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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Says He's Banning CNN, POLITICO And MS NOW From White House; Interview With Senator Chris Coons; Kennedy Center Protest; Source: False, AI-Assisted U.S. Intel Report "Almost Started A War"; "Hands Around The Kennedy Center" Rally In D.C.; More Than A Dozen New Layoffs At Kennedy Center; Testimony Begins In Murder Trial Of Former "American Idol" Contestant; Clancy Holdout Juror: "I Didn't Have Any Doubts". Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 18, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: We'll obviously see how that story develops but we wanted to make sure it didn't get lost in the maelstrom over Trump banning the press from the White House tonight. Thanks so much for joining us on this Friday night. We hope we'll see you back here on Monday. Anderson Cooper, AC360 begins right now.
[20:00:24]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, from the Newsroom. We are tracking two breaking stories tonight. One an unfolding protest at the Kennedy Center; the other a Presidential ban from the White House for CNN.
We begin tonight at the White House. The President of the United States announcing today with no warning that he has banned CNN from the White House, along with MS NOW and POLITICO. He announced the ban in a social media post that read, in part, "... I am proud to announce that effective immediately on banning fake news, CNN, MS NOW, who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility, and POLITICO from the White House as a result of their constant reporting fake news."
He went on to say, "Other fake news media outlets to follow." He later spoke about the ban from the Oval Office. And we're going to play some of what he said in a moment. But first, just to make two things kind of clear. First, no actual journalist or news organization wants to become the story, the job, our job and there are fewer and fewer outlets doing this is to report what is happening, to try to make sense of it, present various viewpoints about it.
President Trump has now thrust CNN into the headlines and announced a ban from the White House, which is often referred to as the People's House, a symbol of our democracy that belongs to every American, not to any one President.
Secondly, to the accusation of fake news, CNN has released a statement, it reads "CNN stands fully behind our White House team and their fair and accurate reporting. We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. Should the ban, which President Trump threatened, go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally protected right."
Now, the President was repeatedly asked about the ban by reporters at the event in the Oval Office today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, earlier today, you posted that you intend to ban CNN, POLITICO and MS NOW from the White House.
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Yes.
REPORTER: Every President takes an oath to uphold the constitution, which includes the First Amendment.
TRUMP: I do too.
REPORTER: How do you justify --
TRUMP: Much more so than you do.
REPORTER: Is this serious?
TRUMP: Because they're fake news. You get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it's just fake. You need a free press. You need a fair press and an honest press.
REPORTER: ... during this ban, now, is there a particular reason?
TRUMP: No reason. No. I just, because. No, it's really just cumulative stories over the last two years. They purposely write negative news. And they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration.
REPORTER: Does the freedom of the press is enshrined in the First Amendment.
TRUMP: Well, thank you for that. Thank you for telling me that, appreciate it.
REPORTER: Are you trying to intimidate the press from doing its job?
TRUMP: No, no, I dislike dishonest press like you. I think you're terrible. But I dislike dishonest, I like to see honest press.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, for that last reporter, Catherine Lucey of Bloomberg News, it is not the first time the President has lashed out at her. Specifically, back in November, when she asked him a question you may remember about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein. He cut her off and said, "quiet, piggy."
As far as CNN reporters, I should note that they were not part of the pool of media assigned to cover that event in the Oval Office today. But they continued to report inside the building and the White House grounds. And our CNN senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes, who joins me now, she is still there on the North Lawn of the White House.
So, Kristen, you're still there. Is there any clarity on what this ban actually means?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, Anderson, we still don't have any idea as to what this will actually look like. And I do want to make clear, when you talk about the pool, we are talking about the T.V. networks that are on a rotation, on a schedule, that they are the ones who film it for all of the T.V. stations. That's why sometimes you see me in there asking questions. Sometimes you see us today, another network in there asking questions.
We're not scheduled to be part of the pool today or through the weekend. So, we're still unclear what is going to happen next. President Trump was kind of asked the logistics of this during that Oval Office meeting, and he didn't seem to quite understand the question, meaning he was asked specifically, are you taking away their press badges? Are you taking them out of the pool? And he said he was going to take the ban as far as it could go, that he didn't want CNN et cetera in his office.
He didn't want them here. But again, we still don't have any clarity or understanding from the White House how they or President Trump intend on handling this. And as you can see, we're actually one of the few media outlets that is still here reporting everyone else has gone home for the night. President Trump is not here. He is in Sterling, Virginia, at his golf course for a political dinner. But they have not offered us any clarity on what exactly this means.
COOPER: All right, Kristen Holmes, appreciate it. Thank you, good to have you there.
Joining us now, former federal prosecutor Jeff Toobin, CNN senior political commentator Ana Navarro and David Urban.
So, Jeff, is there a way, I mean, is there any way this ban from the President is constitutional?
JEFF TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, Anderson, you know, I'm usually wary about making ironclad predictions, but I'm going to make an exception tonight. This is never going to stand up in court, in part because the law is clear, but in part also because the federal district court in Washington just decided this exact case a couple of years ago in 2018, as you may remember, our former colleague Jim Acosta had his press pass, his hard pass, his permanent pass to the White House removed by the President because they didn't like his coverage.
And the federal district court in Washington, a Trump appointee said, you can't do that, he said in part, the President can't pick and choose based on content, based on the reporting he doesn't like. But also, he said, you can't just remove a government benefit without due process. And so, under both of those grounds that the Jim Acosta ban was overturned, and I expect that this ban, however, it actually works in the real world, will be overturned by a court very promptly.
COOPER: David Urban is someone who worked for President Trump advised his campaign. Is this, what do you think of this?
DAVID URBAN, SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Anderson, to just point I think the President and, you know, I come on here, you know, every night and say we could be, we should be talking about a lot of different things.
Today, for example, instead of talking about banning the media, the President does have good news. Theres a report out. The U.S. Census Bureau put a report out that said poverty rates in America are at historic low, all time low in the United States. As a matter of fact, real wages, real median household income jumped 2.6 percent to 87,000 bucks, the highest inflation adjusted level since census records began in 1967, the lowest poverty rate in America since 1960.
COOPER: He doesn't seem to care.
URBAN: And instead of talking about that, like all day and crowing about that great news, we're talking about this and nobody in America cares about this. They care about how their lives are affected and spreading the good news. If he wants good stories, talk about good news.
COOPER: Anna, President Trump said today, there's something wrong with the country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories. Seems like the First Amendment protects exactly that kind of speech. Critical reporting, regardless about how the President, this President or any president, because pretty much every President probably has had some dream about removing reporters from the White House.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Anderson, it's actually the opposite. There is something wrong with a country that does not allow for critical things to be written. And I know this because I fled one of those countries. I fled communism in Nicaragua, and I live here in Miami, which is full of people who fled communism in Cuba, fled communism in Venezuela. And let me tell you, one of the first things, and I don't say this lightly, I don't make these similarities and comparisons lightly.
One of the first things that communist dictators, dictators of any ilk do when they get to power is attack the free press, censor the free press, and try to silence the free press. And what Trump did today, what he's threatening to do today is not coming in a vacuum, right?
One of the first acts he took as President was to ban the A.P. because they refused to go along with his insanity of capriciously renaming the Gulf of Mexico. It's the banning of reporters from the Pentagon. It's the berating of female reporters constantly. It's the rules that he played on the on the media when he got on that catering cart and on Air Force One in Turkey, it's over and over and over again. The attacks on the press, the hour plus speech he gave at the White House Correspondents' Dinner against the free press.
You know, that line he uses where the press is the enemy of the people. I have heard that line before from Ortega, who calls the press and his opponents an "amigos de la humanidad." So, people have to be very careful and we have to condemn it. And I
would ask Republicans, I would ask Trump supporters to think to themselves, how would they feel if any Democratic President, if Barack Obama had suddenly capriciously banned Fox News, how would, what would they be reacting? We can't make this partisan. Weve got to make this about American democracy, American values, and the First Amendment.
COOPER: Yes, she's referencing Manuel Ortega, who was the leader of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Jeff, I mean, if the ban is reversed by the courts, would those news organizations be reinstated at the White House immediately?
TOOBIN: Immediately, immediately, I mean, you just can't do this. I mean, this is so obviously unconstitutional at both levels as a violation of the First Amendment and a and a violation of due process. You know, I would like to see what the rest of the press corps is doing, whether they're going to show some solidarity, because this is an attack on all journalism. It's not just an attack on CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO, because if a President can assert that sympathetic coverage can be allowed, but coverage you don't like can't be allowed.
They're coming for you next. In fact, the President said in his statement that more, more are to follow. So, you know, I can't be as articulate and passionate as Ana was, but I think she is so right about this is what happens in authoritarian countries. It's not, this should be a bipartisan issue and as the President likes to say, we'll see what happens.
[20:10:54]
URBAN: Yes. You know, I'll just say, Anderson, really quickly, two points there, Jeff. The White House Correspondents' Association, Jackie Heinrich, who's the President, put out a statement condemning the President's actions. So, we'll see what follows up on that.
And number two, simply by banning people from showing up does not mean that the coverage stops. The coverage will continue. The coverage of the Pentagon continue, people are not allowed in the building. And yet the coverage continues. And so, if you want --
NAVARRO: Yes, David, but he wants to influence that coverage. By Weaponizing the FCC, by filing frivolous lawsuits, by extorting money out of networks, by threatening them verbally, by berating and attacking journalists. He wants to influence that coverage.
URBAN: I would submit this, the way you influence coverage is you bring reporters back behind the podium, back into the, you know, communications shop, and you talk to them and you share more information and you help shape the story from within. You don't ban them from the building.
COOPER: Well, it's interesting, David. But David, it's interesting because they've already done that. And, you know, they brought in a whole range of, you know, I don't know if they're influencers per se or people from sort of nontraditional pro-MAGA outlets into the White House Press Corps, you know, giving them access at the Pentagon, giving them access there in the briefings, all of which, you know, was commented on, but, you know, has been going forward. And they're certainly getting their message out.
URBAN: Yes, no, Anderson, what I mean is if you're fearful, there's going to be a bad story, right? You talk to the reporter. That's rule number one in communications, right? You bring, if you think someone's going to write a bad piece about you or your issue, you bring them in and you talk to them. And so, by locking the door and keeping people out, you're better --
COOPER: It just seems particularly -- but I mean, has he always been this thin skinned? I mean, obviously, he was used to getting you know, positive coverage when he was just, you know, sort of, you know, the larger-than-life businessman in New York where the stakes weren't that high.
URBAN: Well, listen, when, I think the President look, when he saved Wollman Rink, remember back in the day when in Central Park, right, the President came in and swooped in and as Donald Trump and was the hero of Central Park. I mean, that's the kind of coverage the President likes.
NAVARRO: I'm not sure he's the hero of Central Park.
COOPER: Yes, I'm not sure.
NAVARRO: David, I'm not sure that's the one you want to bring up.
COOPER: You want to focus on the skating rink.
URBAN: Yes, we're talking about skating rink, okay. You're talking about skating rink here. Theres clearly --
NAVARRO: All right, well, there's five men for whom he asked for the death penalty who would disagree with him being the hero of Central Park, David.
URBAN: Ana, you're proving his point right there. But there was a good story about Donald Trump saving Central Park, saving the Wollman Rink at Central Park. And so, I think that's the kind of coverage he wants. But you don't get that coverage unless you engage with the media. You tell your story. If you push back on narratives, they aren't favorable.
COOPER: He's certainly engaging with the media. He's calling them piggy and insulting women primarily.
TOOBIN: But you know --
NAVARRO: David, you get good stories by being a good President if you are throwing a temper tantrum and wanting to demolish the Kennedy Center because your name is not on it, you're not going to get a good story if you are calling regular Americans into court and accusing them of vandalism because your pool guy, screwed up the repair work of the reflecting pool. You're not going to get a good story. You get good stories by doing good things, behaving like a decent human being, and being a good President.
URBAN: Ana, I just, I'm violently agreeing with you in terms of there's good news, the President should be talking about every day good things the administration is doing every day. He should be focusing on those, not the reflecting pool, not the Kennedy Center. Talk about the economic issues that everyday American's care about. And the administration is doing well, talking about general facts.
COOPER: Jeff, I want to give you the final thought.
TOOBIN: Well, I just want to notice. And, you know, my pal David, you know, he's treating this like a media management story. And this is not a media management story. This is a government censorship story. And, you know, that's what this is about. This is about the government telling which newscasts, which broadcasters or which newscasters can cover the stories in the way that they want.
That's what this is about. It's about government censorship. And David, you shouldn't be talking about media management. You should be talking about what this is really about.
[20:15:08]
URBAN: Yes, but Jeff, it's not about censoring. Listen, we can still write. We can still talk. CNN is still going to cover the President. It's still going to happen.
COOPER: Well, it is censored. I mean, it's trying to it's trying to eliminate access to the President by these reporters so that they're not confronted, he's not confronted by, you know, a female who is asking him direct questions who is not afraid of him.
URBAN: Listen, Anderson, I'm not saying it's good. I wouldn't advise it. Right?
COOPER: I know you're not.
URBAN: I think I think it's just bad politics. And I would talk about, like I said, talk about the positive things. Not like you want positive stories, talk about the positive things you're doing.
COOPER: David Urban, thank you. Jeff Toobin, Ana Navarro as well, appreciate it.
Coming up, more on the Trump White House ban from a Democratic Senator who calls it the behavior of an authoritarian.
And later, exclusive reporting sources say a faulty U.S. intelligence report, generated with the help of A.I. almost started a war according to one source between the U.S. and China. Details on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:05]
COOPER: Our breaking news tonight. President Trump says he is banning CNN, POLITICO and MS NOW from the White House because he says he doesn't like how the news is being covered. Our reporters remain at the White House tonight, at least and when asked about it this afternoon, he threatened to ban other news organizations as well.
Joining us now, CNN chief media analyst, Brian Stelter. Has MS NOW or POLITICO have they commented?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: POLITICO has said in a statement, we will continue to fairly report on this White House, as well as future ones. I thought that was a nice touch and will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights. That's code, of course, for were already on the phone with our lawyers, and certainly that is going on this evening.
MS NOW has chosen not to respond with a statement, in part because I'm told they didn't want to engage in what they consider threat by tweet as what the President was doing today. But there was a message sent to the White House correspondents and reporters there saying, of course, management has their back and they're prepared to take action if necessary. So, you see all three outlets preparing the same way.
COOPER: And the White House Correspondents' Association, they put out some sort of statement.
STELTER: Yes, saying that there's solidarity here. And we've seen that from places like "The New York Times" as well tonight, " saying, "this is another attempt to restrict American's knowledge about their own government." And I that's an important point here. It's not just about the White House. It is about the government writ large.
Weve seen other efforts by the Trump administration to restrict access, most famously at the Pentagon, with Pete Hegseth pushing reporters out of the Pentagon complex. And yet some of the most important stories reported by the American news media this week have been out of the Pentagon, out of the military.
Those photos, published by CBS and ABC of destroyed U.S. Air Bases. These reports from CNN about this incredible threat about A.I. So, we continue to see so much great reporting being done, sometimes from the outside instead of the inside. It's a reminder that access is important, but it's not the only way to cover this government and journalists every day are coming up with more information, whether they're on the inside or the outside.
COOPER: Yes, Brian Stelter, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Joining us now is Democratic Delaware Senator Chris Coons, ranking member of the Select Committee on Ethics.
Senator Coons. I'm wondering what your reaction was to hearing President Trump's banning news organizations.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Anderson, this is blatantly unconstitutional. The Presidents already lost several cases in court where he tried to take away press passes for individuals like Jim Acosta, for outlets like the AAP and as was just being discussed months ago, Secretary Hegseth threw out of the Pentagon much of the press that otherwise previously had daily regular access to the Pentagon.
We're in the middle of a war. It's been going on seven months, and it's going badly. The President just wants to control the coverage of his presidency. The best way for him to get better coverage is to stop doing things that are immoral or illegal or unconstitutional, or just downright foolish. From his ongoing tariff war with Canada to his failed war in Iran.
So frankly, I'm wondering tonight, Anderson, where are the Republicans? All of us in Congress, take an oath to uphold the constitution? You couldn't have a clear violation of the First Amendment than the President of the United States throwing a fit in the Oval Office and saying, I don't like the coverage of this outlet, this outlet, this outlet. You're out of here. That is what an authoritarian does. That's not what an American should do.
And in Congress, we should be speaking out loudly against this prior restraint on a few specific news outlets, because Trump doesn't like the coverage he's getting.
COOPER: President Trump was asked what this ban would mean in practice. And I just want to play what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: A very simple ban. I don't want him in my office. I don't want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can. And if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if they could straighten themselves out, I'd love It.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I'm not even sure what that means, to straighten themselves out, but what do you think happens now? I mean, I assume this will end up in court.
COONS: Yes, absolutely. Look, the outlets that were restricted from access to the Pentagon have been litigating that issue for months. And that's part of what's going on here. Press outlets, instead of dedicating the time and resources to fully covering what's happening, whether it's the critically important upcoming meeting with Xi Jinping, the urgency of dealing with A.I., or a story that broke today about highly classified F-35 parts being somehow misdirected by Lockheed Martin and possibly taken by China.
Instead of covering those stories or just covering the rise in the cost of gas, news outlets have to spend money and time litigating to make sure the President respects the First Amendment to the constitution.
COOPER: Have you talked about, you talked about Republicans? Have you heard anything from Republican colleagues in the Senate?
[20:25:05]
COONS: No, I haven't, and I was looking right before we came on to see whether there's been any public statements.
Look, in some previous incidents, for example, where the FCC commissioner was threatening to take away the licenses of certain news outlets because he didn't like their comedians making fun of Donald Trump.
There were some Republicans who stood up and said, this is just unconstitutional and should stop. I would like to believe some will. But look, Secretary Hegseth is someone who has over and over shown he's more interested in fighting culture wars than winning real ones.
He was just this week talking about the importance of grooming and height to weight ratio for the service members who will be attending his annual status of forces address. So, I'm not expecting that either the President or the Secretary are going to reverse course. And my hope would be that some republicans will stand up for the constitution and push back.
COOPER: How much do you think this is, an attempt just to distract by the President? I mean, he knows, obviously, so, it'll, you know, it'll grind through courts. It'll take time. You know, maybe it plays well with some people in his base and it basically, you know, distracts from the war, which is obviously not going the way the President wanted it to go, even though he still calls it a war. Other people in his administration, including the Secretary of War, suddenly seems to not want to call it a war.
COONS: I mean, think about that, the man who is supposed to be so manly that he's changed the name from Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War, even though we've lost 18 service members and hundreds and hundreds have been injured, and there's been billions of dollars of damage to American facilities and bases, planes and drones. The secretary of defense can't call it a war. I mean, that is striking.
And to your point, Anderson, President Trump has a long practice of trying to change the news cycle, doing things abruptly to distract here in Delaware, the price of gas just shot past $4.40 a gallon. It's gone up something like $0.50 in the last month. And now that the Houthis an Iranian proxy group based in Yemen, have largely taken over control of the Red Sea, Iran and its proxy, the Houthis, have control over an even greater part to really critical pinch points of the global supply chain, by which oil and gas and fertilizer move throughout the world.
So, prices are going to go up even higher. I find it stunning that President Trump would rather have us talking about his unconstitutional ban on three news outlets than the ongoing news about our domestic economy and this war with Iran. But that may be the choice he made today in order to get this news, rather than worse news on the news tonight.
COOPER: Senator Chris Coons, I really appreciate your time, thank you.
Up next, the latest on A.I. I'll speak to "New York Times" columnist Tom Friedman about his new piece, titled "It's Already Too Late to Stop the A.I. Threat."
And later, we'll take you live to the Kennedy Center, where protests continues against the actions by the Trump administration and the possibility of him tearing down the Kennedy Center. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:32:34]
COOPER: Exclusive reporting tonight from CNN, sources say a faulty intelligence report generated with the help of an AI chatbot set off a chain of events that nearly ended in the United States boarding a Chinese flagged vessel, which could have obviously created a very large scale international incident. The intelligence report circulated this spring in the middle of the Iran war, claimed the Chinese ship was transporting components of nuclear weapons program.
Sources say U.S. military aircraft were in the air to act on the information but before the operation began, officials dug deeper, learned of the role AI played in the development of the report and found that the chatbot had inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. The report, according to one of the sources, was entirely false but, quote, "according to this person, almost started a war."
Joining me now New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Tom Friedman. He's the author of "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century," among many others. His latest column for the Times is, It's Already Too Late to Stop the AI Threat.
Tom, why do you think it's already too late?
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NEW YORK TIMES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COLUMNIST: Well, Anderson, I wrote this column with my technology tutor, Craig Mundie of Microsoft, was formerly head of research and strategy there. And we're really dividing the AI challenge into two broad buckets. The first bucket is about all the technology, AI technologies that have already proliferated around the world. They proliferated because they leaked out of the big AI companies, the Anthropics and the ChatGPTs in testing.
And they leaked because of Chinese open weight, kind of open source equivalent of AI systems that were spread out in the developing world. And then people take those Chinese models. They go through a process of kind of miniaturizing them so they can actually work off a small rack of servers or a laptop. And between these two processes, you have basically a huge amount of aberrant behavior already happening.
It's too late to stop that. And for that, we need right now an immediate U.S.-China collaboration on cyber technology to put up walls, harden each of our infrastructures against the AI threats that are already out there. Then there is the larger problem of these AI models, the big ones you know, ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic and their Chinese equivalents that are now reaching stages of autonomous learning, basically. [20:35:01]
That they're also -- we've had numerous examples of them breaking out of their shackles, as it were, and doing really disturbing things, hiding their work --
COOPER: Yes.
FRIEDMAN: -- going past boundaries that their designers said they shouldn't do. It's both these problems together, Anderson, and they cannot be solved by one country alone.
COOPER: And what you're saying, essentially, in the first bucket of problems, the stuff that's already out there, that seems -- do you think that's an easier deal to make with China and maybe get the Trump administration to try to help with, which they've shown no willing, you know, interest in otherwise?
FRIEDMAN: Yes. Well, it's one of the things Craig and I were advocating in this column, and they have been basically for the last two years. You know, China's head of military intelligence actually made a statement last week, very unusual, something you don't hear from often.
And he said, basically, two things. One is, these AIs are a threat to the Chinese Communist Party. I mean, think about it, Anderson, what if you're a Uyghur opponent of the regime, and with a laptop and a simple, you know, Starlink connection, if you can get a hold of one, you can take down the water system in a Chinese city.
So this is a real problem, or engage in fraud, or engage in all kinds of misinformation. At the same time, though, he said China's competing with the United States, and so we don't want to fall behind them either. So they're conflicted -- we're conflicted in the same way.
But at some point, Anderson, we're all -- we're both going to have to realize, OK, that we're in a new world. It's going to require new rules of geopolitics, that AI on the loose in the wild is going to threaten the stability of both of our countries much more than we will threaten each other. We're going to learn that early, or we're going to learn that late, Anderson, but learn it we will.
Think about it just from the point of view of trade. AI is a unique technology. It's like a vapor. It's going into everything, into your watch, into your glasses, into your refrigerator, into your toaster, into your car, and into your next hip replacement. If the U.S. and China can't trust each other's AI, what's going to happen?
In five years, all we'll sell them are soybeans, and all they'll sell us is soy sauce, because AI is going to be in everything.
COOPER: Yes.
FRIEDMAN: So sooner or later, we are going to have to come to terms with coming together around protections on this issue. COOPER: You know, Yuval Noah Harari has -- I saw him talking about this a while back. One of the things he said is, the argument is, we can't trust China, we can't trust human beings in China to make some sort of a deal, which is in their interest as well as ours, but we are trusting these beings which people we don't know are creating in labs, and we are trusting them that they are going to act appropriately when we don't trust other human beings, which is a little weird when you think about it in those (INAUDIBLE).
FRIEDMAN: Weird. Well, you hope -- one can only hope that we will wake up, and China will wake up, the problems and the challenges are on both sides, and realize that we have made ourselves godlike as a species, OK? We have done something that only the Creator had done before.
We created a level of intelligence greater than the Creator endowed us with. We've disconnected intelligence from human biology, and now made it something that machines can do. We have become godlike as a species. We can now part the Red Sea, Anderson. Just one problem.
Without the Ten Commandments, without the guidelines, the rules and norms, we need to govern these behaviors. And we're either going to come to terms with this before some great crisis, or after. And so when people sell me China this, and America that, and we're competing, people don't understand.
We're in a new phase of human history, OK? We are here for something really, really big. And if you try to understand it and treat it as some conventional geopolitical problem, what you're going to end up with is a Chinese AI system and an American AI system. We're not going to trust each other, and then how are we going to trade with each other? And what's that going to mean for the global economy?
COOPER: Yes, Thomas Friedman, it's a fascinating article. I appreciate it, Tom. Thanks very much.
Up next, protesters gathering outside the Kennedy Center in D.C., their message for the President who is threatening to tear it down if he can't make renovations and add his name to the building.
And later, the surprising revelation in day one of testimony in the murder trial of a former American Idol contestant who is accused of shooting his wife to death and trying to cover it up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:43:54]
COOPER: More breaking news tonight. Several hundred demonstrators have gathered for what organizers are calling Hands Around the Kennedy Center in Washington, the protest over President Trump's takeover of the performing arts venue, his threat to rip it down if renovations can't be made and his glorious name put on it.
The President talked about that again this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the Trump administration should be recognized as having saved the Kennedy Center because nobody else can do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: In point of fact, Congress has allocated money for renovations. Democratic Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, the lone Kennedy Center board member fighting the President's efforts in court, shared those details when I talked with her Wednesday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOYCE BEATTY (D), OHIO: He is saying that he will shut it down or even tear it down if he is not recognized for raising money. $257 million was allocated by the Congress. It doesn't matter who advocated for it. The Congress voted on it and it's taxpayers money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Meanwhile, the Kennedy Center laid off more than a dozen additional employees today. And our Sunlen Serfaty joins us now from there. So what's it been like tonight at the protest?
[20:45:07]
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this is largely the aftermath of what was a very boisterous and large protest outside the Kennedy Center. Many hundreds of people gathered here.
I'll take you through some of the people who are remaining. Many musicians, as you can see, many people carrying their instruments. There was a lot of artists singing. There was a piano out here. There are many people dressed up in costumes.
A lot of signs, obviously, against what's happening at the President's center and specifically focused on President Trump -- directing their ire on President Trump, saying, do not demolish the Kennedy Center, demolish Mar-a-Lago. No kings. You are no JFK.
So the message here from these protesters, really loud and clear. They are worried about the destruction of the building. They are worried about the deterioration of the reputation of this building and the future. Many people out here are people who used to work at the Kennedy Center.
Just a few moments ago, I saw a woman now in her 60. She worked at the Kennedy Center when she was about 25 years old. And she brought her I.D. from when she was at the Kennedy Center. And she looked at the building. She started crying. She had tissues wiped away, tears, Anderson, because she said it's just horrible and heartbreaking what has happened.
This building has largely become a symbol in President Trump's second administration for his imprint that he wants to make on D.C. And many people out here protesting tonight do not want to be in that argument anymore. They want this to be remedied. Of course, this is making its way through the court.
And I want to point out, just today, you know, you can see all these protesters here. Many of them have gone home tonight. On the other side, you have visual reminders that this is a building really hanging in the balance, frozen. You have the tarps up from when the -- they removed the name Donald Trump off the side in the summer.
You have security guards now wearing construction hats, white construction hats, with Kennedy Center on the side. That is because this building has been closed for one week that the officials here say is temporary. And they say it is because of the safety of the building and the renovations and the maintenance that they want to fix. Anderson?
COOPER: Yes. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks very much.
Before airtime, I spoke with political historian Leah Wright Rigueur.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: How do you think historians are going to look back at this mishigas?
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, POLITICAL HISTORIAN: You know, I think this is a perfect metaphor for the relationship that Donald Trump has with America. That, in fact, they'll look at it as kind of the rantings and the ravings and the behaviors of a would-be king who decided that if he can't have his way, that nobody can have their way, that everything has to come down to destroy it.
And so it's not just the Kennedy Center, it's also all of Washington, D.C., but it's also all of the country. So we're seeing this over and over again. And I think historians, but I also think other scholars and really the people, the public, are going to look back at this and say, this is Trump's real legacy, tearing things down because he can't have his own way.
COOPER: I mean, it seems such a petty thing to want your small name on a big building and to want your name on everything. I mean, obviously, from a, you know, yes, he used to be called a great branding, you know, marketing person and put his names on buildings, but -- and many of those buildings took those names off. But, I mean, on whether it's on money or on phones or now it's on the Kennedy Center, it just seems such a strange obsession.
RIGUEUR: It is an obsession. It is the obsession. And it probably dates back to feeling kind of, you know, Trump has had experiences with the Kennedy Center where he's talked about not feeling welcomed, not feeling like it's his space and so wanting to market.
But one of the things that we see with Donald Trump is that it's not small for him, that he wants to put his name on everything. The Institute for Peace right now is going through a whole legal issue with the President because he wants to put his name on that. He wants to put his name on the arch. He wants to put his name on stakes, on books.
COOPER: Well, I think you also bring up an interesting point, which is he wanted to be embraced by that community at the Kennedy Center. He wanted to put on shows and, you know, have touring productions there and be lauded from the stage. And that didn't happen.
In fact, people refused to perform. There does seem a certain, like, peak about it, a certain just anger he has about it or embarrassment.
RIGUEUR: Well, I think it's a little bit of both. And so there's this idea, I think -- originally when Trump comes in and he reestablishes the board, right, he'd fires all the board members. He fires half the staff of the Kennedy Center. He appoints his own people.
He then kind of lavishes praise upon himself, where he says, you know, oh, I'm being generous. I'm being a patron of the arts.
[20:50:03]
But then he begins to say, these are the kinds of arts that I want to see. I don't want to see that woke nonsense. I don't want to see that diversity stuff. And it completely sidesteps the actual mission of the Kennedy Center.
COOPER: The protests that we've been seeing, activists speaking out in support of it, do you think it makes a difference?
RIGUEUR: I think it makes a really important difference in a couple of different ways. The first is that one of the protests is being led by Kerry Kennedy, or she's actively involved at least in advertising it. And that's important because she is of the Kennedys.
She has made a statement about, on behalf of the Kennedy family, actually many people from the Kennedy family have made statements. But she is leading the charge, really, in saying this cannot be allowed to happen. But the other thing is that we've seen that legal judgments, illegal decisions in this case haven't actually stopped Donald Trump.
His name has still gone up in the building. The scaffolding has still gone up. The building has been shut down. And so the protesters actually play a role in physically protecting the building. So it's not just about drawing attention, but it's also true that the President is not beyond going in the middle of the night and knocking the entire Kennedy Center down.
He's done it with the East Wing. You know, we've seen it with the reflecting pool. So it may -- there may come a point where the President of the United States decides enough is enough, I'm going to tear down the Kennedy Center, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me. That's the role that protesters actually play in protecting the space and that ground.
COOPER: Leah Wright Rigueur, thank you so much.
RIGUEUR: Thanks for having me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Coming up, opening statements and a bombshell revelation of an affair in the murder trial of Caleb Flynn, the former American Idol contestant accused of shooting his wife to death.
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[20:55:55]
COOPER: New developments tonight, two legal cases we've been following closely. Just last night, we reported on the former American Idol contestant who is on trial accused of fatally shooting his wife. Prosecutors laid out their case today with new information saying he had a mistress at the time and that they have text messages where he allegedly expressed his desire to kill his wife.
Meanwhile, two weeks after the triple murder trial, Lindsay Clancy, who was accused of killing her three kids, we're finally learning -- we're hearing from the holdout juror whose lone vote to convict Clancy resulted in that mistrial.
Joining me now is CNN's Jean Casarez. Let's start with the Caleb Flynn trial.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A mistress for many years. The prosecution said in opening statements, 100,000 text messages in a year before she died.
COOPER: Wasn't he a pastor allegedly?
CASAREZ: Yes, a music pastor, a man of God, that's right. Then that's what he's professed, besides the American Idol, crediting his wife for getting him there. But the prosecution said that the theme of text messages to the mistress were that he hated Ashley. He wanted her gone. He wanted her dead. He wanted to be with the mistress for his future.
Here's an example, because this all happened on February 16th. Early morning hours, 2:31, is when the 911 call was made. Just a couple of hours before he texts a mistress, according to prosecutors, "I choose you. I'm free. Actions will come tomorrow, February 16th, a day I will never forget."
Now, this is high stakes because this is aggravated murder, the highest count in Ohio. And the defense is saying -- and the defense showed that when law enforcement came a couple hours after this, he's frantic, he's emotional, they have to call an ambulance because he can't get control, and he says there's an intruder.
An intruder came and broke in and shot her, and he's gone, and I couldn't see him. Prosecutor says we've got ballistics, we've got DNA, we've got his electronics, we've got his Apple watch, we've got his iPhone, we've got his earbuds --
COOPER: Wow. CASAREZ: -- and we are going to show that everything he said is a lie. Defense says shoddy investigation. They can't prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.
COOPER: We'll see. And what's the development of the Lindsey Clancy trial we're hearing from the juror?
CASAREZ: It's a big development because we've heard from the 11 jurors, not all of them, but we've heard from a lot of them saying that the holdout juror wouldn't deliberate, wouldn't follow the law, wouldn't follow instructions. I mean --
COOPER: They said he had reasonable doubt but still wouldn't --
CASAREZ: Exactly, exactly. Here is what he said. For the first time he came out with a statement. We want to show everybody here. He said, "I didn't have any doubts. As I tried to explain different possible theories during deliberation, I kept getting cut off as if I had doubts based on the evidence present. Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses, and what the prosecution presents, I thought it was enough proof that she, Clancy, knew exactly what she was doing and planned."
COOPER: So he's really denying the idea that he had reasonable doubt.
CASAREZ: What he appears to be saying is that he deliberated like you're supposed to do and he determined that the prosecution had proven their case.
COOPER: So what happens now?
CASAREZ: The 29th of September, mark your calendars, in court. We're going to be in Massachusetts. The defense is going to want to try to get all of these charges dismissed outright because they believe the mistrial should not have been declared, that this juror should have been questioned in court.
Prosecution and defense, are they talking? He said it on your show, the defense attorney, Mr. Reddington, that he would engage in conversations with the prosecution. So will there be a plea deal, will there be a conclusion to this, or will there be a retrial?
COOPER: Yes, I mean, the defense attorney was saying he's open to some sort of discussion --
CASAREZ: Yes.
COOPER: -- but no jail time is what he said --
CASAREZ: Exactly.
COOPER: -- in the present time.
CASAREZ: Exactly. And manslaughter is probation until 20 years.
COOPER: Yes. CASAREZ: So we'll see. It'll be very interesting.
COOPER: Wow. Well, we'll be watching.
Jean Casarez, thanks so much.
CASAREZ: Thank you.
COOPER: Appreciate it for the update.
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