Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Now: Bill Clinton Testifies In House Epstein Probe; Garcia Disputes GOP Description Of Clinton's Comments On Trump; Soon: Trump Arrives In Texas As GOP Senate Primary Heats Up; Anthropic Rejects Pentagon's Ultimatum, Won't Remove Safeguards; Gunman's Father Takes Stand, Saying He Never Saw Red Flags For Son; Father Of Accused Apalachee High School Shooter Breaks Down As Video Of His Son Is Played At Trial. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 27, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Chernobyl remains a looming nuclear threat.

Matthew Chance, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Thanks to Matthew Chance.

Be sure to tune in, "Disaster: The Chernobyl meltdown." Back-to-back episodes premieres Sunday at 9 P.M. Eastern.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: An emphatic denial. Former President Bill Clinton telling the House Oversight Committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein, "I did nothing wrong."

President Trump visiting Texas just days before the Lone Star State holds a primary that could tell us a lot about November's midterm elections and a battle over the future of how the Pentagon fights.

A.I. company Anthropic facing a deadline to reach a deal with the Defense Department or face the consequences, and Anthropic is digging in.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We have breaking news on former President Bill Clinton's testimony to the House Oversight Committee. The former president has now faced hours of questioning about his past relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And as of today, Clinton has now said under oath, I had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing. He added, quote, by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.

Neither Bill Clinton nor President Trump has been accused by law enforcement of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein. Democrats, though, say a precedent has been set and President Trump must be deposed. The President said this earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know anything about the Epstein files, you know? I've been fully exonerated, you know?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) about having Bill Clinton being deposed and that set precedent for you and your family.

TRUMP: I don't like seeing him deposed. But, you know, they certainly went after me a lot more than that ...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: ... and I don't like ....

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President. Mr. President ...

TRUMP: ... I don't like being deposed. I like him and I don't like seeing him deposed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's MJ Lee is live from Chappaqua, New York, for us, where Clinton's deposition is happening. What's the latest from where you are, MJ?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we know that there have been at least two hours of questioning from Republican and Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee with the former president, Bill Clinton, behind closed doors. We, of course, know that he has denied any wrongdoing on his part, denied having any knowledge about Epstein's crimes and his actions that date back many years.

Lawmakers have also said that he hasn't pled the fifth yet today and also that he has given long and deliberate answers to some of the questions that he has received from lawmakers and -- and to some of the questions that he has been asked. He has said, as he predicted that he would in his opening remarks, I don't recall because some of these events took place such a long time ago.

But one name that we know for sure has come up in the middle of this deposition of former President Bill Clinton is the current president, Donald Trump. Listen to a little bit of the update that we got from the Chairman and the Ranking Member of this committee a little bit ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Ranking Member Garcia asked President Clinton, quote, "Should -- should President Trump be called to answer questions for this committee?" And President Clinton said, "That's for you to decide." And the President went on to say that the President, Trump, has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved and he met with Epstein."

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): President Clinton did bring up some additional information about some discussions with President Trump. I think that the way Chairman Comer described it, I don't think is a complete accurate description of what actually was said. So, let's release the full transcript so you can get all get a full record of what actually was said, which brings up some very important new questions about comments that President Trump has actually said in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: So, as you can hear there, a bit of a he said, he said situation on how exactly President Trump was brought up in this context. But as you heard the ranking member saying in that clip, we're not going to know the full context about anything that was said in either Hillary Clinton's deposition yesterday or Bill Clinton's deposition today until the full transcripts and the videos are released, which could happen as early as today.

But it is clear, Brianna and Boris, that they are -- these members of the Committee are clearly training their sights on other individuals that they could bring in for questioning, whether it's the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, whether it is women who may have helped Epstein bring in young girls, whether it is other people in powerful positions.

[15:05:09]

So, those conversations are ongoing, and I do think they are going to continue when the Bill Clinton deposition is over, because clearly these lawmakers are not done asking questions and trying to get even just a little bit more information about Epstein's crimes.

KEILAR: And Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace, MJ, is calling for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify before the committee after a photo in the Epstein file shows Lutnick on Epstein's island.

LEE: Yes, Brianna, Howard Lutnick is a name that has come up a bunch of times over the last day or so here in Chappaqua, with both Republicans and Democrats saying that they are interested to hear from the Commerce Secretary in this setting because of his appearance in the Epstein files.

And just as a reminder for everyone, you know, the Commerce Secretary recently said a couple of months ago that he and his wife had visited Epstein's home in New York City in 2005, and he had such a disturbing interaction with him that they sort of turned to each other and said, this guy is so disgusting that we are never going to have contact with him again. But as it turns out, and as has been revealed in the Epstein files, he -- he actually ended up visiting the Epstein island, not just himself, but with his wife, he said, with their children and with their nannies.

And now there is this photo that features Lutnick on the island with Epstein. It appears to have been briefly removed from the Epstein files website, but then it's now been restored. So, there are just a lot of questions. And I think that is certainly going to fuel the requests and the desire by lawmakers to hear directly from the Commerce Secretary.

KEILAR: Yes. And raises a lot of questions about what is not being put on that website. There were millions of documents that DOJ deemed they didn't need to, for various reasons, put on the website. A lot of questions there.

MJ Lee live for us from Chappaqua, thank you. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Right now, President Trump is headed to Southern Texas. He's traveling to the Lone Star State at a critical time, just days before a highly contested Senate primary election. CNN's Kevin Liptak is in Corpus Christi and joins us now live.

Kevin, the President has not endorsed any of the candidates in this race. Do we anticipate that might change today?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Certainly, all three of these men would love to hear the President endorse them from this stage behind me. You know, they have spent the better part of this campaign jockeying to demonstrate their closeness to President Trump, including reshuffling all of their campaign schedules in this very busy final stretch to be down here at the Port of Corpus Christi to get their faces in front of President Trump.

Now, as of now, there is no indication that the President plans to list off one of their names from this stage today, despite the calls from many national Republicans to do that. I think it demonstrates the political conundrum that President Trump finds himself in when it comes to this race. It is quite extraordinary. You know, he has endorsed up and down the ballot in Texas, but when it comes to this race, which is probably the most high profile in the entire state, he has sort of sat it out.

You know, on the one hand, you have John Cornyn, the establishment candidate. He's running for his fifth term. You know, he has been seen as something of less of a MAGA Republican than some of the other candidates in this race. He was somewhat lukewarm to the President's comeback bid in 2024.

John Thune, you know, the Senate Majority Leader, and other top Republicans have been trying and trying and trying to get President Trump to endorse Cornyn, but so far it's been to no avail. Part of why they want him to do it is because they keep having to pour money into this race to the tune of millions and millions of dollars.

On the other side, you have the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, seen as much more of a MAGA candidate, but comes with all of this political baggage. And so, it does lead to this moment of political indecisiveness on the part of the President. If no one wins above 50 percent on Tuesday, this will go to a runoff in May, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Kevin, totally random question. I hear "Margaritaville" playing behind you. We've both spent quite a bit of time chasing President Trump across the country. This is the first time I've ever heard Jimmy Buffett on the playlist for one of these events, is that actually what I'm hearing?

LIPTAK: You are hearing Margaritaville. Perhaps there's a parrot head on the playlist today. People seem to be enjoying it. It's a friendly crowd here at the Port of Corpus Christi. You know, the President's going to be talking about energy, his "Drill Baby, Drill" agenda, and so perhaps people thought Jimmy Buffett would get the crowd in the right mood to hear about the President's petroleum agenda.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We'll see if he finds that lost shaker of salt. Kevin Liptak live for us in Texas, thank you so much.

LIPTAK: Thank you.

[15:10:02]

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the clock is ticking for A.I. company, Anthropic, to comply with the Pentagon's demand or risk being forced to turnover its technology to military. We have the latest on that showdown.

Plus, growing questions after a nearly blind refugee was found dead in Upstate New York. What newly obtained video reveals about his encounter with officials?

And later, Colin Gray, the father of an alleged Georgia school shooter, taking the stand in his own defense. What he said about introducing his son to firearms. That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:14:43]

SANCHEZ: Anthropic is rejecting the Pentagon's ultimatum to allow unrestricted use of its A.I. technology for all lawful purposes or risk effectively being blacklisted. Anthropic warns that without proper guardrails, its clawed A.I. system isn't safe to use and could put lives at risk. The company wants assurances that the technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or the mass surveillance of American citizens.

Let's talk to Dave Lawler about this. He's national security editor for Axios where he sees -- oversees all global affairs coverage.

Dave, thanks for being with us. So, it's notable that one source told Bloomberg Radio defense officials have privately said that Anthropic's restrictions have never actually been triggered, but the Pentagon's argument is that they don't want to have to ask a company for permission to act in case of a national security issue. Is that fair?

DAVE LAWLER, AXIOS NATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, I've been speaking to Pentagon officials about this for the past couple weeks. Their position has pretty consistently been that they're worried that if they keep these restrictions in place, which they agreed to on the front end, it's part of the existing contract. If they keep these in place, there will be scenarios that come up where they want to use Claude in an operational way and they need to go back to Anthropic for approvals. It might slow things down. It might cause some sort of, you know, timely lapse in the ability to use A.I. in a mission that they want to use A.I. for.

So, this is the scenario they're laying out. It is all hypothetical, as you say. Claude has been used for intelligence purposes. It was used in the operation to capture Nicolas Maduro. None of that violated these terms that have been laid down in the negotiations and, yet, both sides are very dug in. Anthropic says they will not give up on two areas that they want to wall off and the Pentagon says, you give us the tool and we decide how we use it.

SANCHEZ: What would it mean for Claude or another A.I. model to be used for mass surveillance or for autonomous weapons?

LAWLER: Yes. So, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, has raised the idea that there are legal uses of, you know, technology, publicly available information. If you think about everything that you have voluntarily put on the internet, your government with A.I. has a much- enhanced capability to capture all of that information and come to some conclusions about you, one way or the other. And that would not be illegal because this is publicly available information.

So, it's -- it's surveillance. It's not illegal surveillance, but Anthropic is uncomfortable that in scenarios like that, their tool would sort of supercharge the ability of the government to monitor American citizens. The Pentagon, of course, says that that's, you know, they're not saying that they want to do that. They say they don't want to do mass surveillance, but they're saying if it's something that's legal, you know, who are you to tell us that we can't use your technology for those purposes?

SANCHEZ: So, is it fair to say that this is less about Anthropic specifically and more sort of a signal to all A.I. companies about how the Pentagon wants to operate?

LAWLER: I mean, they -- they are having a very specific fight with this very specific company that ...

SANCHEZ: True.

LAWLER: ... folks in the administration have accused of being woke. They have said that they're doomers when it comes to the downsides of A.I. This is Anthropic, it's sort of set itself up as the safety-first A.I. company. And so, they talk about these issues more than others have. But I think you're on to something when you say that it's -- they're negotiating with three other model makers and they want to say, look, Anthropic had to agree to these terms, all of you have to agree to these terms.

We should say the only company so far that has agreed for anything the military wants to do with their technology, as long as it's legal, is X's A.I., Elon Musk's A.I. company has already said we're fine with that standard. Anthropic has said no. And OpenAI and Google are still in negotiations with the Pentagon over those terms.

SANCHEZ: I -- I also wanted to get your thoughts on something that Senator Mark Kelly put out in a statement a moment ago. He -- he's essentially arguing that Secretary Hegseth would do harm to national security by kicking out the most capable provider of A.I. because they want responsible guardrails. I want to focus on the portion of his statement where he says that Congress must act and set clear rules for A.I. to protect Americans and make sure we have the most advanced fighting force in the world. Do you see momentum on Capitol Hill toward any kind of regulation when it comes to artificial intelligence?

LAWLER: I have to say there hasn't been momentum on Capitol Hill for a whole lot under this Congress. You know, the -- especially something that the President himself is not invested in. There are more voices saying the sort of things that Senator Kelly is saying now, just in the past few days, when this has become such a public fight. It's possible that -- that Congress will take this up. And maybe if there's a Democratic majority in the midterms, they'll make more of an issue of this.

Do -- I don't think that Congress is going to come up with a resolution on the sort of timeline.

[15:20:02]

We're talking about here for Anthropic, right, where they're -- they're facing this potential blacklisting within the next two hours. And so, their timeline is quite tight.

But I do think this is, you know, you could certainly argue this is a question for Congress. You know, the Pentagon says an A.I. company shouldn't decide that we can't use A.I. for, you know, these purposes. You know, some folks look at the Pentagon and say, you know, this is a broader policy question. It shouldn't just be up to a civilian or a general at the Pentagon to decide these things either. It should be the elected representatives of the American people who decide these things. But as yet, I don't think we've seen a lot of action from Congress on any sort of A.I. regulation.

SANCHEZ: A fascinating story to keep an eye on, especially, as you said, because that deadline is now less than two hours away. Dave Lawler, thanks so much for joining us. \

LAWLER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Up next, the father taking the stand in his own defense on trial for providing the gun his son allegedly used in a mass shooting at a Georgia high school. His testimony is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:24]

KEILAR: A Georgia father on trial for the deadly school shooting that his son allegedly committed took the stand today. Colin Gray has been testifying in his defense all day, and he's now under cross- examination. Prosecutors say Gray gave the rifle to his son Colt that he used in 2024 to attack Apalachee High School despite past warnings to restrict his son's access to weapons.

But Colin told jurors today that he never saw any red flags that his son would go on a school rampage, killing two students, two teachers and wounding nine others. CNN's Jean Casarez has been following every twist and turn of this case.

Jean, tell us more about what's really been such an important day in court.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Such an important day. You're so right. The direct examination went three hours this morning, and Colin Gray testified on so many things. But one thing he said that once his wife, Marcee, Colt's mother, duct taped her own mother to a chair for several days so she could take her car and change the license plate. And then she actually was tested positive for methamphetamine and served time and then went to an inpatient drug facility.

He said that that was really a turning point, that Colt and his mother had always had issues, but now suddenly he was the sole parent and he was given custody of three children from one day to the next. And he said he was trying to keep his head above water, working his construction job, giving pep talks to the kids because they were all affected by this. And it wasn't too long after that, in 2023, that the FBI sent local law enforcement to the home because they had seen on a chat room on Discord that someone they believed was Colt Gray was saying in this True Crime chat room that he was going to shoot up the middle school.

So, law enforcement on the porch, they were talking to the father. Colt came out. He said, it wasn't me. I didn't do that. The next day, and we had never heard this, the defendant said he called authorities because he wanted to know more. And they said, you know what? We've rule Colt out because we think it came, the IP address came out of California or even Russia. So, we aren't believing anymore that it is him.

And at the very end, he talked about watching that school shooting video yesterday in the courtroom. And this was his reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN GRAY, FATHER OF COLT GRAY: He's a -- he's a good kid. You know, he -- he wasn't perfect, nor was I. But to do something that heinous, like I don't -- I don't know if anybody could ever see that kind of evil. And I -- like the Colt I knew, the relationship I had, there's this whole other side of Colt I didn't know existed, so ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: But the prosecution on -- on cross-examination is saying when he was in sixth grade, he researched how to murder my father. And then the local law enforcement says he's coming in a chat room to say he wants to murder the students at the middle school. Weren't there red flags? Didn't you realize what was going on here?

And he's saying calm, cool and collected on cross-examination, saying that I never, ever thought my son would do that.

KEILAR: The dad was aware of the searches about how to murder him, the dad?

CASAREZ: He said that he didn't know, originally. Marcee kept it to herself, never said anything. But quite a while after that, Marcee told him. He talked to Colt and said, look, all my friends were talking about that we didn't like our parents. And so, I joined in and then I just searched this and I didn't mean it. That was the response.

KEILAR: What an interesting day to watch in a case that ...

CASAREZ: Yes.

KEILAR: ... has so many ramifications for other cases. Jean Casarez, thank you so much for that.

CASAREZ: Absolutely.

KEILAR: And don't forget to join Jean on CNN, "All Access" for gavel- to-gavel coverage of the Colin gay trial -- or Colin Gray trial, pardon me. Go to CNN.com/watch to see it live. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. The U.S. is on track for another record-breaking year for measles cases. Brand new numbers from the CDC show that more than 1,100 people have been infected since January 1st. That's six times higher than the number of cases typically seen in an entire year. The data shows that 96 percent of cases are in people who either aren't vaccinated or haven't received both recommended doses.

[15:30:05]