Hegseth to Announce 20% Cut to Senior Officer Ranks

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1:02Good evening. We are now an hour away from the one and only debate in the California governor's race. Democrat and former Biden cabinet secretary Javier Becerra squaring off against conservative commentator and former British political strategist Steve Hilton. Now Hilton is hoping to be the first Republican to win the job since Arnold Schwarzenegger took office in 2003. We begin though with the sheer horror that 174 people including four Americans aboard a Boeing 737 from Dubai to Tel Aviv experienced even before they found out what was happening in the cockpit. And we should warn you, some of the video you'll see in the next few minutes is graphic.

1:51The plane was in a dive plunging nearly 20 ,000 feet in about 35 seconds. Now, a normal descent radon approach is roughly 600 or 700 feet per minute. The 737 reached speeds approaching the sound barrier, something that airliners today are simply not designed to do. We just felt the plane drop completely and start spinning a little. And everyone was screaming. There were children crying. And it was just like a death in front of our eyes moment. Like I was just sure I was going to die. Well, the forces the passengers and plane experience, you can see it in the video, were enough to rip a large chunk of the rudder off.

2:35Now, the fact that the rest of the airliner withstood those forces and made it safely to an airport, though, was far from a certainty and closer to miraculous. What those terrified passengers soon discovered is that behind the reinforced cockpit door, authorities say the co-pilot had fought with and stabbed the captain. A number of passengers rushed the cockpit and stopped the co-pilot and were struggling to regain control of the plane. Today, Israel's prime minister greeted the passenger who recounted the remarkable story for him and the cameras. He's speaking in Hebrew, but the audio you'll hear is the English translation.

3:11When I got inside, I saw the attacker on the instrument panel between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats. One was on the floor, one was on the instruments. And someone else had come in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and dragged him out first. It all happened in seconds, and the plane's nose was pitched like this. I called out to a bunch of Israelis on board, and two other guys came over. We pinned him down. I jumped back, grabbed the controls, and started pulling back the handles. Meaning he grabbed the yoke and he stopped the dive using knowledge he says he got from a TV series on air disasters.

3:53The president also weighed in. Never flew a plane, was rarely in planes. And having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed. But he said he watches it a lot. And he learned from watching that show sort of how to fly. I mean, you tell me, this is the craziest thing. No less remarkable was the presence of two other Fly Dubai pilots who were passengers on the flight who stepped in to land the plane safely in northeastern Saudi Arabia. Now the question is, what exactly was this? An attempted terrorist attack against Israelis, as the Israeli government is saying?

4:37A suicidal pilot, which has certainly happened before, or something else? We'll be talking about what investigators are looking for tonight. We begin with CNN's Jeremy Diamond. How much time do we need? The wounded man being treated aboard this blood-stained aircraft isn't a passenger. He's the pilot. And lying just a few feet away from him, also wounded, is the man who allegedly stabbed him and tried to hijack the plane, his co-pilot. Fly Dubai Flight 1073 was bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai. About two hours and 15 minutes later, the plane plummets, dropping more than 17 ,000 feet in under two minutes.

5:21Passengers aboard this Israel-bound flight say the plane began spinning out of control before diving toward the ground, until a few brave passengers and crew rushed to the cockpit. We are here on the plane right now. We have taken control of the terrorists. We are about to land. Asaf Rajwan is one of those passengers. Together, he says they took down the would-be hijacker and restrained him for nearly an hour. It wasn't a prolonged battle. We neutralized him very quickly. There was no real fight. We aren't heroes. I'm no Van Damme. I was terrified for my life and my family's lives. And I didn't have total confidence until things started to clear up.

6:05And I saw that the pilot had truly regained control of the plane. His shirt's still bloodied. Yaniv Hayoun tells the Israeli prime minister how he put the attacker in a chokehold. The plane's nose was pitched like this. I called out to a bunch of Israelis on board, and two other guys came over. We pinned him down. I jumped back, grabbed the controls, and started pulling back the handles.

6:37Celebrations in Israel greeting the plane's 174 passengers, who are still reeling from their brush with death. I was flying, and I see the ground. Then I see the wing of the plane and the brakes, the brakes on the wing of the plane, they come up and all of the plane tilts, it tilts to the other side and we start falling. We drag down 15 ,000 feet, 50 kilometers. You feel the G-force, you feel it on you and you're squished into the chair. Children crying and it was just like a death in front of our eyes moment. We didn't actually know what was happening until we landed, which was like a few hours later.

7:21The plane's captain, who managed to open the cockpit door as he was being attacked, was identified as Smeet Machar from India. Dr. Shotav Musaiv, a dentist who worked to stabilize him on board, said Machar barely survived the ordeal. If we had waited even a few more moments, we would have lost him. His blood pressure had plummeted. he suddenly lost consciousness and there was blood everywhere. The plane was diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. On the ground, you can see clear damage to the plane's rudder. Both pilots were rushed to a hospital. Israeli officials say they are investigating the suspected hijacking as an attempted terrorist attack.

8:04But so far, no clear motive has emerged, and authorities have yet to publicly identify the attacker or the weapon used. Jeremy, what more are Israeli officials at this hour now saying about the attacker's motive? Well, Israeli officials are now publicly describing this incident as an attempted terrorist attack. The Israeli prime minister tonight telling CNN's Jim Sciutto that this could have been a 9-11 style disaster had those heroic Israeli passengers not acted to prevent this. But privately, I can tell you that my sources are far more circumspect about the ultimate motivations of this would-be hijacker.

8:48There are a lot of questions that are still unanswered. And publicly, Israeli officials haven't said anything yet about a specific motive, even as they are calling this terrorism at this point. So there is still a lot to learn. As we understand it, this attacker was placed under arrest in Saudi Arabia. the Israeli prime minister, suggesting he will be extradited to the United Arab Emirates, a country that, unlike Saudi Arabia, does have diplomatic relations with Israel, which means the Israelis will likely be able to have more involvement in the investigation going forward. All right. Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.

9:23I want to bring in retired Army Lieutenant General Karen Gibson, former director of intelligence for U.S. Central Command, former FAA safety inspector David Soucy, and CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk, author of the upcoming book, Brink Inside the Race to Free, the October 7th Hostages. David, is there any sort of playbook for what to do if the co-pilot attacks the captain in midair? I mean, do airlines train for that sort of thing? Well, they do train for what can happen in the cockpit, but it's not necessarily about we work a lot on crew resource management for how to get the pilot and the co-pilot to work together, communicate well, but we don't really go to that extent to say, how do you get out of an attacker?

10:03But I'm really, really impressed with the fact that the pilot was still able and had the presence of mind to get that door open so that people could get in. If he hadn't have done that, it would have been an entirely different situation without anybody being able to interfere. Yeah. General Gibson, I mean, the Israeli government says it was an attempted terror attack. That's what they're going with right now. Obviously, there's still a lot to learn. Would the involvement of an airline employee in the cockpit, no less, track with any M.O. you come across in your intelligence career? Obviously, you know, we've heard reports about, you know, Iran looking to kind of trying to mobilize anybody in a variety of places to kind of strike at Western targets.

10:41But what do you make of this? Well, so certainly I think it's probably one of two options. It could be, you know, a man who has some significant personal issues. We've had episodes in the past of a psychotic break, you know, suicidal, various reasons. If you look back over the last several decades, probably 10 to 12 incidents in which someone in the cockpit does something nefarious, they are typically not terrorist attacks. It's usually someone who is really having a significant mental issue. And then the other would be a possibility of a terror attack, whether that's an individual who has self-radicalized and decided on his own this is something he is going to do, or someone who is more state-sponsored.

11:26When we look at the kinds of state-sponsored attacks that Iran foments, it's never been something like this. It is typically something where it's removed, there's a cutout, whether it's a proxy like Hamas or Iranian-aligned militia groups or Hezbollah, or whether it's criminal elements. That's more common in Western nations where they work through local criminal networks who may not even know who is behind the attack they've been asked to do because of various cutouts. So this is, it falls in the far less likely, I think, in terms of Iranian fomented terror attacks. Doesn't rule out the fact that it could be an individual who is self-radicalized and chooses to do it himself for terror reasons.

12:10I think that's much of what we'll learn as this investigation proceeds. Brett, are there details now that we know that kind of raised particular, you know, red flags for you in terms of what may actually this be? It reminds me, we will learn, is this a lone wolf actor or is he connected to a larger extremist infrastructure, whether that's ISIS, whether it's Iran, I think we'll know soon. I'm just struck, Anderson, you know, there's a deeply ingrained ethos in Israel. Just do not mess with Israelis. We will act. We will not wait. And you saw that on that airplane. Thank goodness, because had had this succeeded and we were talking tonight about 174 people massacred and dead in Saudi Arabia.

13:02This would be right on the we're right on the week out from the third anniversary of October 7th. You were Jeremy say Israelis are saying this could have been a 9-11 certainly would have been like a second October 7th attack. what this could have done to the region that is already on edge. I just, I don't even want to contemplate it, how close we were, and just thank goodness for those extraordinary, ordinary citizens on that plane. I think we'll learn more, Anderson. I say one more thing, regional implications. You know, under the currents of the regional crisis we've been covering here on your program, relations between UAE and Saudi Arabia have just really strengthened.

13:37In fact, Fly Dubai have increased their flights to Israel, almost 10 round-trip flights a day. that started this summer. And I think you'll see that cooperation grow even closer as this investigation proceeds. And then in Saudi Arabia, of course, there's no diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but there's close security cooperation. And you saw these images today of Saudi nurses treating these Israeli passengers on the ground in Saudi Arabia. It's an extraordinary moment for the region, a hopeful moment for a moment, allows people to take a breath. But man, this was way too close and just, I think, heightens the concern of the diversity of threats of terrorism that just remain out there.

14:18Yeah. I mean, it's extraordinary response by those Israeli passengers who rushed at the cockpit, were able to get in. And as David Susie mentioned, getting that door open. How extraordinary is, David, that the passenger who put the co-pilot in a chokehold, was able to grab the control column and stabilize the aircraft. He said the extent of his flying experience of watching a show called Air Crash Investigation. Well, that's fascinating to me because trying to get an aircraft out of a dive of that type, and you can tell by the rudder that this aircraft was close to supersonic at that point, because what the rudder does at that speed is it starts to flutter.

15:00You can see the pieces of the tail of that rudder have come off. So you know how hard it was coming down out of the sky. So to be able to pull that back, even experienced pilots would have a very difficult time getting that aircraft out of that nosedive position and into a flat position for controlled flight. It's not easy to do. Some pilots would actually have to put their foot on the front of the panel to pull back to get that thing out of that dive. It's very, very difficult to do. And the fact that he was able to do that just from watching air disasters is fascinating to me. General Gibson, the same pastor who met with the Israeli prime minister told him, quote, I imagine that if we had entered Israeli airspace, it wouldn't have ended well.

15:38Do you think Israeli officials might have shot down the aircraft if they were aware it had been hijacked and weaponized? I mean, I think it did send out distress signals. Yes, certainly. What I understand is that the pilot also or someone within the cockpit had set off an indicator, a signal that that showed that it was a hijacking event. And so the Israelis would have been responding to that in much the same way that our military and the U.S. government would respond if a plane that was not authorized to be heading towards the U.S. capital continued to head in that on that azimuth without diverting.

16:20And so they would perhaps have been prepared to take out the aircraft, particularly if it got much closer to, say, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, perhaps not out over the desert. But if it was not responding and they believed it was a terrorist attack that might be used as a missile, as we saw on 9-11, then, yes, I would think the IDF might be prepared to take action against that aircraft. And Brett, in a situation like that, what are your former colleagues at the NSC, the National Security Council, likely doing? I mean, would this renew concerns about U.S. security of U.S.-bound commercial flights? Well, sure.

16:57I mean, I think every time something of this happens, you have to look at who are the pilots on the planes. And especially on such a sensitive route from Abu Dhabi or Dubai to Israel, who are the pilots? I think something seriously went wrong here in the vetting. So it's going to add another layer of the type of vetting in terms of safety of air travel. But I think if I was on the National Security Council now, I'd be looking at all forms of intelligence. I think the Saudis have this guy under interrogation. What are they learning? Who is he talking to? Did he have a phone? Did he have a device?

17:29Was he self-radicalized or was he connected to a broader network? I'd be particularly looking potentially at Iran. The prime minister of the U.K. today said that that incident over the weekend in the U.K. may well have been linked to Iran. We have to see. We are in this state of conflict with Iran. But you can't speculate now. You've got to wait for all the facts to come. But that would be the key question. Was this a lone actor, self-radicalized, or was he part of a broader network, which means there could be other plots that are being mobilized? Let's hope not. Brett McGurk, Journal of Gibson, David Soucy, thanks so much.

18:04Coming up next, a major new development in the alleged gang rape at Cornell University. New details of what the accuser says happened to her. And later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laying out his plans to cut 20 percent of all generals and admirals, remake the military and create what he's calling an office of religious affairs. Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God. Because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual.

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19:30Equivalent taxes and fees extra. New customer offer for initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. Major new developments tonight after several others in the last several days in the wake of the alleged drugging and gang rape at Cornell University fraternity house nearly two years ago. CNN has obtained a six-page sworn statement from the accuser at the time. In it, she tells Cornell University police she was okay with an initial encounter, but that later in the night she did not consent. She also described being hit in a separate document, a transcript of a November 2024 interview with campus police obtained by CNN affiliate WCBS.

20:06The accuser is more explicit, saying, quote, I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped. The woman is now suing the university, the fraternity and alleged attackers. Monday, the local district attorney said he would reopen the investigation. Yesterday, New York's attorney general said she'd be overseeing it. And today, Cornell agreed to an outside independent probe. Details on that still to come. CNN's Jason Carroll joins us now from Ithaca. So we mentioned the six-page statement obtained by CNN and the transcript obtained by WCBS. What's been the reaction to those revelations and what are authorities saying?

20:42Well, Anderson, there really seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between what the DA's office says it received versus what the campus police said they sent over to the district attorney's office. You know, as you pointed out, the DA's office says that while they have that six-page statement from Jane Doe, they said that they did not receive that transcript that WCBS seems to have been able to obtain. In that transcript, of course, Jane Doe alleges that she was raped. But apparently that's something that did not reach the desk of the district attorney's office. He told us, quote, we never received it and still don't have it.

21:18It was not part of what Cornell provided to us. We got the six page statement and nothing more except for the snapchat video that snapchat video Of course, he's referring to Chi-5 members during that that terrible night An allegation that these Chi-5 members sent out a snapchat video Saying that the young woman was there and inviting others to join now Cornell for its part telling us today that But they did, in fact, they say, send a lengthy investigative report to the DA's office. And any more questions about that needed to be referred to the district attorney's office. So seemingly somewhat of a disconnect between what the DA's office received and what Cornell Campus Police said they sent to the DA.

22:07And what else do you know about this independent investigation that Cornell has apparently agreed to? Yeah, well, early this evening we got word that Cornell has agreed to allow an independent outside investigation to take place to look at how the university has handled the case and as you know the university has come under a great deal of criticism here on campus and off campus as well from people asking for more transparency and so perhaps by agreeing to this outside independent investigation that will in some ways, you know, some ways for the university to show folks here on the ground that they are trying to be more transparent about how they handled the case.

22:52All right, Jason Carroll, thanks so much. Joining us now is Sonia Agarwal, Cornell University Women's Issues Representative for the Class of 2027. Sonia, thanks so much for being here. I'm wondering what you are hearing from women on campus tonight and students on campus tonight as we learn more about Jane Doe's allegations? Yeah, I think a lot of students on campus are definitely processing this information. Many, including myself, are understandably angered after reading and hearing more about the specifics of what allegedly happened that night because we didn't know about that until about two weeks ago.

23:30But I also think a lot of students are confused and they're hurting. So many of us learned about the specifics of this case the way that the rest of the country did. And that's a really difficult way to find out something so horrific happened in your own college campus. Cornell now says it'll open an independent investigation into the incident. I'm wondering how much confidence you have in that and also what you, if there are anything else specifically you would like to see done. Yeah, I think if Cornell prioritizes a lot more transparency, it would be a lot better. I think the issue right now, especially with the student body and especially with women on campuses, we're feeling fearful and people are feeling angry because of the lack of transparency.

24:22We don't know what's true and what's not. The media is saying so many different things. We're trying to read the lawsuit, the cases, but it's a lot. And what we want to hear from is Cornell University administration. We want them to kind of walk us through each of their steps, what they're doing, what they're allowed to disclose and what they're not allowed to disclose. And also what the sanctions looked like or their punishments. Did they did they go wrong and like really tell us like verbatim what we want to be hearing? Does it I'm wondering what is most concerning to you about the way or what we know about the way Cornell initially handled the case back in 2024?

25:04I think the most concerning aspect was not knowing if. The members who are accused were still walking on our campus. We didn't know if they were permanently suspended. did. We didn't know if they were allowed to be like sitting in class next to us. If they were still in Ithaca at Cornell, you know, interacting with all of us, we had no idea. And I think that is terrifying. And I think that's exactly what the student body was terrified and angered about. Sonia Agarwal, I really appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you. I want to get perspective now from former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Jessica Roth and journalist and Lift Our Voices co-founder Gretchen Carlson.

25:51Jessica, does it make sense to you that according to this transcript from CBS that Jane Doe told the Cornell police, I can say with 100 % confidence I was raped in her initial interview, but that somehow didn't make it to the district attorney's office? Well, to be clear, the allegations here are very serious. They're deeply troubling, and they raise very serious questions about why the district attorney did not do an investigation in this matter. And they raised questions about why there wasn't coordination between the Cornell Police Department, the Ithaca Police Department, and the district attorney's office, and therefore why this transcript that apparently was in the possession of the Cornell Police Department wasn't provided to the district attorney's office.

26:30Based even on the information that the district attorney has said in public that he had in his possession, based on that initial six-page typed statement given by Jane Doe, that statement raised serious questions about lack of consent that would have, I would imagine, prompted a prosecutor to conduct further investigation that might have led them to that transcript, but to interview Jane Doe and to interview others who would have had information and tried to figure out whether, in fact, this was non-consensual. So based even on the information that the district attorney has said during this week that he had in his possession, I don't understand why there wasn't that further investigation.

27:09But I do want to point out we don't have all the facts. We need to know more. We haven't even seen in the public domain yet that six-page typewritten statement. We haven't seen that questionnaire. That is the information the district attorney presumably would be looking at now, as well as conducting the more fulsome investigation that should have been done then. Gretchen, what stands out to you in this? Well, first of all, the governor of New York is calling for this independent investigation. I will tell you, of all the work that I've done over the last 10 years with regard to Me Too, a lot of these independent investigations are not real investigations.

27:41Companies and universities can hire million-dollar law firms to come in, and the result ends up being sort of in their favor. So I would have hesitation about that. I would hope that it's independent. But what's really at the heart of the matter here is, as that student just said, transparency. So many other women now have come forward since these revelations came to light. They are at other universities across the country. There needs to be a reckoning for sexual violence on campuses. These women are saying that they're being forced to sign nondisclosure agreements to get their diplomas to be able to graduate after they've been allegedly raped because the university wants to cover it up.

28:21And by the way, there was a Title IX investigator in that investigation, apparently. Who are they? And what WTF about the fact that they did not say anything more after that? What is Title IX for? I mean, there are so many unanswered questions here. But the bottom line is that we have to get to transparency in the workplace and in institutions like Cornell and otherwise. because sexual assault is a crisis and the cover up is even more of a crisis. Jessica, is there any events? I mean, do campus police on most campuses? I mean, you would think that would be the front line of understanding how to respond to any kind of sexual abuse allegations on a campus, given that that is the only people they are serving is the campus, but it doesn't seem like there was a trained sexual assault expert there interviewing this woman.

29:23I mean, what's your knowledge of what campus police forces are like? Well, they handle a whole range of matters that are happening on campus. We don't have all the facts here about who was involved in this investigation of what training they may or may not have had. But what is surprising and disturbing, among other things, is that there was no transmission of all the information that the Cornell Police Department did have to the Ithaca Police, that the district attorney did not initiate any further investigation, including speaking with Jane Doe to get further information and including a trained sex crime prosecutor in that investigation.

29:57There were facts alleged even in that first statement that the district attorney spoke about where Jane Doe said that she had been grabbed and she had been pulled. Things that, and just the nature of the allegations, the number of men involved, the number of sex acts involved in a few hours, the extent of her intoxication, not just alcohol but ketamine. And things that should have been red flags that this called out for further investigation and not just a reliance on sort of what was in this typed statement that I would infer was typed by somebody at the Cornell Police Department based on what they were hearing from Jane Doe.

30:36She apparently marked it up in the margins. But that should have not been the end of the investigation. And that is apparently what happened here. The DA's office, it's the same office that had this in the first place. Do you have much confidence? I mean, I don't know. Let me read you this report. 1 ,200 sexual assault cases were filed at Cornell between 2018 and 2024. 1 ,200 cases. Most of these found responsible received minor sanctions that allowed them to remain on campus. I mean, if there's 1 ,200 cases at one institution in a span of six years, How many is that across all of our institutions of colleges and universities?

31:18So I think the bigger question, other than whether or not the DA should be the one handling this case, is we have to get rid of the cover-up going on at these institutions. And to do that, we have to get rid of nondisclosure agreements, which is what I work on on a daily basis. Because we live in a culture where we penalize people who have the bravery to come forward, and we automatically move to covering it up. We have to get rid of that and be more transparent, own our experiences and what happens, and move past this. And I hope there will be a reckoning on colleges campuses as a result of this.

31:52Is that a public figure? I mean, that's an extraordinary figure. Yes. It's from USA Today. I mean, that's an extraordinary stat. But this is something that, you know, when Me Too happened, we had a reckoning in the workplace. workplace and so many people came forward and I've worked since then to change laws to make workplaces more transparent to take the secrecy away that needs to happen on college campuses do you see that I mean do you think that is enough is being done well I mean the allegations in this case are incredibly serious and the allegations in many other cases are incredibly serious and it's a real question about whether the procedures and processes that campuses have in place are sufficient and the people who are working on these matters on campuses are sufficiently well trained to be conducting these investigations and then whether they are handled with a level of seriousness that they weren't.

32:46That's a very serious conversation that we should definitely be having. Jessica Roth, Gretchen Carlson, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Coming up, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers his State of the Force speech today. He accused reporters covering the Iran War of treason, which is, by the way, punishable by death, and announced major cuts the military's top leadership. Details on that ahead. We're also counting down to the top of the hour in the CNN California gubernatorial debate, which is taking place on this network at nine o 'clock Eastern time. We'll take you there coming up.

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33:56According to the Defense Department, the military personnel flanking Hegseth were, quote, hand-selected by their leadership to represent their units in the nation's capital. It was a prelude to their attendance at Hegseth's State of the Force speech this afternoon at Quantico. You'll recall previous reporting that the Pentagon only wanted service members who fit certain physical standards to attend the event, which included passing the waist-to-height ratio and had to have, quote, impeccable grooming. Hegseth used part of his speech to further detail his vision. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department.

34:30Simple translation of that, no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors. Secretary Higsteth also announced he is doubling the target for cuts to general and admiral positions to 20 percent and that he's establishing an office of religious affairs saying our national model is, after all, in God we trust. Today we reaffirm that trust. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. He's the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, I'm wondering what impact, first of all, you think these cuts will have on U.S. military readiness?

35:07Are there too many generals and admirals? 20 percent is he's talking about a 20 percent cut in the ranks. Yeah, there's a lot of what Secretary Hanks has said there that I find very objectionable. But look, there's a lot of people who have felt that we've had too many flag officers for some time can you cut 20 that seems pretty high given the tempo that secretary hagseth has put them on but sure you you can cut some generals and admirals i think and you know be a little less top heavy and distribute the money elsewhere it's not a huge shift i mean the biggest thing that i object to and what secretary hagseth had to say is when he described what a warrior looks like um and let me tell you that actually the dunesbury cartoon had a great summary of this um in their column this sunday they're showing a ukrainian who's way overweight he's got a beard he's smoking a cigarette i don't know he's sitting in a basement somewhere you know and someone's saying well you don't look like a warrior and he he says yeah but i've killed like 10 000 russians by manning this drone uh so i'm getting the job done all right a fundamental misunderstanding of what warfare is It's not hand-to-hand combat anymore, okay?

36:19You're not picking the best ultimate fighter. You need somebody who knows how to use technology, who knows how to use drones, who knows how to use counter drone capability. And when you narrow that all the way down to just people who fit some sort of John Wayne vision of physical fitness, that is really going to harm the capability of our military. I want to play something else that Secretary Higgs had said. You see, it's your movements and bases that they reveal to the enemy. It's your operations that they jeopardize when they leak classified capabilities. And ultimately, it's your lives they put directly at risk when they lie about munitions stockpiles.

37:05A free press is, of course, important. But partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they're undertaking is fundamentally anti-American. It's sick. It's a national betrayal. It's treason, actually. He also compared American press unfavorably to Iranian state state media. I mean, it's remarkable. I mean, plenty of secretaries of defense and, you know, have railed against the media going back to the Vietnam War. But the idea that it's treason and the idea that people are defaming like service members seems absurd to me. Well, it is absurd. I mean, reporting that, you know, there were eight suicide attempts on one of our aircraft carriers.

38:01reporting that there are casualties that the Pentagon has refused to report, you know, reporting what's actually going on in the war. That's not treason. That's a free press. So, look, I mean, the Iranian war has been a disaster. I mean, we're fighting like hell just to get the Strait of Hormuz open, which was open before the war started. I think that ought to be reported on. So, look, that's what we have with the free press, and it's all part of Secretary Hegseth and President Trump not respecting our Constitution. You said as recently as two days ago, you believe President Trump wants to, quote, end America's representative democracy, replace it with an autocratic form of government.

38:38You said the nation's institutions are, quote, just barely holding up. Obviously, the White House, the president's allies would push back on that premise. But when you say institutions are barely holding up, do you include the Pentagon in that?

38:52Well, I don't know if it's in that context. I will say that the Iranian war has taken a lot of money away from everything else. And we're going to do some more thorough investigations of this when the Democrats get the majority back. You know, but they've been robbing accounts. You know, you have all kinds of military construction problems, problems meeting basic maintenance on domestic bases, because they're putting all this money into these into the Iranian war and pumping money over there. And, yeah, I think the Pentagon's in a bit of trouble because Hague says picking people based on loyalty.

39:26You know, we've lost some really, really talented generals because Hegseth wanted to go for loyalty. But I was more referring to Trump. Well, when Secretary Hegseth said that the military might be used to make sure that polling stations are secure and to stop foreign interference in the election, that's chilling along the lines of protecting our representative democracy, to be sure. Congressman Adam Smith, I appreciate your time. Thank you. of next tonight. What to expect at tonight's CNN California gubernatorial debate. Our political panel weighs in with the two candidates, Democrat Javier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, taking the stage at the top of the next hour.

40:05We'll be right back.

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40:43Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70 % off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash Spotify. Outdoor deterrence plans start at$49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information. We're just minutes away from the CNN California governor's race debate. CNN's Jake Tappert and Dana Bash are the moderators. Democrat Javier Becerra, who served as Health and Human Services Secretary in the Biden administration, and Republican Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, will take the stage soon. Each will be making their pitch to replace term-limited Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

41:15CNN's Alex Michelson joins us now from our studio in Burbank, where the debate will take place. Alex, tell us about the studio and the stakes tonight. Well, Anderson, welcome into the studio. This is usually the home of our show, The Story Is, but it's been transformed into the home of the California governor's debate. This is where Javier Becerra, the former HHS secretary, Democrat, is going to be standing. Over here is where Steve Hilton, the Republican businessman, former Fox News host, will be standing. Right over there, the chairs for the moderators for tonight, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

41:49In terms of the stakes, this is the only scheduled debate in this race. The stakes especially high for Steve Hilton, who polls show down in this race, needs to have a chance to engage Becerra. Becerra hasn't engaged Hilton much. And it'll be interesting to see the two of them go back and forth, Anderson. And how do the key issues in California track with what we are seeing nationally? Well, the biggest issue in California is the biggest issue in the country, which is affordability. The idea that it's just too expensive and it's even more expensive in California. Gas prices, the highest in the country.

42:30Some of the biggest issues when it comes to home prices and, of course, the most homeless people in the country as well. Question is, who's to blame? Is it the Democrats who have run the state for 20 years or the Republicans who are in charge of the federal government? And when I talk to voters, you heard different things depending on their political persuasion. Take a listen. I see a lot of problems with high taxes. I think California is in a heap of trouble. You know, I'm really concerned about my children, my grandchildren. I don't think that Trump and his party has the best intentions for California.

43:05I think anyone who's backed by MAGA at this point just has lost, should be losing everyone's vote. So most likely Becerra is going to try to talk a lot about Trump and tie Hilton to Trump, who of course endorsed Hilton in the primary. And you're going to hear a lot from Hilton about Gavin Newsom, the Democrats, and probably very little about Donald Trump. Alex Michelson, thanks so much. Joining us are now three CNN political commentators, former Trump campaign advisor David Urban, former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farr Griffin and former deputy assistant to President Biden Jamal Simmons.

43:47Alyssa, how do you see this debate tonight? What are you looking for? Alex nailed it. This is really going to be a debate of do you want Gavin Newsom's California or Donald Trump's America? So you're going to kind of have the two boogeymen of this debate. And listen, this is California. I think Becerra's by and far in all of the polls, the favored to win here. There are headwinds against Republicans, but there are some good arguments that Steve Hilton can be making. There's been an exodus of voters from California to states like Georgia and Florida with more favorable tax environments and the high costs there.

44:18And right now, when gas prices are extremely high across the country because of the war in Iran, they're even higher in California because of the gas tax. So there's some interesting policy debates, but I really think that Hilton's going to really want to keep this focused on the failings of California. Becerra's going to make it. This is Donald Trump's problem. And David, I mean, Hilton has said you can be anti-Trump and still vote for me. The president obviously has endorsed him. Can he have it both ways? It's tough. You know, Anderson, the numbers out in California, I think 50 I think we have 53 percent of Californians feel wrong track.

44:50right states going down the tubes going bad direction and so steve hilton's best argument is if you want more of that just vote for javier becerra because we're going down the wrong track i admit we're good listen you could disagree with donald trump but i you know i stand alone and i can make my own decisions and be my own person here he's got to make that that that case he's got to say what what you guys did on the view to kamala harris to say tell me the one thing you do differently than gavin newsom right it's a becerra what would you do differently what are you going to do differently than Governor Newsom.

45:21And let's see if he throws Gavin Newsom under the bus, right? Because there's a lot of things that Gavin Newsom did that are unpopular. You know, a lot of things that are going on in L.A. that, you know, you saw Spencer Pratt get a little traction with. And people are very, you know, they feel that in their core. And to Alyssa's point, businesses are fleeing. People are fleeing. If you have the ability to leave, you're leaving. There's a big battle now to keep Hollywood in Hollywood because that's going away. So Steve Hilton's best argument is Democrats have been running the state. It's not going so great.

45:50What do you got to lose by election? And I mean, Vassero has been pretty risk averse. He hasn't really been very specific on policy things. He hasn't been looking to kind of go head to head against this guy. He hasn't even really been doing big events. I mean, we talk to people in California and they don't see that much of him out there. But at this point, this is really Gavin Newsom's kind of first election primary of the Gavin Newsom campaign. This is important. That's what you think this is about. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, when it's a 20 point difference, I mean, the question now is going to be what happens when Becerra gets in office.

46:21Will he protect Gavin Newsom, as David was just saying? But Newsom is also like a guy you know well, Trump, in this way, which is like you can't really embarrass him. I don't think there's anything you can say about him or his record that's going to, like, you know, make him back off of his positions at all. But what you don't want, if you're Gavin Newsom, you don't want a Republican sitting in the governor's office running an opposition research operation out of the governor's office in California for you while you're trying to run for president. If nothing else Becerra can keep the governor's mansion safe for Gavin Newsom while he pursues a national office.

46:52What do you think the national implications are for this? I mean, listen, I think it's in many ways a test of Gavin Newsom's staying power and his power in this race. It was a very odd primary, we'll remember. There was a crowded field. A lot of candidates stayed in far too long. Eric Swalwell was the frontrunner until those horrible allegations came out and he stepped aside. So I think there was this, it took a while for Democrats to coalesce and kind of figure out who is going to lead the ticket. And this is now Gavin Newsom's candidate. Newsom's got national goals, likely going to run for president.

47:22So I think it matters basically how much of a win this is for Becerra. I mean, he's been ahead by nearly 20 points in most of the polls. But listen, Steve Hilton is a professional communicator. This is a TV guy. This is somebody who's actually really well positioned for a TV debate like this. He could have some big moments. This is a moment for him to litigate the failings of California, whether it's the homeless issues, whether it's... He's going to be trying to turn to Becerra and get Becerra to engage. Exactly, which he's really not done to your point. Becerra's done very little media. He's been very risk-averse.

47:52Steve Hilton could actually really thrive in this environment because it is his background. Yeah, look, Steve Hilton's a very engaging gentleman, right? And to Alyssa's point... Are you saying that just because you kind of look like... Governor Urban? I just looked up some of his photos. Michael Chiklis, not Steve Hilton. Listen, but, you know, to your point about Gavin Newsom, this, you know, he's he is a larger than life figure in California politics. Very charismatic, charming. You know, Javier Becerra has been kind of quiet, non-existent, really. I mean, if he he's almost the accidental governor at this point because of how the race was kind of run.

48:29I don't think he was anybody's first choice in California. He was kind of the last man standing and do no harm kind of candidate. And so Steve Hilton is going to go at him. He's going to go at him hard. And I think the line that you'll continue to hear is if you think things are going great in this state, right, if you like how your life is going, vote for Javier Becerra. If you'd like a change, if you'd like more money in your pocket, if you'd like lower taxes, lower gas prices, give me a chance. I think that's what you're going to hear from Steve Hill over and over. Do you think Hilton goes after Becerra for his role in the Biden administration?

48:59He was the HHS secretary. Oh, if I were him advising him, of course, I would advise him to do that. But I think that that's not really going to be a deciding factor in this particular campaign. This also matters for the people in the state of California, right, and for the people nationally, because California is such a large state. And if it starts to do something like start regulating AI, right, if we see that happen in California, that means all the companies will have to figure out how they manage the California market, and that can change how they manage the rest of their entire company. At the same time, will the governor of California be standing up to Donald Trump every day, or will Becerra sort of just stay focused on the issues of California?

49:37California governorship is such a big platform. I think people in the country want to know that the governor of California will be a roadblock to the federal government. Well, I mean, I guess Becerra, I mean, he sued the Trump administration as the attorney general from California. I assume that's what he would say as this is how I'll be tough on. Yeah, I think that's his pitch to Democratic voters and to anybody who might not be motivated to turn out. But I think the headwinds are so strong against Republicans. right now, I don't think you have to worry about turning out Democrats. I think his pitch should be much more to independents who aren't necessarily happy with the direction of the state of California, but to explain to them why he might be in some ways a change from Newsom and somehow forward looking.

50:16And I actually think it's much smarter if he focuses on things like AI regulation and things that impact the state rather than making it purely, I'm going to take on Donald Trump. But I think that's where you'll find agreement. I think Steve Hilton will be agreeing with him on AI, you know, kind of reining some of this stuff in. And Hilton, I think, is going to go after those same independents. Look, there are a lot of Republicans in the state of California, Northern California, down in the agricultural valley Kevin McCarthy's from. There's a great, great number of Republicans. If they got motivated, if they did show up and Democrats were apathetic, it could be a lot closer.

50:46Unfortunately, it's a 60-40 race right now, 20 points, it looks like the spread. Short of a miracle, Hilton won't win this, but he can sure get a lot of good punches in tonight. Yeah. Thanks to the panel. The California gubernatorial debate starts now. Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that. Stop. This is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way. We don't just alert. We help stop crime before it starts. Plan starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70 % off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash Spotify.

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