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Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) On Trump, Vance Headlining GOP Midterm Convention This Week; Russia Strikes Kyiv One Day After Visit By Witkoff And Kushner; Lindsay Clancy's Attorney Speaks Out After Mistrial. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 08, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA) (via Webex by Cisco): President Trump putting himself front and center and making himself the face of these midterms is great news for us as Democrats because he's historically unpopular, his policies have been a complete failure, and he'll remind voters that Republicans in Congress have rubberstamped him this last year and a half, and they will continue to if they stay in the majority. So we see this as a good development.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Why shouldn't Democrats do something like this -- have a midterm convention?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, we are in our districts every day, all the time, just making sure that voters see us in person rather than going down to Dallas and having a convention there. We are having many conventions with our voters every single day, so I think our approach is actually the better one. We will make sure that our constituents and our voters know that we will be there for them and that there will be change come next January if they elect a new majority.

BERMAN: Canada put its new tariffs -- retaliatory tariffs in place overnight. I've heard you talking about the fact that Canada is Virginia's number one trading partner.

What do you think the impact of this trade war will be?

SUBRAMANYAM: Again, this president's policies have led to higher prices for people, and the tariffs with Canada will be no different because in the end, Canada is the leading trade partner of many states in our country. And it's not just Canada. There is tariffs all over the world right now that are hurting small businesses.

When they are deemed illegal, it is big corporations that get the majority of the refunds, not the American people. And so the American people are paying higher prices over and over again. And that will be on the ballot boxes coming November.

BERMAN: So, Congressman, about a week ago, your office announced that phone calls that you had been on with a Virginia legislator had been monitored by federal law enforcement. This was part of an investigation into that legislature. At this point, one week later, what more have you learned about this

investigation or the fact that the calls from --

SUBRAMANYAM: I've learned very little.

BERMAN: Go ahead.

SUBRAMANYAM: Yeah -- no, I've learned very little.

So to recap, you know, they were listening in on my conversation with the state senator, Louise Lucas, and she was one of the leading architects of the redistricting referendum that we had in Virginia, right? The Democratic-led redistricting referendum.

And so weeks before the election for that, they were listening in on her conversations, and they were listening on my conversations with her. And so I want to know why was I not notified until about four or five months later by snail mail? Why were they listening in our conversations weeks before this referendum? The timing seems very suspicious. And what else do they have on me?

I remember when Republicans after the September -- after the January 6th insurrection happened, they were being investigated too for their part in that and some of them had their phone transcripts turned over to investigators. And so they held up the government for weeks trying to get restitution in the form of millions of dollars because of that. And so I, you know, that's what they reacted -- how they reacted.

And I am also upset about what happened, and I want some answers.

BERMAN: If I'm not mistaken, this was an investigation I was reading that began during the Biden administration, though. Isn't that the case?

SUBRAMANYAM: That's right, but then why are they listening in on my conversations with her? And why would they not tell me until many months later? And what else have they been listening in on? The lack of transparency, the timing of the conversations is really suspect to me and I want some answers.

BERMAN: So, Congressman, as we said, the midterm elections are approaching. There are those who think the Democrats have a good chance of retaking control of Congress, which would mean that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is in line to be Speaker of the House.

There have been some issues the last couple weeks with party unity in the Democratic Party. Two Democrats -- they split on what usually is a routine party line rule vote here. And the minority leader has suggested there could be some punishment here for breaking party lines in this type of situation.

What punishment do you think would be fitting or appropriate? How important do you think it is to toe the party line?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, I think it's important when we do sway from our leadership that we at least communicate that to them. I think that's what they're upset about. They're not upset about the actual vote itself, although it's a rule vote. So generally we stick together. I will say this is the only time I've seen us not stick together on a rule vote.

And, you know, I would say that, you know, we are not unanimous as a party, and what our leader, Jeffrey, says is that we are united, though, even though we're not unanimous. And that means we're going to have differences. We're going to have differences of opinion. We're going to have a wide array of views, but in the end, we do come together. We've been pretty united this Congress, and I think we will be more united than people think come next year, but we won't always agree on everything.

BERMAN: Because it may not get easier, right? There have been a number of candidates, you know, who won their party's nomination who are not centrists and who may be on one extreme or one edge of the party than the other.

[07:35:05]

How much harder will it be for Congressman Jeffries, who could be speaker, to hold the party together?

SUBRAMANYAM: Yeah, it won't be easy, for sure. I mean, again, we are a pretty big tent party here. But I will say that we are not the Republican Party, which falls in line even if it defies their own principles when President Trump tells them to. We are not that party. We never will be.

We're a party where we have lots of fights in-house, but in the end, we come together for the American people because we want to do what's best. And Republicans come together for Donald Trump, and that's the difference between our two parties right now.

And we will see how voters decide this in November. But I believe that voters want a party that will stand up to Donald Trump and want a party --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

SUBRAMANYAM: -- that has many independent thinkers within it who all care about doing what's best for their people.

BERMAN: I will say the Republicans have been anything but unified in some cases. They kicked out a speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and they've had all kinds of rules go down. So we'll see if you can reach that level of unity if you do take power.

Congressman Suhas Subramanyan, thanks so much for being with us -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, that level of power -- party unity -- low bar.

Let's turn to this. A wave of violence overnight in Ukraine. Russia slammed the capital of Kyiv with missiles and drones. Three people were killed. And it's not just another day of death and destruction in this war. This attack from Russia came just one day after President Trump's top envoys were there to try and bring about peace. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were literally just there to try and kickstart talks again.

Ukraine's president called the attack complex and also said that it was designed to "cause as much harm to life as possible," with "significant damage to residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in the capital."

Now, Zelenskyy also said that the attacks underscore the need for more anti-ballistic missile supplies, which he clearly is looking to the Trump administration for. Zelenskyy said today he hopes to meet with President Trump this month about this very thing.

Joining us right now is White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times, David Sanger, for more on this. It's good to see you, David.

So it seems a pretty clear message that Russia is trying to send not just to Ukraine, but the United States with the timing here of these attacks.

What are you hearing?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES (via Webex by Cisco): That's right, Kate. When Mr. Kushner and Mr. Witkoff headed to Moscow and then to Kyiv, and it was their first visit together to Kyiv, they had negotiated a ceasefire for just a few days. And it was interesting that as soon as they got back to the United States, Putin sent the message that he was resuming the kind of attacks that he had been doing before.

We're at a pretty interesting turning point and potentially a pretty crucial one in the war. For the past year, all the momentum has seemed to be with the Ukrainians, astoundingly enough, since this war has gone on now longer than World War I.

But at this particular moment, I think President Zelenskyy senses that if he doesn't get those air defenses, it's going to be a very hard winter. That President Putin is going to use the moment to take out more energy facilities. Try to freeze out the Ukrainians. And as Mr. Zelenskyy said when Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner were there, try to see if he can get more concessions out of the Ukrainians. So I don't see an easy way out of this or even a hard way out of this until next spring at the earliest.

BOLDUAN: And when it comes to -- I have to say when you when seeing Zelenskyy talking about need -- the need for anti-ballistic missile supplies it's unclear where things stand on this. Because it was just this summer that Trump had said that he had given Ukraine the go ahead to take Patriot missile technology, build their own Patriot missile interceptors, and then he backtracked on it. And then more recently, he's blamed the Biden administration for

depleting U.S. munition supplies, pointing to what the Biden administration gave to Ukraine.

I mean, where do things stand here, David?

SANGER: Well, it is strategic confusion at best. When the president offered to have the Ukrainians build their own Patriot missiles, he took his own defense industrial base by surprise. And they came back and basically said, this isn't going to happen. And the president backtracked.

It would have been a very good solution. And in fact, the French and the British are talking about doing something similar with their equivalent kind of interceptor. It would have been a good solution because clearly the United States is going to need to focus on rebuilding our own stockpiles.

[07:40:00]

And there's no question where the depletion of that stockpiles came from. It came after the attack on Iran. Now you can just see the numbers that have come down. The Pentagon is so sensitive about what those numbers are that after The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post and others began reporting on it, he started polygraphing members of the joint staff to figure out who's talking about this.

But the Russians know exactly what's going on here. And if the Ukrainians had new interceptors, the Russians would know that too. So they have every incentive at this point to go after Kyiv and other sites. And in part, it is because of the president's decision to go into an Iranian war that he's having a hard time getting out of.

BOLDUAN: You know, John was just talking to the congressman about the new tariffs that are setting in today. Canada hitting back in this trade dispute. New tariffs on U.S. goods setting retaliation for Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods.

The president has tried -- the administration has tried to claim all along this all comes back and down to national security. But the way it's unfolded and the way it's unfolding with Canada no less, it's quite something, David.

SANGER: It really is, and it does come down to national security, but I'm not sure in the way the president had in mind.

Probably the tightest alliance we have seen has been between the United States and Canada, which does air patrols together to watch out over Russian and Chinese and other air traffic coming over the Pacific and the Atlantic. It's an extremely tight relationship. It's obviously been deeply harmed by the nature of this problem.

It's not just the tariffs; it's the constant escalation and then the constant trolling of the Canadians. And you saw a lot of that this weekend by the president. BOLDUAN: Yeah, and just especially when you think about it. And you mentioned -- you mentioned this in a note that, you know, thinking about this as we head into the anniversary of 9/11, it's just like quite something.

It's great to see you, David.

SANGER: In 9 -- yeah, in 9/11, there was no -- yeah.

BOLDUAN: No. You're --

SANGER: Thank you. Great to see you.

BOLDUAN: You're the best. Thanks, buddy -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you so much, Kate.

Breaking this morning, the attorney representing Lindsay Clancy is sitting down for a one-on-one interview for the first time since the judge declared a mistrial in the case of the Massachusetts mom charged with killing her three children.

Her defense argued she was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she strangled her children and then tried to kill herself. After the trial, Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, lashed out at the one holdout juror who hung the case.

Prosecutors have not yet revealed whether they will retry the case.

Here is some of what Reddington said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ANCHOR, ABC "GOOD MORNING AMERICA": Let's talk about the trial. You said you crushed the prosecution in court, but the final decision was a mistrial -- at least this decision.

KEVIN REDDINGTON, LINDSAY CLANCY'S ATTORNEY: That's bravado, you know. That's after the -- that's after the fact. And, you know, the emotions run high and we'd just finished a six, seven-week trial and -- but --

STEPHANOPOULOS: You regret saying it?

REDDINGTON: No, I don't regret saying it at all. I think the -- I think the defense was very strong, and I think it went in very well. I think I perhaps could have been a little more circumspect dealing with Tim Cruz instead of saying that I crushed him. I could have said that I, you know, did a good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining us now is CNN' Jean Casares and CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.

Jean, what did you make of what you heard? Because we heard a lot from him in the press conference right after where he made those comments about crushing the prosecution. What did you hear?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is -- to me, the headline is that he is willing to talk with the District Attorney Ted Cruz (sic) of Plymouth County, Massachusetts. And he said, "Hopefully we will be able to work something out acceptable to both sides."

I think we have some sound on that. Let's listen to this right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: There is a lot of back-and-forth with the judge about the jury. The final split was 11-1. Was that in favor, as far as you know, of not guilty by reason of insanity?

REDDINGTON: I believe so, yeah.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And what do you make of the one juror who was holding out?

REDDINGTON: You know, again, I, at the end of the case, made statements to the effect that I was upset. And the reason I was upset, I would -- I would defend that individual's right to be a holdout forever. That's part of our judicial system, and I respect that, and I would certainly defend his right to do that.

What I was upset about was after that lengthy trial and the work that everyone put into this case, including these jurors that spent literally almost two months away from their home, their job, their family, where a gentleman had an opinion, not that he was sticking like, you know, the movie "12 Angry Men," but in fact he had agreed, according to the note from the forelady, that he had doubt but he would not apply the law of reasonable doubt as presented by the judge.

[07:45:20]

That's not right, and that's why I was upset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And because of that one juror, a mistrial was declared. And Sara and Joey, for him to say now that he wants it -- will be willing to entertain something with the district attorney. He doesn't want to go have a retrial. That's what he's saying. And when you look at that, that's called a plea deal --

SIDNER: Right.

CASAREZ: -- potentially in this situation. That means potentially a conviction on some level.

SIDNER: Joey, when you hear that -- when you hear the defense saying that and that we know that the jury was 11-1 in the defense's --

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yeah. SIDNER: -- favor from the note that he read from the foreperson, what kind of a deal would you expect to be kind of worked out here? And do you think prosecutors would be leaning towards doing that, judging from what happened with this jury?

JACKSON: Yeah, Sara. So there's a lot of factors that go into, if you're a prosecutor, whether you're going to retry the case.

One of them, of course, is the severity of the case itself, the strength of the evidence, and whether you believe you can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. That is put in question when you have an 11-1. Now, every juror and every jury would be different, but they heard the evidence that any other jury would hear. And so from a prosecutor's perspective, they have to think long and hard whether it would be in the public interest to move forward.

So to your question. If you're in the defense, I think you want to get your client mental health help. That is what she's been clamoring for for the longest of times. This is what we're here for. I need help. Help is not plying me with medication, telling me to take a cocktail of various substances and figure it out. Help is help.

So If I'm the defense, I'd be looking for something. Well, yes, you'll have to accept criminal responsibility on a plea deal, but that would be factored into something that was on the lighter side. But that would provide my client the help she needs to get better one day.

SIDNER: Jean, I know that this was interesting and very unusual that -- and he spoke about it here that he went after that one juror that was a holdout in this case.

Did you hear anything more from him about that and what this might mean for if there were going to be a jury pool?

CASAREZ: He sure backed off, didn't he? He definitely backed off and he said, you know, I would represent that juror for holding firm, but I represent Lindsay Clancy. So I think that he realized maybe what he had done singling out that juror that in in our country we respect jurors, right? And we respect them for what they do. So he definitely backed off on that.

Another thing I found interesting is that he ended it all by basically asking -- pleading Donald Trump to give her a pardon.

Joey, what do you think of that?

JACKSON: I just don't know how it fits into this, right? Just because of the basics --

SIDNER: But you can't pardon someone from a state case.

JACKSON: You cannot, right? Because if you --

CASAREZ: Right.

JACKSON -- think about this, right, let's just talk about the law, right? The law is that in any federal court, of course, that would be possible. But from a state perspective, the state controls what they do --

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON -- and the president would have no authority absent calling the governor to say, hey, would you please pardon, but no real authority to do that.

CASAREZ: And that would be based on a conviction.

SIDNER: That's right, based on if the case goes forward. But if there is a plea deal, that is a completely different thing.

Joey and Jean, thank you for all your reporting and expertise throughout this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, it appears Hunter Biden is looking to cash in on crypto and get some attention doing it. The son of former President Biden posted online seeming to confirm reports that he is launching a meme coin.

And when it comes to the name of the token, it will trade under a ticker with a very clear nod to his infamous laptop that sparked 1,000 memes and became the rallying cry for so many Trump Republicans after the FBI seized it in 2019. On it, messages about his foreign business dealings and nude photos of him doing drugs.

Hunter Biden has recently tried to write off the embarrassing episode as evidence of his previous addiction, yes, but not evidence of any corruption -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Harry and Megan are responding to a new letter from King Charles about the couple's place in royal life. Are they as happy as they look in that photo?

And this is the museum you are looking for. "Star Wars" fans, get ready -- a first look inside the brand new George Lucas Museum.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:54:05]

SIDNER: Number 19 SMU taking on Florida State, but a power surge delayed the game nearly two hours.

CNN's Coy Wire joining me now. I mean, people were electrified using their phones to try and say, hey, get this game going.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Let's get this game going, Sara.

Look, only some of these stadium lights were working, right? The coaches eventually said let's play old school football. There were no coach-to-player helmet communication, no scoreboard, no stadium clock, no play clock, no replay. They did get enough lights working, so essentially, we had football from a few decades ago. Florida State trailed in the fourth, but Ashton Daniels dropped it off

to Samuel Singleton Jr. House call -- tie game at 24. When SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings was lights out, even if the stadium wasn't. Four hundred thirty yards passing, three touchdowns helped set up Nick Reed, who knocks through the game-winning field goal. SMU wins it 27- 24 under most of the lights.

[07:55:10]

And Coco Gauff just keeps adding her name to some pretty impressive history. The 22-year-old rolls past 18 year old Iva Jovic in straight sets and still hasn't dropped a single set at the U.S. Open. Gauff becomes the youngest American woman to reach the quarterfinals of three majors in the same year since Serena Williams did it back in 2003. Next up, number five, Mirra Andreeva.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COCO GAUFF, 2023 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION: The moment doesn't seem as big anymore and that doesn't mean -- I'm very lucky to play -- be here in the quarterfinal. And obviously, I hope to play many more. So I think it's the fine line of appreciating the moment. I think so many people would love to reach a grand slam quarterfinal but also knowing that I put myself in this position so many times that I should almost be used to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Wait till you hear this, Sara. A few days ago, the San Francisco 49ers -- they took in some Aussie rules football in Melbourne after traveling thousands of miles and crossing a whole bunch of time zones for their season opener against the Rams there in Australia. And apparently the International Dateline has 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan in a blender. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLE SHANAHAN, HEAD COACH, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS: When I look at my clock and it says the time, and then I try to see my family's time, and it says the time, but it says yesterday, I don't even get how that's possible. So I feel like I'm in the future.

And then also when we play on our Friday, which I think is a Thursday in the U.S., we're such creatures of habit. So I call today Tuesday -- no wait, sorry. I call today Wednesday, which is the first day we put in a game plan, but I think it's Monday. However, though, it's Sunday in the present. So, like, I'm going to mess that up all week if you guys ask me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: The game is Thursday here in the states, Friday in Australia. Coach Raheem Morris for the Niners, Sara -- he missed his 50th birthday. They took off on a Wednesday. He turned 50 on Thursday. They landed Friday. He said that's alright, I'm just still 49. SIDNER: I have always believed this time travel is possible because of these time zones and he just proved it. See, we can time travel already.

Coy Wire, thank you so much. Appreciate you.

WIRE: You got it.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: He makes a strong case for --

SIDNER: Right?

BOLDUAN: He is not 50 and I think we've now figured out what we're doing for each one of our birthdays.

SIDNER: Agreed.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. A quick trip to Australia, everyone.

All right, let's talk about this. There's new video showing the moments a Ferrari just explodes in flames. It was a multi-car crash at a race in Shanghai. British driver Ollie Millroy -- he was entrapped inside the wreckage, surviving after his rival, Dutch driver, Loek Hartog, jumped out of his vehicle, abandoned his car, and pulled Milroy from the burning vehicle.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Dutch driver Loek Hartog saves rival driver Ollie Millroy from burning car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Oh my God, just seeing it -- an incredible moment.

Millroy spoke out after the terrifying incident and says that he believes he's really only alive because of that man's, Hartog's, quick action. He -- Millroy broke his collarbone, hand, finger, and has a bruised lung. Wow, but he's alive.

So, a galaxy of storytelling coming to life at George Lucas's futuristic new museum. The building itself deserves attention. The "Star Wars" creator and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, co- founded the project together. It is called the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and it opens this month. Yes, there is plenty of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker inside. But maybe then, surprisingly, that galaxy far, far away is just seven percent of everything you're going to find.

There's also Norman Rockwell, Frida Kahlo, comics, recreations of ancient art even. The museum took eight years and around a billion dollars of their own money to build. And John Berman is booking tickets today.

BERMAN: Turns out Jabba the Hutt had a huge Norman Rockwell collection.

BOLDUAN: Really?

BERMAN: Right. So that's how they got it.

BOLDUAN: That's how much I know. I'm like, that's fascinating.

BERMAN: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: Jabba's the good guy in that, right?

BERMAN: Eh? All right.

All right. This morning we are hearing Harry and Meghan were surprised by the letter from King Charles saying they should be treated as private citizens following their return to the United Kingdom.

CNN's Anna Stewart is in London. So is this like surprised in a good way or the bad kind of surprise?

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: I just don't know. And what's the surprise about? Is it about the content of the message, which frankly isn't surprising at all? Nothing new there.

They're not working members of the royal family. They won't use the HRH titles. All that, of course, was laid out by the late Queen years ago.

Perhaps it's a surprise that guidance needed to be given at all, given there's really no change. Or it's to do with the timing. And the timing is quite interesting as we know that the committee that decides on taxpayer-funded security meets this week, perhaps as soon as today. And of course the Sussexes will be hoping for a change in terms of the security, particularly when it comes to protecting their children here in the U.K.