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Clinton's Testifying Before House; U.S.-Iran Talks Continue; Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is Interviewed about Iran; Celebration of Life for Jesse Jackson; Iran Talks Continue in Geneva. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 26, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

RAY RICHARDSON, FORMER CIA NUCLEAR ANALYST: Initial attempt to try to cover over the destroyed reactor building. It was leaking. It was not as structurally strong as it could have been.

Because of these concerns, Ukraine and western donors got together and created a structure to cover over the entire building, a very large structure called the New Safe Confinement.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was finished in 2016, significantly reducing the dangers around the disaster zone, even allowing it to become a tourist attraction.

But in February 2022, Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine. And the exclusion zone around Chernobyl was used as a back door in.

There's a potentially dangerous military confrontation around that nuclear reactor. That could kick up all sorts of horrific radioactive material and cause that massive catastrophe to repeat itself all over again.

Russian forces plowed through, even digging trenches in the highly contaminated Chernobyl forest, threatening troops with dangerous radioactive contamination. Even four decades on,, amid a war that has seen at least one drone strike on the protective cover, Chernobyl remains a looming nuclear threat.

Matthew Chance, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Honestly, it's an incredible piece of history that is still unfolding. The CNN original series "Disaster: The Chernobyl Meltdown" airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

We are standing by for Hillary Clinton to testify in the House Jeffrey Epstein investigation as new questions are raised about why the Justice Department did not release documents that had specific accusations against President Trump. And then new reporting on what is happening in talks between the United States and Iran. They are in a break, we believe, right now. Is it possible that any deal could prevent U.S. military action?

And two people have been arrested after robbing a truck in the middle of an intersection. And it all happened in broad daylight.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan, and this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today is turning out to be quite a momentous day in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's case. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, the former first lady of the United States, will sit for a closed door deposition in the House Oversight Committee's investigation. Tomorrow, the former president, Bill Clinton, will be in the hot seat.

This is something the committee has been pushing for and the Clintons had resisted for months. The Clintons ultimately agreed to be deposed after the committee threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress. Hillary Clinton has said she never met Jeffrey Epstein. A CNN review found the former president, though, flew on Epstein's private plane at least 16 times. Last hour Democratic Congressman Dave Min, who is on this committee, he told John this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAVE MIN (D-CA): I'm a little curious as to why we called in Secretary Clinton, because her name's not in the Epstein files, as far as I'm aware, not in any kind of meaningful way. Bill Clinton, I think there's a case to be made because he is in the Epstein files. And I don't know exactly what Chair Comer's agenda is. It does look partizan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The Republican chair that he mentioned there of the committee has even said though that the Clintons are not being accused of any wrongdoing here, he just says they have a lot of questions.

CNN's Annie Grayer is live in Chappaqua, New York, where this deposition is going to take place where the Clintons live.

Annie, what are you expecting?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, we are expecting this deposition to go for hours, where Hillary Clinton is going to be questioned behind closed doors by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. I'm told she's going to be accompanied by her legal team, who's been prepping her for days to not only remind her of what was happening in her life around the Epstein years, but to also prepare lines of attack because we know that Republicans have a history of going after Hillary Clinton.

And I'm told that there are five areas that this deposition is expected to cover, and they include alleged mismanagement of the federal government's investigation into Epstein and his coconspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, the circumstances and subsequent investigation of Epstein's 2019 death, the ways the federal government could effectively combat sex trafficking rings, how Epstein and Maxwell sought to curry favor to protect their illegal activities and potential violations of ethics rules related to elected officials. \\

Now, this deposition is going to be happening behind closed doors, but it will be videotaped and there will be a transcript that eventually comes out from here.

[09:05:03]

Now, Hillary Clinton maintains she never met Jeffrey Epstein, and she only interacted with his former associate and coconspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, a number of times. She argues that Republicans are targeting her for political purposes.

Take a listen to how she described this to the BBC just a few weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I think everybody should testify who is asked to testify. I just want it to be fair. I want everybody treated the same way. That's not true for my husband and me because other witnesses were asked to testify. They gave written statements under oath. We offered that. They want to pull us. Why do they want to pull us into this? To divert attention from President Trump. This is not complicated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRAYER: So, as the former secretary of state indicates there, it was a long road to getting to this point today. The Clintons did not want to testify as part of the Oversight Committee's investigation because they argued that they were -- they had nothing more to offer than written statements and they were being unfairly singled out for political purposes. The two sides went back and forth for months and things almost fell apart. But the Clintons only caved once the House Oversight Committee was going to hold the Clintons on a bipartisan basis in criminal contempt of Congress. That's when the Clintons decided to agree to Comer's terms. Hillary Clinton will be appearing for her deposition shortly, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is appearing tomorrow.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Annie, thank you so much for your reporting.

John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, talks between the United States and Iran are set to resume this afternoon after nearly three hours of discussions this morning. Will it be enough to prevent a U.S. attack? What exactly does the Trump administration want from this? There is reporting that the U.S. is suggesting it needs Iran's three main nuclear sites dismantled, and that all of the remaining enriched uranium be delivered to the United States. That's on the nuclear front. But Secretary Rubio, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also now talking about Iran's missile arsenal as a separate thing from its nuclear capabilities.

Let's get to CNN's Alayna Treene with the very latest at the White House.

What are you hearing now about these negotiations, which are ongoing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are. And they went on this morning, John, and Geneva for roughly three hours. They are breaking now while some of the U.S., you know, delegation, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet with the Ukrainians. But they are expected to resume later today.

Look, they have a lot that they need to get through. And this is a very sensitive subject, of course. And there's a lot of distrust on both sides, which is a big complicating matter to all of this. But at the crux of what the Trump administration wants is essentially they want to ensure that Iran can never make a nuclear weapon.

Now, we have heard from the Iranians. They've said this privately and publicly, that they have no plans and they do not want to make a nuclear weapon. Of course, that is something in my conversations with sources that they say they don't know if they actually believe or if they can trust.

But even further than that, the United States does not want Iran to have any enrichment of uranium, the materials that would be used to make a potential nuclear weapon. And that really is kind of a red line for the Iranians. They believe that they deserve and have the right to enrich uranium for what they argue are purposes that are not for weapons but perhaps for other things. And so that's really where a lot of these talks have been, you know, breaking down on and where the complications arise. We have to see whether or not the two sides can actually bridge that gap.

And what we did here, you mentioned Secretary Rubio. What we heard from him yesterday was saying, if they can't even agree on the nuclear weapons part of this, how can we get them to agree on other issues that the United States is also concerned about, including their ballistic missile program and the threat that poses to, you know, U.S. bases in the Middle East and allies in the Middle East.

Now, I think a big question among all of this is, of course, what is exactly the goal on the United States side, and particularly what is President Trump thinking, because he has amassed a huge buildup of military firepower in the Middle East. Now, a lot of that has been for leverage purposes, but also the threat of a potential strike is very much real. And I keep being told that in my conversations with sources. They haven't said whether today is really a deciding factor, but it will go a long way in whether or not the administration believes that they are actually going to be able to make a deal. The president still wants diplomacy. And all of the conversations I'm having with people in that building behind me, they say that is a sincere thing, that he is saying that he wants diplomacy, he wants a deal, but it's unclear if they're going to be able to reach that.

Another thing as well, John, is that a lot of the president's critics are saying, why now? Why a potential strike now? Why so much attention on Iran now? From my conversations on that, they're saying, all of Iran's proxies in the region are weakened.

[09:10:03]

So, if he was going to make a move with a potential strike, now is potentially the right opportunity to do so.

John.

BERMAN: We're standing by for updates from Geneva, where these talks are ongoing.

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

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the Gang of Eight on Iran earlier this week ahead of the State of the Union and the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, he was in that briefing. And he spoke to John yesterday. And while he did not give details about what was said in a classified briefing, I want to play for you what he did say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): And tell you two things. Number one, it was very serious. And number two, the bottom line is, he has an obligation to lay out to the Congress and to the American people his goals. That is -- that is how foreign policy should work. When you're forced to lay out your goals, you have to meet potential criticism. I am very worried about how Donald Trump conducts foreign policy and particularly in this area of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now, Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.

Thanks for being here.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Hey, Kate.

BOLDUAN: You're on the Intelligence Committee. How close do you think the president is to taking or ordering military action on Iran?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I think the bigger question is, how close are we to getting a diplomatic solution? And right now what you're seeing today, ongoing, as was just reported, you have several major issues that are outstanding, maximum pressure being put on Iran. And let's -- a reminder that Iran is one of our top adversaries. You know, their lead -- their government's leading message is death to America. They've killed Americans. They've killed our service members, attacked our bases. And so, putting maximum pressure to get a solution on these three areas are key. Nuclear being the top one, ensuring they're not enriching to have a nuclear weapon which could attack us, to be used against us. Obviously, you know the ongoing discussions about ballistic missiles, which was just brought up and ensuring that that program is not able to move forward at the rate that they're spinning it up now. And, three, which is critically important, is for years they've been funding the -- they're the leading state sponsor of terror funding proxies around the world, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, all who have one interest, which is going after our democracy.

So, this is a critically important moment and day in the negotiations. I think the key is, how do we get to a diplomatic solution. And if not, making sure that we have every single ability to do what we need to do to protect the United States.

BOLDUAN: Well, and with that, I mean, at the end of the day, the Middle East is in the midst of the largest buildup of American forces in 22 years. With that show of force, that amount of firepower and what the president is broadcasting, do you think it is inevitable that he conducts a strike?

GOTTHEIMER: I don't think anything is inevitable. The reason they're at the table right now is to find a way forward diplomatically. And the president said that this week. You know, the Iranians who have killed, as you know, tens of thousands of their people over the last weeks, you know, for those fighting for freedom and democracy, they've massacred, you know, we have to be very clear with our adversaries that when you attack America, when you -- when you threaten (INAUDIBLE) our --

BOLDUAN: Right. But do you think he's been clear? Because right now he's not talking about the protesters, he's talking about the nuclear program.

GOTTHEIMER: Well, over the weeks they've covered the protesters. They've talked about the nuclear program. They've talked about the ballistics program. And, obviously, they, as you just pointed out with Senator Schumer, they briefed the Gang of Eight. I've obviously seen over the months plenty of intelligence of their activity. And the key is to keep pressure on, maximum pressure, to try to get to a solution here. And I think that's got to be the goal. And we need to make sure that we keep all options on the table. And that's what's important right now, we can't undermine these negotiation and our ability to get to a solution.

BOLDUAN: Hillary Clinton is sitting down today to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee about the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Bill Clinton going to be deposed tomorrow. You began your career as a young speechwriter in the Clinton White House. And I've actually heard you described as, you know, being quite close to them, so much so something of a family member almost. What do you think of Hillary Clinton being deposed today and the former president sitting for a deposition tomorrow?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, as was pointed out in the reporting a minute ago, Secretary Clinton wasn't even mentioned in any of these files, right? This thing is just a political witch hunt. And nothing that proves that point more than the fact that we just learned that the FBI and DOJ are actually -- haven't released all the documents that include information on President Trump. That just proves the point.

And from the beginning, both Clintons have been fully cooperative.

[09:15:04]

Secretary Clinton, just as you played, all right, submitted sworn testimony under oath. Now being deposed. They've asked for public hearings. Chairman Comer has refused to allow these to be public. I mean, why would they allow all this to be public and why is Chairman Comer refusing? That's because this is just a game for him, a political game, and a partizan game. And that's what they want to do here. They're trying to embarrass anyone possible. And they haven't dragged everyone else out for these depositions. Dozens of witnesses have submitted in writing under oath sworn testimony, sworn statements. And that's exactly what happened in this case. But it wasn't good enough for Comer and the partizan games that he wants to play.

And instead of talking about the real issues Americans want to talk about, like affordability, issues that President Trump just glossed over and mocked this week in the State of the Union, about people -- things that people are struggling with, right, utility bills and rent and child care and these tariffs, which are a massive tax on families that I represent, they want to do anything that they can do to distract from the real issues facing Americans. So, that's what I think of this whole clown show.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Josh Gottheimer, thank you for coming in.

This morning, memorial services begin for the late Reverend Jesse Jackson. A procession to honor him is heading to the Rainbow Push headquarters right now. We're going to -- we're going to go there live, next.

And Bill Gates now apologizing for what he says to the staff at his foundation over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The reporter who broke that story is our guest.

And it appears no good deed goes unpunished. A man shoveling the walk for his building, yes, you see what just happened there, basted by a wall of snow and ice coming from the snow plow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turned a little bit this way, and that's when I just heard, boom. And it just -- he plowed me with snow.

It was 100 percent intentional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:01]

BERMAN: Today marks the start of celebration of life services for civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson begins in Chicago. He died at the age of 84.

Let's get right to CNN's senior national correspondent Ryan Young for the latest on what we are going to see.

Really, today is just the beginning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN'S SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, today is just the beginning. But, John, you know, one of the things I remember after covering Reverend Jackson for so long, over 20 years, is every place we went to, there was always a lot of voice. You could always hear him -- you could always hear him say, I am somebody. He used a lot of that strong voice. And over the years, as he got sick, that voice started to sort of just go away. And that was one of the things that a lot of us talked about when we heard him getting sick.

If you look at these live pictures right now from Chicago, outside the Rainbow Push Coalition, that building right there is so important to a lot of people who live on the south side of Chicago. He did so much ministry, not only from that building, helped feed people, help get people jobs. That was really a beacon of hope for so many, and it stood for such a long time.

Of course, Reverend Jackson will be there over the next two days as people from that community will be able to go in and see him.

Also, when I talk about that big voice and the fact that he did so many historic things over his life, like running for president. Take a listen to the man and his voice back in the day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REVEREND JESSE JACKSON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: Don't you surrender. Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint. You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you are qualified and you hold on. And hold out. We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Keep hope alive. One of the things I remember, John, and folks don't always talk about this, how the origin story started in Greenville, South Carolina. Of course, he was from South Carolina. The idea that he went to check out a book out of a library and he was denied. And then all of a sudden there was a Greenville Eight. Instead of doing a regular sit-in, they did a read-in. So, you think about that, starting this entire legacy. And then standing next to Dr. King and being there while he was assassinated. There are so many webs that across this country where people know

Jesse Jackson, you understand, over the next few days people will want to pay tribute and want to remember a great American hero.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, his presence was felt for generations and generations, and his memory will last for even longer.

Ryan Young, thank you for sharing your reporting and your memories on this. Thank you.

All right, we're just getting new information in about the negotiations between the United States and Iran. This new information just over the last few minutes about where these talks stand.

And there is some new reporting on how the chair of the Joint Chiefs is navigating how he talks with the president about his concern.

Significant activity in the Nancy Guthrie case. Investigators back on her property four weeks after her disappearance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:26]

BOLDUAN: The United States and Iran are back at the negotiating table today over Iran's nuclear program. All these talks are happening in Geneva. President Trump has said that he wants diplomacy to win out, but he is also threatening military action if it doesn't. And he has now ordered the largest Middle East buildup of American forces in more than two decades over this. Sources now tell CNN that General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been vocal about the potential downsides of launching a major military operation there.

CNN's Zachary Cohen has this new reporting and much more on it.

Zach, tell us more about what you've learned here.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate, sources really describing what is a delicate balancing act for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine, as he really does try to navigate his role as Donald Trump's top military advisor, one that has, his predecessors have found, could be fraught with the mercurialness of the president himself.

And look, this is underscored by how Dan Caine has gone about presenting these military options to the president as they relate to Iran. He's presented a range of options scaling from limited military strikes targeting military installations or nuclear facilities inside Iran to a large scale operation that, with the goal of decapitating the Iranian regime. But at the same time we're told that behind the scenes Caine has privately voiced concerns about the scale, about the complexity, and about the potential for U.S. casualties if the U.S. does move forward with a major military operation in Iran. And that's something that really hasn't matched the rhetoric coming from the White House.

[09:29:59]

The president has publicly said that he believes a conflict with Iran would be easily won by the U.S. We know from sources, though, that that is not really consistent with the view of his top general.