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Military Leaders Concern About Hegseth's Strategy; Government to Shut Down at Midnight if No Spending Deal Reached; Hegseth Addresses Senior Military Officials at Quantico. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 30, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CULVER (voice-over): Among those helping with transportation, U.S. citizens. DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT CULVER: You all are using social media to get to young people, young teens, and recruiting them to be part of it. Some of them -- many of them are American citizens too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like.

CULVER: That's life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like that, you know.

CULVER: So even though they may get caught and spend many years in prison, that's their fault as you see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CULVER: When you see, for example, the impact of violence and everything that is caused from the cartel movements from essentially your employer, do you feel that you're part of this problem?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. You know, because I got a kid, I got, you know, family. And when they want to kill you, you want, you defend.

CULVER: So you see it as defending yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's what I say. Yes. I don't -- I don't like it. You have something wrong to me. I do something bad to you.

CULVER (voice-over): A not-so-subtle threat. And yet he seems to regret some of his own life choices.

CULVER: What is your motivation for wanting to talk?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why I come to here.

CULVER: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Want people listen. And I tell them it's not a life. It's not a good, you know, it's not good. It's not.

CULVER: Have you had to kill people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. You've asked me.

CULVER: And does that not weigh on you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I'm not bad. I'm not bad person.

CULVER: You don't think you're a bad person?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not a bad person. But I do what I have to do, you know?

CULVER: Why do you say you do what you have to do? Couldn't you stop doing this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, no.

CULVER: You can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once you get in, you can't get out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once you get in, you can't get out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

CULVER: Do you think what President Trump has been doing has been making your job tougher?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

CULVER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CULVER: But it's becoming more difficult, you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CULVER (voice-over): For now, the cartels are still at it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, live pictures at any minute. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will address an unprecedented gathering of admirals and generals. Everyone you see there, an extremely senior military officer.

The president speaks later. There are reports that there are concerns in that room about why they were all called there.

Sixteen hours left and dropping by the second. The government on the verge of a shutdown. We have the latest report on the efforts or non- efforts to reach a deal.

And an emergency landing on a packed highway during rush hour. That's not something you see every day.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's show you in the room where it's about to happen. That is a live look at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where they are standing by for something unprecedented. That is inside a rare and short-notice gathering of hundreds of the top leadership of the U.S. military. Generals and admirals who have been summoned from across the world to meet in Virginia.

Moments from now, we are expecting to hear from Pentagon Chief Secretary Pete Hegseth at this gathering. And later, President Trump is also planning to speak there as well.

While the military leaders were summoned without being told why they were all being called in, we are now learning that Secretary Hegseth is expected to outline the administration's new defense strategy and discuss new standards for military personnel.

Same time, The Washington Post is reporting some of the very military leaders in that room are voicing concerns, serious concerns over the abrupt changes Hegseth is planning to make and impose on the military.

Joining me right now as we stand by to see what comes from this gathering, joining me right now is retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson. Thank you for being here.

You would be one of those leaders in that room today. And you think this is wrong on multiple levels, Brigadier General, starting with the way just this looks overall. What do you see?

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, thank you, Kate, for having me here. And this scares me a lot because this is just a power play, plain and simple. Trump is trying to reshape the military into his own personal militia, just like he's done with the Department of Justice, just like he's done with Homeland Security.

And he's trying to essentially kowtow the military into being totally compliant and totally submissive to his demands. I mean, he wants to use them, obviously, continue to use them in cities like Washington, D.C. He's talked about Portland. He's using them on the southern border.

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I'm really scared that he may try to invoke the Insurrection Act. And in order to do that, he's going to need the military to be on his side. So I think this is nothing but a power play.

And I can talk all day about how it's a waste of time, money and effort, how we already have security systems, you know, classified communication systems that they could use. But this is a way he's essentially saying, I want you to jump. And he expects the military to say, how high? BOLDUAN: What he -- the way that the president put it in an interview with NBC News on Sunday is he said this. It's really just a very nice meeting talking about how well we're doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things. It's just a good message.

And if the president and his defense secretary, they will say, what's wrong with getting them all in the room and on the same page and doing something of a pep rally? Do you see any value in it?

ANDERSON: No, I don't, because if you really committed to the warrior ethos, you'd be out with the troops. You'd be out on the front lines. You'd spend the money and the time to get out and see what's going on and participate in training.

How does bringing a bunch of people into a room to conduct a meeting in an auditorium, how does that contribute to the warrior ethos that he's trying to build? I mean, it's just absurd.

BOLDUAN: The Washington Post is reporting this morning the following, General.

Military leaders have raised serious concerns about the Trump administration's forthcoming defense strategy, exposing a divide between the Pentagon's political and uniformed leadership.

The Post, citing eight current and former officials, is reporting that the critiques are coming from, quote, multiple top officers, including General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, come as Hegseth reorders U.S. military priorities, centering the Pentagon on perceived threats to the homeland, narrowing U.S. competition with China and downplaying America's role in Europe and Africa.

With that as what is about to be, you anticipate, discussed in this room when the secretary speaks and the president speaks, what do you think the vibe is going into this today?

ANDERSON: I think that most of the officers there are pretty scared. You know, they're they're surprised because they're just like me. They've been committed to a national security strategy that has been successful for the last 80 years that has relied essentially upon forward presence and strong alliances.

And now we're trying to come off that and refocus on homeland security, which is really absurd. I mean, it's making our allies -- our adversaries such as China, Russia absolutely delighted. And why are -- why is the national security strategy so important?

Because it drives funding. We need to have the funding to support what we're trying to do overseas with our allies in in in other locations. And if we don't have that funding, but we bring the troops back, there's going to be a void.

The bad guys are going to fill that void.

BOLDUAN: This gets to a question that I think everyone needs to start asking, which is what comes after this? Eight hundred plus of the U.S. military's top leadership sitting in this room. They hear what they hear.

They're they are directed to do, you know, given orders as they're going to be given orders from the secretary and the president, the commander in chief. They leave the room and they go back to work. What do they do with it?

ANDERSON: Well, that's a really good question. I mean, I had a conversation over the weekend with a senior U.S. senator and he told that they told me that they had been guided not to speak to anybody, that they're supposed to leave the meeting silently, get in their vehicles and head back home. I mean, that's pretty scary.

But again, it gets back to this power play. He's trying to thin the herd of those that might stand up to him. Remember, 20 percent of the general officers, the four star general officers are being cut.

Anybody that might oppose a threat to Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth, he wants them gone. And so this is a way to motivate those people to leave the military. He wants a totally compliant, totally submissive military to remain so that he can do what he wants to do.

And like I said, my long term concern, a couple, three years from now is the invocation of the Insurrection Act.

BOLDUAN: Brigadier General Steve Anderson, thank you for your time and your perspective this morning. We're going to be hearing from Secretary Hegseth any minute now. Thank you -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Up ahead, new details out this morning about the man who carried out the deadly attack against the Michigan Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What we are learning about a chilling encounter the gunman had with the city council candidate just days before that awful shooting.

Plus, YouTube is going to pay more than $24 million to settle a lawsuit with President Trump, where most of the money will actually go.

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BERMAN: This morning, federal agencies bracing for a potential government shutdown at midnight with tens of thousands of employees and members of the military caught in the middle. Republicans are saying they want a temporary extension. Democrats want promises on extending Obamacare subsidies.

CNN's Brian Todd is with us on what exactly we'll begin to see at midnight. Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, John, you know, as we approach this possible government shutdown, so many Americans have questions, as they always do during these periods. What is going to continue to function? What will not function? What

will be open? What will not be open during a government shutdown?

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Now, we should say that in previous periods where we've approached a government shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget has always posted the contingency plans of each government agency on its website to let everyone know what the contingencies are, what's going to be open and not open.

This year, the OMB has not done that. So CNN, our team, led by our reporter and writer Tami Luhby, myself and others, we've made calls, e-mails, texts, we've scoped government websites to find out as much information as we could for our viewers and readers as to what's going to be open and what hasn't.

And here are some of what we can tell you, what will continue to operate. Crucially, Social Security and Medicare payments will continue normally. Everyone who gets those will continue to get those.

Now the question regarding some of these benefits is, if you call and have questions about your benefits, or if something is -- if you have a hitch and you need to ask someone, is there going to be someone there to pick up the phone and answer your questions at these agencies? We'll have to see about that. That's been an issue in previous shutdowns.

Unemployed people will continue to get their jobless benefits during the shutdown. That will be uninterrupted. Now, crucially, the State Department is going to be still issuing passports and visas during a possible shutdown and will continue to assist Americans who are abroad.

But we have to say that only about 10,000 State Department employees will be considered essential workers out of a workforce of almost 27,000 people. So how fast these visas and passports will be processed, that is going to be a big question.

Crucially also, the National Weather Service is going to continue its forecasts and warnings regardless of whether there is a shutdown or not.

You're going to get those forecasts and warnings. That's important now, of course, because we're in the middle of hurricane season. You've got two large storms out in the Atlantic.

Thankfully, they're not going to make a direct strike on the U.S. Why do we know that? Because these guys have continued to give us their forecasts, and they will continue to do that in the weeks ahead if we have a shutdown. That's going to be important because hurricane season is not over yet by any means.

Also, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and TSA screeners will continue to work. Some of them won't be paid. We'll get into that in a moment. Also, veterans are going to continue to get their medical care and critical services, including the suicide prevention programs. That's all going to continue on normally -- John.

BERMAN: Actually, Brian, stand by for a minute, if you will. We're going to go back to Quantico in Virginia right now because Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth has begun addressing the generals and admirals there.

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: ... unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit. Not because we want war. No one here wants war.

But it's because we love peace. We love peace for our fellow citizens. They deserve peace, and they rightfully expect us to deliver it.

Our number one job, of course, is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place. The president talks about it all the time. It's called peace through strength.

And as history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it. That's why pacifism is so naive and dangerous. It ignores human nature, and it ignores human history.

Either you protect your people and your sovereignty, or you will be subservient to something or someone. It's a truth as old as time. And since waging war is so costly in blood and treasure, we owe our republic a military that will win any war we choose, or any war that is thrust upon us.

Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies, F-A-F-O. If necessary, our troops can translate that for you.

Another way to put it is peace through strength, brought to you by the warrior ethos. And we are restoring both. As President Trump has said, and he's right, we have the strongest, most powerful, most lethal, and most prepared military on the planet.

That is true full stop. Nobody can touch us. It's not even close.

This is true largely because of the historic investments that he made in his first term, and we will continue in this term. But it's also true because of the leaders in this room, and the incredible troops that you all lead. But the world, and as the Chairman mentioned, our enemies get a vote.

You feel it, I feel it.

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This is a moment of urgency, mounting urgency. Enemies gather, threats grow. There is no time for games. We must be prepared. If we're going to prevent and avoid war, we must prepare now. We are the strength part of peace through strength. And either we're ready to win or we are not. You see, this urgent moment, of course, requires more troops, more munitions, more drones, more patriots, more submarines, more B-21 bombers.

It requires more innovation, more AI in everything, and ahead of the curve. More cyber effects, more counter-UAS, more space, more speed. America is the strongest, but we need to get stronger and quickly.

The time is now, and the cause is urgent. The moment requires restoring and refocusing our defense industrial base, our shipbuilding industry, and on-shoring all critical components. It requires, as President Trump has done, getting our allies and partners to step up and share the burden.

America cannot do everything. The free world requires allies with real hard power, real military leadership, and real military capabilities. The War Department is tackling and prioritizing all of these things.

And I'll be giving a speech next month that will showcase the speed, innovation, and generational acquisition reforms we are undertaking urgently. Likewise, the nature of the threats we face in our hemisphere and in deterring China is another speech for another day coming soon.

This speech today, as I drink my coffee, this speech today is about people, and it's about culture. The topic today is about the nature of ourselves.

Because no plan, no program, no reform, no formation will ultimately succeed unless we have the right people and the right culture at the War Department. If I've learned one core lesson in my eight months in this job, it's that personnel is policy. Personnel is policy.

The best way to take care of troops is to give them good leaders committed to the warfighting culture of the Department. Not perfect leaders, good leaders.

Competent, qualified, professional, agile, aggressive, innovative, risk-taking, apolitical, faithful to their oath and to the Constitution.

Eugene Sledge, in his World War II memoir, wrote, quote, War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors are my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other.

In combat, there are thousands of variables, as I learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as so many of you did in so many more places. Leaders can only control about three of them.

You control how well you're trained, mostly how well you're equipped, and the last variable is how well you lead. After that, you're on your own. Our warfighters are entitled to be led by the best and most capable leaders. That is who we need you all to be. Even then, in combat, even if you do everything right, you may still lose people because the enemy always gets a vote. We have a sacred duty to ensure that our warriors are led by the most capable and qualified combat leaders.

This is one thing you and I can control, and we owe it to the force to deliver it. For too long, we have simply not done that. The military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things.

In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden. Or, as the chairman has put it, we are clearing out the debris, removing the distractions, clearing the way for leaders to be leaders. You might say we're ending the war on warriors -- I heard someone wrote a book about that.

For too long, we've promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts. We've pretended that combat arms and non- combat arms are the same thing.

We've weeded out so-called toxic leaders under the guise of double- blind psychology assessments, promoting risk-averse go-along-to-get- along conformists instead. You name it, the department did it.

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Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the woke department. But not anymore. Right now, I'm looking out at a sea of Americans who made a choice, when they were young men and young women, to do something most Americans will not, to serve something greater than yourself, to fight for God and country, for freedom and the Constitution.

You made a choice to serve when others did not. And I commend you.

BERMAN: Well you're watching Defense Secretary Pete Hexith addressing a gathering of generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia. The speech so far seems to be addressed, he says, on promoting the right culture inside the military, the correct personnel. He also made the claim that it should have apolitical leaders.

He did seem to promote his own book. He said this speech is about ending the war on warriors, coincidentally or not, the title of a book by Pete Hegseth. And he then proceeded, as he is now, I think, to talk about changing the culture in the military.

He said, for too long, it's been dependent on race and gender and ideology.

I want to bring back in with us retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson. General, good to see you.

You've been listening. Have you heard anything that constitutes a change or an announcement or a reason to be addressing the group in the room today? ANDERSON: Well, I think that there are probably a lot of general officers sitting there right now muttering to themselves, I traveled 8,000 miles to hear this. I mean, this is essentially a canned speech that really could have been delivered by anybody at almost any time. But I think that there are some clues he's leaving about refocusing on homeland security and taking away perhaps some of our forward presence and the strength of our alliances overseas.

And that really concerns me. I mean, that has kept this world safe for 80 years. I mean, the NATO alliance and the alliances we have in Japan and Korea have kept this world relatively safe for a long time.

And for us to come off on that would be a terrible, terrible mistake. And I think that there were probably a couple of clues that he left there to that regard.

The other thing that he talked about was changing the culture and, you know, talking about accountability and responsibility.

I mean, there's nothing like being lectured by a reserve major who's been in the military for 20 years about things like that. I mean, these guys can write books about their service and their sacrifice and the bravery that they have shown. And, you know, if you talk about accountability and responsibility, he needs to start with himself.

He should have resigned after the Signal Gate disaster where he shared our classified secrets on an unsecure line. Every single person in that room knows that they would have been fired had they done the same thing.

So, I mean, this is really a sad moment in our history. I think that this speech and what's going on right now is probably going to turn into a political rally for President Trump. But it's really all about trying to get the military to kowtow to them in their will. And unfortunately, I think we're going to see a lot of that for the next hour or so.

BERMAN: All right, General Anderson, we appreciate you being with us. We're going to keep on monitoring the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. He is, as you can see, a very accomplished public speaker walking around that stage speaking to the group of generals and admirals there.

Talking about many of the things he has talked about for years on Fox News and now at the Pentagon. President Trump's speech shortly.

A lot of breaking news this morning. Stay with us.

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