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Three Dead in Seattle Food Festival Shooting; Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is Interviewed about Iran; Opening Statements in the Trial of a Mom Accused of Killing Three Kids; France Wildfires Rage On. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: Issues. But this is really an attempt to kind of, I think, you know, if the smartphone is the computer made for the internet era, what is the computer for the A.I. era? And that's what these companies are trying to figure out now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Lisa Eadicicco, some pretty cool stuff here. Let me know if you're ever recording me behind my back.

EADICICCO: Yes.

BERMAN: Appreciate it.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEW CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, gunfire, panic and fear after gunfire erupts at a packed food festival in Seattle. Three people now dead, others injured, including a toddler, and a manhunt underway for one suspect after the mass shooting. We are live on the scene with the very latest there.

Also new this morning, new reporting that President Trump is facing growing concern from his closest advisors about the escalating war in Iran and the shrinking supply of U.S. air defense stocks.

And wildfires are raging across Europe and exhausted crews are struggling to get them under control. And the soaring temperatures are about to make the situation even more difficult. We're live with the very latest on those historic fires.

I'm Sara Sidner, with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news that we've been following this morning, so many questions still, after a deadly mass shooting that happened just steps away from Seattle's iconic Space Needle. Police are searching for one suspect still after the gunfire that erupted in the middle of a popular summertime food festival. There's video showing the moment that these visitors, these festival goers, started to run for their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shooting. Shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shooting? Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

Oh, right here. Get down, get down, get down, get down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Authorities say that three people are now dead from this. Four others injured, including a two-year-old child. Theres's emergency radio traffic that captures the response in real time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anyone have a small child tourniquet size?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) tourniquet?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For a small child.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Small child arm tourniquet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And as that was playing out, then there were scenes inside the gift shop of the space -- the Space Needle's gift shop. People trying to hide, find some safety. All clearly terrified.

Let me play more of what we're hearing now from eyewitnesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was about -- I was about 20 feet or less maybe from the -- one of the people who was shot. And I couldn't really clearly see what was going on. But I ran toward the gunfire. And there was a, I would say at least two dozen shots. There was multiple -- it sounded like an automatic weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Police say two people were shooting at each other, and the festival goers caught in the crossfire. One person is in custody and there is another still at large. And that is where the search is now today.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is live on the scene in Seattle. What are you hearing now as the sun is now starting to rise there?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Kate, we're starting to see people coming in to this area where the festival was with empty carts to take out what I can only assume is their belongings. We just saw a woman seconds ago walk past me with her decorations from I can only imagine one of these stalls behind me. This, of course, was all abandoned yesterday around 6 p.m. when those shots first started. The Space Needle right behind me here. This is the direction that people ran towards to get some safety in that video that you just played.

It's a very sad morning here. It's an eerie location to be at, Kate, as police still looking for that other person involved in the shooting. But they do say that there is no risk for the community at large at this time.

What we do know is those three people are dead with one person dying overnight in hospital, one person still in critical condition.

Now, Kate, this is an area where, as you mentioned before, 12 million people come here every year to have fun, to enjoy, to have the joyous time with their family, or as tourists or locals. It is the fear that an event like this puts in a community is irreparable. It's so difficult to come back from this.

Now we are hearing a little bit more about how some of these people felt in that very moment. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw families, kids, everyone just like running out of the -- out of the fair. And he had told me, like, just run, just run. Active shooter. Someone was yelling "active shooter." I jumped the fence quickly and I ran. I just kept running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:05]

JONES: Now police is, today, turning their attention to that person in custody. We are expecting, Kate, to have an initial hearing. Now, this is not a hearing where we'll see any charges. This is just to show some information -- to present some information to the judge. And then authorities will have 72 hours to decide whether or not they will press charges.

Again, we don't know if this person is cooperating in the search for the other person involved in the shooting, but all of that could provide a little bit more clarity to what exactly transpired here last night.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and why, as people are now dead.

Thank you so much, Julia.

John.

BERMAN: We've heard from several eyewitnesses over the last several hours, including from one woman who was listening to live music on the grounds when the shots rang out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTICE BEITZEL, WITNESS: We were sitting in an open area where there was a concert happening on stage. And we were eating just behind one of the food vendors, their area. And I heard the gunshots. There were about six or seven, multiple gunshots. And then there was -- it almost sounded like an automatic going off. And all of a sudden I just saw a sea of people running towards us.

We -- one of my friends, she was like a deer in the headlights and she just sat there. So, I immediately picked her up and another friend and pulled them back to hide behind -- there was a beer garden behind us, so we hid behind that and -- and everybody got down. There were people hiding behind the food vendors tents and people hiding behind trees, leaving their items behind. And the park pretty much cleared out as soon as possible. Loads of people were just being pushed to the ends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Sounds terrifying.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, John.

For the third day in a row, no strikes from either side after nearly two straight weeks of nightly bombing in Iran. And this comes as sources tell CNN that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, has specifically raised concerns about the dwindling supply of U.S. air defense munitions.

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. He is a top Dem on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Thank you for being here early this morning for us.

Let me ask you about the situation here in Iran. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, this weekend insisted that the U.S. military has, quote, "everything it needs" in the war with Iran. Is that how you assess things?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Absolutely not. I think that the reports that you've received, and others have received, are clear that we are running out of munitions. You know, you just can't keep bombing. You can't bomb your way out of this. And the truth, Sara, is, you know, the president came in for regime change. That's what he talked about before this bombing. They bombed all of the regime. They thought it was over. And now they continue to bomb and bomb and bomb, thinking that Iran was Venezuela. It's not Venezuela. And they had -- and so therefore the bombing is not what's going to get out of this mess that they should not have started in the first place. And it takes time to, you know, to reproduce all of the artilleries that we've already utilized. You know, sometimes it takes three to four or five years. Others are looking at this. So, yes, I think that the reports from the news sources are probably correct that, you know, this is almost like a rope-a-dope situation where you can't just keep throwing punches, throwing punches, throwing punches, and you know you can't knock anybody out.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about a couple of polls that our Harry Enten brought out today showing the American public, if you look at these polls, still trust Donald Trump and the GOP to deal with Iran more than they trust Democrats, by about a couple of points, even though -- there's the poll there -- even though the vast majority of people do not support the war that Trump entered into. Are you surprised that people seem to now trust Trump and the GOP more than Dems?

MEEKS: I think that if you go through the polls and as we get closer to the elections, 70 percent of the people know and disapprove of this war of choice by Donald Trump. And that will be one of the reasons why they go to the voting polls to make sure that Republicans and Donald Trump does not have a complete walkthrough.

Look, the American people are frustrated because they want Donald Trump stopped, and they want to make sure that things the cost of living goes down. And everything that Donald Trump has done, because of the Strait of Hormuz, for example, gas prices are up, as well as food prices are going up. And so they're frustrated as a result.

And the way that we change this, to make sure that we can bring prices down, because I know who Democrats are. If you look at what we've done when we were in charge, we were able to reduce student loans.

[09:10:05]

That's going up now. Student loans are going up. We had child poverty rates going down. That's going back up under Trump. We were able to bring health care to the American people. And I can go on and on and on of what we've done when we're in charge. The time that we've seen the American public going crazy is the two times that Donald Trump has been in the office. And that's why I believe that when you go across America, we will win the House back and probably will win the Senate back in November. And then we can begin to make those changes that are necessary that the American people are looking for.

SIDNER: We will see in November, which is fast approaching.

Let me ask you about something that was in today, this morning, just this morning, "Politico" reporting on a private donor Zoom call where progressive Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul el-Sayed, says, if he wins the primary and ultimately wins the seat, it's a clear message from voters to push the progressive agenda forward, saying, and here's the quote, "you put one ogre on a pike, and then everyone else gets the message, and all of a sudden starts to sound a lot different."

When you consider this and what's happening in the Democratic Party with progressives winning some of the primaries, going after Democrats, Democrat-held areas, what do you make of his comments there?

MEEKS: Look, again, it shows that they're not focused on what they should be focused on. The focus should be on the Republicans, the Republican Congress and Donald Trump. Look, we wouldn't be in this mess if a number of individuals, you know, Bernie Sanders people, et cetera, 100 percent behind Hillary Clinton, for example. We would not have those three Supreme Court justices that are causing us problems. We would have had our own. It is about electing Democrats that can beat Republicans so that we can be in the majority, so that we can get things done.

But to have this internal fight, to make it as if it is Democrats that are causing this problem is not real. And so, the focus is, and the focus should be, that we need to make sure that we are turning districts that are currently held by Republicans to Democrats. It is what will make a difference. It is when we can have the policies that we need to make American lives better, to bring down the cost of living, to make sure that, you know, the rise of food prices and make sure that the Education Department is back in state. You look at USAID. You look at the DOGE situation with the jobs that was lost in that regard, because of the Republicans, not because of the Democrats.

So, had people voted for Kamala Harris, for example, none of this would be happening. And this is what we talked about when others wanted an interparty fight and divided us up. And some said you should not vote for Kamala, et cetera. When you do that, you get this result.

And so, we've got to change that and make sure that we are putting the focus on the Republicans who are endangering the lives and causing misery throughout the world.

SIDNER: Congressman Gregory Meeks, thank you so much for coming on this morning. Appreciate you.

Kate

BOLDUAN: Very soon, a murder trial begins. A mother accused of killing, strangling to death, her three children. Opening statements very soon.

Thousands forced to evacuate as unprecedented wildfires are raging across Europe still. And the hotter temperatures on the way could make things only worse.

And NYPD drones are now helping to try and stop kids from this dangerous and frankly stupid trend, subway surfing. How police are now trying to crack down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:19]

BOLDUAN: Moments from now, opening statements begin in the trial of a mother accused of murdering her three young children. Lindsay Clancy is her name. She has pleaded not guilty, though the court details of this tragedy are not really in dispute. In 2023, Clancy strangled her children, who were just eight months, three years and five years old, and then tried to kill herself by jumping out a second story window. She was left partially paralyzed. Her attorney now argues that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness, so she was not responsible for her actions. Opening statements begin just today.

CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson is here.

As Jean Casarez was kind of telling me last, I think it was last hour, she was like, there's so much to this trial. And it's -- I mean it's tragedy upon tragedy all around.

What are just the challenges associated with an insanity defense or what they're presenting here for the prosecution and for the defense?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. Yes, Kate, good morning to you.

Very tragic.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

JACKSON: A five-year-old, three-year-old, eight-month-old. She jumps out the window, gets paralyzed. Husband comes back, sees all of this. Unbelievable.

Challenges are plenty, OK. But I think in this case, if ever there was a defense, it was going to be proffered like the insanity defense, right, which generally is unsuccessful. I think you have a shot. Why?

I think, first of all, we know that the prosecution has the burden, and they're arguing that it was intentional, premeditated. And certainly, based upon that intent and deliberation, et cetera, it was extremely cruel and atrocious.

[09:20:00]

In order to do that, though, whenever you look at criminal cases, you look at someone's intention. What were they thinking? What's their mental state?

Well, if there's a break in that mental state, shifting to the defense, because you can't appreciate right from wrong, and you don't know the nature and consequences of your actions, it switches the dynamic.

Why do they have a shot here? A number of reasons. Number one, there's medical records aplenty with respect to her treatment, with regard to how she was responding to that treatment, with regard to how or if her doctors were treating her appropriately. There's a civil lawsuit in that regard, which says they were not doing so and didn't take adequate care.

What else? These medications. Thirteen medications, which is like a cocktail just waiting to explode, which the defense will argue led to these hallucinations, which they will continue to argue, led to the voice, which they will continue to say, led her to do what she did. And so, I think they have a viable argument.

The husband's going to be the first one to testify. He's the one who saw it all, Kate. And I think, you know, he plays for both sides. If you're from a prosecution's perspective, yes, it's true, she said, hey, will you leave? I want something to eat, right? I need you to go to the store. And so that's what prosecutors will say was the deliberation. That was the intent.

But I think, from a, you know, defense perspective, they'll say, not so fast for all the reasons that I mentioned to you. And it will be up to the jury to make the assessment of whether she knew right from wrong. Prosecution maintains the burden of proving that she was sane and that she did it.

BOLDUAN: You mentioned a civil lawsuit. So, it's a -- she brought a -- has brought a civil lawsuit against her medical providers. A series of doctors, like a dozen different prescriptions, drugs she was prescribed. And she says in this lawsuit, it only made things get worse after the birth of her third child. But it's -- this is -- these are two separate things, a civil lawsuit and a criminal trial. How -- can the civil lawsuit play a big role in this criminal trial?

JACKSON: So, yes and no, OK. I think it's going to play a huge role. But having said that, right, let's understand that a civil case is different.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

JACKSON: Civil case will be adjudicated in a civil courtroom, at a different time, under a different standard. Is it more likely than not that her doctors did not act reasonably and professionally, and that they deviated from a standard of care? That's different from a criminal case where is she guilty beyond a reasonable doubt or was she insane?

OK, now, having said that, when the husband takes the stand, defense certainly -- prosecutors will lay out the digital timeline and she left and right and when she left and you came back and she directed you out. Yes. But from a cross-examination from the defense, right, sir, it's fair to say that you were not happy with her medical providers, is that right? Yes. And, in fact, you were not happy because you didn't feel they examined her appropriately. Is that true? And that they didn't take adequate time with her, right? And they prescribed all this medication, correct? And the medication led her to do all of these different things, right? Yes.

So, I think it bleeds into it that way. And understand also, Kate, that a number of people with regard to the civil case will be testifying in this proceeding. So, it's a separate case to be sure --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

JACKSON: But the factually and the fact that it could have led to her having all these ailments and maladies and these hallucinations, it's going to play huge. And finally, it will be a battle of the experts.

BOLDUAN: That's right.

JACKSON: We're going to hear a lot of expert testimony here. We'll see which one the jury is persuaded by.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And then laying it all on the jury to work through. My goodness.

JACKSON: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Joey. Thank you so much.

JACKSON: Always. Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And you can watch the live coverage of this trial starting this morning on CNN All Access. It's streaming on cnn.com.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.

New this morning, it may take months to put out the wildfires raging across southwestern France. That's the word from French officials just moments ago. It comes as firefighters brace for scorching hot temperatures to return, which will make an already difficult job even harder.

We're also getting a stunning birds-eye view of the wildfires in Spain. Aerial video showing the fires burning at night like something out of a film. Terrifying.

CNN's Melissa Bell is in one of the hardest hit areas of southwest France.

What can you tell us is happening this morning? We see you are in a patch of completely burned out area.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Where we are right now, Sara, is the sort of southeastern tip of this monster fire. It's been pushed over the course of the weekend this way and that, forcing it way beyond its original epicenter and closest now to the suburbs. The outer suburbs, the satellite towns of Bordeaux itself, only about 15 to 20 kilometers from the city are we now.

And what we've been watching here now are these water bombing operations. So, the flames had been coming out of these trees over here. And we've been watching these planes dump water over them over the course of the last hour, following the firefighters in the desperate fight against what in to -- for this battle against these flames.

[09:25:09]

And it has been a losing ones.

I just want to show you what's happening over here, because this is what is happening all over France right now, all over this part of France, and, Gironde, over here. This is a part of the forest. This is a part of the forest that had been extinguished. And as you see, the flame has just picked up again as I was speaking to you.

And this is not the most active part of the front of -- that the firefighters are battling, but just what is left behind once the plane, once the fire has finished causing its ravages. And again, that surface is absolutely enormous.

So, that is what the firefighters, 2,500 of them, are battling right now all across this vast area, with the help of civilians, with the help of the military. For the time being, it is a battle that is being lost. And you can see why. The conditions are such. The ground is so dry. The vegetation in this part of the world, so highly flammable that once it started, it's just very, very difficult to stop. And it's not been helped by the weather conditions, not just the wind, but the fact that the heat is now back. We've got another heat wave this week. And that's going to be more trouble for firefighters here in France, more trouble for them in Spain. They've been battling those monstrous fires to the west of Madrid and in the east of the country as well, with about 60,000 people there also evacuated from their homes. On top of the 220,000 here in the Gironde region of France.

And when you look at a map of Europe this lunchtime, it's astonishing to see just how many countries are battling wildfires after this summer of record temperatures and drought conditions, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, you really just gave us a snapshot of what they're dealing with because once they think they've put a fire out, all of a sudden these hot spots exist and reignite things. They have to go back and forth. And now authorities are saying this could take months to extinguish.

Melissa Bell, thank you for your reporting, and please stay safe out there.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, scary video as powerful winds just rip -- just take a look at it -- multi-story scaffolding off a high-rise skyscraper. We've got that coming up.

And also the next big technological breakthrough. What is the Mouthpad. That's ahead.

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