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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) On Election Officials Warning They Can't Meet Trump's Mail-In Ballot Demands; Soon: Deadlocked Jury Resumes Deliberations In Clancy Murder Trial; Death Toll Rises To More Than 1,100 After Nepal-China Flood. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 02, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, oil prices down just a tiny bit this morning there but up significantly from a week ago after the U.S. and Iran traded another round of strikes overnight. The global energy market being watched very closely as tensions continue to escalate and consumers are getting hit with higher gas prices. The national average now $4.12 a gallon.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining me now with more on this. I mean, it's to be expected when you see the market watching strikes being traded that you're going to see an impact on oil prices, period.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely, Sara. I mean, the war continues to make energy more expensive. Oil future -- they did surge Monday and Tuesday and they are holding on to most of those gains.

So Brent, the global benchmark, at $94.50 a barrel. Some context: A month ago it was at $80.00. When the year started it was just at 60 bucks. So this is very elevated. WTI, the U.S. benchmark, hovering just below $90.00 a barrel.

And over on prediction market Kalshi they see about a one in three chance that WTI goes to $115 a barrel before the end of the year.

And so, yes, this does make sense because the fact that the war appears to be heating up again, it is reminding investors about all of the supply disruptions set off by this conflict.

Now, when we look at fuel prices, August was the most expensive month for gasoline on record. September is off to a bad start as well. Gas prices up by two cents overnight --

SIDNER: Wow.

EGAN: -- to $4.12 a gallon. That's 38 percent higher than when the war started. But look at diesel. Diesel, $5.69 a gallon, up five cents just in the last 24 hours.

SIDNER: Wow.

EGAN: Fifty-one percent more expensive than when the war started.

And look, gasoline gets all the headlines because of the consumer impact and because of the psychological impact.

SIDNER: Sure.

EGAN: But diesel -- that's really the one to watch because diesel is what's powering the trucks and the tractors, and construction vehicles, the trains and the boats that really power the economy. And the fact that diesel is up 51 percent, consumers are going to feel that because businesses are going to pass at least some of those costs along to all of us in terms of higher prices.

Now, Brown University's Climate Solution Labs -- they have been tracking how much consumers have been hit by the war. And they calculate that consumers are paying about $96 billion more just for gasoline and diesel relative to before the war. That works out to $734 per household. And as you can see, those numbers are rising every single minute.

Now, all of this comes after President Trump -- just yesterday he met with fuel retailers and refineries at the White House. A White House official says the focus there was on lowering gas prices and increasing U.S. refining capacity. But look, that's easier said than done, right? New refineries have been built in many years. It takes years to build one and billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, refinery stocks -- I mean, they are on fire. Phillips 66, Valero, Marathon -- all of them have basically doubled so far this year.

So the bottom line, Sara, six months in, the war continues to cause major disruptions to the economy.

SIDNER: It's volatile but ultimately, the American consumer ends up paying for this and that number was insane --

EGAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- that you just showed.

EGAN: Ninety-six billion.

SIDNER: Ninety-six billion that is just hitting American consumers throughout this war for the past six months.

Matt Egan, great reporting from you.

EGAN: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, with two months to go to Election Day, election officials say there is no practical way that they can pull of President Trump's new rules for issuing mail-in ballots. And that's throwing new uncertainty at the high-stakes question of how Americans will get their votes counted this midterm.

In court filings, as well as interviews with CNN, election officials and other voting experts are saying that the sweeping changes proposed by the Trump administration could cost tens of millions of dollars and requires thousands of hours of staff time and training -- time they say they simply do not have.

This comes as a whistleblower report was sent to Congress and released just yesterday describing the new systems and procedures that the U.S. Postal Service is putting in place to issue mail -- issue those mail- in ballots. The whistleblower calling the process and how they're putting it together a "shit show."

The report was released by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and in it, it claims that the Postal Service only allowed for days to test these new critical systems and that one single mismatch on an envelope could hold up thousands of others from being mailed out.

One election official telling CNN about this whole thing. "Confusion is, in some instances, the goal."

Joining me right now in studio is Sen. Richard Blumenthal for much more on this.

A lot of people don't want to know, Senator, or don't take time to want to try to understand the ends and outs of the Postal Service and how things get issued, but this becomes a mission critical because of what's at stake here in terms of getting mail-in ballots to every American if they want them.

What do you take from this whistleblower report that was sent to you?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Well, first of all, Kate, thanks for having me and thanks for highlighting the courage and fortitude of a whistleblower -- a whistleblower who brought this issue to our attention.

And what's at stake here is really the right to vote. One-third of all voters do it by mail. And this system is designed to fail. It is constructed to crash. It is sloppy, haphazard, hasty, which is negligent, but it is also intentional. And --

[07:35:07]

BOLDUAN: You really think it's designed to fail. It's designed to not work. It's designed to take -- to keep people from voting.

BLUMENTHAL: This system cannot be implemented consistent with the right to vote. It simply is impossible.

We've talk to the IT experts and the whistleblower, in fact, is an IT person -- a federal official. But the point here is that we need to safeguard the right to vote by stopping a system that is not just negligent, it is intentional. BOLDUAN: One of the -- one of the things -- allegations that had not been known until you put out this report was -- and I'll look down to make sure I get it right. If one ballot -- one ballot envelope scan does not align with the information in this portal they're creating at the Postal Service, the service will refuse to send the entire batch of ballots out until this discrepancy is cleared up.

Is that your understanding on how this system is designed to work or is this a glitch in the system that can be corrected?

BLUMENTHAL: Zero percent failure is part of its design. In other words, for the first time in our history the Postal Service is going to be acting as a gatekeeper. It is going to be screening every ballot based on information provided by election officials and the ballots provided by them and then refusing to send the whole batch of ballots -- maybe 10,000 -- if there is one discrepancy, one bar code missing from one ballot.

And that's the design of the system, which is why I say it is designed to disenfranchise millions of Americans.

BOLDUAN: So a lot needs to be learned about what is being put in place, so that's one thing. But just in the -- taking it in a broader view you have a judge last week that froze the mandates that states use this system if they want the Postal Service to deliver the ballots.

So do you think that the real problems that you have with this proposed change -- do you think that there is not a real problem for the midterms though?

BLUMENTHAL: There is a real problem for the midterms. Right now the order -- the judge's order would stop the system from going into effect. But the postal system has now gone to the Court of Appeals --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

BLUMENTHAL: -- seeking a stay of that order, which would mean the system could proceed if the stay is granted. And ultimately, it will go to the United States Supreme Court.

BOLDUAN: Can you pull the head of the Postal Service in to talk about this in time for the midterms?

BLUMENTHAL: I have demanded answers to these questions. I have urged -- in fact, demanded that the system be stopped because it would disenfranchise millions of voters in this election. But there is a real danger that the Supreme Court may uphold it --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

BLUMENTHAL: -- or may grant another stay. And in that event, people have to make a plan to vote because this system will be unreliable as a means of mail voting.

BOLDUAN: The Postal Service responded to CNN's request for information and says it's carefully reviewing the concerns raised by the whistleblower and by you. And said, "The United States Postal Service has spent months developing a U.S. Federal Ballot Mail Portal to provide election officials with a simple, secure, and efficient way to share lists of individuals receiving ballots by mail in their respective states. This work has at all times been conducted in a manner consistent with court orders."

Do you think that the Postal Service is working in good faith to do this?

BLUMENTHAL: Well, I'm glad you raised that question, Kate, because it's central. One of our claims here is that, in fact, they are violating court orders. They have abridged them by moving ahead with this system even while there was a court order forbidding them to do so.

So if you want to look at the big picture here, they violated court orders. They've designed a system that has as a feature, not a bug, failure, and it's constructed to crash. And they have done it with knowledge about what the affects would be. And I think that's a really searing indictment. Maybe not criminal --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

BLUMENTHAL: -- but certainly indicating intention to suppress the vote. And it's part of a larger pattern. I don't think I need to --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BLUMENTHAL: -- highlight the fact that Donald Trump --

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump.

BLUMENTHAL: -- has challenged mail-in voting even though he does it himself.

BOLDUAN: So do you -- with what you know and what you're learning now -- which is more than most Americans, you know, will ever care to learn about these systems -- would you advise people to not try to vote by mail this cycle?

BLUMENTHAL: If the United States Supreme Court follows the law and the facts here it will strike down these new rules and mail-in voting will be reliable as it has been in the past.

[07:40:07]

If the court fails to follow the laws and it enables this system to go forward, I would say to people what I've said before. A lot of people use mail voting. Make a plan to vote, register. Make sure your friends and family have a plan to vote. Provide rides to friends and family if they're unable to get there on their own.

BOLDUAN: You're not going to trust mail-in voting if the Supreme Court allows this to go through though, are you? BLUMENTHAL: I won't, personally, and I think most Americans will view mail voting as lacking credibility. Because remember, the United States Postal Service is going to be screening your ballot and sending them back if it finds a single discrepancy. And you may not know that your ballot has been sent back to state election officials. They may not be able to comply in time and there are strict deadlines for submitting mail ballots.

And so I think their goal, clearly, is to create that doubt and confusion, and even chaos.

BOLDUAN: A lot more to learn here.

Senator, thank you for coming in and thanks for bringing us this information.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Appreciate your time -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate, and thank you, Senator.

Very soon deadlocked jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are set to return for a fifth day of deliberations. Clancy is accused of strangling her three young children. Now, the central legal question that jurors must answer: Was she criminally responsible for her actions or was she suffering from postpartum psychosis and didn't realize what she was doing was wrong?

Yesterday, the jury told the judge it was deadlocked and the judge encouraged them to try to come to a unanimous decision.

With me now, attorney and former litigator, Lisa Bonner. Thank you so much for being here.

Once a jury tells the court that hey, we can't come to this decision -- we are deadlocked -- how typical is it for them to get past that and end up rendering a verdict?

LISA BONNER, ATTORNEY, FORMER LITIGATOR (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning, Sara.

Well, that is a great question because they did come back yesterday and say that they are deadlocked. But it's important to remember that just because a jury comes back and says we are deadlocked does not mean that they are permanently deadlocked.

The judge is basically saying hey, you're not done yet. I -- we do know that you are at a significant impasse and this might be difficult to bridge, but, you know, we -- you have to go back, and you have to really look at the evidence. You have to take into consideration her state of mind and you just give it another bite at the apple.

Now again, they -- the judge can go back at least two times without really being seen as coercion, but he is asking them to keep talking. And he could employ what we call the "Tuey-Rodriguez" charge, which has been last employed during the Karen Read trial. But right now he's just saying keep talking and keep deliberating and see what we can -- what you can come back with.

SIDNER: Give us some sense of how hard this is inside of this deliberation where you have 85 witnesses these jurors have listened to and some awful photos and crime scene photos, 300 bits of evidence about it as they're going through this. This could just be one person, correct, that could say hey, I don't agree with the rest of you.

BONNER: Correct. We have no idea the ratio in terms of the holdout for guilty-not guilty. We have no idea whether they were deadlocked on murder one, second-degree murder, manslaughter, you know.

And when you have 12 jurors that are trying to come to one -- actually, three unanimous conclusions, that's very difficult. Because although you are not supposed to bring your sympathy into the courtroom, you cannot help but bring your lived experiences into the courtroom. So there might be jurors in there that have suffered from depression. You have women on the jury. They might have suffered with postpartum depression themselves.

So we never know what they are experiencing but we do know that the judge is really asking them to dig deep. To really come to one -- to a unanimous conclusion.

But again, we are trying to get into her state of mind. So this is really a judgment call on her psychological thought process in terms of when she did kill those children, what was she thinking? We're trying to decide her degree of culpability.

So that is very difficult for 12 jurors to unanimously come to one conclusion about three victims.

SIDNER: Yeah, and her attorney -- Clancy's attorney was asked if she could mentally, sort of, handle another trial, and his answer was no. But there is an indication, right, that prosecutors -- if this ends up being deadlocked and a hung jury that prosecutors will try her again.

[07:45:00]

BONNER: Absolutely. That is the state's right. And as you said, Sara, they have expended a significant amount of resources on this case. And also, this is a case that is highly charged in the public -- in the public's mind because you have a woman who has admitted to killing three young children. So people are really vested in this outcome.

So it is highly unlikely that if they do declare a mistrial that, in fact, the just will -- if the judge does declare a mistrial that the district attorney will come back and ask for a retrial. We don't know, but he has indicated that by all -- by all intents and purposes, that he is not going to let this go.

SIDNER: Yeah. It has also very much highlighted postpartum care and the mental strain there, too.

BONNER: Yes. SIDNER: There is a lot going on in this case.

Lisa Bonner, it is good to have you. Thank you so much for coming on this morning for us -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: This morning the death toll in Nepal continues to rise. More than 1,100 people are now confirmed dead and there are still some 4,500 people still missing.

Among them are roughly 900 workers at hydropower projects we've been -- we've been talking about. They are now believed to be trapped deep inside these tunnels that are -- at times they described as several miles long. Officials say the tunnels are full of water and mud -- just some of the mess they have to work through in this complicated rescue effort.

Meanwhile, there are incredible stories that come down to just seconds. You can see in this video a woman running and pulling two children as she barely escapes a wall of rushing water that comes crashing past just behind them. A matter of seconds to save them.

And the scale of the destruction is just still hard to wrap your mind around. There's little that's been left untouched by this explosion of water and mud and debris.

And as CNN's Will Ripley found out, navigating the mess in the aftermath is dangerous as well.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You've really got to watch your step. This is quicksand probably about 20 feet deep. Some of the guys out here said they stepped in it and it went right up to their neck. That makes recovering bodies very difficult and dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: You can imagine. Those are types of conditions that aide workers are facing as they are trying to offer help and aid -- help as well.

Joining me right now is John Torpey. He is rescue -- he is response director of World Central Kitchen, joining me with more on all of their efforts out of Nepal. Thank you so much for being here.

I mean, you saw my colleague Will Ripley and how he's describing just trying to walk around.

What are you hearing from your teams on the ground? What they're seeing and what they're up against to try to just set up shop and help people?

JOHN TORPEY, RESPONSE DIRECTOR, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Yeah, it's funny. I've been in that quicksand and it's exactly how we described it when we first showed up multiple days ago. We were in Bidur in the Devighat district -- that was the first place

we went to -- bringing restaurant meals in to try and take care of people. We went by the helicopter landing strips. You're talking about seven helicopters sitting there at a time offloading and loading and moving out. The search and rescue area has just been massive.

I've heard numbers of over 10,400 people rescued so far and it's probably climbing. Four hundred eleven flights per day. I mean, just it -- when you talk about an operation like this it's massive. And it's also massive in trying to take care of these people as these people are flown back in as they're evacuated.

We want to be there. We've been setting up kitchens -- community kitchens all over Bidur. We've -- we're scouting and moving kitchens all over the -- all over the affected area as fast as we can. And as you said, the access is just awful.

One of the -- one of the more beautiful stories that we've had in the last few days and one of my people just told me about this is they were at a -- we were at a shelter. We were -- we were serving meals and a father stepped out of a van and they had been -- he had been -- he had been unknown. And his daughter was already in the shelter. And when they came running out to greet each other was -- it was really just a beautiful moment.

It's really grief and relief taking turns right now, and sometimes it's in the same hour.

So we're doing everything we can. We want to -- we want to move as quickly as we can, and we have. We're currently -- we currently have six community kitchens set up utilizing different partners. We're feeding in nine different places and we're not done yet.

We are -- we're working with different organizations. We're working with an organization called WOREC, which is Women's Rehabilitation Centre. They're taking care of pregnant women, children in a -- in a -- in a facility that's housing about 1,000 people right now. I think there's about 200 of these vulnerable people that we're cooking specialty meals for based on the information that we're getting from the Women's Rehabilitation Centre.

[07:50:00]

We have the Nepal Scouts, who are hard-charging. We load them up with kitchen equipment and food. They take off in a truck and start heading down goat tracks to try and get up the Trishuli River to find places where food is not accessible right now or a hot meals aren't. We're sending them with propane. And they're cooking -- they've been cooking meals for days now.

We're utilizing other organizations -- the CRSC. They're a great partner with us right now. They know the area, they know the people. They know where the vulnerable populations are. And we're taking care of them as much as possible.

And as I said, we're doing a lot right now but there's still a lot more to do. There's still a lot more access to be gained. There's still a lot more scouting to do. We're currently talking with trekking companies -- people that can backpack things in. Just anything -- all of the above -- trying to get meals in here in Nepal right now.

BOLDUAN: I'm just thinking I know the work you all have done for years now, you have it down to something of a science, though every disaster is different. But man, oh man, it is a marvel how you pull it off every time after these horrible disasters and what it means for everyone.

John, you and World Central Kitchen, thank you so much for what you're doing and for coming in -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate.

Ahead, a big day in court for Tiger Woods. What could happen this morning in the golfer's DUI case.

Plus, the search is on for whoever vandalized Dolly Parton's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame just a week after her death. Shame on you.

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[07:56:00]

BOLDUAN: Wild crash video that has gone viral. It is out of Colombia -- and it's disturbing -- of a man on a motorcycle blowing through an intersection and crashing into a bus.

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Motorcycle crashing into bus in Colombia.

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BOLDUAN: Police say he ran a red light and then you see it -- the bus door is open and he just flies through. And he gets up, clearly dazed, and then he just wanders off. Colombian officials haven't released much information about his identity or even if they've identified him.

While he does seem to walk away it is unclear how he is doing right now. What's wild is also how lucky, as you can see there's both a bus driver and a passenger onboard and how they also narrowly avoided getting hit and hurt.

Let's turn to this now. A Montana woman is seen on camera fending off a large female moose and her calf after they wandered into her yard.

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SHELLY THORBURN, FENDS OFF MOOSE AND CALF WHO WANDERED INTO HER YARD: Get back. Get back. Oh!

(Screaming)

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Oh my gosh.

RING camera showing Shelly Thorburn understandably terrified, but quick thinking and jumping into action to save her three dogs. She was eventually able to use bear spray to scare the moose off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THORBURN: She was coming so fast at me and making all those grunting noises that, you know, I was just like I've got to get out of her way. My little dog, which she's 14 -- she cannot hear. She's deaf and she's visually impaired. So she did not know anything that was going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: She's like it's just a normal day, mom.

SIDNER: Probably for the better -- for the best.

BOLDUAN: I mean, when you think about it, it's like mother moose and dog momma both just trying to protect their babies. I mean --

SIDNER: Totally normal day to me.

BOLDUAN: Just like Shelly. That is not -- that moose is not small in case --

SIDNER: You're not supposed to, like, engage with them at all --

BOLDUAN: Chase down a moose?

SIDNER: -- and I do really want to.

BOLDUAN: What?

SIDNER: I know, I'm weird.

BOLDUAN: We're going to discuss later.

SIDNER: I love them.

BOLDUAN: We will discuss later.

SIDNER: Thank you, Kate.

All right. New this morning, we are standing by for Tiger Woods to appear in a Florida courtroom next hour for a change of plea hearing after he was arrested for a DUI back in March. Back then he pleaded not guilty. The golf champion was found at the scene of the crash not far from his home. According to an arrest affidavit, Woods failed a field sobriety test and had prescription painkillers in his pocket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE OFFICER: How much have you had to drink today?

TIGER WOODS, ARRESTED FOR DUI: None.

POLICE OFFICER: None? Do you take medications?

WOODS: Uh, I take a few, ma'am.

POLICE OFFICER: What's a few?

WOODS: Um, (INAUDIBLE), Ibuprofen, and uh, --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. That was a conversation he was having with the officer at the time, asking if he had medication in his pocket.

CNN's Randi Kaye is outside court for us this morning. What are we expecting to hear as this is a change of plea hearing?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT; Exactly, Sara. Good morning.

This should be a pretty short court appearance we're expecting for Tiger Woods, but it is a change of plea hearing, as you said. He pleaded not guilty, so a change of plea sounds like he's going to plead guilty, but we just done know. CNN has reached out to his representatives. One of his lawyers declined to comment.

But this all stems from this rollover crash, Sara, which happened back in March here in Martin County, Florida. Tiger Woods was driving his Land Rover. He was traveling behind a pickup truck, which was pulling a trailer. He tried to swerve around that as that pickup truck slowed down. He ended up flipping the trailer, flipping his car, and ended up pinned to the ground on the driver's side, so he actually had to crawl out through the passenger side of that car.

Nobody was injured but he did take a breathalyzer test on the scene. The sheriff said there was no alcohol in his system. But what he did not take was a urinalysis. He refused that test. So they weren't able to say what other medications or drugs might have been in his system. Now, he did tell the deputies that he did take a few medications -- a few prescription medications earlier that day.