months speaking to a number of generals, ambassadors, members of the afghan special forces, and even a spokesman for the taliban. >> i do believe that one of the things that need to happen if the military is going to stop being the easy button for how we solve things is we're going to have to talk to people we don't want to talk to. so, for me, the last people in the world i want to talk to was the taliban. >> jimmy hatch hopes the report will inspire americans of all walks of life to hold the country's leaders accountable in america's future conflicts. >> i believe that in a way, a part of the united states of america died in afghanistan and that my classmates and i picked them up and brought them into our classroom and are attempting to bury them with respect and learn their lessons that created them.

>> if you're interested in reading the report by jimmy and his class, there is the link at the bottom of your screen. bit.l-y/yale.20year war. be sure to tune in saturday, 8:00 p.m. eastern for the one hour special. the news continues. let's hand it over to sara sidner and "cnn tonight." the message behind the special master donald trump asked for in his battle over classified documents is basically this, put up or shut up. and you have a deadline to do so. and that deadline is next friday. michael cohen, donald trump's long-time personal lawyer, turned nemesis, is here. i'll talk to him in just a few minutes about the former president's many legal battles, including one of the vital new developments tonight putting donald trump under quickly increasing pressure. that special master, judge

raymond dearie, now says team trump has to back up any claims of the fbi planting evidence at mar-a-lago during last month's search. and they have to do it in a sworn declaration. they also have to say whether they are claiming that any of the items on the inventory list were not taken from the premises. remember, it's one thing to make those claims outside of court. it is a whole nother thing to do so in court where a lie could be a crime itself. and trump and his allies have been claiming it, without proof, for weeks, including this from the former president just last night. >> did they drop anything into those piles? or did they do it later? there's no chain of custody here with them. >> wouldn't that be on video tape potentially? >> no, i don't think so. i mean, they were in a room. >> the judge says, prove it. and gave trump's team one week from tomorrow to reveal the evidence. our sources suggest trump was considering releasing so-called

surveillance video over a month ago, but that has not happened. earlier this week, the special master pushed trump's lawyers to take a position on whether the former president had, in fact, declassified the documents. they haven't done so yet, but here's what donald trump said about all that last night. >> is there a process? what was your process to get -- >> it doesn't have to be a process as i understand it. you know, there's different people say different things. but as i understand, there doesn't have to be. if you're the president of the united states, you can declassify just by saying, it's declassified. even by thinking about it. because you're sending it to mar-a-lago or to wherever you're sending it. and there doesn't have to be a process. there can be a process, but there doesn't have to be. you're the president. you make that decision. so, when you send it, it's declassified. we -- i declassified everything. >> okay. the former president arguing that merely thinking about the

act of declassification can make it so. a notion that brought a flood of mocking on social media today with comparisons to "i dream of genie." but listen more carefully and you hear donald trump raise the idea that he knew what he was doing when he sent those documents to his home in mar-a-lago regardless of their sensitivity. that is no joke to the national security community. neither is a $250 million lawsuit donald trump and three of his adult children now face from the new york attorney general over what she calls astounding fraud and deception by donald trump and his name sake company, an investigation to which she has sent referrals for possible criminal investigation to the u.s. attorney in manhattan and the internal revenue service. add these legal challenges to all the current battles faced by the former president, you have a potential 2024 candidate with

personal crisis unlike any other person who has ever contemplated a political comeback in america. tonight, we look the record insight from a man who was once as close to donald trump as anyone could be outside of his family. i'm joined now by michael cohen. he's donald trump's former lawyer. these days he hosts a podcast called "mea culpa," and he's got a brand-new book coming out called "revenge: how donald trump weaponized the u.s. department of justice against his critics." michael, donald trump's financial misdeeds are not new to anyone, especially people who live here in new york. tim o'brien, for example, wrote a book about donald trump, who basically was saying that he was worth $5 billion to $6 billion when o'brien said, no, it was about $250 million. >> and then he sued him. >> then he sued him. and then you had the a.g. sort of looking at, okay, well, what happened here? and the s.e.c. looking at in

2022 saying look, you made some misleading statements about your hotels and what they were worth. and basically it's like, okay, here's a cease and desist and that went away. it's not an unknown entity. why did it take your testimony, according to the a.g. herself, to bring this case forward when this has been a long-standing issue with the trump organization and donald trump himself? >> okay. so, what you know about donald trump is what donald trump tells you that he wants you to know. i was one of the very few insiders -- in fact, i was the only insider at the trump organization with any real knowledge that was willing to come and to testify, to provide not just information but documentary evidence in order to demonstrate that he was doing exactly what our amazing attorney general has now put forth in a 200-page indictment. and that is that he inflates his assets for the purpose of net

worth, and he deflates it in terms of reducing the tax burden on those assets. nothing else to say. it is what it is. this is what donald trump is all about. as i stated in the opening of my oversight committee testimony, he's a fraud. he's a con man. he's a cheat. that's who he is. >> let me ask you this because i have this question in my head for a really long time about you. why did you stay so long? knowing that you were his enforcer. you were trying to ensure he was safe legally. he was coming to you with all this stuff? first of all, how much of your time was spent trying to keep him out of legal trouble and to keep his reputation, which he appears to care so much about that he's willing to bully people, intact? how much of your time was spent doing that? >> 23 hours a day. >> really? >> really. no joke. i was the first phone call every morning, 4:30, 5:00 a.m., and the last phone call before he went to sleep at 11:00, 11:30

p.m. >> what's he calling you about? what is he asking you to do? >> it's whatever on his mind. somebody was annoying him, that there was an issue, there was a potential lawsuit, there was a defamation claim he thought was against him. whatever was on his mind at that moment, speed dial. there i was, awake, and dealing with it. sometimes i was up all night long trying to resolve the issue for him. >> so, how were you dealing with it? was it, i'm going to sue you? was it threatening? what were you doing and what did he tell you to do to sort of make this go away, if you will? >> it depends. it depends on which issue it was. if it was somebody who had defamed him, speak with them. make them retract it. if they don't retract it, file a lawsuit. bring on so and so law firm and let's file a lawsuit and let's do what we have to do. because as you stated accurately, there's nothing more important to him than his reputation and the presumption that he's as rich as he claims to be. >> let me ask you about some of

the randomness of numbers. here's a few. in mar-a-lago, for example, if it's worth $75 million, it's one thing to round that up. but how does it end up being worth $739 million? >> right. so, in his mind -- and he talked to tim o'brien. if you speak with him about it, he wrote it extensively in his book. he values things how he feels. he calls it mental valuation. i think that your jacket, right, is worth $10 million. he goes, that's what i think it's worth. it's a delusional, delusional position to take that he gets to determine what the value is of anything. now, what he also did is he claimed that it's worth the $739 million because you can parcel it out and it is a large piece of property in an exceptionally expensive area of palm beach. however, he gave away that right. so, he ignored the limitations on the property in order to increase the value.

yeah, i bet if you were able to parcel it out into quarter acre plots, it could be worth a lot of money. maybe not $700 million. but it certainly would be worth a whole lot more than 75. he gave that asset away. let me give you another example. right over here, something that's not even in this indictment. 725 fifth avenue. he truly treats that public space as if it's his own. it is not his. it belongs to you, the taxpayer of new york. it's why it says public space on it. he decides, i don't want shares in there because homeless will come in and i don't want this coming in because of this. he believes it's his. he gave that away in order to get higher f.a.r., the air rights in order to build the property, the residential next door. he also claimed that those buildings are all his even though their absolute, you own them yourself like if it was a house. it belongs to all the people who own the property. he owns his apartment, but he doesn't own my apartment.

he doesn't own your apartment. >> you paid for that. >> he claims it's his building. >> okay. and i just want to make clear because it's a civil lawsuit from the a.g. and indictment has not come forward when it comes to the moneys and the dealing. but they are sending that to the sdny and to the irs. let me ask you, going forward, you said something that was really interesting. you said whrks he mentally makes a decision and he says, okay, it's worth this much, do you think he's doing the same thing when it comes to the classified documents. oh, i mentally declassified them. >> absolutely. there's something very different about donald trump today than the donald trump i remember at the trump organization. >> how so? >> i think cognitively there's something seriously going on. he's so worried about what's going on not just in this case but in all of the cases that i really do believe that cognitively there's something going on there because nobody, even donald -- he's not stupid enough to believe that you can mentally declassify documents. he knew what documents were there. i mean, there's nuclear

documents. and we don't even know which ones that they are. we don't know what country they relate to. there's so many people that are -- that throw out these conjectures. what could it be? is it france? is it this? what if hypothetically it's israel, and that's how jared was able to get $2 billion from the saudi investment authority? we could think of all these various things. we're not going to know until god forbid there's an incident that takes place. and we don't want that to happen. and he doesn't care. and i believe he took those documents and all of them in order to use against the united states in the event that he is indicted or potentially incarcerated. it's a get out of jail free card. >> are you saying and of course the trump organization is saying that it's absolutely preposterous. >> the trump organization tells the truth all the time, as does donald. >> but are you saying that you think if he's indicted he will use it against the united states, in other words sell secrets? >> are you joking? of course. 100%. there's nothing that he won't do

to protect himself because he doesn't care about anyone else other than himself. in fact, he'll let his kids go down before him. he'll let them fall on the sword the same way he let me fall on the sword. that's who he is. >> why do people follow him? why do people stick with him? why did all of his team -- why did you? >> there's something missing in my life. look, i had just come off of a massive health issue. i was bedridden for a long time. i had a pulmonary em bo list that almost ended my life. i'm a deal junky. there was the celebrity part of it. he had the number one show. there was deals going on. i was bored in my life, and i fell into the cult of donald trump. the way the trump organization is set up is almost like a fraternity. you become friends with everybody in the place -- >> you're part of the club. >> yes. and what's the club? protect the donald club at all

costs. and i trust me, i know. i paid the ultimate sacrifice. >> you went to prison for it. >> i did. >> thank you so much for your honesty and your pointedness. appreciate it. >> thank you. we'll take this conversation to our political and legal experts and look at the republican senators who are not happy with what they're hearing now from donald trump. that is coming up next. ♪ my name is austin james. as a musician living with diabetes, fingersticks can be a real challenge. that's why i use the freestyle libre 2 system. with a painless, one-secondcan i know my glose numbers without fingersticks. now i'm managing my diabetes better and i've lowered my a1c from 8.2 to 6.7. take the mystery out of managing your diabetes and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free at freestylelibre.us zero-commission trades for online u.s. stocks and etfs.

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donald trump is having a rough week, to say the least. but then again, we've seen the same sort of headline written before, like in february, when he lost three key legal hearings, or in june of 2020, when the reporting was about political missteps and a fracturing campaign or in 2019 during his first impeachment or 2018 when the mueller

investigation was cranking up or the year before that when he failed his bid to get obamacare repealed. in other words, it's only thursday, and as bad as this week has been for donald trump and the trump organization, to be very frank, he's had a lot of bad weeks. but he tends to bounce back, at least politically. let's see how this one stacks up with former federal prosecutor elie honig and a couple of keen political minds in errol lewis and scott jennings. thank you so much for joining us. i'm going to start here. this is for anyone to jump in. how bad is this week for donald trump in comparison to the litany of things i just threw out there? >> this is pretty serious in part because it's not a political crisis that he now fa faces. the attorney general's investigation and the complaint she filed goes to the heart of his commercial empire. there are real financial consequences that politics aside he cannot afford to ignore. it's also very detailed and it deals with hundreds and hundreds of instances so that he's going

to have to get more than just a couple of willing lawyers to help him out. he's going to have to put the whole organization to work dealing with this. it affects his children. it affects his stature. it's something he's going to have to spend a lot of time on. this is going to be more complicated than fending off the impeachment. >> because there are so many documents and so many things they can point to that are concrete. i want to look at this poll. "the new york times" sienna college poll, the view of donald trump favorable now versus july. that's dropped off a bit. so, there it is. 44% now. july was 39%, unfavorable 53. july has 57. his numbers have actually gone up for favorable a bit. so, is this really that bad of a week for him politically speaking? >> yeah, i mean the walls have been closing in, so to speak, for a very long time. how many times have we heard that? i think for most people this

gets extremely complicated. i was listening to michael here. i'm not a lawyer. i'm just an average republican, political guy. it's very complicated. january 6th is going on. the georgia investigation is going on. there's a number of things going on. but he's never been indicted. you know? and until he is, i don't know that it's going to actually feel real to the average voter out there. i think they're waiting -- we've been waiting for the next shoe to drop for years. and so i think until that happens, you're unlikely to see much movement on him. now, there was a survey out today, the mu law national survey today. and for the first time in a survey i've seen of national republican political figures, ron desantis had a higher net favorable rating. they were both quite popular, but desantis had a four-point lead in terms of favorability. there is evidence republicans may be looking for alternatives here. if you're looking for little signs of weakness, that was one i picked up on today.

>> there is someone else people can pivot to if they decide -- >> somebody who gives you everything you want, the same fighting spirit and attitude without the chaos. >> at this point in time, legally speaking, elie, we're in a put up or shut up time, correct? these allegations that the fbi planted evidence. we've seen no evidence of that. the judge is now saying, right, we need to see the evidence. >> there's only so long you can carry off a complete fiction in the courts because what we see happening right now with the special master is what tends to happen in courts. you can make allegation, but eventually you have to prove it. this whole special master process, by the way, is going really poorly for both sides. donald trump is being called out on his declassification claims. you know, his claims all over the map. he's now being put to the test. there's claims the evidence was planted. he's not going to be able to support those. this is not going swimmingly for doj either. first of all, this is taking forever. this special master hasn't even started.

we're almost seven weeks out from mar-a-lago. this will be dragging on through november. there's a reason they didn't want the special master. remember they won their repeal last night on the narrow set of documents but they fought like mad against the special master. and this is devolving into a minitrial before trial. nobody is winning here. this special master, i think, today ordered that issue, really sort of focuses. he says here's the deadline. you have to do this by this day. but i don't think either side is happy with this. >> if you have this deadline and the evidence is not there and the evidence has been promised for the past few weeks of the video, if it's not there, then that's not good for the trump team or donald trump. >> yeah, i mean -- >> the doj wins. >> the judge will have to make a finding. here's what i think is going to happen. i think you will continue to see his team tap dance. we're continuing to investigate. this isn't the time for it. that's later. eventually a judge says, no, i gave you your chance, you didn't submit, find against you. >> i want to talk to you about words donald trump used when he

was on another network speaking about these declassified documents. he basically said, i thought they were declassified, they are. i think, there are they are. here is how senate republicans responded to hearing that. it did two things. one, there was a mission he actually -- this was something he did. it wasn't an zpaccident. it didn't happen to be in some of the boxes and he didn't know about it. it was clear he did it and thought about it, these are declassified, in his mind. here's what senate republicans said today about that. >> i think there's a process for declassifying documents, and i think it ought to be adhered to and followed. i think that should apply to anybody. >> i believe there's a formal process that needs to go through and document. >> up here we take it very seriously. people can get hurt. people can get killed. >> people can get hurt. people can get killed. there's a process. donald trump says there is no process. how bad is this now that you're

hearing from tillis? >> when you look at the episodes of him over the years, most of the time he enjoyed a cadre of republicans with titles coming out and defending him. first impeachment was a great example. they rallied around him. in this particular case, very serious people are not willing to die on this ridiculous hill. what he said is ridiculous. everybody seems to agree reason othat. and i found it noteworthy they're just not willing to continue to fall on sword after sword. i mean, you fall on so many swords and eventually you're too full of holes to stand, i guess. and that, to me, is the difference between when he was was the president and right now. >> it's a ridiculous claim he can't take into court. his lawyers are strenuously avoiding going into court and saying anything resembling what we just heard about mentally declassifying stuff. i think what we're going to see, though, is that as this moves forward, lots of people are going to say, especially members of congress, who have very

serious responsibilities around declassification. they're not going to necessarily stand with him, number one. and number two, the reasons that they searched mar-a-lago and the statutes that underlie a possible violation here have nothing to do with classification. the problem here is that when the archives ask for materials back, even if you legally and properly had it, when they ask for it back, you've got to give it back. if you don't, that's where the problem lies. >> one other issue is the explanations for this have been shifting day by day and week by week. so, if you're john thune, here's a serious person, or mike rounds, you're being asked to defend some excuse today. well, who's to say the excuse won't be different tomorrow and you're left hung out to dry with your ridiculous statement. so, i mean, it strikes me they've probably seen enough and they know enough now that tomorrow the rug could get pulled out from under them. >> thank you guys so much. you're going to stick with me. we need to turn to another serious legal matter.

an ugly case gets uglier. coming up, the explosive moments at the alex jones defamation trial in connecticut. is the judge losing control of this courtroom, as sandy hook families dissolve into tears and look on? that is coming up next. welcome to allstate where anyone who bundles their home and auto insurance saves. isn't that right phil? sorry, i'm a little busy. what in the world are you doing? i'm in the metaverse, bundling my home and auto insurance. why don't you just do that in the real world? um, because now i can bundle in space.

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emotional and explosive moments in a connecticut

courtroom today, as conspiracy theory alex jones took the stand during the damages phase of his defamation trial. a jury is currently deciding how much jones has to pay the families of sandy hook victims after he spent years spreading lies about the mass murder of children. i want to show you this moment where the attorney representing some soft families asked jones to face robbie parker, who lost his daughter, emily, in the massacre. >> rob bie parker is sitting right here. here's real, isn't he? >> yes, sir. >> and for years you put a target on his back, didn't you? >> objection. >> i said exactly who they are. >> you put a target on his back just like you did every single parent and loved one sitting here. >> no, i didn't zblcht that's argumentative. speculative. >> you're unbelievable. you switchen emotions on and off when you want.

that's just ambulance chasing. >> why don't you show a little respect. >> objection, judge. i think you get what you give in this court. >> objection. >> you have families in this courtroom here that lost children, sisters, wives, moms. >> i've already said i'm sorry a hundred times and i'm done saying i'm sorry. >> he is done saying, i'm sorry. several of the victims' families were sitting in that courtroom. you could see they had tears in their eyes streaming down their face. the judge later admonished both sides over the outburst, warning them they could be held in contempt if they continue to violate court rules. our guests are back to discuss. elie, i know you are champing at the bit. i don't know that i've seen something as cruel as that in a courtroom where you have all these parents sitting there whose children were killed

senselessly and having somebody who further injured them. >> i agree. that whole scene is an outrage and a disgrace on a couple levels. first and foremost, alex jones, he's a villain. he's the villain in this story, no questions about it. it's unfathomable to do what he did to those families. a distant second place though, that judge has to get control of that courtroom. that is a ridiculous scene. i have been in plenty of courtroom encounters that have been animated, heated. i've never seen anything like that. the judge owes it not only to the administration of justice, but he owes it to the families. they are entitled to a dignified process and not a ridiculous shouting match, alex jones saying whatever he wants. the judge said, everyone calm down. he should have done that ten seconds into that exchange. he's lost control of that courtroom and needs to get it back. >> errol, i'm curious from you, is there anything -- we have the first amendment in this country. he's still doing his podcast.

he's still got a lot of people listening. is there anything that can be done to stop something like this from happening, to stop alex jones from injuring people like this? >> that's really what the point of this is. as bad as the emotional trauma is, all the lies and conspiracies he spread, it had real damage. there's at least one woman who had to move five times. her mother was the principal and was killed there. and because of the garbage that alex jones spread, you had conspiracy theories following these people around, harassing them, threatening them, stalking them. you have someone who the child is massacred, the husband commits suicide, and she finds conspiracy theories hanging around the cemetery to see if the body is really there. just unfathomable things. alex jones, however because this is about money damages, he can take this as a cost of doing business. he makes so much money, the only way to truly punish this -- because money is the only thing

talked about here. he's not going to lose his freedom or anything. they have to take a lot of it. they have to take all of it. they have to make it clear that anyone who wants to embark on this and try to sell diet pills and supplements and stir up an innocent mob and set it on innocent families other a decade, it's going to cost much, much more than they think. the jury has an important responsibility here. >> i want to ask you, scott. the first trial is texas, which is jones' backyard. this trial is far closer to where the massacre happened at sandy hook. in connecticut, waterbury. does that make a difference with the jury here do you think? >> i don't know. elie might have a better read on that than me. i was stunned at the scene today. and i would assume the jury was stunned by all of this. and anybody in the courtroom was just stunned. i think the judge -- i think ultimately you're talking about institutions here. you know, this guy did something terrible. he is a creep and he is a scum

bag, and he's being -- this trial is about holding him responsible. so, you want people to trust the outcome of that, which means the institution itself has to be run in a way that gives as much confidence in the outcome as possible. >> because he is constantly talking about conspiracies and deep state and still doing it on his podcast during the trial. >> exactly. you don't want him to be able, did you see the video, this was a total circus, and the plaintiffs were allowed to do all this. so, i hope the judge, as elie said, gets control of it. and i hope this guy gets everything he's got coming to him because what he did to those families is absolutely evil, and it's wrong. and there have to be consequences for your actions in this. i mean, that's what makes this whole thing work, right? you do something this bad, there have to be consequences for that. or as you said, people feel like they can do it again, and you don't want that. >> i have a question for you elie, but you'll probably jump down my throat. is there any legal relevancy to

jones saying he's been targeted by the deep state, by the left, by the whomever boogieman he's chosen. >> i will not jump down your throat. i will answer simply, no. he's already guilty. it was a default judgment because he just didn't show up. this is the damages phase to. the point errol and scott were making, alex jones is why punitive damages exists. if you are teaches the purposes of punitive damages, you would point to alex jones. compensatory damages means you have to pay back the damage you caused. what was the bills here. punitive damages is to stop someone, to deter someone, to punish somebody. and if anybody has ever deserved that, it's alex jones. and you are speaking to alex jones who needs to be hit in the wallet, but you're speaking to any others who would see this kind of behavior and say there's profit to be made there. and that's why i think the jury has such a strong responsibility, as scott said. >> i think we got through it, but it is hard to watch. the cruelty is truly stunning.

elie hoenig, scott jennings, appreciate it. up next, the turmoil overseas on two fronts t uprising in russia and iran. how far will they go? and what do they tell us about the fate of those in power in those two countries? aaron david miller joins me with some perspective coming up next.

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civilians across russia and iran are rising up against their authoritarian regimes in ways we haven't seen in years. in russia, more than 1,300 people across 38 cities were arrested wednesday after protesting putin's order to mobilize 300,000 reservists to the war in ukraine. an independent watchdog says some of the protesters detained were drafted directly into russia's military. they also say just over half of the detainees were women, making it the largest women-involved antigovernment protest in recent history there. in iran, women at the forefront there as well. they have been the forefront of protests in dozens of cities. many have removed and burned their head scarves. the protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old masas

amini, who was taken in because she allegedly broke the country's head scarf rules. are these protests a moment or a start of a movement and larger change in russia and iran? joining me now is middle east expert and analyst aaron david miller. thank you so much for joining the program. >> sara, it's great to see you. >> let's start in russia. russia is in a war right now. they have been not doing as well as they thought they would. they have been losing a lot of people. now you have this large protest that they try to conscript and bring in more people as reservists. is this going to be a moment or is this going to be the start of something larger, do you think? >> i don't think the oracle of delphi could tell you with any sort of authority where this is going? is this a headline or is this a trendline? in this case of russia, i think mr. putin has made a difficult

situation worse. he's created this partial mobilization. and in doing so broke a sort of informal social contract with the russian people. and the contract, something like this, you can steal from us, you can fight, but don't interfere in our private lives. most russians, 50%, according to the most reputable polling organization, and additional 20% are supportive of the military action or somewhat supports. that's 70% of the country. but the partial mobilization brings the war home. i think the stance you cited, you indicate, that mr. putin is going to have a very difficult time managing this. and i doubt whether or not partial mobilization of reservists who are not well trained is going to do much to alter the trajectory on the battlefield. >> on the ground in ukraine, we heard from ukrainians who had

contacted people in russia because their sons had either been killed or captured. and they were sometimes breaking the news to the families. the families didn't even know that that is where their family members were in this war. they're not allowed to use the word "war" there. i do want to talk to you about something about putin's regime. there is a thought on minds of some analysts who say that this eventually might be his downfall as the leader of russia. and this is coming from, in one case, the great granddaughter of c c crews chef. even if something happens to putin i think maybe they will run the country, maybe less toxic, but it's not going to become a great democracy overnight. >> is she right?

>> well, time is the ultimate arbiter of things that are value. tolstoy said that time and patience are the greatest warriors. so, i think in that respect, it really depends on whether or not putin's power base is threatened. the intelligence and security apparatus that support him, putin turns 70 next month i think on october 7. and all the men around him in security and intelligence have investment in this regime. i'm sure they're asking themselves questions now. but many military defeats in russia over the last couple hundred years here have led to either reform or revolution. >> i want to get to iran really quickly. i want to get to iran really quickly. agree with you. >> yeah. >> this particular thing with women coming out in such strong numbers, could this change things if not for women, for the country as a whole? >> i'd like to see it, and i

think one day the determination and courage and resilience of the iranian people will in fact change a terrible regime. but you can't underestimate the repressive powers of the state. remember only two years ago, three years ago in 2019, protests and riots over gas prices and many other things lled to a huge crackdown. 360 people were killed, iranian civilians were killed. i think there's probably little doubt that rye yee si, the president and the supreme leader are going to change this hijab law. they could diffuse the situation, at least with respect to women, by calling for a voluntary hijab. but i'm not sure they're going to do that. any sign of weakness with respect to give means weakness for the regime. i think harder liners will prevail on this one as well as in russia for the moment. >> to your point, christian amen pour tried to get an interview

with the president. she has interviewed just about every president of iran in her lifetime. when she tried to do so, they insisted she wear a hijab. she refused. there is clearly a move by the iranian regime to try and stick with this idea of women having to cover themselves in the presence of men. and the point was made right here during this interview. thank you so much. i appreciate you coming on. we have some other very important news tonight. and by the way, this time it's good news. dr. sanjay gupta is here to take us through a historic moment in the fight against cancer. more survivors than ever in this country. how we got here. that's coming up next. answer a few questions and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds we'll come to you pay you on the spot ththen pick up your car that's it at carvana new astepro allergy. now available without a prescription.

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i've always loved building things.

not just structures and skyscrapers, but teams who make it all possible. after all... we wouldn't be where we are today without them. so we made sure that like these buildings... their futures may also stand the test of time. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome news tonight to anyone impacted by cancer either directly or indirectly. there is a lot of people. a promising new report finds that more people in the united states are surviving cancer than ever before. cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins me now. sanjay, this is really encouraging news. tell us about this. >> good news for a change. >> so nice.

>> we measure these incremental changes in the progress on cancer but it is interesting when you sort of see it play out over decades. 1991 till now what you find is a 32% reduction in the cancer death rates. that's significant and if you actually figure out like what does that translate to, 3.5 million lives saved. people who are alive today who otherwise wouldn't have been. i can tell you, you just showed this back in '71 there was around 3 million cancer survivors in the country. now close to 18 million. which is 5% of the population. if you're out there 1 in 20 people roughly would identify themselves as a cancer survivor which is pretty incredible. >> why? because of a lot of organizations or people getting screenings earlier? >> i think there are several things but a couple major things. first of all the main cancers we're talking about where a lot of this progress has been made lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer. two things.

one is that we are better identifying the genetics of the cancers so we know the mutations causing this and can target those but also this avenue of therapies known as immunotherapy which actually teaches your immune system or allows it to fight the cancer. i always give the example of jimmy carter. he had meta static melanoma to his brain. a clear death sentence a decade ago. he got one of these immuno therapies and as far as i know he is still building houses with habitat for humanity in his mid 90s now. >> still here doing the work. i want to ask you about your podcast. i know it is exciting chasing life is really interesting. this is what, the fifth season? what is most exciting to you? >> this is one of the great privileges for us. i am a brain guy. i've always loved that. this season is all about the human senses. the way we perceive the world. and what happens when we don't perceive well. things like face blindness for example, inability to recognize

faces. also how animals sense the world and how that is different than humans. we talk about pain. if you have pain could i ever truly understand your pain by understanding how you experience that pain? we dive into these issues in a big way. i got to tell you, i learn a lot even though i study the brain as my side job or primary job when you do the podcast you get to talk to these fascinating people who teach us how the world is perceived differently. >> i always learn something from you. this podcast is wonderful and you have a great special coming up this weekend i cannot wait to see about havana syndrome. thanks for coming on. >> thanks for having me. >> dr. sanjay gupta with us. we'll be right back. conflict and climate change. a new black dream. the hidden melodies s of train. the sacred spell of words. this art was looted. the power of a dinner table. a country on the brink. carving a path through the heart of philadelphia.

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thank you so much for hanging with me. i will be back tomorrow night. "don lemon tonight" starts right

now. >> not so fast, sara sidner. >> yes, don? >> how you doing? >> how you doing? >> okay. we have to remember we're on television. >> oh, yes. sorry. keep it together. >> your segment about cancer death rates falling. we are living in the future. you look at cancer death rates falling i'm sure you remember back in the day when you had to have this whole host of cocktails for hiv. now it is either a shot or a pill and possibly a cure in the works. same thing with cancer. we are living in the future. >> we have to remember that when we're doing the debby downer segments right? we talk about a lot of problems in this country. that is a beautiful reality. >> yes, it is. so are you. >> ditto. enjoy, don. >> see what i did there? have a good one, sara. this is "don lemon tonight" and the former president's run of bad luck, well, it just keeps rolling along. rolling, rolling, rolling. special master has just about had it with the legal team and i