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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Catherine, Princess Of Wales, Reveals Cancer Diagnosis; CNN's Sara Sidner On Going Public With Cancer Diagnosis; ISIS Claims Responsibility For Concert Hall Attack Near Moscow; Trump Furious And Scrambling To Get $464M Bond. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 22, 2024 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Years ago O.J. wrote a very controversial book about how he would have committed the murders if he had done it. The rights to that were seized and they're now considered basically worthless. Erin?
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, "OUTFRONT": All right. Tom, thank you very much. And thanks so much to all of you for joining us on this Friday. AC360 takes over now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Tonight on 360, two stories sending shockwaves around the world.
In Russia, at least 40 killed, more than a hundred wounded in a mass shooting on a horrific scale at a concert venue outside Moscow with ISIS now claiming responsibility and the gunmen apparently still at large.
And in the U.K., a stunning revelation from the Princess of Wales.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CATHERINE PRINCESS OF WALES: In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous. The surgery was successful.
However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Good evening.
Today Catherine Princess of Wales did something that tens of thousands of people around the world do every day, but few of any do in the spotlight that she's under. After months of near total seclusion and growing speculation she shared her cancer diagnosis and we want you to see her full statement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCESS CATHERINE: I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you, personally, for all the wonderful messages of support and for your understanding whilst I've been recovering from surgery. It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I've had a fantastic medical team who've taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful.
In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous. The surgery was successful.
However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I'm now in the early stages of that treatment.
This, of course, came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our `young family. As you can imagine, this has taken time.
It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be okay.
As I have said to them; I am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal; in my mind, body and spirits.
Having William by my side is a great source of comfort and reassurance too. As is the love, support and kindness that has been shown by so many of you. It means so much to us both.
We hope that you will understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment.
My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy and I look forward to being back when I am able, but for now I must focus on making a full recovery.
At this time, I am also thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer. For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: "You are not alone."
She made that statement six hours ago when it was released. It's a point worth making, about 20 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer every year. The Princess and Prince William waited until their children George, Charlotte and Louis ages 10, 8 and 5 were out of school for Easter break before announcing Catherine's diagnosis.
She underwent surgery as you know mid-January, stayed in the hospital for 13 days then returned home to Windsor just outside London to recover. Then late last month a royal source says Catherine started - what the Princess today called preventative chemotherapy. The source says her treatment began not long after King Charles revealed his own cancer diagnosis. Today's announcement comes just days after video of Catherine and William surfaced in the middle of a medical privacy scandal at the private London hospital where she had her surgery.
For more on all of this now, Senior Royal Correspondent, Max Foster, starts us off. So what more do we know about the Princess of Wales condition?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: So we're not going to be told what type of cancer it is. I've only been told that chemotherapy, early stages of it, it started in late February. And this, of course, comes after that hospital visit in January. So she didn't think she had cancer going into hospital. Tests were done when she was there and she found out later that there were signs of cancer.
And this was, of course, the same time that King Charles was in the hospital for another procedure and he found out exactly the same thing that he also had cancer.
[20:05:03]
So the parallels there are quite extraordinary and the King has been speaking a bit about that today as well. But I think it's a very - when you saw her in that video, it was a very, very hard thing for her to do. It was her decision to do it in that way and to speak in the way that she did, very difficult thing to do.
I think she feels that she's done enough now and now she's shared as much information as she can. And now she wants to spend time with her family effectively and recover.
COOPER: So you do not expect any more updates from Kensington Palace.
FOSTER: We're being told there will be an update, of course, if there's a major improvement or she gets much worse. But away from that what they're calling for is you know we've given you as much information as we can. And the public has a right to know that, this is the future queen. But they don't want to share anything beyond that and they particularly don't want to share any moments where they're seen out and about. They're really appealing to the media and the public not to take videos if they're seen.
A lot of people saying well why don't they just stay at home if they don't want to be seen. It's crucial to them as a family that the kids have as much normality as possible. So they want to go about their lives. She wants to go to hospital visits for her chemo and she doesn't want to be photographed and those images shared. So this is a deal if you like.
We're going to share this information but the deal back is you're going to give us the privacy that we think we deserve.
COOPER: Do you think that will actually work? FOSTER: I think it will actually to some extent with the media. Of course, what's extraordinary about this situation, what we've had is this explosion in conspiracy theory on social media. I've never seen anything like it and there are people out there making money getting views from these extraordinary videos.
I think people will be posting. I don't think the media is going to be reflecting a lot of that, because those conspiracy theories weren't true. She just had cancer and she didn't tell us straight away because she's protecting her kids. And I think there's a lot of sympathy in the media about that.
We'll have to see. I mean I'd say the British tabloids got a pretty bad reputation in this country for invading her privacy. But from the people I've spoken to within those tabloids, they're not going to cross the line on this one. There's sympathy there. There's understanding and they - I think they feel that the palace has been quite transparent.
COOPER: What have other members of the royal family or Catherine's family said or reacted to or how have they reacted?
FOSTER: Well it's interesting that point I was making about how Kate came across and how she really gave a lot of herself in that video, I think I've spent a lot of time with her over the years. I've interviewed her. It is not her comfortable place to be particularly talking about personal stuff.
The King said I'm so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did. The closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law, he talked about that sort of language. They spent time in the hospital together. They had you know a really central time together when they were in hospital.
James, her brother, posted a very sort of sweet picture of them when they were younger. He said, "Over the years, we've climbed many mountains together. As a family, we will climb this one with you."
And a bit later on in the day, I also got a message from Prince Harry's team - Prince Harry and Meghan's team. Prince Harry and Meghan say, "We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope that they're able to do so privately and in peace."
So speaking to the same message coming together really with William and Kate on this.
COOPER: Max Foster, thanks very much. Joining us now is Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Sanjay, what stands out to you from what we heard from Princess Catherine today from a medical standpoint?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean the big headline, of course, was that she is talking about the fact that she's been diagnosed with cancer. We - I think there's been some concern for some time, you put that timeline up, we can show back in January, middle of January is when she had the operation.
But you may remember even before that, there was this discussion that maybe we wouldn't see the princess until Easter, so several months after the operation. And that sort of I think in a medical sense signaled some level of concern but it was still pretty opaque. Now we know in fact it is cancer. She had that operation. She recovered for two weeks.
At some point in there, the cancer diagnosis was made and she started the chemotherapy back at the end of February about three weeks ago, three and a half weeks ago.
So starting to get a better sense of the timeline and what's been going on over the past couple of months because frankly a lot of it didn't make sense before. What would take somebody into a situation where they couldn't - they weren't essentially going to be seen for three months, why does someone need to stay in the hospital for so long after the operation.
Now it's starting to fit a little bit more, but there's still a lot of things we don't know.
[20:10:00]
And that may be the way that they wanted it. As Max said, we don't know what kind of cancer. We don't know what stage. We don't know what the chemotherapy is. We don't know how long that will last. So these are still things that are a little bit unclear.
COOPER: How would a cancer diagnosis like this have come about? I mean we know - she said she had major abdominal surgery. Do surgeons take samples during that for further testing? Is that how something would be found out later?
GUPTA: Yes. And going back to that original operation, again it sounds like there was a level of concern already. I mean you know we don't typically do exploratory operations. It's usually pretty directed operation because of some level of concern. And even at the time of the operation they do something that are called frozen sections where they'll actually look at the tissue right at the time of the operation.
And that's typically done to say, look, is there cancer here? And if so are we getting it all? Are there margins around that cancer that don't look cancerous? Meaning we're getting all of the affected tissue out.
So a lot of that would probably be known at the time of the operation, middle of January. But it can take a few days, maybe a week or so after that to confirm that in fact it is cancer.
So most likely if you just look at that timeline it was probably end of January, sort of probably before she was discharged from the hospital - the Princess - that they knew at that point what they were dealing with.
COOPER: And she's 42 years old. How prevalent are cancer diagnoses in women in that age range?
GUPTA: Well, they're more prevalent than they are in men that age range, but less prevalent than in women who are older. So it is - there are certain types of cancers that are more common at certain ages.
One thing and I know you've talked to other doctors today about this, but colorectal cancers - we used to recommend screening for people after the age of 50. But that screening, as you know, has come down now to the age of 45, because you're just seeing those types of cancers in younger populations.
We don't know what kind of cancer she has. I just want to state that again and she's totally entitled to her privacy on this. But there are certain cancers which are going to be more common at certain ages and more likely in women versus men.
COOPER: But anybody out there from 45 on should have screening for colorectal cancer.
GUPTA: That's right. And that is - that was a change. American Cancer Society, the United States Preventive Services Taskforce coming out and saying 45 is now the age, because we think you're going to catch enough cancers by doing these screenings earlier that it makes it worth the while.
COOPER: Sanjay, thank you. Appreciate it.
A perspective now from CNN Royal Historian, Kate Williams and British television's Trisha Goddard, host of this week with Trisha Goddard. Thank you for being with us here.
First of all your reaction to - we spoke earlier but I'm wondering ...
TRISHA GODDARD, TALK SHOW HOST, "THE WEEK WITH TRISHA GODDARD: Yes, yes.
COOPER: ... as you've been thinking about it, what's your reaction to what - the statement that was made?
GODDARD: My heart went out to Catherine. As we talked about before, I came out about my own cancer, what, just last week and you and I have worked together. We've done - covered royal things and I've worn my wig and no one's known for 19 months that I've been going through cancer.
So I understand her wish to be normal and not become the diagnosis. And as Max said it would have been a very difficult thing to come out about - I mean, I'm used to - this is my job and this is what I do. But when I talked about it to a magazine it was terribly difficult because you think how are people going to treat me differently.
And also when she talks about the children telling one's children at any age is a really difficult thing to do. And it's --
COOPER: Especially the age range. I mean ... GODDARD: Yes.
COOPER: ... her oldest is 10. Her youngest is five.
GODDARD: Yes, especially, and also the worry about the headlines. However you talk to them about it and you can always point to people. I mean, when my children were younger when I went through cancer the first time in 2008 I said look at Kylie Minogue, I mean she's out there singing.
But the thing is if you've got the media talking about as they have been in some section of the British media cancer stricken King Charles and is she going to die, anything talk about death and the headlines are going to be very traumatic. So I think it's very telling that she's told the children during these - the holidays when she can be close to them when they're not going to hear through a schoolmate or this sort of thing.
COOPER: Kate, how difficult do you think it's been for the royal family to not only go through her cancer battle privately amidst such a flurry of speculation but also right after King Charles' own cancer diagnosis?
KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: Yes. As you say Anderson, I mean this has been a huge blow to the royal family. The King went in for a routine operation. Then we found the King had cancer and was having treatment. And we don't have a timeline as to when we're going to see the King again out in public.
[20:15:05]
We believe that in Trooping of the Colour, which is in June, he may be in a carriage. We're seeing these wonderful pictures here of the coronation. What a fantastic time that - we were together covering that, me, you and Trisha just a year ago and things have changed so much.
Now we have the King who is unwell and we now also have Kate who's out of action as well. So the royal family which was a slimmed down royal family that was Charles's project now is seeming quite slim really because we have two major royals out of action and also with Camilla and William, two other royals who want to take time a little bit away from their duties to look after them.
So we are seeing a royal family that's very different to the one we saw under the Queen. The Queen who went on forever never seeming to even have a cold and a large amount of royals around her.
COOPER: It was amazing, Trisha, just watching that that video. I mean she was so human and - I mean, for somebody - it's a very hard thing to do to make a statement like that and to have it be authentic and to have it be as beautifully done as it was.
GODDARD: Yes. It would have been really difficult. She's obviously somewhere where she feels very comfortable and nature, I know it sounds silly, but being - even her message being out in nature, I think that helps as well.
But I also think that having a little bit of power because one thing that cancer takes away from you is you look in the mirror or you start looking in the mirror, you see somebody different. And she probably knows what's ahead of her by the way.
And also everybody's talking about you, about your diagnosis, about the cancer and you're scared that if - genuinely scared in her situation that if other news outlets or somebody leaks the documents and what have you, suddenly the story's not yours.
COOPER: Also to know - and to know that somebody maybe - it seems like at least multiple people right now being suspected of having tried to access her ...
GODDARD: Yes.
COOPER: ... private medical information at the hospital.
GODDARD: That would absolutely freak you out that you don't know where the headlines coming from and what they say because how sensational it may be. So I think she's getting back a little bit of power there. So yes it's scary, you feel very vulnerable but you actually think I'm able to say this in the language I want to.
And I notice she picks her words very carefully when offering - saying to people going through this. She didn't say battling and I'm not - I do think we have to watch our language and that's what I read from what she said. She said it really beautifully and I think that message is going to be very powerful (inaudible) ...
COOPER: And I love that "you're not alone" at the end as well, that's what she said.
GODDARD: Yes, yes, yes.
COOPER: Kate, I mean Kensington Palace does not expect to reveal any further medical details that - such the type of cancer, what stage is in. It's interesting because Prince Charles has - excuse me, King Charles has not said what kind of cancer he has. He went in for an enlarged prostate but he hasn't said what sort of cancer he was diagnosed with. She is not going to as well.
I think to some Americans it might be - they may be surprised, well why wouldn't they say what kind of cancer. For the royal family, they have already gone farther probably than any previous generation of royals has gone in disclosing information.
WILLIAMS: Yes, Anderson, you're totally right. I mean, this is further than any royals have ever gone. We weren't told Prince Philip was ill really until the final stages. We weren't told the Queen was unwell until really the day in which she passed away. So it was such a shock. And for example the Queen's grandfather - the Queen's father George VI, no one knew he had cancer not even his daughter. So she set off on a tour to Kenya and she was in a hotel up a tree over a water hole when she became queen. And so we are at an unprecedented level of transparency, and honesty and vulnerability. And it was so powerful to hear Trisha talking there about getting back some of her power as someone going through cancer. That was - I think that's so important and such a key point.
And you know what I thought about Anderson when I was watching the video message, I mean that is unprecedented too. Normally the royals put out statements as they did with the King, a statement from Kensington Palace saying the Queen is suffering - the Prince is suffering cancer. But we had a video statement which to me was so like the Queen when she addressed us in times of great need.
COOPER: Kate Williams, Trisha Goddard, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Much more ahead tonight, next, how Catherine and William became friends and a couple and a family now facing some challenging days ahead.
Also the very latest from Russia where ISIS now says it was responsible for murdering dozens and wounding many more at that concert hall outside Moscow. We'll be right back.
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[20:21:29]
COOPER: President Biden just sent his best wishes to the Princess of Wales. His tweet reads: "Jill and I join millions around the world in praying for your full recovery, Princess Kate." A message from one family to another which underscores what sometimes gets overlooked in the focus on titles that at the end of the day the royal family is in fact a family. And for more than 20 years Prince William and Catherine have been a couple and are now the parents of three.
More on their story from our Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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PRINCE CATHERINE: We hope that you'll understand that as a family we now need some time space and privacy while I complete my treatment. I must focus on making a full recovery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Princess of Wales is putting her health and her family first as she's revealed she's being treated for cancer. Long before she became a royal, she was simply Catherine Elizabeth Middleton. Catherine grew up a commoner. Her parents met while working for British Airways. Later their successful internet business and newfound wealth allowed them to move into an affluent area and send Catherine to Marlborough College an elite boarding school.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Upper middle class went to a good private school then went to a good university and it's there that she met her prince.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE (voice over): Her prince as in William the future Prince of Wales and the son of King Charles III and Princess Diana.
From 2002 to 2005 the two shared living quarters with their friends at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. They were both studying art history before William switched to geography.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM, PRINCE OF WALES: But it's often said by the undergraduates of St Andrews, that you leave the university in either one of two states: either married or an alcoholic.
So fortunately for Catherine and me, we ended up married.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE (voice over): By Christmas 2003 their romance had blossomed and the couple fell in love. They dated for about six years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE WILLIAM: (Inaudible) very, very happy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE (voice over): Then in October 2010 while on holiday together in Kenya, William proposed.
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PRINCESS CATHERINE: We had a wonderful holiday in Africa and it was out there and then in a very quiet lodge and it was very romantic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE (voice over): Catherine's engagement ring the diamond sapphire that originally belonged to Princess Diana.
PRINCE WILLIAM: It's my mother's engagement ring. It was my way of making sure my mother didn't miss out on - today and the excitement and the fact that we're going to spend the rest of our lives together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE (voice over): On April 29th 2011, they got married at Westminster Abbey. Catherine Middleton was now the Duchess of Cambridge. Her first official royal business an overseas tour of North America. From the start, Catherine warmed up to crowds and had little trouble keeping up with her husband.
Catherine also developed a bond with King Charles. They were known to take private trips to art galleries and operas together. The couple made Kensington Palace their London home but they weren't living alone for very long.
In July 2013 Catherine gave birth to Prince George. Nearly two years later, Princess Charlotte was born. The couple's third child, Prince Louis, arrived in 2018. She seemed to relish the role of motherhood and Catherine's love of children carried over into her charity work too.
She has focused on children's mental health and early childhood education.
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PRINCESS CATHERINE: The best investment for our future health and happiness is in the first five years of life. And that is why today I'm launching the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:05]
KAYE (voice over): Now as Catherine the Princess of Wales takes time to heal, she will find comfort in her children and her husband the heir apparent to the British throne.
Randi Kaye, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we mentioned at the top of the broadcast about 20 million people a year are diagnosed with cancer which means 20 million conversations with family and friends and workmates. Only rarely does that conversation go beyond that sphere let alone shared with the entire world.
Joining me now is CNN Anchor Sara Sidner who recently went public with her own cancer diagnosis. Thank you so much for being with us.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR & SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for having me on, Anderson.
COOPER: For you, what were the considerations in preparing to be public about it in the same way that Catherine had to make these preparations?
SIDNER: Yes. I'm just a plebeian. Princess Catherine has such a big footprint in the world where people are constantly coming after her and you can really understand why someone in that role wanted something to be private particularly for her children. I think we can all understand her wanting to keep this to protect them. I mean, it's right and it's honorable. But there are lots of different considerations that I sort of went through before I decided to go public. Some of it was I just didn't want all the fuss. I didn't want the looks. I didn't want the concern.
I mean, when I told a few people I got reactions everywhere from people bawling their eyes out and then I, of course, reacted to that trying to console them. And people telling me it's going to be okay everything's going to be fine. How do you know, right?
And so while you're already processing that, it is very hard to tell someone else about it while you yourself are not sure you're going to survive something or you don't understand how long this is going to go, how much this is going to affect your life and here you are telling the world about it.
COOPER: Also just going through chemotherapy, can you talk about that a little bit because Catherine has talked about that and had said she'd like - to still try to do work when she can. You are still working. What did - how is that?
SIDNER: It's exhausting. I will tell you chemotherapy while it saves your life and I'm happy it's here, it strips you of how you see yourself and it strips you of all sorts of things. Every single bite of food that I take tastes like metal for me and that happens with a lot of people.
But chemo is very different and I didn't know this before starting. I thought chemotherapy was sort of a single thing that everybody got no matter what the cancer is. It's different cocktails for different people.
COOPER: Some people are taking a pill ...
SIDNER: Right. Some - I get it intravenously and it strips you of your energy. It strips you of your hair. It strips you of - for many women who have for example breast cancer or ovarian cancer - of the ability to have children, you go into menopause. These are people that can be very young that are having to deal with this idea that they may never be able to have children again.
And so there are so many things that it does to your system. You do not feel like yourself, but if you can continue to work and I was told you can continue to work out, it can help you through it a bit because your concentration isn't just on I have cancer. Your mind can be somewhere else and that's been a help to me and she may feel the same way.
COOPER: I mean, Kate's only 42 years old and we're hearing a lot more about cancer in young people. Sanjay was on talking about with colorectal cancer. They've now lowered the age at which you should be screened for to 45.
SIDNER: It terrifies me looking at these numbers. There was a study that just came out that looked at the last 29 years of cancer in young people and it found that around the world they looked at 204 countries that it's gone up 79 percent in people who are teens or below the age of 50. This is not counting babies, this is talking about 13 to young adults.
And look at that number, like what is happening in this world where young people are having to experience this. And once you get a cancer diagnosis, once you have one single cell of cancer in your body. It changes your life and for most of us forever.
COOPER: The impact, though, of you being upfront about this in a public way of Catherine doing this as well, I mean people will go and get tested who might not have thought about it. We've seen that with Prince Charles - I keep calling him Prince Charles - King Charles, people going in for prostate exams has gone up in the UK.
SIDNER: It is the reason why I did it. I mean, ultimately there was something funny. I know cancer is not funny but I have to joke about it. Black Twitter went crazy because I wore an ill-fitting wig as I was pulling out handfuls of hair, we put on a wig it didn't fit right and I was questioned and criticized and they're like what happened to her hair.
And I decided - had decided a couple of days before that I was going to do it, but not right away, and I decided okay you're going to treat this like a public service announcement, because you got to remind people to get their tests, you got to remind people to go and get mammograms and all these different things. And the reaction has been so beautiful and so comforting.
[20:29:59]
And I've learned things from people reaching out to me and everyone wants to help, but they also told me I went to get my mammogram and there was nothing more wonderful to hear that from people I know and people that I didn't know. So there is a real public service here, just by her announcing that she's going through this at 42 years old, it will help so many people to say, look, she's going through it. I can do it too.
COOPER: Sara Sidner, you're a princess here at CNN.
SIDNER: That is not what most people say.
COOPER: Sara Sidner, thank you. Coming up next, more breaking news. At least 40 people now that is we known dead and more than 100 wounded after a mass shooting at a popular concert venue near Moscow. ISIS has claimed responsibility. The suspects reportedly still at large. Everything we know about this rapidly developing story, we'll tell you next.
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COOPER: The other breaking news story we've been following for hours today, at least 40 people are dead and more than 100 wounded in an attack in a concert venue near Moscow. We have new videos show you people trying to take cover and escape danger. I want to warn you some of what you'll see is disturbing.
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[20:35:25]
COOPER: You see people hiding during the gunshot, and they break windows and they're trying to escape the danger. Here's another angle of the panics. People start to hear gunshots realizing what is happening.
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COOPER: There's also some videos of what unfolded inside the concert hall.
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COOPER: There's a gunman shooting at people who were off camera. There are other videos which we aren't showing which are more disturbing, a gunman shooting point blank at people cowering for cover. The Russian Health Minister says that this is the deadliest terror attack in Russia in decades. ISIS has now claimed responsibility. CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now.
So, what do we know about this attack at this hour, and about the ISIS group that claim to have carried it out?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, honestly, it terms to the attack, we know that it's come to an end, although the fires inside the shopping mall and the concert venue, which had been raging, have not quite been brought under control yet. Firefighters saying that they're sort of getting to the top floor of the building where the roof collapse, and they're finding groups of bodies, sort of the dead, you know, dead people as a result of the fire. And it's taken the death toll now, according to official figures, to 60 people. That's according to the local authorities there in that area near Moscow.
And they're saying that that toll, that figure could increase in the hours ahead as firefighters and emergency workers make their way through the rubble of this burnt out building. And that's in addition to the 140 or so people that have been injured, some of them seriously and who have been hospitalized. And so, this is an incredibly serious major event taking place so close to the Russian capital.
In terms of what's known about the group, ISIS-K is the sort of subdivision of ISIS that has claimed responsibility for this. ISIS-K, K for Khorasan which operates out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, although they've got an agenda to attack targets internationally apparently whenever they can. We do know that there is a consistent, a constant level of ISIS threat inside Russia. Russia, of course, was instrumental in ending ISIS and fighting ISIS, particularly in Syria where it engaged in a very ferocious air campaign against ISIS positions. And there are consistently in Russia, arrests of suspected ISIS members, attacks that are thwarted, and things like that attributed to ISIS. And so, this is the latest and the most serious ISIS attack in Russia if it is then that we've seen for some time.
COOPER: Yes. At least you're the one who told us that information, at least 60 now dead, 100 plus wounded. So there was a warning put out by US officials about a possible attack. And CNN (inaudible) US intelligence agencies warn Russia that ISIS was determined to attack inside their country. What do we know about the intelligence that led to this warning?
CHANCE: Well, it's partly what I was just saying, which is that, you know, there is a lot of ISIS activity inside of Russia. And what US intelligence officials are telling CNN now is that they've been consistently sort of warning Russia since November really, in identifying threats that ISIS was planning some kind of large scale attack against concentrations of people in Russia. That's been going on for some weeks or some months.
And it culminated in that public warning that was issued on March 7th by the US Embassy in Moscow, saying that, you know, an attack was imminent and that large concentrations of people were being targeted particularly in concerts, warning American citizens to stay away.
[20:40:10]
We now know that that intelligence was obviously -- also shared with the Russians. But we also know that it's not clear the Russians took that intelligence seriously. The Russian President Vladimir Putin, basically calling it a provocation a few days after the embassy alert was put out, saying it was intended to destabilize society in Russia. But, you know, obviously, the events of tonight give us a very different perspective on what the US government was saying.
COOPER: And have Russian authorities made any comments since ISIS claimed credit for the attack?
CHANCE: No. I mean, it's -- they've been sort of deafening in their silence. I mean, there's been obviously some comments by the local officials who are engaged in the operation to sort of get people to hospital and to clear up. But in terms of the top leadership of the country, the president, President Putin, we've not heard anything from him. There was an alert put out on Russian television, that he was going to make an address, but then he never turned up. And then Russian television said, oh, it was a technical error. He was never meant to give a speech.
But it's remarkable that a man who sort of sells himself as the sort of center of stability, the guarantor of stability in Russia, has not yet said a word about this appalling terrorist attack that's taken place so close to his capital. COOPER: Yes. Matthew Chance, thank you. Appreciate it. Perspective now from Dan Reed, the Director of "Terror in Moscow," a documentary detailing the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, also with us is former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Andrew, first of all, I'm wondering what your reaction is to the reporting by Matthew Chance about the death toll now, at least 60 believed, but also knowing ISIS claiming responsibility, ISIS-K.
ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Yes, Anderson. It's a kind of a remarkable development. I think, initially, if you're looking at this, historically, it seems a little bit off brand. But if you look at the signals and signs that the intelligence community has been referencing in the last few months, it's actually you see an interesting pattern emerging. So we have the attack by ISIS a few months ago in Iran, targeting the memorial service for the commemorating the death of General Qasem Soleimani. And then now you have an attack in Russia.
and preceding the attack, There are numerous statements we now know from official statements from ISIS, talking about Russia, talking about Putin, talking about how they have the blood of Muslims on their hand because of their activities in Syria specifically. So these are two attacks directed at the two nations primarily responsible for the bolstering of the Assad regime in Syria.
So it starts to feel like a concentrated effort, certainly an effort on the part of ISIS-Khorasan to kind of establish themselves as an organization that's capable of taking on external operations waging attacks in foreign countries. So it's really interesting and concerning development, and I would expect that my former colleagues in the intelligence community here in the United States are very concerned about this resurgence, this new kind of capability for ISIS- Khorasan.
COOPER: Dan, your documentary, "Terror in Moscow," which I have watched several times and is extraordinary, it looked at the 2002 attack in a Moscow theater with Chechen terrorists took roughly 850 hostages. It lasted for several days that Russian Special Forces, Spetsnaz, finally put in an unnamed gas into the theater, and actually ended up killing more hostages than were killed by the terrorists themselves.
Based on what we now know, how do you compare that situation to this one?
DAN REED, DIRECTOR, "TERROR IN MOSCOW": Well, 2002 theater siege that went on for four days and involved a much larger number of terrorists and these -- the famous so called Black Widows with their bombs. And it was really a hostage situation. What you saw today was four gunmen, as far as I can see, one of them weirdly carrying a sort of homemade flamethrower, entering this theater and just killing and killing, and killing, which is kind of ISI' usual MO as far as we can tell.
Interestingly, this is the same group that killed 13 Americans in Kabul Airport in August 2021, 13 servicemembers. And so, yes, they obviously they came not to hold hostages, not to ask for anything in particular, not to negotiate. They just came to kill, and I'm rather astonished that these four men appeared to be still on the loose.
COOPER: Andrew, you mentioned the ISIS attack in Iran, the warning before it by the US. The same type of warning seems to have happened here. Can you talk more about when and how US intelligence alerts even adversaries about terrorism?
[20:45:06]
MCCABE: Sure. It's a widely accepted concept in the -- certainly in the counterterrorism community globally, referred to as a duty to warn. So when you, through your investigative efforts, pick up intelligence indicating that there's going to be an attack targeting citizens of another country, you provide as much warning to that country as you can to protect their folks. And it would surprise probably most people outside the counterterrorism community. But these warnings happen even between, frequently between countries that have very challenging diplomatic interactions.
In some ways, terrorism is the kind of common denominator among nations. It's the -- oftentimes it's the only issue that some countries can agree upon that fight against extremism, and particularly Islamic extremism that seems to touch everyone in their home country. So you sometimes see intelligence exchanges and things like that among countries that you wouldn't expect. Certainly in the case like this, where you have intelligence about a civilian attack, you would pass that along no matter what the other conditions were between the holder and the recipient of that information.
COOPER: Dan, what do you think of Russian capabilities are to counterterrorism? Because again, you know, the response by Russian Special Forces to the Moscow theater attack back in 2002 ended up killing a lot of hostages.
REED: Well, they seem to -- yes. I mean, that was a huge disaster for the Spetsnaz because they ended up suffering from the gas that they pumped into the theater and being unable to extract the hostages in a healthy manner, and more hostages died of -- in the Spetsnaz rescue operation than were killed by the terrorists. In this case, they, you know, the reaction seems to have been very slow in Moscow and there seems to have been no, as far as I can tell by reading Russian telegram from a Russian speaker, there seems to be no exchange of gunfire between Russian security forces and the terrorists.
COOPER: That's incredible. Dan Reed, appreciate your time, Andrew McCabe as well. Next, more from former President Trump making an announcement that may have caught his own lawyers off guard about the nearly half a billion dollars he owes to the state of New York by Monday.
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[20:50:34]
COOPER: Only 72 hours or so left for Donald Trump to come up with nearly half a billion dollars for his civil fraud settlement. Tonight, he is now claiming he does have the cash which of course undercuts his own lawyers who told an appeals court this week he would not be able to make the $464 million bond. Posting on Truth Social, the former president said he currently has "almost $500 million in cash," which he, "intended to use for his reelection campaign."
24 hours ago, the former president claiming that making bond was "impossible to do today," another development. The company that owns True Social is about to go public after a merger was approved, which means that the Donald Trump has a dominant shareholder stands to earn a windfall estimated more than $3 billion. But experts say it's unlikely to solve the immediate cash crunch he has because he may not be able to sell shares right away.
Joining me now is Trump biographer, investigative reporter David Cay Johnston and former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara.
Preet, I mean, is there any legal issue with the former president undercutting his own lawyer's claims about how much money he has?
PREET BHARARA, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, because you take a person who is in the hot seat like he is and his word, and you make representations of the court. And his lawyers have done, you know, given what facts they have and the circumstances that they're in, a pretty good job of pleading, not poverty, but not enough money to make this work. They have set forth in a way that's kind of embarrassing to the former president, how 30 different bond insurance companies have said, no, they will not post a bond for him because they they're deemed them untrustworthy or not worth -- it's not worth the effort for them.
And so after pleading hardship and saying it's impractical or impossible to post this money, he undermined himself and it causes people, including the judge, in this case, I would imagine, not to have any particular sympathy.
COOPER: It makes no sense that he would do that. I mean, just from a logic standpoint, unless he was so ashamed, and people believe he didn't have the money. He just wanted to say he had the money but he was planning to use it for another purpose.
BHARARA: It's been a long time since I've spent my time analyzing the psychology and the decision making of Donald Trump.
COOPER: And you're much healthier for it.
BHARARA: Much healthier for it. Look, he's always got two constituencies. He has whatever, you know, court and judge or panel of judges, is relevant and has authority and the instant situation. And he also has the broad public, a subset of which is his supporters. You know, we've seen in all these proceedings, civil and criminal, he's playing both to the court, and probably more so to his constituency. And he wants his constituency to believe that he's cash rich, that he's otherwise rich, that he's flush with money. He doesn't need to declare bankruptcy and everything's hunky dory. And it's not. COOPER: David, I mean, you reported in the former president's finances for years. Is it possible that he has $500 million cash he now claims because I remember not long ago, when he complained posting the bond would be "practically impossible."
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, TRUMP BIOGRAPHER: Well, there are some possibilities here. Someone may have loaned him or fronted him the money, which could be and probably would be a national security nightmare. But there's another aspect to this, well, he can't sell his shares for six months. He can go to an investment house or a group of wealthy people. He can pledge his shares and get cash for them.
Wall Street developed this back in the '90s when there were these entrepreneurs who took $100,000 salary, hadn't paid -- hadn't sold a single share of stock, but they had a Ferrari and a jet plane, and a mansion and a yacht. And that's how they did it. So it's possible.
And then the investors, by shorting the stock that is selling shares they don't have or that they have, in hand in the future from Donald could protect themselves, if, as seems likely, the value of that company eventually falls to close to zero, because there's no revenue and no profits commensurate with the stock value.
COOPER: Preet, the president's former attorney, Chris Kise, denied rumors that foreign money could be used for the bond. Generally speaking, though, I mean, how problematic is it that a person who's running for the presidency and very well could become the next president of United States is so cash strapped that that would even be a remote possibility?
BHARARA: No. As we just said, this is a national security disaster. He could still come up with the money, it could be someone from a foreign country.
[20:55:02]
COOPER: Would he have to declare where the money came from?
BHARARA: Almost certainly, yes. Because there are legal reasons why the court will want to know where the source of the funds is, make sure that he has proper authority to put up the funds. And by the way, just the other thing to note about all this, notwithstanding his lawyers making a sympathy case for him and saying he can't put up this money, this was not unforeseeable, right?
He had a lot of opportunity to anticipate. Having been at trial, having been ruled against on the liability question, the entire trial in this case that we're talking about was only about the amount of money that he would have to put up. He knew how much the attorney general was seeking, he knew that there was a likelihood, or at least some possibility that the attorney general would win, and he understood the rule about prejudgment interest.
So it was totally foreseeable months ago, not weeks ago, that he would have to put up a bond potentially of half a billion dollars. He could have taken all sorts of steps to liquidate, you know, to sell property, to have loans in place, to have a backup plan. And so, I think the court is not going to find him a sympathetic character in part because he had months and months, and months to plan for this.
COOPER: He did not do that.
BHARARA: He did not.
COOPER: Preet Bharara, appreciate it, David Cay Johnston as well. Much more to come the next hour, the announcement from Katherine, Prince of Wales as she's been undergoing treatment for cancer. We'll be right back.
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