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Trump's Surgeon General Pick Testifies to Key Senate Committee; Trump Administration Imposes New Sanctions Targeting Iran Ahead of Talks; U.S. And Iran to Hold Nuclear Talks Tomorrow in Geneva; Larry Summers to Retire From Harvard Amid Epstein Scandal; Louvre Names New Director After Brazen Heist; World's Largest Coral Colony Discovered Off Australian Coast. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:32:57]

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Dr. Casey Means just wrapped up her testimony in the Senate as she seeks to become the nation's next Surgeon General. Now her nomination, when it was announced by President Trump, raised eyebrows on both sides of the aisle. The role of Surgeon General is typically held by a physician with clinical experience.

Dr. Means did go to medical school. She dropped out of her medical residency program, though, and she does not currently hold an active medical license. She has risen in popularity over the last several years as a health influencer and author, and she's spoken regularly about her views, which offered plenty for the Senators to drill down on today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): You're a mom. We're on verge -- we're on the verge of losing our measles elimination status. Would you encourage other mothers to have their children vaccinated against measles with the MMR vaccine?

DR. CASEY MEANS, SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: Like you, I'm a physician. I believe vaccines save lives. I believe that vaccines are a key part of every public -- of any infectious disease public health strategy, and I would work with you, the CDC, the NIH, ASF (ph), FDA.

CASSIDY: But, would you encourage mothers to vaccinate their children with the MMR vaccine, seeing how we've had children die and this outbreak in South Carolina?

MEANS: I'm supportive of vaccination. I do believe that each patient, mother or parent needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they're putting in their body, their children's bodies.

CASSIDY: You are the nation's doctor. Would you encourage her to have her child vaccinated? MEANS: I'm not an individual's doctor, and every individual needs to talk to their doctor before putting a medication in their body. I absolutely am in support of the measles vaccine, and I do believe vaccines save lives and are important part of the public health strategy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So you heard a lot on measles there. And these initial hearing, we should point out, was postponed back in October because she actually went into labor just hours before she was scheduled to be there before the Committee. Since that time, though, the CDC has reported more than 1,500 measles cases, including 900 since January.

Joining us now is Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the former Director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Doctor, it's good to have you with us. So that was one of the early exchanges that we saw in the questioning today from Senator Cassidy.

[13:35:00]

Dr Means was asked repeatedly about vaccines. She was asked, as we heard about there, for babies, the MMR vaccine, specifically talking about measles. She was also asked about the flu vaccine. She refused to commit to the current science or the existing recommendations.

She did, though, in those answers also talk about how it's really important to her to restore the trust in public health. As the surgeon general, how important is it for the person who is the nation's top doctor to take a stand or not on something like vaccines? What does that mean in the grand scheme of things?

DEMETRE DASKALAKIS, CDC OFFICIAL WHO RESIGNED OVER CONCERNS ABOUT RFK JR.: Erica, thank you so much for having me on, and for that question. I think it's imperative for the surgeon general to have a very clear opinion on the role of evidence and data-proven interventions.

So, I am encouraged by the fact that she mentioned that she believes in the MMR vaccine, believes in measles vaccination. But people are looking to the surgeon general to have a definitive stance. Obviously, she's not anyone's individual doctor. She's not licensed to practice medicine.

But at the same time, that voice is so critical. And we, other doctors, take cue from the surgeon general. So, wishy-washiness is not something that we want to see in a surgeon general. We want to see someone who understands the data and is able to communicate very clearly that measles vaccine is key in protecting our children.

HILL: So, you mentioned that you take your cue -- as a doctor, you take your cues from the surgeon general. So she talks a lot about the patient-doctor relationship. So if as a patient, I'm going in and talking to my doctor and saying, I have questions about this. My doctor is answering me. But the doctor is also looking to you for guidance, is what you're saying, if you're the surgeon general. So, does it make those questions harder for a patient?

DASKALAKIS: That's right. Let's be really clear. The interaction that you have between doctor and patient around vaccine is not something that has been magically created by MAHA. Like at the end of the day, like every interaction, whether it's with the patient or their parent, is really about discussing vaccine and that consent that's necessary to go to the next step, which is actually vaccinating the child or the person.

So I think that at the end of the day, when you're talking about the nation's doctor, the surgeon general, you really are looking at them not only to message to clinicians, but also to doctors and other medical providers. So I think when you see someone who's not able to sort of say definitively, yes, the measles vaccine is important and I recommend it for children, that should make everybody concerned.

HILL: Dr. Means has talked a lot about how she would like to see changes to the way medicine is practiced in this country, that it'd be more about preventative medicine, essentially more proactive than reactive. It is not uncommon for a surgeon general to champion a cause, whether it's HIV education, smoking cessation, mental health. Is this a cause to you that would make sense for the surgeon general to take on in terms of maybe rehabbing medicine in the U.S.?

DASKALAKIS: So, I think that one of my concerns is -- and so, I think it is a great thing to take on. It would also be good if you took it on if you actually had practiced medicine. So I feel like it's not an abstract thing to sort of say that I'm going to rehabilitate medicine into my vision, especially if you haven't actually peered into that vision by doing it at the front line.

So I think that that is something that is going to be hard, I think, to be able to justify what a new vision is when you don't really even sort of have a sense of what the old vision is in your daily practice.

HILL: I only have about 15 seconds, but if you could ask her one question, what would it be?

DASKALAKIS: I would ask her, what is the evidence that you can provide us that you will support evidence-based interventions rather than ones that could potentially generate profit for you or your colleagues?

HILL: All right, Dr. Daskalakis, really appreciate you joining us this afternoon. Thank you.

DASKALAKIS: Great, thank you so much. Have a good day.

HILL: Still ahead here, ahead of those talks, high-stake talks with Iran, the president looking to make the case for taking action.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:43]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign on Iran is ramping up. The U.S. just imposed new sanctions on the country ahead of tomorrow's talks over Iran's weapons program. Now, the president laid out his case for a potential conflict in his State of the Union address, accusing Iran of trying to restart its nuclear program. Trump said the country has sinister ambitions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.

They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas. And they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: All right, a lot to talk about here. I want to bring in Michael Allen, the former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for National Security, and the former Senior Director for Counterproliferation of the National Security Council.

Thank you for being here.

MICHAEL ALLEN, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: Thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: Michael, I just want to start with, look, you heard the concerns of President Trump about Iran getting a nuclear weapon, even though he declared after previous strikes in June that the program was completely obliterated. But Iran says they'll never develop a nuclear weapon. Do you believe Iran? I mean, what are the off-ramps?

[13:45:00]

ALLEN: Yeah. I don't think that we can fully trust Iran. I mean, they would need to have unlimited IAEA watchdog inspectors across their regime. They would need to disclose things that they've done in the past.

And I think probably what the president is referring to is that there might have been nuclear militarization sites, R&D sites that the Israelis couldn't get to last time, or that have popped up recently. And also, there's this new site called Pickaxe Mountain, which people are beginning to focus more and more on.

So I think that's probably the basis for which President Trump is saying, you know what, if we go back in, we might as well hit these nuclear sites, too.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, one of the calculations here, obviously, is, is this a limited strike? Is this something much more sustained? Hezbollah, to this point, at least according to a source that tells CNN, says that they won't intervene if there's a limited strike on Iran. Does that help or hurt the Iranians in terms of, I guess, their negotiating power?

ALLEN: I think it really is a puzzling sort of way through this. I mean, I know that the president wants to do a limited strike, perhaps, and then get them to make additional concessions. But to me, I wonder about the nature of the Iranian regime. I think the way they behave and how revolutionary they are, they're likely to dig in and not compromise after they've just taken two or three days of shots from the administration.

So I'm all for trying it if people really, really think it's going to work. I don't have a lot of confidence that it is going to work. I think what the president is doing now is holding out the use of force to try and reinforce this diplomacy. We'll see more of it tomorrow. And I don't think -- if the Iranians don't put something real on the table, which I don't really think they'll do, I think we'll see strikes from the United States and Israel very soon.

JIMENEZ: You know, the way if you -- even if you just look at last year to this year, the limited strikes, sort of the aftermath, OK, we obliterated it, and now here we are almost a year later, sort of talking about this similar threat. It's either that, limited strike consideration, or diplomacy. I know past is prologue, they say, but are we considering essentially what would be another Joint Comprehensive Plan for some form of nuclear agreement or doing the types of strikes that we saw last year?

ALLEN: So I think you're right to bring up the Obama-era plan that he did with the Iranians, because President Trump, and now we're just speaking politically, not necessarily about security or policy.

JIMENEZ: Sure.

ALLEN: But politically, President Trump said it was the worst deal ever made, and so it would be really strange for the president to go in and make a similar deal with the Iranians. Now, he would try to define it from the bully pulpit as a better deal and a tougher deal than what President Obama got.

But it would be a bit strange, especially after they've just massacred maybe tens of thousands of their own people, to go in and strike some sort of a deal that gives them or recognizes an implicit right to enrichment. It just seems off where we are politically, and it doesn't seem where he wants to be when he compares himself, or should compare himself in history between what he did in the first term of getting out of the Obama deal and then thinking about what he was going to do for himself.

JIMENEZ: Well, and that's the other backdrop in Iran, obviously, the as-been-reported massacre of protesters in the streets which, of course, the Trump administration has pushed back pretty forcefully on the political front, at least at this point. You know, another calculus here is when you look at NATO allies, they've been hesitant to jump in and at the very least, not be enthusiastic about the idea of kinetic strikes against Iran here. Obviously, pushing more for diplomatic solutions.

What means does Iran have to retaliate --

ALLEN: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: -- if the United States launches a limited strike, say, for example?

ALLEN: So they have vowed to hit allies in the region. So, we know they're going to hit Israel and Israel knows that, and that's part of the reason I think we've been in a delay pattern because we're trying to get ships and whatnot over there to help Israel defend themselves. They have suggested they would hit Saudi Arabia and the UAE. I don't really think they will in the end.

I think that's probably unduly provocative. Maybe they come against our base in Qatar. So I think that's what they're going to do, in addition to maybe hitting some of our naval assets around or at least targeting them. So, I think they want to show a more muscular response than they had last time.

Remember last time? The last two times really it was sort of a telegraphed punch designed to de-escalate as soon as possible. I think they'll think that with the existence of the regime on the line that they need to hit back a little harder, but not so hard as to provoke President Trump because ,ultimately, what they don't want is a real, real war with the United States.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. I've got to leave the conversation there. We didn't even get to talk about the economic implications for some of those in the region based on sort of the Strait of Hormuz and other spots. But I appreciate you coming in.

ALLEN: Thank you for having me.

JIMENEZ: Of course. Erica?

HILL: (Inaudible) caught up in some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Former Harvard University President, Larry Summers will now retire from his professorship amid scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

[13:50:00]

Summers, who is also a former U.S. Treasury Secretary, went on leave in November. A Harvard spokesperson says Summers will remain on leave until the end of the academic year. Summers previously told CNN he was deeply ashamed of his relationship with Epstein. Recently released documents have shown Summers seeking romantic advice from Epstein and making sexist comments.

The Louvre Museum has a new boss. Four months after that brazen daytime heist that stunned the world, Christophe Larribeau will take over as museum's new Director following yesterday's resignation of its previous chief. Leadership at the museum has faced heavy scrutiny after thieves stole some $100 million worth of crown jewels back in October.

Since that heist, several suspects have been detained. The stolen jewels, however, they're still missing.

And a team of citizen scientists has discovered the world's largest known coral colony. That's exactly what you're looking at right here. This is off of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The coral itself stretches more than 360 feet. It's roughly the length of a football field.

It was discovered late last year by a mother-daughter duo at the conservation organization, 'Citizens of the Reef.' The group says it used manual underwater measurements, high-resolution imagery, and 3D modeling to verify the size of the coral.

Still ahead here, just what is it like to be a guest of the First Lady at the State of the Union and get a shout-out? Well, we're going to ask the 11-year-old who had that honor. She joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:00]

HILL: First Lady Melania Trump is calling on leaders in the public and private sectors to better prepare kids for a world filled with A.I. And one of her guests at the State of the Union represents that goal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Tonight, we welcome two young people whose lives reflect the First Lady's impact, Sierra Burns and Everest Nevraumont. Thank you both. And Melania, thank you. I know how hard you worked on that. Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, four, three, two.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Everest Nevraumont is an 11-year-old advocate for A.I. education. She recently delivered a TED Talk about using A.I. in the classroom at Alpha School, Austin. She's also a three-time Texas state champion in history. And lucky us, she's here with us in the studio this afternoon. Everest, it's so nice to meet you and have you here with us.

That's quite a big moment for you to be a guest of the First Lady and hear the President shout you out. I mean, what was that like?

EVEREST NEVRAUMONT, FIRST LADY'S 11-YEAR-OLD STATE OF THE UNION GUEST: It was incredible to be there and, like, see everybody, see the president talking. Like, these are, like, almost all the most important people in politics these days. And I was, like, right there in the middle of it, and it was amazing. HILL: What happened when you got that call? First of all, who called? Did they call your parents? Did they call you and say, "Hi, the First Lady would like you to come be her guest?"

NEVRAUMONT: So I'm not entirely sure because I was out shopping with my mom to get, I forget what. But my dad, he, like, got the email and he was like, is this spam? So he called my mom, and he's like, "Well, they're asking you to be at the White House for the State of the Union."

He's like, I think it's spam. And then another minute (ph), he's like, Oh, wow, it's not spam.

HILL: Yeah.

NEVRAUMONT: It was, like, on Thursday, and we were visiting Spain. So we had to come back on really short notice.

HILL: But was it worth it coming back early?

NEVRAUMONT: Yes, definitely.

HILL: Yeah. Was it what you imagined when you learned that you would be going?

NEVRAUMONT: Honestly, I had no idea what I was supposed to imagine.

HILL: Yeah.

NEVRAUMONT: Like -- and it was like probably better than I imagined.

HILL: You were there because, you know, we talked about the First Lady's initiatives when it comes to A.I. So you've been talking a lot about learning through A.I. and what that's like.

So I think for a lot of people watching, certainly for the way my kids learn, I think this is very different than what they do in a school day.

NEVRAUMONT: Yeah. (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: What is your day like?

NEVRAUMONT: So basically, we come into school and we start with what's called a morning launch. It's, like, a teamwork exercise. It's, like, a fun exercise that we do all together in the morning. And then we do our two hours of academics with, like, a 20-minute break in the middle for snack and recess. And the way we use it is with A.I.

And it basically decides our curriculum and creates some of the apps. And it allows us to work at our own pace in every single subject. So basically, we won't be, like, if one person in the class is really good at math, but someone else is struggling with it, they can advance in math, and they can still work at where they need to be. HILL: But you still have a teacher?

NEVRAUMONT: There's always a teacher there to help you if you don't understand something because A.I. is not perfect.

HILL: Right.

NEVRAUMONT: Nothing is perfect.

HILL: We're all learning. Nothing is perfect. So, have you noticed a difference in the way that you're learning? What do you like or not like about this?

NEVRAUMONT: Well, what I really like is it allows me to advance. And so, I really enjoy reading. And so, I was able to finish high school reading within the first two years that I -- year-and-a-half that I was in high school.

HILL: Well, I'm going to stop you. You were able to finish high school reading. You just turned 11.

NEVRAUMONT: Yes.

HILL: So, you're a little ahead of everybody, I think.

NEVRAUMONT: Yes.

(LAUGH)

HILL: What is your day like when you're not doing the A.I.? So you mentioned there are breaks for snack and for recess. Are you on screens all day, or are there times that you're out, you know, playing on the playground?

NEVRAUMONT: Yeah. So during our recess, we have to go outside. It's mandatory. And we basically go outside, and then we, like, I don't know, do what normal kids do.

HILL: Normal things. Yeah, monkey bars, jungle gym, swing on the swings.

NEVRAUMONT: Yeah.

HILL: So what do you like about A.I.? I mean, do you think that all kids are going to ultimately be learning the way that you're now learning?

NEVRAUMONT: Yeah, I do. And I think it would be super valuable because A.I., it figures out what you need to learn and then it can teach it to you. And it's a lot cheaper than getting a human to teach it to you. And it works just as well. And as long as there's one guide there to help you, it works. And revolution is the way that we learn.

HILL: Quick question before I let you go. Have you thought at all -- you're young, so I don't want to put too much pressure on you --