good evening. when we left you last night, we just brought you excerpts from carol leonnig and philip rucker's new book, documenting fears the former president might try to launch or inspire a coup. well, it took 44 presidents of all-political stripes, in temperaments, good ones and bad, until this one, today, became the first-former president ever to deny such a thing. to deny planning to launch a coup. and even as he issued that unprecedented denial, even as book after book, with page after page, of chilling revelations come out. top republicans were, today, showing that they, still, cannot quit him. house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, called on him today at his new jersey golf club. this kevin mccarthy. >> the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attack on congress by mob rioters. he should have, immediately, denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.

>> that was a week after the insurrection. days later, of course, he walked it back and try -- and flying down to mar-a-lago to show his loyalty not to the truth but, instead, to the man who incited a mob that sent him fleeing for his life and begging that same man, that day, to call off the rioters. quoting from a newly-released excerpt from leonnig and rucker's book. quote, kevin mccarthy, who had been trying to reach trump at the white house, finally, succeeded and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the rioters. trump falsely claimed the attackers were members of antifa. mccarthy told the president that, in fact, they were his own supporters. other advisers who were away from the white house tried to call trump but he didn't answer. they figured he knew what therapiorthey were going to say and he didn't want to hear it. plus, he was busy watching tv. he was watching the fire that he started burn. that's who kevin mccarthy made a pilgrimage to, again, today. he can't quit him because he's scared of him. scared that the former president might turn on him. and that he could lose his power in congress.

it is the most craven type of politics imaginable. but perhaps, not surprising. compromise everything, even yourself, just to hold onto power. and it says a lot about where the republican party is, today. and after kissing the former president's ring, congressman mccarthy reportedly headed to the white house for a dinner with president biden and german chancellor angela merkel. one wonders what kind of small talk he might make with her. will they, perhaps, talk about the details from the rucker and leonnig book, in which the former president is said to have called merkel, quote, that bitch merkel. and said, quote, i know the effing krauts. using the ethnic slur, again, quote, i was raised by the biggest kraut of them all, speaking about his father. which is odd, considering citizen trump sometimes denied his german heritage saying, instead, the family was swedish and so it goes. joining us now, cnn's jim acosta. also, cnn political analyst. bob woodward.

so, jim, what are you learning about this meeting between trump and mccarthy and then the -- the dinner with biden and the chancellor merkel? >> anderson, i was just able to confirm in the last several minutes that kevin mccarthy is at the white house having dinner with president biden and chancellor merkel. but earlier in the day, as you said, he -- he made the trip up to bedminster to kiss the ring of the once-dictator in exile. now, dictator trying to make a comeback, the former president donald trump. according to our sources, what was discussed at the meeting was fundraising and looking ahead to the 2022 midterms. but anderson, obviously, you know, one of the subcontext in all of this is that they need donald trump's fundraising prowess heading into the midterms. and -- and what is one thing that kevin mccarthy prizes, above all else? that is becoming speaker of the house. and so, he has set aside what he said after the january-6th insurrection, that donald trump bears responsibility for it, because in his case, in his view, the ends justify the

means, no matter what the constitution was going through, at that time. now, as for the dinner conversation over at the white house, this evening, i'm not too sure. it might be something along the lines of mccarthy, pass the bread and perhaps a january-6th commission, too. >> carl, what -- what does it say that the day after we learned about all these new details of general milley being concerned about a potential coup from the then president and his allies. kevin mccarthy goes to bedminster as -- you know, as we said, to kiss the ring and show his loyalty. >> that's what we've known, all along. that the republican party, today, is beholden to donald trump and trumpism. which the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, the military leader of the united states, yesterday, and in this book, we have learned that he has compared trump and trumpism to hitler's neo-fascism. to hitler -- hitlerian fashion.

these books that are coming out now, the picture of donald trump that we have known all along. his derangement, his delusions, his criminality, his utter lack of concern or conscience for the constitution, for the people of the country. only for himself. but what's new here and is so important, military leader of the united states has compared trump and his movement to the brown shirts of hitler's fascism. th that's astonishing. >> yeah. jim, i mean, these new books as carl was saying, they paint this incredibly chaotic picture of the trump presidency leading up to the insurrection. fear of an attempted coup by the country's top-military officer is no small thing, as -- as carl's saying. have any congressional republicans said anything about these new revelations? because it just seems like they're completely paralyzed from speaking out against trump while he is, of course, the leader of their party. >> yeah, anderson. i think, most congressional republicans are treating these books like trump tweets. they haven't read them yet or they are going to claim they

haven't read them yet but the authors of these books have done in the woodward and bernstein tradition of going around and talking to sources who were in the know, at the time, who were there when all of this was unfolding. and i will tell you, anderson, a lot of what is being reported in these new books, it aligns and matches with -- with what we were reporting, at the time. i talked to a trump adviser, earlier today, to go over some of this. this adviser said, yes, trump was this out of control, at the time of the january-6th insurrection. between the november election and the insurrection, as a matter of fact, and i asked this source, did -- was trump trying to do just about everything under the sun in order to hold onto power? and this source said, yes. and as for all of this hitler talk, anderson, i even wasn't back to this source and said, what is the deal with this hitler talk? and the source responded to me, well, trump did like to use the term blitzkrieg. anderson, i think there is no doubt, in anybody's mind, at this point, who is dealing with reality, that donald trump was totally out of control and acting like a dictator, who was

willing to burn the constitution to stay in power. and i think the -- the burning question now for this country and, perhaps carl may agree with me, is what should be done about it? it appears to me, in a very nixonian fashion, that crimes were committed heading into the january-6th insurrection. >> carl, obviously, you wrote the final days about nixon's dramatic last days at the white house. when you hear details coming out about the trump final days, how does it compare, if at all? >> i think they are quite different because richard nixon was a cogent criminal president of the united states throughout his presidency. and a master at coverup. but donald trump would never be accused of being cogent about anything. and rather, what these books do is that they enlarge on the picture that we have, already, known about donald trump throughout the four years. this is not about delusional in the -- in the final days. he has been delusional, out of control, uh, deranged.

according -- and again, this -- i remember the first time i came on the air and said that members of congress, senate leaders, are depicting trump -- and this was the first year of trump's presidency -- depicting trump as crazy. this was in the first year. so we shouldn't be surprised at these revelations. rather, they build on what we have known, all along, about donald trump. and how unfit he is for the presidency. what's so extraordinary, and the difference between the final days of nixon and the final days of trump is the republican party. that mcconnell, mccarthy. they are totally in the thrall of this president, who has been shown to be deranged. who -- who, mcconnell, himself, has described to aides as crazy. so -- so let's look at the difference, not just the similarities. the republican party, under nixon, pushed him from office.

senator barry goldwater, the 1964 nominee of his party to be president, told nixon you must go, or you will be convicted in the senate. we didn't hear mitch mcconnell do that. we didn't hear kevin mccarthy do it. and so, we have a republican party that is, absolutely, in lockstep with trumpism. and what general milley was talking about, which is a terrible, awful, terrifying moment in american history. >> jim, what's also so stunning about this is kevin mccarthy's got to know that, no matter how much he debases himself. no matter how much he take -- bends a knee to and -- and, you know, kisses the ring of the former president. even if he does this, every single day, through the next election, he could still not become speaker of the house. the -- the former president could just decide, you know, on any, given day, no matter what kevin mccarthy has done, it's not enough.

and i'm going to -- i'm going to cut him off at the knees. >> that's right, anderson. and -- and kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell had a choice when they made up their mind -- minds about trump after the insurrection that he, basically, was the -- the cause of it. they could have let him remain in exile, and not do what they're doing right now. mitch mcconnell, not as much as kevin mccarthy and some of the other house republicans are doing. they are breathing life into the ruins. the burning, smoldering ruins of the trump presidency. and they are putting trump in a position, where he could be a kingmaker for kevin mccarthy and the republicans, in 2022. that would, conceivably, anderson, tee up a comeback bid for donald trump to run for president in 2024. and for people who are throwing their beer cans at the tv screen right now and saying, no way that's possible. i heard everybody say that, in 2016. i think people need to imagine the possibility that this is part of a trump comeback, as crazy as that sounds. he could, potentially, pull it off with the help of these republicans who had the chance

to let him drift off into the ocean. out to sea. and never to be seen -- seen from, again. unfortunately, they did not make that choice. and history will long remember that, anderson. >> and, carl, i mean, you look at the statement that the former president released today, attacking general milley. or, you know, attacking him in -- by saying, you know, if he was gonna do a coup, he wouldn't do it with milley. he'd be one of the last people he'd want to do it with. which, i guess, the former president thinks that's a diss against, you know, milley. it really just makes him look ridiculous. um, there really is no one that this man will not turn on. i mean, he's -- he's been able to weather any controversy with his base. um, but other republicans outside of the base. i guess, they just don't care? >> i think we need to look at how big this base is. it's huge. it's -- it's most of the republican party. it's most people in this country who call themselves republicans. if -- if -- you talk to republican senators, they will

tell you that 60, 70, 80% of people who are republicans support trump and trumpism. this is not the party of nixon. this is not the party of bush republicanism. this is the party of a kind of extremism that we have never seen in this country, since the civil war. so, this is about a great-cultural moment. this is not about mere politics or mere journalism. we are in the midst -- we were in a cold-civil war. we now have a cold-civil war that has been ignited by donald trump. been ignited by his destabilized mind. by his excess. by his delusion. and people have gone along, in his party, with these delusions. and the result is that there is a party, now, that actually is not tethered in reality. that's not -- you know, it's incapable of looking at facts. so -- but the reality is that party is very strong.

and donald trump and his brand of what milley has been talking about has made that trumpism strong. and the hold on so many americans is not to be underestimated. >> carl bernstein, jim acosta, i appreciate it. breaking news next in the investigation of sexual harassment allegations against new york's governor andrew cuomo. also, new developments in arizona's so-called vote audit. there was a briefing today with the leaders of the effort that, surprise, didn't go as -- well, i guess, it went off the rails, you could say. our kyung lah was there. and later, ronan farrow and his remarkable look at the court-imposed limits on britney spears life and the major break she just got in a bid to be free of it. bout the man behind the medal. he was a father to two young daughters. he was a scout and he knew the land better than anyone. he came from italy with nothing for a new life. his family depended on him. he sacrificed so much. isaac payne barney f. hajiro

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new developments tonight in arizona's so-called audit of votes in maricopa county. the state legislator behind it held a hearing, which was so full of factual mistake -- misstatements that the county kept a running-twitter thread debunking it. more from cnn's kyung lah who

joins us now, from phoenix. so, the arizona's senate president, karen fann, who you have interviewed, held this hearing on the so-called audit. and then, spoke to reporters. what happened? >> well, you know, anderson, from our very brief history together, arizona senate president karen fann isn't really somebody who likes to talk to the press but she actually did today and it came after this extremely bizarre senate hearing. that really just read like greatest hits of election conspiracies. and she doubled down on something she had told us, previously. that she believes this audit, this machine count that you're seeing behind me, that's going weeks long now. that it is the starting point for a national movement. here's what she said. >> this is the start of a whole-new industry, probably. much less, a process in the future, where voters are gonna start asking questions. that's it. if you cannot be respectful and

do it one at a time, then i'll call it. >> now, that was her getting up and leaving when reporters, like me, we just started asking her questions. presenting her with facts. and she took off. now, republicans were looking to 2022 are watching all of this with concern. arizona is turning into a politically-purple state. and they are concerned. strong values and strong opinions. >> there is not one bit of proof of any of this. >> reporter: he is the go to for conservative talk on arizona radio. but on these so-called audit? >> i understand that i'm an outlier with my own people when i question what people are going to think about this audit. >> reporter: mike, lifelong republican. trump? >> yeah. >> you voted for him? >> twice. twice, i voted for him. >> reporter: but trump lost and broomhead thinks a so-called

audit is a waste of time. instead, he thinks the focus should be on winning republican seats in 2022. >> if they win enough seats in the house, they take over the majority in the house. >> reporter: but some of his listeners, his base, now call him everything from a turncoat to a rino to a liberal. >> when you throw people out that disagree with you, it's hard to get them back when you need them to vote. and that scares me. >> reporter: politically, what is at stake here for republicans? >> everything, politically, is at stake. we could take a completely different direction, in 2022. and i think that should be our focus. >> reporter: but instead, most of the republican base is stuck in an election-time warp. for months, the focus has been on this controversial review of maricopa county's november 2020 ballots. despite two, previous audits showing no-widespread voter fraud. this partisan exercise is, now, in this hot and humid warehouse. counting ballots, again. arizona republicans like raymond

molino want the audit regardless of cost. >> in your viewpoint won the 2020 election? >> trump. yeah. he got the votes. >> would you vote for a republican, who did not support the audit? >> no. no. the -- the republican party has a lot of bad apples. >> reporter: not all republicans in the state agree. tabitha sloan says she is fed up with her party's focus on the audit. >> grow up. face the facts. and move on. and figure out how to come up with a candidate that can win in the process. >> reporter: arizona's republican party is seeing this divide play out, in the turbulent months after donald trump's loss. arizona voter registration data shows, since january, the month of the u.s. capitol insurrection, more than 17,000 registered republicans left their party. compare that to democrats, who lost just 2,400 voters. independents surged, gaining more than 52,000 registered voters.

while the numbers don't reflect why they're shifting, state republicans worry about the big lie that trump continues to repeat. >> the entire system was rigged against the american people and rigged against a fair, decent, and honest election. >> reporter: how do you, then, get republicans to vote in the very same system? >> it's a major challenge. the truth is, is if you don't believe the system is honest and works, you're not going to vote. >> reporter: kirk adams is former chief of staff to arizona's republican governor. >> on paper, 2022 should be a good year for republicans, historically. um, but there are challenges, like this, that we don't know how they'll play out. >> kyung, just logically, if independents are growing in arizona. and gop -- you know, the gop is shrinking in arizona. just logically, it would make sense to be pursuing this audit that only seems to please a very specific part of the republican

base. but clearly, that is what -- where the power center is right now in the republican party. >> spot on, anderson. and they are looking to that power center. but you use that word logic. one republican operative in the state told me that logic is in short supply. what they are looking at, what this base is looking at, is trying to win the primary. you got to win the primary. and that's where trump's support and his acolytes have an outsized sense of power. an outsized power, overall. but then, when it comes to the general election, that's when independents come in. and these republicans in the state who are looking to win 2022 say it is politically a bad move to keep focusing on this audit. anderson. >> we will see what happens. kyung lah, appreciate it. quickly, some breaking news now in the investigation of sexual harassment allegations against new york's governor andrew cuomo. cnn's shimon prokupecz joins us now with the latest. so, what have you learned about governor cuomo being questioned? >> yeah. so we're told that the governor is going to sit down for questioning. he is going to be interviewed by the two lawyers running the

investigation for the new york state attorney general. that interview. the questioning, supposed to take place on saturday in albany. we don't know the parameters of that interview. we don't know if there are any limitations. but obviously, what the attorney general's office has been looking into has been these sexual-harassment claims made by women against the governor. certainly, a significant development in this investigation that, now, the governor, the new york state governor, is going to sit with investigators and answer questions. anderson. >> so, is he under oath? >> he is. he is expected to be under oath. it's going to be recorded, in some fashion. we don't, exactly, know the parameters. you know, you would think any, good lawyer would set some parameters when investigators plan to question one of their clients. so we don't, exactly, know the parameters of the interview. >> and what does it mean, in terms of the timing of the investigation? >> yeah. so it's long been suspected that this was going to be the last part of this investigation. so, it could be that, after this, within weeks, within a month or so, we would see the

final report from the attorney general's office. which has, already, interviewed the women who have made these accusations. also, have interviewed staffers for the governor and those close to the governor. so, this would indicate that they are at the end, perhaps, of their investigation. and that this could be the final step. and then, within weeks, if not a month or so, sometime by the end of the summer, we could see a conclusion to this and a final report from the attorney general's office. >> and just, what would -- i mean, a final report. does that mean it could go beyond that? or i mean, are there legal -- potential-legal consequences? or it depends what's in the report? >> right it all depends what's in the report, anderson. certainly, if there is some kind of criminal finding, that is not something or if there's something that needs to be referred, it would be referred to the district attorney in albany because a lot of these accusations stem from activity that occurred in albany. so if there was something in that -- in that realm, in that world, that would potentially be referred to the albany district attorney. and that's why i say you have to

realize that a good attorney is not going to put their client before investigators, without some kind of parameters. we just don't know what those are. but it is significant, certainly. and could indicate, anderson, that we are at the end of this investigation. >> shimon prokupecz, appreciate the update. thanks. up next, we ever breaking news from los angeles. what county officials there are saying about a new-mask mandate. this as a stark warning today from the u.s. surgeon general about how vaccine misinformation, sometimes, accidental, sometimes intentional, is a serious threat to public health. all that, coming up.

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breaking news from los angeles, tonight, where the top-county health official is saying a mask mandate will be reimposed beginning at midnight saturday due to a rise in covid cases and hospitalizations. the positivity rate in l.a. county has risen to nearly 4% from a little over 1%, a month ago. now, the mandate means that residents will be required to wear masks inside, even if they have been vaccinated. so even if you have been vaccinated in l.a. county, they still want you to wear masks inside. all this, as the u.s. surgeon general today issued a stark warning about vaccine misinformation becoming, what he said, was a serious threat to public health. >> it's nothing to turn down proven treatments and to choose not to get vaccinated. this has led to avoidable illnesses and death. simply put, health information has cost us lives.

>> as part of his advisory, dr. vivek murthy also delivered a 22-page statement outlining what he said were some of the reasons behind his warning. quoting now. misinformation tends to flourish in environments of significant societal division, animosity, and distrust. he wrote. for example, distrust of the healthcare system, due to experiences with races and other inequities may make it easier for misinformation to spread in communities. a lot to digest in all that. joining me now is cnn medical analyst, dr. leana wen, a former-public health commissioner for the city of baltimore and author of "lifelines: a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." also with us andy slavitt. he is the author of "preventable, the inside story of how leadership failures, politics, and selfishness doomed the u.s. coronavirus response." mr. slavitt, you helped to lead the covid response from the white house, not long ago. should -- should this push

against the spread of misinformation? should it have started long ago? i mean, before things got this far? >> today is a day that it -- it reached a new level with the surgeon general putting out a report. effectively, saying that we have to call this out by name. we can't just accept the fact that this is part of our society. but the surgeon general and i, both, um, spoke, very frequently, to the social-media platforms. and it was an ongoing battle, frankly. and today's the day when vivek surgeon general decided to make it public and tell the public that this is akin to people who pollute the -- our water and our air and our drinking system, when they pollute our minds with -- with -- with lies. it's very much the same and i think it's a great move by the surgeon general today. >> aren't sort of minds already made up? i mean, it's -- it's now been, you know, we've been stewing in

this kind of misinformation, for quite some time now. it seems like the lines are drawn. either, there's people who, you know, believe in medicine and science and -- and get a vaccine. and there's those, who don't, for a whole slew of reasons. >> well, there is about 10% of the public that, still, describes themselves as on the fence. they are still very open to what they hear. and what we know is that two-thirds of the people that have decided not to get vaccinated believe one of five completely false facts, including facts like the -- the -- the vaccine, itself, gives you coronavirus. or it alters your dna. things of that nature are believed by two-thirds of those people. so, you know, we have to fight this battle. we don't have a choice. we have to fight this battle not to convince people to get vaccinated. that's really not its point but to get people to get reliable information so they can make good-health decisions for themselves and their families. >> yeah. >> we are battling against people who are trying to poison the well and what we really need people to do is step back. get the real facts.

talk to their doctors or people they trust. and we think the record will show that most of those people will choose to get vaccinated. but we have to fight this fight. >> dr. wen, you tweeted something interesting earlier today. you said staying unvaccinated and then going around un-masked, in crowded areas, is not like eating unhealthy food. no one should have the right to spread a potentially deadly disease to immunocompromised individuals and young children. why should the most vulnerable pay the price? in your mind, should more communities be following what los angeles county is doing? reinstating masks, if people won't get vaccinated? >> yes, frankly, i think that the mask mandates were lifted prematurely. i had said so, at the time. i think a lot of us in public health were very worried about what we are seeing, now. i mean, we are seeing virtually every state have a surge in cases. we are seeing 19 states that are having doubling of the infection rates of covid than they did two weeks ago. arkansas, having a fivefold increase from early june. we are seeing this because the public misunderstood the cdc

guidance for fully-vaccinated people, as we can now do whatever we want. even if we are unvaccinated, we can now behave, as if we are vaccinated. we can take off our masks and there are no restrictions on our lives. i think that right now is the time for locales to follow la county's lead and to say in places where unvaccinated and vaccinated people are mixing. unless you have proof of vaccination that people still should be wearing masks. i mean, i am really worried, right now, because the places that are seeing the surges are places with low-vaccination rates. they, also, tend to be places without any kind of mask mandates and are unlikely to bring back mask mandates. so, we really have to do something dramatic, in order to protect our country. >> mr. slavitt, do you think that president biden should reach out to the former president to ask for his help about spreading the message to get vaccinated? i mean, i know he did a sort of perfunctory -- the former president did kind of a perfunctory, you know, message to get vaccinated. but, you know, he touts this as his greatest success. you would think, just rationally, logically, he would, you know, be full bore behind

getting his followers to be vaccinated. but in fact, he doesn't because he, you know, he wants them to continue to follow him. >> well, president trump never needs prodding to open his mouth. and unfortunately, what he is saying these days is dangerous. um, mailers are going out from his campaigns. i'm not sure whether the former president's aware of them or not. pointing out that people are dying from the vaccine. basically, putting out -- putting false statements out. um, and so, this is the danger of having a populist at a time when you have a crisis. rather than lead and give people the tough messages, he is playing to his base. he's playing to the crowd. and so are many people on that side of the aisle. not everybody. but many people on that side of the aisle. so, you know, i don't -- i don't know the formula. i wish we knew the formula for unlocking good behavior from the president. but i think he finds advantage, right now, in attacking the vaccine.

or -- and look. when people attack the vaccine, they don't always come out and say i'm anti-vaccine. they usually come out and do something more subtle. and i think we're seeing that more and more. we saw it at cpac and we are seeing it, you know, too consistently now. and i think this needs to stop and we need to depoliticize the process of thinking about what's right for our health. >> andy slavitt, dr. leana wen, appreciate it. thank you. straight ahead. how britney spears celebrated a judge's ruling that she can now appoint her own attorney. i will talk with the new york's ronan farrow about what this all means for the singer going forward. that's next. 's on the horizon? the answers lie beyond the roads we know. we recognize that energy demand is growing, and the world needs lower carbon solutions to keep up. at chevron, we're working to find new ways forward, like through our venture capital group. backing technologies like electric vehicle charging, carbon capture and even nuclear fusion. we may not know just what lies ahead, but it's only human... to search for it.

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britney spears was understandably in a celebratory mood after a judge ruled she could appoint her own attorney after that long running battle with her father in the conservatorship that controls her career and finances. on both her twitter and an sta gram account, she posted this accompanying video of her riding horseback and doing a series of cartwheels. coming along, folks, coming along. and then, there is an emoji of a middle finger followed by exclamation marks. she continues, new with real representation today. i feel gratitude and blessed. thank you to my fans, who are supporting me. you have no idea what it means to me to be supported by such

awesome fans. god bless you all. the new yorker magazine's ronan farrow has been tracking all the twists and turns in this. he's explored all that in a story called britney spears' conservatorship nightmare. he joins us , now. so, ronan, it's obviously a huge moment for britney spears to be able to obtain her own legal counsel. i find it stunning that she, all this time, has had somebody who was appointed by the court, who was being paid, i guess, by the conservatorship that she, herself, was fighting against. >> it's one of the many aspects of this story, anderson, that illustrates just how vulnerable these kinds of really restrictive legal structures that get applied to disabled people and people with limited capacity of one type or another. um, how those structures can redound to kind of what appear to be gross violations of people's basic rights. in this case, she's alleged this

court-appointed lawyer, sam ingham, didn't even apprise her of her omgzs for filing to get out of this situation. we, in our investigation, uncovered various court records in which this lawyer that was appointed by the court, was chummy with the judge and seems to joke about, you know, withholding pieces of information from her. not telling her she could get married if she wanted to was one sort of punch line in one courtroom conversation. so, understandably, people are now sitting up and taking notice. that court-appointed lawyer did resign. and as you point out, she is now picking her own counsel. a former-federal prosecutor, matthew rosengard. >> i mean, clearly, conservatorships are designed for those who can't take care of themselves. you know, obviously, you are not a medical professional. but in covering this case, speaking to those around britney spears, does it seem like she needed someone to control her life, at the beginning of this? i mean, obviously, you know, there was very public moments.

but was it -- did it make sense, in the beginning? and -- and then, make it turn, at some point? >> you know, what we document shows someone who was in a moment of emotional and mental-health distress, anderson. you know, she famously had these incidents where there were public meltdowns. we do also point out in our reporting that those tended to follow cases where she tried to get access to her kids in a really tough, difficult custody dispute. that would probably apply a lot of pressure to just about anyone. many close people to that situation, in retrospect, you know, think she was suffering from postpartum depression. but, i think one thing that comes across loud and clear in this is that, in addition to what ever intentions that were driven by her best interests that her family might have had in mind, at that point. this was, also, a family that was warring over her fortune and over controlling her and her estate. and it -- it is, without a doubt, the case that that has

informed the longevity of this structure. and the ways, in which britney spears has failed to get out of it, even after repeated and pretty sophisticated attempts to do so. >> i mean, it -- it's also just so bizarre, that she is paying for all of the people around her. who she feels are not working in her best interest. i mean, she's -- i assume, her dad is being paid by her. the lawyer, who she says isn't working for her, is being paid. i mean, everybody's being paid by her. >> we -- we point out, at one point, the court-appointed lawyer who she says has not adequately represented her and who a lot of other people around the situation told us had her father's interests at heart, not hers. obviously, he's disputed that. but he did resign, in the wake of our reporting on this. um, she was paying him more than her annual-living costs. you know, in addition, when her father, who she has been at war, legally, trying to remove from

her life, responded to our reporting inquiries. he was using a pr firm that charges hundreds and hundreds of dollars, an hour. essentially, to work against her interests. and those bills were being paid out of her fortune. >> it's incredible. ronan farrow, appreciate it. ronan special catch and kill the podcast tapes is now stream on hbo max. it's definitely worth watching. just ahead. there is breaking news involving the latest twists and turns in the investigation to the assassination of haiti's president. and what some of the suspects knew, and others may not have known. a live report from the capital, next.

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breaking news now in the investigation into the assassination of haiti's president that only gets more mysterious by the day. the president of colombia which was home to some of the suspects now says some of them knew the mission was to kill haiti's leader. it's an important development because as the president also said some of the suspects had received different instructions other than to kill. and more on that in a moment. adding to the confusion of motivation and intent were comments from colombia's police chief today. he said some suspects were planning to hand the president over to america's drug enforcement agency, or d.e.a.

he said there's no indication of the d.e.a.'s direct involvement. the agency declined to comment on the story. cnn also has new video from the night of the assassination which includes an american suspect in the killing giving a radio interview just after the shooting. matt rivers has the video and the details. >> reporter: just hours after haiti's president was killed, this video live streamed by a local journalist shows some of the men accused of killing him. here you can see two of the colombian mercenaries that officials say were part of the hit squad. the first man is holding a rifle and signals for the journalist to stop. a second then stands up, rifle glinting in the sun. they tell him to stop recording. at this point the haitian security forces had trapped the two dozen or so alleged assassins along this stretch of road. at the bottom, a roadblock. then the lookouts with the majority of the suspects holed up in this building. moving up the street and past the vehicles, the suspects had

abandoned on the road, the camera reaches that building. as it pans, you can see two things. several black-clad mercenaries and this man. one of the two haitian americans accused of taking part in the crime. at this moment he's actually giving a live interview to haiti radio mega, saying they didn't kill the president. someone died but we didn't do it, he says. people inside the president's house started to shoot at us and we fired back to defend ourselves. vincent then says most of the group believed they were going to arrest the president, not kill him. the journalist who filmed them mahaiko senechal who didn't want to show his face said the group didn't seem to have a plan. he says they knew they were in a tough position and knew the president was dead. they were confused. not sure whether to turn themselves in or fight. ultimately, some chose to fight and a fierce shoot-out with police left at least three colombians dead.

the easiest way to tell who actually killed the president would be to see the footage from cctv cameras inside the presidential residence that a source tells us captured most of what happened. but authorities have refused to release it or even describe its contents. >> we know that there is cctv footage from the presidential residence the night of the assassination. why not release that footage to the public? would that not answer so many outstanding questions about who did this? >> so we cannot reveal to the public anything, any more information, until the investigators allow us to do so. >> matt rivers joins us now live from port-au-prince in haiti. so are authorities any closer to determining an actual motive? >> reporter: well, you heard us ask that question to the police chief. he's clearly trying to avoid answering that question.

which leads you to believe one of two things. either authorities don't actually know what the motive is in all this or they simply don't want to tell the members of the public, the press what they have learned so far. we have learned a lot in the past few days about who these suspects are, who allegedly financed them, organized them, brought them here to the island, even supplied some of the arms to these people. but in terms of the reason, the clear reason as to why haiti's president was assassinated, we just don't know that yet. >> we mentioned in the intro this new reporting about the d.e.a. can you just explain that? >> reporter: there's still a ton of questions around that, too. so it was a press conference given by colombian authorities earlier today in which they said part of the goal here for some of these alleged colombian mercenaries was to arrest the president of haiti and then, quote, put him on display for the d.e.a. exactly what does that mean? we do not know. they didn't expand on that. they didn't give any evidence to support that allegation. the d.e.a. as you mentioned off the top, anderson, declined to

comment on this case. unfortunately, there's just one more mystery that we don't have an answer to. >> matt rivers, thanks very much. just ahead, amazon founder jeff bezos set to rkt into space in just a few days. aboard with him two soon to be record holders. details next. ♪ i'm chi lan, i am a mom, and a real estate agent. after having a kid, everything that you used to do for yourself goes out the window. the lines that i was seeing in my forehead were getting deeper than i was used to them being. and i realized, you know, what i can focus again on myself. so, what do you see when you look at yourself? i see someone who is growing and changing, who loves and is loved. botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic

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just five days from now blue origin the rocket company founded by amazon chairman jeff bezos will launch its first ever crewed flight of its tourism rocket. aboard in addition to bezos and his brother will be two record holders. the youngest and oldest individuals to venture into space. an 18-year-old soon-to-be college student and 82-year-old wally funk, an aviator who trained to be an astronaut as part of the famed mercury 13 women back in the early 1960s.

she is now finally getting her chance. the younger astronaut was initially supposed to go on the next mission. but the person who paid for this spot to the tune of $28 million decided to take a later flight, citing what we're told are scheduling conflicts. the news continues right now. let's hand it over to chris. for "cuomo prime time." chris? >> all right, coop, appreciate you. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." i have a question. i don't care if you're left or right. be reasonable on this for a second. okay? here it is. if you were told that a president's words and actions worried people around him, that they were saying that he had lost it, and that he had top military brass planning for how to block a coup by that president, would your first move after learning this be to go to that same guy and kiss his butt? today that's what kevin mccarthy did. back on bended knee after all the head