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Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) is Interviewed about the Boat Strikes; Pete Hegseth's Popularity Numbers; David Risher is Interviewed about Lyft; A.I.-Based Toys Cause Concerns about Child Safety. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 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]

REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL): We need to understand exactly what happened. And the order to kill them all is an order that does violate the law.

And America's might, our strength as a nation, at home and around the world, comes from two things. It is our military might. The power of our military, the superior training of our forces, our advanced technology. But it's also our moral right. The positions ee take, our view, our upholding of both domestic and international law and to violate that law, to ignore that law, in the use of military objectives, undermines our nation's purpose and also our nations relations around the world.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Pete Hegseth, for his part, has gone on X and posted a couple of different things. One of which he said, as he is talking about the admiral, he said, "I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made." Do you see this as Hegseth basically putting it on the admiral?

I do want to also add in, he posted this as well. It is basically showing this turtle, Franklin, who has, in his hands, what looks like a rocket launcher, and he's blasting it into a boat. It's a well-known Canadian cartoon figure. What do you think he's trying to say here?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we've seen, since he took office, even before, that Secretary Hegseth likes to present an image of bravado. He likes to demonstrate how strong and how powerful he thinks he is. And that's -- that turtle cartoon is a reflection of that.

But he, we're seeing, that he refuses to take responsibility for decisions, for actions. He is literally throwing the admiral under the bus, which is the last thing a real leader should be doing.

SIDNER: It should be noted that the creator of Franklin the turtle, who is Canadian, is appalled at the way Hegseth used the character because the character is and was created to inspire generations to be kind, empathetic, and inclusive. So, there is that rift there.

I also am curious how you explain President Trump's real hawkish policy on Venezuela, saying it is all about drug trafficking to the United States and trying to stop that. But he recently pardoned ex- Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez after a U.S. jury convicted him of conspiring to distribute 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S. alongside arms trafficking.

Do you think the president's actions are just about drugs when it comes to Venezuela? And how do you explain these two things happening at the same time?

SCHNEIDER: Well, look, the -- Hernandez, 400 million tons of this -- or 400,000 tons is eight million pounds of cocaine. Enough to kill quite a few Americans. And we need to be working to address the epidemic of drug overdoses that are afflicting the country, and communities all over the country.

But what the president is doing is not trying to keep Americans safer. We're seeing that in the policies, his immigration policies, of targeting hard-working individuals, rather than hardened criminals. It's all about what's in it for the president, his family, his friends. And so, you've got to look at, where does the money come from.

The pardons that this president has made and continues to make of folks, whether it is drug dealers or crypto titans who are making the Trump family rich, the stench of corruption permeating everything that this administration is doing, it makes it really hard to identify a focus or a strategy, or understand what are the objectives that the administration is trying to achieve, whether it's in Venezuela or anywhere around the world.

SIDNER: Congressman Brad Schneider, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Do appreciate your time,

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, Costco is now hitting back against the Trump administration's tariffs. It just filed a lawsuit and is looking for a refund to the tune of millions of dollars.

And a new generation of talking toys. Now they include A.I. chatbots. Why that is raising major safety concerns for kids as we head into the holidays.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:38:25]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth very much in the spotlight over growing scrutiny on these questions of the deadly attack in the Caribbean that have raised questions about a possible war crime.

Let's talk to CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

Again, Hegseth is no stranger to controversy here. HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: No.

BERMAN: This is a new round of focus on him for whatever role he may or may not have played. Where does he sit with the American people right now?

ENTEN: Yes, this is not the first time that we have covered Pete Hegseth. And there's a reason why. And that is because he has, simply put, not been a popular guy in the American electorate. I mean Pete Hegseth's net favorability in the last year, positive. There have been no polls, no polls in which his net favorability has been positive. Every single poll that I could find in the Roper (ph) Center archives has his net favorability in the negative. From when Donald Trump first nominated him nearly a year ago, or about a year ago, to now, every single poll has found that the American people are more likely to dislike than like him. And the first poll that was taken found that the plurality of Americans said that the United States Senate should not confirm him to the post of secretary of defense.

BERMAN: No polls?

ENTEN: No polls. Not a -- zero, zero, zero, zero, zero. All of those, the reputable polls in the Roper Center archive.

BERMAN: All right, is that because people have no interest in Pete Hegseth?

ENTEN: No, I -- this is the whole thing, which is that Pete Hegseth, I said at the beginning of this, has been generating so much interest. Far more interest than the normal defense secretary. I was just interested in the polls that were asking the popularity rating of recent defense secretaries.

[09:40:00]

There have been at least ten in terms of Pete Hegseth. There were zero for Lloyd Asper. Esper had zero. Mad Dog Jim Mattis had only two. This is extremely unusual for a defense secretary to be generating this much interest, especially when we're not at a time of war. You have to go all the way back to Bob Gates to find this many polls asking about the popularity rating of a defense secretary.

And, of course, Bob Gates served four times as long so far as Pete Hegseth did. And, of course, that was during a time of war.

BERMAN: OK, so given this new round of controversy swirling around Pete Hegseth, what are the markets saying about his chances of sticking around?

ENTEN: This is, I think, a great chance to use the prediction market odds. Chance to be the first to leave Trump's cabinet. Pete Hegseth, on Friday, it was just 18 percent. It's now doubled. It's now doubled to 35 percent given the recent controversy, John Berman. So, a lot of folks out there who are putting their money where their mouth is think there's a far better chance that Pete Hegseth exits the cabinet now being the first one to back on Friday. And one last thing, Mr. Berman, just to put this into some perspective

for you. The chance to be the first to leave Trump's cabinet. Pete Hegseth, 35 percent. Pam Bondi, just 10 percent. And then we've got this gentleman over here.

BERMAN: Steve Miran.

ENTEN: Steve Miran at eight percent. But again, that 35 percent, way higher than the ten. This doubling, you were very interested in.

BERMAN: Doubled in the last few days. That does tell you something.

Harry Enten, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: We've got a lot of developments. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:46:00]

BOLDUAN: So new this morning, after the hustle of Black Friday, the chaos of Cyber Monday, today is a different holiday moment. It's Giving Tuesday. A moment launched -- a movement, rather, launched back in 2012, a day to encourage people to give back as we kick off a season of spending and consumption.

And rideshare company Lyft is getting in on that action in a new way this time. The company's not only continuing its round up and donate program, this year announcing the company is matching donations and it's CEO will also be personally matching every donation on Giving Tuesday.

Joining us now is said CEO of Lyft, David Risher.

Thank you so much for being here.

DAVID RISHER, CEO, LYFT: It's great to be here, Kate.

BOLDUAN: I really appreciate it. It's wonderful to talk about giving back and good things in this day and age.

RISHER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: How much are you -- this is -- years that this program's been in place, but how much are you expecting or hoping that people donate with this program? And why are you getting in on it personally? What's the motivation here?

RISHER: I woke up this morning and asked myself the same question, you know?

BOLDUAN: Right. Exactly.

RISHER: Right. So, here's what I can tell you. First, I should say how the program works. It's called Round Up and Donate, as you said. And if you're a Lyft rider, all you have to do is go in, click your profile, choose a non-profit, it could be the Y, could be ACLU, could be Human Rights Watch, could be any number of organizations -- USO. Anyway, and then every time you take a Lyft, it will round up automatically to the next dollar. Give money. The community has given about $42 million since the program started.

BOLDUAN: It's remarkable. Just from rounding up.

RISHER: Just from rounding up. And it's just sort of a reminder that, like, if you make things easy, and people do it every day, these things add up.

Now, I did say I'm going to match every donation given today. There is no limit. So, honestly, I'm sort of hoping people show up because otherwise I'll be a little embarrassed to have made a big deal of this and -- no.

BOLDUAN: Or maybe just show up just enough.

RISHER: Just enough, Yes, just enough.

(CROSS TALK)

RISHER: Don't do too much, but just enough.

BOLDUAN: Yes, exactly. You're one of the few people who woke up today and said, I have no idea how much money I'm going to have at the end of the day in my personal bank account.

RISHER: That's all right. It's all right.

BOLDUAN: But it is an amazing program that you've been -- and you have a long history in nonprofits.

RISHER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: How is it different running a nonprofit compared to a company like Lyft?

RISHER: So, I'll tell you a funny story. So, as you said, I ran a nonprofit for about a decade called Worldreader. It gets kids reading all over the world. And people, after I took this job at Lyft said, oh, welcome back to the real world. I was like, no, no, you don't understand, the nonprofit world is really hard because you're always trying to drive impact and raise money at the same time. In the real corporate world, all you have to do is just -- you know, just do your thing over and over again. So, they're different jobs, but, at the same time, they've got some real similarities to them.

BOLDUAN: One of the big jobs that I know that Lyft is very focused on is investing big in Avs, in autonomous vehicles.

RISHER: Yes. BOLDUAN: I was just looking at some. I mean you've partnered with Waymo in a variety of cities. You have these fantastical looking shuttles that are rolling out next year, I believe.

RISHER: Yes. Yes.

BOLDUAN: Why is the future in AVs for Lyft?

RISHER: Right. So, self-driving cars are really cool technology. They work. They're safe. They get you where you want to go very reliably. And, you know, to be honest, they actually have fewer accidents than human drivers. So, as I say, they turn out to be almost a public health good.

Still very small scale right now, but we've partnered with organizations, companies like Waymo, to bring their self-driving technology onto the Lyft platform into places like Nashville and ultimately across the country. It's part of the reason Round Up and Donate matters so much to us is, as you become part of the Lyft community, whether you're in a human driven car or a robot driven car, we want to make sure you're able to give no matter what you're doing.

BOLDUAN: You know, of course that comes with the concern that this is -- this technology is also taking away human jobs. Do you see a future where Lyft's entire fleet, if you will, is autonomous vehicles?

RISHER: I don't. I don't. And here's why. There will be some riders who always want help with their luggage or, you know, a nice question at the end of the day, how did your day go? I'd like to have a conversation with you.

There will be other parts of the country that maybe don't want to welcome it from a regulatory perspective.

Even, I think, five years from now, you know, if 10 percent of our business is AVs, that will be a huge, huge piece. But I think it will be an important 10 percent because I think for those riders they're going to get a safe experience that they really enjoy as well.

[09:50:02]

BOLDUAN: Which really is interesting.

So, I've seen a lot of talk around the price of rides when it comes to Lyft and competitor Uber. Tech columnist Jeffrey Fowler (ph), he just wrote a piece I was reading about an experiment he did with Lyft and Uber in San Francisco. He tested prices on 80 different routes around San Franciso, reached the same conclusion a larger study that was done in New York City that it reached, that fares differed by 14 percent between the apps. No one app being the cheaper consistently.

But here's the part that grabbed me, David, I want to get your take on. Fowler writes, he used both a fresh phone with new Uber and Lyft accounts, and his own phone with his long-standing personal accounts. For 40 trips he entered identical start and end points into both phones at the exact same moment. The result was startling, he said. The base fares varied. Ubers by 11 percent on average. Lyft's by 13 percent.

How can that be? What does that say about pricing?

RISHER: So, what happens with Lyft and the other guys is, you know, for example, on our platform, 2.5 million to 3 million people every single day open the app. And every single time you open the app, we're serving out the best price we can possibly give you.

Funny enough, it was a good article. I read Jeff Fowler's article. And you know what I took away from it is, it's great when people check both apps. In fact --

BOLDUAN: To compare.

RISHER: It really is. And it may be funny for, you know, me, as CEO of Lyft to be saying it, but I have no problem if you check us and check the other guys every single time. Sometimes one's going to be a little higher than the other, but we try to give you the best price we can every single time. And that can change every second, as you know.

BOLDUAN: With so many people using the app at once.

RISHER: That's right.

BOLDUAN: I love -- we do that with other news organizations. We just call them the other guys.

RISHER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: And I really appreciate -- I really appreciate that consistency.

It is great to meet you. Again, Giving Tuesday and Lyft is taking a big part in this and so is David Risher, taking a huge part in this himself by personally matching each donation donated today on Lyft.

It's great to meet you.

RISHER: Really good to see you as well.

BOLDUAN: Thank you for coming in.

RISHER: Thanks for all you do.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: The other guys. Bless their hearts.

All right, Costco is suing the Trump administration to preserve tariff refunds. The wholesaler wants to make sure it can get the refunds if President Trump loses his appeal to the Supreme Court. The court is considering whether the president legally used an emergency powers law to impose the tariffs. Costco says it pays those fees under protest and does not want to lose the money if the court strikes them down. Costco is among the largest of dozens of companies suing over potential refunds. And a kick that went so wrong it was not even counted as a kick. New York Giants place kicker Younghoe Koo somehow managed to attempt a field goal without even touching the ball at all. You saw it there. You see it again here. He kicks the turf kind of hard, right? Hope he didn't get hurt. Because he didn't touch the ball at all, it didn't go down as a missed field goal. It went down as a sack on the holder. So, the Patriots, from New England, won the game 33 to 15. They've now won 10 games in a row. And, Sara, I'm told they have the best record in the NFL.

SIDNER: All right. All right. Your Patriots win again. We got it. It's fine. Congratulations to John Berman. The poor Giants are in trouble.

All right, speaking of in trouble, A.I. has entered the toy market, and so have some concerns about their safety. A.I. chatbots can chat it up with your kids through dolls, bears and more. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn't the same old story. Meet Po, the A.I. story bear.

BEAR: Chloe loved adventures and her loyal companion Dawson was a shaggy dog with big, kind eyes that made him seem strangely human.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Po makes up wildly original stories, completely from scratch, using kid-safe A.I. technology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, CNN's A.I. correspondent Hadas Gold is here.

This is an --

HADAS GOLD, A.I. CORRESPONDENT: You seem so creeped out.

SIDNER: I am. There's something about the voice there. But they're saying it's safe. But there are a lot of safety concerns at (INAUDIBLE) here.

GOLD: There's a lot of concerns. I mean we all remember as kids playing with our dolls and toys and wishing that they could talk back to us. And now a lot of these can. So, a lot of toys now are A.I. enabled. These toys have wi-fi capabilities to be able to connect to these A.I. chatbots run by large language models. They have microphones inside so that they can listen to what a child says and respond back to it. And these toys can do some really cool things. If a kid goes up to it and says, make up a story about me riding a unicorn and eating rainbows, it will make up a pretty cool story about a kid riding unicorns.

But there are a lot of concerns about these toys. And some obvious concerns. And some groups, such as the Public Interest Research Group, has actually done some tests on some of these toys. One in particular that we're going to show is called the Kumma Bear. It's from a Singapore-based company. It's priced at around $99. And it was powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT -- or GPT-4o.

But take a listen to what the bear does when a child asks about matches.

SIDNER: Uh-oh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KUMMA: Let me tell you, safety first, little buddy. Matches are for grownups to use carefully. Here's how they do it. One, hold the matchbox with one hand. The rough strip is for striking. Two, take out one match, just one, and hold it by the non-red end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:55:00]

GOLD: So, they found that the bear was giving some advice on how to use some unsafe objects for children. They also found that the bear was engaging in some sort of sexually explicit conversations with kids.

SIDNER: Oh, God.

GOLD: Now, OpenAI suspended FoloToy for violating, it says, its policies. FoloToy pulled the bear and now has just recently re- released it, saying that they have new guardrails in place.

There's, of course, a lot of other concerns over this. There's concerns, you know, like it being addicting. There's concerns about data collection. Concerns about hacking, if these are wi-fi enabled. There's concerns from child psychologists that kids will be losing that sort of human connection, and this will impact their development in some way.

So, if you are thinking about going to buy these toys for your kids, make sure that they are from a reputable seller and make sure that it has parental controls so you can actually have some control over how your child is using this device.

SIDNER: I just have to say, yikes. I don't -- it sounds like it's --

BOLDUAN: At minimum --

GOLD: I am not planning to have any of these toys for my own kids.

BOLDUAN: But it's important to know what you're buying.

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Like, know what you're buying and what you're getting into, right?

GOLD: And make sure you know where it's coming from, that you can have some sort of control over what the toy does.

SIDNER: Smart.

BERMAN: I feel like it's like (INAUDIBLE). We're (ph) like the plot of like six horror movies are based around this. That should be a warning in and of itself.

Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: One horror movie to the next (ph).

BERMAN: On the subject of horror, "THE SITUATION ROOM" Is up next.

SIDNER: Wow.

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