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CNN, MS NOW and Politico to Sue Trump Admin Over White House Access; Venezuelan DoorDash Driver Shot, Injured by ICE Agent in Austin; Patrick Clancy Opens Up About the Loss of His Three Children. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 21, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking just moments ago, news organizations, including CNN, filed suit against the administration over the president's ban on their reporters at the White House. What this ban means for record high diesel prices, rising interest rates, and the war in Iran.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Developing news in Austin, protests erupting after an ICE-involved shooting of a Venezuelan man shot while working for DoorDash. The latest on what's happening there.

And dramatic video of the moment a cargo ship, look at this, collides with a shipping boat, sending the tiny vessel spinning, its crews clinging to whatever they could as water spills over the deck. How this horrifying ordeal ended.

Kate is out this morning. I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right, to breaking news. Diesel prices are at a record, Republicans are trailing in midterm polling, and the president is banning reporters from the White House. And now this morning, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are suing the Trump administration after the president banned them, their reporters, from the White House.

Let's get right to CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Katelyn Polantz, who is with us now on the latest on this lawsuit just filed. Katelyn, what's inside?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: John, it will be a major test of the press freedom and the First Amendment in this country. Though this is a case that is coming from all three news organizations that had their White House credentials revoked very abruptly over the weekend.

CNN, MSNBC NOW, and Politico are all filing this case in the D.C. federal court system. The statement from the news organizations that came out this morning and jointly they are saying together that they are notifying the government of filing the lawsuit, quote, to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports and publishes. Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists' credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference.

There's been a lot of blowback already since Donald Trump said he was banning these three outlets, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, from the White House because he says he didn't like, quote/unquote, negative stories that they were publishing.

But this is the sort of case, John, it is very likely to move fast in the court system. The news outlets are asking for an emergency intervention from a judge here to restore access to the White House. And on top of that, this is the type of case that is already been worked out many times over, and the courts have underlined that news outlets that have access to the White House as part of the White House press pool, they deserve due process before anything would be revoked there, that there has to be a process given to news organizations if they are going to lose their access. That does not appear to have happened here.

And also on top of that, John, there are First Amendment protections that say that the White House, the federal government, can't just decide because they don't like what someone is printing or publishing that they -- that is a reason to revoke a press credential.

So, we are going to see this play out in the courts. But on the books, the law has been very clear since the 1970s that this is something that the White House can't just do arbitrarily, and especially if it's something that the president wants because he just doesn't like the press coverage he's receiving. John?

BERMAN: Yes, the Constitution, it is a pesky thing.

Katelyn Polantz for us in Washington with the latest on this lawsuit, thank you, Katelyn. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter is joining us now. Brian, is there any precedent for a lawsuit like this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: No, because there's no precedent for the President of the United States kicking journalists off of his lawn. I mean, that's basically what this is. We saw it one time in 2018 with our former colleague, Jim Acosta, having his press pass revoked, then Brian Karem in 2019. But those were isolated incidents that were resolved within a matter of days. Now, Trump is going so much further by banning entire newsrooms from the White House grounds.

[07:05:03]

This dispute is one of the administration's highest profile attacks on the press to date, and the implications extend far past just these three banned outlets. This lawsuit that I've been reading is one of the strongest efforts I've seen from any newsroom in the United States to push back on the president's undemocratic actions. So, Sara, let me read from a couple of the lines that I've been scribbling down here that have stood out to me. One says, this ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment, nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles. So, that's how this lawsuit begins. This is a draft complaint because the court will confirm later this morning that it's been basically received in the computer system.

So, this draft complaint also says, quote, the ban inflicts an injury on all news media organizations, which now risk a similar fate if they engage in fact-based independent reporting the president deems insufficiently favorable. And the public at large suffers for however long this unconstitutional ban restricts access to current and complete information about the government.

So, this lawsuit laying out in very plain language that harm is being done on a daily basis, and that's a key argument because CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are asking for immediate emergency action from the court.

Trump wants to silence people and the press because he doesn't like what they're saying. It all seems to be dependent on his mood. The Wall Street Journal reported overnight that Natalie Harp put some video clips in front of him on Friday, and maybe that's why the president announced this ban.

But, ultimately, this is not about CNN or MS NOW or Politico, it's about the press and the public writ large. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. I do want to also talk about CNN just happened to be the White House pool today, and suddenly that was revoked. Can you explain, first of all, the importance of the pool, how it works, and what you make of this?

STELTER: This is very important later today because the president's about to travel to New York for the U.N. General Assembly. Normally, when he travels anywhere, there is a travel pool, and the T.V. cameras are with him wherever he goes. So, those shots of him getting on Marine One, you know, the images of him getting off Air Force One, traveling to meetings, meeting with someone like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, that would normally be filmed, recorded, documented by the T.V. pool.

CNN was scheduled to be the pool today, but now that's no more. And I'm expecting we're going to hear from the other major networks that share in the pool responsibilities that there will be no pool coverage at all.

Yes, there will be other news crews with the president in New York. Yes, there will be other access potentially for other reporters to yell questions to the president, but it's never happened before where a White House has tried to break the pool system this way.

And it really does call into question all the norms, the way that basically people around the world see the president on camera, because that usually comes from the T.V. pool camera. So, Fox News, NBC, CBS, ABC now have to decide how much of a show of solidarity they want to put on because after all, Sara, it happens to be CNN today, but it could be one of them tomorrow.

SIDNER: Right, exactly. And just to give some importance of the pool just recently, they are the ones that caught that video in Turkey of the catering truck. And that whole -- the whole background, if they hadn't have been there, you wouldn't have seen that and understood what exactly happened in Turkey with the president getting off Air Force One, going somewhere else and being flown out in a different aircraft.

Brian Stelter, thank you so much for walking us through this morning. There's a lot more to come. I appreciate it.

All right, also breaking overnight, protests erupting in Austin, Texas after an undocumented DoorDash driver was shot by ICE agents during a traffic stop. What we are learning this morning about that case and the questions that are arising from it.

Also, Patrick Clancy sitting down for his first interview since his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy's mistrial. What he says she told him when he asked if she remembered killing their three children.

And fishermen in Florida make a wild catch, a U.S. military drone. What happened when they reeled this sucker in?

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BERMAN: This morning, a new shooting by ICE is under investigation after a DoorDash driver was shot in Austin, Texas. Now, it's not clear what led to the gunfire. There is some video of the incident.

Well, the man was treated at a hospital and is now in federal custody.

I want to get right to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who is live this morning in Austin for the very latest on what you're learning this morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, we're still trying to piece together the moments that led up to the shooting and what sparked it there at the end of the shooting, which took place just underneath the underpass that you see behind me here in North Austin. There is some suggestion that perhaps there must have been -- there might have been some sort of chase leading up to the shooting, but it is not exactly clear. That's coming from the police chief as well as other local officials here in Austin as they try to piece together what led to all of this.

But an attorney for the family of 28-year-old Wilbur Rafael Garces Perez, who is the man that was shot by an ICE officer here on the streets of Austin, says that he was taken to a hospital, he has been treated, that he had a gunshot wound to the back left shoulder area of his body.

[07:15:15]

And the video from the scene also shows some damage to the passenger side car, as well as two gunshot holes in the rear passenger side window of the car as well.

So, those are some of the details we've been able to piece together from the very initial videos that have emerged from the shooting scene here that took place Sunday afternoon, and then sparked a round of protests last night here in Austin.

An attorney for the family says they are still trying to figure out exactly where this 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant is. The Department of Homeland Security says that he was taken into custody, that he had an order for removal, that he entered the country illegally. The lawyer for the family says that it's not exactly clear what his immigration status is, that his wife has told her that they're unaware of a removal order, an immigration removal order here for him as well.

So, they're trying to piece that together. Officials here in Austin say there needs to be an independent investigation into this shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK WATSON, AUSTIN MAYOR: And I've said many times about how I want to leave while we're dealing with ICE, and that is that I don't want to perpetuate the politics of fear. One of the ways to not perpetuate the politics of fear is to be open, to be as transparent as we can about what's going on, to seek to be involved, and to then be involved in the investigations so that our people will know what's happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Now John, what is really interesting so far in the initial hours since this shooting took place, the Department of Homeland Security statement says that this 28-year-old Venezuelan immigrant had an order for removal. But what is interesting is what the statement does not say. As we have seen in other incidents like this over the course of the last year, there have been very specific details essentially blaming the immigrant for going after or weaponizing a vehicle of some kind to go after the ICE officers here. The initial statement from the Department of Homeland Security is void of any of those kinds of details. They simply say that they are investigating this shooting.

So, it'll be interesting to see what more information they put out or choose to put out here in the hours or days ahead. John?

BERMAN: And we should point out, one notable feature we have seen in shootings like this, whether in Maine or in Houston, which you covered, Ed, is how little we learn ultimately or how little we are told over time here. So, people may need to temper their expectations that there will be revelations here because oftentimes the federal government, at least in this last year, just hasn't told us very much.

Ed Lavandera in Austin this morning, thank you very much.

All right, the murder case against his former wife for killing their three children ended in a mistrial. Now, in Patrick Clancy's first interview since that, what he says about his plans for the future.

And a pro soccer player like mowed down by a grass roller.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: New this morning, for the first time since the murder trial of his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy ended in a mistrial, Patrick Clancy is speaking publicly and doing his first interview. Patrick and his new wife, Rachel, sat for a wide-ranging interview with 60 Minutes last night, opening up about everything, from the case against Lindsay and its impact on their lives, to what Patrick says Lindsay told him moments after she killed their three young children. Clancy's attorney argued she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time. As you know, that trial ultimately ended in a mistrial.

CNN's Jean Casarez is joining me now. What stood out to you in this wide-ranging interview?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, many things. I think one thing we know from the evidence that Cora and Dawson were pronounced dead shortly after that, but Callan, the eight-month-old, had a heartbeat, and he was flown to Boston Children's Hospital. What we didn't know is that Patrick went with him. He was there, and for those next few days, he said he laid with him, he held his hand. Holding his hand, he would write to his other children. He didn't want them forgotten. He thought he could live, and then the unthinkable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK CLANCY, LINDSAY CLANCY'S FORMER HUSBAND: I got to lay down next to him, and he died in my arms.

That night I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live, and I remember just thinking, just give me one. Just give me one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: He also said that he understood anxiety, he understood depression, but postpartum was an area he just did not understand. And after the fact, he spoke with Postpartum International and he spoke with psychologists to try to understand what was happening during that time period, and then he reflected on himself during that time. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time. And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.

ROSS DOUTHAT: Has she ever asked for your forgiveness?

CLANCY: No. But I gave it to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CASAREZ: You know, Sara, during the trial when he was testifying, there came the point that the 911 call was going to be played, and I saw him leave the witness stand. What we didn't know is he was having a panic attack in the back. They had to call an ambulance to the courthouse, Sara. They put him in the ambulance. They wanted to give him medication, and he said, No I just want to get through this. I want to finish this. And that was just about the beginning of when social media online just went at him. And he reflected on that for the first time last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: It's deeply harmful to the legacy of my children. It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health. And it's done real harm to real people, myself included, but also others. It's painful to see, and it makes it difficult to be in public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: He also said that after that he wanted to take his own life, Sara. He said he didn't care if he made it to 35 or not. That next March was Callan's birthday, and so Dawson's birthday. And so he went to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and he lit a candle, and he came out and he just sobbed. And he said, no one cared.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean, we know from his attorney that they said, Look, if you're going to keep making these rumors about him as he's going through this, there may be legal action as well. But hearing his story was striking and really emotional.

Jean, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. I appreciate it.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, President Trump gives a whole new justification now for his planned huge arch in D.C. He claims it will be a top-grade military complex with snipers and drones. What this means for the future of the project.

And some of the biggest names in A.I. getting hit with a big lawsuit. What they're being accused of this morning.

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