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Trump: Renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America "Effective Immediately"; Now: Deliberations Underway in Lindsay Clancy Trial; HHS Secretary Kennedy: PA Governor's Office May Have "Altogether Fabricated" Reports of Measles Deaths. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 27, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news on the trade war with Canada. President Trump making his "Lake America" move. Just a short time ago, signing an executive order saying he will change Lake Ontario's name effective immediately. A poster behind him reading, make the Great Lakes even greater as he slammed America's neighbor to the north.

We're joined now by the mayor of Brampton, Ontario, Patrick Brown. Brampton is one of Canada's largest manufacturing and logistics hubs.

Mayor, thank you so much for joining us again.

You live right on Lake Ontario. What is your reaction to this news?

MAYOR PATRICK BROWN, BRAMPTON, ONTARIO: Well, we're still going to call it Lake Ontario. I think many of you will still call it Lake Ontario. The only person who's going to have a -- a trouble with what to call it is -- is your president. The whole notion is a bit preposterous. And just like if our prime minister wanted to rename the Mississippi, you'd probably get a chuckle out of it. It's having the same reaction in Canada.

SANCHEZ: The U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, spoke with a Canadian broadcaster last night, pushing back on some of the retaliatory measures that Canada has taken in recent months. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: Canada is the only country to retaliate against us besides China. And even with China, we've kind of settled out. So, really, it's just Canada at this point. Canada has banned the -- the sale of -- of liquor and spirits. We haven't banned anything from Canada. You know, they've capped the type of autos we can bring in. They've banned certain goods and services from procurement in the provinces.

Again, we've never done these bans ...

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: What is your response?

BROWN: I think Canadians want free trade. You know, we have a great partnership that was built by Ronald Reagan and Brian Rooney, who both understood tariffs cause massive inflation, make us less competitive. We don't want tariffs on either side of the border. This is not a trade war that Canada has sought. And frankly, we're bewildered why the President is engaging this economic aggression against Canada. We want to continue to build an economic fortress in North America.

The only people sipping champagne right now are competitors from Asia and the EU who look at this chaos in North America right now as an opportunity to enhance market share. You know, let's be competitive again. Let's not create this North American disadvantage.

SANCHEZ: In 2023, the U.S. imported some 33 million megawatt hours of electricity from Canada. That ultimately represents less than 1 percent of annual U.S. electricity consumption. So, when you have Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatening to cut off that area's electricity supply to the U.S., how do you feel about the leverage that Canada has there? Is it something that wouldn't be damaging to Canada's economy, too, potentially?

BROWN: Listen, right now, I think both countries are looking at different tools in the toolbox during this trade war. But these are tools no one wants to use. At the end of the day, we want to get back to building great products together. You know, we've built great products together for 120 years. We consider ourselves America's closest friend and ally. We fought world wars together, faced adversity together. And frankly, you've got Canadian families that live in the U.S. and vice versa.

We are so intertwined that this entire aggression against Canada, I think a lot of Americans find it bewildered. Well, in Canada, we find it even more bewildering that -- that this is actually happening.

SANCHEZ: Greer also addressed an issue that we discussed earlier this week, which is French language requirements on imported products from the United States. He says that the U.S. highlighted that during negotiations. He says it is the farthest thing from a red line for the United States. He says, quote, "there is no way, you know, we would let a good deal go by for something like this."

Is it perhaps that you think Prime Minister Carney and others have made this issue overblown? Have you heard the trade representative from the U.S. denying that it's a red line?

BROWN: I'm sure there's, you know, a -- a few different reasons that the U.S. didn't want to deal at this point. The Trump administration didn't want to deal. Certainly, Canada is an officially bilingual country, and manufacturers in English Canada have to abide by those same production requirements to have labeling in -- in both languages. But I'm sure that's not the singular issue.

At the end of the day, we had a great arrangement for decades. And if you look at how closely Barack Obama worked with previous prime ministers, if you look at the relationship with Rooney and Reagan or, frankly, Clinton and Chretien, it was one of close, coordinated collaboration to the benefit of families and businesses in both our countries. And so, we just really need to get back to that.

[15:05:02]

This trade war will hurt Americans and it will hurt Canadians. It will only -- it will only be a benefit to our competitors.

SANCHEZ: Mayor Patrick Brown, we'll leave the conversation there. We look forward to the next one. Thanks for joining us.

BROWN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

KEILAR: We are now awaiting a verdict in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial. The jury, which consists of nine women and three men, has been deliberating for almost three hours. They're weighing whether the former labor and delivery nurse should be held criminally responsible for killing her three children in her family's Massachusetts home.

Clancy has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first degree murder. Her defense team argues she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three kids and then attempted suicide back in January of 2023. Prosecutors have argued that Clancy acted, quote, "deliberately and meticulously." CNN's Jean Casarez has been covering the trial since the beginning. She's with us from outside of the court.

Jean, this case has really put a national spotlight on postpartum mental health. What stood out to you during the closing arguments?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it absolutely has. Want to tell you, Brianna, that the jury -- we haven't heard a peep from them. No questions. They are deliberating, we believe. And so that means they have just gotten right to work.

In the defense closing argument, their focus with Kevin Reddington was -- was a broad focus. They really focused in on Lindsay Clancy. He was emotional. He was angry. He talked about this innocent, beautiful young mother here that loved her children more than anything, and she should not be a defendant in a courtroom, but talked about the anxiety that became postpartum depression that then morphed into bipolar, that then morphed into postpartum psychosis, and the day when the voice told her, commanded her that she was psychotic at that point, really focusing in on that, and that the health care system, it has not focused in on postpartum depression as it should, that there needs to be a change, that the DSM, which is what all psychologists and psychiatrists refer to, has one paragraph in it about postpartum depression, and there needs to be so much more.

Prosecution, completely different, focused in on the day, but also said that no question, Lindsay Clancy had a mental illness, a mental defect going on, and she tried to find help. She went to providers. Providers tried to do the best they could prescribing different medications to try to solve the issues. But when it came to the 14th, as Patrick Clancy said, it was one of the best days she had ever had, and she made decisive actions around 4 P.M. researching a restaurant to go get takeout and CVS plotting the time that it would take her husband to go there and come back. And then, the prosecution talked about this ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER SPRAGUE, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: So, why did she specifically do it? She was depressed. She was exhausted. She was done. She didn't want to try anymore. She felt damaged. But those kids, those kids were her protective factor. Those kids were keeping her from ending her misery. And so, she had to remove the protective factor. And I'm not saying she was happy about it. I'm saying that it was what she had to do to end her misery. But it was a choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: The prosecution saying that she wanted to take her life, and it was her children that stopped her from doing it, her love for her children. But then she decided she had to do it and didn't want them to have to lead a life without their own mother. The prosecution also focused in on the -- the killings themselves, that she could go anywhere in the house but went down to the basement, Dawson first, where those exercise bands were, and put them around the necks of the children individually for almost 30 minutes, trying to show the atrocity and the cruelty, which is a component of first-degree murder.

The jury now, they will have the ultimate decision. Obviously, the defense saying that there should be a not guilty here, based on no criminal responsibility, because if she's not able to appreciate the criminality of her act, we know it as mental insanity. Brianna?

KEILAR: How long will the jury deliberate today, Jean?

CASAREZ: Well, we've heard from the -- the public information officer that it will be like a normal court day, so most likely 4:00, 4:30. Now, saying that, when it gets to this point, many judges allow jurors to be in control, and if they want to keep going for a bit, they allow it, so as of this point, no communication at all. They're hard at work. And we'll see today exactly when they decide to end.

[15:10:05]

KEILAR: All right, Jean Casarez, thank you so much.

Still to come, hundreds of people killed, more than a thousand missing. We are in Nepal tracking the aftermath of that deadly flooding disaster, as fears grow that another catastrophe could come on its heels.

Plus, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggesting measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania may have been fabricated by the governor's office as he continues to spread disproven claims about the MMR vaccine. We'll have a doctor joining us to break down what's happening.

Then later, a popular roller coaster at Six Flags is linked to more than a dozen reports of injuries and hospitalizations. That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:10]

SANCHEZ: We're beginning to get a clearer picture of the devastation that people on the Nepal-China border are dealing with after catastrophic flash floods. A wall of water rushed through the remote mountain area on Wednesday. You could see it tower over this border crossing. This is what the same area looks like today. Video taken from a helicopter shows it completely covered in mud and debris.

And this new video posted on social media shows just how powerful the event actually was. That, you're seeing in the center of your screen, is a giant boulder being pushed downstream. Officials say the floods killed more than 350 people, though over 1,300 remain missing, including at least 90 Americans. Rescuers now have to contend with difficult conditions as they search for any potential survivors. CNN's Hanako Montgomery is on the ground in Nepal and filed this report just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, over there in the distance is the Trishuli River, which is the river that flooded and killed, we now know, over a hundred people and left hundreds more missing. And if you can take a look over here, there is just a massive layer of mud and debris over what used to be green rice fields. This all used to be Green Valley, and now it's just covered in debris and in mud.

And just behind me here, a team of police officers have arrived. They're ascertaining the extent of damage, and they're speaking to local villagers about who might need rescuing, who might need some assistance. We're told that the local mayor is also here to provide the police with more information.

And I just want to show you just how extensive this damage was. And you can tell here, just even on this road, at least over a hundred meters away from the actual river, you can see the mud has come up. It's blocked off parts of the road. We can't actually go any further than this because the extent of damage is just that bad. We're told that if we were trying to go further, it could be a risk to our lives. So, we're staying here for now.

But the extent of economic damage, the extent of lives lost is just immeasurable at the moment. And, of course, Nepal, the government still trying to ascertain just how many people have died and still trying to rescue those who might be in desperate, desperate need of assistance.

So, I'm walking down one of the main roads in Nepal, and this entire place used to be covered in mud. They've cleared part of it now. And I want to show you some of the damage that we've been seeing. This house, I mean, its first floor is completely submerged in floodwater. You can see some of the windows and doors just caked in mud.

This house over here, I mean, its walls have completely collapsed. It's -- it's unlivable. And down here is a gas station and, again, just completely inaccessible and totally destroyed by this floodwater and the mud and debris that are brought with it.

Now, the Nepali government has said that several hundred people have been confirmed dead, several hundred more still missing. And they are afraid that the death toll could tick up in the coming hours and days as they are still trying to find any remaining survivors. And this village that we're currently in is actually several dozen kilometers away from the worst of the damage.

So, you can imagine, if you get higher up in the Himalayan mountains, just how many people have lost their homes, their livelihoods and their loved ones. And now they're left with very little, trying to find any remnants of hope, any remnants of their family members as they try to pick up the pieces of their lives now.

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Hanako Montgomery for that report from Nepal.

So, there have been more measles cases since he took office than in the last 25 years combined. And yet, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to spread misinformation about the vaccine. He's accusing the Pennsylvania state officials -- the governor's office, of fabricating measles-related deaths. That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:43]

KEILAR: The vitriol between the Trump administration and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro over the state's measles outbreak is escalating. After Pennsylvania's health department reported two measles-related deaths, one of whom state officials said Wednesday was an infant, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. took to social media to suggest the governor's office may have fabricated the deaths for political reasons.

In a separate post, the Health Secretary went on to spread disproven claims about the MMR vaccine. Pennsylvania health officials say the residents who died were unvaccinated. These mark the first measles- related deaths in the state in 35 years and the first in the U.S. this year.

Let's talk about this with Dr. Paul Offit. He is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Offit, Pennsylvania health officials say that there are these two measles-related or measles-associated deaths. You hear what the secretary is saying, claiming this may have been, quote, altogether fabricated. How are you seeing this?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Well, so I -- I talked to a senior public health official last night for our state, and she made it very clear that because of measles, two people are dead. One of them is an infant.

[15:25:03]

Now, it would be nice, just for full transparency, to let us know the ages of those two people, the reasons for why they weren't vaccinated, and what their cause of death was, but I'm sure we'll know that soon. In any case, it's very clear that these two deaths were because of measles.

KEILAR: Okay. So, the county coroner says it has no record of measles deaths. State law requires all measles deaths to be reported to the coroner. Is this a -- a downstream effect of a breakdown in public health authority? I mean, we've already seen this lack of trust and cooperation between state and national officials. What about state and localities, particularly in Pennsylvania?

OFFIT: Right. So, again, I -- I would imagine that what's happened is that this coroner is still working on the case and hasn't yet signed the -- off on the death certificate as to the reason why, which is why there's just some hesitation. But that two children died because they were -- or two people died, one of whom was an infant, because of measles is clear, so we'll know this soon enough.

But, I mean, I think the bigger issue is that you have 400 cases that were -- roughly 400 cases that were reported and there were two deaths. That's one death per 200 people for a virus that typically has one death per thousand people. So, I think they vastly underestimated the actual size of this outbreak. And when you talk to public health officials, they agree. They have vastly underestimated the size of this outbreak.

And it's August, Brianna. I mean, this isn't measles season. Measles is typically a winter and spring disease. And so as children go back to school and we enter the winter months, I think this is going to get much worse. I think that should be the focus of our Secretary of Health and Human Services instead of sort of whining about whether or not he has enough information about these -- these deaths, which he can find out. He's the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He doesn't have to stand back and do his anti-vaccine science denial thing like he did, you know, when he was -- when we wasn't Secretary of Health and Human Services.

KEILAR: Yes. He has also recently repeated claims of aborted fetal tissue in MMR vaccines. How do you fact check that and gain the trust of people who are really worried about this kind of thing?

OFFIT: Right. So, it's the rubella component that was -- was grown in, because you have to grow viruses in cells, was grown in a -- in -- in cells that were originally obtained in the 1960s from an elective abortion that was performed in Sweden. So, there's no fetal tissue there. There's no cells there. There's -- there's -- there's very small amounts, meaning nanograms level, billionths of a grams level of residual DNA, which is -- is, according to the Catholic Church, not a reason not to get this vaccine. And it's also not in any way the reason that -- that Mennonites in that community, for example, were choosing not to get a vaccine.

So, he's just diverting attention away from the far more important issues, which is how should we handle this outbreak. He's the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He was in Lancaster County in July of 2021 decrying measles vaccine, saying how measles was no big deal. He's been there two more times since then in Lancaster County. He has everything to do with why we're seeing outbreaks that center on that region. He should take responsibility for that.

KEILAR: You mentioned the religious community there. These two measles related deaths were in Lancaster County. This is an area that is heavily populated by Amish people. It's a community with a history of vaccine opposition. We do need to be clear. We don't know if these deaths were among the Amish community. But how do you compassionately approach religious communities that are vaccine hesitant?

OFFIT: Well, so you want to find out why that's true. I -- I think what's -- what's interesting here, the -- the Mennonite community in Lancaster County has always generally been under vaccinated. But yet we haven't seen measles -- you know, we eliminated measles in the year 2000, despite the fact that they were relatively under vaccinated. Same thing with the Mennonite community in West Texas. Why is it they've become the center of the outbreaks more recently in the past year and a half is because the areas around that, those communities around them now are also under vaccinated. So, those communities can't hide in the herd to the same extent that they did before.

KEILAR: State officials are -- are saying of these two folks who are unvaccinated, one was an infant. Talk to us about the age that an infant can even be vaccinated and -- and what this underscores about the importance of that herd immunity to protect the youngest before they can be vaccinated.

OFFIT: Right. So, typically the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine is given as a two-dose vaccine. The first dose is between 12 and 15 months of age. Second dose between four to six years of age. Now, you can give that vaccine down to six months of age. And that is the current recommendation now in the -- in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. If you are living in one of these communities where measles is rampant or you're traveling to one of these communities, you should start the vaccine series at -- at six months, which then makes it a three dose series. Six months, 12 to 15 months, four to six years.

Typically, mothers have either been naturally infected or vaccinated with measles, but whereby they would transfer their antibodies transplacentally to the baby and generally protect them in this first six months, which is why the vaccine doesn't work as well in the first ...

[15:30:10]