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Lindsay Clancy Trial Continues; Republican Senators Drop Opposition To Todd Blanche Nomination; New Iran Talks?; Interview With State Sen. Marcus Riccelli (D-WA); Washington State Fires. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired August 03, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Heartbreaking devastation in Washington state, tens of thousands of people evacuated, as wildfires destroy hundreds of homes, climate change supercharging the conditions for nightmare fires.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN HOST: Pulling the plug. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says he is rescinding the controversial anti-weaponization fund. And now two key Republican senators are backing down from their opposition to his confirmation.

And a CNN exclusive: creative combat, how the Pentagon is asking troops for -- quote -- "unconventional ideas" for punishing Iran.

We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: We are beginning with breaking news on the wildfire emergency in Washington state. Just minutes from now, Washington's governor is expected to give an update, as CNN is learning that officials in the Spokane area have been chasing reports of several missing people.

This hour, no injuries or deaths, though, are known. Crews have been racing to contain three major fires that are burning out of control in the eastern part of the state, the fires forcing nearly 65,000 families to flee their homes since Saturday, and some people have recorded the terrifying moments as they fled to safety.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy crap.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hot. There's a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, they're turning around. Oh, Jesus.

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KEILAR: That near Spokane.

Today we're getting a clearer picture of what is just catastrophic devastation. According to officials, more than 700 homes have been destroyed by this, some survivors returning back to their neighborhoods to find nothing but their chimneys still standing.

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ARIC FRANK, WILDFIRES SURVIVORS: Everything just turned black. It was like someone flipped the lights off. It's just stuff. So I don't think I'm going to rebuild here, because I don't ever want to have to relive a fire coming up this hill again.

BOBBI ATWOOD, WILDFIRE SURVIVOR: Well, it all happened very quickly. When I got word of the fire, I was just up the road at the Walmart, and I had to rush home and started getting my animals gathered up in crates. And, within 30 minutes, it had moved well over a mile.

My son and his wife and their two young children live in a mobile home or lived in a mobile home on my property. And they lost their dog, Evie. And I lost my dog, Diamond, and my little daughter lost her kitty cat, Bubbles. And I lost Henny Penny, my chicken.

It's hard, but I'm thankful that my children and my grandchildren all made it out of the property.

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KEILAR: Here in the coming hours, there's hope that fire crews can make progress against these fires, wind conditions expected to remain calmer today, but still officials are fearing the fires will keep burning for weeks; 7,000 acres have been scorched so far.

And, earlier, Spokane's mayor told CNN the current wildfires are -- quote -- "clearly our worst natural disaster in our history." The entire state of Washington is said to be battling its worst fire season in more than 30 years -- Brian.

ABEL: And we are now joined by the state senator in Washington who represents Spokane, Marcus Riccelli.

And, Senator, thank you so much for your time.

Can you just tell us through your eyes what it's like there right now?

STATE SEN. MARCUS RICCELLI (D-WA): I mean, it's a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of devastation.

The community, I think, is wanting to move to recovery and rebuilding, and yet the fires, we're struggling to contain them. And so there's a constant state of concern.

And very grateful for all the first responders that are doing just incredible work right now around the clock and for all the cooperation at many levels of government.

ABEL: Yes, we know those first responders are not resting, they themselves working through very stressful situations.

It's also my understanding, Senator, that you yourself had to evacuate. Walk us through what that experience was like.

RICCELLI: Yes, around 3:00 on Saturday, I was monitoring things, and we were at level two, and we got the level three evacuation notice, gathered some things.

My family thankfully was not up on the Five Mile Prairie. But -- so I gathered a bunch of stuff, gathered our cat Zoey, hopped in the car. There was long lines. Unfortunately, where we are, there's only four ways up, four ways down.

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So there was a lot of traffic to try and get off where we were at. And thankful just to get off the hill with a number of items. I'm at my in-laws' place right now, where we thought we were good, and now we're at a level two evacuation since 2:00 a.m. in the morning, so we have been working through that.

So it's impacting a lot of people. One of my colleagues in the state legislature lost her home. So we know there's just a lot of devastation out there. And people are anxious to help, but we got to get this thing under control.

ABEL: I know that you haven't been back yet, and I'm sure that you are anxious to get there and see how your home is. And you're showcasing to -- just what it is to lean on loved ones and your support system.

Also, Senator, there's been no injuries or deaths that have been confirmed. There are reports of law enforcement tracking down missing persons reports, though. What's the expectation of whether zero injuries or deaths will hold?

RICCELLI: I mean, we always have that hope.

And I think if folks are concerned, they're not locating something, somebody -- we're asking them to call Crime Check here in Spokane and see if we need to move forward with missing persons reports. But, at this time, there are no reports of deaths, and that is clearly amazing.

Hopefully, we can keep that throughout. With the amount of devastation, it's just unbelievable.

ABEL: It is certainly remarkable, when we take a look at these images here and what you all are experiencing there on the ground.

Washington's governor says he expects the state will be able to secure short-term FEMA aid. He said that he talked with President Trump on Sunday. RICCELLI: Yes.

ABEL: What's your understanding of what that timeline will look like and what that aid will look like?

RICCELLI: Yes, well, I'm very pleased.

I was with the governor as he made the request to the FEMA Region 10 folks. And very pleased to say, in short order, they came back and are granting the request for the immediate needs, things such as food support. There's a whole bunch of other assistance that could be provided.

So, the next step is a more longer-term process to get the long-term recovery pieces put in place. I'm very hopeful for that. We had a flood on the other side of the state earlier where we worked really closely with FEMA.

We're working -- there are no red and blue colors when it comes to this. The community's coming together. All we see is fire devastation, and so working with a lot of our colleague. I know I was with Republican Representative Congressman Baumgartner and Democratic set U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell yesterday as a part of this as well.

There's a full commitment to get every dollar of need back to our community.

ABEL: State Senator Marcus Riccelli, our thoughts are certainly with your community. Thank you for joining us -- Brianna.

KEILAR: We're also tracking some new developments in the war with Iran.

President Trump saying today that Iranian leadership is unbelievably duplicitous after initially announcing new negotiations with the regime. Over the weekend, Trump said he called off a massive attack to allow for new talks to begin today. Instead, Tehran insists it is negotiating with Oman to establish a temporary route for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Here in the next half-hour, President Trump is expected to hold an executive order signing at the White House, and we will bring you any updates on Iran if it comes up during that event.

Still to come: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche just formally rescinded the DOJ's controversial anti-weaponization fund, and now two key Republican holdouts say they will back his nomination. We will talk about that.

Plus, we're following key testimony in the Lindsay Clancy trial, as multiple doctors who treated Clancy and her three children, who she is accused of murdering, are called to the stand.

And then later: new bystander video surrounding the deadly shooting at an In-N-Out restaurant in Idaho, what that footage shows.

We will have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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KEILAR: There's now been a breakthrough to advance Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general out of committee and to the full Senate.

The two Republicans who are blocking it now say they look forward to advancing it after getting a written document that purportedly rescinds the president's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. It also limits the Trump tax immunity provision that Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn took issue with.

Blanche posting the document Sunday night, saying on X -- quote -- "My team and I have met with committee members and senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions. We have enjoyed good faith discussions, and, as a result, issue the following order, an update with regard to the may IRS settlement."

Let's discuss now with former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori.

I actually heard you stifle laughter as I was reading that. So, then I ask you this question. As you're looking at this agreement, do you see it as a real agreement, or do you see it as a fig leaf to get his nomination through?

ANKUSH KHARDORI, SENIOR WRITER, POLITICO: It is a fig leaf to get his nomination through.

Here -- there are multiple problems with this. First of all, whether or not the -- quote, unquote -- "fund" is dead is not really the main issue here. The government and the Justice Department can still make payouts to these January 6 defendants by settling claims under the federal Tort Claims Act.

Hundreds of January 6 defendants have filed or said that they will file these claims. That could potentially be done outside of public view and without judicial oversight. The only way to prevent that from happening is to pass a law, for Congress to pass a law from preventing it from happening, disbursement of taxpayer funds to these folks.

That could be done at any time. Cornyn contemplated at one point and for some reason backed off. Second, I would say is, I don't understand really why anyone would take Todd Blanche's word on any of this. He testified under oath to the Judiciary Committee that he feels constitutionally obligated to do what the president tells him to do.

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That could include reversing himself in precisely this situation. And last, but not least, we don't have to speculate about this. We are here precisely because Todd Blanche will sign his name to anything that the president tells him to, including the settlement of Trump's personal lawsuit against the IRS. KEILAR: So you are you kind of -- are you scoffing sort of at the

idea that the -- they would require Todd Blanche to give assurances anyway?

Because that's what this whole back-and-forth has been. They wanted assurances. He was withholding them to the degree that they wanted. Would he give them on the tax, the IRS audit, the tax deal bit? You're saying the whole thing is just kind of...

KHARDORI: Kabuki.

KEILAR: Kabuki.

KHARDORI: Like classic Washington Kabuki.

I mean, if they wanted to put up a show of force against the fund, they could have done many other more aggressive things to do it. I think they want to go on their vacations at the end of this week. Congress is famous for not missing their vacations.

And the weird thing about this has been, A, Cornyn has not been asking for that much, right? It is easy as signing Blanche's name to a piece of paper, and yet still the administration could not get this over the finish line. And still the record is not clear to those of us who have been following this.

And I find it all sort of emblematic with the sort of character of the Justice Department under Trump sort of 2.0, which is sort of rank incompetence, in addition to all the abuses of authority. They can't even paper a settlement or a rescission of a settlement correctly. So I would not trust anything that's on paper.

KEILAR: OK, well, let's talk about what's on paper nonetheless. Last night's order on this IRS audit piece of the original agreement says the measure -- quote -- "applies by its terms only retroactively" and that it applies only to the named parties in the lawsuit, which were referenced in the agreement.

I wonder if that is significant, only because the way it was written, there were questions about whether this would be future tax audits that Trump and his family members were essentially immunized from. This statement is trying to say, no, it's only retroactive. What do you see there?

KHARDORI: This is another thing where the they're trying to sort of suggest that this is all very clear, when it wasn't clear. It wasn't clear whether it would be retroactive or prospective, and it was simply not the case that the immunity provision was limited only to the parties of the suit.

The provision came contained very expansive language about affiliates and related parties and so on. But even with the limitation, right, it still applies to Trump's family members, right? This is a provision and grant of immunity that never should have been provided by the Justice Department, let alone a Justice Department headed up by Trump's personal former lawyer. KEILAR: To listen to these Republicans, I think John Cornyn

specifically, he said, I'm not the only Republican who's having issues with these particular issues we're discussing here if this were to go to the full Senate.

The question will be is, is this, this agreement that has now been reached, going to meet that threshold that perhaps those other Republicans that may be on the fence about Todd Blanche, is it going to be OK for them? What do you expect?

KHARDORI: You know, this is a big, consequential question, because I think, on the one hand, those senators -- I'm thinking about Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, who's up this year, and Bill Cassidy, who's leaving the Senate this year, I think have wanted Cornyn to sort of lead the way on this, despite what I regard as an insufficient opposition.

On the other hand, those three could tank this on the floor, right? And Collins is up for reelection, and the big political attack on her is that she's a Trump enabler. Murkowski is going to be up in 2028. That's going to be faster than we think.

And as for Senator Cassidy, I mean, it was just on this network yesterday that RFK Jr. made a complete fool out of him again for voting to confirm him. So I don't know if -- would he like to see a repeat of that? I hope not.

So it's an open question to me whether three of them or potentially others will still balk at this. They shouldn't just satisfy themselves that this is over. It's not.

KEILAR: All right, we will be looking for those folks.

Ankush, thank you so much for taking us through that.

Next: A Massachusetts mother on trial for murder says she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three young children. And, today, jurors are hearing from the doctors who treated Lindsay Clancy after the killings. That key testimony is ahead.

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ABEL: We are following key testimony in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mom accused of murdering her three children.

Moments ago, jurors heard from a psychiatrist who treated Clancy in the days after the killings. The testimony could be key in helping the jury decide whether Clancy intentionally killed her children, as the prosecution claims, or if she was suffering postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness, as the defense contends.

CNN's Randi Kaye is filing this case for us and is joining us now.

And, Randi, jurors just heard from medical staff, including a psychiatrist who treated Clancy in those days after the killings. What did we hear from that psychiatrist?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly.

We're hearing a lot about her mental health and her physical health in the days after her suicide attempt and the killings of her three children. Lindsay Clancy, what we understand from one of the doctors who testified, that would be Dr. Kelly McDonough, she said that she had a thoracic spine injury.

She didn't see a head injury, but she did have some superficial wounds to her wrists and her neck as well. We also heard from that psychiatrist you mentioned, and listen to some of her testimony.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did a mental status examination of her while you were doing this evaluation about her decision-making capacity, correct?

DR. SEJAL SHAH, PSYCHIATRIST: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it's fair to say, under mood, you listed OK?

SHAH: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That you listed her thought process as organized, goal-directed. Is that correct?

SHAH: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You asked her if she was having hallucinations or delusions, and she -- other than those initial ones the first day, she denied those?

SHAH: During my evaluation, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she also denied suicidal intent and homicidal intent, correct?

SHAH: Yes.

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KAYE: And the reason this testimony is so key is because the issue here is, did Lindsay Clancy understand right from wrong? Is she criminally responsible for killing her children, or was she mentally ill at the time?

And that's what they're trying to figure out, and that's why they're trying to talk with certainly hear from all of these mental health experts and doctors to who assessed her in those days following the suicide attempt and the killings of her children, so they can understand where she was mentally. ABEL: And, Randi, before today, back on Friday, jurors took a trip to

the Clancy home. What were they shown? What was the purpose of that trip?

KAYE: Yes, this was a really important moment for the jury. They left the courtroom. They went to the house in Duxbury, Massachusetts. They spent about 40 minutes there where the murders occurred, and they went down in the basement, where the children were found with those exercise bands wrapped around their necks.

And they were able to stand there and be in that moment where it all happened. They also could see the backyard where Lindsay Clancy had jumped out the second-floor window and where her husband at the time found her in the backyard. She was bleeding and injured. And they also were able to drive by the CVS where Lindsay Clancy had sent her husband on an errand to pick up some pediatric medication, also the restaurant where he went to get takeout.

Now, the prosecution says that this was all a ruse to get him out of the house to send him on those errands. But her husband at the time, Patrick Clancy, he testified last week saying that they -- he had left the home many times before on weekend trips with guys or work trips, and this hadn't happened before.

But they did spend a fair amount of time at the house. They weren't able to touch anything or open drawers or anything, but the lawyers were with them and were able to point them to key items in the house that they should have paid attention to.

ABEL: All right, we will see where this trial goes from here.

Randi Kaye covering it for us.

Randi, thank you.

Next: soliciting for strategies. Why have -- we have exclusive new reporting about how the U.S. military is asking troops via e-mail for -- quote -- "creative and unconventional ways to punish Iran."

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