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Appeals Court: Trump Unlawfully Constructing WH Ballroom; U.S. Economy Unexpectedly Lost 23,000 Jobs Last Month; Soon: Buttigieg Rallies With Michigan Dems After Bruising Primary; Dem Leadership Coalesce Behind Progressive El-Sayed After Michigan Senate Primary Win; Psychiatrists Who Treated Mom Accused Of Murdering Her Kids Testify. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 07, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

JENNIFFER GONZALEZ, GOVERNOR OF PUERTO RICO: So that's the reason we're telling the people that we don't want this to be expanded to other ones. In the past, it was four reservoirs that were affected, so that means many other towns were affected before. At this -- at this time, it's just one, and we are monitoring that, and that's the reason we are asking the people to -- to -- to control the -- intake of water, like they're doing in -- in the Rockies, in the Northwest.

In the case of Puerto Rico, a few weeks ago was the hottest day in San Juan in a hundred years, so that never happened before. So, we are combining what's happening in terms of the climate and, of course, the drought that the U.S. monitor -- is -- is doing. We are combining a climate committee, actually a drought committee, with all the scientific people. The federal government is helping us out as well. We are even working with the farmers in the south part of the island. We're not talking about that, but there's a direct impact toward farmers in -- in the south part of the island that are already affected.

More -- almost a thousand fires are being affected the island as well. We're not talking about that, but that's -- that's happening on the island as well.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: (INAUDIBLE), you've -- you've got a lot of factors.

GONZALEZ: So, yes, it's been -- it's been a hot season. And then, in the Caribbean, we've been affected with the Sahara dust that we are expecting that Sahara dust to be gone at the end of -- of August, and that will help us to at least receive some rainfall at the end of August that can help us to at least have more water in our reservoir.

KEILAR: Well, Governor ...

GONZALEZ: But yes, it is a -- it's a difficult situation ...

KEILAR: Yes.

GONZALEZ: ... for -- for people in San Juan.

KEILAR: Well, Governor, we will keep an eye on this, and we'll be certainly looking for what you're asking the federal government for, but we appreciate you being with us. Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez, thank you.

GONZALEZ: Thank you.

KEILAR: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

A blow for Trump's ballroom. An appeals court now ruling against the President's project, their decision teeing up another big legal showdown.

And a jarring jobs report. New numbers showing the U.S. economy lost jobs in July. We'll dig into those numbers and why economists are worried about what they're seeing in the data.

And then for the first time, scientists use artificial intelligence to create 16 brand new viruses. What could go wrong? We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: So, President Trump headed back to the Supreme Court. He says he will appeal a court decision halting his controversial White House ballroom. The project has been a work in progress for nearly a year now. But today, the D.C. Federal Court of Appeals ruled the complex is being unlawfully constructed, setting up a showdown at the highest court. CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House for us.

So, Kristen, in his post promising to appeal, the President also is giving the ballroom a -- a new name. What -- what are you seeing?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, first of all, this was a lengthy screed. I don't even know if it could be called a post. It was so long. And that's not that surprising given how fixated he has been on this ballroom. But what is fascinating is the fact that he almost doesn't mention the -- the word ballroom at all. If anything, he instead is focusing on the security components of this, clearly trying to lean into why this should be built.

So, this is what he says, "Two Obama and Biden Appellate Court Judges just voted against the desperately needed Military Center, required for the National Security of Washington, D.C. and our Country, itself." Goes on to say, "The decision has been stayed." And I just will note that the appellate court actually stayed their own decision to allow Trump to appeal, "and does not take effect for a period of time. And again, I'll note that period of time is two weeks. "We will be immediately appealing to the United States Supreme Court. The military and Secret Service are viewing this horrendous, politically motivated and unlawful ruling as a National Security threat to our nation in that the entire Complex is being built for the protection of the Country and, additionally, all future Presidents." Goes on to say, "The entire Complex, Military and all, is largely built, fabricated and paid for. Much is already on site, or being delivered. Why didn't they bring this case long prior to construction starting?"

One of the things here, I think we're looking at part of what this appeal to the Supreme Court is going to look like. They are going to really lean into the national security component of this. And you can see there the building is going to continue for this two weeks to allow President Trump to move forward with this appeal, which obviously he said he's going to do.

I will also note that there have been a lot of questions that reiterate what President Trump just said from people who are against the ballroom as well, asking why this wasn't brought to the court sooner before you had this big gaping hole next to the White House.

[15:05:05]

So, there's a lot of questions as to what exactly is going to happen next. But this panel is actually upholding a decision that was made by a Bush-appointed judge who essentially said, well, that hole is Donald Trump's problem that he made by himself.

JIMENEZ: All right. Kristen Holmes, appreciate the reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: A summer bummer of a jobs report. The new data for July is showing the economy lost 23,000 jobs in July. And that's not all the bad news here. This is not what economists were expecting. They'd forecast this gain of about 95,000 jobs. And adding to that concern, revisions for May and June showing the economy actually did not add as many jobs as previously thought. CNN's David Goldman is with us.

David, take us through this report.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. So, 23,000 lost jobs in the past month doesn't even really sell the whole story because we also had about a hundred thousand fewer jobs created in the previous two months than we thought. So, this is painting a pretty negative picture about the job situation. Also, 4.1 percent unemployment.

Now, that is good. And it's nice that it fell from 4.2, but it fell for the wrong reasons. It fell because so many people said, you know what, I am sick of looking for a job. I'm not even going to try anymore. When those people exit the job force and there were about 2.1 million of those folks over the course of the past year, that's how you get to 4.1 percent unemployment. That is not good.

You could just kind of look at this chart of job creation and you see it, right? I mean, we are just not in the right trajectory. And over the past several years, we're looking at kind of, you know, we're creating some jobs, we're losing some jobs. This isn't really the seesaw that we want to be on right now. We also don't want this situation where we have our average paycheck gain of 3.2 percent over the past year is less than this number, which is 3.5 percent inflation, right?

So, inflation is eating the average pay raise. We had a situation for about three years where we were in the opposite situation. Actually, we were outpacing inflation. Now, we're in the opposite situation where we are losing ground to price gains. Brianna, it's just not a very pretty picture, unfortunately. KEILAR: And there have been concerns about A.I.'s impact on the labor

market, possibly leading some companies to cut jobs. What are we seeing there?

GOLDMAN: Okay, so they don't break out A.I. as its own thing. And you can't say A.I. ate this many jobs. There are some studies on that. It's pretty inconclusive. But let me give you a couple points about why I don't think it's happening necessarily. There were 22,000 construction jobs created in the past month. That's a really good number, a lot better than we've been seeing in the past few years. And a lot of that has to do with A.I. data center construction. A lot of this is still in the planning and execution phase and not necessarily in the implementation phase. We did lose almost 3000 jobs in computer design.

Okay, so those are some folks that might, you know, be working with A.I. But again, this is hard to pinpoint exactly that A.I. took this job. It doesn't seem to be happening just yet. Another thing that's not really happening that I would like to point out is that the World Cup was supposed to have this huge boost for the economy. In fact, we lost 19,000 retail jobs in the past month and 40,000 leisure and hospitality jobs. We just weren't seeing the kind of benefit that we thought we would get from this either. It's just not a great month for jobs, unfortunately.

KEILAR: The soccer was fun, though, David. It was -- it was great.

GOLDMAN: It was so fun. I know you, me and John Berman were just cheering the whole time.

KEILAR: Yes.

GOLDMAN: It was great.

KEILAR: At least we have that. David Goldman, thank you so much.

Still to come, pitching directly to Democrats. How the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan is hoping to capitalize after Democrats picked Abdul El-Sayed as their candidate.

Plus, trial resumes for the mother accused of murdering her three children. We hear from one of the psychiatrists who treated Lindsay Clancy.

And then later, why U.S. intelligence believes Russian President Vladimir Putin could be planning a small attack to challenge NATO's unity. We have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:44]

KEILAR: Today, Michigan Senate Republican nominee Mike Rogers is making a direct appeal to disaffected Democrats after progressive Abdul El-Sayed narrowly won the Democratic nomination. Here's what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): If you're among the majority of Democratic voters that woke up on Wednesday feeling, well, hopeless because the person who won does not represent your values, well, just know there is still hope. And to the vast majority of people across Michigan who do not want to throw their support behind a campaign filled with anger, divisiveness, calls for violence and the views that are out of touch with your values, well, you have a home with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Later today, Michigan Democrats will hold a general election kickoff in Detroit to rally around Abdul El-Sayed. It's going to be headlined by former Transportation Secretary and potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg. And we're joined now by Democratic strategist James Carville. He served as the lead strategist for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.

James, thanks for being with us.

No secret that you are critical of the DSA ...

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Exactly.

KEILAR: ... leaning wing of the party, but that is the candidate here.

CARVILLE: Yes.

KEILAR: How can he win the general and appeal broadly to all of the voters that he needs?

[15:15:03]

CARVILLE: Quite simply, point out Mike Rogers, what he is, a lackey to big pharma. A complete lackey to big pharma, a person who is so in bed with big pharma, he doesn't even want to negotiate drug prices. We may have some disagreement in a Democratic Party about some cultural things that have to be reconciled in the year 2028. But right now, every Democrat, every Michigan Democrat, every Democrat in the country can say this too cozy with big pharma, and they don't need another senator. And that's exactly what Mike Rogers was, is, and will ever shall be.

KEILAR: So you, of course, famously coined, "it's the economy, stupid." And progressives have made so much ...

CARVILLE: Right.

KEILAR: ... of their argument for their campaigns about the economy. Medicare for All, affordability for working families.

CARVILLE: Right.

KEILAR: They have obviously a populist economic message. How are you seeing that different from "it's the economy, stupid?" CARVILLE: Well, I'm don't -- not sure that it's all that much

different. The -- the only thing I would say is I think corruption is actually a more important issue right now in American politics than even the economy is. But I'd also say, if you don't think that big pharma and high drug -- prescription drug prices are -- are a part of the economy, you're -- you're living in another world. And if we allow them to just rip and run and just price everything they want at their will and offer no supervision, and we have people in the Congress that are totally beholden to them, not just Democrats, but independents and Republicans are not going to be able to get ahead in Michigan.

KEILAR: And, you know, you've spoken out against left wing streamer Hasan Piker who, of course, campaigned ...

CARVILLE: Go ahead.

KEILAR: ... with Abdul El-Sayed ...

CARVILLE: Right.

KEILAR: ... who said on Fox that the two of you are not going to be in the same political party. One of you will leave and it might be you, you said. I want you to listen. And so ...

CARVILLE: Right. Brianna ...

KEILAR: ... I want us to listen to what Senator Bernie Sanders said ...

CARVILLE: Sure.

KEILAR: ... on CNN earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: So, when someone like James Carville says he doesn't want to be in the same political party as Hasan Piker, which one are you going to take?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Well, that's not much of a choice. So, if Mr. Carville doesn't want to be in my party, the party that I belong to, that Piker -- that El-Sayed belongs to, he can start his own party. I think we need a big tent. And I think people like Piker should be welcomed into that, certainly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What do you think about what he said? And what do you think about -- how -- how do you think ...

CARVILLE: I don't know.

KEILAR: Okay.

CARVILLE: I -- I think that he ran as a socialist and not a Democrat. I think he said he wasn't one. Maybe he's one now. We welcome you. We're glad to have anybody that wants to be for it. And whether or not I certainly can't be in a party that has the same ideas and to me that -- that says things that Hasan Piker says about if you believe in pluralism, which I fundamentally am, his basic philosophy is at odds with pluralism.

And if he -- if I thought that his philosophy was a dominant philosophy in a Democratic party, I would leave yesterday. But I don't think that's going to be the case. I think Mr. Piker and his prejudice is going to find out that's not who Democrats are. We're a party that embraces pluralism in -- in all of its manifestations. And he's just not a pluralistic guy. He's a guy that's driven by identity and I'm not. I'm -- I'm driven by humanity.

KEILAR: There is a significant portion of the Democratic party that does identify as DSA or DSA-leaning. You see in Michigan, there were so many people supporting a DSA-aligned candidate. How do you find common ground ...

CARVILLE: Okay.

KEILAR: ... between those ...

CARVILLE: So ...

KEILAR: kinds of votes? Well, let me finish, James. Let me finish. How do you find common ground ...

CARVILLE: Okay, go ahead. Go ahead.

KEILAR: ... and create a big tent between folks like you and folks like them?

CARVILLE: Well, first of all, they got 48 percent of Democrats in -- in -- in a state that had a pretty favorable demographic. So, you haven't reinvented the wheel. And the way that you get people is you talk about your outreach and talk about how we are a big tent party and talk about how you want to be part of a big tent party. And Democrats noted Mike Rogers is totally in a tank for the pharmaceutical industry. We know that he's an election denier. It's not a very high bar to get us to vote for you. And I think with -- with -- with some work and some diligence, you could get people to be quite enthusiastic about voting for you.

But -- but the idea that somehow or another -- this is some giant wave that's knocking everything down in our country, that's just an idiotic Republican press narrative. All right. You didn't -- you couldn't break 50 in Michigan against, frankly, maybe not the strongest candidate we've ever run in a statewide election. So, I'm not as impressed as the -- the media is by all of this.

[15:20:05]

KEILAR: So, you mentioned the pharma issue, corruption ...

CARVILLE: Right.

KEILAR: ... you ...

CARVILLE: Right.

KEILAR: ... what -- what do you think the party should be unifying around as they're campaigning to win back control of both the House and the Senate? What do you think is the winning thing to unify everyone?

CARVILLE: Well, I -- I think, first of all, I -- I think the party should be a massive anti-corruption party. I think we should talk about corruption all the time. And I think -- I don't think we could be a strong economy with the corruption like you see. I mean, when you see this Dawood (ph) tug on these job numbers and economic numbers, I think when economists uncover that, they're going to find out that corruption is playing a part of this.

But right now, we got -- we're losing a war. We've lost all our munitions. By the way, we're out -- we're out of munitions as a country. We're out of jobs. We're out of everything. And right now, we just need to get the House back and the Senate back. And then come 2028, all of them, we're going to have to go to the mattresses. We're going to have to fight this out. The progressives are going to have -- and somebody's going to have their person. There's people going to have their people.

And the -- fortunately, I think the people who vote in Democratic primaries are going to decide the direction of the party. And I completely trust their judgment and I think they will choose wisely.

KEILAR: I hear your, you know, your assessment of the candidacy in Michigan. But you can't deny that the sort of the populist streak, the more socialist leaning or identifying or aligned contingent of your party is having some success in races that are key that they are -- they are key to your party, right?

CARVILLE: And again ...

KEILAR: Well, hold -- that's not even my question. James, let me ask my question. That's not even my question. That's like just getting into the premise. Okay, so Chuck Schumer, his preferred Senate candidates, they didn't prevail in these high profile primaries like Maine and Michigan. Does he have a handle on Democratic voters?

CARVILLE: I think -- I don't know, and I don't know if Democratic voters live there, but let me take your hat off. You got 48 percent in a primary. You're being hailed on CNN as a revolutionary, complete tidal wave hitting the United States. It's the latest, greatest thing that ever happened. And what I'm saying right here is I would go a little bit slow, maybe if I was analyzing this. And I would also say you're going to have your chance in 2028.

But boy, we're all in to -- we're all in to the revolution now. And -- and we're all, well, yes, oh, this is great. This is wonderful. You got to get everybody that voted for your opponent in the primary to vote for you in the general. Maybe you need to do some hard political work and develop some political skills that make you more accessible to more voters. That's just me off the top of my head. But excuse me for not being on the bandwagon here and this giant movement is sweeping the country by a storm.

KEILAR: But you're allowed to not be on the bandwagon, but we would be remiss to not discuss the trends that we're seeing or popular figures that we're seeing that are having electoral success. But let me ask you this. You mentioned 2028. Who's your pick for 2028?

CARVILLE: Well, I'm like anybody else. I want to wait and see who run. I go -- when I go to the horse races, I like to look at the farm. I like to look at the post parade. I like to look at the whole thing. And by the way, I'm going to be, if I'm still here, I'll be 84 on Election Day. So, I don't think I'm going to have very much say so in any way. But what I am enthusiastic is about the -- the general quality of the candidates that are talking about running for president and I hope they all run. I'm very enthusiastic about that.

KEILAR: My money in 2028 is that you are going to have a say so. I think that is going to happen. James Carville, thank you so much. Appreciate you being with us.

CARVILLE: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Always good (INAUDIBLE) ...

KEILAR: And ahead the -- always good. always good to have you, sir.

So, ahead, the latest testimony in the trial of the mother accused of strangling her three children. What we heard from one of the psychiatrists that treated Lindsay Clancy before the killings.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:35]

JIMENEZ: Happening now, we are hearing more key testimony from medical professionals in the trial of Lindsay Clancy. She's a Massachusetts mother accused of murdering her three young children back in 2023. And today, jurors heard from psychiatrists who treated Clancy in the weeks and months before she strangled her kids, allegedly, and then, as -- as we know, and then tried to kill herself. Their testimonies could be crucial as Clancy's defense argues she had been battling severe mental health issues and was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings. The prosecution alleges she acted intentionally and rationally when the children were killed. CNN's Jean Casarez has been following this case closely and joins us now.

So, Jean, what did the doctors say here?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there have been two of them today. And this is important testimony because we really see exactly what she went through, step by step, going to numerous doctors. And it was her choice to do that. But at the end of December -- December 31st, actually, of 2022, she went to Massachusetts General Hospital Emergency Room. They transported her. It was voluntary for her to go to McLean psychiatric hospital. And she was checked in there. And the psychiatrist that treated her took the stand today. Her name

was Dr. Alia Goodheart. And she testified that what she saw in Lindsay Clancy, and this is three weeks before this all happened, of when she killed her children, she -- she saw a general anxiety disorder with her.

[15:30:07]