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U.S.-Canada Talks Collapse, Canada To Impose Counter-Tariffs September 8; Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Il) On "Economic D-Day" Coming for Iran; Manhunt In Massachusetts For Wife Of Slain Police Officer. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 24, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:32:20]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, the U.S. and Canada are quickly heading towards a deeper trade war that could make hundreds of items Americans buy every day more expensive. Trade talks collapsed over the weekend and Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed dollar-for- dollar tariffs after the U.S. slapped 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.

CNN senior reporter Matt Egan joins me now.

These tariffs impact all different kinds of items. Give us some sense of what is on the list, and we and Canadians will both feel this.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely, Sara. Look -- I mean, we had these trade talks. They broke down at the eleventh hour. And now we have a situation where one of the closest trading relationships in the world has devolved into an all-out trade war. And yes, this threatens to leave consumers kind of caught in the crossfire, right, in terms of killed jobs and higher prices.

Now, the 50 percent tariffs from the Trump administration -- they had a wide range of imports from Canada -- everything from milk and honey to dog leashes, gloves, smartphones, hockey sticks, fishing rods, Christmas ornaments, wigs, false beards. Also, alcohol impacted here because the tariffs are going to hit beer, wine, whiskey, vodka.

Now altogether, they're talking about 50 percent tariffs that were imposed by the U.S. on about $20 billion of Canadian goods, so a lot of Canadian goods. And yet, this is a massive trade relationship so it's only impacting about five percent of total imports from Canada.

Now, the 20 percent -- this 50 percent tariff -- initially, it gets paid by businesses. But we know that they often pass along at least some of those costs to all of us in the form of higher prices. Now sometimes they try to eat those costs, right? They hurt their own profits by doing that. But their margin to maneuver right now -- it's lower because of the Iran war, which has jacked up energy prices and transportation prices. So it's not clear how much they can eat these tariffs. Now, Canada -- they are not taking this lying down, right? Prime

Minister Mark Carney -- as you mentioned, he is threatening to "dollar-for-dollar" retaliate here. And he's already laying out a number of different sectors that are going to face these retaliatory tariffs, including steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, paper, and electronics.

And the problem here from the U.S. side is that Canada is the number one foreign customer for a lot of U.S. states. So the risk if that if Canada buys less because of these higher tariffs it's going to hurt demand and some U.S. companies -- they could have to lay off workers.

[07:35:00]

One other point here for you, Sara. This is an unprecedented move from the Trump administration. They are relying on a never before used section of trade law called Section 338 of Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. That's the tariff law that, of course, made the Great Depression worse. It was made famous by the scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." And I do think that this law is going to get tested in the courts in the coming months, but we know that can take a long time to play out.

SIDNER: This is -- I mean, when you see something like milk, which is a staple for a lot of Americans, the possibility of that going up with where people are right now is going to be rough.

EGAN: True.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Matt Egan.

EGAN: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Great reporting from you -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That escalating trade war with Canada, it also isn't the only economic battle brewing with the United States right now. We're standing by to hear today more about what is being referred to as "Economic D-Day" -- the Trump administration's latest move against Iran with massive sanctions set to be announced and go into effect, and potential punishments for countries that do business with Iran.

The Treasury secretary is leading this -- announcing this and writing in an op-ed over the weekend the following. "The world should understand that our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone."

Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois. He sits on Appropriations and the Intelligence committees. He's also running for mayor of Chicago. It's good to see you, Congressman.

"Economic D-Day, the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary," Scott Bessent says.

What do you think this means? REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL) (via Webex by Cisco): Well, first, don't you start with that tactic instead of going to military conflict right away?

Under the Obama administration he introduced, and I supported these sanctions on Iran which forced them to the table and we passed JCPOA. Iran was in compliance in that moving forward to a nuclear program. Trump removed us from that and then began the military engagement in this term. Now he's back to where we started.

So look, we've spent $90 billion. We've lost American service members' lives. We've dramatically reduced out military readiness because of this. And now we're back to probably where he should have started.

BOLDUAN: Do you think this has a better shot of getting Iran to the table than what we've seen with military action now?

QUIGLEY: Look, I'd like to think so. I'm always for non-military actions and diplomacy. And the final analysis, one of the reasons we got JCPOA done was the oversized role that China played and will continue to play. So when they talk about going after those who are working and trading with Iran -- and I know that the Chinese leader is coming to the United States -- you run a very fine line now that you've gotten yourself in this position.

It's extraordinarily complicated, largely because of the president's mercurial habits and vacillating back-and-forth between conflict, peace talks, and now economic pressure, you know. Set yourself on one of these paths and be consistent so the rest of the world can at least understand what we're trying to do.

BOLDUAN: China here, likely a lynchpin, also timing here fascinating. I mean, because one of the countries that's likely to be targeted would be China.

Xi Jinping, as you mentioned, is set to be in Washington one month from today to meet with President Trump -- a meeting that President Trump has been highly anticipating for quite some time, which makes me wonder what does this announcement coming today do to that? Like, do you -- do you believe that the United States is going to go after China just as Xi Jinping is about to sit down with the president?

QUIGLEY: Well, we haven't heard the details. That's coming in this press conference. But the fact of the matter is 80 percent of their oil is coming from Iran. They're the ones funding Iran in this effort. So if it's going to work, it's going to involve some negotiations, some discussion, some involvement or impact on China.

So it's not as if we have any choice. We put ourselves in a situation where this is it. This is the last thing they can do. The regime has clearly become entrenched. They've adapted to this war. They know that they have opportunities to rebuild, restock. They can take what the U.S. military has given them. It's a very, very difficult position.

The fact is we got into it without a plan. The fact that we don't have a way out shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. BOLDUAN: Trade talks between the United States and Canada have now broken down. Mark Carney says that Canada is under attack and at war with the United States. This is a big trading partner for your state. Where does this go now?

[07:40:07]

QUIGLEY: Yeah. Look, it's a -- it's a quarter of Illinois exports go to Canada. It's actually critical to supply chains.

It's a different world when I go to these businesses, Chambers of Commerce throughout Illinois, throughout my district, and they're talking about the war in Iran. They're talking about foreign policy -- our immigration, our trade, our tariffs. They told me to -- every single business -- that between the ICE raids and tariffs and trade problems, this has been tougher on them than COVID.

And when the president says that we don't need Canada, he's clearly not understanding the situation. For Illinois farmers, we need fertilizer. Canada is the largest producer of potash, which is a critical element there. We need they plywood because we can't produce enough. And if we shut them off and they retaliate, it's going to cost a lot more to build their housing.

And we get 60 percent of our crude oil. We get critical minerals for tech and for our defense.

The world is a dangerous, complicated place but we're a lot safer when we have friends. And to have a friend, you need to be one. If we can't even get along with Canada, the low-hanging fruit here, who can we get along with?

Nations that isolated themselves like we are doing right now are less economically prosperous and they're less safe. We're in a very difficult situation right now where we've lost their trust. We've lost their cooperation. I don't know how we rebuild it anytime soon.

BOLDUAN: Hakeem Jeffries met privately in recent weeks with Jared Kushner and discussed potentially collaborating with Democrats on key issues.

What do you -- what do you think of that meeting? Most importantly, what's the area of common ground you could see working with the White House on?

QUIGLEY: You know, I was told that -- from leader Jeffries' spokesman, that he has a policy of when he's invited to a meeting he goes, and that's exactly what he did.

So look, even in the midst of disagreeing, as harsh and as tough as you possibly can on critical issues, we still have a nation to govern. So if there's some common ground and we can get some things done in the midst of this, then so be it.

I was a proud sponsor of the ACT for ALS, a pretty dramatic gamechanger for all neurodegenerative diseases five years ago, and we just reauthorized it unanimously.

So I wouldn't take too much out of this beyond the fact that everyone should want us to agree and work together when we can.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It just happens to rarely.

Congressman, it's good to have you on. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. With us now is CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for The New York Times, Zolan Kanno-Youngs. And Axios senior contributor, Margaret Talev.

And Zolan, let's just pick up where Kate left off with Congressman Quigley there. You know, when minority leader Jeffries meets with Jared Kushner it's not really just another meeting.

What does it tell you heading into the midterms and maybe what the expectations are leading out of the midterms for those close to Donald Trump?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: No, it's certainly not just another meeting, particularly when you look at previous communication between the White House and congressional Democrats and namely, also Hakeem Jeffries as well.

Now we do know that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, and Hakeem Jeffries previously did work together on criminal justice legislation in term one, so there's a history of that collaboration.

But let's be clear. Both are managing some different factors here.

For Kushner and the White House they're well aware that depending on the outcome of these midterms and if Democrats make gain, which polls show they are likely to, that the president faces the prospect of impeachment, right? So for this conversation they may be trying to ward that off.

For Jeffries, he is also managing these different factions of a party, some of which -- or many or which want to see real accountability moving forward even if this conversation might have -- at least the reporting shows -- been focused on areas of potential compromise.

And then there's also the unpredictable factor of Donald Trump hanging over this. There have been times previously where the president has floated the prospect of working with Congress and Democrats to pass some sort of legislation -- bipartisan compromise -- only to back away immediately.

Even earlier this year when me and my colleagues sat with the president, he floated the idea that he was open to working on some kind of immigration reform or immigration legislation. We have seen no real work publicly that actually has been met with follow-through.

[07:45:00] So that's now the question for me moving forward. What's going to be the follow-through after this meeting?

BERMAN: Yeah, and there's also just the appearances, Margaret, right? You have House Speaker Mike Johnson, you know, talking to Punchbowl and others expressing confidence in the midterm. You know, the outcome of the midterms for Republicans here. But you certainly see people with President Trump seeming to lay the groundwork for the possibility that Democrats will be in control.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: One hundred percent. And John, if you just look historically, even if President Trump were more popular than he is right now, just historically there's often this pendulum. Then you add so many Independents moving away from the president right now and the Republicans are in a pretty precarious state in the House race.

You know, it's interesting. The three topics that Jeffries and Kushner are reported to have focused on -- affordability, housing, and immigration -- can you imagine what the bipartisan compromise would look like on any of those three areas? Let's start with immigration. So it's really hard to see how that meeting would lead to a whole lot of policy outcomes that would institute any major changes.

But for every Democrat in sort of the progressive wing who is, like, saying fight, fight, and impeach, there are many, many voters who want people in both parties to talk to each other and to be open to compromise. So there's some incentive to give this perception that everyone's open to talking to each other and listening. It's just hard to see where the Trump administration and a Democratic Party that would be resurgent and retake a majority after November -- where they could really meet in the -- in the middle.

BERMAN: Yeah.

I want to talk about this trade war with Canada that reignited over the weekend -- a trade war that The Wall Street Journal in an editorial today calls "The dumbest trade war revisited." And then the closing line of the editorial was "One reason for Mr. Trump's frigid approval rating is that voters believe Mr. Trump is waging blunderbuss wars without a strategy, and on trade they're right."

And then Zolan, I'll just read you a quote from David Axelrod, seconds ago, posted on social media. Axe writes, "If you're Leader John Thune, hoping to save your Senate majority this fall, the new trade war with Canada is a nightmare. Four battleground states -- Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Alaska -- could face disproportionate economic pain as a result of the tariffs."

So, you know, if you're Susan Collins sitting in Maine, if you're Mike Rogers running in Michigan, how do you feel about this this morning?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Yeah, likely nervous, right? That's what Axelrod is trying to articulate there. I mean, because we often talk about how foreign policy might not be a large factor going into, you know, something like a midterm election, but this isn't just foreign policy, right? We're talking about decisions that will have ripple effects that now seep into the economy. An impact, an issue that we know has been a political vulnerability for the president. We now based off polls people are concerned about consumer prices.

So when you talk about a trade war with a trading partner and a close ally like Canada, that -- we've seen that that's going to have ripple effects and have a sort of downstream affect on folks.

This is something that's been building though. I mean, going back to earlier this year, I remember the Davo summit. Mark Carney's speech about a potential rupture in the western alliance. At that point he didn't name the United States, or he didn't name the Trump administration. This time you can see just how tensions have boiled over by him sort of having this speech, which was so direct, going at the Trump administration.

It will be really interesting to see where negotiations --

BERMAN: Yeah.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- go after this if talks are going to happen at all.

BERMAN: And Margaret, just very quickly, I notice the vice president, JD Vance, going to Maine and Main Sen. Susan Collins not going to appear with him.

TALEV: Yeah, it -- you know, you mentioned those two states, and I think they really are crucial. It seemed like Democrats had imperiled their own ability to prevail in Maine and Michigan with some of the primary election moves. But again, when the president himself and his policies imperil the Republicans at the top of the ticket.

And when you ask voters about foreign policy, they're going to choose domestic policy. They're going to choose the economic aspect of it. We see it in every focus group in every poll. It's about affordability.

BERMAN: Margaret Talev, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, great to see both of you. Thanks so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Still ahead, a former NBA player's t-shirt sparks a courtside confrontation at a WNBA game.

And Chinese humanoid robots smashing human records, then smashing themselves.

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[07:53:45]

SIDNER: Right now, police in Massachusetts are searching for the wife of a police officer who is considered armed and dangerous. Karen Solomon is wanted in connection with the death of her husband who had been on the force for more than three decades. Investigators say Kurt Solomon was killed with a sharp object inside the couple's home earlier last week.

Search items have -- search teams, excuse me, have deployed divers, and dogs, and helicopters to look through nearby parks and waterways.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joining me now with more on this. What have you learned in this case?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Sara. You know, this is now entering its seventh day, and police have not given us any new updates since this all started last week on Tuesday.

But I do want to talk about the search because over the weekend they closed down local beaches, parks, recreational areas, as you said, searching for evidence, searching through the waterways, and searching for Karen Solomon who appears to be very much at the center of this mystery so far.

What we know about Karen Solomon is that she not only was married to a police officer in the Worcester Police Department, but she was also known in the community as an advocate for police officer and first responder mental health. In fact, she led a nonprofit that focused on that work. She's a published author and has written about the subject.

[07:55:05]

And she has gone missing since Tuesday when police found her husband dead inside his home.

Now, we have obtained both images of Karen, obtained by doorbell cameras. This was put out by police last week. This is believed to be the last time that she is seen. And they say that these images of her walking there were captured early on Tuesday morning just shortly after she, herself, is believed to have called police to the home where her husband was found dead.

I want to play audio of that call that we have obtained for you. You can hear the officers responding and trying to figure out who this caller is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DISPATCHER 1: Is the caller a male or a female?

DISPATCHER 2: It was a female. Her voicemail on her phone says it's a Karen Solomon.

OFFICER: There's visible blood inside the building -- inside the bathroom in the back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: So you hear the officers responding there describing what they're seeing. Police have declined to discuss the details of that call. But in the meantime, they have charged Karen Solomon with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

They did say that Kurt Solomon, who was a 31-year veteran of the department, was killed and that he suffered a fatal injury with a sharp object. He had two sons. He was also an Army veteran, and he will be buried this Tuesday.

In the meantime, police declining to say more about exactly what happened while this investigation and the search for Karen Solomon continues.

SIDNER: Wow. There's a lot of questions, but they are saying she is -- they believe she is armed and dangerous --

PAZMINO: Right.

SIDNER: -- as they search for her, hoping the public can help them out.

Gloria, thank you so much for your reporting this morning. Appreciate you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There's a pretty wild scene here. A pilot landing a small plane on the water near Boca Raton, Florida over the weekend. Lifeguard then immediately swam out to help the pilot get out.

The woman who was flying the plane told a CNN affiliate that she was on her way to pick up her parents when the plane's right engine failed and the landing gear broke. Since the plane still had plenty of fuel, she said she feared a hard landing, like a landing on land, would spark a fire and quickly decided a water landing would be best. Then she dodged some paddleboarders and was able to make a smooth landing on water. Pretty amazing stuff. No one injured.

Also some remarkable images are coming out of Venezuela right now of heavy flooding. Just torrential rain pounded the capital city, Caracas, flooding major roads and stranding drivers in so many places. Just look at that flow. It also took out lots of power lines and so much more -- trees and much more. This morning several people are reported missing.

And a very important robot update out of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. It is not just comical crashes that we're tracking here, people, anymore. There's also real advancement as well. A humanoid robot named Lightning ran the 100-meter race and beat the human record held by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. Lightning ran it in 9.39 seconds. Bolt's best -- a personal best and world record is 9.58 seconds.

More than 2,000 robots from 16 countries registered for this year's games -- John.

BERMAN: Usain Bolt lands on his feet. He doesn't slide into the padding though.

BOLDUAN: And that's not a requirement to win.

BERMAN: No. And can a robot feel joy, Kate? I leave you with that.

All right. The Phillies -- they feel joy. They're playing like the Red Sox right now, winning nine in a row. And this last one -- whoa -- was pretty incredible.

Let's get right to CNN's Coy Wire for the details on that -- Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah. Just an awesome moment, John. The Phillies had the longest active walk-off home run drought -- 553 games. They were down 4-0 to St. Louis in the bottom of the ninth. But here they come and stormed back to tie it. And then Kyle Schwarber at the plate says bye-bye. He launches a 459-foot moonshot -- fitting, John, because he was the last Philly to hit a walk-off homer more than three years ago.

Six runs in the ninth. Drought over. Phillies stun the Cardinals 6-4.

Indiana Fever looking to lock their playoff spot and Caitlin Clark says don't look now, literally. A no-look dime with three defenders surrounding here. Then she goes full cheat code mode in Chicago. Thirty-seven points and a career-high eight three-pointers as the Fever cruise 113-90.

Now, during the third quarter, former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom, who said he is declaring himself eligible for the WNBA, sitting baseline with a shirt that read "Woman (noun): adult human female." Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted Kanter. He helped up his arms. He stepped onto the court at one point before security and several Sky players intervened. He was eventually escorted from the game to loud boos.

CNN has reached out to the WNBA for comment.

And finally, World Cup darling Erling Haaland has spent years terrorizing defenders. Now he's traumatizing hairdressers. The Manchester City star shocked fans by chopping off those famous flowing blonde locks ahead of the City's game against Bournemouth.