President did not specify when the firemen supposedly helped him. He was miles away at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan when the attack happened.

In a 2016 version of the story, the President said the firemen episode transpired, "a couple of days after today," he said it was right after it happened. He spent some of the day yesterday preparing for the anniversary online. Here's an A.I. post of him on horseback with George Washington.

Here's another map covering Canada and Greenland with the American flag. And finally, there's this the President brutalizing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a hockey stick, saying, "get up, governor."

Scott Jennings is back. Joining us now, former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin.

Why do you think, Alyssa, an event honoring the victims of the worst terror attack in U.S. history, the President felt the need to inject himself into it?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is classic Trump just going off script, because this should have been a nice event. He gave the medal of freedom to Welles Crowther, who saved 18 people on 9/11 and ultimately perished. And this is a moment that should be unifying for the country. And when I served in the first administration, he attended a number of the events and didn't speak at them. I went with Vice-President Pence to the Pentagon ceremony.

Oftentimes, these are usually very solemn traditions where officials show up and they don't give remarks. But we know the President wanted to give remarks. I would have advised him not to, because we know he goes off the cuff. We know he embellishes, and we know that he tends to make things about him. And the biggest terrorist attack in American history really is not about Donald Trump. It's about the entire country.

COOPER: Scott, I just want to play something else, the President said at the event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Our law enforcement holds our country together in light of some threats. We have some very real threats right now. We have people that want to go a different way. They want to go a communistic way. Well, that's not going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: The President often obviously described Democrats people on the left as communists. Do you think it's appropriate? Was that an appropriate place for political attacks?

JENNINGS: Well, I have to say, you know, to the extent that he's defending police officers, I'm sure they appreciated it because they do feel under assault right now. We've had a massive spike in violent attacks on federal law enforcement. You talk to cops around the country, federal or otherwise, and they'll tell you they do feel under threat all the time. And they also feel that the President often stands up for them when other people won't.

COOPER: Under threat from communists?

JENNINGS: Well, I mean, Anderson, the people on the radical extreme left in this country have made no, secret of their just say desire to abolish ICE. And they blame federal law enforcement for all sorts of things all the time. They constantly call them names. They call them Nazis. They call them Gestapo. They put a target on their backs all the time. This is what the radical left says. And frankly, it's what a lot of Democratic politicians say to parrot it and try to get in their good graces.

So, if the President wants to stand up for the cops, wherever he is, I got no problem with that, to be honest. They certainly have enough people banging on them every day.

GRIFFIN: It comes down to -- there's a time and a place to make this a political speech and a political debate. And 9/11 has just, Scott knows this better than me he worked for President Bush. That was a supposed to be a unifying thing that our country could come together around.

I mean, I remember George Bush after 9/11 going to a mosque and saying, Islam is a religion of peace, realizing it was a tense moment in the country that required leadership and unity. President Trump can give those remarks and he can defend cops any day of the week, but not around in political terms around 9/11, it's just not appropriate.

COOPER: "The New York Times" reported that part of the reason President Trump isn't going to New York City to commemorate the anniversary of September 11th is that he wanted to deliver a speech and they bar politicians from making speeches. The White House, the President strongly pushed back on that. Do you think he should have made the trip to New York rather than --

GRIFFIN: There's generally three different ceremonies that officials go to. They either go to the Pentagon, to New York City or to Pennsylvania, where the flight went down, and they tend to rotate those. I remember Vice-President Pence would go to one. Donald Trump would go to others in the first term.

I think that any president, vice-president should be at one of the main sites that we honor the victims of 9/11, especially on the 25th anniversary.

COOPER: Scott, the President went on a social media posting spree this weekend. A lot of the posts contain images that appear to have been created by A.I., including one where his face is superimposed on hulk hogans body. Multiple posts that show the State of New Mexico renamed new America, several where he appears to be marching through Washington, flanked by red eyed military robots. And this one from the official White House account showing the President as the D.C. comics superhero Green Lantern.

I would have picked a different comic hero as a comic hero fan, but is this just -- I mean, President Trump being President Trump, do you think this registers with anybody? Does anybody care?

Well, it certainly registers. I mean, look at all the engagement these posts get. I mean, this is Trump engaging with the culture and, you know, on a holiday weekend, a lot of us sat around scrolling our social media feeds and looking at things. It's interesting to me that he, he does these things. I mean, maybe it's unexpected by some, but at this point, Trump has been on the leading edge of engaging with the culture in a lot of different ways and I view this as more of that.

I'm sure some people who hate Donald Trump think it's terrible. And people who love Donald Trump think it's great. And the wheels keep on spinning as they will until he leaves office

COOPER: Alysa, does it make sense? I mean, there is a war going on not according to the Vice-President, but according to the President, there is a war going on.

[20:25:42]

GRIFFIN: Well, listen, there was a stat that in August alone he posted over 1,000 times on his truth social. And that's, to the best of my knowledge, only the President and two other aides have access to that. That's a lot of posting. That's a lot of time spent on it and listen, I agree with Scott to an extent that some of this is just him feeding memes to his base that they want, but the one that really stands out to me is this, this back and forth with Canada.

So, we are now in a trade war with Canada. When prices are already high, when Americans are already suffering from the tariffs that were under. And I would remind folks; I was in the first Trump administration. We negotiated the USMCA, the existing trade relationship between Canada and the United States is Donald Trump's deal.

So, if he has a problem with it and he wants to now get in a trade war, he created that problem. it's a moment where I think people are struggling, people are suffering, and it just feels out of touch. It feels like you're catering to a small fraction of your base, not to the broader portion of the country.

A broader portion of the country that did elect Donald Trump and feel like he's not delivering for them.

COOPER: Alyssa Farah Griffin, thank you, Scott Jennings as well. Thanks very much, appreciate it.

Up next, nearly 25 years after the day, new documents confirming what many suspected that the air near ground zero was less safe to breathe than officials led on vital information the public was not told.

We'll discuss with Congressman Jerry Nadler.

Also, it is primary election night once again in America. The latest results and John King, with an all over the map report on the Latino vote in a key district in a key state.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:31:11]

COOPER: More breaking news tonight. New York City has released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed records about air quality following the September 11th attacks. These documents show that city officials at the time knew conditions around ground zero were unsafe to breathe despite repeatedly telling the public it was safe. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release today alongside 9/11 families and Jon Stewart, a longtime advocate for increased transparency and resources for first responders and survivors. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: Now, close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11 related illnesses than were killed on the day itself. It would be one thing if government had stood alongside survivors and provided them with everything they needed at every step of the way. And yet we know that could not be further from what actually happened. People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11th in New York City, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and thousands more including first responders who spent months working at the ground zero site in New York have since died from 9/11 related cancers and other illnesses. The documents were among 68 boxes stored in a city government office that were found last year according to current city officials. New York's Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, whose district included ground zero at the time, was at the press conference today. He's been raising concerns about toxic exposure at the site for decade. Congressman Nadler joins us now. Why did it take so long for these documents to come to light?

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): I assume because they were well hidden. And at this point, over three times as many people have died from World Trade Center related cancers, as died on 9/11, and a lot more will die.

COOPER: You were raising concerns about air quality very quickly.

NADLER: Yes, I started raising concerns the day after 9/11, on the 12th, because it was obvious to me in those days every computer had four pounds of lead in it and that had to be all in the air. A couple of days later, an environmental group, I forget which one that I was working with, confirmed it from air testing and I was screaming about it, but Giuliani and Christine Todd Whitman were saying, the Contra Act couldn't even get into the New York Times.

COOPER: Why wouldn't they have come forward and talked about air quality?

NADLER: You'd have to ask them. Well, obviously from the Harding Memo, we now know that the Harding Memo, which was written a month later, was concerned about the liability for lawsuits.

COOPER: The city officials, the city attorneys were concerned about the city being sued and their liability.

NADLER: Yes, yes. Now, we passed, former Congressman Maloney and I passed the Zadroga Act in 2010 against a lot of Republican opposition, with the honorable exception of Pete King and Beto Facella. It took us until then because we -- all the Republicans opposed it. If we had -- if this information had been out public, we could have passed it a lot sooner, probably. As it was, we had to make arbitrary decisions south of Canal Street before, it had to be south of Canal Street before May 30th of 2002.

Obviously we knew the air went above Canal Street and it went into Brooklyn, but we -- Charlie Rangel said we had $4.5 billion to work with and that made us use those boundaries. But I know, for example, that people went to work in the municipal building after May 30th of 2002, a few months later, they hadn't cleaned up the place, it was very dusty, and they came down with all kinds of cancers.

[20:35:06]

COOPER: Do you think more people now will be eligible for compensation, for help?

NADLER: Well, the people who are in the World Trade Center health program have given up their right to compensation, the program pays for it. But other than that, yes.

COOPER: And you're retiring from Congress when your term ends in January. As you look at New York and how it's changed since 9/11, what stands out to you?

NADLER: People have adapted, I mean, the city has gone on from it. In one sense, I mean, the mayor is obviously more concerned about getting Wall Street back up right away, and Wall Street did come back up right away.

COOPER: There was concern back then of downtown, kind of no one wanting to live there, all of that, obviously it's not coming to pass.

NADLER: No, and toxins have gone away, obviously. After the -- shortly after that, I organized, along with other local elected officials, a couple of state senators, a couple of city council members, a couple of assembly members, what we called the Ground Zero Elected Officials Task Force, and we made sure that people who were in their homes in Southbridge, in Battery Park City, in Tribeca, could get food, could get medicines because nothing was open. So we made sure, the Army was distributing things, and we made sure they knew where to distribute it and what people needed.

COOPER: What -- on this anniversary, I mean, obviously every anniversary is different, this one obviously is a significant one, do you have a memory from that time that stands out to you?

NADLER: My frustration at not being able to be heard above the denials of the mayor and the EPA Administrator Giuliani and Christine Todd Whitman, that things were unsafe and that people shouldn't be breathing down there.

COOPER: You're saying they were lying?

NADLER: Of course they were lying, and it's obvious now.

COOPER: Jerry Nadler, thanks very much, I appreciate it.

NADLER: You're very welcome. COOPER: Coming up, another museum heist in France, the masterpieces the thieves got this time and what investigators say about the chances of catching them. And later John King all over the map in a key midterm battleground, talking to Latino voters who could tip the race with control of the House at stake, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:41:40]

COOPER: Polls have now closed in New Hampshire, where some races are a test of the President's endorsement power, but also the reach of Democrats. Voters there are casting ballots today in key races for the U.S. Senate, House, and Governor. John King joins us at the Magic Wall with all the latest and new all-over-the-map report from a bit farther west. John, how are results shaping up?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, no huge surprises in New Hampshire. If you look through it, let's start with the Democratic Senate race. This is an open Senate race. Jeanne Shaheen is retiring. Congressman Chris Pappas was the overwhelming Democratic establishment favorite, and he is winning the Democratic nomination tonight.

There might be some who say, hey, look, 36 percent for your progressive challenger, maybe a little bit of volatility in the Democratic Party, a little unhappiness, if you will, with the establishment there. But Chris Pappas winning by an overwhelming margin. On the Republican side, the primary is a battle of two former senators trying to get back to the United States Senate, and John Sununu, famous family name, he is the son and brother of former governors of New Hampshire, also was, again, a former Republican United States senator, beating former Senator Scott Brown quite convincingly in the primary as the early votes come in there.

You mentioned the House primaries here. Let me pull this down a little bit to get to the House side here. The only one that's competitive is here, the Democratic primary in the 1st District, Stefany Shaheen, who is the daughter of the incumbent senator leading over ex-Marine Maura Sullivan in this race here.

You look at the Republican side here. This is where you mentioned President Trump was involved, auto dealer Anthony DiLorenzo was the President's choice, and you see him there with a giant lead on the House Republican side. So the President gets a bit of a win there.

This tends to be, Anderson, this tends to be New Hampshire has been trending Democratic as they go back to the Senate races, but there are some Democrats a bit nervous because Sununu has a big name, he can raise money, they want to see if Pappas can perform. This is a seat the Democrats absolutely must hold if they have any chance to get the plus four they need to get the United States Senate. You mentioned our recent All Over the Map travels.

Let's go back out to Colorado, pull up the 2024 map first. This is a state, obviously, Kamala Harris won. It's a blue state, but when you look at the House races in 2024, look at this one just above Denver. The 8th District won then, flipped red by now incumbent Gabe Evans. It was 2,400 votes then. Anderson, this is a key Latino battleground, not just in Colorado, but as we look to test a giant midterm question and 2028 question.

Will Latino voters who for the last decade have swung toward Trump and the Republicans, will they stay there or will they swing back?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): Platteville, Colorado, population 3,000, a frontier outpost back when the railroad spread west, now a quiet ranching town with a giant say in the country's direction. Miko Rios took charge of the Silver Spur when his mother died last year. He is a registered Democrat and a 2024 Trump voter.

MIKO RIOS, COLORADO VOTER: But the charisma caught my attention. I felt like we were a little stagnant for a while, and I wanted some change.

KING: Secret recipe, just like the colonel.

RIOS: Exactly.

KING: OK, got it.

RIOS: It gives our family our signature flavor.

KING (voice-over): But margins are down and costs keep going up for everything, including flour for the homemade bread. Keep going up, despite Trump's 2024 promise they would come down quickly.

RIOS: I don't believe it has changed. The economy I feel like right now is hard for small businesses, and that's what our supplies, our insurance, our cost of living has gone up so much.

KING (voice-over): Platteville is in Colorado's 8th congressional district. Republican Gabe Evans is the first term incumbent, and the race is a toss up.

[20:45:07]

KING: Has Congress done anything in his first term to help you?

RIOS: Not that I can feel. Nothing comes to mind.

KING (voice-over): And yet registered Democrat Rios is undecided.

KING: Would you prefer a more moderate candidate, personally?

RIOS: I would.

KING (voice-over): Manny Rutinel is the Democratic candidate, a progressive who beat a moderate in the Democratic primary.

KING: When he was in college, he criticized beef and cattle and that kind of farming, ranching. Is that going to hurt him?

RIOS: I think so.

KING: Does that come up around here?

RIOS: It does. Our community is strong on their cattle, their ranches, their livestock and their crops. It's something, they take it as a foundation of this country.

KING (voice-over): Rutinel says his views have evolved and he believes ranchers in the district use appropriate and sustainable methods.

KING: This is a complicated district, stretching from the fast-growing Denver suburbs to more rural farming and ranching communities like this. It is 40 percent Hispanic, by far Colorado's most diverse congressional district. And Colorado 8 is among the nation's most competitive districts. A Democrat won here in 2022 by 1,600 votes. Then Colorado 8 flipped red in 2024 by 2,400 votes.

KING (voice-over): Greeley is the district's conservative northern edge. Energy and food processing drive the economy here. Esmeralda Ramirez-Ray is a big fan of the President and of Congressman Evans. But beyond that, she's beyond frustrated with Washington.

ESMERALDA RAMIREZ-RAY, COLORADO VOTER: The rest of them just sit there and they grow stagnant and they do absolutely nothing.

KING: What's the right word? Help me. Is it forgotten, ignored?

RAMIREZ-RAY: They get in there and they forget all of their promises. They don't keep their promises and they get very arrogant and just forget that they're there to represent the people. It seems to be that they get there and it's all self-serving.

KING: But you don't believe Congressman Evans has been caught by that spell yet?

RAMIREZ-RAY: No. No, I don't.

KING (voice-over): Ramirez-Ray is a court translator now, but she came to the United States as a migrant farm worker, all for a secure border and all for deporting criminals, but sometimes troubled. The President doesn't seem to distinguish between the bad and the hardworking.

RAMIREZ-RAY: Nobody is perfect. And, I mean, he comes from an ivory tower in New York. He's not going to understand what the common people go through on a day-to-day basis.

KING: Should he understand that? Should he try to do a better job to understand that?

RAMIREZ-RAY: He should, right, but it isn't just the President. It's all of the elected officials. They are -- they have lost their way.

KING (voice-over): Adams County is the blue southern end of Colorado 8, suburban neighborhoods within sight of the Denver skyline. KING: If you're the Democrat in Colorado 8, which is Manny Rutinel this year, this is where you need to win, and you need to win by a healthy margin.

KING (voice-over): Trump ran stronger among Latinos here in 2024, and that helped Congressman Evans.

KING: In 2026, a defining question, and then in 2028 and beyond, do Latino voters continue to trend Republican, or do they swing back? The answer to that question will decide this congressional district this year, and will have a huge role in what happens in 2028 and beyond because of the growing power of the Hispanic vote.

KING (voice-over): You see a lot of this here, new homes, which means construction jobs.

ALEJANDRA SPRAY, CEO, HISPANIC CONTRACTORS OF COLORADO: Gas is another thing for construction. The impact of gas in oil prices, not only in the fleets that we have, but also the materials we have. So I don't know if people feel like it's not what I voted, it's not what I was promised.

KING (voice-over): Alejandra Spray is CEO of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado. She describes Congressman Evans as pro-business and accessible and noted his support of legislation that would have helped undocumented workers get legal status.

KING: The House Republicans are not for that. The President of the United States is not for that. Does that put him kind of in a bind back home?

SPRAY: I believe it does.

KING (voice-over): And this is a remarkable sign of the times. Fight back is what challengers say. Gabe Evans is the incumbent. And red is usually the Republican color, not blue.

MANNY TEJADA, COLORADO VOTER: There's like not that many Hispanic- signed businesses catering to the Hispanic market.

KING (voice-over): Manny Tejada and his wife, Alexandra, are active in Hispanic community organizations. He is a Republican, but knows a lot of longtime Democrats who voted for Trump in 2024 because of inflation and because of Biden immigration policies.

M. TEJADA: When they opened the borders, that inflated, you know, like millions of migrants that you will see, you know, on the streets. So Hispanics have been here for decades. They saw that and they didn't like that.

ALEXANDRA TEJADA, COLORADO VOTER: Yes, so the cost of the aluminum, I want to say three, four years, it's double or more.

KING (voice-over): Now costs are still going up, and Tejada says it is Trump's immigration policy and tone driving the conversation.

KING: You think it's going to swing back to the Democrats this time?

M. TEJADA: I think so. I think so.

KING: And the reasons why? People disappointed in Trump or disappointed in Evans?

M. TEJADA: You know what, Trump -- mainly Trump. We're hardworking people, we're people of faith. So when you start attacking, you know, our community, then everybody, you know, comes together and says, hey, this is not right.

[20:50:12]

SCOTT BUSTIOS, COLORADO VOTER: You would only put it east-facing because you had consistent sunrise to midday year-round.

KING (voice-over): Scott Bustios is a Democrat whose push for change is personal.

KING: So you've been laid off three times in how long?

BUSTIOS: Three times in eight years, but two times in less than a year and a half.

KING (voice-over): This is Thornton, just outside Denver. It grew 20 percent between 2010 and 2020, but Bustios sees signs of a slowdown.

BUSTIOS: Several houses are for sale right now. People have had to lower their asking price. They're staying on market a little bit longer. Gas prices are higher. Food costs are higher. Insurance rates are higher. A viable industry like renewables is downsizing. The job sector is struggling.

KING (voice-over): He voted for Rutinel in the primary, yet Bustios is a little worried.

BUSTIOS: Manny Rutinel, he needs to get volunteers to go out. They need to do grassroots.

KING: You don't feel a blue wave right now?

BUSTIOS: Here in Thornton? No. This one's a fight, and Manny Rutinel and his team, they -- I haven't had someone knock on my door yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: So, John, if you're a Democratic or Republican in the 2028 presidential hopeful, how closely are you going to be watching the midterm results in Colorado?

KING: Everyone is going to be watching the midterm results in Colorado statewide. It's a blue state now, but it used to be purple. It's a question of what happens heading into 2028, but particularly this district, because it is literally a bellwether. There are very few like it in Anderson. Five or six districts like this in the entire country that are evenly divided 50-50. What makes this one almost unique is that 40 percent Latino composition of the voters, and both parties are going to be looking at that, what happens here this year as we go ahead into 2028.

Remember, Nevada moving up on the Democratic primary calendar, for example. This is a fascinating district, and you want to watch it, number one, if you're running in 2028 or for the results this year, look at the top half of the district, conservative Weld County and the little pieces of the counties next to it. Gabe Evans got nearly 60 percent there. This is the ranch town. These are the ranch towns where Manny Rutinel needs to prove that he actually will support the cattle industry, unlike what he said in college. But the key test is down here.

Remember 2018, Donald Trump was punished in the suburbs. Well, Gabe Evans lost in the Adams County part, but he did much better than the Democrat in 2022. This is where the Latino vote is concentrated, Anderson. That's where the district will be decided, and that's where the lessons will be learned for the midterm year and on to 2028.

COOPER: All right, John King All Over the Map. Thanks so much, John, appreciate it.

Coming up, it took thieves less than five minutes to steal four Renoir paintings from a museum in Southern France. Details on how they did it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:56:49]

COOPER: Almost a year after that brazen heist at the Louvre, French authorities are now on the hunt for thieves in yet another caper, this time in southern France. CNN's Melissa Bell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thieves have stolen four paintings, abandoning two as they fled, from France's Renoir Museum in the latest heist to hit the art world. A large hole can be seen in this wired fence surrounding the museum.

The impressionist painters Madame Colonna Romano, worth $2.3 million, and Jeune femme au puits, worth $230,000, were stolen on Tuesday, according to local officials in the French Riviera town of Cagnes-sur- Mer, where the museum's located. The thieves were forced to abandon Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon and Coco lisant as they fled, according to the town's mayor. He also said the museum's alarm system went off at 5:48 local time and the police had arrived at the scene five minutes later.

MAYOR BRYAN MASSON, CAGNES-SUR-MER, FRANCE (through translator): They were equipped with, if I may say so, an electric knife or a metal saw, whatever you want to call it. They cut through the bolts holding the frames of Renoir's paintings in place. The arrival of the municipal police, along with the sirens from the museum and the police, caused the burglars to rush off. They stole only four of the 12 works in the Renoir museum. They fled by running through the gardens and, it seems, dropped two works along the way.

BELL: In a statement, the mayor's office said that the museum had been targeted "by several individuals who were clearly organized, equipped and well-informed," adding that the museum's security system had been triggered as soon as they entered the museum's gardens.

BELL (voice-over): The latest heist comes nearly a year after the Louvre was targeted in an audacious raid. Video footage captured thieves in yellow vests on the second floor of the Louvre after they'd forced open a window. They managed to grab nine priceless items and fled back down a truck-mounted ladder, all in just four minutes. Police recovered the angle grinder and a torch that were used to force open the window.

One piece, the crown of the Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, was dropped and found very quickly, but the eight other pieces remain missing. French Senator Nathalie Goulet doesn't think the French people understand the magnitude of the problem facing museums.

NATHALIE GOULET, FRENCH SENATOR: Well, I think we opened the Pandora box, I mean, with the Louvre, which was so easy, with a kind of impunity, and nobody was caught, almost. I think it's like an open door to a new tribe for other museums.

BELL (voice-over): Now calls are growing for authorities to help better protect the country's museums to prevent increasingly organized and determined criminals once again striking at the heart of French culture.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BELL: This latest heist, coming, as it does, Anderson, less than a year after the major one here at the Louvre, does seem to confirm that France has a major issue with security at its museums. But there is also a change in the criminal activity around them. Europol published this report last month suggesting that across Europe, criminals are now targeting museums in a new way, with this kind of heist improving more frequent and sometimes more violent. What they're doing is recruiting those who carry them out on social media and targeting artifacts or paintings in a way that they simply didn't before. Anderson?

[21:00:25]

COOPER: Melissa Bell, thanks so much.

That's it for us. The news continues, The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.