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Classified Report on Hegseth Sent to Congress; New Developments in Second Strike on Drug Boat; Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) is Interviewed about the Hegseth Report; Walshe Murder Trial Continues; GOP Wins in Tennessee. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 03, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

SAMUEL MADDEN, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR, MIT COLLEGE OF COMPUTING: Called the Social and Ethical Responsibilities computing. And the idea is to infuse ideas around ethics into our curriculum and our courses. So, everybody who majors in this new A.I. major has to take a -- has to fulfill a social and ethical responsibilities requirement, a SERC requirement, as we call it. And there's a list of classes that they can take to do that. And these include things about the broader impact of A.I., like, for example, how A.I. might be being used in law or real estate or medicine, and what are the sort of ethical concerns around using it in places like that and there's very -- these classes tend to be very discussion focused, very, you know, having students think critically about the use of A.I. in these settings.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: It is fascinating. Do you think A.I. is basically just going to become part of the way that everyone learns and everyone teaches at some point? There are discussions about whether or not it should be used by students as they're trying to learn some of these things. Of course, they would be using it in this particular course.

MADDEN: Sure. I mean, I think in some sense the cat is out of the bag in terms of people using A.I. in their -- in their studies. You see these results of the surveys about the number of high school and college students who routinely use these chat agents for their work, you know. And so I think we're going to have to evolve the way that we teach and practice education in order to infuse A.I. and teach students how to use A.I. responsibly.

I think also, you know, one of the things that you see a lot of people asking is, well, why -- you know, if A.I. can write fluently or if A.I. can program fluently, why are we bothering to teach students these things? And I think, from the point of view of MIT, we feel like it's really important to teach people skills, like, for example, how to be a good writer, because being a good writer is how you learn to think critically, how you learn to formulate arguments. And so, if we outsource that to A.I., we feel like that's really problematic.

And so, we're really working hard to create courses and curriculum that, you know, teach -- still teach students these skills that we feel are essential. SIDNER: Critical thinking, all important.

Samuel Madden, thank you so much for walking us through that. Appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, the highly anticipated Pentagon report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his use of the Signal app to share detailed timing of military attacks. He shared that on a group chat. It is now in the hands of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. So, when will we find out what's inside?

The admiral that Secretary Hegseth said is responsible for the controversial second strike off Venezuela speaks to Congress tomorrow. Will what he says align with the secretary's new account?

And it is one part astrophotography, one part are you insane. They call it the Fall of Icarus. The hot, new photo capturing a skydiver mid-air like really close to the sun it seems.

I'm John Berman, with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The pressure is still mounting on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth right now. And it is also now mounting when it comes on more than one front. Sources tell CNN, and a congresswoman just confirmed on our show, that Congress has received the classified final Pentagon watchdog report on Hegseth's use of the messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive and imminent military operations. This came to light, you'll remember, when the editor in chief of "The Atlantic" back in March was mistakenly added to the Signal chat, group chat, discussing U.S. military strikes in Yemen.

CNN's Zach Cohen has more reporting on this, and he's joining us now.

The Democratic congresswoman, Chrissy Houlihan, was just on the show, Zach, and she said they have just received that classified report. She hasn't even yet had the opportunity to go through it.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate, that's right. And lawmakers will spend the next several hours and potentially days reviewing that classified inspector general report. And we could see a declassified version released publicly as soon as tomorrow.

Now, obviously, as you mentioned, this coming as Pete Hegseth is already facing an immense amount of questions about his role in those boat strikes in the Caribbean, facing allegations of a potential war crime in that context. So, he's now facing dueling controversies that have really called into question his judgment and called -- prompted some Democrats to revive those calls for him to be fired by his boss, President Donald Trump.

As far as the report itself goes, our understanding is that it really does focus on Hegseth's role in that controversy known as Signal-gate, and the content of the messages that he sent to other top Trump officials back in March. Now, this -- these messages were about an ongoing and upcoming military operation targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen.

[09:05:06]

It contained information that we've been told was obviously classified at the time that it was sent via Signal to those other members of the group chat, which also included, unbeknownst to Hegseth at the time, a reporter. So, the inspector general has been investigating Hegseth's role in this situation since April. The investigation itself wrapped up in September. And Hegseth's office has been going back and forth, as is pretty standard since then, to sort of negotiate the -- what the wording of the final report looks like.

We're told that the investigation really did focus on a couple different things. One is Hegseth's use of signal, which is obviously not a government-sanctioned channel to communicate this kind of information, but also the question of whether or not he potentially put American lives at risk by sending this over an unclassified server of sorts. And if that information had been disclosed publicly, could that have jeopardized lives? These are all questions I know lawmakers are wanting answers to and will add to the growing pressure on Hegseth to step down or resign.

BOLDUAN: Zach Cohen, great reporting, as always, on this. Thank you very much for that.

Sara.

John.

Whoever wants it.

BERMAN: Yes, I'll take it. I'll take it. That watchdog report comes in the middle of a really difficult week for Secretary Hegseth, spelled with one s. He is facing questions about possible war crimes for the double-tap strike on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela. CNN and others have reported the second strike killed survivors. Both President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth now say they did not know at the time about the second strike. The White House says the follow up was ordered by a Navy admiral and maintains it was lawful. The president has also said he would not have wanted a second strike.

Let's get to CNN's Alayna Treene, live at the White House, for the latest on sort of a developing narrative here, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It is. And really where we're going to see this kind of hit a fever pitch, I mean it's kind of been at a fever pitch already, John, I should say. But where we're going to see the next turn of the wheel on all of this is tomorrow, when Admiral Bradley actually goes to Capitol Hill to brief and speak with members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee. And it's really going to be a key question of whether what he tells them is lining up with what we're hearing publicly now from the president and from Secretary Hegseth as well. Now, some of the key things I took away from what we heard during that

cabinet meeting yesterday. You mentioned one of them. It's that the president said that neither he nor Hegseth had any knowledge of that second strike when it was ordered and carried out. But then what Hegseth said, and this is going to be very important, especially as we're hearing both Republicans and Democrats, John, ask for tangible materials related to that double-tap strike in September, particularly a lot of them wanting to actually see the footage themselves. Hegseth said that he was not in the room for that second strike. He said he had watched the first strike but then left the room.

And all of that questioning kind of came from just a day after those strikes happened. They took place on September 2nd. Hegseth then, on September 3rd, went, did an interview publicly and said that he had watched the whole thing and that he was watching it as it played out. Of course, yesterday, then he's saying he only saw that first strike.

And the reason this is so important, I know we're kind of getting into the nitty gritty here, it's because the key question that lawmakers have is about whether they knew there were survivors. So, just to very quickly break this down.

When this first strike occurred, there were 11 people on board. After that first strike, nine people were killed, but two people, according to our reporting, were still alive, holding on to the wreckage of the boat. Then the other strike took place and that ultimately killed everyone. And that is where some Democrats, like Senator Angus King, for example, are saying that that could have amounted to a war crime. Republicans may not -- going as far, but saying they need more information.

So, a lot of attention is going to be on that meeting tomorrow with Bradley.

BERMAN: A lot of questions, to be sure.

Alayna Treene, at the White House this morning, thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. With me now is Democratic Congressman from California Jimmy Gomez. Thank you so much for being here.

Let me just go ahead and ask you about this report. The Senate Armed Services Committee has just received the report from the inspector general on Hegseth and what became known as Signal Gate. You're on the House Intelligence Committee. Have you heard any details yourself about what this report reveals?

REP. JIMMY GOMEZ (D-CA): No, we haven't had a chance to see the report, but that's one of the first things I'm going to do after this T.V. is go and ask my staff to find that report so I can actually see it. The Signal Gate was a big deal because he was putting the lives of our men and women in uniform at risk by revealing war plans on an insecure Signal chat. This was insane then, and it's insane now, and we need to get to the bottom of that. So, I'm glad we're finally getting the report.

SIDNER: If it is indeed proven that that is exactly what happened, it included an Atlantic reporter on that chat as well as some of Hegseth's family members, what do you think should happen to the defense secretary?

[09:10:10]

GOMEZ: Well, I think he should be fired, number one. But at the same time, I want people to remember this guy never should have been confirmed by the Senate to be Secretary of Defense. He's an F up. Where I come from, we call him an F up. He screws up and then he blames everybody else.

One of the things in the Senate, he had a promise. He had a promise that he would stop drinking or he wouldn't drink if he became secretary of defense. I never had to do that. I don't know any other people that had a promise not to drink. So, it just shows, even with this latest situation when it comes to the boat strikes, that this guy should not be Secretary of Defense.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about those strikes. Here it is what Hegseth in defense of what is known as a double-tap strike where they struck a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean more than once. Listen to what he said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: So, I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So, I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the -- which he had the complete authority to do, and, by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, he appears to put the blame on Admiral Bradley for the strike, but he also says that the admiral did nothing wrong. How do you see it?

GOMEZ: Hegseth is either lying yesterday or he was lying in September. So, that's one of the things that we have to call out. And he's acting like a military strike that kills people as just like ordering coffee or watching a commercial on T.V. Ah, it happened. Now, time to move on to my next thing, unacceptable. And at the same time, if they knowingly struck people who were in the water that were just clinging to the boat, that is illegal. Destroying the boat is not illegal. Striking people who are survivors that are clinging to the boat is inherently illegal because those people don't pose an immediate threat to anyone.

SIDNER: Do you think someone should be charged with a war crime if that is what is found out to be the truth? GOMEZ: I think that we have to make sure that we investigate, and if that's true, they have to be charged or fired or be held accountable in some form or fashion.

SIDNER: Let's move on to another huge issue that I know affected your state first. You've been very outspoken about the way the Trump administration is cracking down on immigration which started in California now. Now, the president is going after Somali refugees, using new legal action by prosecutors in Minnesota, sort of as a reason for charging forward a and going on a rant about Somali immigrants and a sitting representative, Ilhan Omar herself, a Somali refugee. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work. These aren't people that say, let's go, come on, let's make this place great. These are people that do nothing but complain.

But when they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but (BLEEP), we don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.

Thank you very much, everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You heard people in the room there, including the vice president, banging on the desk or clapping an approval after those inflammatory remarks from the president. What do you think of those remarks?

GOMEZ: I think they're disgusting, number one. It goes against everything we are as a country, a country of immigrants. The fact that he's trying to blame them for all our problems is complete B.S. And here's the thing. They can't defend their record when it comes to the economy, the fact that they failed to lower the cost of housing, the cost of childcare, the cost of groceries, and their tariff policy is making things worse. So, what they're trying to do is, once again, launch into these attacks on immigrants to distract from their policy failures, the idea that they're actually making America better.

SIDNER: Congressman Jimmy Gomez, I do thank you for taking the time and we'll be checking back in with you if you ever get any information or quickly get information on the inspector general's report. I do appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, you're looking at live pictures right here inside the courtroom. Brian Walshe back in court right now, on trial, accused of killing and dismembering his wife. Now prosecutors have introduced some of his jaw-dropping internet search history into evidence. What could happen today? And San Francisco is now suing ten of the biggest food manufacturers in America, all over ultra-processed foods. What this first of its kind lawsuit could mean.

And it was a scary moment caught on camera. Oh, my goodness, that is terrifying. A truck carrying sled dogs crashes and overturns on a highway.

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We've got details on what happened, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Happening right now, testimony is set to resume in the murder trial of Brian Walshe. You're taking a look inside the courtroom as the judge is speaking right now. Taking center stage this week are the -- really has turned out to be grisly online searches that prosecutors say they retrieved from electronics in Walshe's home. A home that he shared with his wife, Ana, until she disappeared back in January of 2023.

Now, he admits, and did so just recently, to dismembering her body, but he insists he did not kill her. That is at issue in this trial.

Joining us now is the person who has been watching this so closely for us is CNN's Jean Casarez.

Jean, walk us through what's expected today.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, I want to tell you what just happened in that courtroom. They're just about to bring the jury in.

But the prosecution wants to show pictures of Ana Walshe, and her children are in some of the pictures.

[09:20:03]

So, that's part of the issue. But she's wearing a necklace and a ring that they found in one of the trash bags. And they want the jury to see that she had these items, she wore these items, and then they were just thrown away like trash in the trash bag.

Also, the rug apparently was so bloody in that basement. And there's a -- there's a picture of Ana with her children, once again, sitting on that rug. And prosecutors want that to come into evidence. So you'll see the bloody rug. You'll also see the picture of Ana when she was living on that rug with her children.

Now, yesterday, the forensics digital searches that he did are very, very important to this case for the prosecution, I want you to listen to a little bit of the digital forensics investigator that read about the multiple searches that he did starting in the early hour mornings of January 1st.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROOPER NICHOLAS GUARINO, MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE: How to saw a body. Is it possible to clean DNA off a knife? Www.murdermurdermurder.com/blog. Want to get away with murder? Use special detergent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: He also looked up the name -- he also looked up the name Patrick Kearney. Who's that? The trash bag killer.

Talking about trash bags, I think we have some pictures here because yesterday they were shown to the jury of personal effects of Ana Walshe once they got trash bags out of the dumpster. Look at that. Those are her hunter boots. You see her black jacket. You see her Prada purse. You see her Covid card. So many personal effects.

Big question, though, if she died in her bed, why were those things thrown out? Big question.

Now, he was interviewed by police four different times. Finally, police say, look, did something happen with your wife? Was there something violent that occurred? You can tell us. Here was his response to investigators

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN WALSHE, DEFENDANT: Never hurt my wife. I mean, uh, I love her. And (INAUDIBLE) I think about my kids, too. She's a wonderful mother on top of being a wonderful wife. And to take that away from them, I mean, I just couldn't even imagine something like that. That's not -- I'd never do anything to hurt my wife. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with my wife. I still -- I'm still going to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And Brian Walshe has pleaded guilty to murdering his wife. The defense says these searches are taken out of context. There are multiple meanings. He did panic because his children were upstairs and he had to do something, but his wife died in her sleep.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jean Casarez, it continues as we speak. I really, really appreciate that. And don't miss a moment of this. We have live coverage of the Brian Walshe trial now streaming on CNN, on the CNN app.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, speaking of streaming, the highly anticipated Netflix docuseries about Sean "Diddy" Combs just dropped. The series is downright dramatic and has new revelations, including comments from jurors in Combs' racketeering case. At the same time, Diddy's team calling it a shameful hit piece. All right, we are also just minutes away from the opening bell on Wall

Street. Let's take a look at stock futures. Not looking great. Down just a bit this morning. For the first time since 2021, though, gas prices in the United States dropped below $3 a gallon. That happened yesterday. Record oil production in the U.S., ramped up drilling from OPEC nations are fueling the drop in oil prices. Oil prices can change quickly, of course, especially considering President Trump's threat to attack Venezuela. But for now, some on Wall Street are betting oil prices will continue to stay pretty cheap.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:28]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, the results are in. And the Republican candidate won a special election for an open seat in Tennessee. The Republican won. So why are Democrats smiling? You're looking at the results here. Matt Van Epps beat Aftyn Behn by about nine points. But this is a really red district. A district that President Trump won by 22 points last year.

With us now, CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod.

And, Axe, when we look at the list of special elections over the last year, you know, this was a 13-point swing in Tennessee. We've seen swings of, you know, 17, 19, 16, 12.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: What's really impressive is I did all that math on the fly.

AXELROD: Very good.

BERMAN: But what do these trends tell you? If you're in the Republican Party right now in Congress, what are you thinking?

AXELROD: Well, first of all, a little noted fact about this election was they -- the Republicans came in like gangbusters at the end to save Van Epps. And they were successful. They -- what they needed to do was they needed to pump up the turnout because the lower the turnout, the better her chances. The turnout yesterday in that district was unusually high for a special.

BERMAN: A special.

AXELROD: So, it really mirrored a midterm election. So, let's think of it as a midterm election. And their candidate ran, you know, 13 points behind where even with a favorable turnout, where you'd expect a Republican -- where the last Republican did in the last midterms.

So, this is -- look, I think they're relieved and Democrats are encouraged.

[09:30:00]

They're relieved that they didn't lose a seat. But I would not, if I were advising the Republicans, and I'm sure their advisors are telling them this.