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11-Year-Old A.I.-Education Advocate Among Melania Trump's Guests; Investigators Return to Nancy Guthrie's Home; Trump's Surgeon General Pick Testifies to Key Senate Committee; Trump Praises Presidency, Trashes Dems in Address to Nation; Dozens of FBI Records Apparently Missing From Epstein Files, Including Trump Accuser Interviews; Dem Rep. Lee to Introduce Impeachment Articles Against Bondi; Trial of Accused Apalachee School Shooter's Father. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

EVEREST NEVRAUMONT, FIRST LADY'S 11-YEAR-OLD STATE OF THE UNION GUEST: -- 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.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": 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 -- but have you thought about what you might want to do later in life?

NEVRAUMONT: Well, I think I want to go into politics and maybe become president.

HILL: Maybe become president?

NEVRAUMONT: Yeah.

HILL: Maybe if -- so then maybe someday you can invite somebody to the State of the Union?

NEVRAUMONT: Yes.

HILL: That would be pretty cool. All right, we'll be watching for that, President Everest Nevraumont. It's great to have you with us. Thanks for coming into the studio today.

NEVRAUMONT: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

HILL: Best of luck with everything. And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": She's a critic of mainstream medicine and doesn't have an active medical license, but Dr. Casey Means could soon be the country's next Surgeon General. We'll have much more on her confirmation hearing. Plus, on script and on the defensive, President Trump touts his accomplishments and focuses on the economy. We're going to take a closer look at how his message is landing with voters.

And investigators return to the home of Nancy Guthrie. Ahead, new details on the search and the new group that is assisting police. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

President Trump's pick to be the next Surgeon General was under the microscope on Capitol Hill. Dr. Casey Means has been a prominent voice in the MAHA movement, who promotes alternative remedies and limiting the use of pharmaceuticals. Her positions led to some sharp questioning from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle during her confirmation hearing today.

I want to bring in CNN Medical Correspondent, Meg Tirrell, who's watching all of this unfold. So, Meg, did Senators seem satisfied by these answers here?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Omar. I mean, in many ways, unsurprisingly, it sort of broke down along party lines. She was really grilled by Democrats, of course, on issues like vaccines, her prior comments on birth control. Where there was a lot of agreement was on ultra-processed foods and generally, the chronic health conditions in the United States that both sides of the aisle are worried about.

You know, Senators questioned her about how she would use the Office of the Surgeon General. And here are two exchanges we want to play for you back to back. One with Senator Cassidy who, of course, has been very concerned about vaccine policy under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And the next with Senator Bernie Sanders on foods. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): You are the nation's doctor. Would you encourage her to have her child vaccinated?

DR. CASEY MEANS, SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: 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.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT): Would you use your position to ban junk food TV ads?

MEANS: Thank you so much, Senator Sanders, and I agree with you completely. I think there is so much that we agree on, on these issues. Just to be clear, the Surgeon General's office does not have the purview to ban this.

SANDERS: But you have a voice.

MEANS: Absolutely, and that's a voice I would absolutely lend to talking about the dangers of ultra-processed foods and getting these advertisements off TV.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: So you can see she clearly there changes her tone when it comes to ultra-processed foods. She says she would use the Office of the Surgeon General strongly to try to work on that issue, whereas with vaccines, amid many questions from both sides of the aisle, as we are in this historic measles outbreak right now, she said she wouldn't use the Office of the Surgeon General to do that. She said, well, personally, she believes vaccines save lives.

She believes it is a conversation that should happen between a patient and their individual doctor, which is really a departure from the public health messaging we have heard on vaccines, even from prior Trump administration officials.

On other issues like birth control, she was also questioned heavily by Senators, also on things like pesticides, that coming from both sides, both from folks worried about the farming industry as well as folks wanting to home in on some of the tensions we've been hearing around President Trump's recent executive order on the herbicide glyphosate, that causing a lot of consternation in the Make America Healthy Again movement.

Guys, questions about her credentials, questions about prior conflicts of interest. We are going to be watching this confirmation vote very closely because Senator Cassidy, of course, himself, so worried about vaccine policy, he was a really pivotal vote in advancing RFK Jr.'s nomination. We'll see what he does here. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Yeah, some of those same questions swirling this time around. Meg Tirrell, appreciate the reporting as always.

Now, let's get to President Trump's State of the Union and the big takeaways today as both Democrats and Republicans lay the groundwork for what they hope will be winning midterm messages.

HILL: Yeah. The president during his marathon speech, piling on the praise, touting America's "turnaround for the ages," all while, of course, really putting the figure of Democrats as well.

[14:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to it. We're not used to winning in our country. Until you came along, we're just always losing, but now we're winning too much. These people are crazy, I'm telling you.

(CROWD CHEERING)

They're crazy. You should be ashamed of yourself. They don't like to hear that. One of the sick people. Sick people. Boy, oh boy.

We're lucky we have a country with people like this. Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now, CNN Political Commentator and the Host of CNN's "Smerconish," Michael Smerconish. Always good to talk to you, Michael. So, you called this largely unmemorable and a speech that didn't move the needle. Why?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND HOST OF "SMERCONISH": I think the most memorable aspect of the speech was the introduction of the gold medalists from the men's Olympic hockey team. There's really nothing else that I think is going to stand the test of time, but there was one line that I think you can distill the entire State of the Union address and the reaction to it.

Quote, "The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens." Democrats stayed seated. Republicans were all on their feet. The president called them out. Erica, I just talked about it for two hours on radio and I can tell you that the audience was divided.

Half said they should have gotten on their feet and half said it was offensive to try and divide the audience like that. My own opinion, I thought that was politically effective and I expect to see it in a mid-term ad near you by the fall.

HILL: Well, it also felt, I will say, clearly produced, right? The president very clearly wanted to have that moment on camera. You know, basically saying, I dare you not to stand.

SMERCONISH: No doubt about it. Choreographed. And I think sort of added to the list of -- and again, you don't have to accept any of these things. I don't necessarily accept any of these things. I'm just commenting on their effectiveness.

But the use of Somali pirates or again playing the trans issue, the way that they did effectively against Vice President Kamala Harris, I think that those were the key things that he wanted to address to motivate the base.

But he went into the State of the Union underwater with independents and of course, with Democrats, but independents in particular. And so, to come back to your initial question to me, did it move the needle with independents? I have my doubts. I think the only thing that moves them is the economy.

JIMENEZ: Well, and underwater on some of those polling has been in large part saying that he's focused on the wrong things when we know the economy was top of mind for many of the voters that elected him into office. And one of the things we didn't really see in this speech was there wasn't really a moment to stop and address how many Americans might feel right now. There's a lot of touting of what Biden did was bad and what I'm doing as president is good. But, was there a missed opportunity there to sort of level with the American people and say, look, I know things are tough. Here's how I'm going to fix this.

SMERCONISH: Omar, I'm so glad you brought that up because I was thinking the same thing. It's just not the way he's built. If it were Bill Clinton and it were the '90s, the line would have been, I feel your pain. This president feels no pain. This president is acknowledging no pain. Everything is great and it's going to get even better.

You know, total sales and no empathy. It's just not part of his DNA.

HILL: Yeah, it was remarkable. The president, one of the things that stood out to us that we were talking about earlier, he said 100 percent of all the jobs created under my administration have been in the private sector. There was no explicit mention of DOGE, given how much of a focus that was at the start of his second administration here.

Any surprise that that was not brought up or do you think this is something that perhaps they would rather forget at this point?

SMERCONISH: I think they probably would concede if they were being honest that maybe well-intentioned, everybody wants to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse, but the execution of it was a disaster.

And so, I don't think -- I'll put it this way, Erica. I don't think that any Republican who is running for re-election in the midterm nor any challenger in the midterm of a Democratic incumbent is going to be touting DOGE. That's like a drinking game and I'd be stone-cold sober by the time the election rolls around if you made me do a shot every time a Republican owns DOGE. Not going to happen.

(LAUGH)

JIMENEZ: Yeah, I'll take you up on that. It feels like a solid bet.

Before we go, I want to ask about the Democratic side of things because there is a wide range of response here. Obviously, many Democrats chose not to show up. Some Democrats were silent in the moment that you spoke about.

[14:10:00]

Some actually chose to speak out, as we saw in Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's case, Congressman Al Green's case as well. Going into this, there was some communication from Democratic leadership to try and toe the line, and try not to give Republicans one of those moments, either be quiet or stay home. What do you make of the Democratic response, either in the speech post-State of the Union, but also in the chamber during the speech?

SMERCONISH: So, I may be wrong, but I'm consistent. I want everybody to show up for these momentous events. I wanted President Trump to show up for President Obama's inauguration. And I don't know what the final number was last night, somewhere between 50 and 70. I think all Democrats should have been there.

I think they sort of owe it to the country. There's a moment of national unity, even if you disagree with the message, that I think is just important to remind us that we all have skin in the game, and there's a common denominator. So, nothing stands out in my mind relative to how the Democrats responded to him last night.

I think they should have gotten on their feet when he made the line about the immigrant community versus American -- I forget exactly how he phrased it. I think that was a missed opportunity for the Ds, but nothing else stands out for me.

HILL: Michael Smerconish, always great to talk to you. Thank you.

SMERCONISH: Thank you, guys.

HILL: Still ahead here, dozens of FBI records are apparently missing from the Epstein Files. Among them, interviews from a Trump accuser. Plus, a jury hears from the father of an alleged school shooter, opening up about the family's dynamics. Could his words influence -- how could his words influence the jury? That and much more, ahead on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:30]

HILL: Dozens of FBI witness interviews from the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appear to be missing. According to a CNN Review, three of the missing witness interviews, they're what's known as 302s, related to a woman who accused Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump of sexually assaulting her decades ago.

The woman told agents Epstein had repeatedly abused her, starting when she was approximately 13-years-old. She also made an allegation that she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in the 1980s. Now, President Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. The White House is calling these allegations false and sensationalist.

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania. She sits on the Oversight Committee. Congresswoman, it's good to have you with us. I should also point out a DOJ spokesperson said that no documents were deleted, that all documents responsive were produced. Does the Oversight Committee, though, have a plan to get to the bottom of this?

REP. SUMMER LEE, (D-PA) OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I mean, well, this is a part of it, right? Just from the very beginning, when we got the subpoena back in July, the DOJ has been obstructing. They've been stalling. They've been slow dripping the documents. So right now, no one should trust them. No one can trust them, right?

And even this last dump that they're saying is the final dump, which it should not be. There are three million documents outstanding, at least. And there is no reason by law or by our subpoena that they should not have turned those documents over.

So by all accounts, right, it's clear to us that we have to continue to press. But I also think that people outside are not going to relent right now. We've come too far with this. So I think that they're hoping that people will forget.

I think they're hoping that we'll be done with our depositions, we'll be done with our subpoenas. But we're doing a real investigation. And we are determined to get to the bottom of this, no matter how long it takes.

HILL: So you say you're going to continue to press. Is House Oversight in touch with the survivor making these allegations?

LEE: I won't speak for that particular survivor. I actually am not certain, though we have been talking to a number of survivors and their lawyers, who have throughout this entire process, They've been guiding us. They've been obviously encouraging us to continue to dig, point in a direction that we should go in.

We have to remember, these survivors have been doing this for decades. And I know that there is a new kind of attention on this right now. But for decades, these women, formerly girls, have been pressing for some sort of justice, a lot of great harm to themselves. Some of them have been harassed. They've been threatened. And they consistently come up.

So right now, whether or not that woman is willing or has come out to us and our team, I haven't heard from them yet. But whether or not she comes, she's already said what she said. She's already been investigated. She's already been interviewed a number of times.

The question now is not whether or not she has or what she is saying is true, because she's already been interviewed. The question is, why were they not in this release? Why were they scraped from the DOJ website that has the files on it right now? So who are they hiding? Why are they hiding? Is it because it is the president? Because the DOJ does not work for the president. The DOJ works for the people.

HILL: I also want to ask you about some other CNN reporting. So text messages reviewed by our K-File team show that Epstein reached out to the governor of the Virgin Islands in 2019 after receiving a Stop Work Order on his private islands.

This was amid an investigation into unauthorized construction there on Epstein's private islands. The messages show that Governor Bryan in the U.S. Virgin Islands told Epstein, quote, "We got you." And he said that he had spoken with top territory officials.

[14:20:00]

I do want to point out, it's unclear that any of these actions -- any actions were taken as a result of that interaction, but it does offer a bit of a window into perhaps how Jeffrey Epstein operated in that territory. Is Governor Bryan, who's now in his second term, is he someone that you would like to speak with?

LEE: Absolutely. But that's the thing, the Oversight Dems, we've said repeatedly that we want to talk to anyone who has information that can glean a light on the level of the corruption, the level of the obstruction that's going on here. And as we see, it's governors, it's foreign leaders, it's wealthy, wealthy multibillionaires.

This is such an intricate web and the web to protect them is even bigger now. So yeah, we absolutely want to, but that's the point. There's a lot of innuendo. There are a lot of accusations and claims. That's why we want the full unredacted files, because we need to be able to see every part. We need to see what the bank statement said.

We need to see the types of videos, the types of pictures, the types of emails and correspondences that Jeffrey Epstein had with all of these various people in his network. How far does it go, and to what extent were some of these people in his inner circle?

HILL: You've said that you want to, you would introduce articles of impeachment against Attorney General, Pam Bondi. What is the evidence that you would point to that you believe demonstrates an impeachable offense?

LEE: Well, first of all, the subpoena that we were able to get and to secure back in July, they have been in contempt of that subpoena since August. And since then, we have, of course, the Committee, of course, tried to hold the Clintons in contempt of the very same subpoena. And Pam Bondi had an obligation to honorably produce all of the Epstein Files in the DOJ's possession.

And it is very clear that they have no intention of doing that. And they're attempting right now to pretend that they are exempted from releasing the rest of them because of the Epstein Transparency Act, but they're not. This subpoena goes much further, and they are still held to that legally.

Also, she has been weaponizing the DOJ. This is not a partisan agency, right? This is supposed to be the agency that does our federal law. It is not an agency for Republicans. It's not the agency for the president who is in office. It is not their protection agency. They're supposed to get to the bottom of this. And she has made it clear, and Donald Trump has made it clear, that their only intention around the Epstein Files is to maybe prosecute, investigate their political enemies, but not get to the bottom of this.

And it's a disservice to the survivors, but it's also a disservice to every American right now who is looking to see if justice is evenhanded, if -- they're looking to see if their government will come through irrespective of who is on the other end of the investigation.

HILL: Congresswoman Summer Lee, appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you.

LEE: Thank you.

HILL: Up next, jurors hearing from Colin Gray himself as the Georgia father stands trial for a school shooting carried out by his son. And a bit later, FIFA's president now addressing the upcoming World Cup matches, which are set to be held in Mexico amid the spike in cartel violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:00]

JIMENEZ: New details in the trial of a Georgia school shooting suspect's father. The court today watching surveillance footage from Colin Gray's interrogation one day after the shooting. Now, two students and two teachers were killed when a 14-year-old student opened fire at Apalachee High School.

And according to authorities, Colt Gray has admitted to the shooting. Now, his father is on trial for allegedly gifting his son the weapon used in the attack despite a previous warning from law enforcement. I want to bring in CNN Correspondent Jean Casarez, who's following all this for us.

So Jean, what stands out to you from what we've heard so far today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this two-and-a-half-hour interview, the jury has been watching it all day. And this was a consensual, voluntary interview. He was free to leave at any time, but he talked and talked and talked.

And one thing he said was that close to the shooting time, he said that his son was spiraling out of control, that he was getting more aggressive, confrontational with him. He would try to put holes through a door if he could.

And he said that he would stay in his room for hours not coming out and that he was just focused on video games all the time. And that's why he had purchased him the rifle in 2023. It had been going on for a while. And when he was a kid, his father would take him deer hunting, and that's what he wanted to do. He thought that would get him out of the room, get him into the wilderness and just be able to experience something else.

He also then focused in on the guns. And there were some inconsistencies here because he was asked a question about where the guns were stored. Now, I want you to listen to Jason Smith. He was the Barrow County Criminal Investigator who summarized some of that interview on the stand this morning. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON SMITH, BARROW COUNTY, GA CRIMINAL INVESTIGATOR: He mentioned on two separate occasions that Colt had actually gone into his bedroom and that Colt had retrieved the firearm from Colin's bedroom, and taken it into his room to clean or mess with. Ultimately, towards the end of the interview, Colin admitted --