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Driver Gets Wedged in Overpass, Escapes With No Serious Injury; Trump Offers Americans $5,000 if GOP Wins Midterms; Day 2 of GOP Convention Begins; Commerce Department Becomes Unlikely Engine of Trump's Election Agenda; Lindsay Clancy's Defense Files Motion to Avoid Retrial. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 10, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- a lot of people asking, how? You see the driver's legs dangling after his car somehow got lodged between concrete beams of an interstate overpass. We're puzzled here as well. And if that wasn't crazy enough, we found out the driver survived this without serious injuries. Amazing.

Atlanta police reportedly said the 21-year-old driver lost control, flipped the car over the median rail of an exit ramp bridge. Still hard to imagine how he possibly ended up there, though. The driver apparently able to get out of the car without help.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Everybody look under your seats, because you get $5,000. You get $5,000. You get $5,000. Maybe, maybe not. That was the president's promise, though, to voters, as long as they keep Republicans in control of Congress. Is that even legal?

Plus, surrounded by water, but nothing to drink. Puerto Rico's crisis is not over. CNN traveled to the island to speak to people who are still paying their water bills, even though the tap is dry.

KEILAR: And 11 frustrated jurors and one defiant holdout. Another juror from the Lindsay Clancy murder trial talks about the one man they say refused to listen to them, even scrolling on his phone during their deliberations. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

SANCHEZ: And just hours from now, President Trump is going to wrap up his two-day road show in Dallas after making a really, really big promise. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROWD cheering)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That was last night at the first-ever Republican Midterm Convention. An offer and a message to Republicans to pretend that he's on the ballot in November. So what is night two going to bring? CNN's Steve Contorno is live at the convention site in Dallas.

Steve, what is the latest there?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, I should point out first that just outside of Dallas, in Arlington, the president is now making an appearance at the Medal of Honor Museum. A somber moment there. One of several that we should see today, they're actually practicing right behind me right now for a 9/11 remembrance that will take place tonight as well.

And then there will be a moment to honor Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist leader who died one year ago shot by a gunman on a campus in Utah. We also expect to hear tonight from Vice President J.D. Vance, from RFK Jr., from the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., as well as from his former Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt.

Just part of a day that follows President Donald Trump's attempts to recast these midterms as a referendum on him. Put him on the ballot, he told his supporters. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot.

(CROWD CHEERING)

TRUMP: I'm on the ballot. Just one more time. Because if we lose, you're going to lose your border. You're going to lose your tax cuts. You're going to lose your safety and security. You're going to lose your wealth.

A vote for any Democrat this year, anywhere in the country, is a vote to let a small and dangerous group of extremists hold our Congress and our country hostage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: So that was his message to the base. And we know the Republicans are nervous about whether or not those voters who have supported Trump in past elections show up for him in this midterm election.

His, what he dangled to non-base voters, the Independents and moderate voters, was that $5,000 check. As you said, Boris, that suggestion that he would give $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans hold the House and the Senate. He didn't say how he would pay for it. Didn't say why he couldn't just do that now since the Republicans own the House and Senate or control the House and Senate at this moment. And certainly, a lot of questions for Republicans in Congress to answer about whether they would even support this and how they would get it to pass through Congress.

But certainly something that we expect him and his supporters to latch on in the coming weeks ahead as they move ahead from this event in Dallas to campaigning in the weeks ahead.

SANCHEZ: We should let you know. We actually have a Republican congressman from Georgia on later this hour. We're going to pose that question to him, whether he supports it or not. Steve Contorno, thank you so much from Dallas. Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's talk more about President Trump's two-day party in Dallas with Dave Wasserman, Senior Editor and Elections Analyst at Cook Political Report.

[14:05:00]

All right, Dave, this Trump dividend, we should note, he's broken promises on big checks before. He's really short on the details on this one, so this could be another false promise of a cash gift. But I wonder, does it matter when it comes to what he's hoping to accomplish just with this promise?

DAVE WASSERMAN, SENIOR EDITOR & ELECTIONS ANALYST, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Right. And stimulus spending didn't help Joe Biden and Democrats save their House majority in 2022. But President Trump said that voters should be able to consider that he's on the ballot, or to pretend that he's on the ballot. And making this election more about Donald Trump, rather than a referendum or a choice between Democrats and Republicans, moves this in a negative direction for Republicans.

Today, Donald Trump is at negative 20 in terms of his net approval in our tracker, at 39-59. Not too many voters haven't made up their mind about Donald Trump. But the generic congressional ballot, the question of would you support a D or an R in your district, Democrats only have about a seven-point lead today at 48-41. What that means is that there are about 11 percent of voters out there who are feeling cross- pressured.

They don't like the job that the president is doing, but they're not yet sold on Democrats. And for Republicans to be putting more attention on themselves is unhelpful when it comes to trying to persuade those voters that Democrats can't be trusted with power in Congress.

KEILAR: Despite his low approval numbers, the president really does seem to think that focusing on him, that there is a payoff, even though, as you're making the point, that that's not really the case here. I wonder if we can zoom in on one particular race, which is Texas, because Trump was stumping for the Senate nominee from his party, Ken Paxton, last night, and he promised that he was going to go back to Texas as many as three times before the election. You have the race as a toss-up, which is pretty extraordinary for Texas. What kind of difference can Trump make in this particular race in Texas? Is it different than what you're talking about more broadly?

WASSERMAN: The hope here for President Trump and Republicans is to close this enthusiasm gap. Now, if there is one Republican candidate who's less popular than Trump in a state where they're running, it's Ken Paxton. And so President Trump has got to turn out more Republicans to vote in these red states in order for his party to keep control of the Senate. But what's happening in Texas right now appears to be a bit of a perfect storm that Republicans are up against.

Not only are Hispanic voters reverting to the levels of support that they used to provide for Democrats, particularly in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, we had a poll on that out at Cook Political today, but also the energy grid. There are frustrations in rural Texas about data centers and the impact that the new transmission lines might have on property rights. There's frustration with the importation of beef that's hurting ranchers, on top of the inflationary concerns and concerns about the war that independent voters in the massive suburbs in Texas feel.

So it's a very close race today, and although Democrats' path to the Senate probably runs more through the Midwest than Texas, the fact we're even talking about a toss-up in Texas tells you everything you need to know about the political climate at the moment.

KEILAR: Yeah. And that the president would be spending as much time as he says he's going to be spending there. Paxton's opponent, James Talarico, told Fox News that he opposes, quote, "trans athletes playing in girls' sports if it endangers safety or fairness." How do you see -- is that something that would bring enough people who are on the fence about Talarico perhaps over to him? I mean, how big are the culture wars playing in this?

WASSERMAN: Republicans have to amp up the culture wars to hold this seat, because if it is about Ken Paxton and his past scandals and his handling of a case in Waco that Democrats are going to be talking a lot about between now and November 3rd, then Talarico has a real chance to win. One of the keys in this race is going to be the third- party vote.

There's a libertarian on the ballot who's currently polling four or five percent in many surveys. That could lower James Talarico's threshold for victory to as low as 48 percent. And for Democrats, it's really hard to get to 50 in Texas. It's a lot easier to get to 48.

The other factor is money. How much is President Trump, in addition to the visits he says he'll make, how much is he going to spend from his super PAC to try and bail out Ken Paxton? And it could be a more than $100 million proposition. And for Republicans, it's really a cost- benefit analysis, because there are so many other cheaper states where they need to win to defend their majority.

KEILAR: Yeah. Dave, thank you so much. Great to have you.

[14:10:00]

WASSERMAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still to come, less than two months out from the midterms, and the Trump administration is still looking to reshape the country's election systems. After the break, how the president is using a particular department to push forward in this new tactic.

Plus, one of the 12 jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial speaking out about the person who kept the jury from reaching a verdict, that 12th juror.

And then later, CNN is in Puerto Rico as much of the island deals with a historic drought, cutting off access to water for hundreds of thousands of people. We have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:19]

SANCHEZ: We're learning new details today on how the Commerce Department, led by Secretary Howard Lutnick, is becoming a key player in President Trump's efforts to reshape the nation's election systems. Sources tell CNN that Commerce officials are working quietly behind the scenes to pressure the post office to adopt Trump's new strict rules on mail-in ballots, and Trump allies are pressing Lutnick to use the Commerce Department's sweeping authority over supply chains to ban certain voting machines.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is tracking this story. So Gabe, the Commerce Department typically has a fairly limited role when it comes to elections. How is this playing out?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so you said that they typically have that limited role, and yet, what our reporting found was that Secretary Lutnick and his department have really been in the center of some key initiatives that the administration is either discussing or has even pursued when it comes to its election agenda. Take, for example, mail-in ballots.

You mentioned those strict new rules from the postal service that any day now we're expecting the Supreme Court to rule on. Well, those tie back to a Trump executive order in March that the president signed in the Oval Office with Secretary Lutnick at his side.

And sources tell me that it was actually Lutnick and his team who were the architects of that order and the directives that it included, directives that now are creating a lot of concern and confusion among election officials who are saying, we cannot implement this ahead of the midterms. We'll see what the Supreme Court decides on that.

There's also this Census Bureau analysis that came out last month that found more than 20,000 non-citizens had voted in 2020. Well, sources tell me that it was the Commerce Department who had inserted a group of partisan analysts from a Trump-aligned think tank who ultimately produced that report that raised a lot of red flags among career experts in the Census Bureau.

And those same analysts are now working on the 2030 Census, as we know that the administration has tried or is trying to overhaul that count. And then there is this issue of voting machines. And Boris, this is something to keep your eye on, because this may be the next shoe to drop.

We know that Trump allies, including some senior administration officials, have been pressuring Secretary Lutnick to take action on voting machines ahead of the midterms, because the feeling is that he can effectively ban many of them by declaring them a national security threat because, as the Head of Commerce, he has some authority over supply chains, and those machines have parts that were made in China.

And as part of our reporting, we actually reviewed these emails dating back to last summer that show that these two conservative activists who have long pushed for voting machines to be banned actually spoke with White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, as well as other senior administration officials, about potentially banning machines. That didn't go anywhere last year.

But on their podcast, last month, those same two activists said we have just met for more than two hours with Secretary Lutnick and he tells us he's going to be getting on it. So we will see what happens with that. To be clear, we posed quite a few questions about this to the White House and to the Department of Commerce. We did not hear back from either.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Gabe Cohen, thank you so much for that reporting.

So after the break, a juror in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder case breaks his silence about the lone holdout who prompted the mistrial, what he says that holdout was doing during deliberations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:31]

KEILAR: This just in, the lawyer for Lindsay Clancy has just filed a motion to avoid a retrial. Kevin Reddington asking a judge to enter a finding of not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility for murder charges that Clancy faced after strangling her three young children.

Clancy's lawyers say she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Last week, her nearly two-month long trial ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury.

SANCHEZ: Now, for the first time, one of the three men who sat on that jury is speaking publicly. Nick Dargie talked about the lone holdout, another man who stood in the way of a unanimous decision not to hold Clancy criminally responsible for the killings. Listen to what Dargie said the holdout juror did to one of the murder weapons during deliberations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICK DARGIE, JUROR NO. 10, LINDSAY CLANCY MURDER TRIAL: He took the exercise band out of the bag, grabbed an empty water bottle, and tied the band around the water bottle and pulled it.

AARON KATERSKY, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, ABC NEWS: Is that a mimic of how she killed the children?

DARGIE: Yeah, I assume so, yeah.

KATERSKY: What did you think when he did that?

DARGIE: I was shocked. It didn't make any sense to me. We're not in here to play detective or it's not a game of clue. Like, this is serious.

KATERSKY: That's a band that was used to strangle a child.

DARGIE: It's disgusting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Jean Casarez is with us now. Jean, tell us more about what this juror revealed.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are more things. First of all, I just want to mention, and these are facts here, it's interesting that the evidence was in the jury deliberation room.

[14:25:00]

And that is for them to be able to look at, use how they want, in regard to this juror. And we can't hear from him, so we don't know the other side to this. But what he did, and he said that it was horrible for him to do that, but that is the prime element for the prosecution for first-degree murder was extreme atrocity or cruelty.

And he also said that he didn't think he responded to any -- didn't say anything when he did that, but he couldn't be sure. Maybe that juror did say something as he was doing sort of that demonstrative exhibit in the jury deliberation room, and that can be done by jurors.

But he also said that this juror was scrolling on his phone, that was just not participating at all, wasn't sure if either side had proven their case and he refused to answer questions. Here's a little bit more from that juror.

But also, Kevin Reddington spoke to Anderson Cooper. And this is all about Patrick Clancy now, because there's been so much attention with him. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARGIE: The 9-1-1 call, I'll never forget that. That was frightening. I've never heard something like that, like a scream like that come out of someone's mouth. It's just -- it's horrifying.

KATERSKY: Patrick Clancy?

DARGIE: Right.

KATERSKY: You know now the Internet is awash in theories that he had something to do with the deaths of his kids.

DARGIE: Right. Yeah. I think if everyone heard that 9-1-1 call, they would change their mind.

KEVIN REDDINGTON, LINDSAY CLANCY'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It was -- you know, I've been doing this for 50 years. It was one of the most gut- wrenching, horrific things I've ever listened to. It was just horrific. And I think, as I say, that speaks volumes for what this man went through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And the next hearing is going to be September 29th. There should be information in that hearing. And this is the motion that was just filed by the defense. And what they're asking for is the judge on the 29th to find a verdict of not guilty, reason for it, they say that the prosecution had a duty to show that she knew right from wrong, she appreciated criminality.

And every single expert witness, whether it's the prosecution or the defense, said that there was mental illness. The defense, psychosis, prosecution experts, mental disease or defect. So there is no way that prosecutors could say beyond a reasonable doubt that she actually knew what she was doing was wrong.

KEILAR: All right. Jean, thank you so much for that important update on this case.

Day two of the Republican Midterm Convention is about to get underway. But there's still plenty to talk about from night one. We're going to break it all down with Georgia Republican Congressman, Buddy Carter, who is skipping the convention, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)