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Epstein Survivors to Speak at Rally; Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D- FL) is Interviewed about the Epstein Vote; Bond Hearing Today for Man Who Shot an 11-year-old in Texas; HSS Employees Demand Resignation; Dr. Paul Offit is Interviewed about Being Blocked from FDA. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The -- there is only one, that is for sure. And this Sunday you can see Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports "It Doesn't Have to Hurt." It's this Sunday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

And don't forget to head to cnn.com to send in your questions about preventing and treating pain. Sanjay's going to be back later this week to answer those questions.

We're going to have to add extra time for that for sure because of so many questions.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, we are standing by to hear from several survivors in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. They're set to speak shortly on Capitol Hill.

New calls for Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to resign. The letter signed by more than 1,000 former and current department employees.

And Cardi B. fresh off winning her civil lawsuit trial, throws a pen at a reporter outside the courthouse. The question that made her so angry.

Sara is out. I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: So, just minutes from now, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, they're set to speak in Washington outside the Capitol as they demand justice finally to get and finally getting full transparency. Some are speaking publicly and telling their stories actually for the first time.

Yesterday, victims met with members of Congress, the same day the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 pages of Epstein- related records sent over from the Justice Department. Sounds like a lot. The Justice Department has 100,000 pages. So, just 33,000.

The -- there are many who say that this -- this is not enough. We have heard from the House speaker, who thinks that this should be enough to the point of -- that they should -- a Republican congressman, Congressman Massie, and along with a Democrat, should no longer need to push to force a vote in the House to get the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein case files.

As I said, it's Massie joining with Ro Khanna, and they're seeking to push for this vote and to make this vote happen. It's a big question today if this is -- where this is all going to head. They're going to be joined by some of Epstein's survivors today as they continue this push.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is joining us now.

It's all about to start unfolding, Arlette. What are you expecting to see?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, an emotional scene is expected to play out in just a little over an hour as survivors of Jeffrey Epstein are set to speak at a press conference. As you noted, some of them speaking publicly for the very first time.

This comes on the heels of a more than two hour meeting that six survivors had yesterday with the House Oversight Committee and House Speaker Mike Johnson. It was an emotional meeting. You could even see one Republican congresswoman leaving that conversation in tears.

Now, members who were in the meeting said that these survivors talked about how they want information to be made public, but they also want to make sure that their private details are being protected. So, that is something that we could hear from these survivors as they continue to speak out today.

But at the same time, there is a political battle brewing over exactly how these Epstein files should be released. Congressman Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, a Democrat and a Republican, are moving forward with their effort to try to force a vote on the House floor on the full release of the Epstein files, even as the House Oversight Committee yesterday released more than 33,000 pages of documents that had been turned over by the Justice Department.

Now, Democrats very quickly said that most of these documents that were unveiled yesterday actually had already been made public. And Massie and Khanna remain undeterred, saying they want to move forward.

If they have all Democrats on board, they would need six Republicans to sign on to this procedural tactic. And so far, four have voiced that they would be in agreement.

Now, at the same time, GOP leadership is trying to offer Republicans an alternative. They are trying to push forward on a symbolic vote that would encourage the House Oversight Committee to continue its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. And last night, a White House official said of Epstein -- of Massie's and Khanna's effort that it's simply attention seeking and that anyone that would aid in that would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.

But here are some of the back and forth that we have heard from Speaker Johnson and Congressman Massie on this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I would not put much stock in what Thomas Massie says. The House Republicans have been very consistent about maximum disclosure, maximum transparency with the Epstein files.

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Look, if my legislation were redundant, why would the White House be trying to stop it?

[09:05:03]

It's not redundant. There's -- there are things that the White House doesn't want out there that my legislation would cause to be released.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So, still a lot of questions about how this will play out as there are competing efforts relating to the Epstein files.

But by holding this press conference today, Congressman Khanna and Massie are hoping that they can put a human face to this issue, as these survivors are set to speak out, some of them for the very first time, about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.

BOLDUAN: All right, Arlette, thank you so much for the reporting.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

This discharge petition has ripened (ph). People are signing it. The White House is fighting it. They don't want this full vote that Thomas Massie wants. And Speaker Johnson now says it's moot. You don't need to vote for a full release of the Epstein information. What do you think about that?

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Yes. Thanks, John. Thanks for having me.

Yes, welcome to the Comer cover-up. You know, I mean, we've been gone for six weeks. He just releases 30,000 pages the day before a vote. He could have released it, you know, over the last six weeks. But they waited just enough, they held these documents from the public. They held on to them so they could release them the day of the petition.

Why don't they want the petition to pass? What are they afraid of? What are they hiding? Those are obviously the questions that the American people have. And then you've got James Comer, who's in charge of this whole thing. You know, this is a guy who took information from a Chinese informant. He lost an informant. He took Russian disinformation in his last investigation.

So, this is the Comer cover-up. I mean, look, he didn't come up with this idea on his own. He's not that bright, but he's obviously executing the plan that the White House has come up for him.

BERMAN: And that plan is what, in your mind, to not release the full documents? They've released some. This discharge petition calls for the full release.

MOSKOWITZ: Yes. So, it -- they want to deflect and they're trying to bury this now in policy. So, here's what they're going to do, John. They're going to pass a rule, OK, which we pass every week we're up here in Congress. When -- when you're in the majority, you pass a rule. The rule is what allows the bills to move or resolutions to move -- move for the week. The opposite party always votes against the rule. So, whether we were in charge and they were in charge, right, the other side, the minority votes against the rule.

In this rule, they put this Epstein thing in there. So, they want to say, oh, Democrats are now voting against it. They want to message that, right? They also want to say, look, all of our Republicans voted for full disclosure. It's not true. Comer actually is the one who gets to decide what to release. Comer is the one who gets to decide what to redact all on his own.

And so, there is no transparency. There are no hearings. Where are the hearings? Bring in the witnesses. He's burying these depositions in the basement so nobody hears from any of these witnesses. And then he's going to issue some report. Comer lost the trust of the American people in his fake faux Biden impeachment scam. And now you got the Comer cover up with when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein. He's doing the White House's dirty work, looking for the president's endorsement on his way to trying to become the governor of Kentucky.

BERMAN: Just so people know a little bit of the backstory here, you were on the Oversight Committee in the last Congress. And I think, suffice it to say, you and Comer had a complicated working relationship. You don't look highly upon his leadership of this committee, do you?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, yes, I mean, I guess you could -- if I had to fill out that form, like, where am I? Am I single, married, open? I would say our relationship is complicated. It's a complicated relationship. I mean, you know, James is a friend of mine, obviously a dear colleague. But look, I think we should measure him at his success, or lack thereof. And at the end of the day, he did a two-year investigation to Biden impeachment. Didn't happen. Again, he took Russian information, lost an informant, was getting information from Chinese spies. And now you have the Comer Epstein coverup. This is the Comer cover-up. That's exactly what's going on. Let's take a vote. Let's hold some depositions. We'll call some people in. I'll do Newsmax. I'll do Fox. I'll tell people what we're doing, and I'll pretend like there's some sort of process to release this information when actually they're hiding it in plain sight.

See, that's where they get to do. They get to say, like, hey, we're the most transparent folks ever. Look what we're doing. But actually, what they're doing is, they're hiding in plain sight.

So, yes, look, let him play Encyclopedia Brown with his fake investigation here, but this is absolutely a Comer cover up.

BERMAN: Congressman, I want to ask you, I had a chance to listen and read through an interview you did, and you talked about the state of the Democratic Party in Florida, which I think, bluntly, is not good. It's been a while since Democrats have had statewide success in Florida, and there may be redistricting, which puts your seat at risk there where Democrats stand to lose even more seats in the House. You think it could be 70 years, you say, before Democrats gain significant ground in Florida. Why?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, look, I was giving political analysis. I mean, what I was saying is, Democrats actually had control of the politics in Florida for 100 years, right?

[09:10:04]

We -- we were in charge of the house, the senate. We had the governor's mansion up in Tallahassee for 100 plus years. Dem -- Republicans now are, I think, almost 40 years into their full reign of Tallahassee. So, what I was saying is, you know, it could be another 60 or 70.

You know, that being said, look, you know, Democrats have to register voters, right? I don't want that to be the case. I just think it is the case at the moment, at least in the short term. Right now Republicans have 1.2 plus million more registered Republicans than Democrats. And so, if you look at the math, it's going to be very hard to win unless we register voters. Even when we had a registration advantage of about 200,000 to 300,000 more Democrats registered, we were still losing the governor's races. Lost it to Charlie Crist. Lost it to Rick Scott. Lost it to Jeb Bush. Lost it to Ron DeSantis. And so now, with Republicans having such an advantage, the math is becoming almost insurmountable. So, Democrats have to register voters if we want to change Florida's future.

BERMAN: How do you convince people to register? What do you -- why do you think you're having a hard time registering?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, I mean, I think, ultimately, Florida has become the center of MAGA. You got Ron DeSantis, you got Donald Trump, and you have unlimited money that's come into the system. So they've gone out because they have the governor's mansion, they have the house, they have the senate, all of that corporate money can come in and they can go out and do major registration drives where Democrats are having problems trying to get similar buy in because we've been in the minority for such a long period of time to go out.

So, we need national money. National money has to come into Florida, and we have to register Democrats. That's the only way we are going to try to change Florida's future on who we're going to be able to elect in the governor's race or in the house and the senate.

I mean, obviously, the Republicans have gerrymandered these seats in the house and senate. So, trying to take power back in those bodies would be even harder. But if we want to win the governor's mansion, if we want to win a senate race, you know, since Bill Nelson, obviously, we're going to have to raise money into the system, get people out into the field and register voters.

BERMAN: Congressman Jared Moskowitz from Florida, thanks for being with us this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Next hour, the man charged with the murder of an 11-year-old boy is due back in court. A boy who was simply playing a doorbell prank. The new details that we're learning now about that shooting.

And the Trump family is launching their latest cryptocurrency venture. There's a new look today at how much it is boosting their wealth.

And the unique challenges facing boys and men in America. There's a new look at why they are falling behind in school.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:31]

BOLDUAN: Next hour, a bond hearing will get underway for the man now charged with murdering a young boy who simply rang his doorbell and was actually running away from the man's home. Eleven-year-old Julian Guzman was killed after being shot in the back Saturday, and prosecutors say they now plan to ask the judge to set bond for the accused, 42-year-old Gonzalo Leon Jr., at $1 million.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is following this and joining us right now.

You were here just yesterday breaking the news of the charges that was brought against this man. What more are you learning now, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're getting some new details of exactly how this shooting unfolded Saturday night. This is according to an arrest warrant affidavit and also an interview we did with the district attorney in Harris County as well. And according to all of those sources, these -- this 11-year-old, Julian Guzman, was at a birthday party with his family, or birthday party celebration with his family and his cousin when the two young boys decided to venture off into the neighborhood and started ding dong ditching. They went several times, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, to the house where this shooting took place, where Gonzalo Leon Jr., the suspect, lived. And it was on that last time that, according to these court documents, that Leon Jr. came out of the house to a stop sign away -- just some distance away from their house, and fired twice, once into the ground, and then the second time, according to the district attorney, pointing at the boys and shooting directly at them. And that shot, according to the information that we have, hit Julian Guzman in the back one time. He later died from those wounds.

And the court documents, the cousin describes, quote, "army dragging the young boy away from the scene and looking back at the -- at the suspect walking back into his house after having fired that (INAUDIBLE) learning about how all of this transpired. The district attorney says that this is not a case of self-defense. That this is, quote, "cold-blooded murder."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN TEARE, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: There's nothing to suggest that he was taking anything. He was running away. He was doing what 11-year-old boys do. He was playing pranks on the neighbors, and it cost him his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And, Kate, we've also learned that Gonzalo Leon Jr., the suspect, is a U.S. Army veteran. Military officials confirmed that he served in the Army, and as well as the National Guard. Police also say that they confiscated some 20 different firearms inside the home after the shooting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ed, thank you so much for staying on top of this. Great reporting.

Still ahead for us, more than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services employees are now calling for the secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., to resign. Why they say he's compromising the health of the nation.

And a wildfire explodes overnight in a historic California mining town.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:24:02]

BERMAN: We're getting new images just in from northern California. Evacuation orders in place as these wildfires are spreading very, very quickly throughout the region, including causing a lot of damage to an historic mining town. Thousands of acres have been scorched by the fire that officials believe started by a lightning strike. Thankfully, no reports of injury or death. Right now, though, the fire completely uncontained. Buildings in the mining town established in the 1850s, completely wiped out. It was a prime location for those in the gold rush way back when. It now is a state landmark.

New calls this morning for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. to step down. And this time it's coming from inside his own department. More than 1,000 former and current HHS employees have released a letter demanding his resignation. They say his leadership has, quote, "put the health of all Americans at risk."

[09:25:01]

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is here to explain.

What's in this letter?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, they cite a few things here in saying that the secretary is endangering the nation's health. One is, of course, the facilitation of the firing of the CDC director last week, which prompted the resignations of several key longtime CDC leaders. They also cite what they call the appointment of political ideologues to positions advising the CDC on vaccines, and also within HHS, doing work on vaccine research, as well as rescinding the emergency use authorizations of Covid-19 vaccines without, they say, providing sufficient data or explanation of their methods.

And so, in this letter, which some of them signed anonymously for fear of reprisals.

BERMAN: Sure.

TIRRELL: And they also emphasize they're doing it in their own personal capacities. They are saying, if the secretary declines to resign, they're asking the president and Congress to replace him.

Of course, this follows calls from some members of Congress, including Senator Patty Murray, Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Rosa DeLauro, for him to resign or be fired. Of course, those are Democrats and independents. We're not hearing the same from Republicans.

We did hear from Senator Bill Cassidy and he's calling for more oversight of especially the CDC Advisory Committee, but certainly not going as far as his Democratic colleagues.

BERMAN: No, Senator Cassidy's words so far have been very carefully chosen. We'll see if that continues this week. I know Secretary Kennedy will be up on Capitol Hill for testimony.

TIRRELL: Tomorrow (ph).

BERMAN: All right, Meg Tirrell, thank you very much.

TIRRELL: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: In another move at HHS and what could be viewed as another push for a purge, Dr. Paul Offit, a doctor you've seen very often on this show, has now been blocked from participating in critical -- in a critical FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee, a committee he has long been a member of. This is a committee made up of independent experts who advise the FDA on vaccine, are very important voices on what vaccines we have available to us all across the country. HHS says, according to a spokesperson about this, that, "the FDA issued notifications to certain advisory committee members whose Special Government Employee terms have expired and therefore can no longer participate in Advisory work."

This does, though, raise real questions about what medical experts are being pushed out and what ideologues are being brought in throughout the agency.

Joining me right now is Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Doctor, I mean, you had been asked previously by a senior FDA official to extend your term on this panel. What's your understanding, then, of what changed?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I don't know. I know that I was asked to extend for four years. I agreed to extend for two more years through 2027. I was then asked to fill out the Special Government Employee forms, which I did, which were supposed to be pro forma. They went through FDA, went to HHS, and then, for whatever reason, HHS, Health and Human Services, held it up. So, therefore, I'm not going to be on the committee. I was never formally told that. I just was told that it was held up and that I'm now considered -- should consider myself to not be on the committee anymore.

BOLDUAN: Anyone who has watched our conversations for many months now know that you have been speaking out against RFK Jr.'s resistance to science and his conspiracy theories for years. Do you think this is because you spoke out against him? Do you think this is personal rather than having anything to do with the trend of even him clearing out experts and replacing them with people who support his vaccine cynicism?

OFFIT: Well, I know that I've been critical of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for years, for good reason. And I know that this was not being held up by the FDA. Rather, it's being held up at the level of Health and Human Services. Those two things are -- two things are true. Whether they're causally related, I don't know. If that is true, that I was specifically targeted, that's pretty petty, I think, on the part of HHS.

BOLDUAN: Will you trust the advice coming from this critical advisory panel now and going forward?

OFFIT: Yes. Absolutely. The people who are still on that committee, like Eric Rubin or -- or Arnold Monto or Hank Bernstein or Hayley Gans or Stanley Perlman, I mean, the men and women who are currently on that committee are brilliant and excellent. And I don't think my -- I think my not being on that committee in no way negatively impacts that committee.

I mean, personally, I would love to still be on it because I really enjoyed the conversations that we had, lively conversations as we review the data. But I think the American public should be reassured that the data -- that the advice that they're going to be getting from that committee will be excellent.

BOLDUAN: Which is important to hear, because at the same time as Meg Tirrell was just talking about, you have this now more than 1,000 employees, current and former of HHS, speaking out and calling for RFK Jr. to resign, saying that he's endangering America's health.

[09:30:01]

What do you think -- do you think a group like that speaking out will have an impact, or maybe my better question would be, would it have an