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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 05, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles.

Coming up, "The Story Is" mistrial. Lindsay Clancy's murder trial collapses without a verdict. We'll talk live to a reporter who was inside the courtroom.

"The Story Is" mail in voting. President Trump is trying to restrict it, but in North Carolina, ballots have already gone out. We'll take you there.

And "The Story Is" China's robot workforce. Is this a preview of what's to come in the U.S.? CNN on the ground in Beijing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles. "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: The top story is the stunning collapse of the trial that has gripped the nation. A mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy case after jurors, or at least some jurors, deadlocked. Prosecutors have not yet said whether they plan to retry Clancy, who faced three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of her three young children. That most severe charge requires trial by jury in Massachusetts. The jurors told the judge Friday that they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after some seven days of deliberation.

Clancy's lawyers did not deny that she killed her kids, but they argue that she should not be held criminally responsible for her actions because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis an extreme mental illness. Seen as Jean Casarez is in Plymouth, Massachusetts for us tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE WILLIAM SULLIVAN, MASSACHUSETTS SUPERIOR COURT: At this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial.

JEAN CASEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER): Lindsay Clancy's triple murder trial coming to a dramatic ending on Friday, a mistrial.

KEVIN REDDINGTON, LINDSAY CLANCY'S ATTORNEY: This is not a time for gloating, bragging, expressing victory. It's a very sad case.

CASEREZ (voice-over): But not before a few last ditch efforts by the defense, including filing an emergency appeal to the Massachusetts highest court. But that appeal was denied after six and a half days of deliberation and several notes to the judge from the jurors saying they were unable to come to a unanimous verdict. The last note from the jury read simply, "It is with a heavy heart that we report we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to."

Earlier in the day, when the court reconvened, the defense asked the judge to question the lone holdout juror.

REDDINGTON: It clearly and unequivocally indicates that they are basically 11 to one, and this person will not apply reasonable doubt to the evidence to return a not guilty verdict.

CASEREZ (voice-over): The judge denied the request. The defense then pushed for a forceful reminder to jurors to follow the law, drawing visible exasperation from the judge.

SULLIVAN: What do you want me to do?

REDDINGTON: I want to --

SULLIVAN: Get a brass band.

CASEREZ (voice-over): Later on outside court, in an unusual moment, the defense spoke out about that one juror who was a holdout.

REDDINGTON: They know that they were robbed by one man for whatever his agenda was who stole seven weeks of the life of these other jurors that were so attentive, so beautiful, so wonderful, and listen to this evidence. And you could see how defeated they were sitting there.

CASEREZ (voice-over): Clancy is accused of strangling her young children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month- old Callan in January of 2023. She does not deny that she killed her three children but pleaded not guilty. The 36-year-old's defense team argued she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

REDDINGTON: She loved her children. They were her life. This young lady is not guilty of the killing of her children because she was suffering from a disease and defect.

CASEREZ (voice-over): The prosecution acknowledged Clancy had a mental disease or defect, but claimed the former labor and delivery nurse deliberately killed her children with premeditation and extreme cruelty and that she was not in a state of psychosis at the time of the murders.

TIM CRUZ, PLYMOUTH COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This case is not about a health care system or about how women are treated in it. Those are all important issues. This case, however, was about Lindsay Clancy and what she did on January 24, 2023 and the cruel and calculated killing of three innocents.

CASEREZ (voice-over): The focus now turns to what happens next. Prosecutors saying they will decide whether to retry the case against Clancy at a future court hearing.

CRUZ: I do know that one of the questions that are out here right now regarding retrials, I will let you know that there'll be no decisions made today regarding that. I'm going to be meeting with our team, and we will address this case further at the appropriate time in the context of an official court proceeding.

CASEREZ: There is a status hearing set in this case for September 29th in the courthouse right behind me.

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The defense is going to have a motion for consideration, and we may learn from the prosecution if they actually are going to try this case again. In Plymouth, Massachusetts for CNN, I'm Jean Caserez.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining me now live is Boston Herald reporter Colleen Cronin, who was inside the courtroom for the case. Colleen, welcome back to "The Story Is."

COLLEEN CRONIN, REPORTER, BOSTON HERALD: Thank you so much for having me.

MICHAELSON: I start with the most basic of questions. What was it like inside?

CRONIN: It was really tense today. This was six and a half, day seven of deliberations. This has been a multi-week trial. It started at the end of July, and I think that everybody wanted it to end some way or another. I think the jury, both parties, they were looking for an ending, and there was certainly attention. You guys just played the clip, but there was a heated exchange between judge Sullivan and attorney Reddington at one point.

Reddington threw, I think, as much as he could, towards changing this from being a mistrial, and it -- but it was a tense day, and people were waiting for some sort of decision even though a non-decision is really what we got.

MICHAELSON: So the cameras in the courtroom are not allowed to shoot the jury, but you were able to watch the jury. So describe the body language of what was going on with them.

CRONIN: Earlier in the day when the judge had given them an instruction to follow along with his -- the letter of the law and what he had instructed them before, there were some jurors who were emphatically shaking their head. Yes. Yes. I will follow the law. I will follow the law. And then when a couple hours later, he declared a mistrial, one juror in particular just threw her head into her hands and seemed overwhelmed, upset. This has been a really long journey for them, and you could see it on their faces. And I felt in particular her just reaction of hunching herself over, putting her head in her hands. That that that felt very emblematic of what was going on in the courtroom.

MICHAELSON: Could you tell who the one holdout was? Were they hostile or uncomfortable towards any one person in particular?

CRONIN: I didn't see anything. Attorney Reddington had mentioned or used, male pronouns for the holdout juror, and there were only three men on the jury on the deliberating jury. So I didn't notice anything in particular about any of those jurors, but they were not in the courtroom for very long. It was pretty quick after they were told that it was declared a mistrial, that they were allowed to go back into the Liberation Room, and judge Sullivan said he'd meet them in there and might have a brief conversation with them. And we still also don't have a list from the courthouse of who actually was on this jury.

MICHAELSON: And that's supposed to come out about two weeks from now to try to give them some privacy while all of this attention is happening. Meanwhile, you describe this as the saddest case you've ever covered. Why is that? And walk us through the emotions that you felt just being there.

CRONIN: I mean, three children are dead. Three children are dead, and that's a horrible thing and killed by their mother. She's not disputing that she killed them. What we had to hear at the beginning of this case, the evidence about what that night was like in January 2023 was horrific. The 911 call that Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband made that night, which was not -- is not public, but I heard in the courtroom, it was one of the worst things I've ever heard. And you had his family sometimes in the courtroom. You had her and her family always in the courtroom.

It was just always charged throughout especially the beginning of the trial, but anytime the children came up, that night came up. So it's the saddest thing I've ever covered, and I wonder if it might be the saddest thing I ever cover in my career going forward.

MICHAELSON: So all that emotion, is being felt by the country, by the jurors, by everybody involved. Do you think that that may or may not impact the prosecutor's decision whether to go forward? The fact that this was such an exhausting experience that there may be some deals so that this doesn't go forward. What's the sense you're getting there?

CRONIN: I don't want to speculate about what's going on in District Attorney Cruz's head who has -- he has the ultimate decision.

[00:10:00]

He said today that he's never been swayed in all his years as a prosecutor, as the top prosecutor, by outside forces when making a decision. And although he said he was still thinking about things, he did say, that he said this was a "Cruel and calculated crime." And he believed -- he said that he believed that it was the right decision to push for first degree murder charges in this case. So we'll see what happens. Based on his own words, he's saying that he's not going to let other outside opinions, drive what happens. That doesn't mean that he won't change his mind. That doesn't mean we might have a very different trial if we have a trial at all.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. Of course, we're all going to keep an eye on that, but we really appreciate all of your hard work and checking in with us throughout the process as well. Boston Herald reporter Colleen Cronin, thanks so much for being with us.

The politics now, President Trump weighed in on the Clancy trial for the first time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While we were here with you, a mistrial was declared in the Lindsay Clancy trial. Have you been following that trial? Have you watched any of it?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's hard not to. It's on television so much. It's hard not to follow it. I followed it pretty much, but it's a shame. It's a horrible tragedy. It's a horrible tragedy. I assume there's going to be another trial. It's a terrible situation. Look she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can't be worse. But you'll find out what the price to pay is. There'll be a price. It's going to be mental institution or jail or something. But I guess they're going to go through another trial. It's too bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Now to the president's plan to restrict mail in voting, a federal judge has blocked new U.S. postal service rules which are aimed at carrying out the president's recent executive order. The preliminary injunction keeps the rules on hold while the Trump administration appeals. The rules would require state and local officials to meet certain conditions before mailing ballots, including uploading lists of mail in voters to a new postal service portal.

But all this is a little late for North Carolina because that state has already begun mailing ballots to voters for the midterm election. Some people already have their ballots. Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the new rules to take effect. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Charlotte, North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we are seeing on the ground is confusion. Election officials who are honestly some of the most educated people that I've ever had to deal with, who always have the answer to a question when I ask it, don't know how to answer my questions about this right now because there's just an incredible amount of uncertainty.

Voters are confused because they're afraid this is going to impact their ballots if they vote by mail. And, of course, they don't really know what this means for them. There's a lot included in this rule that many different election officials and attorneys general in several states in the United States who filed a lawsuit, including the one here in North Carolina, say just simply cannot feasibly be implemented without pushing this election into chaos. The administration disagrees and says that they believe that it can go into effect, and now we have to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with that.

But currently, right now, ballots that are being sent out, and there were about 49,000 requests that were being adhered to and sent out just in the state of North Carolina today that will continue as those more requests come in as they send them out through mid-October. That's a lot of ballots to already go out and then change the rules in the middle of the game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Dianne Gallagher. Let's bring in our political panel. Rebecca Sun is a journalist and cultural critic and former senior editor at The Hollywood Reporter. And Elisha Krauss is a conservative commentator and an opinion writer for The Washington Examiner.

Ladies, welcome back to "The Story Is." Good to have you on the political panel for the first time, Rebecca.

REBECCA SUN, JOURNALIST AND CULTURAL CRITIC: Thank you, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Elisha, as our returning champion, let's start with you.

ELISHA KRAUSS, OP-ED WRITER, THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Yay.

MICHAELSON: This idea of -- they've already sent out 50,000 ballots. I mean, this whole fight, isn't it kind of moot what President Trump is doing?

KRAUSS: I don't know that it was mute. I'd actually blame the post office or the postal service in this situation. The Trump administration issued this edict, what, back in March? And so the USPS had time to do it, but I don't know. I went to post office today, and they don't doing things swiftly and with ease is not one of the things or attention details, not one of the things that they do that well, much like the DMV here in California. And so I think that the Trump administration could argue, we gave the states, we gave the postal service time to implement these rules, even more time than the Biden administration gave a lot of these states back in 2020 during the COVID pandemic for their mail in ballot process. And I think that that could be a good argument that they make.

MICHAELSON: But do these rules even make sense? Is there a need for this, Rebecca?

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SUN: I think that this is disenfranchisement. I think that this idea that there has been widespread voter fraud with mail in ballots is a fallacy, there has still yet to be really credible evidence that mail in voting doesn't work. And so this is in line with attempts from the Trump administration to curtail voting for the midterms. It's very logically that's what this is all about.

MICHAELSON: Disenfranchise is a strong word.

KRAUSS: I think it's more of Trump delivering on a promise that he made. As Republican who thinks that we should have harsher voter registration and follow-up laws, I think, obviously, how many illegal immigrants are actually voting? Are they changing elections? No. You could argue ballot harvesting shifts elections more than any illegal that have been -- has been able to illegally vote by mail in ballot. But I think that hit it's him delivering on a promise that he made to the people that voted for him to tamp down on voter fraud that I think any part any person should agree with. It doesn't matter.

MICHAELSON: Always trying to, but doesn't sound like he's going to get his way.

KRAUSS: No. We'll see. I mean, it we -- they have, like, until September 8th where Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has said that they have the lower court has did -- and then whether or not the supreme court will take it up?

MICHAELSON: Well, and it's complicated in in North Carolina where people already have started to turn in their ballots. Meanwhile, big part of this midterms, is about a reaction to what's happening in Iran right now. And President Trump was asked about that at the White House today. Just yesterday, we showed JD Vance described it as not a war. President Trump doubling down on that today. Here's how he described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing. I can understand what he's saying. It's a military conflict, but it's very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Rebecca, small potatoes?

SUN: Man, I winced. I think I'm not even related to any of the 18 service members who've been killed in that conflict. And I just think if you have your commander and chief saying that, well, that was just small potatoes, that's why they lost their lives, it's not becoming. And, honestly, I just find it deeply sad.

MICHAELSON: Your thoughts, I mean, is that is that the best way to describe what's going on here?

KRAUSS: Yeah. I mean, as a military, brat and long military wreck in my family, I would partly agree with that, but I also think it's just -- it's kind of Trumpism. And I think, actually, Trump has shown more dedication and support of military family members, including Gold Star family members than the Obama administration or Biden administration ever did. I had college friends that were killed in action in Afghanistan that never once got a phone call whose widows never once got a phone call or a letter or a note or a visit from anybody in the Obama administration. Melania and Donald are very respectful of them. I think, actually, what we should call small potatoes or the attempts that past administrations, right and left, have done and have utterly failed at shutting down the Iranian regime.

This is a waiting game. The mullahs are waiting it out, and they are hoping that they can just wait it through 2028 when they think a democrat will win because the CCP in Russia is helping them with propaganda there as well. And statistically, Democrat might win after Republican President. That tends to happen. That that they think that they can wait this out and see what will happen. I think we need to be pushing forward more militarily. I think that we need to be pushing them forward more with sanctions. And if the Iranian people rise up again, we need to figure out a way to support them.

MICHAELSON: Can't they wait it out forever? I mean, this is literally where they live.

KRAUSS: Yeah. Because they don't care about their people.

MICHAELSON: And they view this as a religious fundamentalist thing?

KRAUSS: They can do the same thing that the Chinese and the North Korean regime do as well because they do not give a what about the humanity of their own people.

MICHAELSON: But isn't that part the reason that those other presidents didn't get involved in this conflict? Because they knew that this could --

KRAUSS: I don't know because you had the Obama administration on one hand being like, we're sanctions, and also, oh, here's a 777 or 747 with piles of cash.

MICHAELSON: But didn't President Trump, Rebecca, promise that this would be something that would go on for a few weeks?

SUN: Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's just like on again, off again. And so I think that that's part of you talked about, President Trump keeping his promises. I think that this is a real area of concern. He's talked about ceasefires, and then there's another airstrike. And honestly, he campaigned on no new wars. And if you say, well, this isn't a war. It's a military conflict. The concern, as you've described it, sounds like it's a lot more than small potatoes. It sounds like an existential threat.

KRAUSS: It is. Iran is and has been an existential threat to the United States.

MICHAELSON: And this is a war?

KRAUSS: And I think I don't know. It's like, what is a war anymore? Because I'm of the millennial generation that, like, our wars lasted 10 plus years. And I think nowadays, with the technology that we have, with the thing with the diplomacy that we have, with the tech that we have, there is all different types of definitions of what war is. But I do think that there is a problem specifically in the White House between maybe the kind of isolationist like the Vance team and then others like the Rubio and I think even the President a little bit himself that thinks that more needs to be done here.

[00:20:00]

MICHAELSON: Well, there's only one group that can declare war, and that's congress. And the Trump administration has not want to go to Congress and ask them to declare war on this because this whole operation is unpopular. So the reason they're not saying that it's a war is because if it was a war, they would have to go get authorization for a war. And if Congress didn't give them authorization, they wouldn't be able to keep fighting it.

KRAUSS: Oh, if we want to talk about authorization, we can go back to the Obama administration.

MICHAELSON: The way they didn't do it with Libya. They didn't do it with Libya either.

KRAUSS: With Libya.

MICHAELSON: No. That's happened for a lot of --

KRAUSS: With drone strikes.

MICHAELSON: With a lot of presidents too. I mean, that's been the way that they get around this sort of thing.

KRAUSS: They love those executive orders.

MICHAELSON: Yes. But the constitution was pretty clear when it comes to that word war. All right. You guys are going to be back, including conversation about the Lindsay Clancy trial, which I know is the biggest conversation in the country right now. Also still ahead.

We showed you this live as breaking news last night. The good news, two men rescued after spending nine days trapped in a flooded tunnel in Nepal. Well, now there is a race against time to reach others who may also be alive. To Nepal, next.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: We're tracking a developing situation in Bolivia. Authorities say at least 58 people are injured along with an unconfirmed number of possible fatalities after an explosion at a military base. Video just in the CNN shows a sudden massive explosion sending smoke into the air, people running for shelter. All this happened on the outskirts of the capital of La Paz. The Deputy Defense Ministry says that pyrotechnic material was being stored at that base, but the cause is not yet known. The vast majority of those injured are civilians along with six military personnel. We'll bring you more details as we get them.

It has now been 10 days since catastrophic flooding at the border between Nepal and China. But hope is still alive that more survivors could be found in tunnels blocked by water and debris. Hopes have been raised by Friday's miraculous rescue of two men who were trapped in a tunnel for nine days. Since then, Nepal's army says rescuers have dug about 700 meters farther and established a link with another tunnel. They're using rafts and boats to move in while simultaneously pumping water out.

Hundreds of people remain missing in the network of flooded tunnels, which are part of hydropower projects in Nepal. A brother of one of the survivors says he never lost hope during the ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMIR MAHARJAN, BROTHER OF TUNNEL SURVIVOR (translated): Deep down, I always believed that in some way they were safe. Looking at the location and the surroundings there, I felt there must be somewhere they could stay safely. I had visited the place myself, so that gave me confidence and hope that they were safe somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Nepal's army says civilian and military aircraft rescued more than 50 people on Friday. UN says more than 40,000 people in Nepal need immediate humanitarian relief. The organization is appealing worldwide for close to $50 million in aid. The death toll from the disaster now stands at nearly 1,400 people with more than 5,000 people still unaccounted for in both Nepal and China.

Earlier, CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with tunnel disaster expert and Arnold Dix. He described what it takes to survive when someone was trapped for so long deep underground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD DIX, DISASTER EXPERT: Well, we think that -- well, I like to think that up in the power station itself in the, let's say, the Goldilocks Zone, that's where their offices were. So if you imagine inside that mountain that you were looking for, there's an 11 story building. And right at the top above the generators and turbines and everything, there's an area with their offices. Well, that would include, like a little kitchenette. Maybe they'll have their lunches with them. There might be some, at least, rations there. Water's not a problem. We've got water coming everywhere, as you know that's the least of our problems. And we know that human beings can survive a long time if they've got access to water.

But I think there's something else to this too, and that is the Nepali people have this rare combination of incredible generosity and kindness, and yet very tenacious. And my mind goes to, for example, the Gurkhas who are incredibly famous. So the will to survive here is extraordinary in these harsh conditions. So it's that hope, that's that unwillingness to die prematurely that'll be making these men stay alive down there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: It is extraordinary. Now to the war in Ukraine. We are waiting to see when two U.S. special envoys will try to jump start the efforts to reach peace. A U.S. official confirmed to CNN that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will soon be headed to Moscow and Kyiv. Russia's state news agency says the trip could begin as soon as Friday. Ukraine's President says Kyiv will put its strikes on Russia on hold during the talks, and he urged Moscow to do the same.

The peace efforts have been stalled since last winter before U.S. attention turned to Iran. President Trump now says the main problem is bad blood between the two leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have an idea for peace. Look. I said late wars. Most of them were supposed to be, in my opinion, more difficult than Russia-Ukraine. It's a personality problem in Russia-Ukraine. President Zelenskyy and President Putin, they truly hate each other. Do you know what hate is? They have serious hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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MICHAELSON: It's now Saturday morning in Germany, and Saturday marks the alternative for Germany party's final campaign rally one day before voters head to the polls. The far right party, known as the AfD, is leading in the polls, and a strong showing could reshape the political landscape in this eastern German state.

An AfD victory could also make history, potentially putting the party in position to lead a state government for the first time in postwar Germany. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Despite the captivating grin, some believe this might be Germany's most dangerous man. Ulrich Siegmund, candidate for the right wing alternative for Germany or AfD, could soon become the first far right State Governor in Germany since World War II.

The other parties have lost voters trust, Siegmund tells me at a campaign rally. For decades, they did exactly the opposite of what they promised. I caught up with Ulrich Sigmund on the sidelines of an AfD event in Dessau in the East German state Saxony-Anhalt ahead of this weekend's election that Berlin's political establishment is watching with trepidation.

The AfD is miles ahead of all other parties in pre-election polls. The top issue by far, folks here tell me, immigration. I asked Virina whether there's a bandwidth issues or if immigration tops everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (translated): I think right now with the children, for me and the children, yes, it's immigration, she says.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The AfD openly called for a mass deportation of undocumented foreigners and foreigners who committed crimes, a policy AfD Chairwoman Alice Weidel controversially called remigration, cheered on at a 2025 campaign event by the self-declared AfD supporter, Elon Musk.

The federal government in Berlin ultimately decides immigration policy, but many Germans fear electing a far right State Governor could seriously damage the whole country's reputation.

FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (translated): I can't imagine international investors turning up for groundbreaking ceremonies with an AfD State Governor, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently says.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): At his rally, Siegmund tries to brush off those concerns.

ULRICH SIEGMUND, LEAD CANDIDATE, AFD SAXONY-ANHALT (translated): There are many countries where people are seeking positive change with conservative parties that put national interests first and don't believe they have to save the world, he says.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Here in the former communist East, Siegmund portrays himself as the common man's man, often riding an old East German scooter or displaying communist era Trabant cars at events. But while his appeal is local, he makes no secret that the AfD's foreign policy agenda aims to change both Germany and Europe, weakening the EU in its current form, seeking a return to close ties with Russia while stopping all support for Ukraine.

SIEGMUND (translated): We hope that starting from Saxony-Anhalt, we can usher in the beginning of the end of this crazy policy for all of Germany. Only about 2.1 million people live in all of Saxony-Anhalt, one of the least populous states in Germany, but one that's drawing global attention ahead of Sunday's vote. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Dessau, Germany.

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MICHAELSON: Still ahead, more on our top story, a dramatic end to the controversial murder trial of Massachusetts mother, Lindsay Clancy. New reaction coming in next.

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MICHAELSON: A judge has declared a mistrial in the triple murder case against Massachusetts' mother, Lindsay Clancy, after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The jury deliberated for about 38 hours over seven days, weighing Clancy's criminal responsibility for the killing of her three young kids back in 2023. Clancy's defense maintains she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time. The defense says the jury was split 11 to one in their favor. The prosecution says they will decide soon whether to retry the case. Clancy's trial has stirred significant public debate and the mistrial ruling drawing strong reactions from those outside the courthouse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very sad for her, for the family. I was hoping that that she would be found not guilty and that she could get the help that she needs and she could move on with her life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've really thought we were going to have a verdict or at least an exchange of the juror or something.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she deserves jail time. I believe that she's a murderer, and while I would love better mental health services for everyone, not just moms, but everyone, I think that's a separate issue. It's too late for these three kids, and I think she deserves life in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Our panel is back, Rebecca Sun and Elisha Krauss. Rebecca, let's start with you. You have been a chronicler of pop culture for so many years. This case has really transcended the league -- legal world.

[00:40:00]

It has become a phenomenon. Millions and millions of people watching, weighing in. Why do you think that is?

SUN: I mean, I think it's because it's so personally resonant with so many people. I am in a very large group chat full of moms who work in the entertainment business who have been riveted to this case, but I think that ultimately it just touches us all at home. This is something that could happen to any woman who gives birth. The luck of the draw, the statistics for postpartum psychosis are very low, but it's horrifying.

MICHAELSON: One or two in 1,000.

SUN: Right. Exactly. But also just that feeling of being so overwhelmed with kids and a partner who's maybe not there all the time. I think that it's just striking a chord because everybody has families.

MICHAELSON: How would you have voted if you were on the jury?

SUN: Not guilty.

MICHAELSON: Not guilty by reason of insanity. Your thoughts?

KRAUSS: Pregnancy is not a disease, and motherhood is not -- does not create mental illness or make you into a murderer. I think that it's very wrong, and people on the right have been doing this. And, unfortunately, women who I claim to be feminists, have been doing this on the left. It's like trying to equate hormonal imbalance into, oh, therefore, women are not capable of making decisions or therefore, women are just making excuses. This is an argument that you saw some people on the right saying postpartum depression is real. Postpartum psychosis is real. It is much, much more rare.

I think that she was telling us, trying to sell the jury a crock of crap because this voice that she heard in her head talking about the psychosis. You had doctors on the stand that were saying she just brought this up for the first time. This woman brutally murdered three innocent children. And to say that we, any mother, could see herself in this woman is actually, I think, really damaging to women and really damaging for our culture that should be more supportive of women being able to have it all and have the support that they need from their community, from their employers, from their families, from their friends.

I actually think so many people let her down here from the doctors to her husband to her own mother, and I mean everyone. And it is a broad I think it is it is broadly disturbing and sad and embarrassing for our society that we have people out there lauding her as some type of shero.

MICHAELSON: So you would have voted guilty of murder?

KRAUSS: No, I think I would have acquitted because I think based on the law there, it is unfortunately a horrible situation where I think that she does have some type of mental illness. But I think that she actually knew exactly what she was doing and that she knew that it was wrong.

MICHAELSON: Your thoughts on that?

SUN: I mean so I actually agree with you on the -- how we I think we would have voted the same way.

KRAUSS: Well, you said not guilty.

SUN: I'm sorry. I misspoke then.

MICHAELSON: Yeah.

SUN: I think we would have voted the same way. I think she was really failed by the system. I also think and this was not what the jury was asked to adjudicate. She was the only one on the stand. So you're only talking about her culpability or her non-culpability. There's a lot more that wasn't being prosecuted that I feel like it would be irresponsible for me to go further, but I think that I don't think she had a supportive partner in many senses of the word. And I just, I don't know I just feel a lot of compassion for her. What I see is a literally and figuratively broken woman, and I think she mourns the loss of those three kids more than anyone else, to be honest.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. I mean, the reaction has been so different based off of gender. Men and women...

KRAUSS: And the conspiracies.

MICHAELSON: It seems to see this very, very differently. Matt Walsh, Conservative Commentator says that she should be executed. Others a lot of men have not reacted the same way. Why do you think that is?

KRAUSS: Why? Well, I think that, unfortunately, the algorithm is going to give you things that piss you off and create more clickbait. And I think that some people right left and center from TikTok to X to Instagram, to podcasts are creating things that they think will get them clicks and likes. And I don't -- I would actually question whether or not they really believe it, but that can be another conversation for another day. I think it goes to Rebecca her point, though, about broadly in medicine, women have not been studied. There is more money spent every single year on erectile dysfunction medication research than there is perimenopause or postpartum depression or endometriosis or infertility issues that affect many more women than ED does men in the country.

So even as a conservative, super pro-life home birth hippie who would never dream of murdering my children, I can understand some of the outrage and some of the people being like, hey guys, maybe we should pay attention to mental health and women's issues a little bit more in society.

MICHAELSON: But a lot of your friends on the right, have really come out against this. Tomi Lahren said, you think these liberal women would still be Clancy superfans if she was a MAGA supporter?

KRAUSS: Probably not.

MICHAELSON: I mean, it seems like there's a split on --

KRAUSS: She had murdered little puppy.

MICHAELSON: -- conservatives, but some conservatives that have seen this as a political issue. What's going on there?

[00:45:00]

KRAUSS: I think that, some people see everything as politics, and I see everything as like a mirror to humanity, and this mirror to humanity is really scary when we have men and women lauding her once again as hero.

SUN: Who is lauding her? I'm so sorry.

KRAUSS: You have women out there. They're like taking pictures. They're giving her heart signs. They're saying that she should be not guilty. They're saying that it's like --

MICHAELSON: They're showing up with pink shirts.

KRAUSS: They're showing up with pink shirts. I mean. OK. So you are right. On TikTok, on Twitter, I mean, everywhere. SUN: You're right that people there's a disturbing tendency in our culture to gamify everything, to turn it into a sport. Team this and team that. And so I definitely disavow anybody who is lionizing, at worst, a murderer, a child murderer, and at best a woman who just had I don't know. Who had a psychotic break, right? But I don't know. I just think that I love what the Colleen, the reporter said. This was a sad trial. This is an abject tragedy. Nobody won. Nobody will ever win in this case ever. And that's what it is. It's not a game.

MICHAELSON: And it is sad that we have people that cheer on Luigi Mangione.

KRAUSS: Same. Yep.

MICHAELSON: Right. That that have turned him into a hero when he --

KRAUSS: The stabber in Times Square.

MICHAELSON: when he kill somebody -- right. And so some of that in our culture, we got to look deep at what's going on. We've at that point, we're people are --

KRAUSS: We're glorifying violence, and we're trying to make the perpetrator the victim.

MICHAELSON: Exactly. Rebecca, Elisha thank you. You're sticking around to talk more politics in our next hour.

Also ahead here on "The Story Is," we're going to continue to cover the news of the day, including this extraordinary story in China. This is what is going on there. AI driving robots. See how dark it is? That's because they don't need lights on because they don't have humans working there. Mike Valerio takes us inside. It's an amazing story. Still ahead.

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[00:50:00]

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MICHAELSON: President Trump has promised new manufacturing jobs will come to America, but China is racing towards a future in which manufacturing may not need human workers at all. CNN's Mike Valerio reports from Beijing.

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MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When you walk through one of China's dark factories, car deck because the working robots don't need lights, you see the glow of some of China's most advanced electric vehicles and a vision of the future factory here now.

VALERIO: Which parts of this factory can operate with very little lighting and very few people? YANG HUI, FACTORY DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER (translated): The welding shop where we are now, if we built this, say, 10 years ago, there would have been around 700 people. But after introducing some automation and applications of artificial intelligence, we have fewer than 200 people.

VALERIO (voice-over): Here at Zeekr, a high end Chinese electric vehicle maker, robots do a 100 percent of the welding. Humans are still needed for a few key tasks, including parts of final assembly, maintenance, and quality control.

VALERIO: This is what it's like to walk through the factory during the busiest time of day. You can see over here hundreds of robots that are working, but in my field of view, fewer than a half dozen people in this section.

VALERIO (voice-over): In China, where a shrinking aging population is eroding the cheap labor advantage that helped make Beijing a global manufacturing powerhouse, automation here could offer a glimpse of what's ahead for American workers.

ZHANG KUN, FACTORY TECHNICAL QUALITY MANAGER: I think it's only some of the relatively low level labor that will be replaced, but there will be an increasing need for people who can control these machines and control these programs.

VALERIO (voice-over): China now has more than 2 million industrial robots working in its factories according to the latest data, roughly five times America's total.

VALERIO: President Trump has said that he wants to rebuild American manufacturing and also protect U.S. automakers against Chinese competition. But here's the thing, can America even compete when China is rethinking the future of the factory, one that needs far fewer people or perhaps in some areas needs no people at all?

JOSTEIN HUAGE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: It's going to be hard to compete. The pace and scale of China's industrialization, China's manufacturing boom is honestly unprecedented in human history.

VALERIO: So I'm thinking of the automotive workers back home in the United States, and they may watch this story and be somewhat concerned about their jobs, that they could be automated in the future. What would you say to anybody like that watching this story?

HUL (translated): We will raise the overall compensation and income level of people working at individual workstations.

VALERIO (voice-over): For now, what's happening inside China's dark factories could illuminate where manufacturing is headed next and whether American workers can find their place in that future. Mike Valerio, CNN, Ningbo, China.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MICHAELSON: Amazing story. In our next hour, of "The Story Is" an emergency injunction seeks to stop groundbreaking on the President's 250 foot triumphal arch as the Trump administration plows ahead so called beautification projects across the nation's capital.

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MICHAELSON: Welcome back. A live picture right outside our window at the Warner Bros lot here in Burbank, California and this is good news for them. Movie feeders have made a big comeback. U.S. and Canadian box offices ranked in $4.6 billion, their best summer since the COVID pandemic left theaters looking like ghost towns. Ticket sales up 26 percent from last year fueled by blockbusters such as the Odyssey and IMAX and sequels like the latest Spider Man and Toy Story. Indie horror flicks like Backrooms and Obsession also popular. Analysts say the domestic box office could top $10 billion this year, which is awesome for the industry here in Southern California.

Thanks so much for watching the first hour of "The Story Is." The next hour starts right now.