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Soon, Bill Clinton to be Deposed in Jeffrey Epstein Case; Washington Post Reports, Activists Urge Trump to Declare National Emergency to Give Him Executive Power Over Elections; NASA Delays Artemis Moon Landing. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 27, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, we're following multiple breaking news stories this morning. At any moment, Bill Clinton will sit for a closed door deposition in the Congressional investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Plus, moon mission update. Any moment now, NASA officials will be holding a news conference on the Artemis 2 mission as it faces multiple setbacks.

And later, taking the stand, the father of the Georgia school shooter now testifying in his murder trial.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news. History is about to unfold. Just minutes from now, Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States, is due to become the first former president to be compelled to testify in a Congressional investigation. He faces questions under oath about his dealings with convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. He will testify before the House Oversight Committee, just as his wife, Hillary Clinton, did yesterday for more than six hours.

Neither is accused of wrongdoing in the case. Clinton will surely be asked about photos from the U.S. Justice Department's release of Epstein files, such as being seen in a hot tub with an unidentified woman. And a CNN review has found that the former president traveled on Epstein's private jet at least 16 times.

A Clinton spokesperson has repeatedly said he cut ties before Epstein's arrest on federal charges back in 2019 and was unaware of any crimes.

CNN Senior Reporter Annie Grayer is in Chappaqua, New York. That's where the Clintons live and where the deposition is being held. Annie, what are you expecting today? ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Wolf, we are expecting it to be a long day here in Chappaqua, as Bill Clinton is going to face questions in the building behind me, behind closed doors, by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. This deposition will be videotaped. There will be a transcript, but it will take some time for us to get those materials.

And unlike his wife, Hillary Clinton, who testified for more than six hours yesterday, who said she never met Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton does have a documented history with Jeffrey Epstein, and there's bipartisan interest in learning more about that. As you mentioned, Bill Clinton flew on Epstein's plane at least 16 times. His face is all over the Epstein files, including an image of him in a jacuzzi with women whose faces are redacted. Epstein is supposed to have supposedly visited Clinton while he was president at the White House, and he has denied any wrongdoing.

Clinton has not been accused of any crimes and is said to have cut ties before any knowledge of Epstein's crimes came out. And Hillary defended her husband as well yesterday, saying that she is confident that her husband had no knowledge of any of this.

But this is not the way the Clintons wanted this to go down, Wolf. They fought for months to prevent these in-person depositions from happening. They wanted to provide written statements and accuse the Republicans on the committee of going after them for political purposes. And they only caved to the terms of these depositions when Democrats and Republicans were going to hold them in criminal contempt of Congress.

And so that's why we are here in Chappaqua today where a new precedent is going to be set, that Bill Clinton is the first former president to ever be deposed by a Congressional committee. And Democrats say they plan on using that precedent to try and call President Trump about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Annie Grayer reporting for us, Annie, thank you very much. We'll stay in close touch with you.

The former first lady and former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, spent six and a half hours before the House Oversight Committee yesterday. She says she answered every question fully but had very little to offer on the late sex offender. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes. I never went to his offices. So, it's on the record numerous times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN's Chief National Affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is here with me in The Situation Room. Jeff, the transcripts of her testimony could come out as early as today, maybe the video as well. Were there any major bombshells?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: There were not major bombshells that we know of, aside from the fact that it happened and she sat for some six hours, and she did not know Jeffrey Epstein.

[10:05:00]

So, that is really one of the overriding facts here that she claimed that the questions were simply a lot of a repetition, but also just a variety of random questions at the end there, talking about UFOs and other matters, so no specific bombshells that we know of.

But I think the effect of just seeing this videotape, when it is a released, will certainly be extraordinary, for one, just to see the back and forth between the former first lady, the former secretary of state, as well with these Republicans.

But I think the bigger point here is if it took her six hours for, someone that she did not know at all, it would seem to take the former president much, much longer today because he, of course, does have a former association with Jeffrey Epstein,

BLITZER: And a lot of that is documented in the Epstein files. Hillary Clinton says she never met Epstein, and we know her husband, the former president, did have some dealings with Epstein. The former first lady said she was asked about that during her sworn deposition yesterday. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epstein ended years, several years before anything about Epstein's criminal activities came to light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The Republican chair of the oversight committee says, Mrs. Clinton frequently referred questions to her husband. You have reporting on the Clintons preparing for these depositions yesterday, Hillary Clinton, today, Bill Clinton. Tell us all about that.

ZELENY: Look, they've been preparing for a long time. But as our Annie grayer was reporting earlier the Clintons did not want it to come to this. They were hoping to avoid a deposition here in the first place. But the reality is this is an entirely different era from any of the many scandals that they have endured and weathered.

And we've all seen over the last quarter century and more, the victims are front and center in the Epstein case here. And the victims have been driving transparency. And that is one of the reasons that even Democrats voted with House Republicans to compel the Clintons to testify they were on the verge of holding them in contempt of Congress, which would've been extraordinary.

But, yes, in terms of the preparations of this, Bill Clinton obviously has much more knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein. He traveled with him many, many times. We've seen those pictures that were released by the DOJ. So, those are some of the questions he's going to have to answer. But the whole spectacle up there, and it did seem to be a spectacle, was quite extraordinary.

But, Wolf, the bottom line here is a precedent is also being set for former presidents or even current presidents, the first time a former president has been testified to compel against his will. What does that mean for Donald Trump or Melania Trump?

BLITZER: If the Democrats have the majority after the November elections.

ZELENY: Which we're only a few months away from that. So, this is not the end of this moment we're seeing. We'll see Bill Clinton go through this. It's a spectacle, but it's one that could also be precedent- setting.

BLITZER: It certainly could be. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very, very much.

Also happening now, is President Trump going to declare a national emergency over America's elections? The Washington Post reports that pro-Trump activists are urging the President to do just that and have circulated a draft executive order that gives him broad power over elections. The plan would reportedly mandate voter I.D. and ban mail- in voting in the midterm elections coming up this November.

Let's go live to our Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes right now. What more do we know about this plan, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we do have to keep in mind here that this was drafted back in April of last year. It's clearly coming to light now because we've heard President Trump talk on and on about this idea of potentially federalizing the elections.

Now, President Trump, the White House, has actually pushed back on his own comments, saying it was all about the SAVE Act, he is really trying to push the SAVE Act, through Congress, but that's why you're starting to see this resurfacing from these outside groups.

And that is something else we should pay attention to here. These are outside groups. This is not the White House that is doing this. And, in fact, the White House themselves have not given any indication it's something that they are seriously considering. But the fact that it's even out there in itself is a big deal when we know what President Trump has been saying about these elections.

So, I do want to read the statement from the White House on this. They said, White House staff is regularly in communication with a variety of outside advocates who want to share their policy ideas with the president. Any speculation about policies the president may or may not announce is just that, speculation.

So, what this would essentially do is create a national emergency. They would tie this to fraud in the 2020 election. Interestingly, they said it was fraud from China in that election, which would give the president this enormous power over voting. But, again, at this point, we have no indication he's actually going to be reviewing this and putting this down as an executive order.

But, Wolf, we're in a really critical time right now.

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The midterms are around the corner. President Trump is ramping up his campaigning on behalf of those midterms. We know he is going to be in Texas later today, where the Senate Republican primary has gotten increasingly nasty between these three Republican candidates. It's turned into really a MAGA civil war with various factions. He's not expected to endorse today, but he will be there delivering his message on the economy and energy.

BLITZER: And that beeping, we've been hearing clearly a truck passing by on the North Lawn of the White House.

HOLMES: I know. I'm sorry.

BLITZER: It's not your fault. You're just there on the North Lawn, a place I spent seven years doing live shots from.

Kristen Holmes, thank you very, very much.

Still ahead, Paramount bid. The media giant is now poised to acquire CNN's parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery. We're following all the latest details.

And later on the stand, the father of the Georgia school shooting is testifying in his murder trial.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[10:15:00]

BLITZER: Breaking news, more breaking news. NASA is now delaying the scheduled moon landing that was supposed to take place in 2027.

Here with me right now, CNN Correspondent Tom Foreman, who's watching all of this. The announcement was just made, they're no longer going to go ahead as scheduled in 2027 with another U.S. moon landing?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Literally, moments ago, we found out that this idea that Artemis 3, which was supposed to land upon the moon, will not be landing upon the moon. It will not attempt that.

Now, this comes in the wake of some delays with Artemis 2, which is the mission we've been waiting to take off and go circle the moon to take humans further into space than ever before, going about 5,000 miles beyond the far side of the moon. That was -- it's a big mission that's still out there that they're trying to get worked out. They've had delays on that. The delays can continue at this moment. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman came out and announced that now Artemis 3, which was supposed to land people on the moon, in fact, is simply going to do a low earth orbit rendezvous with another craft that would be involved in the moon landing, but they'll make no attempt to land on the moon.

Listen to what Isaacman had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED ISAACMAN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Ever to get our launches inside of a year, specifically down to potentially ten months, and then we are going to add missions. In fact, we're essentially going to pull in Artemis 3 to launch in 2027 with a revised mission profile. So, instead of going directly to a lunar landing, we will endeavor to rendezvous in low Earth orbit with one or both of our lunar landers, test out integrated operations between Orion and the lander's ECLSS systems, you know, even to the extent possible, if we can get a development components of our xEVA suits to test out vehicle interfaces, even just getting an astronaut in a suit and microgravity, we can learn a lot with the idea that we should be learning and take this information back to inform hardware development, whether it's in the landers or in the suits before Artemis 4, where we will attempt to land on the moon.

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FOREMAN: So, you get a sense here of what he was talking about. The Artemis Missions, Wolf, have always been a stack of missions going into the future to establish ultimately an orbital station around the moon, a moon based lunar station, which would be used to help leapfrog to Mars at some point. This has been, I believe, a lot of space analysts would say, this has been an ambitious program to begin with.

And as they have run into various challenges here with the space launch system here on ground, which is that giant, giant stack, millions of pounds of rocket that have to take off and get it all started. Isaacman essentially said this schedule that they've been talking about is a little bit too laborious, not -- even though it may echo what we saw back in the Apollo program years ago, where, you know, there was a lot of stuff moving forward, this is a big reach right now and they're not ready to take it right now, and there have been challenges along the way.

So -- and one of which is right there, you see that is the interim cryogenic propulsion system. That's what they were most recently having problems with a hydrogen flow in their hydrogen -- or, excuse me, a helium flow in there, helium being used to push rocket fuel to the nozzles to clear lines, things like that. So, they were having a problem with it. These are problems they have seen before, but that's also part of the problem. They've seen them before and they haven't been able to totally clear them so that they're not seeing them again.

The big headline though remains this. America hoped to be back on the moon maybe as early as next year. Now, it looks very questionable whether or not it happens in this decade. BLITZER: That's Artemis 3 landing on the moon, that's been canceled, at least for now?

FOREMAN: Artemis 3 remains but it's no longer landing on the moon. Artemis 3 is now going to go up to low Earth orbit, LEO, as they call it, which is where you see the space station, things like that. And they're going to practice a maneuver with some prototype of the landing craft they would use to land on the moon. The idea was to fly Artemis up to the moon, rendezvous with a landing craft. That landing craft would take them down to the moon. Now, they're going to practice that rendezvous close to Earth and, again, see if they're ready to go to the moon and when we're ready to go.

BLITZER: And are they ready for Artemis 2, which is supposed to take off in the next month or two?

FOREMAN: They're not because they haven't taken off yet. They're targeting April right now. But they had this problem. Now they're targeting April. And there are some scientists out there who are now raising other new concerns about Artemis 2. I guess we'll see Artemis 2 take off when it takes off.

This is a hugely advanced space system.

[10:20:01]

We want it to work. Everyone wants it to work, but it is a big challenge.

BLITZER: In the meantime, the U.S. is competing with China right now to see who gets to the moon first.

FOREMAN: Yes. And China would very much like to get there. And China has been behind, but they have also been catching up.

BLITZER: All right. Tom Foreman, as usual, thank you very, very much.

Also happening now, the months-long battle for Warner Brothers Discovery is coming to a close with Paramount now edging out Netflix with a bid that Warner Brothers Discovery's board deemed, quote, superior. Netflix says it will not match Paramount's bid, setting up Paramount to potentially acquire Warner Brothers Discovery's media empire, and that of course includes CNN.

Here with us now is CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, you have newer reporting on what this all means for those of us, for example, here at CNN. What are you learning?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, indeed. Well, number one, nothing changes today. Nothing changes tomorrow. No changes right away. This deal will take months to complete at a minimum. I'm told Paramount would like to take control of the Warner assets this fall, but some states attorney generals, they might throw up roadblocks.

Here's what I know having covered this bidding war for months. Paramount executives have privately talked about their admiration for CNN, for the news gathering muscle and the global reach of CNN. They've also talked about the prospect of possibly combining or merging CNN with the CBS News, news division. That type of mergers been talked about for decades by past executives, but it's never happened. It makes a lot of sense on paper, but it would actually be hard to achieve for a variety of reasons.

BLITZER: Now, more broadly, CNN employees and viewers have real concern about whether Paramount CEO David Ellison will uphold the editorial independence that CNN is known for. There has been severe political turbulence in recent months, and President Trump has long sought to weaken CNN. Last December, Trump said, quote, it's imperative that CNN be sold, and now that is what's happening.

So far, Paramount has not yet commented on its victory in this bidding war against Netflix or telegraphed its intentions for CNN, and recent controversy that CBS news have unsettled and unnerved journalists there.

But I can tell you Ellison has talked in recent months about how he wants to sustain the news business in the United States. And he has talked about his belief that, quote, the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and is fact-based. And, Wolf, that sure sounds a lot like CNN's mission, a lot of similarities here. And the bottom line is CNN is a highly profitable business and it would seem foolish for anyone to put that at risk.

BLITZER: Certainly, it would be. The California attorney general, Rob Bonta, posted on social media, and I'm quoting him now, quote, Paramount/Warner Brothers is not a done deal. These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny. The California Department of Justice has an open investigation and we intend to be vigorous in our review, end quote. Could this deal still run into some regulatory roadblocks?

STELTER: (INAUDIBLE) into the office there -- yes, I did ask Bonta's office for more detail on that. They do have some power to try to impede this deal, but not as much power as the federal government. More broadly, it's notable to hear a Democrat like Bonta saying that because Paramount's attempts to put on a Trump-friendly face in recent months have led to Democratic accusations of corruption and promises of future investigations.

Paramount is a complicated place right now, though. Yes, CBS canceled Stephen Colbert's show, but Paramount also renewed Trump critic John Stewart, and renewed the Trump skewer in South Park Comedy. At CBS News, new Editor in Chief Barry Weiss was widely criticized for delaying a 60 Minute story that was critical of the Trump administration. But she also green lit that very same story a few weeks later and expressed regret about the controversy.

CBS News continues to break hard-hitting stories about the Trump administration and other topics, and Weiss has told confidants that she has not felt pressure from Paramount to change the political direction or the orientation of CBS News.

So, it is right and it is fair to be skeptical to be applying scrutiny to this but it's also fair to say Paramount's a complicated place trying to figure out how it navigates the Trump era, the Trump 2.0 era. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Brian Stelter updating us, you'll stay in close touch. Thank you very, very much.

And coming up, mortgage rates are now below 6 percent for the first time in more than three years. So, what does that mean for you? We're going to make it make some sense right ahead.

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BLITZER: All right. Look at this. Right now, the Dow Jones Industrial average is down almost 700 points, down almost 700 points.

Let's go live right now to our Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. What's going on, Vanessa?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, Wolf, the Dow down 800 points just moments ago. Really, investors are stewing in a soup of nerves over several different facets of the economy. The first really is new economic data we got this morning, producer prices. These are prices that businesses pay, came in hotter than expected at 0.5 percent in the month of January. The expectation was 0.3 percent. That is concerning for investors, as they are curious now just how much tariffs are continuing to impact businesses.

It also really signals that there probably won't be a rate cut from the Federal Reserve in the near future. In fact, investors, 97 percent of them believing there will be no rate cut at the next meeting for the Federal Reserve. This is coming on the heels of some consumer confidence numbers that we received that showed really low levels compared to the last couple of years.

Also, investors are continuing to look at the A.I. space, and they are seeing robust spending in the A.I. space, which is really question -- has them questioning the value of these companies and whether there's too much spending and that could ultimately slow.