Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Hegseth Defends Follow-Up Boat Strike, Blames 'Fog of War'; Tennessee Republican Van Epps Wins U.S. House Seat; Diddy's Lawyers Send Cease-and-Desist to Netflix Over Docuseries. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired December 03, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Look at this. A store employee found the naughty nocturnal nuisance the next morning, along with lots of broken bottles. Yikes.
[06:00:11]
The raccoon was taken to animal control, where he sobered up and was later released back into the wild. I can imagine that was some kind of hangover.
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, D.C. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: A new take on the double-tap strike that killed survivors on a suspected drug boat. The secretary of defense admits he didn't even see it. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Hegseth trying to shift the blame and make Admiral Bradley the fall guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, is a top admiral being sold out as war crime questions mount?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The president's rage at a Somali-American Congresswoman. Today, a new ICE operation targeting her people in the Twin Cities.
And lawsuit on aisle five. Costco says it's suing the Trump administration for a tariff refund.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN "DIDDY" BOMBS, RAP MOGUL: We're not working together the right way. We're losing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A nasty legal battle breaks out over Netflix's new doc about Diddy Combs from 50 Cent.
And a Latin Grammy winner swaps the stage for the stump. Bobby Pulido joins us to talk about his run for Congress in Texas.
It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, and this is your live look at our nation's capital.
Good morning, everybody. It's Wednesday, December 3. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and here is where we begin.
The shifting story from the Trump administration about the follow-up strike on survivors on a Caribbean boat. That doesn't seem to be convincing many lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Now, since this story about this so-called double-tap strike surfaced last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth first called the reports fabricated. Then this week, the White House confirmed that this follow-up strike did happen. But then they said it was legal.
Now, Hegseth seems to be distancing himself from the attack even further.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I watched that first strike live. As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we've got a lot of things to do. So, I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours or whatever where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So, I moved on to my next meeting.
I did not personally see survivors, but I stand -- because the thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire or smoke. You can't see anything. You've got digital. This is called the fog of war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, during the cabinet meeting yesterday, President Trump said Hegseth still has his full support. But senators from both parties say they need more answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLUMENTHAL: Hegseth's trying to shift the blame and make Admiral Bradley the fall guy, ought to be reason to ask for his resignation or fire him.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn't happen.
And then the next day, from the podium of the White House, are saying it did happen. So, either he was lying to us on Sunday; or he's incompetent and didn't know it had happened.
Do we think there's any chance that on Sunday, the secretary of the defense did not know there had been a second strike?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Zach Wolf, CNN senior politics writer and author of the "What Matters" newsletter; Charlie Dent, a Republican and former Congressman from Pennsylvania; and Jerusalem Demsas, founder and editor of "The Argument."
You guys, thank you so much for being with us.
I want to start with you, Charlie, because what -- what is most interesting to me about this story is that it is Republicans at the forefront of raising the questions. And whether that be Thom Tillis or Don Bacon, or we just heard Rand Paul.
And why now? Why do you think this particular incident is something that they are willing to speak out? And you heard pretty harsh words for the defense secretary.
CHARLIE DENT, FORMER REPUBLICAN PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: Yes, I think they're speaking out now, because the actions here if, as reported, are true, are so egregious. The law is unambiguous that you may not kill survivors in a wreckage like this.
I -- I think these members want answers, and I think they're right to insist that these folks be put under oath and answer questions about exactly what happened.
So, I think that's what this is about. It's about Congress actually doing its job, exercising real oversight over an incident that, as far as I can tell, is pretty clear what the law is.
And again, were -- I, we have to make sure that "The Post" story is accurate. But -- but that's why we're going to have hearings. And that's why we make people swear an oath.
[06:05:04]
CORNISH: Yes. I want to show you guys. I mentioned Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina. He said this: "If the facts play out the way they're currently being reported, then somebody needs to get the hell out of Washington."
This is very different from what we heard from Senator Thune on Tuesday about Hegseth. And I think we have that. Let me play it for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you have full confidence in his handling of his job as secretary of defense? SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well, I think that the fundamental question
is: is the country safer than it was under the Biden administration? I think the answer to that is unequivocally yes.
And so, Secretary Hegseth is a part of that. He serves at the pleasure of the president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I need someone to help me parse these wild swings.
JERUSALEM DEMSAS, FOUNDER/EDITOR, "THE ARGUMENT": I mean, I think the thing that's really interesting about this is that it just goes to show how insanely illegal this alleged activity is, because the first strikes were also illegal, right?
Like, there's not actually justification that's been provided by this administration, reasonable justification for why the president is allowed to order strikes in the Caribbean against noncombatants. That's not actually a thing that we allow in American law.
And so, that was already something that was far beyond the pale that many Republicans were willing to countenance, because they saw it as part of the Trump administration's immigration agenda or drug control agenda.
CORNISH: Yes. Keeping people safe, as we heard.
DEMSAS: Exactly. I mean, allegedly and at the same time now, I mean, the justification this is part of the fog of war, as we heard Pete Hegseth say. It's, like, kind of offensive to people who have served in the military who are -- who are involved in these things.
It is not normal to just strike at survivors of a boat.
CORNISH: Yes.
DEMSAS: That's, like, a very far outside the pale.
CORNISH: Zach, what do you see as what matters here?
ZACH WOLF, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER: I spoke yesterday to as many people as I could find that have been in, you know, in situations like this, watching these things unfold in command centers, in the situation room.
And the one thing they all said is that there is so much planning that goes into these strikes. They've gone over every single contingency. They know exactly, you know. what they'll do in case something happens.
The idea that there was any sort of ad hoc, you know, action.
CORNISH: Right. Because this is a pretty basic scenario. What if --
WOLF: Yes. CORNISH: -- the target doesn't hit right away and there's --
WOLF: They've thought about that.
CORNISH: Yes.
WOLF: They've thought about every single "what if." the idea that this was, you know, something that happened without, you know, prior thought was just unbelievable to everybody I talked to.
CORNISH: I want to play one more -- or show you one more thing, which I think is from George Will in "The Washington Post." And this should be a full screen.
It says, "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal without a war. An interesting achievement."
WOLF: I mean, he's a very good writer.
CORNISH: So, the reason why I'm interested in this is because, if they drag this poor admiral in front of hearings, this is yet another moment where the military is caught in political wrangling, right? In a way that -- there's just almost no reason for them to be.
DENT: Yes. You know what's really problematic about this? Congress is upset for a few reasons.
As you pointed out, Jerusalem, the fact that this campaign is going on. There was never a case made to the public about why we need to shoot these drug boats out of the water, assuming they are drug boats. The case wasn't made to the American people. It wasn't made to Congress. And now we have this, this, this terrible incident.
CORNISH: Right.
DENT: And so, people are -- and that's why they want answers.
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: And George Will is spot on.
CORNISH: And if you asked, you were told that you liked drug traffickers. So, it'll be interesting to see how that shifts. You guys stay with me.
We've got a lot to talk about today. Lots of interesting guests coming up on CNN THIS MORNING.
President Trump calls Somali immigrants garbage. He's now urging them to get out of the country.
Plus, a major fight over food assistance. The USDA threatening to cut SNAP benefits, of course, from blue states.
And a deep red Tennessee district gets a lot closer to purple. What this narrow win means heading into 2026. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT VAN EPP (R), REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT FROM TENNESSEE: Running from Trump is how you lose. Running with Trump is how you win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:13:38]
CORNISH: Republicans breathing a sigh of relief this morning after a Tennessee special election. CNN projects Matt van Epps will be the next Congress member representing the state's seventh district.
He managed to fend off a strong challenge from Democrat Aftyn Behn by nine percentage points, but that's a lot closer than the 22-point margin victory that President Trump had won by just over a year ago in an overwhelmingly Republican district.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT VAN EPPS (r), TENNESSEE CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: I've heard your stories, and I will be your fighter. As we look forward. I say this to my friends in the liberal media and to the professional panickers in my own party, tonight, we showed running from Trump is how you lose. Running with Trump is how you win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, van Epps is a former Army helicopter pilot and Tennessee state official. His victory means Republicans will hold on to their narrow House majority as two additional seats also remain open.
The group chat is back. So, even though this is a kind of a dog bites man story, right? Like this Republican won a Republican district. People have been looking at it because they thought that something different might happen. That different thing did not happen.
Jerusalem. Why do you think that is? Because Aftyn Behn did overperform, so to speak, compared to past Democrats.
[06:15:05]
DEMSAS: Yes. I mean, every Democrat is going to overperform in this environment, because there's massive backlash, thermostatic backlash that's happening right now against the Republican brand, as the economy is not doing well, inflation still remains a concern for families, and the immigration rates are creating chaos in communities that people were -- were not wanting.
They wanted Trump to end immigration chaos. They didn't want a new form of immigration chaos.
And so, every Democrat is going to overperform. The question is, can you overperform enough to actually win in these really difficult districts?
And the problem with Behn is that she was running to the left of Zohran Mamdani. Like, that's not a way to win in Tennessee. And to me, that is -- it's not that she -- I think she definitely could have won if she took on certain positions.
But you can close that margin. You can make some persuasion gains with Republicans.
CORNISH: But can I challenge that? You had Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez go down, right? Like, throw their support. So, there is a path, because they're drawing crowds everywhere. And I think Behn and others think that that's the kind of path that they can use in their races.
DEMSAS: But mobilizing the people who are already going to vote for you is not how you win a persuasion battle.
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: And in a plus-22 Republican district -- plus-22 Trump district, Behn needed to -- she needed to win some Trump voters.
Bringing AOC down to middle Tennessee is not the way to do it.
CORNISH: Not the move?
DENT: Not the way to do it. It makes no sense. Now, and I just heard the candidate, van Epp, say, you know, embracing Trump is the way to win. Yes, in a plus-22 district.
But if you're in -- a Republican in a district that Trump won by ten points or less, embracing Trump might not work so well.
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: And those -- those are the members to watch on retirement right now, because many of them are going to see this and see significant Republican underperformance again last night. But it wasn't just this election. We've seen it in several special elections throughout 2025.
CORNISH: Yes, I think it's upwards of five now?
WOLF: Yes. And it proves the trend, which is a ten-plus-point shift from the last election towards Democrats across all of these elections. And if you apply that forward, you know, going into the midterms, that's real problems for the Republicans.
CORNISH: Let me say that again. So, basically, wherever Democrats are running in special elections, they are performing ten points better than Kamala Harris? OK.
WOLF: Ten-plus points better than they did in that -- yes.
CORNISH: OK, you guys enough tealeaf reading. We're going to move -- move on. Coming up on CNN, we're going to be talking about a big win for
immigrants in the nation's capital. A federal judge slams the brakes on sweeping immigrant arrests.
Plus, a new Netflix docuseries on Disney is produced by a man he has feuded with for years. Now, Combs's team is taking legal action.
And good morning, New York.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:22:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diddy. Sean Combs. All of these re-incarnations. All those name changes are attached to really bad deeds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Cease and desist. Sean "Diddy" Combs's lawyers are slamming the release of a Netflix docuseries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMBS: I'm going to get off the phone right now, and I am going to let you professionals look at the situation and come back to me with a solution. Y'all are not working together the right way. We're losing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, this is never-before-seen footage that's at the center of this legal debate.
"Sean Combs: The Reckoning" is a four-part series featuring exclusive interviews from jurors. And then this video that Diddy filmed days before his arrest.
It's produced by a longtime Diddy rival, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.
Combs's legal team claims the footage used was never authorized for release. Netflix says it got it all legally.
Joining me now, CNN entertainment reporter Lisa France. Good morning, Lisa. Thanks for being with us.
LISA FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
CORNISH: So, just a reminder, Combs is currently fighting this legal battle while he's serving a 50-month sentence. How strong is his case in terms of trying to stop Netflix?
FRANCE: I mean, it feels like the horse is already out of the barn, right, Audie? I mean, we both watched it. And so --
CORNISH: You have outed me. Yes, I watched the whole thing yesterday. Fine, Lisa France.
FRANCE: Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't know that was a secret.
CORNISH: No, it's fine.
FRANCE: You don't ever tell a journalist anything. But if you don't want it told.
But yes. So, I feel like it's a little bit too late, because if anything, it's, I think, drawn more eyes to this, Audie. Because people want to see what he and his team are so upset about.
And it's interesting, because the thing about Diddy is he is known for filming himself. He's known for documenting his life. And so, it was really fascinating to see the mindset that he was in, in the days leading up to his arrest, and also to see the way people have talked about him in this.
Like, one of the things that kept coming up is that he likes to control the narrative, that he wants to be the one to tell the story. And so, he is telling the story, but not in the way that he wanted to tell the story. And that's why his team sent that cease-and-desist.
CORNISH: Yes. There's a scene where he's talking to his attorneys, and he's, like, we need someone who understands --
FRANCE: Yes.
CORNISH: -- I don't know if he said the dark arts or the dirtiest media propaganda from this country or other countries. I thought that was interesting.
FRANCE: Yes.
CORNISH: Basically, this doc itself, it kind of rehashes some things that are rumors or sort of urban legend in hip-hop about whether or not Sean Combs had connections to the murders of Tupac or Biggie. And this goes into that.
But can you talk about how it handles the trial and the conversation around his relationship with Cassie? Because I understand there are jurors in here.
FRANCE: There are jurors. And we had a juror who was a millennial woman who talked about growing up and really being into his music. She said she wasn't so much a fan of Diddy, but she was a fan of his music.
[06:25:05]
And one of the things that she talked about is she thought the video, the surveillance video, which we broke here at CNN -- my team did -- of, you know, him assaulting Cassie back in 2016, that she thought that was horrible.
However, she pointed out that domestic violence was not one of the charges that they were to consider. Right?
And then there was a male juror who said he knew zero about Diddy. And one of the things that he kept coming back to is how, even though Cassie was in this abusive relationship and she talked about it, that she kept going back to him over and over again.
And so, that signaled a little bit of confusion on some of the jurors' parts, that if it was so -- such a horrendous life that she was living, why did she keep going back?
And of course, domestic violence experts will tell you that is very common. And so -- but we got to get a little bit of insight, Audie --
CORNISH: Yes.
FRANCE: -- into how that factored into their deliberations.
CORNISH: Just to remind people: he was not found guilty --
FRANCE: Yes.
CORNISH: -- of those sort of RICO sex-trafficking-type charges because of what we're hearing now, the thinking from these jurors.
FRANCE: Right.
CORNISH: There's one more thing to talk about, which is during the trial, towards the end of trial, we did hear about Sean Combs supporters, right? We heard stories about maybe him getting, like, applause in jail.
And online, there were a lot of people talking about him. And it made it seem like hip-hop as a community was sort of OK with what was going on and this court's interpretation of what happened with Cassie.
I want to play for you what 50 Cent had to say. I think he told ABC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS "50 CENT" JACKSON, RAP ARTIST/DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER: If I didn't say anything, you would have -- you would interpret it as that hip-hop is fine with his behaviors. There's no one else being vocal. So, you would look at it and just say, mind your business. Or let me not say nothing about nothing or -- those things. It would allow the entire culture to register as if they're for that behavior.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, we've got a message, but we've also got a messenger who does not like Sean Combs.
FRANCE: Not at all.
CORNISH: Can you give me some context for this clip? What's -- what's true at once here? FRANCE: Yes, there's longtime animosity, and it feels like 50 is
trying to rebrand himself a little bit.
Because he has been very open about the fact that he does not care for Diddy. He is a notorious troll. I'll tell you a very quick story.
Last year I got to work on a panel, moderated a panel for 50, which was for the Emmy consideration for his TV show, "BMF." And I thought, surely, he won't bring Diddy up, because this is for the Emmy voters to watch.
That man still managed to bring up and diss Diddy in that course. He did it very creatively.
And he's been very outspoken about the fact that he does not like Diddy, but he also does not like Diddy's behaviors. And I think that's interesting, because behind the scenes, a lot of people, even those of us who covered this, were very aware of the whispers about some of his behavior.
But it took Cassie Ventura filing suit for people to feel emboldened enough to come out. And so, I think it's very important what 50 is saying, because he is marking himself as almost like the spokesperson for hip-hop and saying that, well, I had to do this, because otherwise people would think that this is OK.
And there's a lot of discussion about that, Audie, because of the misogyny in hip-hop and also because of those fans who continue to this day to say, Cassie did all this for money, even seeing video. Because one of their common things they say, of course, Audie, is why didn't she just leave?
CORNISH: Right.
FRANCE: And we literally have video to see the brutality that happened when she did to attempt to leave, at least in one instance.
So, it's really, you know, still stirring a lot of conversation. And people are actually kind of tickled by the fact that 50 is involved. And let's be very clear: he's an executive producer, so we don't even really know if any creative control he had. But just his name being attached to it was enough to make people want to watch this, Audie.
CORNISH: OK. Lisa France with all the details. Thank you.
FRANCE: Thank you.
CORNISH: So, straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, a high-stakes meeting in Moscow. Five hours of talks, no peace deal for Ukraine. What went wrong?
Plus, President Trump ramps up his attacks on immigrants. His latest target: Somalis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
