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The Situation Room

NFL Rookies Returning to College Football?; Jeffrey Epstein Linked to Celebrity Stylist Salon?; Interview With Pete Hegseth Special Adviser Tim Parlatore. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 04, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I also heard from a commander on the ground there that they believed around 40 individuals might still be stuck inside that tunnel.

But, again, these are just some of the conditions that rescuers have been experiencing day in and day out as they try to get as many people out as possible -- back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Hanako Montgomery, thank you so much.

And coming up: The Pentagon is at least temporarily pulling back on a posted plan to screen for testosterone levels among troops. I'm going to speak to one of the architects of the policy and special adviser to the defense secretary up next.

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BROWN: Happening now: Longtime FOX News anchor Maria Bartiromo is out of a job this morning. A source tells CNN that FOX made the decision back in August after Bartiromo apparently disclosed confidential information to the Trump White House.

[10:35:10]

Bartiromo has not responded to CNN's request for comment on her exit from FOX and has not posted on social media about it.

And at the White House, the Trump administration launched a series of arcade-style games on the official White House Web site yesterday, where users arrest immigrants and build a border wall. Now, White House official tells CNN -- quote -- "This is an effort to further contrast between a culture of fun and winning and the dark socialist vision Democrats have for America."

But some on social media are questioning the administration's priorities, given the Iran war and high cost of living. And a powerful storm knocked out power to more than 500,000 people

across the Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic and Pittsburgh. The flooding was so bad, water erupted from a sewer. Some of the same areas could be hit again with another round of severe weather today.

And breaking news: A U.S. official tells me the Pentagon is at least temporarily rescinding its newly published clinical guidance for its testosterone screening policy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the mandatory program for troops ages 30 and older back in July, arguing it would allow service members to operate at their absolute best.

Receiving testosterone replacement therapy is voluntary, we should note. But after the Pentagon published the guidance for the policy on its Web site Wednesday, it was then removed. The news was first reported by Reuters, and the Pentagon tells several outlets the interim guidance will remain in effect.

So, joining us now for some clarity is one of the architects on the testosterone policy, Tim Parlatore. he's a special adviser to Secretary Hegseth and previously served as an attorney for President Trump.

Tim, thanks for coming here to THE SITUATION ROOM.

So, just first off the bat, help us understand what happened here. Why were the guidelines removed? And will there be new guidelines posted soon?

TIM PARLATORE, SPECIAL ADVISER TO PETE HEGSETH: Yes, there will.

So, Secretary Hegseth put out his initial memo that mandated the testing for everybody over 30. And then we were going to have amplifying implementation guidance. And what was posted earlier this week was something that was a draft. It was not approved for release, and somebody had put it out there inadvertently.

And so we needed to pull that back because we need a lot more input to make sure that the information on that reflected the current science and medical guidance, as opposed to certain antiquated protocols.

BROWN: OK, so, obviously, you're a lawyer, not a physician.

PARLATORE: Right.

BROWN: So bring us into the process and the input that you're getting to come up with these guidelines.

PARLATORE: Sure.

Testosterone replacement therapy is something that is -- it's relatively new and the military doesn't really do this, hasn't done this, but it is very well established science on the outside. So, outside civilian doctors, they do this routinely. It's very well studied, but not within the military system. And so what we were trying to do and what we're doing right now is

taking that policy and, as opposed to having something that's generally just created just inside, we're getting the input from the outside doctors, the people that are actually doing this therapy successfully with the civilian population to be able to apply those lessons within the system.

BROWN: There is research showing that prolonged combat can actually lower testosterone for those in high-stress jobs...

PARLATORE: Yes.

BROWN: ... or special operators, for example.

I'm wondering what you say to critics who argue there shouldn't be a blanket policy for everyone in the military, and they're concerned that this will be used somehow to filter people out? What do you say to that?

PARLATORE: Oh, no, it's not about filtering people out.

What this is, we need to get military medicine into the game to actually monitor everybody. The symptoms of low testosterone are something that's not always fully understood. Sometimes, it manifests as depression. It manifests as being overweight.

And so a lot of the doctors will look at it and they will say, OK, you're depressed, you need to go see a therapist, you're overweight, so you need to just work out more and watch your diet, when really the issue is the testosterone.

And so, on the civilian side, a doctor will look at this and they will say, OK, I want you to get this test. And we started seeing in the military system where people would come in and they would specifically ask, I think that I have this. Can I have this test? And the doctors would look at them and say, no, you can't have the test.

And so because we have such a high population that is susceptible to this condition, starting from a baseline of testing everybody and then being able to monitor it over time, because the needs of military life do increase this problem. And so you can see over the course of years as the testosterone dips in these individuals, then we can properly treat their condition that, quite honestly, the military itself caused.

BROWN: So there's no defined normal testosterone level for women.

PARLATORE: Right.

BROWN: There's no FDA-approved testosterone for women. So how will this policy impact female service members? And should we expect more tailored guidance for them to come?

PARLATORE: Absolutely. And that that's a very important piece, is that, yes, this is not just about the men.

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Obviously, the men is the largest population in the military, but we also want to make sure that we're optimizing female hormones, and so whether that's testosterone, which is something that's an emerging area of science on the outside, and the FDA is still catching up to that, whether it's other things, estrogen, everything else.

And so we are looking at separate guidance to make sure that we're optimizing not just the men, but also the women.

BROWN: So that there was this case of a BUD/S student who died during BUD/S.

PARLATORE: Yes.

BROWN: And it turns out that he was overdosing on testosterone.

PARLATORE: Right.

BROWN: I'm wondering, how do you make sure that that doesn't happen with this new policy, that service members don't go to the extreme if it shows that perhaps they have low testosterone?

PARLATORE: So that -- and, full disclosure, I was one of the attorneys on that case. I represented the commanding officer.

That was a case where a student, a 22-year-old kid, was going out and buying illegal steroids and taking massive quantities of it and dealing it to his other classmates. By doing it this way, what we're going to do is, we're going to prevent people from going outside and getting illegal steroids, because instead we're going to just optimize them.

We're going to be optimizing them so that we have reduced the incentive. We're also going to be monitoring them, because having physicians actually monitor your levels and adjusting it, if somebody all of a sudden comes in with an extraordinarily high level, then we know that they're doing something else on the outside beyond what the doctor has prescribed.

And so this is actually going to significantly increase the safety. But here's the other thing. That kid was 22 years old. You don't need that at 22. If you do, you have a serious problem and you need to be seeing a doctor. Most kids that age, if they're doing it, it is purely for performance-enhancing.

And we're only looking at the 30-and-above population, the people that have actually been in for 10 years and have been subjected to these stresses, so that we're optimizing them, as opposed to -- none of this is about giving people like Mr. Olympia level doses. This is about giving them the proper dose to make them just optimized for what their bodies are designed to do.

BROWN: I want to just get your response while we have you for this reporting from my colleagues Haley Britzky and Zach Cohen.

PARLATORE: Sure.

BROWN: In the wake of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation, they spoke to some sources who said there was concern that Secretary Hegseth could be too focused on culture wars and what an American war fighter should look like, rather than looking at the battlefield and modernizing it.

And so, basically, they point -- they say that he's too focused on how you look and the culture wars and not enough on the substance, and that this policy kind of feeds into that. And I just -- I want to give you a chance to respond to that reporting.

PARLATORE: Sure.

I think one of the problems is that, because of the personalities involved, people try to politicize this, but the reality is, hormone replacement therapy for men and women is something that optimizes people's health. It's not about what you look like. It's about how healthy you are.

And so what he's doing here is, he's trying to help our troops to be as healthy as they can be, which is going to have the long-term effects of also significantly improving things at the VA level, because, if we start treating people now and keeping them healthy, they're not going to develop all those other problems that the VA is going to have to then deal with after.

So this is purely about the health of our troops. It's not about politics. It's not about any of that stuff. And the only people that are trying to politicize it are the ones that are more interested in attacking the secretary than actually making the troops healthier.

BROWN: Tim Parlatore, thank you for your time here.

PARLATORE: Thank you.

BROWN: And to learn more about this, let's bring in Dr. William Berg. He's an assistant professor of urology at Stony Brook University.

So, Dr. Berg, thanks for coming on.

I want to dive into the science behind this policy. What exactly does testosterone do? And what are the pros and cons of replacement therapy for service members, in your view?

DR. WILLIAM BERG, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY: Sure.

Testosterone is the main hormone that men have in their body. But as you mentioned before, women have it in their bodies as well. And it's important for maintaining a number of important processes in the body, including muscle-building. We know it has an important role as well as in mental health and bone health and things like that.

And so, right, it plays a number of roles in kind of normal physiologic maintenance of the body.

BROWN: Yes. And there's...

BERG: So, yes, that's kind of...

BROWN: Well, clearly, it plays an important role in the body. There are some misconceptions surrounding testosterone and replacement therapy. Tell us about that.

BERG: Sure.

I think the first thing to know is, why would a man's testosterone level be low? Often, a low testosterone level, especially in a younger man, usually points to maybe some other process going on, right? The question is, why is their testosterone level low, right? Often, it can be caused by metabolic syndrome, obesity or diabetes.

[10:45:02]

And so I think getting to the root cause of why the testosterone is low in the first place is really important when it comes to figuring out those levels.

BROWN: So, what about just stress of being in the military? If you're a special operator, what could that do to testosterone levels? And why is it important to track that?

BERG: Sure.

Any stressful situation can lower a man's testosterone level, even temporarily. Something as simple as having a viral illness can lower your testosterone level. We do know that, in that situation, a lot of men, right, their testosterone levels will return back to normal if you wait a little bit for them to recover.

But stress and lack of sleep are important factors for how testosterone is made. And so, if you're put under a lot of pressure in a situation you're not sleeping very well, you have a high stressful situation, it might lead to lower testosterone levels.

But if you're functioning normally, those levels would then return back to normal after a period of time.

BROWN: So, in light of that, do you think it is good to have an annual screening for those 30 and above in the military?

BERG: It's not really settled science.

I think testosterone can be a marker for overall health. So, there is some benefit to testing men and their testosterone levels. Current guidelines really recommend that testosterone is only checked when a man has symptoms, right? That would be fatigue, decreased libido, sleepiness, tiredness, depressed mood.

We know that low testosterone level goes along with those symptoms. Right now, we don't recommend general population-wide screening. There has been some talk that the testosterone level can be that marker for other health problems. So it's not unreasonable to test men and see what their levels are at, but I think it needs to be done in the proper way.

BROWN: Yes. And one would ask, why would you have to wait for symptoms to get tested, right? And it is such an important part.

And for women, they say that the data isn't there yet, but it's not because it shows it can't be beneficial for women. It's just that we're understudied, underfunded. So that's an issue too that I have covered us extensively on this show.

(CROSSTALK)

BERG: Yes, I mean, women -- yes, women are classically underrepresented in a lot of the research, especially when it comes to hormonal treatment, right? There is a women's health initiative study that kind of concerned a lot of people regarding hormone replacement therapy for women.

There's kind of been a turnaround as far as the potential benefits of hormone replacement therapy in men and women. We just don't really know what a normal testosterone level is for women. There's definitely some higher risks when it comes to testosterone replacement, like masculinization...

BROWN: Yes.

BERG: ... body hair growth, some of the concerns if the levels go too high.

So we don't really know. It really hasn't been studied in that patient population.

BROWN: Yes, which is a problem.

Dr. William Berg, thank you. Appreciate it.

Coming up, a CNN exclusive: Survivors say Jeffrey Epstein gave a celebrity stylist salon -- quote -- "instruction to make them look younger." The new reporting just ahead.

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BROWN: Well, we have new exclusive reporting.

Multiple survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse now allege that he instructed a celebrity hairstylist salon to make them look -- quote -- "as young as possible." Some of those survivors spoke with CNN about their experiences.

I want to bring in CNN senior national enterprise correspondent M.J. Lee here in THE SITUATION ROOM with her reporting.

M.J., walk us through the allegations and what these women told you.

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, Pam, Frederic Fekkai is a huge name in the world of hair and beauty.

And, in a new lawsuit, there are seven Epstein survivors who are accusing Fekkai and his salon of having enabled Epstein over the years of the abuse. This is some of the language from that new lawsuit, which comes from five Jane Does and two named survivors.

They say: "Fekkai groomed the victims to look as young as possible under Epstein's direction. Epstein would direct Fekkai to bleach victims blonde and groom them like dolls into Epstein's and others' liking."

Now, we were able to speak exclusively with two of the two Jane Doe plaintiffs about what they experienced. These details, we should note, are not in the lawsuit. The first Jane Doe, she says that she was around 19 when Epstein sent her to Fekkai's salon in Manhattan, and she told the stylist that she was meeting with that she wanted to cut her hair to shoulder length.

And what the stylist told her was, those aren't the instructions that I got, which is, of course, very unusual. The second Jane Doe says that she was around 20 when she was in Saint-Tropez with Epstein, and Epstein walks her over to Fekkai and basically asks Fekkai, how can we make this young woman look even younger?

Now, back in New York City, she gets sent to Fekkai's salon just like that first woman, and the stylist cuts her hair, but she says he had instructions, and that's all, meaning he never even consulted her about what she wanted. It was clear that he was already told beforehand how exactly she should look.

Now, Fekkai, we should note, is vehemently denying all of these allegations from the lawsuit and these anecdotes that we got from the two Jane Doe. This is what his spokesperson said.

He said: "These allegations are false. Mr. Fekkai has done nothing wrong. He was never in Saint-Tropez with Epstein, and he has no idea whether any Epstein victim was among the tens of thousands of people whose hair was cut every year by the hundreds of Fekkai salon employees."

BROWN: So, what more did you learn about the relationship between Epstein and Fekkai?

LEE: Well, when you look through the Justice Department's Epstein files, Fekkai and his salon are mentioned quite a bit, and it's clear that Epstein spent tens of thousands of dollars at the salon for either himself or others, and this is a relationship that clearly went beyond just hair.

There are references to Epstein offering to connect Fekkai with people in business. Fekkai on multiple occasions asked Epstein if he could borrow some of his apartments. And it's important to note -- and this has come up a lot, as you know, in our Epstein coverage -- these correspondences took place after Epstein's 2008 conviction plea, so just another example of the so many people who were willing to overlook that and continue associating with Epstein. BROWN: All right, M.J. Lee, thank you so much for bringing us your

exclusive reporting.

Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: major cuts at a major automaker. Volkswagen is slashing tens of thousands of jobs and half of its vehicle lineup -- a closer look at the company's struggles all new next hour.

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[10:58:18]

BROWN: Well, new this morning: A Louisiana judge has cleared the way for former NFL rookies to return to the college ranks and play. It set up a major showdown between LSU and its powerhouse conference.

CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes joins us.

So, what's going on here, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Oh, well, Pam, who knows at this point, right? It changes every single day. We had another day, another lawsuit in college football.

And there were multiple things happening yesterday. So, at the same time a Louisiana -- or a judge in Louisiana was hearing arguments on whether two players who were on NFL rosters this summer could return to college to play for the Tigers, at the same time, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit against LSU in Alabama.

Now, that Louisiana judge ruled that Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris can join the LSU football team and play against Clemson tomorrow. Now, the SEC and all of its members other than LSU are very much against this. The conference made a rule last week banning pro players from returning and threatened harsh penalties, including suspending the coach who brought the players in and handing out some big-time fines.

And, yesterday, the SEC suing LSU in federal court, alleging the university is violating the league's First Amendment right by ignoring the conference's rules. Now, that Alabama judge has not issued a ruling yet, but today is a big day, where all this could go down even further, because the LSU has to submit their official roster ahead of their huge matchup tomorrow night against Clemson.

If Wright and Harris, who played for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, are on that roster, this battle in the courts will certainly continue. And just to remind everyone, this is not going to be an ongoing problem. So this all stems from a judge back in July ruling that all the athletes from the 2022 class could get a fifth year of eligibility.

Many athletes had left college for the pros, thinking that they had exhausted all of their eligibility, but then they were suddenly given that extra year. That's why some of these players who didn't make it in the NFL want to come back, because, if the ruling had happened earlier, they probably would have never left college to begin with.