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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump to Rally GOP Voters in Oklahoma Tonight; Another Trump Meme Coin Contest Promises and "Exclusive" Dinner with the President; Israel: Wounded Captain Managed to Unlock Cockpit from Inside, Allowing Passengers Inside to Subdue Attacker; NY Gov. Appoints AG James As Special Prosecutor In Cornell Case; Cornell Students Hold Public Hearing Amid Alleged Gang Rape Probe; Renee Good's Family Sues U.S. Govt., Trump Officials Over Her Death; Charlamagne Tha God On Mental Health & Loss. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired October 01, 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: ...the governments contractor who was responsible for the damages. But Trump still threatened to bring new charges. Federal Judge Todd Edelman, though strongly scolding the DOJ when announcing the dismissal of the charges, saying, "The government shot first and asked questions later."
Thanks so much for joining us tonight. AC360 begins right now.
[20:00:23]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, from the Newsroom. The President is campaigning tonight in Oklahoma, a state he won by 34 points just two years ago with near record low job approval numbers and midterms fast approaching. He was in Texas earlier today and will soon be heading to Alabama and other deep red states. Political concerns, however, have not stopped the money grab he and his family have been taking part in since he took office.
We learned today that a few weeks after the elections, the President will attend a gala dinner for top buyers of his meme coin, cryptocurrency firms affiliated with the Trump organization just launched a new contest designed to pump up the price of the meme coin and increase interest in it. We're talking about the dollar-sign Trump Coin, which, when it launched, was being sold for around $70.00 and today its value has fallen to just $2.00.
If you think you've heard this before, you would be correct. There was a similar contest announced in April of 2025 and a similar dinner that may for the biggest buyers. In the new announcement, there is an A.I. skinny Trump and the web page reads: The most exclusive dinner in the world, an evening with three legends and President Donald J. Trump, plus a private meet and greet with a legend to be announced.
Now, the unnamed legends are described as the worlds power players. The pitch continues, three legends superstars will be added. Check back, there will be no private meetings with the President. No gifts will be accepted. But keeping them honest, the big meme coin purchases are the gifts. Any increase in trading on the coin benefits the President. He makes money on buying and selling of it.
At the last alleged exclusive dinner, Chinese-born billionaire was the top buyer. According to CNN reporting at the time, he bought more than a million coins valued at the time at $18 million. Here's video obtained by The New York Times of the President at the dinner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We've been pushing the market of crypto and Bitcoin and all of it, everything. And I do it for a reason, not for me, I really do it because I think it's the right thing to do."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It looks very glamorous, the right thing to do, he said. The President has, according to financial disclosures, raked in more than a billion dollars from his crypto ventures since taking office. But he says he's not doing it for himself. He's making that money because it's the right thing to do.
For a lot of buyers of the coin, however, it hasn't worked out so well and many of them are likely the President's supporters. Here's the headline from July, nearly a million investors lost a total of $3.8 billion on Trump-crypto coin.
The White House back in July said, "all actions by President Trump and his administration are taking in the best interests of the American people."
Well, this time around, they referred us to the to the companies behind the event, CIC Digital and Fight, Fight, Fight LLC, both affiliates of the Trump organization, which did not respond to our request for comment.
Joining us right now is "New York Times" investigative reporter, Russ Buettner. Also, "The Washington Sun's" Jeff Stein, who broke the news on this latest meme coin gala.
So, Jeff, let me start off with you. This is, I mean, one of the things that is exactly what it looks like. I mean, it's the chance for access to the President, even though there are apparently no gifts accepted at the party.
JEFF STEIN, "THE WASHINGTON SUN" REPORTER: I mean, I think you could say the only thing that isn't what it looks like is the photo from that invitation that you saw. Yes, there's really no doubt here that that this is the President benefiting personally, financially. This is one of the few crypto ventures that he does not personally own, World Liberty Financial. He is, my understanding, the majority owner of that company. He has a partnership agreement which might give him some legal insulation from the conflict-of-interest concerns, but he is benefiting. This is his most lucrative crypto venture. He reported over $600 million from this one alone as part of $1.4 billion in crypto income as President. So yes, I mean, you laid it out perfectly.
COOPER: Russ, I mean, you've been reporting on the Presidents finances for more than a decade now. What stands out to you about this?
Russ Buettner, it's interesting that this is the well they chose to go back to. I mean, overall, this past year of crypto wealth and Donald Trump's life, I think, has been more income, pure profit than anything else. Probably the sum total of his entire life and business before that.
COOPER: More than he's ever done.
RUSS BUETTNER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Absolutely, more than his inheritance and the money from "The Apprentice" and his best business deals all combined. And I think it's interesting they went back to this one because this is one, they were so roundly criticized for the first go round because they offered these coins as he was entering office, 58 people bought them.
We can't tell who bought a lot of them, sold them immediately. The period when they owned it raised the price a lot. Those people made all more than $10 million each. Almost everybody else who bought it after that lost a ton of money, I think to the tune of $700 million.
[20:05:22]
COOPER: Which is just incredible when you think about it. I mean, people kind of in the know or who had some brilliance to know when to buy and when to sell it. But people who are probably the President's supporters, I mean, I would think the people who are kind of buying this in large quantities and small amounts are President's supporters.
BUETTNER: Yes, I mean, it's essentially a baseball card where you don't get the baseball card. It's just a piece of electronic, ephemeral. And it doesn't have any value unless somebody else wants to pay you more for it. You can't use it typically to buy other things. And they were really roundly criticized even by the crypto industry for doing what's called a rug pull, which is the equivalent of like a pump and dump scheme.
COOPER: And Jeff, I mean, do you have a sense of how much someone would have to spend on the meme coin to get an invitation to this party?
STEIN: Yes, it's we have a pretty good sense of like, how much each person holds who will qualify, but we don't, as was being said, we don't know exactly their identities or who they are, but the top accounts have something like, you know, in the hundreds of millions of dollars and the smaller accounts that are sort of, you know, this contest that they're running, it's for the biggest purchasers up to the, you know, 185th, I think it was number.
So, that threshold is hundreds of thousands of dollars. You have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on this meme coin going to be able to qualify for this private dinner. And they're trying to make it like a contest. So, the value of the currency will be artificially inflated for this period of the contest. Maybe the President will sell more of his holdings at that point.
One thing I'll just add, you know, I talked to a 25-year-old who put $450,000.00 of his own money into this and that the value of that investment is now down to $50.00 and he went to the first dinner and didn't like the food and didn't have a good time and didn't get the photo of him with Trump that he so desperately wanted. And I asked him, you know, despite, for all your criticisms, how do you feel about this?
He said, you know, I would still vote for the President again if I had the chance. And I'm going to the next dinner, I just, I hope the food will be better this time.
COOPER: It's interesting though. I mean, Jeff, if given that the President and the people around him would know the timing of when they're going to announce this dinner and stuff, I mean, they could, if they were so inclined to time everything. And by the meme coin and sell the meme coin according on their own schedule, which they control and have inside knowledge of and profit from that. I mean, they would know when they're going to stop this contest and the prices will crater once again.
STEIN: Yes, it was kind of a weird thing because someone flagged me, Zach Everson of public citizen, that this invite existed. And I went to comment, you know, I asked the organization and the business for comment last night. And originally the contest was supposed to start in a few weeks or a few days. And once I contacted them, we woke up this morning and the timing of the contest had been changed to begin yesterday, which suggests that they, were maybe caught off guard by the timing of this and are trying to get, sort of like, they want the press to sort of escalate in time for potentially sales. And I don't have proof of that, but that's suggestive of what they might be trying to do.
COOPER: Russ, I mean, do you expect this I mean, this crypto venture will go as long as he's in office, I assume?
BUETTNER: Clearly this is something that they intend to like, maximize every possible way they can. They've done this, this meme coin. They've sold another kind of coin called, named after World Liberty. They have a stablecoin, which is meant to sort of be a replacement for currency in the banking system.
They've started businesses, the sons have, to try to mine different kinds of tokens. So, this is this is the area where they see the greatest potential. It doesn't really take much work. And it's been enormously profitable.
COOPER: It's remarkable. Russ Buettner, I appreciate all the reporting, Jeff Stein as well. Thank you so much.
Again, this is happening with the President on the campaign trail. He's got dismal poll numbers on how he's handling the job in the economy. You can see them there. Compounding it, he is still flatly denying what voters are seeing with their own eyes every time they go to the store or fill up at the gas station.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Costs are way down and they're coming down further. We have inflation totally in control, and we've done a great job. And the thing I haven't done a good job with is explaining it to people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, keeping them honest, costs are not down, they're up. They're rising faster than they were when he took office. And it's his job approval numbers suggest, a growing number of voters simply are not buying what he is selling the way they did at the start of his second term.
Joining us now from North Carolina, CNN chief national correspondent John King, who's been speaking to voters around the country ahead of the midterms as part of his "All Over the Map" series.
John, as we said, according to the latest financial filings, cryptocurrency ventures are putting over a billion dollars a year in the President's pocket. When you travel around the country, are voters paying attention to how much he's enriching himself while in office?
[20:10:37]
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Every last detail, Anderson, I would say no. But when you talk to Democrats, grift is a word that comes up often, and they are highly motivated by it. Don't get me wrong, affordability is the biggest issue in this election. But Democrats who already didn't like Trump, think he is using his office to enrich himself. And they are highly motivated and they say that's the reason they will run through a brick wall to vote on election day.
Among the most loyal Trump voters, I was texting a bunch of them today. Remember, a lot of them don't see these stories. They watch and live and breathe in the mega media ecosystem. That doesn't tell them bad things or questionable things or ethical things about the President of United States. I texted our story, our CNN story, to several today. One said, this guy is out of his mind, but then five minutes later texted me back, are you sure this is legitimate?
So, they asked the fake news question, if you will. The most important group, Anderson, are those Republicans who voted for Trump maybe twice, they didn't like him or went Trump, Biden and then back to Trump because they thought he would fix the economy. Trust me, and our voter groups, we've been texting them and they just think the President is not focused on what they care about most. They think he's just lost, that he's doing all about him and not about them. And that's a huge issue in this election.
COOPER: You're hearing that people think he's more concerned about the ballroom or, you know, the Kennedy center or redecorating the White House, things like that.
KING: Take where I am right now. I'm standing in North Carolina District 11, been held by Republicans for a dozen years. This is Marshall, North Carolina. Anderson, the spot I'm standing on was under 27 feet of water two years and a couple of weeks ago when the Helene the hurricane hit. And the river that's right over there flooded and came up to here.
Democrats think they have a chance to flip this seat for that very reason. They think Washington and the President particularly, are not delivering on what he promised. Remember, this is Trump country. We are in Georgia last week; I met with an independent voter in Georgia who was going to vote for Trump if it was just Biden versus Trump. In the end, she went to Vice President Harris. But she said she's invested in two of these crypto funds and lost about $20,000.00, she blames the President for that, and she's mad at the Republicans. She's planning to vote Democrat for Senate in a very big race there in Georgia.
Here, they're trying to recover. And the Democrats think here because of that, in a place with a lot of Trump voters, do they say so publicly? Not as much. But in private conversations it's some of our voter groups. People just say, look, he said he wasn't going to start a war. He started a war. This is rural America. Diesel prices are way up. He said he would bring prices down fast like that. That hasn't happened. And so, it's not what they signed up for.
And when you see the arts, the ballroom, or he's making A billion dollars, well, I can't buy a new car or take my kids on vacation. Cumulatively, it all adds up to a lot of voters saying, this is not what we voted for.
COOPER: John King, thanks so much, "All Over the Map" appreciate it.
Coming up next, new video from inside the Flydubai 737, as the passengers took back control from the copilot who allegedly just stabbed the captain, we'll talk to a passenger who was there.
And later, what the woman known as Jane Doe said about the night, she was allegedly gang raped at a Cornell University and why a seemingly damning part of her account never made it into the report that the district attorney saw.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:57]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down, I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: You're looking at new video just seconds after passengers stormed the cockpit of the Flydubai 737, they discovered a badly wounded captain and copilot who allegedly stabbed him repeatedly with the plane diving straight to the ground.
Now, the survivors, many of them Israeli, are now telling their stories. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's hard to imagine, but this family just survived a dramatic brush with death. Twenty-four hours ago, they were aboard that harrowing Flydubai flight. Tally was taking her six-year-old daughter to the bathroom when she says she suddenly heard strange noises coming from the cockpit.
(TALLY SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE.)
DIAMOND: "I mainly heard banging on the door, something you're not supposed to hear coming from the cockpit. Noises, a man's raised voice," suddenly, she says, "The cockpit door flung open and she saw one of the pilots stabbing the other."
"At that moment, I realized that was it. It was over. I couldn't imagine any way we were going to get out of there. I just screamed, they're stabbing the pilot, they're stabbing the pilot. Help! I screamed and screamed."
DIAMOND (voice over): That's when, Tzvika, seen here in a bloodied white shirt, jumped into action, grabbing his daughter from the bathroom before rushing to subdue the attacker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down. Are you a doctor?
TZVIKA MANES, PASSENGER FOR SUBDUED ATTACKER ON FLYDUBAI FLIGHT: I heard my wife screamed, screaming, and I heard my daughters screaming. We don't want to die. Father, we don't want to die. And this, you know, this is and I'm getting emotional right now as well. When you hear that your daughters are crying for help. You do whatever you can to help them. And that's what, that's the trigger that pushed me to react.
DIAMOND (on camera): Do you describe it as instinct?
MANES: It's absolutely instinct. We were like jumping on him, three guys and with hands. We were struggling with him.
DIAMOND (on camera): And I mean, this must have all been happening so fast?
MANES: It's so fast and the adrenaline is so high and I didn't know where I was, covered with blood from fighting with him. I don't know, maybe he was injured. I don't know how.
DIAMOND (on camera): It was his blood.
MANES: It was his blood, yes. I was covered with blood. You know, I have some bruises here that I only today I just noticed that, this is the adrenaline, you know, when you are in this moment, you don't feel anything. You act like-- I'm actually a machine trying to solve, trying to control, trying to be efficient as much as you can.
[20:20:54]
DIAMOND (voice over): Tzvika is one of three passengers who rushed toward the cockpit and took down the copilot before he could crash the plane, but they only managed to get in thanks to the quick thinking of the plane's captain, Smit Machchhar, who managed to open the cockpit door.
MANES: He's absolutely a hero. He's absolutely a hero. And due to his acts, we are sitting here today.
DIAMOND (on camera): Have you ever been in a situation like this before?
MANES: Never.
DIAMOND (on camera): Never.
MANES: Never, there were moments we thought this is the end of our life and, I'm glad that we succeeded making the change.
DIAMOND (voice over): Tzvika's daughters are still processing their ordeal, but Milly's opinion is set on her father.
(MILLY MANES, TZVIKA'S DAUGHTER, SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE.)
DIAMOND (voice over): "He's a hero," she says, "and I love him."
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming next, guest was very close to the cockpit on that flight. His name is Daniel Schlichter. I spoke to him earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Daniel, can you describe the moment when you first realized something was wrong on the plane?
DANIEL SCHLICHTER, PASSENGER: Sure, I was sitting on the second row, actually. So, the whole situation was very close to where it happened. A mother and her daughter were sitting just behind me. Went to the toilet, which is just attached to the pilot, the cockpit door. And after a few seconds, she pushed her daughter back and she was shouting, getting back to the passenger area, shouting, somebody stabbing the pilot, somebody stabbing the pilot.
COOPER: Did she see that? Or did she just hear that through the pilot, the door?
SCHLICHTER: No, no, she saw that. She saw the captain getting stabbed. She didn't know who the other guy was yet. After a few seconds, I heard, I would describe it as a violent fight. Noises coming from the cockpit area. The three guys, the first guy, actually, the Israeli guy that came, first jumped in and went to the door of the cockpit area. And he saw the pilot bleeding and stabbed, trying to push the terrorists out of the cockpit area.
COOPER: The door was open? I mean, the pilot, I know, the pilot was able to open the door a little. That was already open.
SCHLICHTER: Exactly, exactly, exactly. Even though he was stabbed, he managed somehow to open a little bit the door and started to, try to push the terrorists out of the cockpit area. Whenever the first Israeli guy came in, he helped him to push him out of the cockpit area, and he managed to push the pilot as well out to the exit, left side of this area.
I was trying to think quickly what I can do. So, I took three or four sets of earphones so they can tie up the terrorist's legs and hands before they find maybe something better to how to tie him. And the plane at that stage was going rapidly. It was going down and, there were a lot of children behind me, so I could hear the screaming of the children. The mothers were trying to calm them. There were things flying from one side to the other, and the plane was really with the nose down going very, very fast. And at that stage, these few, one minute or so or two minutes, I was absolutely sure that this is the end.
As soon as they managed to stabilize the plane, we had no connection with them. And we actually had some, from the very beginning, we had some about the crew, the two guys from the crew, stewards that were on that flight. We didn't know what to think if they were cooperating with the terrorist or not.
[20:25:33]
COOPER: Is that the flight attendants you're talking about?
SCHLICHTER: The flight attendants.
COOPER: So, you -- other passengers had -- passengers had concerns about the actual flight attendants if they maybe had any connections. So, for safety, you put them in the back.
SCHLICHTER: Yes, we had some doubts about them and were suspicious about them. So, we put them in the like a Cyrillic area, not in the cockpit area.
COOPER: How do you feel now? I mean, this is a really traumatic thing to have been part of, to witness. How do you feel now?
SCHLICHTER: Well, were still trying to, you know, to collect all the pictures of the -- how fast everything happened. Clearly, it was a pure miracle. And it's not only one miracle because if you think about it, then, if only the Indian pilot captain would not be able to open the door, that would be it. I mean, that would be the end of the case. The plane would go down and that's it.
The second miracle was that the three Israelis managed to take out the terrorists out of the cockpit and take him out together with the pilot, stopped the pilot. So, he will be able to get the care of the doctor.
The third miracle was that not like a normal case, there were two more pilots, and the fourth miracle, of course, that we are alive.
COOPER: It's incredible. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and try to kind of give us all a sense of, of what that was like. It's just extraordinary what happened. Daniel Schlitcher, thank you so much.
SCHLICHTER: I'm happy to share. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, up next tonight, breaking news. A major development in the Cornell University alleged rape case. New York's governor has just stepped in in a big way. We'll explain ahead.
And later, nearly nine months after Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, her family filed two federal lawsuits. I'll speak to Renee Good's brother and attorney about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:31:53]
COOPER: There's breaking news in the Cornell gang rape allegations, this time from the governor of New York, who just posted on social media, "Tonight, I signed an executive order appointing Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the Cornell sexual assault case.
New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I've lost faith in the Tompkins County D.A.'s ability to fairly oversee it. The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued."
CNN's Jason Carroll is at Cornell University tonight with additional developments in the fast-moving story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We, as a campus community, stand with victims of sexual violence.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, a public hearing at Cornell University, where students reacted to the alleged sexual assault at the Chi Phi fraternity house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm also speaking as a fellow junior girl. I was sexually assaulted almost two years ago.
CARROLL (voice-over): Jane Wang, a sophomore, shared her own experience.
JANE WANG, CORNELL SOPHOMORE: Hearing any story from, you know, another student here on campus that they've experienced something similar is so heartbreaking.
CARROLL (voice-over): Cornell continues to face scrutiny following a New York Times report that a crucial part of the school's internal investigation omitted Jane Doe's statement. "I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped." That allegation not included in what the university handed over to the district attorney.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The common sentiment is that there's like a moral failing.
LESLIE BAKER, STUDENT AT CORNELL: People are just like really frustrated that it's taking a whole lawsuit for these people to be held accountable and that for the survivor to get the justice that she deserves.
CARROLL (voice-over): Students reacting to a New York Times report which revealed the school gathered more than 1,000 pages of materials from an internal investigation in 2024, which included a transcript of campus police interviews with Jane Doe, interviews with Chi Phi fraternity members accused of sexually assaulting her, along with emails and text messages.
The Times report says Jane Doe spoke for hours to a Cornell police investigator as well as an investigator for the school's Title IX office. According to the Times, the transcript of their conversation stretches about 120 pages.
The D.A. telling CNN Wednesday, "We never received it and still don't have it. It was not part of what Cornell provided to us. We got the six-page statement and nothing more except the Snapchat video." The Snapchat was allegedly sent from Chi Phi members asking others to join in on the alleged assault.
Cornell's investigation also revealed Jane Doe documented her injuries. Two weeks after the 2024 incident, she went to an emergency room for a pelvic exam. She also went to the school's health clinic for treatment of a urinary tract infection, telling a doctor she had contracted the infection in a traumatic way.
The material reviewed by the Times showing Jane Doe went to police after she saw online comments about what happened to her that night at the Chi Phi house, saying members were gang-banging.
[20:35:02]
Jane Doe saying, "That's kind of when I came to the realization that I had been gang-raped, gang-assaulted, whatever you want to call it, that's what happened."
Cornell's investigation revealed Jane Doe planned to go back to the Chi Phi house the following week after the alleged assault for a Halloween party. Her attorney telling CNN, "It was all part of processing what had happened. She was still in the denial stage. She could not accept what happened to her."
Cornell declined to comment about the Times report. No one from the administration spoke at tonight's student assembly. Jane Wang still has a message for them.
WANG: Future cases of sexual violence or sexual harassment on campus cannot only be treated with urgency when it's something that reaches national headlines or national news.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (on-camera): So Anderson, so many people, so many students that we spoke to, critical of the administration, critical of campus police and also critical of the district attorney's office. And now with this latest news that Governor Hochul has appointed Letitia James to now take over the case.
Well, we've reached out to Cornell University about Hochul's move. Just within the past two minutes, Anderson, we've gotten a response from Cornell University, which simply said "Cornell supports Governor Hochul's decision to assign this case to New York Attorney General's Office." Anderson?
COOPER: Jason Carroll, appreciate the reporting. Thank you.
Joining me now is Former Federal Prosecutor Berit Berger and New York Times bestselling author Kirsten Powers. Kirsten has written about her own experience being sexually assaulted as a teenager. She has a new essay on her Substack titled, "I Didn't Know It Was Sexual Assault, Either."
Berit, I want to start with you just on the legal front. Governor Hochul appointing a special prosecutor to investigate. How is that going to be different than the district attorney?
BERIT BERGER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, EASTERN & SOUTHERN DISTRICTS OF NY: I mean, this is really the only way that this case can proceed with an effort to rebuild the public's confidence in the investigation. I mean, the district attorney's office made the, in my mind, inexcusable decision to rely on a six-page summary after this very extensive investigation had been taken on by the Cornell police, not trying to get all of the underlying files, not trying to get any of the digital evidence.
There's no reason any sort of a sophisticated district attorney's office would do that in this kind of an investigation of this magnitude. So, quite frankly, they've lost the public's trust. And so the public needs to have an independent prosecutor looking over this, not only to see what happened in this case, but to see what happened in the breakdown between the investigation that the Cornell police did and what the district attorney's office failed to do.
COOPER: Kirsten, are you satisfied with the step by the governor? Would you want to see additional action taken?
KIRSTEN POWERS, NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR: I mean, I think this is great news because that's right, I think all trust has been lost. You know, the Cornell administration has shown that they did not protect this girl and they're not protecting the other young women on the campus either by the way that they handled this. I mean, the idea that she said in the statement, according to The New York Times, that she had been raped and that this was somehow admitted. How does that happen? You know, it certainly looks like we don't know because we can never say for sure what people's intentions are. But it looks like they were protecting the boys, the young men who did this.
And so I don't think that anything that they have done has caused anyone to feel that they are keeping women safe on their campus, that there's accountability for what happens and that they appreciate the magnitude of -- and the seriousness of what occurred here.
COOPER: And in terms of -- Berit, in terms of a statute of limitations, that's still very much open.
BERGER: This is all still in play. We're well within the statute here. So this is really ripe for a comprehensive, thorough investigation. I have no doubt that Letitia James and her staff will do that. I think they will use this base material that the Cornell police gathered, including this really revelatory statement that the victim herself said that she believed she had been raped right from the get go.
This is markedly different than what the district attorney has been saying in public statements over the last few days, which is, you know, her statement really shifted. I will just say everything that we've seen out of Jane Doe has been very consistent with the way that victims of sexual assault take time to process what had happened to them. Take time to, you know, sometimes come to terms with the fact that it was a crime, that it wasn't something that they --
COOPER: Yes.
BERGER: -- consented to.
COOPER: Kirsten, in your essay, you described not remembering the assault on you until hearing classmates actually talking about it at school and even then needing some time to kind of wrap your head around that. You write, "I didn't report it. I didn't even -- it didn't even occur to me to do so. I didn't tell anyone about it because I was so ashamed. In fact, I insisted to my friend that this had not happened even as the picture clicked into place for me."
Can you can you talk about that, particularly as what you also went through your mind when you read the Jane Doe report?
[20:40:12]
POWERS: Yes, you know, I was in high school. This was the, you know, mid-80s. And so it was a very different time. And we didn't -- I don't honestly even know if I had reported it, if they would have considered it an assault because there was no penetration.
But this person was bragging to other boys in the locker room about things he had done to me while I was passed out, though he didn't say I was passed out. I knew I was passed out. And a friend of mine came to me quite shaken and told me about it. And my first reaction was very similar to what you read when you, you know, look at the texts that Jane Doe is sending. The shame, right, feeling that I had done something wrong, that I was going to be thought badly of, that my reputation was going to be harmed. These are all things that she's saying.
And it's not until she sees in this -- wherever she is online, where she sees it referred to as a gang rape, that it starts to click into place for her, that she starts to realize, wait, you know, I probably don't remember everything that I -- that happened. She actually says in the text the next day, it's very hazy to me.
She knows that there were a lot of boys, young men. I don't know what to call them because it's hard to think of this behavior. You know, as how a man is treating somebody.
But the -- and I think that I can relate very much to the idea that you wouldn't necessarily remember everything, that it would start to come back to you, that you would hear somebody bragging about it or talking about it. And then you would realize something horrible had happened, but you didn't want people to think less of you for it.
I mean, that's what's so horrible about this is so often the victim feels the shame and we see the boys bragging and gleeful about it on a text chain. They don't even think that they're doing anything wrong.
COOPER: Well, especially, I mean, you were in high school. It's so --
POWERS: Yes.
COOPER: -- it's such a fraught time.
POWERS: Well, yes, I was so young. But I can also relate -- you know, this -- Jane Doe is very young as well and you can tell --
COOPER: Yes.
POWERS: -- she's looking up -- she sees these boys as her friends. I saw this boy as my friend. He was somebody that I looked up to. He was a senior. I idolized him. You don't think that your friend is going to do this to you.
You know, I certainly did not occur to me. Now, by the time I got to college, I think perhaps this had happened to me. I started to realize that actually this these kinds of things could happen. But I can see how someone who hasn't been exposed to this would naturally think my friends are not going to harm me.
You know, young women --
COOPER: Yes.
POWERS: -- should be able to believe that, I think, about their friends. And I think we have to have higher standards for what we expect from young men on campuses.
COOPER: Yes. As we said, Kirsten has written about this on her Substack. Kirsten Powers, thank you so much. Berit Berger --
POWERS: Thanks, Anderson.
COOPER: -- -- as well.
Up next, for the first time, we hear from the partner of Renee Good, the woman shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minnesota. Plus, a conversation with Renee Good's brother as her family announces it is suing U.S. government and members of the Trump administration over her death.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:47:18]
COOPER: The family of Renee Good, the American woman shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this year in Minneapolis, has filed two civil lawsuits against the federal government. One alleging wrongful death and seeking unspecified compensatory damages for Good's partner who witnessed the shooting.
The second one names Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent involved in the shooting, as well as 10 unnamed agents and a number of top administration officials. The second suit alleges that the federal officials engage in a conspiracy to, quote, "interfere" with the civil rights of Somali and Hispanic people in Minnesota.
A White House spokesperson said today the administration plans to, quote, "vigorously defend" these baseless civil lawsuits. Now, in a moment, you'll see the video taken by ICE agent Ross's cell phone showing the fatal encounter with Renee Good. And we want to warn you, it's obviously disturbing. Also want to point out, you'll also see Good's partner, Becca, outside the car talking to Ross.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENEE GOOD, KILLED BY ICE: That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you.
BECCA GOOD, RENEE GOOD'S PARTNER: Show your face.
R. GOOD: I'm not mad at you.
B, GOOD: That's OK. We don't change our plates every morning. Just so you know. It'll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. That's fine. U.S. citizen.
You want to come at us? You want to come at us? I say, go get yourself some lunch, big boy. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of the car. Out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take it back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That was in January. Today, at the press conference announcing the two lawsuits, Good's partner, who you just saw briefly in the video, spoke out for the first time publicly since the fatal shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
B, GOOD: I don't hate the people who took Renee from us, but what I want them to understand, every single day they get to look at their children and their wives and their sisters and know what they took from our family. They took a mother away from her children. They know that and they will carry it forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Earlier, I spoke with Brent, the brother of Renee Good, and the family attorney, Antonio Romanucci.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Brent, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so sorry for your loss, your family's loss. It's been almost nine months. First of all, how is how is your family doing?
BRENT GANGER, RENEE GOOD'S BROTHER: It's been a tough nine months. It's felt like much longer than that. And somehow, like it happened yesterday. I think we are holding together as a unit as best we can, but it's definitely been a long and tumultuous nine months.
[20:50:05]
COOPER: And Brent, Renee's partner, Becca, spoke publicly today for the first time. It's been a long and tumultuous nine months. And Brent, Renee's partner, Becca, spoke publicly today for the first time. I can only imagine what she must be going through still.
GANGER: I think it's a complicated answer. There's a lot of putting the pieces back together, still going on, and I'm sure all of us will be going through some level of that for a very long time as we've lost an incredible human being, but also just a beloved member of our family.
And Becca is just one of us. She is trying to see what life looks like without Renee. And it's especially difficult for her because she was with her every day and they were raising their son together. So, you know, we all miss her very much and we'll never be able to get her back. So we're just trying to do our best to move forward. And, you know, in addition to that, help other people through this lawsuit to make sure that this doesn't happen to innocent people anymore.
COOPER: And Brent, what else do you want people to know about Renee?
GANGER: That's a very long list of things, and it's hard to keep track of all the things that we've tried to put out there about Renee. But she was just this lovely person that was infinitely positive, absolutely caring about everybody that she came in contact with, but especially her family.
My siblings and my parents and I like to remember her laugh because it was ridiculous and loud and it made the rest of us laugh just hearing her laugh. So we miss that very much. And, yes, just an endless amount of things that I could really just go on forever about. But I just wish I could give her a hug and call her right now.
COOPER: Antonio, can you just briefly talk about the crux of your arguments in these two separate civil suits? Because one is against the United States as an entity. The other is against individuals in the Trump administration who were involved in this policy and officers on the ground.
ANTONIO ROMANUCCI, ATTORNEY FOR RENEE GOOD'S FAMILY: Yes, I can. And you stated that correctly. We have one lawsuit where we name a number of individuals. That lawsuit, Anderson, is the lawsuit that really describes the conspiracy that our government, people inside and outside the administration, designed to deny people here in Minneapolis.
Their equal protection of the law or denying them their constitutional rights. The other lawsuit is the one which specifically takes aim at the shooter, Jonathan Ross. And we sue the United States government as his employer for that death. So they are -- they speak to the same thing, but they are two separate lawsuits.
COOPER: And Brent, to be clear, has the federal government -- has anyone ever reached out to you since your sister was killed to express regret or condolences or retract any of the attacks on her character? I mean, obviously, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller accused her of domestic terrorism.
GANGER: Yes, absolutely not. We've heard nothing from this administration. And the lack of remorse is definitely something that is has been equally difficult to understand, but also predictable. So the labels that she unrightfully had laid upon her really just add salt to the wound and are completely untrue.
COOPER: Well, Brent, again, I'm so sorry for what you have been through and your entire family. And Antonio and Brent, thank you so much for talking to us.
ROMANUCCI: Thank you, Anderson.
GANGER: Thanks, Anderson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So that was Renee Good's brother, Brent Ganger and Antonio Romanucci.
Up next, my conversation with Charlamagne tha God for my podcast "All There Is." We talk about living with loss and how you can't outrun your grief.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:58:13]
COOPER: New episode of my podcast, "All There Is," has just been released. My guest this week is Charlamagne tha God, co-host of the hugely influential radio show and podcast "The Breakfast Club." He's also a bestselling author and started a foundation that focuses on mental health called the Mental Wealth Alliance, which is the goal is to close the mental health gap in black communities.
Charlamagne lost a cousin and two close friends to suicide. He's talked very publicly about his own experiences with anxiety and panic attacks. This is just part of our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, CO-HOST, "THE BREAKFAST CLUB": I don't know if grief is something you do, or if it's just something you feel. A lot of times when people pass away or you lose a friend, people always say things to you like, oh, you got to give yourself time to grieve. I would say that grief comes in time.
You don't pick and choose when it's going to happen. Like I can be driving through Moncks Corner, South Carolina, and all of a sudden all of these different memories flood my mind. Now you grieving.
I go to my grandmother's house whenever I'm home, Moncks Corner, South Carolina, and I sit on the porch just to pray. And sometimes I'm overwhelmed with grief. Sometimes I'm not.
COOPER: Do you allow yourself to grieve?
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: I don't think you really have a choice. You can't run from it. So even when you say --
COOPER: You can run from it for a long time, but it'll still --
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You think --
COOPER: -- it'll still catch up to you.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You think so, but it's on you.
COOPER: Yes.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: Right? You know what I'm saying? Like it's on you. It's like being in 110 degree heat. That sun is beating down on you. You can even stand in the shade for a second. You're still going to feel that heat.
So I wonder like, can you really run from it? I don't think so. I think that people either choose to stop and feel it or they try to distract themselves from what it is they're still feeling anyway. Feelings are the hardest thing for us to acknowledge.
And you know why they're the hardest things for us to acknowledge? Because there's just some things that we simply don't want to feel, but you're going to feel it anyway. So I would rather just feel it in this whole, you know, totality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's Charlamagne tha God. The podcast is available now, wherever you get your podcast, or you can watch the full conversation online at CNN.com/AllThereIs online. That's my grief community page.
The news continues. Thanks for watching. See you tomorrow. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
