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Mortgage Rates Fall Below 6 Percent; House Oversight Dems Speaker Before Bill Clinton Deposition; Oversight Dems Again Call on Trump to Testify in Epstein Probe. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 27, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR:

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: -- spending in the A.I. space, which has them questioning the value of these companies, and whether there's too much spending, and that could ultimately slow down growth, and of course, what that means for the validity of artificial intelligence. And then finally, Wolf, investors concerned about US-Iran tensions. The price of oil is up 2.8 percent today.

So, all of that taken together really adds to a puzzle that investors are trying to figure out, and you can see the Dow reflecting that today, down more than 600 points as investors are selling off as they're digesting all of these economic facets, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, right now down almost 670 points. So, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very, very much. We'll stay in close touch with you as well.

Also, this morning, there is a ton of conversation about home buying and refinancing after mortgage rates here in the United States fell below 6 percent for the first time in three years. Across the country, many of you are probably wondering if now is the right time to buy, or if it's the right time to refinance out of a high-interest loan.

These questions are the perfect opportunity for us to introduce a new segment here in the Situation Room that we're calling Make It Make Sense, where we break down the headlines and cut through the white noise of economic news to help you make sense of all of it.

Let's go live right now to our senior reporter, David Goldman, who knows a lot about this. Good morning, David. Thanks so much for joining us. Make it make sense, will the American dream ever be in reach?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, we are closer to that today, and I think to understand what's going on, to make it make sense, you have to take a look back at how we got here. So, if you remember your Econ 101 lesson, you remember that supply and demand are the two forces that control the economy and control prices. We had a housing crisis in this country in 2007, and we just stopped building homes. What that meant was that we had no new homes coming into the market, and we are now in a huge supply glut. We have 4.7 million homes, and a supply deficit of 4.7 million homes, according to Zillow, and that means that if you want a home, you can't easily get it.

Now, the next big problem that we had was the pandemic in 2020. And so, when that happened, the Federal Reserve cut rates all the way to zero, and mortgage rates followed, and a lot of people either refinanced or bought a home at around 2 percent or 3 percent, and then we had the inflation crisis that happened right after that. When that happened, mortgage rates went up as the Federal Reserve raised rates, and so all of a sudden, you were paying 6 percent or 7 percent, sometimes even 8 percent for your mortgage, and folks who had a home didn't want to sell their home. That created an even bigger supply problem.

OK. So, now, we're at today. What's happened? Well, the Federal Reserve has started to cut rates just a little bit, and that has made mortgage rates fall just a tad, so we're down from 7 percent about a year ago, down to 6 percent today, and that doesn't sound like a lot, but that's actually unlocked a tremendous amount of buying power. You can now have about $30,000 more buying power --

BLITZER: David, I'm going to interrupt you. Stand by, because James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is making a statement, getting ready for the deposition of Bill Clinton. Let's listen.

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY), CHAIRMAN, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: -- the world have been able to get away with a lot of heinous crimes, and they haven't been held accountable, and they haven't even had to answer questions about what they knew and when they knew it.

Today, we hope to be able to do as we did yesterday and continue to bring some of the most powerful people in the world in to answer questions. Again, no one's accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions, and our House Oversight Committee is committed to getting answers. We're committed to transparency. We've already seen a lot of very powerful people who have been held accountable by having to resign in disgrace from various boards all over the world. We're going to continue to seek the truth, try to figure out how the government failed the victims, and try to hopefully hold more people accountable. That's what the purpose of this investigation is.

I will say this. It's very difficult to get people in for these depositions of great power and great wealth. And I used yesterday and today as an example. It took seven months, seven months to get the Clintons in here. But we've got them in here, and we look forward to answering -- to asking lots of questions that I think any curious media outlet in America would have.

[10:35:00]

Yesterday, Ms. Clinton deferred a lot of questions to her husband today. There were at least a dozen times when she said, you'll have to ask my husband that. I can't answer that. But we've got them in here, so we already had a big portfolio of questions for him, and that increased yesterday, so we look forward to that. We'll be happy to answer a couple of questions. Chad?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

COMER: Well, I think everyone's seen there are a lot of photos that have been released by the Department of Justice as well as the Epstein estate. There are a lot of email correspondents that included President Clinton. We know President Clinton had, and Secretary Clinton confirmed this yesterday, Jeffrey Epstein was in the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president. We know that Bill Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane at least 27 times. So, those are questions that we're going to ask.

Everything that most media outlets have reported with respect to pictures and correspondents between Epstein, Maxwell, and Bill Clinton, these are all questions that we're going to ask today. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yesterday you both told me that you were planning on asking about an email that Howard Lutnick said to Jeffrey Epstein, I presume about (INAUDIBLE). If you were asking about, is he not worth asking in to talk about what he might know?

COMER: Yes. And I think it'll be interesting when we hopefully get that video out later today or tomorrow as quick as we can get it out. I think it'll be interesting what Hillary Clinton said about Howard Lutnick.

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): And how she said it.

COMER: And how she said. We look -- I think that was Ms. Mace with the line of questioning. So, there was a pretty thorough line of questioning yesterday between Ms. Mace and Ms. Clinton with respect to Lutnick. I think you all find it very interesting what she had to say, but we're going to continue to, you know, ask questions of everyone that shows up in photos on the island and things like that. Yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously, we heard from Secretary Clinton after her deposition she described this session as repetitive. She said it veered off topics. She talked about UFOs, pizza gates. Can you explain why those topics were brought up and also in light of the release of that photo?

COMER: She also said there were substantive questions yesterday too, but one reason there were repetitive questions about Epstein is because we went through every email and every correspondence that implied Hillary Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein communicated often. You all have seen the email where he said that she looks better in person and all of that. Those were questions we asked.

So, every item of evidence that would suggest Hillary Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein had a close relationship, we went and asked about that. So, it may have seen repetitive because there was a lot of documentation that would suggest that she had a relationship with Epstein. So -- go ahead.

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): And to be clear, Secretary Clinton actually asked us about the NDAA -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the microphone please.

LUNA: Sorry. To be clear, Secretary Clinton actually asked about what happened with the disclosure language in the NDAA. So, I mean, I know she's trying to pivot from the fact that she's here and she had a very close relationship regarding the Clinton Foundation and Epstein and Maxwell, but the point is, and I think I'd like to hit on this with probably Ms. Mace here, but I think we have a very important interest and curiosity about what specifically the co-conspirators had a role in all this. We know for a fact that some of these were women.

And I think that today, at least with my line of questioning, you know, I'm curious about that. Why is it that these women were giving plea deals as adults for trafficking minors? How much of that did they witness, et cetera? And so, you know, I don't know that Secretary Clinton was all that honest about the context of this investigation. We asked extensively about intelligence ties, whether or not she felt that she was targeted as a result of possibly an intelligence gathering operation. She was very curiously interested in that, and then also, you'll hear it in the response, but had told us to follow up with a few countries, one of which is our ally. So, that's interesting.

COMER: Ms. Luna brought up a good point about the Clinton Foundation. There's so many examples in the evidence the Department of Justice released in correspondence where Epstein bragged about how involved he was initially in setting up the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation. We asked those questions to Secretary Clinton yesterday, and she kept saying, well, she was in the Senate at that time. She wasn't focused on it. You'll have to ask my husband. A lot of the Clinton Global Initiative questions yesterday went unanswered because Ms. Clinton deferred to her husband. We'll do one more question. Annie, go ahead.

[10:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's our understanding that you guys asked Secretary Clinton yesterday about photos of her in the Epstein files. What was her reaction when you showed various photos, for example, her husband in the jacuzzi that we've seen?

COMER: I'm going to let Ms. Mace answer that. We're on TV.

MACE: OK. I'm not going to say anything. No, she didn't want to answer any questions about any of that and deferred most of those, if not all of those questions to her husband, and he will be thoroughly asked about that today. You know, what did he know? What did he see? Because there were other people who've come forward publicly, like Kevin Spacey, who thought all of this was very strange and actually a very high risk for a president of the United States or former president.

It's all very bizarre, but I asked her very pointed questions. And you'll see that in the transcript and the video that comes out, and you'll see how she responded as well, screaming. COMER: And we'll close with this. We're going to get the video out as quickly as we can get it uploaded in the sound and everything from yesterday. So, this is, for all practical purposes, a public deposition. The American people are going to see it. I've heard C- SPAN's going to air it wire to wire. So, everyone's going to see what was asked yesterday. And I think that'll answer a lot of questions, especially with Lutnick and other things like that.

Throughout the day, we'll try to send different members out to give you brief updates. We don't want to disclose what's going on in the in the deposition specifically until after at the conclusion, but we'll keep you updated and we appreciate everyone being here and look forward to updating you throughout the day. Thank you.

BLITZER: All right. So, there you have James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, setting the scene for today's deposition of Bill Clinton. That could go on for hours and hours. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton testified for over six hours under oath. And I suspect that Bill Clinton is going to be asked a lot more questions than Hillary Clinton was yesterday.

I want to get some analysis. Our senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, is joining us right now. What did you make, first of all, of those comments by the Republicans, the members of the House Oversight Committee, just ahead of this Bill Clinton deposition?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST AND FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NY: Well, Wolf, it's clear that today's questioning of Bill Clinton is going to be very different from yesterday's questioning of Hillary Clinton. Heading into yesterday's deposition, it was already quite clear that Hillary Clinton had zero contact with Jeffrey Epstein and minimal contact with Ghislaine Maxwell.

That seems to have now been confirmed. On the other hand, Bill Clinton, we know, had extensive ties with Jeffrey Epstein. As the members just alluded to, there are several photographs of Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein, with Ghislaine Maxwell, including those with Ghislaine Maxwell in a swimming pool, photos of Bill Clinton in a jacuzzi at an Epstein estate.

We also know that Bill Clinton has flown on Jeffrey Epstein's jet, that Bill Clinton had Jeffrey Epstein to the White House numerous times. So, there's going to be a lot more for the committee members to work with here. And I think Bill Clinton is going to have to answer much more difficult questions than Hillary --

BLITZER: Hold on a minute. The Democrats are going to make a statement before the Bill Clinton deposition as well. Here's Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee.

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, OVERSIGHT AND REFORM COMMITTEE: -- leader of the Oversight Committee for Democrats. And we're going to make some brief comments. Everyone's got a few brief remarks and then we're going to start the deposition. I want to just begin by just saying that what we're interested in today is a serious deposition.

We have real questions that deserve serious answers from former President Clinton. And we have said from day one that Democrats want to talk to anyone, whether they are a Republican or a Democrat, no matter how powerful they are, whatever position that they've been in. If anyone has information about Jeffrey Epstein and certainly the horror that he inflicted on so many women and children, we want to hear from them.

What we do not want today is a sideshow and questions about UFOs or about conspiracy theories from decades ago, which is what unfortunately happened yesterday when a series of bizarre questions were asked of Secretary Clinton. And Secretary Clinton was clear. She never met Jeffrey Epstein. She never went on the island. She was never on the plane. And she had no knowledge, of course, of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.

I want to also add that there are a lot of questions today, whether they're about Epstein's finances, about survivors, about foreign intelligence, that we look forward to asking in a way that's serious and dignified. And we hope Republicans do the same. I also want to add one other thing, which I think is really important.

Republicans have now set a new precedent, which is to bring in presidents and former presidents to testify. So, we're once again going to make that call that we did yesterday. We are now asking and demanding that President Trump officially come in and testify in front of the oversight committee.

[10:45:00]

He appears in the Epstein files next to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell almost more than anybody else. So, it's time for the president to answer questions about why files are missing from the DOJ, why there's been a White House cover-up, and why we continue in that administration to call this investigation a hoax.

And finally, I'll review the call that we made yesterday, that we are demanding again that the press and the public be allowed inside the depositions so that you can hear the answers and the questions directly. And if that's not going to happen, they need to release a full, unedited review of the questions and video within 24 hours of the end of these depositions. That means the Secretary Clinton deposition needs to be released immediately today. And with that, I'll pass it along to Mr. Frost.

REP. MAXWELL FROST (D-FL): Thank you so much. Today, we're here to conduct a serious investigation. And it is obvious that our Republican colleagues, at least yesterday, were not here to do the same thing. We've said it many times and we'll continue to say it again. We will hear from anyone. We don't care who you are. We just want the truth.

All of us have met with the survivors. All of us looked them in the eyes and promised them that we would see this thing through the end and do it in a serious way. Asking questions about UAPs, UFOs, as interested as I am in the subject too, it has nothing to do with this investigation. Don't waste our time. Don't waste the time of survivors who have been waiting and waiting for justice.

Now, finally, the government is paying attention. Members of Congress are paying attention. Stay focused on the matter at hand. We're also calling out the hypocrisy of our Republican colleagues. Yes, we're here to talk with President Clinton.

Today, we'll talk with anyone. But how come people like Howard Ludnick, it seems like they don't want to talk with him. They don't want to talk with the president. They don't want to call in Pam Bondi, who has done everything that she can do to cover up and to slow down our investigation. A law passed by Congress damn near unanimously that she's done everything she can to slow down the release of the files, and even when they're released, and they said members of Congress would be able to go to the Department of Justice to view them unredacted.

I know all of us, if not most of us, have gone in there and seen files that are still redacted and not given a proper explanation as to why we can't view them. We know the Department of Justice has deleted things having to do with Donald Trump, has deleted things having to do with Howard Ludnick and people connected to the administration. We know that Pam Bondi has been spying on members of Congress as we've been trying to conduct our legitimate oversight responsibilities.

So, we're here to see this through. We're here because we know that this is about justice for the survivors, but justice also means that this never happens again. That's why this investigation is so important. We don't want this failure of government, this failure of elite billionaires getting away with a different system of justice. We don't want this to happen again, and that's why we're here today. We are serious about this, and my hope is that my Republican colleagues who say they're serious about it back it up with action, not just with the questions you ask here today, but what you do from here on out. It's not about party. It's about this nation. It's about protecting our most vulnerable people. Thank you.

REP. JAMES WALKINSHAW (D-VA): Good afternoon. I'm James Walkinshaw from Virginia's 11th District. I am glad that President Clinton is going to sit down today with us and answer questions under oath. Anybody who had a significant relationship with Jeffrey Epstein should explain what, if anything, and when they knew about the crimes that were being committed.

President Clinton's sworn statement said that he had no knowledge of the crimes that were committed, and I know that we're committed to asking tough questions about that today. But President Clinton's presence here today under oath highlights the Donald Trump-sized gaping hole in Chairman Comer's investigation.

President Trump was mentioned tens of thousands of times in the files. We learned in recent days that files related to an accusation made against President Trump have been removed, not released to the public in the files. This investigation will not be complete until we bring President Trump in to answer questions under oath. I'm hopeful that Chairman Comer will have the courage to move us in that direction. Thank you. REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM, (D-VA): I'm Congressman Suhas Subramanyam from Virginia's 10th District. We're going to ask President Clinton the hard questions today. We're going to get to the truth about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

[10:50:00]

But let's be real, we're talking to the wrong president today. President Trump is the one who has not released two and a half million files. President Trump is the one who is blocking our investigation. President Trump is the one who wants this to go away, but it will not go away. And so, yes, we will talk to President Clinton today, but moving forward, this needs to be not about party, but about getting to the truth and getting justice for the survivors.

REP. WESLEY BELL (D-MISSOURI): Congressman Wesley Bell here. I'm sorry, these glasses go dark on me. First and foremost, I think what is getting lost in much of this is that this is about justice for the victims and the survivors. We can't forget that. This is not political theater, which Republicans seem to be interested in. This is about getting to the bottom of exactly what happened and holding those responsible accountable. And that's exactly what we're here to do.

And so, we're going to continue to keep pushing Republicans to do the right thing. We need to see anyone who has information with respect to the Epstein files or this sex trafficking, they need to be brought before this committee and we need to have a serious investigation. And I've said it before, as a former prosecutor, I've led these types of investigations and this has not been a serious investigation by any stretch of the imagination. The American people want to see justice served. The victims and the survivors deserve justice.

REP. YASSAMIN ANSARI (D-AZ): Good morning, Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari from Arizona's third district. I am grateful that we are here, day two of these depositions with Secretary Clinton and President Bill Clinton. We've always said we will take answers from anyone and nobody is above congressional oversight.

But let's be absolutely honest about something. If the Republicans want to be serious about this investigation and getting to the truth and accountability for perpetrators, then we have to look to the most powerful person in the United States and the world, which is President Donald Trump. He is mentioned in the Epstein files more than almost anyone.

And just this week, incredibly damning reporting came out to say that there were credible allegations from a woman who said that she was abused by Donald Trump when she was a minor. The FBI investigated this and interviewed this individual multiple times. You do not do that if it is not serious.

Further, we need to investigate the ongoing White House cover-up. We know that the Department of Justice has been withholding files. They have been making illegal redactions. The FBI and Kash Patel have been lying under oath. All of these people need to be deposed before this committee. We need to take this investigation seriously. There are more than a thousand people who were harmed by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and many other rich and powerful people, children whose lives were literally altered forever at the hands of this abuse. This is very serious.

And I think the fact that some of the Republicans on the Oversight Committee feel that it is appropriate to make statements to say that President Trump is somehow exonerated. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna said this last night, that is the most outrageous thing that I have ever heard. Donald Trump needs to come before this committee, and we will not stop fighting until we get the truth and there's accountability and justice for the survivors.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I'm Ro Khanna from California. I want to echo what all of my colleagues said. A new precedent has been set in America today. Before this, we had the Trump rule. Trump defied, as all of you know, a congressional subpoena with the January 6th committee. He said presidents don't have to testify. Now, we have the Clinton rule, which is that presidents and their families have to testify when Congress issues a subpoena. And that means that Donald Trump needs to come before our committee and explain what he knew about Epstein and explain why we have not had a full release of the documents.

We also need other people, part of the Epstein class, to come before this committee. If President Clinton can answer questions, many others need to as well. I was pleased to see Congresswoman Nancy Mace today calling for Howard Lutnick to come before our committee. I believe we will have the votes to subpoena him, and we will work with Ranking Member Garcia to make sure that he comes before our committee next.

GARCIA: A couple of questions. Go ahead, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) BBC. Virginia Giuffre never accused the former president, Bill Clinton, of wrongdoing but she did say that (INAUDIBLE) Epstein's island, she saw him there. But the former president say he never went.

[10:55:00]

You mentioned Howard Lutnick several times. We know that he claimed to cut ties with Epstein, but then was (INAUDIBLE) island. So, who do you believe, Virginia Giuffre or President Clinton?

GARCIA: Those questions are actually going to be asked today in this deposition, so we look forward to those questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just a short time ago, you're Republican colleagues has said that there was some type of exchange yesterday with the secretary where she was screaming. What is your characterization of what happened?

GARCIA: I hope that the Republicans release the actual video, unedited, immediately, because to say that the secretary was screaming, I think is beyond a mischaracterization. What happened yesterday was a disgrace. To be asking about UFOs, Pizzagate, conspiracy theories, you yourself are going to see the types of questions that she was asked to defend her husband, not directly to her, not information about her. I think they need to release the videos right now. You should all be let in (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys have talked often about the precedent being set by President Clinton appearing here today as president (INAUDIBLE). Is the way that President Clinton answers these questions today also setting a precedent? If he evokes executive privilege or says he doesn't remember, could that set the stage for President Trump to do a similar situation?

GARCIA: I think he was telling that Secretary Clinton did not take the fifth one time yesterday. She answered the questions. That information needs to be released. I think it's important that President Clinton do the same. I think he will answer questions today. I think that President Trump needs to man up, get in front of this committee, and answer the questions and stop calling this investigation a hoax, and we've got to go in. Thank you all very much.

BLITZER: All right. So, there you have the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia. The ranking member speaking to reporters together with other Democrats just before the start of this sworn deposition by the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton, and we earlier heard from the Republican chairman, James Comer, and other Republicans making their statements in advance of the deposition as well.

I want to bring in CNN's Annie Grayer, who's in Chappaqua, New York. That's where the Clintons live. She's been covering all of this from the start. Annie, walk us through what we just heard. What's your reaction?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, we saw a real split screen there, Wolf, between what Republicans were talking about ahead of Bill Clinton's deposition and what Democrats were. Republicans talked about what they want to ask former President Bill Clinton today under oath. They want to talk about the times that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein's plane. They want to talk about the times that Epstein visited the former president in the White House. They want to talk about all the photos that feature Bill Clinton, including a photo of Clinton in a jacuzzi with a woman whose faces are redacted.

And while Democrats said they do have questions for the former president, they came out demanding that Republicans on this committee bring in President Donald Trump for questioning. And they say that they're talking to the wrong president today, that, really, it should be President Trump answering for the countless times that he is in the Epstein files. And they said that Republicans need to release the video of this transcript from Hillary Clinton's deposition that occurred yesterday as soon as possible. The chairman said that he is trying to get that out as quickly as possible. It could come as soon as today.

Take a listen to how House Oversight Chair James Comer said he's approaching this deposition, the questions that he has for former President Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMER: There are a lot of photos that have been released by the Department of Justice, as well as the Epstein estate. There are a lot of email correspondents that included President Clinton. We know President Clinton had, and Secretary Clinton confirmed this yesterday, Jeffrey Epstein was in the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president. We know that Bill Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane at least 27 times. So, those are questions that we're going to ask.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRAYER: So, we are waiting for the deposition of Bill Clinton to get started. It could start at any moment, and he's going to be questioned in the building behind me, behind closed doors by both Democrats and Republican lawmakers. We know that Clinton has been hunkered down with his legal team for days preparing for this deposition, Wolf.

But this was not the way the Clinton's wanted this to happen. They did not want to have to testify in person as part of this investigation. They argued they were being unfairly treated by Republicans on this committee and said they should have been able to submit just written statements like some other witnesses in this investigation. And what they only caved to the demands of a deposition when both Democrats and Republicans were going to hold the Clinton's in criminal contempt of Congress.

We're here in Chappaqua today because of a concession made between Republicans and the Clinton team to hold this deposition in their hometown, but we are expecting a long day of questioning of the former president, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. If Hillary Clinton was questioned for more than six hours, I suspect Bill Clinton, today's going to be questioned for a lot longer than that.

[11:00:00]