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Purge of Pentagon Websites Includes Content on Holocaust, Sexual Assault, Suicide Prevention; Swatters Target Conservative Influencers in Growing Wave; Russia and Ukraine Trade Attacks Hours After Trump's Call with Zelenskyy; Families of Veterans Who Died by Suicide Battle VA for Benefits. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 20, 2025 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning articles about the Holocaust, sexual assault, and suicide prevention being removed from Pentagon websites as part of an order to scrub diversity content. CNN obtaining a database showing that there are more than 24,000 articles could be purged with many gone already.

CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand tracking all of this. What are you learning about all these different websites and all this different information being just disappeared?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well Sara, what appears to have happened here is that following Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's order to the entire military to essentially scrub all of its public-facing platforms of any content related to diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. The Pentagon and the components inside the military, they moved so quickly that they ended up taking down things that apparently have nothing to do with DEI at all.

And so a lot of these articles that were posted on the DOD's website over many, many years ended up being taken down that have no relation to anything having to do with gender or ideology or anything like that. And those include of course articles about the Holocaust, including one article about Holocaust survivor Kitty Saks, which remembers the Holocaust as a quote state-sponsored systemic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry.

Now another article taken down was an article about Holocaust Remembrance Week. Another was a cadet's perspective, Holocaust Days of Remembrance. And this has really drawn the ire of the Anti-Defamation League, which actually gave us a statement and said that they urged the DOD to reverse these decisions and preserve these vital historical records.

Now in a statement, the Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot, he said that it is rare that articles and photos are taken down from these DOD websites that fall outside of that scope of DEI and that when it is done they direct the relevant components to correct the content so it, quote, recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans. But of course we found that this is actually not rare at all. There were over 24,000 articles that were flagged for removal or removed entirely and dozens and dozens of them had absolutely nothing to do with DEI. Those include things like sexual assault prevention, articles about breast cancer and articles about resources to help veterans who are suffering from suicidal ideation.

So this is something that the department now recognizes needs to be course corrected and a DOD official told us that, quote: Because of these series of events the department recognizes that this needs to be a more deliberative process involving human beings to ensure that a thorough review of content is completed. This may take more time than originally planned.

And we are told they're going back, they're looking at some things that have been taken down to see if they should republish them but of course that is going to take a very long time considering the massive scale of everything that has been scrubbed here -- Sara.

SIDNER: Some of the stuff that scrubbed is frankly it's shameful. Interesting to say they're now going to be using human beings so clearly using things like AI to get rid of some of these things. Thank you so much Natasha Bertrand -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now political anchor for Spectrum News Errol Louis and politics report for Semaphore Shelby Talcott.

Errol, there were all kinds of articles yesterday that there was a period of time when there were there were articles about Jackie Robinson taken down from the DOD website and when they figured it out it put him back in. And now you have Natasha's reporting on the Holocaust and other things. I mean what does it tell you that they're going after this with such a blunt force object that Jackie Robinson articles get removed.

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: Yes, well it tells me that they're -- what they're being is short-sighted and they are destined to lose. This is an all-volunteer army. This is a very diverse nation.

Within the next 24 to 36 months a majority of the people who can volunteer for the military are going to be people of color. You know, we have a younger more diverse nation than at the time that a lot of these people's ideas were formed.

[07:35:00]

And for Secretary Hegseth and the Trump administration to imagine that they can turn that around somehow insult and denigrate and push aside and try to memory hole the diversity of the United States military it's a fool's errand and they are destined to lose.

BERMAN: Shelby what's your sense of how much they care about this. The break it and then fix it if they have to mentality that they have here with these articles in the Pentagon in terms of diversity and another thing, all things with this administration so far, they seem to have an attitude, we'll go in fast and then fix it if we break it.

SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: It's been really interesting because we've heard Donald Trump in recent weeks kind of shift his tone and note that it's really important, for example, to keep essential personnel. It's important that we make these cuts, but it's important to do it in the right way. But at the same time, that blunt force trauma approach is still happening across the federal government.

And so that's not really slowing down, despite what the president has said about being careful. So I think the White House is aware of the pushback and aware of these mistakes that are being made, but not to the extent that major changes are being made in terms of how all of this is being implemented.

BERMAN: Speaking of cuts, the Department of Education president planning to sign an executive order today basically to gut the department. We've got polling from NPR and PBS and Marist from just a few weeks ago. Sixty-three percent of Americans oppose getting rid of the Department of Education. Thirty-seven percent support it. This is a net negative issue, yet he's leaning into it.

LOUIS: Yes. Well, it's a campaign promise. It's something that a lot of conservatives have talked about since the department was created in the 1970s. And so they're going to try and fulfill this. But the politics really has shifted.

In fact, one of the reasons that there was so much conservative opposition to creating the department is some people knew what was going to happen, which is that it would be effective. It would be popular. It would extend into every district in the country, and that people would come to sort of depend on it and look at it as a reliable source of guidance and, frankly, funding.

And so the politics behind eliminating it, I think, are going to be much thicker than they were at, say, a Trump rally, which is mostly where we've heard about it up until now.

BERMAN: I was speaking, Shelby, with the secretary of education under Barack Obama, Arne Duncan. The Trump administration and Republicans often say, we want to return the power for the schools back to the states. And Arne Duncan says, congratulations. You did that years ago. All the states, states have 90 percent of the funding power. They make all the decisions over schools, largely.

So how how much will really change here?

TALCOTT: I mean, I do think it's going to be significant in the sense that, you know, you're talking about right now a lot of these key functions, federal student loans, all of this stuff, you know, the Department of Education controls. And so I think returning everything to the states and also, you know, they're trying to shift some of these key priorities into other agencies. I think trying to do that is going to potentially disrupt some of the functions.

Now, the administration says that none of these functions are going to be impacted. But these are major changes, even to just shift it to another agency, for example. And so it's going to be really interesting, you know, to see.

Again, you know, earlier in this in this program, it was noted that the president can't completely close the Department of Education. But what he's essentially doing is rendering it useless.

BERMAN: Shelby Talcott, Errol Louis, we'll let you get back to covering the mayor's race here in New York City. Errol, every minute you're away from that, I can tell it pains you. But thank you for being here, both of you -- Sara.

SIDNER: I ought to pay attention to Errol on this. He knows all.

All right, new this morning, a growing number of conservative influence influencers are getting targeted by swatters. There have been at least a dozen incidents in recent days of bogus calls that draw police and first responders to the target's home, including the home of Erin Derham in North Carolina. She opened the door late at night to armed officers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN DERHAM, SWATTING VICTIM: When I walked up to the door, he was pointing a gun at me, you know, and obviously like immediately stopped when he saw me. But it was a lot of confusion, a lot of fear. I felt like I was going to pass out most of the time that they were in the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: This is so disturbing. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are now investigating these incidents.

And CNN's Hadas Gold is joining me now. She is looking into them as well. What are you learning? Who is the target mainly? And how does this all go down?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: So what we've seen is over the past two weeks, at least a dozen influencers have been targeted in these swattings and not just swattings. They're also getting things like bogus pizza deliveries.

Now, what we found commonality amongst all of these influencers is almost all of them have some sort of following on X. Almost all of them are pro-Trump. Many of them have interacted with actually Elon Musk, the owner of X. Some of them have millions of followers and are super well-known.

And some of them are some of these more smaller influencers. But again, almost all of them are pro-Trump. Many of them call themselves conservatives and many of them have interacted with Elon Musk.

[07:40:02]

Now, as you noted, swatting is very dangerous and it can be deadly. This, you know, these callers will call in with bogus calls of people being shot, of a home invasion, of holding people hostage. It causes a huge response from police and emergency services, which draws them away from other actual emergencies. But if there's confusion, something could go wrong and something could go very wrong.

So I actually spoke to two of these influencers, I just spoke to Erin, who you just heard from, and to Larry Taunton. She's in North Carolina, he's in Alabama. Both got these swatting calls right around the same time, early Sunday, right around 1:00 a.m. Both got bogus calls about that they were pretending to be the homeowner saying that they had been shot. There were other people had been shot, caused a big response. Here's what Larry said he experienced. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY TAUNTON, CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCER: There were no sirens, no lights, no announcement, nothing, and he's trying the door handle. And I am crouched inside, armed, and I'm thinking if that man comes through my door, I'm going to light him up. Because you're just thinking, somebody's here to murder me and my wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: And what's really notable is a lot of these influencers are armed. They carry guns. And so, so many of them are saying this could have turned really bad because I thought somebody was robbing my home.

SIDNER: Or breaking in.

GOLD: Yes, Erin called it a cheap form of domestic terrorism. Now, the FBI and the DHS say that they are investigating this.

The Secretary of Homeland Security is saying that under President Trump's leadership, we will not sit idly by as conservative new media and their families are being targeted by false swatting. She also said, this is an attack on our law enforcement and innocent families and will be prosecuted as such.

But what makes this hard to investigate is the technology that these people use with the swatting. They spoof their phone numbers. A lot of them even use artificial intelligence to spoof the voices. But there have been prosecutions on this and this is a very dangerous game that people are playing.

SIDNER: It is. It's really dangerous and it puts a lot of people in a bad spot. The police and the people who are being swatted. It's disgusting. Someone is going to get hurt. Someone has gotten hurt. I remember this happening over video games.

GOLD: Yes.

SIDNER: Where someone got really hurt in all of this.

GOLD: Yes, people have been killed.

SIDNER: And people have been killed. GOLD: Yes.

SIDNER: This is an extremely dangerous game. It will be interesting to see from the FBI if they are ever able to find who is behind it.

GOLD: And if there's any connections to the attacks we're seeing recently on Tesla dealerships, on the cyber attack that Elon Musk said happened on X, because there is this connection with Elon Musk here.

SIDNER: Yes, all right. Hadas Gold, great reporting. Thank you so much.

All right, ahead. Twitter became a place for global protest and politics, but the misinformation out of control. A new episode of the CNN original series, "TWITTER, BREAKING THE BIRD", explores the drama that unfolded when Twitter's founder was ousted for a brand new CEO.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every single company carries the DNA of its founders and its founders were a bunch of dysfunctional friends.

BIZ STONE, CO-FOUNDER, TWITTER: Both Jack and Ev were fired and then we had this whole thing with Dick taking over. And so now the CEO is a guy that we hired from outside of Twitter. So I'm like the only founder who's left. I was like, what am I doing? What should I do, you know?

EV WILLIAMS, CO-FOUNDER, TWITTER: I think it was a rational decision to replace me as CEO, but it was very messy. It's my company. And somehow I'd lost enough control to be fired without notice. It was crazy. I failed at the biggest thing I've ever done. I was just mortified for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The latest episode of "TWITTER, BREAKING THE BIRD" airs Sunday night at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN. I've been watching. They're good.

All right. It's a Midwest whiteout. Take a look at this. Oh, yes, we're in March. How you could be impacted, though, by a powerful storm that's dumping snow, rain and creating tornadoes across the country.

And police say he posed as an anti-gang activist, but claims he was running a mafia life criminal empire. Details on the arrest of the alleged leader of this Los Angeles Crips gang.

[07:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, new this morning in evolution in subway travel here in New York, the MetroCard is being decommissioned in favor of tap and go payment. The New York Times reports the MTA will stop selling the cards at stations on December 31st. The chairman of the MTA says will will save the authority at least 20 million dollars each year.

Tap and go has been in place for a while. I can't remember last time I even saw a MetroCard.

This morning, blizzard conditions in the central U.S. with several inches of snow, gusty winds, whiteout conditions, downing trees and power lines damaging homes in Iowa. Vehicles are stranded on highways in whiteout conditions. That doesn't look fun at all. The National Weather Service says there are warnings of treacherous and potentially life threatening travel conditions.

Federal authorities say the alleged leader of the Los Angeles based Crips gang is in custody. Prosecutors say Eugene Henley, who goes by the name Big U, faces charges including murder, extortion and human trafficking.

[07:50:00]

Officials say he ran a mafia like criminal empire -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new this morning, Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of fresh attacks on infrastructure targets overnight, raising questions about the proposed 30 day ceasefire that Putin has not agreed to yet. Moments ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing Russia of continuing to strike Ukraine, despite what he calls propaganda claims.

The attacks came hours after President Trump's phone call with President Zelenskyy. During the call, the White House said Zelenskyy agreed to a partial ceasefire on energy targets.

Joining me now, CNN Global Affairs Analyst Brett McGurk. Thank you so much for being here, Brett. Look, this back and forth with Zelenskyy and Putin. I mean, where are we right now?

Because what it seems is while these negotiations are going on, the attacks are getting bigger and bigger.

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, yes Sara, I think it's important to step back. About a week ago, Zelenskyy agreed to a 30 day full complete ceasefire to allow negotiations to proceed. Putin has not accepted that.

He agreed to a much more narrower ceasefire against energy infrastructure. But since President Trump's phone call with President Putin, Russia has fired about 300 drones into Ukraine. Many of the drones, of course, being supplied by Iran.

So I think there's like there's a long way to go here. But I hope the administration is taking into account really this key question, does Putin have any intent at all to wind down this conflict?

SIDNER: He had agreed to some things and before -- before Donald Trump and he completely blew those up. I mean, how do you trust? How should the administration go forward from now? What do you do with Russia? What do you do with Ukraine? MCGURK: Look, I think we can all we all support, I think, the goal to end this and this conflict in a sustainable way. I think it's important to keep in mind that the administration has cards here when it comes to Russia. Russia has taken a tremendous beating in this conflict.

About 700,000 casualties, over 100,000 Russian troops have been killed. The Europeans are holding on to $300 billion of frozen assets that they could actually seize and use for Ukraine. There are cards here to play.

A Russia's Black Sea fleet -- the Russians said today there will be talks in Saudi Arabia about a truce in the Black Sea. Its Black Sea fleet has been basically half of it is at the bottom of the Black Sea. So there are cards here.

Ukraine's also in a very difficult position. I think that's why it is, I think, incumbent upon the U.S. to do all we possibly can to try to end this. But there's also an important meeting today in London with a number of NATO allies, with Japan, New Zealand and Australia, talking about a possible peacekeeping force from those countries.

I think that's also something we should fully support as this diplomacy continues.

SIDNER: Do you think the United States should contribute to the peacekeeping forces on the ground if that is what is ultimately decided?

MCGURK: I think that's probably not necessary. Look, the U.S. provides enabling support, intelligence support. We've, of course, supplied three Patriot batteries to Ukraine, and that was part of the readout of the president's call with Zelenskyy yesterday. I thought it was very good that in the White House readout they committed to trying to replenish some of the Patriot interceptors that Ukraine very much needs.

But I don't think U.S. troops are needed. But I think the commitment here, particularly from the U.K. and France, this is significant. And we should support that and make clear to Russia that we want a ceasefire that is sustainable. And that will mean that we cannot support cutting off armed support to Ukraine, cutting off intelligence support, which the Kremlin put in its readout of the call. And we should really support our European friends as they're thinking about the ways to operationalize a peacekeeping force.

Bottom line, this has a long ways to go. Ending wars are very difficult. I think Putin has no intent to actually pull back from his objectives of subjugate Ukraine.

But, you know, there are tools here that the administration can play, and I don't think they've really used those cards yet.

SIDNER: All right, we will see what happens going forward. There is a lot to discuss. Brett McGurk, thank you so much for your great analysis this morning -- John. BERMAN: Well, new this morning, a CNN investigation has found that hundreds of families of veterans who died by suicide after being discharged from active service duty have been denied crucial benefits. Now, under strict VA rules, the families must submit medical documentation showing the death of their loved one stem from their time in the military. But that's sometimes impossible.

CNN's Kyung Lah spoke with several surviving spouses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMILY EVANS, SURVIVING SPOUSE: I feel stuck. We're stuck and the VA is keeping us there.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emily Evans can't move forward.

LAH: And your kids?

E. EVANS: Stuck. Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It makes it feel like he's almost still here but just in a different way.

LAH (voice-over): Four children and their mother suspended in time, trapped in loss and bureaucratic battles with the very Agency dedicated to care for the soldier's family.

[07:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CHILD: I love Daddy so much that if I don't have his baby blanket, I'll get nightmares.

SGT. MICHAEL EVANS, DECEASED ARMY VETERAN: Morning love, got me some coffee?

LAH (voice-over): Her father was Army Sergeant Michael Evans, an infantryman who deployed to Iraq twice, surviving more than two years of some of the war's worst combat, suffering traumatic brain injury from multiple IEDs.

E. EVANS: It's not bad.

M. EVANS: It's not bad?

LAH (voice-over): Once home, a full life appeared to resume, but the war never left him.

E. EVANS: He came in the house one day, he stood -- he stood right here. He just wanted to be held. And it was like his demons were standing right here in the room and I was trying to pull him back, and that was probably three days before he just snapped.

LAH (voice-over): Evans says her husband descended into a months-long depressive crisis, straining their marriage and family. LAH: That began five months of his decline.

E. EVANS: Horror.

LAH: Horror?

E. EVANS: Yeah.

LAH: When you describe it as horror, like could you --

E. EVANS: A complete shift. He stopped taking care of himself. He was paranoid, he was hyper alert, stressed, panicky, stopped laughing, stopped being silly. He almost stopped being a dad. I mean, he was just gone. He just got worse every day and he couldn't take it anymore.

LAH (voice-over): Two years ago, Michael Evans died by suicide.

LAH: After Michael passed, did you reach out to the VA? Did you file a benefits claim?

E. EVANS: They eventually sent a letter and they decided that Michael's PTSD was not significant and that the reason he died by suicide was because he was having increased stress at work and going through a divorce, which was just all part of this crisis.

LAH (voice-over): The VA denied her request for death benefits, a monthly payment to family members after a service-related death.

LAH: Positive for PTSD, positive for depression. These are the VA's --

E. EVANS: These are the VA's --

LAH: Own tests. Own doctors.

E. EVANS: Own documents. It's all PTSD. It's all his service. It's all from combat.

LAH (voice-over): A CNN Investigation found the VA denied crucial benefits to hundreds of families of veterans who died by suicide. We counted nearly 500 cases, but that's likely just a fraction of the total number. The VA says it doesn't track how many suicide-related claims it processes. So exactly how many families have been denied remains unknown and many veterans are reluctant to seek help. It's up to survivors to prove their loved ones suffered from PTSD.

LINDA GOULDING, SURVIVING SPOUSE: I would not wish these last nine years on my worst enemy. This is everything that I had given to the VA.

LAH (voice-over): Linda Goulding is a widow who was denied and appealed. Goulding submitted to the VA doctor's reports and a letter from her husband.

GOULDING: And it started out that it had started on this day and it will end on this day.

LAH (voice-over): That day marked 40 years that Goulding's husband James had left Vietnam.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want? Do you want a --

LAH (voice-over): Even as a loving grandfather, Goulding carried the weight of his Marine Corps battalion known as "The Walking Dead." It suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the war. On that 40-year anniversary, he threatened to end his own life. His wife called police.

GOULDING: They banged on the door. They called out his name, and when they went in, they heard a shot and then a thud.

LAH: When you went to the VA, what did the VA say?

GOULDING: I had to prove that he had PTSD.

LAH (voice-over): Proving it took her nine years. Our investigation found families like the Gouldings spent on average five-and-a-half years trying to win benefits. Many don't ever get them.

GOULDING: I want the VA to help the other people with more empathy, so other women would not have to do this ever, ever.

LAH (voice-over): Emily Evans is in the middle of her battle with the VA, haunted she says by promises not honored.

LAH: What would you like to tell the VA?

E. EVANS: I would like to see VA take responsibility for this. I would like to see them step up. My husband did not die in the war, but his mind did, and he deserves better. He deserved better, and he's not the only one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)