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Hospital Chaplain Testifies in Lindsay Clancy Trial; Trump Administration Investigating Eric Swalwell; Trump Focused on White House Renovations?; National Debt Balloons. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 20, 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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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The national debt ballooning to record levels. But does Washington even notice?

Plus, federal agents raiding former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell's home, seizing his electronic devices, all part of an ongoing investigation tied to sexual assault allegations.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: And Britain-bound. Years after leaving royal life behind, Harry and Meghan announced they're moving back to the U.K.

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

SANCHEZ: We start this hour with President Trump touting some of his favorite projects at the White House as the national debt just hit a record $40 trillion. And we're seeing more signs that the cost of everyday goods is hurting Americans' wallets and leading to a slowdown.

Walmart just posted its slowest sales growth in six years, so the timing of the president's tour of pricey pet projects this week not landing great. Changes to Trump's new Air Force One plane from Qatar as well could cost taxpayers up to $1 billion. And renovating the White House is reportedly at least a $900 million ordeal, with taxpayers expected to pick up at least half of the $600 million tab just for the ballroom.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House now with more -- Kristen.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And, Boris, I think most Americans would hope that President Trump will be as fixated on the economy, on affordability as he currently is on that helipad behind the White House.

Yesterday, he indicated that he was actually part of the reason that, after they had put most of that helipad down, they ripped it up afterwards, saying that it was because it was sloped. I mean, that just shows this level of detail that he is focusing on with these projects. He announced another one yesterday.

He redid the driveway on the South Lawn, taking reporters for a tour. This is what he said during that time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As you know, we're doing a fix-up of the White House. And I was very good at real estate, like maybe the best in a lot of ways. And I love construction. I'm very good at flagpoles. One thing I know how to do is build.

I look at it -- everything -- I'm a real estate -- I'm a real good developer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And you hear it there. He's talking some of these details. Well, he even got more detailed in that, talking about where stanchions were going to be located, what the potholes were filled with, how that process went.

And Republicans have been begging the White House, begging President Trump for the last several months to turn his focus to affordability to try and highlight what the administration has been doing for everyday Americans. But President Trump himself just seems fixated on several things, but, most of all, these kind of glam projects that he is doing to fix up the White House.

And recent polling shows that Americans just aren't happy with that. Take a look at this. It says feeling about Trump's D.C. construction project. This is among voters. Happy, satisfied, only 17 percent, dissatisfied and angry, 58 percent, doesn't matter, 25 percent.

But probably the most telling is the poll we're going to pull up now, which is, does President Trump have the right priorities? Seventy- three percent saying no.

Now, Republicans don't want President Trump talking about the war either, but they would like him out there on the campaign trail, out there when he's having these meetings and bringing in reporters really hammering home this idea of affordability, and that the administration is empathetic, that Republicans are empathetic to what Americans are going through.

So far, we have seen very little of them.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House, thanks so much for the update -- Erica.

HILL: Well, it turns out Iran is also taking notice of America's ballooning debt.

In response to President Trump's threat to impose a -- quote -- "crushing economic operation" against the Islamic Republic and its trading partners, Iran's foreign minister posted this -- quote -- "The so-called economic D-Day is a diversion from America's own crisis, unprecedented debt, and surging interest costs."

All of this, of course, coming as President Trump signals a shift in strategy for dealing with Iran, recently halting all talks in favor of economic pressure.

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Joining us now is Nate Swanson, who served as a State Department representative on the Trump administration's Iran negotiating team. He's now the director of the Iran Strategy Project at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative.

Nate, nice to have you back today.

So, when we look at this, there is some evidence, right, that this economic pressure is working in Iran, some evidence. I was speaking yesterday with retired Admiral James Stavridis, who said to me, yes, this could ultimately work. But the reality is, I asked him, how long could the Iranian regime wait this out? And he said, probably not years, but certainly for a matter of months.

Would you agree with that, that they're OK with absorbing more of this economic pressure?

NATE SWANSON, FORMER IRAN DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Yes, I mean, they're absolutely willing to absorb more pressure. They have absorbed pressure for 47 years, right?

And the most crushing economic sanctions we ever had started in 2012. So, they have absorbed this for years. And while it's bad now and it may get worse in the future, I don't think it's actually going to change Iran's strategic calculus in any meaningful way.

HILL: So, if this doesn't change the calculus in any meaningful way, does what we have seen from trading partners, right? So, the president also kind of going after trading partners. We saw the UAE this week say they're going to stop. Could that be the pressure that makes a difference?

SWANSON: Look, I mean, it may have -- it may make things marginally worse for Iran, but to do what he's talking about doing is really hard, right? This means going after China and maybe messing up the trade detente that exists with China right now.

It means putting the UAE in a position where they have to decide very definitively whether they're going to side with us or Iran, and that's hard to do, because, if they follow us, Iran very well could bomb them. And if they don't, then we will sanction them.

So they're putting the UAE in an impossible position and other countries like that. So, look, I think this is more rhetoric than actual change in substance, but I guess we will see. HILL: So if it's more rhetoric and it's not going to change things,

are we stuck in this stalemate that we have been in seemingly for months now?

SWANSON: Yes.

HILL: Do you see an out?

SWANSON: Look, I mean, there are no good options here, right? I mean, he can escalate militarily or he can take a deal that's probably not a great deal.

It's one that -- probably one that will get criticized for by part of his base. But there is the opportunity to eventually get out of this with something small and concrete, tangible, probably only focused on the strait. And that's not something he wants, but it's possible.

HILL: What are you watching for in terms of signals from the IRGC, from leadership in this moment that may signal some shift, some willingness to get back to the negotiating table?

SWANSON: Look, I think the thing I'm watching the closest and worry about the most is that, if Iran really does actually start feeling real pain, it's how do they respond and who do they lash out at, right?

So, I mean, to date they have been shooting at ships, but are they going to lash back out at the Gulf at energy infrastructure? I mean, these are the things that are most important to watch. In terms of Iran's willingness to negotiate a good deal, look, I think they have limited flexibility, but they will take a deal that I think is favorable to their own interests, something like the MOU.

HILL: Sure, which any country, right, you would think would want to take what is what is advantageous to them if they can.

When we talk about the pain, I think sometimes what often gets lost are the Iranian people, right? And this is a regime that perhaps more than some others seems to not have an issue with imposing more pain on the Iranian people. How much harder is it now for them to stand up against this regime than it was even before the war started?

SWANSON: Yes, I mean, that's a great point.

I mean, this is the real contradiction, right, where, as we put pressure on the regime, it actually hurts the people the most. And so if you could go back in time and go back in January, Iran really seemed to be at this existential point where they couldn't provide for their people, and there was real, real grievances on the ground that were threatening Iran's survival.

Those have mostly dissipated with the war, unfortunately. And so they're going to bear the brunt of what comes next. And it's a true tragedy, right, because there's no real easy answers here.

HILL: There aren't. Before I let you go, when we look at where things stand with the

Strait of Hormuz, so more oil is actually getting through, which is a good thing, right, getting out via the Oman route with some help from the United States, less control, right, than Iran previously had. What do you think the ability is of the U.S. to maintain that, right, and to perhaps even grow a little bit more of that control?

SWANSON: Yes, I mean, I don't have a good assessment on their ability to do that, but, look, the strait is only 12 or 13 miles wide, right? And the level it's going through now is well even still less than half of what was going through before the war started.

So, even if the U.S. were able to sustain this, I do wonder if Iran would just change tactics and focus less on the strait and more on regional energy infrastructure, so that either way they're going to try to inflict pain, I think, if they can't get a deal.

HILL: Which comes back to your point of no good options here.

SWANSON: No good options.

HILL: Yes.

Nate, appreciate it. Thank you.

SWANSON: Thank you very much.

HILL: Still ahead here: an FBI raid at the home of an ex-lawmaker. New developments in the federal probe we're learning about into the disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell.

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Plus, amid a record-breaking deployment relief, finally arrives for the troubled USS Lincoln. We will tell you how soon its crew could come home.

And six years after the move dubbed Megxit, Harry and Megxit -- Harry and Megxit -- Harry and Meghan heading back to the U.K.? Why?

That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: CNN has learned that federal agents seized electronic devices from former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell on Saturday at the San Francisco Airport, then raided his home in Washington, D.C., the next day.

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CNN's Pamela Brown and Allison Gordon learned it's part of an ongoing probe into sexual assault allegations.

HILL: Swalwell resigned from Congress in April after reporting from CNN and "The San Francisco Chronicle" detailed allegations of sexual misconduct, including a former staffer who said Swalwell raped her, which he denies.

The Manhattan district attorney's office and the L.A. Sheriff's Department opened criminal investigations into Swalwell in the wake of the reporting. Now, the raids this past weekend are part of a previously unreported federal investigation. Three women who have spoken publicly about sexual misconduct allegations against Swalwell also told CNN they spoke with the FBI.

Pamela Brown joins us now with more of this new reporting.

So what more are we learning today?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, this is a big development now that the FBI is involved in this sexual assault investigation with Eric Swalwell.

Typically, the FBI does not do sexual assault investigations. But our understanding is, this has to do with looking at whether Eric Swalwell, when he was a Congressman, abused his position of power. And so what I'm told is that the FBI was able to get a search warrant from a judge, meaning they were able to show probable cause to get the search warrant.

And when Swalwell arrived at the San Francisco Airport on Saturday from D.C., he was met by FBI agents, who seized his devices, and then, the next day, his D.C. home was raided. So that is what we know right now, and it's all connected to our early reporting this year in April, when we broke the story along with my colleague Allison Gordon, of several women who alleged sexual misconduct, and including two women now who have said that Swalwell raped them.

Now, Swalwell has denied, we should note, these serious sexual assault allegations. He has come out and said that he made errors in judgment. His own attorney, Sara Azari, told us a while back that he has had contact outside of his marriage. He doesn't deny that, but that he does deny committing any crimes.

SANCHEZ: Now, I want to play a moment of your interview with a former Swalwell staffer who accused her former boss of rape.

We should warn viewers some of this material may be discomforting and disturbing.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After that bar closed, we went to another. I went to the bathroom, and I don't remember anything after that.

BROWN: You don't remember anything?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember the next day. I can see flashes of that evening of him on top of me, me pushing him off, him grabbing me. It was a lot more aggressive. It was aggressive.

BROWN: Did you say no?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I said no. I said -- in my flash that I can recall, I was pushing him off of me saying no.

BROWN: And what did he do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn't stop. He didn't stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Remind us, what motivated these women to come forward?

BROWN: Well, it took a while to get them to tell their story. And I give great credit to my colleague Ali Gordon as well, who talked to them. And it took a while to get them to open up.

But I think the big driving factor was the governor's race. He was a leading candidate in the California governor's race. And these are -- a lot of these women are -- were in the Democratic circles. This was a former staffer of Eric Swalwell. They really believed in his policies, but they didn't feel like it was right.

And once they learned that there were other women out there and that they weren't alone, that's really what changed things. And in talking to them and helping them understand that they weren't alone, that we were talking to other women who had similar allegations, I think that really helped in getting them to come forward, and particularly this former staffer to do this interview.

It takes a lot of courage to do that. And now we know there are multiple investigations in New York, Manhattan DA's office. You have the L.A. office also investigating, and now the FBI.

HILL: Yes, it certainly is a lot.

Pamela, really appreciate it. Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you.

HILL: Also with us, former FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe.

So, Andy, when you look at this, right, as Pam pointing out this is the new investigation that we're now learning about, what would federal agents be looking for in Swalwell's devices and at his home these many months later?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, that's a really good question, Erica, and it's a little bit tough to answer because we don't know exactly what alleged violation of federal law that they're investigating.

But, in any case, they had to go before probably two different judges to get the search warrants that they executed over the weekend, so a judge in San Francisco to give them the warrant to seize the telephones and electronic devices at the airport, and a judge in D.C. to give them the warrant to search the home.

Now, the standard for those warrants is, of course, not probable cause of guilt. It's probable cause to believe that there is evidence of a federal crime on those phones or in that residence. And so, clearly, they were able to convince two judges to go along with these search warrants. What they would be looking for in the electronics devices is primarily things like evidence of communication, so phone calls, text messages, e-mails, things of that nature.

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They'd also be looking for association evidence, just trying to figure out whether or not they can connect the former congressman to, let's say, a potential victim, somebody who's spoken to them about being victimized. In the residence, they would be looking for that sort of material as well, as well as other things, like maybe photographs or evidence of travel or evidence of that puts essentially the former congressman and some of these victims in the same place at the same time.

SANCHEZ: And, Andy, do you read anything into the fact that his devices were taken at the airport?

MCCABE: Yes, that -- there's a lot of factors that could influence that, Boris. It could be that this -- they just got the search warrant and they wanted to execute it right away, because, of course, data on electronics devices is not permanent. It can be deleted at any time, particularly by people who don't know they're under investigation.

So, if they -- or maybe they were worried about the loss of evidence, and so they wanted to execute it immediately. Another factor of meeting someone in a public place, if you know where they are, you're conducting surveillance to figure out where they are, is, you kind of -- it's not as complicated and sometimes dangerous as going to someone's residence or trying to pull them over in a car, something like that.

If you find them when they're walking in public, it can be a little bit easier to just get what you need in that moment and then move on. So, can't say exactly what they were thinking, but it could be some combination of those factors.

SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

Up next: The Lindsay Clancy murder trial ends early for the second day in a row, though one witness did take the stand. Hear what a hospital chaplain told jurors Clancy said about her children's safety one week after she strangled them.

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HILL: Another short day in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, the jury excused after hearing from just one witness today.

Sheila Cavanaugh is a hospital chaplain who met with Clancy a week after the Massachusetts mother killed her three children and attempted to take her own life. Prosecutors say Clancy deliberately murdered her children. The defense argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and should not be criminally responsible.

The case putting maternal mental health firmly in the spotlight, hundreds of Clancy's supporters gathering outside the courthouse today.

CNN correspondent Brynn Gingras been following these developments and joins us now.

So, Brynn, another short day. Bring us up to speed as to why and where things stand.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this hospital chaplain, Erica, she met with Lindsay Clancy a week after the killings happened in January 2023, but she also has since met with Lindsay Clancy more than 200 times, so very much a relationship with Lindsay Clancy.

And she talked to a pivotal moment that was for the defense's case about some of their conversations that they had and really the time that they have prayed together since this incident happened. I want you to hear one of these important exchanges, at least important for the defense's case, between the defense attorney and Ms. Cavanaugh.

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SHEILA CAVANAUGH, HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN: She said to me as I held her hand to comfort her: "I am so glad my children are safe."

KEVIN REDDINGTON, ATTORNEY FOR LINDSAY CLANCY: Was there any other conversation that you had with her?

CAVANAUGH: I replied theologically to Lindsay, and I said: "Lindsay, your children are safe. They're safe in heaven with God." And I held her hand throughout that conversation, and we prayed for them.

REDDINGTON: Did she make any other statements to you?

CAVANAUGH: She did. She alluded to having heard a voice. And the voice, according to Lindsay, told her that if she did not follow the command, neither she nor her children would be safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Erica, obviously, that testimony key to the defense's case.

When the -- Ms. Kavanaugh was cross-examined by the prosecution, the prosecutor questioned why none of these conversations, none of these voices or any sort of statements like this were written in her notes, and so she had an answer to that.

HILL: And so -- and how did that answer go?

GINGRAS: Well, basically, she said, look, I am -- some of the people that I work with, she's working in a religious sense, right? So she's not working in a clinical sense, so her notes aren't sort of word for word, so she wouldn't have written something like that down.

But that was something that certainly the prosecution was continuing to hammer home.

HILL: Yes.

So, as we noted, today, things ending early for a second day. There are still a number of witnesses on the defense's potential list that they could call. Are Patrick or Lindsay Clancy on that list?

GINGRAS: So, yes, there are so many witnesses on these lists.

What we have gleaned from conversations when the jury is not in the courtroom and that both sides are having with the judge is that the defense is going to call one more witness. It's possible he could add more, but that witness as it stands now is not Lindsay and it's not Patrick.

And then we expect the defense to actually wrap up its case. We are expecting a rebuttal case from the prosecution. It's very possible that we will get to closing arguments some time early next week.

HILL: Wow. OK, Brynn, appreciate it. Thank you.

Still ahead here this hour, the latest on a deadly collision in rural Pennsylvania that left a pilot and two state troopers -- one pilot dead, rather, two state troopers injured.

That's ahead.

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