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270+ Killed, 1,300+ Missing After Floods Hit Nepal-China Border; Bryan Kohberger Granted New Hearing In Bid To Take Back Guilty Plea; Trump Signs Proclamation To Pause Certain Beef Tariffs. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 27, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): Because there hasn't been a whole bunch of polling in -- for this particular race quite yet and because it's New England you haven't even had the primary yet. It's on September 8.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, which is one of the biggest scandals there is every year when they have primaries in September for elections in November.

But Dave, you know, if we look at New Hampshire here -- again, as I said, I mean, some people have said this could be a race but it's not on the list of toss-ups that we've seen, you know, from Cook and other places. It's not on that list of states where Democrats need to pick up four seats here.

I mean, if this is in play -- if New Hampshire is in play, how difficult would it be for Democrats to take the Senate?

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Well, very -- but Republicans have always seen this as in play because John Sununu was a senator who was defeated by Jeanne Shaheen in 2008 after beating her in 2002. Republicans recruited him despite being a critic of Donald Trump. And this is one thing for all the attention we pay to the president endorsing candidates who are loyal to him.

He has been strategically silent about Susan Collins breaking with him because he wants her to win. And with Sununu he has supported Sununu over Scott Brown, one of the first important Republicans to endorse him for president.

So the idea always -- if you talk to Democrat in New Hampshire they're a little bit frustrated not because of this; because they want to be winning because at the doors they find people who think he is his brother, Chris Sununu, the popular former governor; not the senator who lost in 2008. And they have been maybe minimizing the risk to the party of getting that message out there because with Pappas, this is a Democrat who --

BERMAN: Um-hum. WEIGEL: -- has been looked at as a statewide candidate for a very long time. But he has a primary challenger to get past -- a primary challenger who is critical of his support or Israel. That might sound familiar to people. This is a story of a good Republican recruit who is running as an outsider with a famous name, despite being a former senator.

BERMAN: Yeah. Look, it's a point that Republicans had in their sights. But we just put up a graphic on the screen.

WEIGEL: Yeah.

BERMAN: You know, Cook, which we all like. We like the Cook report. It didn't have New Hampshire on its list of toss-ups. That could change, I imagine coming up in the next few weeks if polls like this bear out or we see others like that.

On the subject of states that are held by Democratic senators right now that are a source of concern for Democrats, Debbie Dingell, a member of Congress from Michigan who we're going to have on a little bit later in the show, was at a rally in Michigan where she told people there, you know, basically, I don't want to talk about Hasan Piker anymore. She literally said, "So don't any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker. It's not what November is about."

Is she going to get what she wants there, Jackie?

KUCINICH: I think whenever a politician says don't ask me about something just because we're just natural contrarians. We want to ask them more about it. So no, I don't think she's going to get what she wants.

However, I do think on some level she is right. I mean, look at these tariffs the president is implementing on Canada and their ensuring tariffs that are made on the United States. It's going to have a huge impact in Michigan. Michigan -- already, the affordability issue is top on voters' lists. Now, however, you know, some of the past statements -- forgive me -- of the Democratic candidate will continue to be an issue, particularly when you're talking about Mike Rogers making them an issue.

But I think at the end of the day Michigan voters are going to be voting on affordability. But the Hasan Piker scandals aren't going to go away, and Republicans are going to make sure that they're in the forefront.

BERMAN: All right, Jackie Kucinich, Dave Weigel. Thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate it.

Listen, we want to get to Nepal right now. Our Hanako Montgomery has been racing to get to the scene here. My map is currently frozen but the best I can do is show you she is right here roughly in this region. This is the border crossing, which we've seen so much. This is the river -- one of the rivers that has been swollen and overflowing or overflew yesterday. This is where Hanako is. Let's get right to the scene and talk to her. Hanako, what are you seeing? HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.

We're just a couple of hours northwest of the capital of Kathmandu and right now I am pretty high up. I'm in a safe location. But just below me is one of the rivers that saw some extreme flooding over 24 hours ago -- the Trishuli River.

And I don't know if you can see but just a little far in the distance there is a suspension bridge that has been partially destroyed. Now, this suspension bridge helped villagers in this remote area go from one part of the country to the other side in this little isolated island area here. But again, because the suspension bridge has been partially damaged, no one has been able to go across and actually ascertain who here on the other side needs rescuing.

And this is just, I mean, example after example of just illustrating how bad the damage has been after this severe flooding. We know that more than 200 people were killed. Hundreds more are missing. And right now, rescuers are racing to find any survivors who might need any medical assistance.

[07:35:00]

And just, again, in the distance here, John, a little far from me here but there is a house right on the riverbank and I don't know if you can see -- again, part of it flooded with mud.

And something I also want to point out to you here is if you can see, this riverbank -- it is pretty muddy. But this all used to be green agricultural rice fields. But again, completely covered in mud -- calcified and hardened mud after we saw the deluge of floodwater come racing down the Himalayan Mountains.

Now John, we don't actually know the exact cause of this flooding yet, but we are hearing from scientists that they do believe part of a glacier broke off and at the same time, massive landslide also occurred. And all that mixture of rock and also ice came crashing down the mountain and then caused some of the flooding that we've been seeing.

And again, this has been extremely distressing for locals here who have to grapple with this reality. Grapple with the fact that so many of their loved ones and their family members could potentially be dead. But also, we do have to note that hundreds of foreigners -- tourists who came to Nepal for some hiking trails, for some pilgrimage, are also missing, including some Americans. So as you can imagine, John, this situation is extremely dire.

And just before we started speaking, John, I do want to point out we went down this road trying to get to one of the worst affected areas, but we couldn't because there was just so much of the road blocked off with the mud. We couldn't get past the mud, which just goes to show how awful the extent of damage is. And as you can imagine, when you get closer to the heart of this natural disaster entire villages have been completely swept away. And again, people searching beneath the rubble for their loved ones now, John. BERMAN: Again -- and let me just give you a sense of where Hanako is and what she was talking about. The glacier snapped off right here. It sent that water cascading through these valleys and down the rivers. And she's in an area right about here.

And again, along this riverbed this is what it looked like before, and I can show you what happened after the water swept through. See how much of that area is now just covered in mud. Look at all this area and just remember where all these houses and structures were before. They're just gone now.

So Hanako, again, I just gave people a sense from kind of a bird's-eye view of that. You are there on the ground talking to us about how difficult it was even to move around.

Is there a sense, being there, of the scope of destruction? Do people even appreciate what happened there?

MONTGOMERY: Yeah, John. I mean, we were speaking to a couple of villages just a few minutes ago and they were telling us that they have absolutely no power. They have no way of checking in with their friends, with their family to see if they're alive. And that just goes to show how difficult it is to know the full extent of damage at the moment.

We also spoke to a local mayor of a small town, and he also said that because there is just no connectivity right now. Also there is a lack of resources right now. They don't have enough helicopters. They don't have enough people. They have no idea how many people are missing from that town.

And this is, again, several dozen kilometers down from the main part of the damage that we've been seeing. So if you can imagine, if you keep going further and further away where you saw just a massive wall of floodwater crashing through buildings and tearing them apart -- literally, sending people in mid-air and submerging them -- you can imagine just how much more dangerous and, of course, how more --how much more awful the extent of damage is and how potentially, the loss of life that we could be seeing over the next couple of days extensively and also massively.

And again, John, we do know that some international aid organizations are sending personnel. They're also sending help. But again, it is very difficult to know just how many people have (audio gap) and how difficult it is to get to these places -- to get to these areas. And also to get in contact with people who have absolutely no way of getting in touch with any support, John.

BERMAN: All right. Hanako Montgomery for us, who is now in the Nepal along one of the riverbeds. Again, not far from this riverbed right here, where you can see that was what it looked like before and this is what it looked like after.

Hanako, it is so great to have you there. Communication is very, very difficult. We'll let you get back to reporting and try to move closer to some of the areas where the worst damage is -- Sara. SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, John.

Rescuers, as you just heard, facing washed out roads and downed communications, making it extremely difficult, as Hanako just reported, to get clear information on what's happening on the ground.

Joining me now, Joe English, an emergency communications specialist for UNICEF. UNICEF is in many of these countries. Certainly, in Nepal. You have people on the ground in Nepal.

[07:40:00]

Have you gotten any word from them? Do you have people in that area, in that region on the ground there after this catastrophe?

JOE ENGLISH, EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST, UNICEF: Hi, Sara.

We do, indeed. We've got a team on the ground but not able, as your reporter said, to reach yet the worst affected areas. And even in the areas that we have been able to reach, the communication is limited. Power is incredibly limited.

And just to sort of put a -- you know, put the severity of this into people's minds, in some places the floodwater rose by nine meters -- almost 30 feet in 30 minutes. A foot a minute. So you can imagine for a child who may be three feet or four feet tall, in a matter of minutes the water is already above their heads.

And so the severity of this, you know, we know that tens of thousands of children will have been affected. We think that number, you know, will probably rise as the situation becomes clearer.

And so, search and rescue is the immediate priority. But we also need to make sure that we're able to reach communities to prevent the kind of secondary waves of threats to children, whether that's disease, malnutrition, protection risks, which rise in this kind of crisis too.

SIDNER: Just in terms of scale, as we watch and look at this enormous catastrophe, what is it going to take to try to get help -- you concentrate on the well-being of children -- to try to get help to the children and the families who need it the most?

ENGLISH: It's going to be a monumental challenge, you know. UNICEF has worked in Nepal for more than 60 years now. But Nepal is a country where it can be very difficult to reach communities. It is a country of mountains and valleys. We saw this after the earthquake as well. But we know what to do when we can reach those children and we have been doing this work for many, many years. It is not a matter of hours and days; it's going to take a long time.

And, you know, the scale of this crisis is one that hit at 9:00 on a school day morning. And the flat areas close to the river are where because it's flat, schools are built, health centers are built. So you can just imagine, you know, 9:00 a.m., children, classrooms. We know that at least 70 schools are close to the riverbanks in these affected areas. Children are just starting their day. And we've heard the reports of children, you know, fleeing to higher -- trying to get to higher ground in absolute terror. Children fainting, children collapsing. Their teachers sort of trying to direct them to safety.

You know, it's going to be a long-term response but we're there and we're going to provide all the support with government and our partners to children and families who are affected.

SIDNER: Look, it's really stark because you concentrate on children. It's really stark to hear that many of the schools are right in the disaster area and there are so many children and so many people at this hour. More than 1,300 people that are still missing. And we know authorities are saying somewhere around, you know, 270+ people have already been killed.

Can you give us some sense of the region itself? What the major difficulties for children before all this happened? And when we say for children, it really is for families. Before all this happened, what was it like for children there and how much worse will it be going forward as you try to figure out how to aid them?

ENGLISH: Yeah, it's going to be a -- it's going to be a real challenge in the days ahead. What I would say is that we know that children not only in Nepal but all around the world are facing increased risks of severe weather, of crises, of disasters. Now with this, you know, it's -- the cause of it in terms of the massive landslide -- you know, these are risks which OK, yes, they can -- they can happen anywhere. But we know that they're getting more severe and the threats to children are only multiplying.

And so one of the things that UNICEF does is we work to equip communities and work with children directly on these kinds of threats.

But with this, you know, from our understanding, many of the monitoring stations up river were swept away so quickly that they could not get advanced warning to the communities who were downstream. So that just shows you the severity and the speed with which this disaster unfolded.

SIDNER: Yeah. It is almost unbelievable to watch this. It takes your breath away.

Joe English, thank you for the work that you do. We do appreciate you coming on this morning -- John.

BERMAN: All right. He pleaded guilty to killing four Idaho college students but now Bryan Kohberger wants to take it back and was just granted a new hearing to consider it.

And an American Airlines plane blows two tires in Chicago. That's the fourth time that's happened this month.

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[07:48:50] SIDNER: New developments this morning in Bryan Kohberger's effort to take back his guilty plea in the murders of four University of Idaho students. A judge has now scheduled two hearings on the matter for next June. Kohberger pleaded guilty last year and was sentence to life in prison without parole. But last month he filed a petition to reopen the case blaming his plea on threats, false promises, and wrong information.

Joining me now, federal -- former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson. Thank you so much for being here this morning.

Let me start with this. Look, the judge has now scheduled this status conference and a potential evidentiary hearing for next June.

What does this tell you about how seriously the judge is taking Kohberger's efforts to try to withdraw his guilty plea?

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, HOST, "AT-LYSE YOU HEARD IT HERE" PODCAST: That's a great question, Sara. So I think the best way to understand this is everything that's happening right now is purely procedural, meaning the judge hasn't really dug into the merits of the case.

Very important to note that second date -- that evidentiary hearing -- that's just a placeholder. The judge hasn't even decided yet whether or not Kohberger is going to receive that hearing.

[07:50:00]

These types of collateral attacks on pleas area actually relatively common. And so anytime a defendant or a former defendant files a motion like this the judge is going to have to look at it to see whether or not they should grant an evidentiary hearing and whether or not there are merits to the claim.

So I think at this stage it's hard to say whether -- how serious the judge is taking the claims, but it is a potential first step for digging in a little bit further.

SIDNER: Look, in the petition that Kohberger entered into court to try and get this case reopened and to take back his plea, he blamed the reason for that on saying he -- there were threats. There were false promises. There was wrong information. He said his defense team did not disclose or review exculpatory evidence and cites ineffective assistance of counsel during the criminal proceedings.

What are his chances here? I mean, what will he actually have to prove to try and undo a guilt plea that he sat in court and took responsibility for and was read all of the different rights that he has?

ADAMSON: That's right. And I can't emphasize enough that the standard here is extraordinarily high. It's a very high bar to withdraw this guilt plea. At this stage after sentencing it's manifest injustice. That is the standard. That means that essentially there has to have been a constitutional defect in these hearings, so his counsel has to have been so ineffective that it rendered that representation unconstitutional, right, because he did not have essentially a right to counsel.

Here, what Kohberger is essentially arguing is, you know, at least from my perspective -- and I've seen a lot of people move as my time as prosecutor to withdraw their guilty pleas -- is that he didn't like it because the death penalty was on the table. That is usually a strategic decision between counsel and their client and not manifest in justice with ineffective assistance of counsel.

They -- that means his counsel would have to have truly been not effective at all and truly hidden evidence rather than Mr. Kohberger not truly understanding that he's going to spend his entire life in prison.

So the standard is high. It doesn't happen very often. Again, I don't have a crystal ball, Sara, but I think the likelihood that he'll be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, at least on this record, is pretty slim.

SIDNER: Well, it's also brought a little bit of torture to the families who -- some of whom predicted that he would try something like this.

Alyse Adamson, thank you so much for your analysis there -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, President Trump signed a proclamation that will trigger a temporary pause on tariffs on certain ground beef products. That is in the face of criticism from ranchers, some Republican lawmakers, some cattle associations.

The U.S. Cattlemen's Association warned it would "sideline U.S. produces, threaten cattle prices, and risk undermining consumer confidence in the beef supply."

The move allows some 300,000 metric tons of ground beef, specially lean beef trimmings, to be imported for the next 90 days without quota tariffs. The president and agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins have not said which countries are part of the deal.

With us now is Shawn Harris, a Democratic congressional candidate running in Georgia's 14th district. He's also a grass-fed cattle farmer.

So when you got this news that the White House was going to reduce some tariffs on beef from other countries, what was your reaction?

SHAWN HARRIS, (D) GEORGIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: You know, John, my reaction -- first of all, good morning. My reaction was very clear. It felt like a kick in the teeth. The reality of it is we've been down this road before. The last time the president actually brought in Argentina beef. He actually brought out Argentina and slapped all the farmers in the face.

And still, like you just said in the -- in the opening, we still don't know where is this beef coming from. And it's already had a great affect on us as the cattle farmers and cattle ranchers because the price of beef that we sell at the stockyard has already failed because of speculation of what he's doing.

BERMAN: So you're making less money here but the goal -- I think the goal from the president is to reduce the prices that people at the grocery store for their meat.

What do you think about that goal?

HARRIS: Yeah, that -- you know, right now, the farmers are not against the consumers. We want everybody to actually be in a win-win situation. But the process that the president is using will not work. And he should listen to the Cattlemen's Association. He should listen to all of our associations no matter which association it is. They're all tell him sir, this will not work.

[07:55:00]

The -- what's actually happening on the ground -- when this beef comes in, it's going to flood the market. But we have four packers that control everything. I don't know -- I don't have a crystal ball, but I don't believe the packers are going to pass that 25 percent cut on to the consumer.

So we'll see here in a few weeks does hamburger -- and we are only talking about hamburger. Does hamburger go down in the grocery store, and if it does, it's just going to be for a temporary. It does nothing to help us grow the herd to get back to where we need to be to actually feed the United States and feed the world.

BERMAN: What are the challenges that have faced you as a cattle farmer the last few years? If I asked you, "Hey, how's business," you know, what would you have said to me over the last couple of years?

HARRIS: I would have said to you as a cattle producer for once we have been making money and things were going well. But I also would have said to you I have three things that I call my three "F's" that I constantly have to watch here on the farm. One is fuel, one is fertilizer, and one is feed. Because of the tariffs that we actually have going on, all of those prices are continuously going up and up and up. So those input costs are cutting into whatever profits we were making on the ground.

And now you take the tariffs that we still have and now you take the farm beef that's coming in that we don't even know where it's coming from, and that's why I say it's a kick in the teeth to every rancher out there, every producer out there.

And that's why we're saying to the president for once -- for once -- you don't have to say you made a mistake but for once, change your mind on this and let's sit down and figure out how can we bring down the price of beef in the grocery store but at the same time keep the American farmer and rancher out there where we can stay in business.

BERMAN: Shawn Harris, we do appreciate you joining us this morning. It is a busy morning. Thank you, sir -- Sara. SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

On our radar for you this morning, in Chicago, an American Airlines plane blew not one but two tires just moments before takeoff at O'Hare. One passenger told CNN the plane was speeding up when she heard a loud popping sound. No one was hurt but everyone had to deplane and take a bus back to the terminal. The FAA says it's the fourth tire mishap at the airport this month.

All right. A climber finally rescued in northern Georgia after becoming stranded while scaling Mount Yonah. Goodness, look at that shot. He was stuck on 20x20-inch ledge about 260 feet above the ground. He was able to call 911 himself. And crews had to use a drone to try to locate him. They were successful. They finally were able to get him down from there.

All right. Nobody likes to see this because everybody loves a puppy. A puppy stuck in a drainpipe. Crews used water to flush the little guy out of there towards the end of the pipe before they were able to finally -- to finally grab him. You see him there. The puppy was then taken back to the station to get cleaned up and reset before he was handed over -- oh, he's so cute -- to animal services. May he find a little home.

All right. As the AI boom is taking off, one of the biggest names in tech has a very stark warning. Bill Gates published a 6,000-word essay Wednesday proposing major limits on AI's development, saying "While it can provide great benefits, this new era could create one of the most turbulent times in human history." He went into more detail speaking with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

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BILL GATES, CO-FOUNDER, MICROSOFT: I'm more focused in this memo on how do we get through this incredibly turmoil-ridden period we'll have where society is adjusting to this completely unprecedented set of capabilities. And, you know, I'm saying don't think that they're going to stop and not be good at things. There's people who, you know, think oh, they must -- they must -- you're going to reach some upper bound. For the majority of jobs that is not the case.

And so the silence is what really drove me to speak out at this point because we have to get everybody's voice in this, you know. These are a set of democratic tradeoffs that have to be made. And, you know, people think OK, I'll block a data center. That really isn't going to slow things down. Data centers will show up somewhere. We have to take the AI issue -- and it's the bad versus the good -- on in a very explicit way.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": One of the things you write -- you said this is either going to be the greatest equalizer ever invented or the worst source of injustice.

Which one do you think it is right now if you had to guess? Which one is it going to be? GATES: I still believe that if we activate society broadly, both as users, as -- you know, a lot of experts. You know, what I am saying is that for all of the challenges there would be serious review and a criterion under which a model had to meet things like being monitorable for creating bioterrorism tools. And so I still think it's within our grasp to shape this in a net positive way.

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