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Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is Interviewed about Trump's Speech; Texas-Sized Surprise with Voting; Jeff Probst is Interviewed about "Survivor." Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So, yes, they exist, but the president didn't make clear that we're talking like beyond needle in a haystack territory here.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so what else did you notice? You pointed out some of the more serious lies that were told last night. It surrounded the murder of a woman who was on a train. We all saw this horrific murder. She was in Charlotte, North Carolina, last year.

Let me play a little bit of what the president said about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And by the way, what's going on with Charlotte? Last summer 23-year-old Iryna was riding home on the train when a deranged monster, who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body.

She had escaped a brutal war, only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America. Came in through open borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, there's no doubt that he's right about this, the horror of all of this, as we all saw what happened on that train. But the man charged with her murder, isn't he American?

DALE: He is American by all accounts. That -- he did not come in through open borders. "The Charlotte Observer" reported yesterday that this claim is simply not true, that this man's Facebook page says he was born in Charlotte. The paper has interviewed his American mother. So, again, absolutely awful case, but attributing it to immigration, to the Biden administration's border policies, just completely baseless.

SIDNER: It's a real big problem, Daniel Dale, but we do appreciate you going through the facts for us. We really always need it. Appreciate you.

Kate. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about that big speech last night,

the address, and what it means now today. Joining us right now is one of the dozens of Democrats who boycotted the State of the Union Address, Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.

Senator, thanks for being here.

Republicans, they liked what they heard last night. Marc Short was on with me earlier in the show. His take is, "Republicans have to be really happy about it." That the president "delivered in a moment that he needed to deliver for his party." Essentially saying, he stayed on script and he talked about the economy. And you say?

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Well he did stay on his script. The problem is that the American people don't like the movie that he's trying to sell to them because they don't think it's real. Donald Trump, last night, again, decided he was not going to talk about his trillion dollar cut to Medicaid, his $500 billion cut to Medicare, his $300 billion cut to the Affordable Care Act, his absolute decimation of our Department of Education, his slashing of wind and solar and all electric vehicles. All electric vehicles will not even be an industry in our country. His undermining of civil rights, what ICE is doing on the streets of Minneapolis and across our country. That's his script that the American people can actually see.

And so, last night, he didn't talk about it. He just lied about an economy which he says is doing great. But for ordinary Americans, that's not the lives which they are living. So, maybe for MAGA Republicans, they're happy with what the president said last night. But the rest of our country is not. And he did not answer the fundamental questions, especially about our economy, that the American people tuned in to hear about last evening.

BOLDUAN: And in terms of tuning in, you, as I mentioned, you boycotted the speech. Dozens of Democrats did. It was kind of the guidance of leaders, if you don't want to silently protest and be in the chamber, then don't come.

But former Democratic Congressman Rahm Emanuel, he was just on the show. And I want to play for you what he said about that move, the decision to not attend by you and other Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAHM EMANUEL, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I think the Democrats should have shown up. Don't be -- don't play junior varsity in that area. And listen to the president's remarks and then go out and say what you disagreed with. And there's a lot to disagree with. I don't think it helps the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Does he have a point?

MARKEY: Well, you're asking me right now why I was protesting. And it's because I was outside at the people's state of the union with all of the groups who have been harmed by Donald Trump, who are living with those cuts to education, to health care, to environmental protections, giving those people a voice as well during this State of the Union. The state of the union for ordinary people in our country.

So, from my perspective, I think -- I respect, obviously, members who went. But I think, at the same time, we need to make sure that those who are outside and -- outside and protesting, who are hurting, who are really feeling the pain of the Trump economy, of the Trump policies, that they need to be heard as well.

[09:35:15]

That was my goal in staying outside with them because, like the abolitionists, like the suffragettes, like the civil rights leaders who were always on the outside and protesting what was going on inside, I thought that I should help them have their voices heard as well.

BOLDUAN: You are one of the leading Democratic voices on the issue of A.I. and what should be done and not about it. There's been a battle brewing between Anthropic and the defense secretary. Pete Hegseth has now set a deadline for this Friday, saying that Anthropic must drop its safeguards for military's use of its A.I. model or else.

And the areas that Anthropic says it doesn't want the military using its model are for mass surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons. But the Pentagon's point is, when you're a military contractor, you hand us the tool and the military gets to decide what to do with it. Who's right?

MARKEY: Well, obviously, from my perspective, Anthropic is standing up for the values which have to guide our use of technology. Technologies are inanimate. They're only as good as the values which the American people build into them. And what Anthropic is saying is that they don't want to be a part of any system which uses almost an Orwellian 1984 way of the use of technology to surveil all of the American people.

BOLDUAN: Right.

MARKEY: They don't want to have autonomous weapons. They want to have human --

BOLDUAN: On that, note, though -- on that note, Senator --

MARKEY: They want to have human -- they want to have human beings in the system.

BOLDUAN: How far behind the eight ball is Congress in doing its job to offer any regulation and safeguards around A.I.?

MARKEY: We need A.I. to protect the privacy of all Americans, but teenagers especially. We need -- we need safeguards around A.I. and its impact on our environment, just a massive consumption of electricity, pollution going into our -- into our environment. We need safeguards around A.I., how it's being used in the workforce, not to turn workers into robots. And we need A.I. to have the same civil rights protections. That's my legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 2026 for A.I. to make sure all the protections for civil rights are built into the algorithms for A.I. A.I. can do a lot of great things. Maybe find a cure for cancer. Maybe help in job creation. It can make -- it can do a lot of good things. But it's doing a lot of other things simultaneously that we need to build guardrails around. And thus far, the Republicans in the House and Senate have not been willing to sit down to build those safeguards in before the American people are living in an A.I. world, but without the guardrails they need for the protection of their families.

BOLDUAN: Definitely no bipartisan effort towards that for sure.

Senator Markey, thanks for coming in. Appreciate your time.

Also ahead, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar will be joining "THE SITUATION ROOM" to talk about her reaction to last night's speech.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, we just finished shoveling snow and making things easier, and now it is happening again in some of the places that just had to deal with this historic bomb cyclone.

And later, survivor host Jeff Probst reviews tonight's premiere of Season 50. After all these years, you ever wonder who Probst considers the best player who never won? We've got your answer, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:22]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Something is going on in Texas. Primaries are March 3rd. That's next week. There is a really interesting phenomenon happening, though, among who is voting.

Let's get to CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

We're not even exactly talking about the candidates here, which is why it might be even more important.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: No, mind blown, to quote the show "Blossom," Joey, "whoa." I mean look at this. OK, share of Texas midterm primary ballots at this point in the cycle cast in Democratic primaries or Republican primaries. In 2022, the last midterm, overwhelmingly the votes were being cast in Republican primaries, 62 percent. But look at what's going on now in the 2026 cycle. More votes are being cast on the Democratic side. What a shift from where we were four years ago at this point. More people in Texas picking up the Democratic ballot.

BERMAN: More Democrats are voting in Texas than Republicans. I mean, how unusual is that?

ENTEN: Just how unusual? Well, you see the massive shift from 2022. But look at history. Go all the way back. When was the last time that more people actually picked up a Democratic ballot, cast a ballot in a Democratic primary in Texas in a midterm? You have to go all the way back to 2002. So, this could break. This could break an over 20 years stretch. My goodness gracious. Whereby more people are actually voting in the Democratic side.

And I will note, it really hasn't even been close since 2002. Overwhelmingly, more people have been voting on the Republican side in Texas. And this year so far, more people are voting on the Democratic side.

BERMAN: This is different, very different, with a capital v in this case.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: So, we still have a few days to go here.

[09:45:01]

What are the chances -- what are the prediction markets saying about the chances this will stick?

ENTEN: OK, so we're only really been talking about the early vote. But if you look at the Kalshi prediction market, what you actually see is, the chance to have higher Texas primary turnout. Right now the people putting their money where their mouth is actually slightly predict that there will be more votes cast on the Democratic side than on the Republican side, 60 percent to 40 percent. Still a close race. But given that Republicans have been so outvoting Democrats in Texas, the idea that more people could actually vote on the Democratic side in Texas. Again, as I said at the top, whoa.

BERMAN: So -- OK, the cynic might say, OK, Harry, but this is just a primary. When there's a Democratic candidate and a Republican candidate on these ballots in November, who's going to remember this? It won't matter at all.

ENTEN: No, primary turnout matters. When we're talking nationally, primary turnout matters.

Take a look here. OK, national primary turnout edge. Which party? Which party voted more in primaries? Democrats or Republicans? and then went on to win the House? Look at this. The correlation, equal. Look at this. In 2006, more people voted in Democratic primaries than Republicans. Democrats won the House.

2010, GOP. GOP won the House. Same in 2014. 2018, more people voted on the Democratic side. More people than voted for Democrats in the fall. They won the House. And in 2022, Republicans gained that back in the primaries and then went on to win the House. Five for five times. The fact that more people are voting on the Democratic side in Texas at this point, that translates, nationally, Democrats, that would suggest well on their way to winning the House. And in a red state like Texas, as I said, mind blown.

BERMAN: History would tell us this matters. ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you. And you matter too.

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

A lot of news. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:40]

SIDNER: Drop your buffs and grab your torches, TV's longest running reality show is making a giant milestone. "Survivor" kicking off its 50th, yes, five zero, season this week. Twenty-four survivor legends, all from different eras of the show, are set to return to the island to battle it out for a chance at that $1 million prize. This is "Survivor" like you've never seen it before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to "Survivor 50," the greatest adventure on television. We chose you, and all we want is everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That is how you do it on "Survivor." The host of "Survivor," executive producer and the author of new book "Forged By Fire," the man who has been there for all 50 seasons, Jeff Probst joining us now in studio.

JEFF PROBST, HOST, "SURVIVOR": You didn't have to put the emphasis on the length of time 50 seasons takes.

SIDNER: It's incredible.

PROBST: Yes. Yes.

SIDNER: So, it's the longest running reality show on television. It is constantly changing. What's new this season?

PROBST: Well, a lot. What -- the biggest thing is we -- we've never had this many players, but we turned the show over to the fans. This season is kind of a thank you to the fans for this loyalty you're talking about. And so, we let them vote on really what kind of game design they wanted. And then we turned it over to the players. And I got to say, it is one of the greatest seasons we've ever done. I was happy every single second we were out there.

SIDNER: OK, I love it. OK, so I have to be -- full admission here, I have not watched all the seasons because my family was addicted. They could not miss it. They would record it back when that TiVo thing was --

PROBST: Yes.

SIDNER: And they would -- and they would watch it religiously. And I was trying to survive CNN and my job at the time, so I had my own issues.

But I do want to ask you how you survived all 50 seasons.

PROBST: Well, Sara, here's one thing I would say on that. A lot of people are like you. They might have seen the first season. Seventy- two million people watched that first season. This is not me just pitching it. It's a -- it is a season to watch. Even if you've never watched. You don't need -- "Survivor" every season is new. You don't need history. It tells you what is happening. And I'm telling you, it is really fun.

But how did I survive? Kind of like you probably. You know, one day at a time. When you're in this business, you have to be good every single day, every episode, every season. And that's what you all are doing every day. And that's really what we've done on "Survivor" is we just try to make a good show. And I know I sound like a pitch man, but we're super excited about 50.

SIDNER: I mean if you're going to keep throwing compliments over here, I'm going to definitely watch. I mean, just clearly.

If you could go back to season one, that incredible season, everybody would --

PROBST: Yes.

SIDNER: Like, everybody was watching. And there aren't shows that are so like that anymore --

PROBST: Yes.

SIDNER: Where everyone gathers around the TV, or computer as it is today, and talks about it afterwards --

PROBST: Right.

SIDNER: And talks about it at, you know, the office and at home.

What do you think is one of the most, I don't know, surprising or shocking moments? And I know that's a hard one because it has been 50 seasons.

PROBST: Yes. I mean, there have been so many. But what I think is at the heart of your question is, if you watch any season of "Survivor," if you go back 25 years and pop in anywhere, that's who we were. It's a reflection of us. So, you can see what we were talking about, the way we dressed, what the lingo was at the time, and sometimes topics come up that are of the cultural moment. And so we talk about them. And it's -- there have been lots of things. There was a guy that was outed for being transgender that turned into one of the most beautiful moments because of how this guy, Zeke, handled it. That's what's so compelling about "Survivor." It's not just a reality show, it is a human adventure on all levels.

SIDNER: It's a -- it's a cultural moment. And it was a cultural juggernaut. And people were really invested in the players. And I think we saw ourselves in each of the players.

PROBST: Yes.

SIDNER: Maybe one or two. You say, oh, I would do that. That's something I would do.

PROBST: A hundred percent.

SIDNER: So, there's some commonality too.

PROBST: And I think there's a fire that burns. When you watch "Survivor" and you get past the game of it, you realize, living in a jungle, trying to make a fire, trying to spear fish, trying to outfox people with all of my skills that I have as a human, it's a pretty infectious desire that we all have, which is, how would I do in a situation like that?

SIDNER: It's just a brilliant, brilliant idea. And the execution of it has been utterly perfect.

[09:55:02]

So, the question is, what is the best player that never won?

PROBST: Yes, there's only one name, and it's this woman, Cirie. Everybody -- people that don't even watch "Survivor" usually know this woman, Cirie Fields.

SIDNER: Yes, I know the name.

PROBST: Yes. Because she embodies this idea of, on any given day you can amaze yourself.

When Cirie first played, she's now a -- she's probably the most popular player of all time who hasn't won. But the first time she played, she was a nurse. And she said, you know what, I know I don't look like I'd be living in a jungle and surviving, but I think I could. And she's on this season. And out of the gate people are thinking, I got to take her out. She's the best of all time. The question is, she's the best of all time for a reason. Good luck.

SIDNER: We'll see. But she's never won. So, everyone's like, is now going to -- you can't help but root for her.

PROBST: Yes.

SIDNER: You can't help but want that for her.

I just have to ask you, you have this book and you're talking about the fire that we have.

PROBST: Yes. SIDNER: I think we have a similar big flame that sort of propels us. Tell me about your book.

PROBST: The book's called "Forged By Fire," And it's really -- it's designed to take you inside what it's like to be a player through photographs. But it's not just a picture book. That's very limiting. It is a visceral experience. And in addition to these thousand photos that we've never shared before, I kept a diary a couple of times over the 25 years, which I went and found and put some of the excerpts in there.

SIDNER: I want to read -- just publish that.

PROBST: Well, it really is fun to read --

SIDNER: Is it?

PROBST: Because the things I was learning about myself and picking up on the show, and then there's also big moments you mentioned, like big moments over the history, that I go back and, with perspective, can say, you know what, now I realize what I think was happening between these humans was more about this and less about that.

SIDNER: Jeff Probst, this was incredibly fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

PROBST: Oh, such a nice chat. All right, Sara, thanks.

SIDNER: Thank you.

OK, so I have an idea, guys. Why don't we, as a team, do "Survivor" against "SIT ROOM"?

BERMAN: And crush them.

SIDNER: Crushed.

BERMAN: Crush.

BOLDUAN: I mean I feel like -- I feel like survivor is every day on live television.

BERMAN: Yes, basically.

SIDNER: We're good at it.

BOLDUAN: So, so, we got this.

BERMAN: Forged by fire. Forged by fire.

BOLDUAN: We got this.

BERMAN: All right, thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM," which we would crush on "Survivor," is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)