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Hegseth: Combat Troops Will Have to Meet Highest Male Standards; Hegseth Rips Diversity Efforts in Rare Meeting of Top Military Brass; Inside the Cartel Networks Recruiting Young Americans on Social Media; ChatGPT Introduces New Parental Controls for Teens. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired September 30, 2025 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: CNN investigates they were able to locate a childhood friend of the shooter who essentially described his hatred toward the LDS church as stemming from a bad breakup. Previously, he had lived in Utah, had dated a woman who was in the LDS church. They broke up.
He then moved to Michigan. And his friend said that that was just driving him to constantly speak negatively about the LDS church. And that actually tracks with another witness that CNN was able to speak to a local person running for local office there in Michigan who encountered this person and said one of the first things he started talking about was his antipathy towards the Mormon church.
So that just gives some kind of insight. Authorities tell us that they are still trying to work on a motive here. The suspect obviously was shot and killed.
He can't be interviewed, but they're working behind the scenes in order to gather as much information as they can as they try to paint a picture of exactly what was going on here ahead of this attack.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Josh, thank you so much for that information.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth singling out female combat troops during a gathering of the military's top brass saying they need to be held to the same physical fitness standards as their male counterparts.
Next, we're going to talk to a female Marine Corps veteran who served in combat as an attack pilot and advised the military on a range of women's issues, including physical fitness standards.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:35:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Today, hundreds of America's top military officials gathered for an unprecedented meeting with President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The president, in his remarks, swayed political at times as he criticized President Biden and said the U.S. was under an invasion from within.
KEILAR: It was really extraordinary for him to do that and Hegseth for his part, taking through the changes that he wants made to the military, including ending diversity efforts and bringing in new standards, new gender standards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I don't want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat unit with females who can't meet the same combat arms physical standards as men. Our female officers and NCOs are the absolute best in the world. But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral.
If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: We're joined now by the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Major Kyleanne Hunter. Kyleanne is a Marine Corps combat veteran with several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan as an attack pilot. Thank you so much for being with us.
You're really a great person to talk to us about what we heard today, especially considering we heard so much about women as well in combat roles from the Pentagon chief. What just generally was your reaction to what you heard today?
MAJ. KYLEANNE HUNTER (RET.), CEO, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA: So first and foremost, thank you so much for having me today. Broadly, particularly these comments about women show an unfortunate focus on a culture war when we should be focused on military readiness. What we do know, what the evidence shows, what history bears out, is that in a -- for occupational standards, women are and have been held to the exact same physical occupational standards as men.
Whether it was in combat aviation, when I came in, I had to adhere to the exact same standards as my male counterparts. I had to do the same swim in the same amount of time. I had to fly the same aircraft.
And when ground combat was open to women, it was made very, very clear that there is one gender-neutral occupational physical standard that anyone going into these roles has to hold. And it has been that way since these roles have been open to women. So it is this unfortunate seeming to rehash of a culture war that is frankly distracting from real military readiness that we should be focused on.
SANCHEZ: Hegseth's comments come about a week after he shut down this decades-old advisory group that offered recommendations on how to support women serving in the military. I wonder what you think the practical implications of this is in conjunction with his comments and what it will do to military readiness.
HUNTER: Yes. So, I mean, I have deep concerns about the shutting down of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services or DACOWITS. I had the honor of serving on DACOWITS twice.
And what I can say is that the recommendations that we made for women in the services benefited everyone in increased military readiness, increased lethality, and increased unit cohesion, whether it was on ensuring there was properly fitting gear and equipment for everyone who goes downrange into harm's way, or ensuring that there is adequate familial support so people retain and stay in the military. These are actions that impact everyone.
And I think with the loss of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services and with these statements that, you know, show that women may not be adhering to the same standards, which is just blatantly not true, there's real concerns about recruiting. These big recruiting boons that we've seen are largely driven by women joining the military. But there's also a lot of concerns about retention.
Are people going to stay in if that's what's going to happen? But also what it does to our veteran population.
[14:40:00]
You know, we are hearing from veterans, men and women alike, that remarks like this have a real impact on veteran mental health and how they feel about their own services, you know, their own service. And were they actually worthy to be the service.
And so, you know, while there's a focus on the active duty right now, we absolutely need to be focused on that aspect. We also need to be looking at what are the ripple effects of, you know, this rhetoric due to the mental health of our veteran population as well.
KEILAR: And Hegseth also said this. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEGSETH: This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It's a lot there to unpack, but I just wonder what your reaction is.
HUNTER: So I think it's unfortunate when statements like this get made because it leads to division. You know, if we go back to the military being a true meritocracy, it should be. And I will say for my time in the military, I had the opportunity that I was judged objectively against my peers and where I succeeded, I succeeded all my merits and where I fell short, I fell short of my own shortcomings.
The offices that he's talking about, and I will go back to particularly the work of a committee like DACOWITS, made the military more merit-based. Work that DACOWITS did, did things like removing pronouns from fitness reports or officer qualification records so that individuals, when they are being promoted, skills, their achievements and merit, not a implicit or explicit by hold.
And so the very claims that they're wanting, right, if they want a better meritocracy system, they are dismantling the offices and the programs that made it a meritocracy to begin with, which is a little counterintuitive in my mind.
SANCHEZ: Major Kyleanne Hunter, we appreciate you sharing your perspective. Thanks so much for joining us.
HUNTER: Thank you so much for having me.
SANCHEZ: Of course. We have new details on another story that we're following. A second detainee who was shot at an ICE facility in Dallas last week has died.
32-year-old Miguel Angel Garcia Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant, was one of three detainees shot during last Wednesday's attack. His wife says he was a good man and a loving father who had four children and a fifth on the way.
KEILAR: Authorities say the gunman, Joshua Jahn, opened fire from the roof of a nearby building. He later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
And next, the results of a months-long CNN investigation. We got an inside look at how cartels are using coded social media posts and cash offers to turn American teens into drug dealers.
[14:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Today, President Trump praising the U.S. military's recent strikes on suspected drug boats off the coast of Venezuela, allegedly headed for the U.S. And today, he says the drug crackdown may expand to cartels on land.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a lot of drugs coming into the water. We call it water drugs, just a simple term. We don't have any boats on the water.
There are no boats. There are no fishing boats. There are no anything.
So we hit a number of boats. You probably saw that. And since we did that, we have absolutely no drugs coming into our country via water because it was lethal.
And now we'll look at cartels. We're going to look very seriously at cartels coming by land.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: For six months, CNN has been digging into how cartels work, how they recruit, how Americans, often young and unsuspecting, get pulled in, and how law enforcement is trying to fight back. In a rare, risky encounter, CNN sat down with a cartel boss. Here's CNN's senior national correspondent, David Culver.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll do another drive by westbound.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy. I'm moving in. And then we'll do kind of like a fill-in and stop.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, we're with several Cochise County deputies in several different units as they're moving in on their targets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys just hunker down where you're at. OK, we'll stand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up. Please don't move.
CULVER: Some of them you'll notice are undercover. You won't see their faces. You won't hear their names.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anyone else in the car with you?
CULVER: And they're fanned out here just north of the U.S. southern border to dismantle a smuggling network one arrest at a time. An investigation, mind you, that's been going on for 18 months.
It's not just your everyday criminal. It's definitely taking the bigger fish off the streets. The suspect's just handed over his phone, revealing what investigators say are key details about a migrant smuggling operation that's happening right now.
It's a coordinated pickup. That's all playing out in real time. And there's several more that you're trying to arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 18 in total.
CULVER: 18 in total --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
Aside from the air pressure right now we still have eyes in the car.
CULVER: These Americans we're talking about?
With the exception of one, all are U.S. citizens. They're tied to a faction of the cartel. They are a tight knit crew all working together for the betterment of a larger organization.
CULVER (voice-over): Cochise County spans 83 miles of border, south of this line, an underground network tied to the fractured but powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
[14:50:00]
Plaza bosses control each corridor, deciding who and what gets through with lookouts posted on nearby hills, constantly watching for U.S. patrols.
To keep undetected, migrants and their cartel-backed guides, often dressing camouflage, moving through the rocky desert terrain. They follow a pin drop, often to a road a few miles from the border. Drivers race in for the pickup and cash payout. Many are young Americans recruited online.
For six months, we tracked hundreds of cartel recruitment posts on social media, some aimed at luring teens. Coded language, emojis, and cash offers, offering thousands per pickup.
Deputies are going after the drivers. In the past six months, the Justice Department reports 431 people charged with smuggling in Arizona alone, many recruited online. Attorneys say most of their clients are between 18 and 25.
After the pickup, drivers head to stash houses on the U.S. side, run by cartel syndicates. To understand the impact this cartel crackdown is having, we spend weeks trying to get a senior cartel leader to speak with us. He finally agrees, meeting us in a Phoenix parking lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
CULVER: The Sinaloa cartel.
CULVER (voice-over): From killing to coordinating smuggling operations, he says he's done it all.
CULVER: Do you help in bringing people drugs --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People and drugs.
CULVER: Are you a citizen here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.
CULVER: No, and so you're able to still come in and out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CULVER (voice-over): Among those helping with transportation, U.S. citizens.
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: (INAUDIBLE)
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: Yeah.
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 like you are part of this problem?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, you know, because I got a kid, like a you know, family, you know when they want to kill you, and you defend.
CULVER: So, you see it as defending yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's what I say. I don't like throw it. You have something wrong to me. I do something bad to you.
CULVER (voice-over): And 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 here?
CULVER: Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When 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: Yeah, yeah you have to.
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.
CULVER: Why do you say you do what you have to do? Couldn't you stop doing this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
CULVER: You can't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once you get in this --
CULVER: Once you get in, you can't get out.
Do you think what President Trump has been doing has been making your job tougher. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yeah, yeah.
CULVER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CULVER: But it's becoming more difficult you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
CULVER (voice-over): For now, the cartels are still at it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Fascinating report from David Culver. Thank you so much for that.
And ChatGPT rolls out a new feature. And parents, you're going to like this one.
[14:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: OpenAI is rolling out new parental controls for its AI assistant, ChatGPT. The move comes amid growing pressure for safety features for the popular chatbot. CNN's Clare Duffy is here.
So, Clare, walk us through how these controls work.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Boris, well, this comes just weeks after the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI, claiming that ChatGPT contributed to his suicide, including by advising him on methods. And that really ratcheted up pressure on OpenAI to do more to protect teens on the platform.
So these new parental controls will require both teens and parents to opt in to linking their accounts. But once they do that, teens will be placed under new content protection. So the chatbot will be less likely to serve them graphic content, also less likely to engage in romantic or sexual role play. And then parents will have the option to turn on a number of additional controls, like quiet mode, where ChatGPT won't be available.
They'll be able to turn off image generation and also turn off voice mode, which is one of the things we know can draw people into deeper relationships with these chatbots. And interestingly, OpenAI also says it will try to alert parents if their teenager's conversation with ChatGPT indicates that they might be at risk of self-harm -- Boris.
SANCHEZ: Clare, we've seen other tech platforms roll out similar youth safety measures with somewhat mixed results. How do we think this is going to work out?
DUFFY: Yes, well, at this point, this new parental safety feature, parental control feature is going to be limited by the fact that teens have to let their parents know they're using ChatGPT and opt in to linking their accounts. However, OpenAI says there is more work to be done on this. They say they're working on an age estimation feature that will use AI to guess how old its users are and potentially place teen users, suspected teen users, under those content protections, if not linking them to a parent's account automatically ...
END
