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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Guilfoyle Pushed Donor to Wire $100K to her AmEx Account; Interview with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA); Trump Takes Midterm Campaign Marathon to Upstate N.Y. Friday; Report: DOJ Seeks Indictment Of Cassidy Hutchinson; Hurricane Isaias Takes Aim At Gulf Coast, Evacuations Underway; NYPD: Person Shot During Encounter With Federal Immigration Agents; USS Lincoln Docks In U.S. After Near-Record Deployment; 122 New Dads Among USS Lincoln Sailors Returning To U.S. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired October 08, 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: ...landfall to be?
CAPT. MARK MCCOY, HURRICANE HUNTER, AIR FORCE RESERVE WEATHER OFFICER: I think based off of the hurricane centers latest guidance, I think they said probably a Cat. II at landfall based off their latest advisory.
BURNETT: All right, we will and thanks so much to you, Captain McCoy, for taking the time. Obviously, nine-hour flight is extremely long and then coming on to talk to us, so thank you.
MCCOY: Yes, no problem. Thank you for having me.
BURNETT: All right, and thanks so much to all of you for joining us as well. AC360 begins now.
[20:00:34]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, from the Newsroom. And honey, please, I need you to get this done for me today. Those words, according to "The Wall Street Journal" were texted by Kimberly Guilfoyle, now, the American Ambassador to Greece, to a donor she was requesting $100,000.00 from, so she could pay off her American Express bill.
Now, why would anyone just give Kimberly Guilfoyle 100 grand? Well, because he wanted something in return and according to "The Journal" had offered Guilfoyle, who had been Donald Trump Jr.'s fiance, a million dollars if she could do some favors for him.
The story broke yesterday, but it continued today and tonight. Ambassador Guilfoyle was on the tarmac in Athens this morning, just steps away from her boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who does not sound thrilled to be fielding questions about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Sir, anything new on the reporting from "The Wall Street Journal" that Ambassador Guilfoyle had sought?
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Okay, you guys are going to ask me this. You're going to ask me again in Portugal. I know the game, okay. The game is someone gives information to a newspaper or a media outlet. The media outlet reports it. You immediately turn to me and say, I need you to respond to our reporting. That's not the way this process works. So, get that out of your head because that's never the way it's going to work with me. It's a game that's been played for a long time, but it's not a game were going to play.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Could have just said he didn't want to answer the question, but that's basically what he's saying. He doesn't want to talk about it. Vice President Vance, on the other hand, did engage somewhat, but only by treating the question as a hypothetical.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Do you have any reaction to a U.S. Government official, in this case, a U.S. Ambassador, asking someone to pay off debt in exchange to access to other government officials?
J.D. VANCE (R) VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, so with that hypothetical, obviously, I don't love that. But you know, I don't know exactly who you're talking about. I don't know the full details.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Okay, so, let's get into the details as first reported by "The Wall Street Journal". The text I read and others were sent by Guilfoyle to a Kentucky megadonor named Eric Deters and were written just before her senate confirmation hearing in July of last year.
And again, in one she says, referring to the AmEx bill, The "Honey, please, I need you to get this done for me today." A short time later, according to "The Journal" she talks about how to make the payment. She thinks less traceable, "It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express, that's all it will show, please."
Polite, Deters told "The Journal" that she promised that if he paid, she would, "be your ride, your Trump ride or die for ever and ever." He didn't pay. The relationship soured, and according to "The Journal" she began expressing concerns about their dealings becoming public, quoting now, "Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things." Also, "What a nightmare. You'll literally cost me my ambassadorship. Stop writing. Stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous." And, "just call me on signal."
An attorney for the ambassador disputes the authenticity of the text. Deters, meantime, has been talking about them all day. Here he is on Jake Tapper on "The Lead". He told Jake he wanted Guilfoyle's help with the legal case he was pursuing, among other things, for which he'd pay her a million dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC DETERS, GUILFOYLE ACCUSER: What I did is I told Kimberly, I said, Kimberly, if you help me draw attention to this, when the case settles, I'll give you a million bucks. And she said, fine and she said that she'd start doing all these things for me.
But none of that ever happened. So right before her senate confirmation, she says to me, I need $100,000 to pay off my American Express Card, or I'm not going to become Greek Ambassador. This is embarrassing. And I said, Kimberly, you haven't done anything that I've asked you to do. I mean, I mean, just nothing. She hadn't accomplished anything. And I said, Kimberly, why should I do this for you?
And she told me, it's in the text messages, I'll be your ride or die forever in a Trump administration. I won't keep track of how many favors, how big the favors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Again, Ambassador Guilfoyle's attorney disputes the authenticity of these text messages. But it is one more story about ethical questions and money making by members of the Trump administration.
We've reported on the meme coins. The crypto company his family co- owns, the G20 Summit being held next month at his Florida golf resort, and there were new filings today that show President Trump made 517 stock and bond trades in august, including five million dollars' worth of SpaceX bonds, just days before taking executive action to accelerate space exploration, which benefits SpaceX.
The President also purchased up to $25 million worth of Meta shares and as much as $6 Million in Microsoft several weeks later at that White House A.I. Summit, the President weighed in against regulating the A.I. industry.
One former White House ethics Czar, Richard Painter, who would not call the transactions illegal. But he did say that they give the appearance of corruption.
Polling from Gallup reveals that 89 percent of Americans now believe government corruption is widespread, which is up 30 points in the last 20 years. It's not exactly the kind of country that Kimberly Guilfoyle said was coming just six short years ago.
[20:05:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, AMBASSADOR OF THE UNITED STATES TO GREECE: Ladies and gentlemen, leaders and fighters for freedom and liberty and the American dream, the best is yet to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Yes, that happened, I remember that.
Joining us now is Washington Democratic Congressman Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Congressman, I mean, you look at how President Trump and certain allies and members of his family have enriched themselves during his second term. Should anyone be surprised that "The Wall Street Journal" reporting is correct, that his almost daughter-in-law was dangling access to the administration in exchange for six figure AmEx bill getting paid off?
REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): No and look, I mean, I just, I don't know why it has taken so many people in this country so long to wake up to the fact that Trump's presidency is basically a grift, okay.
Yes, he implements some policies here and there, but his policies aren't his primary focus. He, his family, everyone close to him are doing everything they possibly can to suck as much money out of their positions as possible. This level of corruption has never been seen before in the history of this country, and it's been out there for years.
I mean, there's nothing, you know, the crypto stuff. You know, they got the SpaceX and the Meta stock. You know, he's buying stock right before he makes decisions to help prop up companies. You know, the Russian who pays for, you know, Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding reception or whatever it was.
You know, they are just laughing at the American people. Now, I will say the polling and from what I've heard, it seems like the majority, the overwhelming majority of American people are now waking up to this reality and turning on Trump and all the corrupt people around him.
But you got to ask the question, Republican Congress, where the hell are you? Where were you? You let this happen. I mean, Mike Johnson defending Trump using taxpayer dollars to run a campaign ad less than a month before the election.
So, I hope the voters hold accountable the House and the Senate Republicans.
COOPER: I mean, it is important, I think, to step back every now and then and just point out how not normal this is. The people who are negotiating the deals for, you know, in the Middle East are also in business deals with people in these same leaders in the Middle East with these countries who I mean, with one hand, they're trying to change U.S. Policy and negotiate stuff for the U.S. Government, the American people and at the same time, they have business negotiations going on and investors.
SMITH: Yeah, look, and it's interesting, Anderson, you use that term, not normal. I've used that term many times when I look at what Trump is doing, I'm trying to figure out how do I how do I show people, how do I convince people how bad this is?
And I've used that not normal and a lot of people, Trump supporters and others for that matter, shoot back at me. Well, normal wasn't working. So, and I get that and I don't even disagree with it, okay.
You know, we have a country that has major economic problems. We have a few people who have massive power and endless amounts of money. A lot of other people are struggling to pay the bills, get jobs. We have a fundamentally unfair system in our country, all right. But not normal isn't changing that.
This is corruption, and I wish people could separate that and recognize Trump's not trying to address those issues, okay. When he says it's, you know, I'm doing something different. He's just engaged, as I said, in the world's most successful grift.
You know, he makes P.T. Barnum, you know, look like a dime store hustler.
COOPER: They've also cut back on investigations into corruption in a number of different agencies throughout the federal government and the IRS as well.
SMITH: Yes, it's not even really corruption in the minds of the Trump administration anymore. It's just business, okay. You know, I mean, there's not even any effort. I forget the story exactly, but George W. Bush, I think there was an issue where he was about to pardon someone and they did this deep dive and they figured out, and I can't remember exactly what it was, but years before, there had been some obscure connection with the Bush family, had been in business with the guy or something.
There was a small amount of money, totally unrelated and they held up the pardon because they thought that appearance. And here's Trump raffling off pardons, you know, like he's at a church Bingo. I mean, the distance that we've come and I wish people understood our government was not always this corrupt, okay.
This is not the way things were done. Yes, there were isolated examples. But the Trump. Administration has institutionalized it.
[20:10:52]
COOPER: I do think that's the pushback. I do think that's the pushback that some people say, well, it's like, oh, look, these folks are always corrupt. There was always corruption. I mean, Jimmy Carter had a brother, Billy, who tried to market Billy Beer. And that was like people's heads exploded. I mean, that seemed, that's like a--I mean, it was a joke then, but it seems like a like absurd now compared to this stuff.
SMITH: It doesn't mean, it's like saying all of a sudden on the major freeways in your town, everyone is racing at 150 miles an hour all day long. And people say, yes, well, you know, people always speed, okay. It's like, yes, you know, they go five, 10, maybe 15 miles an hour over the speed limit, you know? But that's not the same as having everyone go 120 miles an hour all the time.
And Trump is doing goes way beyond that, and we policed corruption, you know, we, we've arrested a number of members of Congress have wound up in jail because of their corruption, all right. But it was a small number. It was prosecuted and isolated. So yes, the corruption in the Trump administration is off the charts.
COOPER: Well, we'll see how widespread the you know, the early pardons are for everybody. Congressman Adam Smith, appreciate it. Thank you very much.
I want to bring in our panel and CNN political commentator; he's also a former Obama ethics czar and ambassador to the Czech Republic, Norm Eisen and also Brad Todd, Republican strategist as well.
Brad, I mean, do you think reports like this one about ambassador Guilfoyle register with people? Do you think it impacts people at a time of, I mean, is this a good look?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, it's a bad look. And I hope it's not true. I mean, what we have now is one newspaper reporting, one thing her attorney says it's not true. You know, she was a pretty big draw on the circuit for President Trump in the campaign. She was a good surrogate. They have a personal relationship. So, I'm sure he's going to give her every chance to tell her his side of the story, her side of the story.
But, you know, these things are never a good look. I noticed Adam Smith didn't talk about Senator Bob Menendez, who was convicted on bribery charges. And I can't remember him saying anything about it at the time, actually, or Marc Rich, who Bill Clinton pardoned on the way out the door after his wife committed $1 million to the Democratic candidates and a half a million to the Clinton Presidential Library.
So, these scandals happen, they are happening. And hopefully this isn't one I hope it doesn't work out.
COOPER: Do you think they're, right, if there is malfeasance, though, do you think any of these folks are going to get convicted, or are they all just going to get, I mean, Bob Menendez was convicted. There's going to be pardons, pretty widespread, it seems like.
TODD: Well, you know, the ambassador reports to the secretary of state, first off, and I trust Marco Rubio will be fair about this. And again, Donald Trump, I think he doesn't want anyone to be an embarrassment to him. So, I think he'll give her every chance to give her side of the story.
And look, we have to hope it's not true. That's the case now.
COOPER: Yes, and certainly she says, you know, these texts are not true. And so, we'll see.
Norm, I mean, do you think Ambassador Guilfoyle, I mean, just with the corruption that does exist, do you think there will be consequences whether it's for this case or any of the others?
NORM EISEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I agree with Brad. It's a terrible look in any normal administration; criminal investigation would have commenced because what you have here is powerful evidence of a quid pro quo nominees are covered by that law, Anderson.
And it's not just a newspaper article; it's a message after message. It's the receipts, it's the smoking gun. And then today we had the other person involved going on television, Mr. Deter, and describing the quid pro quo is the kind of explosive testimony you expect at a trial.
So, she denies it. This is just the beginning. I think it has to be said, though, that this is consistent with the tone that President Trump has set, profit taking out of the presidency to the tune of billions. What's $100,000 AmEx bill compared to the billions President Trump has made, including from his meme coin and Crypto products, where over a million people have lost almost $4 billion.
So, it stinks in Athens and it stinks in Washington.
[20:15:19]
COOPER: Bret, as we said, President Trump purchased five million dollars' worth of SpaceX bonds just days before signing a National Security Memorandum aimed at enabling more than a thousand launches and reentries on American soil annually by 2013, a policy that Elon Musk company would obviously benefit from. To you, is that a concern at all?
TODD: Well, let's be clear. The White House says that the Presidents investments are handled by third party investment experts, and he does not involved in any of the buying or selling of those stocks.
So, let's put that up front. Next, though, you know, Tesla and SpaceX are stocks that tend to move in tandem in the market, if you look and you know, 60 percent of us are exposed to the market and Tesla and SpaceX are six percent of Nasdaq.
So, really what's good for SpaceX is good for all of us. And it's not too long ago, we were sending our astronauts up to the international space station on rented rusty rockets from the Russians. And, you know, we were we were basically hitchhiking to get up there. And now Elon Musk and SpaceX last week got four astronauts up there at eight hours a record.
So, he is revitalized and saved the American space program. this company has experts, a lot of scientists there, not just him, plenty of smart scientists who work there.
And it's a it's a volatile stock, you know, it moves around a whole lot. You know, in last June, it was high. Last August it was low. Now, it's back to being high, so.
COOPER: But if you do it, five I mean, Norm, if you're doing it five days before you're signing something that's going to boost the possible, would seem to want to be able to boost the stock. Is that is that a problem for you, Norm, from an ethics standpoint?
EISEN: Anderson, when we were in the White House, we decided at the time of the great recession that we wouldn't even let the President refinance his modest family home in Chicago, saving a couple hundred bucks a month on interest--appearance.
COOPER: You didn't let President Obama refinance his mortgage?
EISEN: No, we decided together, the President and I, and the team that it was a bad look to start where Brad did. The American people put Donald Trump in there to put money in their pockets? Not over $2 billion in his own pocket. He's done thousands of these stock trades. And I don't care if he says that others are doing them or not. I want to know the proof of that.
But also, presidents this why they put their investments in a blind trust or in mutual funds. So, these questions about profit taking don't arise. It's like nothing we've seen in the history of America. It's terrible that you saw those, the poll numbers, the American people are furious.
COOPER: We'll see, Norm Eisen, Brad Todd, I appreciate it, thanks, guys.
Next, more on how the story is playing out inside Trump world from the bestselling Trump biographer, Maggie Haberman. She's going to join me.
We'll also talk about whether the Presidents mostly red state campaign strategy is likely to get results.
And later, new report that the justice Trump Justice Department is targeting former White House aide. And January 6th whistleblower Cassidy Hutchinson for criminal prosecution. We'll explain ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:22:43]
COOPER: More than a week into his month-long midterm campaign marathon, the President tomorrow is doing something different. He's not campaigning in a red state. He's holding a rally in Syracuse, New York.
Last night he was in Texas someplace, he's now been to three times already and is now in play for Democrats, in part because he drove the incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn, out of the office by backing the current nominee instead, Ken Paxton, someone a conservative political commentator on the show last night, called a, quote, walking liability for the whole of the GOP.
But Paxton is a Texas problem for Republicans across the board. The problem is the President's low job approval numbers, even in red states.
New CNN polling shows it at 36 percent, In Ohio, 41 percent in Iowa. And both the states republican House and Senate candidates are paying the price for it.
Joining us now, "New York Times" white house correspondent Maggie Haberman, coauthor of the best-selling and fascinating regime change. Maggie. it's good to see you. So, is it clear to you if the President has any real plan or message for the midterms, which are now less than four weeks away? And do you think he grasped the headwinds that Republicans are facing?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think he grasps the headwinds. I don't think that he blames himself based on everything we've seen him say and everything in my reporting and my colleagues reporting. He very infrequently blames himself. But the reality is, Anderson, that the biggest issues that his party is facing right now, tariffs would be one. But the much larger issue is the Iran War and the price of gas and the affordability crisis, and the fact that the President talks about it in a way that is not very understanding about voters.
All of this is why he has a problem, including what you were talking about in the previous episode, which is all of this self-dealing on a scale that we just have not seen ever in my lifetime like this at all, and I don't think in yours either.
So, it's not that there have not been other allegations of corruption and other administrations. it's the level at which this is taking place. And so, all of that is felt by voters. But he's blaming his strategists. He keeps saying things privately like, you know, this plan is bad, these candidates are his candidates and these decisions are almost all his.
COOPER: He's also, I mean, you know, he giveth and taketh sometimes in the same sentence. I want to play some of what the President said recently about Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses. And I say this it's so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not like the way he looks. You might not love his look. He may not dress right. He may not talk exactly perfectly and he may not be the best-looking guy I've ever seen.
I don't like the way Ken dresses. I don't really like the way Ken talks. I don't really like the way he looks. I don't like it.
Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody, and I have to always remember that because he can be a pain in the ass sometimes, I'll be honest. Is he here, by the way? We got to get this guy elected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I mean, this is part of his personality that was early on kind of fascinating that he would say these things out loud, that he was thinking, which, you know, maybe a lot of other people were thinking as well, but just were kind of stunned that anybody would say them out loud.
HABERMAN: I don't know what the it's absolutely true that he would say things out loud. And there were voters who found that appealing. And he would also have this ability to tell two different sides of his own coalition, because his coalition is an odd, you know, fit of a bunch of different, you know, essentially groups who hold opposing views on some things.
He could say different things and one group would hear what they wanted to hear, and the other group would hear what they wanted to hear and what, what he was saying. That has been very tested in the last two years and when you've been doing it for ten years, 11 years, it becomes hard to maintain. The Paxton one is very unique because he does it sort of everywhere. it's clearly insulting. Theres nothing endearing about it.
And Paxton already has all kinds of other problems as a candidate that has nothing to do with how he dresses. So, what you're, what exactly you're selling the voters is not clear to me there.
COOPER: Obviously, every second-term President eventually becomes a lame duck. It may depend on how he does the midterms, but how do you think this President is going to react to being described that way?
HABERMAN: Well, A: I don't think he's going to react well to it, Anderson, but B: I think that the bigger issue is, you know, less the description and more the behavior that comes from this.
I think people forget that even if the House flips, even if the Senate flips, yes, there obviously are going to be a lot of hearings, a lot of oversight. We've seen previews of the kind of things that democrats are going to be looking at across, you know, the Trump family, the Witkoff family, Lutnick family, Kim Guilfoyle, I mean, I can go on and on here, but I don't think that we have ever, ever seen what it could look like if an entire government does not respond to subpoenas.
And the President, as you noted before, has made very clear that he is going to pardon. And we report this in regime change, any number of people, everyone, in his words, who has come within 250 feet or so of the Oval Office.
So, I don't know what oversight looks like in that scenario. And at the same time, even though his own approval rating is obviously down, he's still overwhelmingly popular with Republicans and he's still the President. And he is very willing to put the squeeze on his own party. As you're seeing now.
So, I don't know what that looks like, but I doubt it's going to look much like what we've seen before.
COOPER: Yes, Maggie Haberman, it's great to have you on. Thanks so much, Maggie.
More breaking news tonight. According to punchbowl news, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which has undergone a transformation in this administration, is seeking a federal criminal indictment of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on charges of lying to Congress in her testimony before the January 6th committee, punchbowl is reporting the DOJ presented evidence to a grand jury this week and is expected to present more evidence in additional witnesses later this month. Now, Hutchinson was the top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the end of the Trump administration. You may remember she testified in 2022 that she had heard a second-hand account that President Trump was so enraged at his secret service detail for blocking him from going to the capitol on January 6th, that he lunged to the front of his Presidential limo and tried to turn the wheel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER ASSISTANT TO TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF: I looked at Tony and he had said, did you ever hear what happened in the beast? I said, no, Tony, I just got back. Tony described him as being irate. The President said something to the effect of, I'm the effing President. Take me up to the Capitol now. To which Bobby responded, Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing.
The President reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engle and Mr. Renato had recounted the story to me; he had motioned towards his clavicles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Secret Service Agent and a White House Deputy, whom Hutchinson said were also aware of the story, have said they don't remember it.
President weighed in on social media about Hutchinson's account in March of 2024, saying our great Secret Service has totally crushed Cassidy Hutchinson, who I barely knew made up fake stories about me roughing up Secret Service Agents from the back seat of the beast limo. Has she now changed her testimony? Will she be prosecuted for what she did and said? What about the unselect J6 Committee? They destroyed almost everything, including real evidence and findings. What's going to happen to them? Serious crimes have been committed?
Joining me now to discuss is Former Federal Prosecutor and Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. The grand jury, do you think they would indict? Obviously there's the old ham sandwich thing, you can find one to indict. But what she was saying was secondhand, she's not saying she saw that.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So that's the key point. I think if DOJ tries to bring this case, it will be ridiculously weak. I think it would be doomed to fail for exactly that reason. Cassidy Hutchinson did not testify, I witnessed this event.
COOPER: She's talking about Tony.
HONIG: She said Tony Ornato told me about this event. And so the question is not --
COOPER: And he was a Secret Service.
HONIG: He was a Secret Service agent, but he also sort of doubled as a White House security adviser and a Trump loyalist, we should know. So the question is not, did that event happen inside the White House? It's just did this conversation happen between Hutchinson and Ornato? Hutchinson says yes. Ornato says no.
And so you will not get a conviction as a prosecutor in a 50-50 case. It has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Cassidy Hutchinson is lying. Let me add, Anderson, Tony Ornato has a history of doing this. Two other former White House officials who worked there with Ornato have had instances unrelated to this where they've either testified or said publicly, I had this conversation with Ornato, and then Ornato has come out and said, no, that never happened.
So either all three of these people are just fabricating these conversations, or Ornato is the White House busy body who has these conversations, and then when they come out, denies them. It's an unwinnable case. Doesn't mean they can't try to indict it. It's easy to indict in front of a grand jury, but they're not going to win.
COOPER: And if he is called to testify and denies under oath that he ever said these things --
HONIG: Yes.
COOPER: -- then it's just up to the jury to decide who's telling the truth?
HONIG: Yes, it's up to the jury, but here's the thing. Even if the jury decides Ornato's, let's say, more credible than Cassidy Hutchinson, I don't think he is. But what if the jury says, it's more likely Ornato's telling the truth than Hutchinson's lying? That's not enough.
What if they find it's very likely Ornato's telling the truth? Still not enough. That's why perjury cases are tricky. You have to prove as the prosecutor beyond a reasonable doubt that there's a lie.
COOPER: All right, Elie Honig, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
Next, the latest on the hurricane that's now strengthening in the Gulf. When and where it is expected to hit? And later family reunions, including 122 new dads, as the crew of the supercarrier Abraham Lincoln comes home after almost a year at sea.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:37:01]
COOPER: We have more breaking news. Hurricane Isaias has strengthened to a powerful Category 2 storm as it takes aim at the northern Gulf Coast. Parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia have issued states of emergency. Some areas have issued mandatory evacuations. That's the traffic back up. People leaving one town along the Florida panhandle.
Our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now from the CNN Weather Center. So how strong is the storm right now? And when is it going to make landfall? DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Anderson, it looks like there are signs that the storm is strengthening right now, 100-mile-percent- hour storm. But you can see the center of the eye starting to clear out as the sun sets on Hurricane Isaias.
This storm is moving in a northeasterly direction at about 13 miles per hour. It will pick up forward speed in the next 24 hours. That puts it on a trajectory to reach the northern Gulf Coast by late Friday, probably after sunset. This is a Category 2 storm right now.
And you can see the wind gusts over 120 miles per hour. Does this reach major Hurricane 3 status or greater? That's still to be determined. But one thing's for sure, there is a weakening trend forecast because of the strong upper level winds that have been highly advertised with this storm system. But does that can save the day before it makes landfall? Unlikely.
It will expand the wind field, meaning that the impacts of the storm will be felt well outside of the center, depending on exactly where that storm, the center of the most powerful winds makes landfall. That's where we will see the greatest storm surge impacts, especially to the right of the center.
This is where we expect the maximum wind threat. But notice it doesn't stop at the coast. It works its way inland. And we time this thing out by 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. We think that the rain shield would be knocking on your doorstep across the Florida Panhandle. Conditions deteriorate behind it.
And then we start to see what's known as the dirty side of the hurricane. And what that means is the potential for spin up thunderstorms that could produce tornadoes. We have a slight risk of tornadoes tomorrow across the Western Florida Panhandle, and that extends inland across Georgia and eastern sections of Alabama.
Look at the 5 to 7 feet of potential storm surge. This is above what would normally be dry ground, Pensacola into Port St. Joe, Panama City, depending on exactly where the storms track in the center goes. This will be a prolific rainmaker, the potential for upwards of 15 inches of rain and some of these rain bands that move over the same locations as this makes landfall.
And Anderson, this is important. This is not going to stop at the coastline. Once it moves its way inland, there's going to be a large wind field that will impact places like Alabama --
COOPER: Yes.
VAN DAM: -- Georgia and into Tennessee that could take down power lines and trees as well, far inland.
COOPER: Yes. Derek Van Dam, thanks very much.
Up next, authorities have just been briefing reporters after a person was shot during an encounter with federal immigration agents here in New York. We're live at the scene. And the long-awaited homecoming for the crew of the supercarrier Abraham Lincoln after their near record-long deployment, with 122 of them meeting their babies for their first time. I'll show you that ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello! Daddy's home!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:44:15]
COOPER: Busy night, we have breaking news. The NYPD, the New York Police Department, says a man was shot during an encounter with federal immigration agents in the Marble Hill section of upper Manhattan. A law enforcement official says the agent shot into the man's car while a five-year-old child was in the backseat. The man's injuries were not considered life threatening. Two agents were said to be hurt in the encounter.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is on the scene for us. So what more do we know about this?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that five- year-old child, we just spoke to the aunt, a woman who says that she is the aunt of the man who was shot here. And she says that her daughter ran out of the apartment and saw that five-year-old with police after the shooting. And then that man was taken by the police officers, by the NYPD to the hospital. She -- her daughter is with the child. The child is OK. I think that's the most important part of this.
[20:45:10]
What the mayor is saying is that that child was in the car during the shooting. Now the Department of Homeland Security has issued a statement saying that this was a targeted operation, that the individual was a -- is a criminal illegal alien, kind of the terminology we often hear from them after these incidents. And that the person was arrested back in December of 2023 and then released, and that they were just now here three years later targeting this individual.
Now there are a lot of questions, Anderson, as there always are after these shootings involving ICE. I want to show you here behind me, the FBI is here on scene. They are going over the area here. They are collecting evidence.
The car here, that is the car that the individual was in. I saw a photo of the windshield of this car. There is a bullet hole right through the front of that windshield. The NYPD is out here as well, as you can see, Anderson, but they are here mostly just to try and keep the peace, make sure that nothing gets out of hand here because there's been a lot of tension, as you can imagine, from the community here. They're very upset over what has happened here.
We've seen officials here from the mayor's office, the city council, and other local leaders just trying to keep the peace here because at one point there was confrontations between the police and some of the Homeland Security officials. But right now, what we can say is that the FBI is here. They are seemingly now part of this investigation collecting evidence. The NYPD is here. Many of the community members here say they plan on being out here all night to try and get answers.
The man that was shot here, Anderson, he's expected to survive. The NYPD is not involved in this investigation. They were not here when this happened. They do not here in New York City work with ICE on any of this, and so that's important to make clear. But certainly they did respond in the moments after the shooting, Anderson.
COOPER: And so just to be clear, only about 10 seconds left, but this was, you're saying, ICE officers?
PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's correct. This was ICE officers that were, according to the Department of Homeland Security and also the law enforcement sources, were trying to apprehend an individual. And as we've seen in other instances, when they're trying to stop cars, that's what this seems to be -- that's when this happened, Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Shimon, thanks.
PROKUPECZ: We don't know why they opened fire on this individual. Yes.
COOPER: Appreciate it.
After over 10.5 months, the USS Abraham Lincoln is finally home. More than 5,000 of the sailors and Marines run a near record long deployment, as you probably noted, the Middle East. During that deployment, there were reports of obviously poor conditions, but today the focus was on very happy reunion.
CNN's Pamela Brown was on the ship in July, returned for the homecoming. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Finally home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes!
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mixed in the emotion on this Navy pier are 122 sailors who have never met their children.
JOEY MONTEMARANO, CHIEF PETTY OFFICER, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The only person my daughter knows is my wife right now.
BROWN (voice-over): Joey Montemarano's daughter, Madeline Grace (ph), was born while he was away at sea. These images are all he knows of his 10-month-old child.
BROWN: What are you going to do, you think, when you see them?
MONTEMARANO: Probably cry a little bit. Probably try to hold back the tears while I kiss my wife, hug my wife and meet this baby that I've never met before, that I can't wait to meet and interact with.
BROWN (voice-over): We met Joey and many more of the roughly 5,000 sailors at sea on the USS Lincoln as they headed into port. Most admit their returning home changed.
AJANAE KELLY, SAILOR, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: This is the hardest one I have to -- had to deal with, so I feel like if I could do this one, I could do anything.
BROWN (voice-over): It's the end of a harrowing 322-day deployment that faced scrutiny over the living conditions on board and low morale that included attempted suicides.
LUIS MORAN, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The man overboard, that was a crazy day.
BROWN (voice-over): Many confirmed the uncertainty around the extended deployment brought mental challenges.
NICHOLAS SANCHEZ, PETTY OFFICER, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Just thinking about my family and things going on back home that you can't control.
MORAN: I would go to prayer service with the chaplains and that would help out a lot.
BROWN (voice-over): Others we met confirmed food supplies ran low at times.
BARRY USERY, SAILOR, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: I was in cargo for a while, the people that bring the food up. And I was in there during the tough times, not a lot of food was being bring up. But as we progressed, it got better.
CAPTAIN DAN KEELER, COMMANDING OFFICER, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: It was stressed, but we never shut anything down.
BROWN (voice-over): Captain Dan Keeler, commanding officer of the Lincoln tells CNN supplies were mainly affected when support ships under threat from Iran were forced to alter their movement in the region.
KEELER: We serve 14,000 to 16,000 meals a day, four times a day, so four meals a day. We never missed a meal, not for 10.5 months. There were some sacrifices made, maybe there was only one protein option instead of two, but there was always food.
[20:50:00]
BROWN: Some of the family members had a town hall with Navy leadership because they were really concerned about their loved ones on this ship. They were getting pictures of toilets overflowing and mold. What do you say to that? KEELER: What I'll say to all the families is they were all so amazing. You can't do -- what we just did without a lot of support. I think a lot of the reporting focused on some, you know, anecdotal things because we looked into all this stuff and there really were no systemic issues.
It's a big ship. It's a floating city. We have, you know, a toilet gets clogged, eventually gets fixed.
BROWN (voice-over): Keeler acknowledges there were five suicide attempts on the Lincoln itself and three others on its support ships. He says anyone with mental health problems had access to treatment on the ship. The most severe cases were sent home.
KEELER: We had zero suicides. We had zero casualties on the ship. Every single sailor that left is coming home.
BROWN (voice-over): And they're coming home awarded with a presidential unit citation, the military's highest honor for a unit in battle.
ARIANA WESTFALL, AVIATION ORDNANCEMAN, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: It's going to be pretty cool to be able to wear that and tell everybody why I'm wearing it and what I did to wear it.
BROWN (voice-over): On board, you could feel the anticipation as we pulled into port. Moments later, among this flood of emotion, Joey Montemarano, a father who served on a ship at war --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this your daddy?
BROWN (voice-over): Now with his daughter together in peace.
MONTEMARANO: She's perfect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (on-camera): Such a touching moment to witness that. And dads like Joey actually had to take classes on the ship, learning how to change diapers and feed their baby and hold a baby so that --
COOPER: That's awesome.
BROWN (on-camera): -- they would know what to do once they came back to land. So he's going to be put to work, I'm sure, very soon, if not already on that front.
COOPER: Yes.
BROWN (on-camera): And in terms of the crew, they're reintegrating now back into life on land, enjoying some of those creature comforts they missed on the ship, such as warm showers, not wearing shoes, things like that. But it's going to be a short-lived reprieve here in San Diego, Anderson, because the USS Abraham Lincoln behind me will be moved to Washington State in just a couple months for much needed repairs and maintenance after this demanding deployment. COOPER: Yes.
BROWN (on-camera): Anderson?
COOPER: Pamela Brown, appreciate it. Such good reporting. Thank you so much.
Coming up next, a preview of my streaming show on loss, "All There Is Live," which starts at 9:15 Eastern Time. And a bit of my conversation, the new podcast just released today with Tech Executive Sheryl Sandberg, who speaks about the connection she found between grief and joy in the years after the death of her husband in 2015.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERYL SANDBERG, TECH EXECUTIVE: From the very depths of our pain, come what make us more human and more able to give and love and feel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:56:48]
COOPER: New episode of my podcast, "All There Is," came out today. You can find it at CNN.com/AllThereIs or wherever you get podcasts. My guest is Tech Executive Philanthropist and Author Sheryl Sandberg. 2015, her husband, Dave Goldberg, died suddenly at 47.
11 years later, she's found and is encouraging adult children of widowed parents to give permission to their surviving parent to look for love if they want to. We also talked about the connection she's found between grief and joy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDBERG: Grief can make your life better, better. And I want to be so clear, I would never pick it. I would never have chosen to lose Dave. But I sit here 11 years later, and I live a more meaningful life. I am closer to the people who carried me through this. And I experienced joy in a different way. I feel the joy you can feel when you know that every day is precious.
COOPER: This was one of the great things I've learned. There is a link between grief and joy. It makes the joy deeper.
SANDBERG: It makes the joy deeper for sure. But I think one of the problems with death, whether it strikes slowly or it strikes suddenly, is that you feel like you've absolutely no control of anything that matters. I think understanding that you actually make choices.
Of course, you're going to grieve, but over time, let yourself feel some joy and do it. Actually, not just for you. It's not a selfish act. It's an act of honoring the person that is gone.
I am more grateful than I was before Dave died. I'm grateful that I was his wife and that he was in the world. I'm sad that he's gone, but I really do feel a joy for just -- and gratitude for being alive. From the very depths of our pain come what make us more human and more able to give and love and feel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's Sheryl Sandberg on the new episode of my podcast. In about 17 minutes from now, 9:15 p.m. Eastern tonight, I hope you watch my online streaming show, "All There Is Live." Tonight, my guest is a woman named Sue Sullivan. Three years ago, she left me this voicemail about her 16-year-old son, Dermot, and the constant grief she lived with as his round-the-clock caregiver.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUE SULLIVAN, LOST HIS SON WITH NEURODEGENERATIVE CONDITION: This is Sue from Minneapolis. I have a 16-year-old son, Dermot, who has a neurodegenerative condition that causes protein to deposit in his brain. My husband and I have lived with constant grief since the day he was born, having to grieve what you thought he would be and life as it is now.
He can no longer eat. He cannot walk. He cannot talk. We've watched our son slowly disappear in front of our eyes. Everything about our lives has changed since we've had our son, Dermot. And what wakes us up in the morning is the love for our son, but also the hope that sometime it will end.
Now, I know that's not the best thing a mother can say, but watching my son go through medical procedures after medical procedures and seizures and feeding tubes and operations, it makes me think that he might be better off not being alive to be able to say that out loud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, since leaving that message three years ago, Sue's son, Dermot, has died. And I'll talk with her in 15 minutes at 9:15 p.m. Eastern. Watch online or on your phone at CNN.com/AllThereIs. That's where "All There Is Live," my streaming show.
The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
