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Army Secretary Quits, Blames Hegseth's Leadership; Duane 'Keefe D.' Davis Found Guilty in Tupac Shakur's Murder; Massachusetts Voters to Pick Democratic Senate Nominee Today. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 01, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:15]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: OK. What we're talking about today: the head of the U.S. Army just resigned while are in the middle of a war. Big questions this morning about leadership at Pete Hegseth's Pentagon.

Plus, the Trump administration's voter fraud surge starts today. Is this a legitimate crackdown or another attempt to undermine election integrity?

And a jury just reached a guilty verdict in the murder of Tupac Shakur. Does this finally put a 30-year-old mystery to rest?

And a woman who brags about advising the president launches a racist attack against black women. Shouldn't more Republicans speak out?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): How is it that Donald Trump has people like Laura Loomer around him? Laura Loomer is a stone-cold racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. And here is where we begin. Another shakeup in military leadership.

Multiple sources telling CNN that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Trump. So, the reason behind his departure? Quote, "concerns of the Army transformation and readiness" and Hegseth's, quote, "blocking those efforts specifically by firing the generals who were responsible."

Now, since taking over, Hegseth has fired or forced out several top brass, including the Army chief of staff, General Randy George. Six months into the war with Iran, there are questions about how vulnerable this makes the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. RANDY MANNER (RET.), U.S. ARMY: We have a very, very hollow and, quite frankly, a B-minus team leading at the top of the military. These are very capable officers, but not at the level that they are acting in.

And so, we are literally in a much, much more dangerous situation.

We are much weaker than we were even before 9/11, unfortunately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So today in the group chat, we're talking to Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush.

Ashley, I want to start with you, because "The Atlantic" is reporting that sources told them that Trump was surprised by the sheer volume of firings and resignations under Hegseth, and that he has actually expressed concerns about the cuts.

Why is he surprised, given what Hegseth said going in? And do you think that it's a sign that this White House is concerned?

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, I'm just watching this slow drip of Pete Hegseth's story. So, whether it's -- I have met the secretary of the Army, and he's a great guy. He's very close with J.D. Vance. I think that he had a lot of integrity.

And, you know, supposedly, he did brief the president before resigning on why he resigned, but -- which is very unusual -

CORNISH: I was going to say.

DAVIS: -- for someone to go around the chain of command to do that.

CORNISH: And this is not, I'm leaving for family. Like, what is leaked here is --

DAVIS: No, it's -- it's a significant criticism --

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: -- of the secretary. But also, the drip, drip, drip of Hegseth talking about running for president is also probably not sitting well with this administration.

CORNISH: Like his visit to Iowa the other day or -- yes.

DAVIS: Yes. Well, and he's -- supposedly, there's inside sources that say that he wants to run for president.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And the president was asked about it yesterday.

DAVIS: Yes. So --

CORNISH: What's happened there? ROCHA: And the president was asked, and he was like, Pete's a nice guy. He's focused on the Army. I don't think he's probably going to run.

DAVIS: So, we'll see if -- how long this lasts.

ROCHA: Not sure --

DAVIS: I mean, nothing's going to happen before the elections. And then obviously until Iran has some sort of conclusion.

CORNISH: Yes. But we're in a moment now where I think this means there's no Senate-approved leader, military or civilian, in this Defense Department.

ROCHA: Except Hegseth.

CORNISH: Yes. Other than Hegseth. And that's of concern to some people. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, saying, "Secretary Hegseth is cultivating a culture where dissent is punished and competence is secondary to personal allegiance."

DAVIS: But Def Sec is confirmed.

CORNISH: Yes, but I'm saying after that, Hegseth's the boss, and that's it. I'd like some other people to have a say. And some people who are willing to have dissent.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: There are certainly questions about the decisions that Hegseth has made here. We heard yesterday also that he may be calling the generals back in for another one of those speeches --

CORNISH: Pep talks --

DOVERE: -- that ran. "Pep talk" is maybe not the right word for --

CORNISH: -- where he complains about their physicality and looks.

[06:05:03]

DOVERE: Right. But ultimately, though, look, we're six months into this war, and we don't, still, know what exactly the plan was supposed to be or what the plan is or what the rationale is, or, or where -- whether we're at war. Those are decisions that actually are the president's.

And Hegseth has been, in some ways, struggling to execute on that, according to people inside, right, to whatever the president is calling on to do.

But the fact that we are in this war and that there isn't a plan for it, does go back to the Oval Office directly.

ROCHA: I think that what it says to the American people, who may not understand exactly what every part of the military is, they understand Army. They understand the head of the Army.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: And to them, they may not know everything that the secretary of Army does, but they know that's somebody important. And it seems that something is happening that is chaotic.

And this chaos piece, I think, is a piece that's a through line. Whether we're talking about building part of the White House or renaming something, there's always some kind of chaos around that the American people are like, oh, I see it scrolling for a minute, but then I've got to move.

But it seems like that's messy over there. But our government, our military shouldn't be messy.

DAVIS: Secretary Driscoll is, though, a young guy with a long career.

ROCHA: He does look 12. I'll give you that.

DAVIS: But my point, though, is -- is I give him credit for making a stance on what he believes in.

Going back to the war, I think there were reports this morning that these negotiations are starting again with the president of Iran. Hopefully this is coming to an end.

But we know the end game here. And I think we're --

ROCHA: What's the end game?

DAVIS: -- trying to get to it. The end game is them not having any nuclear weapons. And --

CORNISH: Is that actually --

ROCHA: Ashley --

CORNISH: They're not -- they're nowhere near the path of that right now.

DAVIS: Yes, but they're starting that. I mean, that's -- yes. I mean, they've disseminated [SIC] the entire country. There's no way that they're going to be able to continue to develop the weapons.

Now, ten years from now, are they going to have the capability again? They may. But I don't know if we can ever --

CORNISH: We've got someone from the Foreign Affairs Committee today.

DAVIS: Good. OK.

CORNISH: So, we're going to get to talk more about this.

But coming up on CNN, our conversation on Driscoll's resignation will continue. As I said, it's going to be Johnny Olszewski who will join us, and we're going to ask if this military shakeup is a Pete Hegseth problem.

But first, nearly 30 years to the day of Tupac's murder, there's finally a guilty verdict. But is the hip-hop community any closer to closure?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:12:02]

CORNISH: So, for nearly three decades, Tupac Shakur's murder remained an unresolved mystery. Now we have a verdict: a jury finding Duane "Keefe D." Davis guilty of first-degree murder for plotting the killing. He's set to be sentenced next month.

He is now the only person ever charged and convicted in the rapper's murder.

Shakur's loved ones emotional as the verdict was read. This comes just two weeks after the 30th anniversary of his killing.

Joining me now is Richard "R.J." Bond. He is a filmmaker and an author who has spent more than two decades examining the life and death of Tupac.

R.J., thank you so much for being with us. You know, I should mention that some of the names of your documentaries: "Tupac Assassination," "Tupac Cover-Up."

Do you finally have the answer that you've been looking for?

RICHARD "R.J." BOND, FILMMAKER/AUTHOR: No, I think that this was a very interesting exercise. You know, you have to ask the question whether or not this is justice or whether or not it's blame.

You know, you've got a police department that sat on information for 30 years. And now finally, 30 years later, when they could have charged him back in 2009, they suddenly step up 22 years later and say, Hey, we're ready to do this.

And really, nothing changed. None of the evidence changed. There's no car. There's no gun. There's no -- no -- no real physical evidence at all.

And what you have is a guy who literally wrote a book, wise or not, that decided to rat himself out and blame himself for -- for the shooting.

And so, you know, you have to ask yourself, in the absence of any of the evidence, physical evidence anyway, is this more about a man being tried for what he said? And it's an interesting exercise in our society now --

CORNISH: Yes.

BOND: -- where we're actually convicting people for what they say. CORNISH: So, just to bring people up to speed, Duane Davis is the

uncle of Orlando Anderson, who had long suspected -- been suspected of being the shooter.

But under Nevada law, an accomplice who aids the perpetrator is just as legally responsible. Right? So, here we have Duane "Keefe D." now officially convicted of first-degree murder. He's got a sentencing on October 13th. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

What surprised you about how it played out in the courtroom? Either the witnesses who really didn't want to be there.

BOND: Right.

CORNISH: Or the way that the jury reacted?

BOND: Right. I think two things. It was a really, really steep learning curve for me as a -- as a filmmaker, because we have a much broader latitude in what we can introduce and what we would call evidence, or what we would call our presentation.

Things like the interviews with the bodyguards, Frank Alexander, who was Tupac's bodyguard for, you know, until the day he died, you know, had a myriad of interviews that he had done. And was a personal firsthand witness of what happened, up until and including the shooting. That wasn't allowed into the court.

[06:15:06]

What's admissible in court and what I might be able to put out -- the hundreds and thousands of hours of interviews and all that. I think if that had been allowed into court, you might have seen a different result.

But based on the rules of evidence and how they present things in court, my big learning curve was just how limited a body of information the jury was actually allowed to even contemplate. So, I think that was the biggest thing for me, the biggest takeaway.

CORNISH: What do you think is going to be the legacy of this trial? I mean, I grew up with this music. I grew up in the era when this "beef" -- air quotes -- was national news and painted the entire genre as violent.

BOND: Yes.

CORNISH: What do you think the legacy is now?

BOND: Well, I think, you know, I'm glad that Tupac has had an enduring fanship. I, you know, there's not a day that goes by that people don't really enjoy the music that he -- that he produced in his life, for as short of a life as that was.

I think his family has been waiting for a long time to be able to just get closure to this. And -- and if -- if there's closure, I'm for it. You know, is it the truth? Is it really what happened? Or, you know, is this just kind of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type of, you know, prosecution?

The jury did speak. We have a jury system that works. And -- and, you know, you have to respect what the jury came back with.

But I think that Tupac's legacy will always be one of hope, one of change, you know, change from within. And I think that that's always something that people can rise to, as a society.

CORNISH: OK. R.J., thanks so much. Appreciate it.

BOND: You're welcome. Have a great day.

CORNISH: So, after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about an ally of President Trump's who has gone on a racist rant against black women, black lawmakers. She is not apologizing. We want to know whether we're going to hear from the White House today.

Plus, Ed Markey running as the progressive choice for the future. So, can an 80-year-old incumbent be the anti-establishment candidate in Massachusetts?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:35]

CORNISH: So, in just a few hours, the polls are going to open in Massachusetts, where another Democratic Party brawl will be decided.

So, voters there are picking between a progressive Democrat and a moderate for Senate, and the ages of the candidates are scrambling the race.

So, you've got 47-year-old congressman Seth Moulton. He's challenging 80-year-old Senator Ed Markey for the nomination. And Markey arrived in Washington 50 years ago.

But it's Markey who's pitching himself as the more progressive candidate, and he's racked up the endorsements to prove it, including support from senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, along with endorsements from progressive House Democrats like Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): We're not trying to out-endorsement him. We never have been. He's got the political establishment with him. That's what happens when you've been in Washington for half a century.

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Thanks to all of the other young people who are here today, because this -- this election is for them. It is for them. That's why we're running. That's what this race is all about. It's about them and their future, which is under assault every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Group chat is back. And Isaac, I'm glad you're here, because you were actually in my hometown, running around in Massachusetts trying to figure out what's going on with this race.

I think if Ed Markey is having the Bernie Sanders pass on age in progressive circles, but is that the case? Like, how are voters seeing it?

DOVERE: It seems like -- I think I would challenge a little bit from your introduction, because it's not really progressive versus moderate.

Moulton and Markey have, for the most part, the same positions on a lot of issues. It's about how they would approach a lot of the issues.

Markey saying he's been the fighter who's really committed to all this, and Moulton saying, yes, he's been the fighter, but he hasn't been getting things done. I would have a new approach to it.

And one of the things that I did when going around in the rally that Markey had with Bernie Sanders on Saturday in Dorchester or in in Lynn, Massachusetts, with Moulton, is ask people at these rallies, the voters, what how do you even define progressivism at this point?

CORNISH: Right, right.

DOVERE: And it was really notable how many people struggled to define it.

Among those people that I asked that question to, Elizabeth Warren, I asked it to backstage, and I got different definitions from all the people. And if you look at the article that's up on -- on our website, on CNN.com, you can see some of those varying definitions.

CORNISH: Yes.

DOVERE: I also asked Markey and Moulton themselves. I said, just define what that word means.

CORNISH: Well, which is why --

DAVIS: What did they say?

DOVERE: Well, Markey was very specific about saying it's Medicare for all. It's a Green New Deal. It's all these things. The catch phrases and ideas that have been talked about.

And Moulton said to me, to him, progressive is actually making progress. And so, you can talk about these ideas. But he wants to know what's getting done, when people in Massachusetts are struggling with raising -- rising costs and other things that have not been happening to help them, even as a lot of these ideas are talked about by a lot of Massachusetts self-proclaimed progressives.

CORNISH: Yes. At the same time, it is Massachusetts. You can say there's a robust Republican community, but it's still very liberal. And Moulton has recently, about ten days ago, at a debate, apologized for his past comments about trans kids. I want to play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOULTON: I'm sorry if I hurt people, because that was not my intention. My intention is to say if we, as Democrats, don't start making these decisions, don't foster this debate ourselves, then we're just ceding the field to Republicans who will continue to push forward this hateful legislation.

[06:25:07]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And then, of course, Markey just jumped right in on top of that. And he replied this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKEY: My opponent threw trans kids under the bus after the 2024 election, blaming them for our losing of the election. And I, on the other hand, I introduced the Trans Bill Of Rights, so that all of the constitutional protections for every other American is extended to the trans community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROCHA: It's important that you remember that this is a Democratic primary and a Democratic state. Well, you said there's a robust -- let me use all Audie's words, not put words in your mouth -- that you said there's a robust Republican --

CORNISH: There is. They exist.

ROCHA: Absolutely. Absolutely. And so much so that they used to elect a Republican governor --

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: -- from time to time. But there is zero --

DOVERE: Time to time? Five of the last six governors.

ROCHA: I was going to say, time to time. In Texas, it's time to time.

But every federal office in Massachusetts is controlled by a Democrat, a Democrat congressman all across the board, or congresswomen.

So, this is Democrat on Democrat. And it's so funny. I wrote this to you last night when I saw this was going to be a topic, that you're right.

He's kind of the Bernie Sanders pass, in my opinion, the Bernie Sanders guy.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: And he's got -- and my friends AOC and my friends Ayanna Pressley.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: And all of us who are doing this thing. While the congressman, Seth Moulton, may have been, quote, unquote, progressive on a line, as Isaac said, on many, many things, there are things that make him different in the way that he's looked at with the Democratic base voting community. That probably puts him on the outside looking in today.

CORNISH: OK.

DAVIS: Markey's going to win by a lot.

CORNISH: OK. You heard it here from Ashley.

ROCHA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

CORNISH: Ashley -- Ashley nailed it.

DAVIS: In touch. In touch.

ROCHA: Absolutely.

CORNISH: Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about the big news today. The Army loses one of its top leaders. The Army secretary has resigned.

So, could the shakeup be putting military readiness at stake? We've got Congressman Johnny Olszewski, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He's going to weigh in next.

And then later on CNN, hundreds of workers may still be trapped underground after the deadly floods in Nepal. Coming up at seven, the desperate race to reach them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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