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Watchdog Group: AI-Powered Toys Full of Unexpected and Unsafe Chatter; Interview with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE): White House, Hegseth Shift Responsibility for Double-Tap Boat Strike; Luigi Mangione Back in Court in CEO Murder Case. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired December 02, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00]
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: But a lot of child safety experts are very concerned, because while some of these are marketed as, you know, educational robots, others are these sort of plush toys, and this is kind of an unregulated market. And some child safety groups have actually tested some of these, and they found some really troubling results. This is from the Public Interest Research Group.
They tested what is known as the Kumma bear. It looks very snugly, it has a little scarf, just looks like a teddy bear. But when they tested it, it uses chat -- OpenAI's GPT-4.0, they found that the bear told them how to find and use potentially dangerous objects, like matches and knives, and at one point even engaged in some sexually explicit content. So take a listen to some of their tests.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me tell you, safety first, little buddy. Matches are for grownups to use carefully. Here's how they do it.
One, hold the matchbox with one hand. The rough strip is for striking. Two, take out one match, just one, and hold it by the non-red end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLD: Yes, so OpenAI suspended FoloToy, which is the owner of this bear, for this type of engagement use of OpenAI's ChatGPT. FoloToy withdrew the bear and has just reintroduced it last Friday, saying it has new guardrails. But, you know, there are a lot of concerns beyond the inappropriate content.
There's concerns around hacking. There's concerns around data collection. If a child is telling this bear its name, its address, all about it, there's also the concerns about it being addicted and the concerns about losing imaginative play, because they're playing with these dolls as makeup stories with them. And there's a fear of the loss of human connection, and child psychology experts do have concerns that these can have long and short-term impacts on people's development.
So if you are trying to get one of these toys for your kids, make sure to buy it from a very reputable seller and make sure it has some sort of parental controls that you can have some control over the content.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You raised so many great questions there. Hadas Gold, I have to say, you're such a great reporter. This is such a big, interesting beat. Glad to have you on.
GOLD: Thank you very much.
BERMAN: Thank you very much.
A brand new of hour CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, an ongoing mystery of who ordered what and when, all centered around that double strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat. If the president nor the defense secretary have the answers, who does?
Plus, quote, if you don't need to be out, don't. A bomb cyclone is slamming big parts of the country, millions of Americans under severe weather alerts now.
And truly a appalling crime caught on camera, a smash and grab that resulted in a public plea to bring these cat burglars to justice.
And a beloved pet back home. Sorry for the puns.
I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
BERMAN: All right, developing this morning, the Admiral did it. The White House is deflecting responsibility for a deadly attack in the Caribbean that has raised questions about possible war crimes.
And this deflection is reportedly causing new concerns amongst some of the military. So the White House is now confirming that the U.S. military did launch a second strike on a boat allegedly tied to a Venezuelan cartel that strike on September 2nd. Sources say there were survivors in the wreckage and a second strike killed them all.
But the White House is now distancing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from the matter, saying he did not give the final order for that follow up strike, instead saying that it came from U.S. Navy Admiral Frank Mitch Bradley. The White House is defending Bradley, saying his actions are lawful. But there are concerns that Bradley is getting thrown under the bus or the boat, as it were.
The Washington Post reports officials in Congress and the Pentagon said Monday they are increasingly concerned that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the military officer who directed U.S. forces to kill two survivors of a targeted strike on suspected drug smugglers in Latin America.
With us now is Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware. He sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Coons, thanks so much for being with us. The White House says it was Admiral Bradley who ordered the second strike, and that it was lawful. How persuaded are you? SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: I'm not, and I am encouraged that there is bipartisan effort behind getting to the bottom of this. John, I'm the senior Democrat on defense and intelligence appropriations in the U.S. Senate, and I haven't gotten anywhere near the level of briefing and engagement that Congress deserves before Trump sleepwalks us into a war with Venezuela. This incident that was just covered by the Washington Post in recent days suggests that a war crime may have been committed, and I think Secretary Hegseth likely gave the order.
I know Admiral Bradley. He's the SOCOM commander.
[08:05:00]
He came up through the ranks. He is decorated. He's experienced. He's seasoned. He was one of the first Americans into Afghanistan after 9/11. I'd be very surprised if he did this on his own without direct support or a command from the Secretary.
BERMAN: The New York Times is reporting a nuanced version of this today, Senator, where it hears from multiple sources. The Times reports that Secretary Hegseth, his initial order was to attack the boat and kill people on the boat, but it didn't give any instructions as to what to do if there were survivors there. It also raises the possibility that the follow up strike was targeted on the boat itself, not the survivors, which may hold a different weight under military law. How does that impact your view of this?
COONS: Well, John, that's why we need a thorough oversight investigation by both Senate Armed Services and House Armed Services. That is a credible alternative characterization of what happened. The larger point is that the American people deserve to know what we're doing in Venezuela.
Obviously, Maduro is a bad guy, and exporting drugs to Europe or West Africa, which is predominantly what they're doing, sending cocaine through the Caribbean to Europe, through West Africa, is a bad thing. But President Trump has tried to justify this as stopping drug trafficking into the United States that's causing tens of thousands of Americans to overdose every year. That is a tragedy that we should be working together to block, but the majority of that is from fentanyl, and the majority of that coming from Mexico, things that we are working in a strong bipartisan way to try and reduce and interdict.
Just this week, President Trump announced he will pardon the former president of Honduras, who was convicted in an American court of trafficking huge quantities of drugs into the United States. And there's no explanation given for that pardon. I suspect it's because of the lobbyists that he hired.
So what is the reason we're engaging in the Southern Caribbean? Why are there more than 15,000 U.S. troops and 10 percent of our Navy deployed off the coast of Venezuela? The obvious answer to me seems to be regime change.
They're trying to move Maduro out of power through pressure or by force. And what I haven't heard, and the American people deserve to hear, is what comes next. When you push out a dictator, it causes chaos.
Just look at what happened in Libya and Iraq, both of which ended badly for regional security. And I think we need to hear from the Trump administration and from Secretary Rubio, what on earth are their plans for the stage two of this engagement in the Southern Caribbean?
BERMAN: You just brought up a lot there, including the proposed pardon of Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was the president of Honduras, convicted of helping bring in some 500 tons of cocaine into the United States. In his trial, testimony said that he once said he wanted to stuff drugs up the gringos' noses. So what does this pardon, which hasn't happened yet but we think it's going to, tell you?
COONS: That pardon suggests that President Trump has been pardoning people left and right for all sorts of reasons that don't serve Americans' core interests. If President Trump actually wants to send a strong signal to Central and South American heads of states involved in narco-trafficking, pardoning one of the most recent grotesque offenders, a man who trafficked 500 tons of cocaine into the United States, is exactly the wrong message. So as is so often the case here, Trump says one thing and does the other.
He says he supports law enforcement and pardons the January 6 rioters who assaulted law enforcement. He says this campaign is about stopping drugs coming into America, and I think we will soon see him pardon the immediate past president of Honduras --
BERMAN: Right.
COON: -- who trafficked hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States.
BERMAN: I need to hit refresh on my browser. The pardon has happened, and the former president of Honduras, I'm told, has been released. But your point is well taken.
Very quickly, Senator, Secretary Hegseth at one point said he actually monitored, was monitoring, the strike on this boat via a live feed in Venezuela. What questions does that raise for you?
COONS: That raises for me, what were the rules of engagement? Look, Admiral Bradley, a decorated SEAL, knows the rules of war and the terms of engagement. And there's quite a distinct thing between intentionally killing survivors who pose no threat to America or American forces and going after a boat in a way that, you know, frankly, we still haven't seen the legal justification for.
[08:10:00]
So I think if Secretary Hegseth was as directly involved in giving orders and monitoring the situation as you just suggested, that will support the bipartisan outrage at this attack that violates the most basic rules of war. BERMAN: We'll figure out or we'll see soon what Congress finds out. Senator Chris Coons from Delaware, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: Minutes from now, Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, will arrive back in court. We're getting a look at -- and we are getting a look at new evidence that prosecutors laid out in court as they pick back up.
And so you really can still fly without real ID. But TSA says it's going to cost you and is announcing now how much that is going to cost you.
Plus, an inmate is on the run after escaping from a hospital and allegedly stealing two cars. There's new video out this morning of the police chase that led then to him running on foot.
[08:15:00]
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BOLDUAN: Today, Luigi Mangione is headed back to court. The judge overseeing the case is now weighing what to do about key evidence in the murder case against him, accused in charge for the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
CNN's Kara Scannell is live outside the court, kind of getting at it all. For the first time in day one, if you will, prosecutors played the 911 call that led to his arrest, so we're hearing new things already. What's expected today?
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate. Yes, for the first time yesterday, we heard that 911 call, and it's not formally entered into evidence and available to the public or else we would play it for you. But on that call, we did hear the manager at the McDonald's speak to 911 dispatcher in a very calm voice, saying, I have a customer here that some other customers were suspicious of and he looks like the CEO shooter from New York.
She described what Mangione was wearing, saying that he had a medical mask on, and so the only thing she could really see of his was his eyebrows. So that was the first time that evidence came in. We also saw for the first time the full video of the shooting of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, as well as the surveillance video inside that McDonald's.
When the police first arrived on scene, approached Mangione, who was sitting at a corner table in the back, and there's no audio, but we could see that that crowd of officers grew from two to more than eight before he was arrested and taken into custody. We also heard testimony from two corrections officers who were on what's called constant watch watching Mangione when he was held at the state prison in Pennsylvania. And they discussed -- they said they had some discussions with Mangione and they told the judge what Mangione said to them. One of the officers said Mangione was talking to him about his travels in Southeast Asia. He said they also discussed the difference between private health care and a nationalized health care system. A different officer was on the stand and he said that Mangione volunteered to him that he had in his backpack a 3D printed gun, a magazine of ammunition, as well as other items.
And so that is evidence that Mangione's lawyers want to keep out of this case. They don't want a jury to hear that. So we will hear from additional witnesses today.
They're not previewing who they're calling, but we have yet to hear from the police officer who initially spoke to Mangione, which is a question there of did he read him his Miranda rights and also the officer who searched the backpack in the McDonald's. Those two officers have not yet been called. We're hearing that the prosecutors could call as many as two dozen witnesses.
We heard from five yesterday. So we're expecting a number of witnesses on the stand today as all of these details will continue to come out and we'll learn a little bit more about what those early moments were when Mangione was first approached and then taken into custody -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right, a lot to come. Kara, thank you so much for being there for us. Really appreciate it -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right, coming up, a new warning from Ohio officials. Stay in doors as a bomb cyclone bears down on them. Millions of Americans in Ohio and beyond are in its path.
Also lawyers for Sean Combs, given their two cents over 50 cents, highly anticipated docuseries about his rival Combs, their new demand to Netflix.
[08:20:00]
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SIDNER: This morning, officials in Ohio urging people to stay off the roads, if at all possible, as snowfall rates -- it's choking me up -- to top an inch per hour in some areas of the state. It's part of a storm that's brought winter weather alerts for about 50 million people from Kentucky to Maine.
And let's go to Derek, because I'm losing my voice, but you are looking at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where things are a hot mess or a cold mess.
Look at that. John Berman right on time with the water. And now I'm choking up. So it's to you, Derek. What's happening?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sara, you powered through. Just a minute ago, I was using a Kleenex to wipe my nose. I've all -- we've all got head colds. It's the season, right? This weather is just not helping. Conditions are just downright nasty, especially if you're traveling on the roadway. So this is all part of the system that we've been tracking across the eastern half of the country, impacting so many millions of Americans. Yesterday alone, there were over 850 calls for service from the Missouri state police officers.
They had over 350 reports of crashes. And here's some examples coming out of Topeka. The snow was coming down in St. Louis yesterday. This is part of the same storm that is now closing in on the major metropolitans across the East Coast. But will it be rain? Will it be snow?
You know how we've been advertising this thing. It will be generally a cold rain for that I-95 corridor, but you work your way inland, it's a whole different story. That changeover from liquid to frozen precipitation happens pretty quickly, and it's all dependent on the surface temperatures on the ground.
You're looking at some pictures coming out of Cleveland, Ohio. Yes, that's incredible, right? They're getting snowfall, but they're actually on the back end of the snowstorm that is now producing some of the heaviest snowfall rates across central Pennsylvania.
So Pittsburgh, eastward into just north of Philadelphia. So really that rain-snow line right there, you can see the changeover, that precipitation indicated that mix with the purple, of course the blues being the snow, the greens being the rain. And the temperatures here tell a very important story because the surface highs are well above freezing here.
New York City, southward into Atlantic City, even Philadelphia. So that's why we've been advertising a rain event for the I-95 corridor, but you work your way inland, it's interacting with colder air, and that's where things change over.
[08:25:00]
And we could pick up a quick 6 to 12 inches favoring the Poconos, the Berkshires, as well as the higher elevations of the Hudson Valley. So this is an area of concern as you travel inland across northern New England as the storm bottoms out and becomes a bomb cyclone going forward. Sara, hope you got that water, right?
SIDNER: John brought it to me. I cheers to Kate who has been using her cup. I do want to say I wait every year for the first day that you say bomb cyclone, and you did it this week just as December rolled around. So it has happened.
VAN DAM: Look, I need to drop the mic.
SIDNER: This is to me the official winter when you say bomb cyclone. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Derek Van Dam -- Kate.
VAN DAM: You're welcome.
BOLDUAN: Yes, where do we head when we get bomb cyclone even before winter? It's not OK. Or it's great.
SIDNER: I do like snow over rain. I mean, yes. Just saying.
BOLDUAN: I mean, yes.
SIDNER: Just saying.
BOLDUAN: Except on the roads, so.
SIDNER: Correct.
BOLDUAN: Cheers to you, my love.
Let's turn to this. This morning we were getting a clear view on just how devastating the storms have been across parts of Asia. The death toll is rising.
Now climbed to more than 1,200 people. Hundreds more are still missing. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, they were especially hard hit by this rare tropical storm that brought a week of heavy rain, cutting off entire communities and greatly hampering rescue efforts because of it.
In Indonesia, a cyclone triggered landslides and flooding, there killing 659 people. Southern Thailand had reported 181 deaths. Sri Lanka, they had mudslides and flooding, it killed at least 410.
Rescue teams are still working today to reach more survivors. John?
BERMAN: That's just awful.
All right, a new lawsuit against USA Gymnastics. Gymnasts claiming they failed to stop a coach's alleged sexual abuse despite repeated complaints.
And for the first time in years, national gas prices have dipped below $3.
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