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U.S. Military Shoots Down U.S. Drone Being Used by Border Protection; Hillary Clinton Says, Bill's Epstein Ties Ended Before Criminal Acts Known; Anthropic Rejects Pentagon's Ultimatum Ahead of Deadline. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 27, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, breaking overnight, word that the U.S. military shot down a U.S. drone near the border, the FAA restricts airspace and response, messy and potentially dangerous, and very much armed interagency conflict.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Bill Clinton in the hot seat this morning for his deposition with lawmakers over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent six hours answering questions on Thursday.

And a dramatic rescue, a man missing for two weeks found almost completely buried in mud.

Sara and Kate are out today. I'm Erica Hill, along with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And breaking overnight, the U.S. shoots down a U.S. drone. You heard that right, one branch of the government taking armed action against the asset of another. The U.S. military used this controversial laser to shoot down a drone operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, this happened in Texas, and this is according to three House Democrats briefed on the matter.

At this time, we don't know why or even exactly where this happened. The FAA issued a temporary flight restriction above the rural area of Fort Hancock, Texas, that's along the border of Mexico, about 50 miles from El Paso. Just two weeks ago, the FAA abruptly closed airspace over El Paso, effectively shutting down the El Paso airport for hours. Officials later said CBP was using anti-drone laser technology at the time.

As for this incident that we just learned about in a joint statement, three Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said, quote, our heads are exploding after learning about what happened. The lawmakers blamed it on the White House, saying the administration sidestepped a bill requiring training and increased coordination.

We're going to bring you updates on this as they come in this morning. Erica? HILL: Well, happening today, a historic legal showdown, a former president of the United States now set to testify about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Clinton will be deposed by the House Oversight Committee this morning, this, of course, after Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, answered questions for more than six hours on Thursday.

GOP lawmakers say they have a lot of questions for the former president who flew on Epstein's private plane at least 16 times, according to a CNN analysis. As for Hillary Clinton, after Thursday's deposition where she repeated she had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes, she also said she expects her husband will likely say the same today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years -- several years before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The former senator also criticized the committee for holding the deposition behind closed doors. There was also this moment, her testimony temporarily paused after Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert sent a photo from inside to a right wing influencer.

Now, the Clintons is important to note, have not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in this case.

CNN's Annie Grayer is in Chappaqua, New York, which, of course, is where these depositions are happening. So what do we expect in terms of the questioning for the former president today?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Erica, we expect it to be a long day today where Bill Clinton is going to face questions by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. This deposition is going to happen behind closed doors, even though the Clintons wanted this to be public at. But there will be a transcript and a videotape of this interview that we will expect to come out shortly.

And unlike his wife yesterday, Hillary Clinton, who said she never met Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton has a long documented relationship with Epstein. He flew on Epstein's plane multiple times. Epstein visited Clinton at the White House. And Bill Clinton is all over the Epstein photos released by the Justice Department, including a photo of the former president in a jacuzzi with women whose faces are redacted.

Now, Bill Clinton has never been accused of any wrongdoing and says he's cut ties with Epstein long before any knowledge of his crimes became public. And Hillary Clinton said as much yesterday, defending her husband, saying that he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes, and argued that a lot of people at the -- in the early 2000s, like her husband, who were friends with Epstein, didn't necessarily know anything about what Epstein was doing.

[07:05:04]

But this is not how the Clintons wanted this to go down. They did not want to testify as part of this investigation. And they argued that they were being singled out for political purposes because others in this investigation were able to submit written statements, but House Oversight Chair James Comer demanded that the Clintons appear on under subpoena for a deposition on his terms. And it wasn't until Democrats and Republicans were willing to hold the Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress that the Clintons caved to the demands of the Republicans, which is why we are in Chappaqua today.

And we're expecting there to be at least five categories that the Clintons are -- that Bill Clinton is going to face. It's going to be a long day. But Democrats say this sets a new precedent for them if they want to call President Trump in for testifying because Bill Clinton will be the first former president to ever sit for a closed door deposition for Congressional investigation. Erica?

HILL: Annie Grayer with the latest force from Chappaqua, Annie, thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now is CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Elie, Annie points out this is unprecedented in terms of former presidents being forced to testify before a Congressional committee. Bill Clinton sitting for testimony, though not unprecedented.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: We've seen that before?

BERMAN: We've seen it before.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: You actually spoke to David Kendall, who's been his lawyer for a long time. He was sitting next to Hillary Clinton all day yesterday. You spoke to David Kendall for your book, When You Come at the King, about special counsels. What have you learned about how Bill Clinton faces handles questions like this in these settings?

HONIG: So, Bill Clinton is a notoriously difficult subject to be questioned. The man was a lawyer, he was president. He's been questioned by prosecutors and lawyers in the media countless times. When they prepared for the 1998 grand jury testimony in front of Ken Starr, it sounds like similar to what the reporting is about how they've prepared for this testimony. They've spent hours upon hours, days upon days getting ready for this, like it was a boxing match or a chess match.

And the thing they did in '98, and I would watch for this today, is they had Bill Clinton prepared with about a dozen what they called set pieces, meaning pre sort of rehearsed speeches or talking points that he would use. And there's a couple reasons for that. One, they want to keep him on message, and, two, they want to run out the clock. Bill Clinton is really good at taking over these settings and filibustering and running down the time allotted.

BERMAN: So, what's the set piece answer for what was going on in this photo of you? You know, why were you in the jacuzzi?

HONIG: Bill Clinton follows the old lawyers adage of admit what you can't deny and deny what you can't admit. And so if I had to guess, what's he going to say, and those photos look really bad, I think what he's going to say is. Yes, that's me. Yes, that's Ghislaine Maxwell. Yes, that's another person. Perhaps he does or does not remember the identity. And I think he will say, other than the fact that I was in a pool and where that pool was, I have no memory of it or nothing happened. I imagine he's going to admit what's in the photo and not admit really anything beyond what's in the photo.

BERMAN: So, Annie also brought up this idea of precedent in another way, which is if you bring a former president into ask questions, could this ultimately happen to Donald Trump when he's no longer president? Could it happen to the current first lady of the United States, Melania Trump, who is in pictures with Jeffrey Epstein?

HONIG: Right. So, precedent in Congress is only as strong as whoever holds the majority, but we've heard Democratic members of this Oversight Committee say, if we take over in November, which certainly could happen, we then plan to subpoena Donald Trump.

Now, the response from the Republican side has been, well, but the sitting president is than a former president, and there's something to that. There are many legal settings where the courts give the sitting president more privileges more exemptions, more immunities than a former president. So, we'll see if the Democrats take over.

But it certainly gives them a political mechanism to say, well, hey, you subpoenaed the Democratic former president. We want to subpoena the Republican former president. But Melania is an interesting one too, right? Because the justification, part of the justification for Hillary Clinton is, I mean, neither of them are president, but, well, she knows something about her husband's activities. That same rationale would certainly apply in reverse to Melania. So, again, if the Dems take over, that could be a subpoena they're considering.

BERMAN: Watch this space. Elie Honig, you're going to be here all day helping us understand what we're seeing as this testimony happens. It is historic in many ways. Thank you.

HONIG: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Erica?

HILL: So, we are now just hours away from the Pentagon's deadline for Anthropic. The top A.I. company though says it's not going to give in to the defense secretary's demands on how to use its technology, insisting there are two red lines here that absolutely cannot be crossed.

Also new overnight, Savannah Guthrie's plans for her future at the Today Show as the search continues for her 84-year-old mother.

And if you can't get a ride, here's an idea. Maybe hail an air taxi. Yes, Uber Air getting ready for liftoff, maybe near you.

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[07:10:00]

HILL: New this morning, Anthropic is rejecting the Pentagon's ultimatum. Now, the Pentagon wants the company to allow unrestricted use of Anthropic's A.I. technology for all lawful purposes, or it has warned that Anthropic will effectively be blacklisted.

CNN's Hadas Gold is with me now. So, you've been following all the twists and turns here. So, Anthropic putting out this statement Thursday night, the deadline's later today, but essentially saying, what, we are not playing ball with the Pentagon?

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, they said that the Pentagon came back to them with some updates to this contract that they've been negotiating for months. And they say that even though they came back with some edits that the legal lease in there, it still doesn't satisfy their concerns about their two red lines.

Now, as you noted, the Pentagon wants to be able to say to Anthropic, we want to use your Claudia A.I. system, that's one of the only systems that's used in the classified military system, for any purpose. They don't want to be in the middle of a war situation, having to go to Anthropic and saying, hey, we need to do this. Can you give us permission?

But Anthropic says they have two major concerns here, and it's because they just don't think the A.I. systems are either reliable enough for this. These are things like autonomous weapons. They say it's just not reliable enough yet to be able to aim and shoot a weapon. They're also concerned about mass surveillance of U.S. citizens, saying just our laws and regulations have not caught up to what A.I. can do when it comes to mass surveillance.

[07:15:03]

And they say that the Pentagon's attempted changes did not satisfy that, and they are not budging on this. And they say, the military is welcome to go elsewhere. They will help the military off-board Anthropics products. They'll help them onboard somebody new.

And Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropics, saying in a statement, regardless, these threats, we do not change our position. We cannot, in good conscience, accede to their request. Those threats, of course, being that the Pentagon is going to essentially blacklist Anthropic, calling them a supply chain risk. This is something that's normally used for companies that are connected to foreign adversaries.

I don't think it's ever been used on an American A.I. company, not just any American A.I. company, but one that's considered one of the best in the industry. Those Claude systems are loved by programmers. There's a reason why the Pentagon is using this, because it is well used within the Defense Department. Experts say that it is well within all of the military and the military does enjoy using it, and that's why the Pentagon wants to continue using this and is probably putting up this fight.

Now, what's really interesting is that the undersecretary for War on Technology, the one who's been in a lot of these negotiations, Emil Michael, went on a Twitter tear yesterday, posting all of these things about Anthropic, about Dario Amodei, saying, instead of just saying, okay, we're just going to move on to another company, they're accusing Anthropic of trying to rewrite the laws instead of just being a company who wants to uphold its own values in its contract.

I'll read you one of the posts that he said. He said, it's a shame that Dario Amodei is a liar and has a god complex. He wants nothing more than to try to personally control the U.S. military, and he is okay putting our nation's safety at. The Department of War will always adhere to the law, but not bend to the whims of any one for-profit tech company.

And, again, you're thinking, well, if you just don't like this A.I. company, just go use something else. And part of the reason this philanthropic is one of the only A.I. systems that's approved to work on the classified military systems, the other A.I. companies are in talks to do so as well, Grok has just been approved, but for some people they say none of them are as good as Claude, and that's why you have this fight playing out.

HILL: It is really something, and to see it all play out in public like this. Hadas, I know we're not done, so we'll keep revisiting it later this morning because much more to talk about on this space. Thank you.

A new headline from Politico, Republicans are freaking out over the Texas Senate race. President Trump landing in the Lone Star state today. He, of course, is there just days before the heated primary.

Plus, a fight over a vanity plate gets heated, and now New York's governor is stepping in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): I think everybody should be reminded to pee before you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BERMAN: This morning, a U.S. hockey player is pushing back after a fake A.I.-generated video went viral. The clip made it look like Brady Tkachuk was insulting Canadians after winning Olympic gold.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Scholes. I kind of say like the story swirling around hockey, they just keep on coming.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, I think we went the full week this week, John, leading on a hockey story, but, you know, Brady Tkachuk not happy about this for a number of reasons. You know, one, because he clearly didn't say what's in the video. Two, he plays in Canada for the Ottawa Senators. So, obviously, he would not go insult his own fans.

Now, the video on the White House's TikTok, it's been viewed more than 11 million times, and it starts with Tkachuk saying they booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup- eating bleeps a lesson. Tkachuk clearly didn't say that, and it's A.I. And Tkachuk says he does not condone that video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRADY TKACHUK, U.S. HOCKEY GOLD MEDALIST: If you watch the video that's not my voice and something that I never say and, I mean, I don't really know how that kind of took a storm on its own when, you know, I play here and give everything I have here. And I just think that's something that never a thought would happen in my head and especially would never say it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on Tkachuk's remarks and the video itself.

All right, members of the women's gold medal-winning team, meanwhile they say they aren't sure they are going to be going to the White House. That's after President Trump said during the State of the Union, he would be celebrating with the team soon. But one thing is for sure, the team is going to Vegas this summer to celebrate with Flava Flav, the rapper and rally star announcing that he's going to host the team July 16th through the 19th for a She Got Game weekend.

All right, we had some history in the NBA last night by rookie Kon Knueppel. The 20-year-old made 8 threes, scored 28 points in Charlotte's won over the Pacers. But during the game, Knueppel breaking Keegan Murray's rookie record for threes in a season, which he had set back in 2023.

Knueppel now has 209 threes. But the impressive part about is he broke the record in just 59 games. He's got 22 more to go to pad that record and really put it out over.

All right, and, finally, David Ford had himself one crazy day at the Cognizant Classic in Florida yesterday. So, Ford teed off on the back nine. On 17 here, he's in the mud trying to hit this ball out, and as you can see, that did not go his plan. He tried again. And, again, look what happens, the ball is just going to roll back. Ford ended up taking a drop after that quad bogeyed that hole.

You would think that would absolutely ruin his day, right? Well, it did not on two, look at this from the fairway, he rolled out for a birdie. Then on three, he rolls this one in for an eagle and he still was not done. On the next hole, Ford in trouble in the bunker, gets out, goes into save park, three-hole outs in a row.

So, John, you know, the day was looking like an absolute disaster, but he turned it around in a big way. So, you know, it's just a lesson for everyone, you know, spill coffee on yourself in the morning, you know, you could still go on to do great things.

BERMAN: Even after a quadruple bogey. I'm trying to do the math there. I can't figure out if it evened out, like not quite.

[07:25:01]

He's still won down after the quadruple bogey?

SCHOLES: He ended up one over for the day, one over for the day after all that.

BERMAN: That's amazing. I mean, thank you for the math out there, Andy Scholes. I appreciate it.

SCHOLES: All right.

BERMAN: All right, new reports that President Trump might declare a national emergency to unlock extraordinary powers over elections.

And buried in mud for days, the rescue to free a man who was stuck in this sand, literally, for days.

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HILL: Today, President Trump is headed to Texas just days ahead of key primary races in the Lone Star State. But the president will be in Corpus Christi. He's expected to have all three candidates in the heat of GOP Senate primary join him, Senator John Cornyn, who's fending off challenges from Congressman Wesley Hunt and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

[07:30:08]