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Sen. Graham Targets Democratic Opponent After Winning South Carolina SOP Runoff; Testimony Ends in Lindsay Clancy Trial; Psychiatrist Testifies Clancy Knew Right from Wrong, Planned Killings; FDA Approves Targeted Pancreatic Cancer Drug. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 26, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: South Carolina Senator Darline Graham is now turning her attention to her Democratic opponents after fending off her Republican rival, Congressman Ralph Norman. Graham won her special runoff election last night after a big boost from President Trump. Now as the Republican nominee, she's sending this message to voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DARLINE GRAHAM (R-SC): For those who are not aware, you need to know that my Democratic opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews, is the most radical liberal ever nominated for a statewide office by the South Carolina Democratic Party. Her views are those of Bernie Sanders and AOC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Joining us now is South Carolina's Democratic nominee for Senate, Dr. Annie Andrews. Doctor, thanks for being with us. What is your response to Graham calling you the most radical liberal ever nominated in South Carolina?

DR. ANNIE ANDREWS, (D) SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE NOMINEE: Well, thanks for having me. I'm so happy to be here. It's really clear to me that she's just saying what she is being told to say.

[14:35:00]

My question back to her is what is so radical about a pediatrician and a mom of three public school kids who believes that if you work hard, you should be able to afford to put food on the table and keep your lights on at the end of the month? What is so radical about thinking every county in South Carolina should have an OBGYN? What is so radical about thinking if you're sick, you should be able to afford to see the doctor?

What is so radical about thinking if your community doesn't want a data center, there shouldn't be a data center built? Darline Graham has no legislative record or accomplishments to run on. She's resorting to your typical hyper partisan national Republican talking points.

And South Carolina voters are smarter than to fall for that.

SANCHEZ: I want to play a bit of something else Darline Graham said last night. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: Gun control, government run health care, abortion until the moment of birth. Bad idea after bad idea. Annie Andrews backs them all.

My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet. We didn't take vacations. If they were sick, they had to get up and go to work because the doors weren't open.

We weren't making money. My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father just over a year later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: She obviously has roots in South Carolina and to a degree this argument about some of the more, I guess, leftward policies that Democrats have pronounced recently. And in comparison, to her argument about her parents not taking vacations, the sort of lift yourself up by the bootstraps, traditional conservative messaging. I wonder if you think that is going to appeal to voters in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1998.

ANDREWS: So what she said there was that her health care plan is you should work hard until you die. I'm a physician who's worked on the front lines of America's broken health care system for 20 years, taking care of South Carolina's sick and injured children. I've sat with parents who are concerned that they're not going to be able to afford their child's insulin or their child's asthma inhaler.

I've talked to parents who show up at the emergency department unexpectedly with a sick or injured child who now are worried they're going to be thrown into bankruptcy. I believe that we deserve better. I believe that Darline's parents deserved better.

I believe that health care is a human right, that we must shift America's profit-motivated health care system to a patient-centered health care system that actually meets the needs of everyone in this country. I believe we need to stop the impending Medicaid budget cuts. These are the urgent problems I'm hearing from South Carolina voters.

Darline is resorting to culture war topics that have no basis in reality. And I continue to crisscross the state of South Carolina talking to voters about what they're really concerned about. They're frustrated that Trump ran on lowering grocery prices and not starting new wars.

And he's done the exact opposite of that. People are ready for something different. And if South Carolina voters are ready to try something different, they can check me out at drannieandrews.com.

SANCHEZ: You've challenged Graham to at least three televised debates. She received criticism after her appearance in the primary debate, the latest primary debate, struggling to answer a question about Taiwan and U.S. interests in the South China Sea. Do you have any update for us?

Do you expect that you will join her on a debate stage at some point?

ANDREWS: Yes, we challenged her two weeks ago. After she got into the runoff, we challenged her again today. South Carolina voters deserve to hear from both of us side-by-side face-to-face in a series of live televised debates.

We have not heard anything back from the Graham campaign. We will show up anywhere and everywhere to let voters hear from me. And name the time, name the place, I'll be there. I'm not sure if Darline will be there.

We also just released our latest polling, which showed that this is actually a tied race, 41-41. And when voters learn a little bit more about the two choices on the ballot in November 3rd, I go up five points.

So South Carolina very much is in play. This is an open Senate seat. And voters deserve to hear from both of us.

But I don't have a lot of high hopes that Darline will be brave enough to step on the debate stage with me.

SANCHEZ: We'll see if she responds and joins you for a debate. Dr. Annie Andrews, we'll leave the conversation there. Thanks for the time.

ANDREWS: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, a packed courtroom as testimony ends in the Lindsay Clancy trial. We have details from inside next.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Testimony has ended in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial as the jury has been dismissed for the day. They'll return tomorrow for closing arguments. The final witness was a forensic psychiatrist who said he believes Clancy has bipolar 2 disorder but still knew right from wrong when she killed her children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. GREGORY SAATHOFF, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: My opinion is that she did have the capacity to appreciate right from wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what do you base that on?

SAATHOFF: The planning involved prior to the strangling of her children I thought was significant. The searches for distance of 3V, the searches of CBS. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Clancy has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to three counts of murder and claims that she was suffering postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings. We're joined now by Dr. Sarah Oreck, who is a reproductive psychiatrist and co-founder and president of Mavida Health.

[14:45:00]

Doctor, thank you so much for being with us. Prosecution witnesses have cast some doubt about Clancy's hallucination claims that she said she heard a voice. Can you talk to us about what is typical for postpartum psychosis when it comes to hallucinations and hearing voices?

DR. SARAH ORECK, REPRODUCTIVE PSYCHIATRIST: Absolutely. Command hallucinations are certainly a part of postpartum psychosis, but there is a level of disorganization, which I agree with, that sometimes people are in and out of consciousness. They're not sort of behaving in this linear, organized fashion, and that is what we typically see in cases of postpartum psychosis.

KEILAR: OK, and so you heard there from this prosecution witness part of what the prosecution's case is, they're saying she was capable of planning, she'd sent her husband on errands during the time that she killed the kids, for instance, that that's not indicative of postpartum psychosis. What about someone's ability to plan to function normally, at least as it appears outside to observers?

ORECK: Absolutely. So there is this element of postpartum psychosis, which requires so much more study and research than it has, which is a really important point, but that is the fluctuation of consciousness. So sometimes people look really high functioning, and the next moment, they almost look like someone who's delirious, and they may be disoriented to time or place.

So there can be this sort of in and out that can occur, but generally, I think as a physician, I'm having a hard time with some of the evidence around her heart rate at the time, the lack of DNA evidence on some of the bands and the knife. It just is not consistent with someone who's acting in this desperate, disorganized fashion that we see in postpartum psychosis.

KEILAR: So you have some questions about that. What about -- talk to us more about the questions that you have about that and what you would like to see fleshed out more in the courtroom.

ORECK: The timeline just still doesn't make that much sense to me. Her knowledge of medical information and the different attempts of suicide just don't seem to add up, and especially the timeline and her core body temperature is still something that's very confusing to me. So of course, I think there's questions about the postpartum psychosis, but I think there's also some reasonable doubt about how exactly did this go down? Because what we see with postpartum psychosis is a level, again, of disorganization and just the limited amount of time that would have been required for her to perpetrate this is just still something that I am having a hard time making sense of.

KEILAR: There's also this issue of bipolar 2, right? Whether she had bipolar 2, and we know that she was seeking help, going to different practitioners. There had been a number of different --

ORECK: Desperately.

KEILAR: Desperately. There had been a number of different medications. What happens when someone is bipolar 2 and they're on a number of different medications? What are the possible side effects of that?

ORECK: Absolutely. When they're on antidepressants like SSRIs, which is something that she experienced, there can be agitation, and those medications actually don't make you feel better. They can make you feel worse, which is something that she described.

I think, ultimately, this case really reflects, to me, the breakdown in the mental health care for women, the lack of support for motherhood, and certainly it sounds like there was a lot of trials and misfires of medication that just did not serve Lindsay Clancy during this time.

KEILAR: So CNN has spoken to women who were moved to really speak out about their own experiences with postpartum psychosis because of this trial. There's been a lot of focus on this trial because of that. What have you seen in the willingness of women to now have a public conversation around this diagnosis and sort of their personal experiences with muddling through it?

ORECK: This is, I think, the only silver lining to this whole case. I have questions about it being so publicized and this sort of spectator sport that it is, but the acknowledgement of the postpartum, how difficult it is, how little resources, how someone who is the privilege that Lindsay Clancy has, she was a nurse and still couldn't get the care that she needed, or the support from family, from her husband, from loved ones, is really, I think, stark. I, again, people coming out and talking about this, at least destigmatizes this.

[14:50:00]

It can happen to any of us. It is not something, you know, across racial lines, across socioeconomic ties. So I think that's the one thing. I see all these women coming out in support to start to discuss and talk about these things that happen, and, again, are under- researched, underfunded, and people are being under-diagnosed and not getting the proper treatment.

KEILAR: So I wonder, as you have seen some of the testimony here, and we've heard from a number of different experts, because she went, as you said, sort of desperately trying to get help from different practitioners, and then you've also had a number of experts who have come in. When you're looking at someone who maybe has postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety versus someone who has postpartum psychosis, what are the symptoms that make you say, oh, no, this is postpartum psychosis. This is an emergency.

What is the defining characteristic?

ORECK: Absolutely. That break with reality, you'll start to hear some paranoid thoughts. Potentially, those auditory hallucinations are a big red flag, but for me, one that we didn't talk about enough is the fluctuating level of consciousness, where these people can look well for a moment, and then all of a sudden, they look kind of confused, kind of out of it. This is how it's different from primary psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, and frankly, I was disappointed that the experts, most of them had, again, an expertise in forensic psychiatry and psychology, but none seemed to be experts in postpartum psychosis specifically.

KEILAR: Yes, no, that's a very interesting observation. Dr. Sarah Oreck, thank you so much. Obviously, a lot of focus on this trial, a lot of conversations going on about postpartum psychosis because of it.

Thanks for being with us.

ORECK: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Still to come, new hope for the fight against pancreatic cancer. We're going to tell you about the new drug that the FDA just approved.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The Food and Drug Administration today approved a targeted drug for advanced pancreatic cancer. The drug is designed to block a certain protein which helps drive tumor growth. This is a landmark approval given the lack of effective treatment options.

And according to the American Cancer Society, pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 13 percent. One of the lowest among major cancers. Former Senator Ben Sasse told Jake Tapper about his drug regimen, including taking this experimental drug and his experience after being diagnosed with stage four terminal pancreatic cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN SASSE, FORMER SENATOR: I have a great hospice doc who told me early on, she goes, when you're dying of an abdominal disease, you've got an algorithm of four variables. You've got pain from tumors. You've got nausea from drugs and tumors.

You've got a constipation to diarrhea continuum. And you've got an energy fatigue dimension. And she said, any of those problems, if you tell your doc, you have a problem, they'll say there's a drug for that.

And there's definitely a drug for that. And it might screw up the other three. So you've got to manage the algorithm.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So you're like an alchemist now.

SASSE: I'm a druggie. But I definitely would prefer to have more energy and less fatigue. And I'm willing to endure more puking and more pain to be alive. So I do less drugs than would be normal for the amount of cancer I have.

TAPPER: And you, in order just to do this interview, you have to modify your drug regimen, right?

SASSE: I tone down my morphine a lot.

TAPPER: So you're in pain right now?

SASSE: A little, but it's not terrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: You can watch more of Jake's interview for the whole story. "BEN SASSE IS GOING HOME" right now on the CNN app.

Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

Officials in northern Texas say a wildfire known as the Ross Fire expanded overnight, scorching more than 80,000 acres so far. Winds and 100-degree temperatures have been fueling the flames, but thankfully conditions are expected to improve. The fire is 12 percent contained so far.

And if you have a Ring doorbell camera or you're thinking of getting one, there's now a new level of protection to make sure that law enforcement will go through you if it wants to see any of your recordings. Ring is rolling out new encryption technology, which creates a digital vault that can only be unlocked by the Ring system owner. The Amazon-owned company says customers don't have to worry about any third parties, including Amazon itself, viewing their security footage without their consent.

That was already Ring's policy, but the new form of encryption now reinforces that.

And there's a new report from the Commerce Department suggesting that Americans are becoming more cautious with their finances. It says consumer spending was flat in July after rising 0.4 percent in June. The report shows that spending dropped the most in categories like gasoline, vehicle purchases, and home furnishings. Restaurant spending, though, was higher.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KEILAR: Hundreds missing and many feared dead after a massive flash flood hits an area on the Nepal-China border. 157 people are confirmed dead, but authorities worry that just may be the beginning.

Landmark settlement. Meta agrees to pay $18 billion ...

END