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Man Charged in Shooting of 11-Year-Old; Climate Scientists Rebut Energy Department; Belichick Debut Ends in Blowout; Chances of Winning the Powerball. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 02, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The way that Donald Trump and the defense secretary employed the use of federal troops after there was unrest around immigration proceedings in Los Angeles.

What happened there is that Donald Trump sent the National Guard into Los Angeles. And what the judge says is, you can do that. You can't -- though you can't just send troops into a city for domestic law enforcement. The sort of thing that cities already have police forces to deal with. And that's what's being blocked here. The 300 National Guard troops that remain in Los Angeles at this time, they can stay for the purposes of just making sure that the National Guard is there and keeping things at peace. But what they cannot do, what the federal government can't do, what the Trump administration can't do, John, is send the military into cities to establish a presence and essentially take over law enforcement there. They're not going to be able to do that in California. And, John, this is going to be a -- a ringing opinion across the country as there are other mayors in other cities, Chicago included just in the last couple days, pushing back against the Trump administration wanting to send federal troops into cities elsewhere.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, again, it has clear implications in Chicago at this point when President Trump is talking about sending in the guard. But I also imagine this may go to higher levels in the court process too.

Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much for being with us on that.

All right, breaking news, murder charges now filed after the deadly shooting of an 11 year old boy after a doorbell prank gone tragically wrong.

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[09:35:57]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have breaking news out of Houston. A 42- year-old man has now been charged with murder, accused of shooting and killing an 11-year-old boy who was playing a doorbell prank with his friends.

Let's get right over to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who has all of this breaking news for us.

What's the latest? What more are you learning, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, these -- this murder charge coming days after the shooting took place around 11:00 p.m. Saturday night. Investigators say they had been combing through the evidence and gathering details.

But we had clues early on, Kate, that investigators were leaning toward this murder charge of this suspect, Leon Gonzalo Junior. As you mentioned, he's 42 years old. The address that is listed with his arrest information in the Harris County Jail matches the address where we -- we believe this shooting took place. And -- and according to investigators, they -- the investigators say that the -- the alleged shooter in this situation fired at a group of kids killing an 11 year old boy after they had been going through the neighborhood, knocking on doors, ringing doorbells and running away. So, all of this is, you know, was part of a prank gone horribly wrong. But investigators were saying over the last few days that they did not believe that there would be an ability for the shooter to claim that this was a self- defense situation because the shooting had taken place away from the property where the door and doorbell were rang. So, that is what investigators have been mounting. But this murder charge coming days after the shooting took place over the weekend in east Houston, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ed, thank you so much for your reporting. What a tragedy this is. Really appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, it makes a mockery of science. These are the strong words from climate scientists now pushing back against a new government report that downplays the severity of climate change.

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[09:42:26]

BERMAN: New this morning, more than 85 veteran climate scientists are pushing back against the Trump administration over a report that downplays the severity of climate change. In a 400-page rebuttal to the Energy Department, researchers say the report, quote, "makes a mockery of science and is the administration's attempt to erase credible climate science from the record."

With us now, CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir.

So, what exactly, besides it sounds like everything --

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BERMAN: Are these climate scientists pushing back against?

WEIR: Yes, it's a serious pushback. It goes back to Chris Wright, who is the Department of Energy, and is also -- heads the Department of Energy, but was a fracking executive in a previous life and has long said that climate change is happening, manmade climate change, but it's no big deal. It's just an externality. And so, he found five contrarians, notorious sort of anti-science

scientists in this field, and they put together a hastily constructed -- it sort of reads like a blog post, undermining decades of expertise across different disciplines. And then the Department of Environmental Protection says, we're going to use this new finding, and were going to get rid of the endangerment finding, which regulates climate pollution overall.

And so now Andrew Freedman, my colleague at cnn.com, talked to a number of these scientists who are putting together an orchestrated rebuttal, point by point. Some of the things they go after are their dismissal of sea level rise projections, which are actually conservative based on what's happening, their portrayal of carbon dioxide as plant food, over a trillion tons of industrial pollution, excess carbon dioxide is just greening the planet. No big deal. The accuracy of climate modeling. But they say that a lot of their work was cherry picked and misconstrued, misused, deliberately, to sort of stack the deck for big polluters, like oil and gas companies.

And the quote that really hits is Andrew Dessler out of Texas A&M, a really renowned climate scientist, says, "this is a rerun of the tobacco battles. The goal here is not to win the debate. They're never going to win the debate. The science of climate change is incredibly solid. All they're trying to do is muddy the waters, create the idea that there is a debate, and the government will use that to roll back regulation."

That was Trump's promise to big oil companies. If you help me get elected, I'll get rid of all regulation. And if you look at that tobacco analogy, it's interesting, because the cancer rates in this country, lung cancer rates, look like a horseshoe. From the time science said it was bad, till the time attorney generals won in court was decades of science denial and marketing that cost lives. They're saying the same thing is playing out now as this climate change graph does -- that curve is not bending.

BERMAN: And the shifting government reports are already being used to implement policy here.

WEIR: Exactly.

BERMAN: So, what happens next?

[09:45:00]

WEIR: Well, they're trying to get this out there because they are now on a federal public comment period, you know? Only a month or two for people to weigh in. So, they hope enough people also weigh in on the Department of Energy and say, this is not how you run a country or not how you address something that the rest of the world understands is very real and is right now causing health and wealth and happiness of Americans.

So, who knows? But as we've seen so far, there's no regard for expertise with this administration. They're just chopping it all down.

BERMAN: We'll see what happens during this public comment period.

Bill Weir, great to have you here. Thank you very much.

WEIR: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: A debut blowout in Chapel Hill. Bill Belichick starting out his college career with a big loss. Why more trouble could be on the way for this Hall of Fame coach.

And do you know who else lost overnight? Literally all of America. The Powerball once again claiming no winners. Now the billion-dollar jackpot is getting even bigger and going higher and higher.

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[09:50:28]

BERMAN: So, Bill Belichick's highly anticipated college football coaching debut did not go as planned, at least for him. It did for TCU. The University of North Carolina Tar Heels fell to TCU 48 to 14. North Carolina did score the first touchdown, but after that it was just flat out ugly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONNY DYKES, HEAD COACH, TCU: We all felt a little disrespected maybe coming in by -- there was a lot of conversation, and none of it was about us. And so, you know, I think we all were highly motivated. Our players were certainly excited to play.

BILL BELICHICK, HEAD COACH, UNC: We're better than what we were tonight. So -- but we have to go out there and -- and show that and prove it. So, nobody's going to do it for us. We'll have to do it ourselves. And that's what we're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, this is the most points ever allowed by a Bill Belichick- coached team.

With us now, CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan.

Not good for Coach Belichick there. What do you think happened?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Oh, it was dreadful, John. It really was terrible. And when you've got that scene of -- of all the fans, who were so hyped up, right? This is the moment in Chapel Hill, they've been waiting for this. It's a -- such a high-profile event. You know, you've got Michael Jordan there, Mia Hamm is there. You know, the sports royalty. And it, in, well, what, six minutes to go in the third quarter, John, not the fourth, the third quarter, you still got a quarter and a half to go, fans are streaming to the exits.

And what went wrong? Well, North Carolina is not a great football team. TCU actually is a strong team. They won nine games last year and three years ago TCU was in the national championship game.

Obviously, the coach, Sonny Dykes, talks about that. You can use it as motivation. Everyone thinks we're going to lose. It's Bill Belichick's night. Let's go and ruin it. That's -- you know, that's just standard locker room fodder there.

So, the combination, and I think also the distractions over the many months and that -- that, you know, the college game is different than the pro game clearly. It's not the same. And I'll put that all together. And it truly was as inauspicious a start as Bill Belichick could have ever imagined in his nightmares.

BERMAN: Yes. And it's going to raise questions. I mean, look, after a drubbing like that, it's going to raise questions about, you know, does he still have it? People up in New England, where I'm from, are saying, you know, this actually does look like a Belichick team. The last Patriots team he coached that won four games.

BRENNAN: Right. Exactly. And -- and you saw it. You know, back, you know, 20 years ago coaches, Bill Belichick, anyone, John, you know, never had to deal with social media. Oh my goodness, it -- they were piling on again in the -- you know, at halftime and onward.

And, yes, you know, like, oh, now we know it's Tom Brady, right? Tom Brady's the answer. You saw so many people saying that.

Belichick's going to get all these questions. He will continue to get them. If the media is doing its job, they will ask tough questions. Of course, every -- every press availability and -- and Belichick's handle (ph), as, you know, I mean you're a Boston guy, Belichick's handled the biggest stages and handled them beautifully with six Super Bowl wins.

But, yes, was it all Tom Brady? Who is -- what -- does Belichick still have it? He's 73 years old. How long does he put up with this if it's right now North Carolina was picked preseason to be eighth in the ACC. That's not good. They're going to lose more games this year. They've got Clemson, although Clemson just lost. But they've got Clemson in a few weeks. So, it's not going to get any easier for him.

But he is a pro. And he is a master of not wanting to have distractions. And, of course, all he's had is distractions. So, maybe he can figure that out and win some football games.

BERMAN: He's won a few in his life. Maybe he can turn it around.

Christine Brennan, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Something else that John has deep belief in, not just Bill Belichick, but also Powerball. Breaking overnight, no winners. Powerball just does not want to give in this time. Just does not want to quit. Now, after Monday night's drawing, the jackpot is growing. Now up to $1.3 billion. That's apparently the sign for growing, thank you, Harry. The fifth largest prize in game history. So, there is a chance. But just how small? Harry's here with a bit of a reality check.

How -- OK, winning -- chances of winning clearly, you know, teeny weeny.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Teeny, teeny weeny. And I'll put --

BOLDUAN: But how low?

ENTEN: How teeny weeny. I'll tell you, John Berman's got into my head and he sort of has brought this out of me. John Berman, not the biggest believer in the lottery.

And look, the chance of winning the Powerball jackpot, the odds have become longer. You know, back in 1992 it was one in 55 million. Then in 2009, it was one in 195 million.

[09:55:01]

And now it's one in 292 million. Why? They've added more balls. And that does mean that it's harder to win. But it also means that there are longer odds. By adding the more balls, they've made it more difficult to win. And now a one in 292 million compared to one in 55 million. I think the balls comment got Kate Bolduan a little bit.

BERMAN: That's HR. That's HR on the other line, Kate Bolduan, move on. Next question. Next question. It's HR.

BOLDUAN: I'm not -- I'm laughing about just life in general.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Life is hysterical.

I just wasn't anticipating you saying that. And, anyway, and it's not just the odds that have changed, Harry.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: There are other reasons why it is becoming more difficult.

ENTEN: Yes, you talk about billion dollar jackpots. But remember, that's the 30-year annuity. Most -- we're talking lump sums as well here. And Powerball lump sums have been losing ground because what happens is with the annuity you put it into bonds and essentially the Treasury yields for annuities are up. So, you talk about last night's jackpot, right, initially it was $1.1 billion. But the lump sum was only $498 million. Compare that to October of 2021 when it was a $496 million. But the annuity was $700 million. So, in fact, the annuity is making it seem like there's these much bigger jackpots.

But here's the key thing, it's really the lump sum you should be talking about. Why? Because what have the winners taken? Fifty-five out of the 55 Powerball biggest winners, they all took the lump sum. I don't care about the billion dollars, I care about the lump sum, and that's still in the million dollar range. BERMAN: And they added more balls. It always creates problems.

Harry Enten, thank you so much for being with us.

This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: I'm not talking at all.

BERMAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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