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Trump's First Midterm Ads Put Him Front And Center; U.S. Military Escorts 40 Ships, 18 Million Barrels Of Oil Through Strait of Hormuz; Leading U.S. Medical Groups Issue Vaccine Guidance, Filling CDC Void. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 03, 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]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The president is not on the ballot in November as you know, but his political operation is firing up its first ads of the midterms and they're pretty much all about him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, POLITICAL AD: We will be prosperous. We will be proud. We will be strong and we will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Joining me now is Jackie Kucinich, the Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe, and Scott McFarlane. He is the chief Washington correspondent for the Meidas Touch Network. Thank you so much, both of you, for being here.

Scott, you are here in person. You get the first stab at this.

Look, that was the first ad. It doesn't even address congressional races. It talks nothing of Congress. It is all about the president. With the president's approval rating basically in the toilet -- I mean, can you figure out why they would put that out first?

SCOTT MCFARLANE, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, MEIDAS TOUCH NETWORK: Yeah. Perhaps they want to boost that toilet-laden poll rating by putting some flowering, positive ads on the air.

Here's the thing. It's like trying to mix the vegetables into the macaroni and cheese to convince kids to eat the vegetables. If they're going to try to boost Trump's numbers through these ads without putting any prescriptive fixes he's made to the economy, any changes he's undertaken, without boosting the candidates on the ground, they are just masking a problem. They're not solving a problem.

SIDNER: All right. Interesting way to put it -- mixing the vegetables into --

MCFARLANE: That's my move.

SIDNER: That's you, but OK.

Jackie, when it comes to -- Jackie's like I'm not eating over there and I'm not going to eat that.

Jackie when it comes to Texas because this is one of those races that you know it came up and ended up surprising people where the Senate race is now competitive between Democratic State Rep. James Talarico and, you know, Paxton. When you consider what they are doing -- where the focus has been mostly on Trump and what he has done, are you surprised that they haven't dumped a ton of money into Texas? We are now two months away from the midterms.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): Well, and if you talk to Republicans -- to your point, Sara -- they'll say this. Paxton is Trump's fault. He's the one who endorsed him and caused him to be elevated over John Cornyn, who was the incumbent. So this mess in Texas is actually -- it can be traced right back to President Trump.

And I think Republicans really want him -- his organization spending because they can't get donors to donate to Ken Paxton because they know what a flawed candidate he is.

So whether or not -- I mean, I think the money has to come there because John Thune said the other day -- I'm going to paraphrase here -- we need that -- we need that seat. And if they are worried about Texas and dumping money into Texas, think about all the other places they're not going to be spending money. But that is the bed they made and they're going to have to lie in it.

SIDNER: There is a lot of money that remains unspent. We will see where it goes next.

Look, the Democrats also have their own issues as in any race.

This morning, Politico Playbook reporting something interesting about Kamala Harris, and they're saying that they're asking -- some candidates in red states are asking her to stay away, saying a parade of Democrats running in red states -- telling Kamala Harris to stay away from their campaigns. The former vice president is shrugging it off. Harris' orbit, for the first time, is acknowledging her potential toxicity to these Democrats.

All right. So to you Scott. How unusual is it to tell a former vice president -- to say look, you've got to back away from these races because you will hurt us? The best thing you can do is to stay away.

MCFARLANE: It's an unusual year. Unusual things are going to happen. There is an anti-establishment wave which is forming across the country, not anti-Trump per se or anti-incumbent. Anti-institutions leadership -- congressional leadership is not popular right now.

SIDNER: Right.

MCFARLANE: Previous politicians, current politicians are not. There's a number of voters out there -- impactful swing voters who

will decide elections and they are frustrated by institutions, by people in power. They want change agents.

Bringing politicians to campaign with you when you're running in Iowa, where Harris lost by 13, isn't going to help you.

SIDNER: All right, Jackie. I do want to quickly get to Pete Hegseth. Republican Thom Tillis calling for the defense secretary to leave -- to be replaced after yet another high level military official ended up resigning. That is Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. And it's just one in a line of top military brass that has left.

And Tillis is saying, look, Hegseth is inept. Here's what he said exactly. "He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force."

So, Jackie, is there any indication that other Republicans are feeling the same and would join Tillis?

KUCINICH: So, I think what Tillis said are very strong words. Obviously --

SIDNER: Yeah.

KUCINICH: -- the only Republican that matters in this scenario is Donald Trump. And until Pete Hegseth loses the confidence of Donald Trump, which it doesn't seem that he has, he's there. So really, it's hard for me to see anything changing in that scenario unless you have the president really making moves against him, and we just haven't seen that.

[07:35:10]

SIDNER: We have not seen that. In fact, it seems like he's getting closer and closer.

And Scott, just quickly, when it comes to Democrats, I've seen that a few of them are now outwardly and openly saying we should try to impeach Pete Hegseth.

Could that actually make a problem for them? Could that make Trump dig in more, you think?

MCFARLANE: They're saying that because it's politically advantageous to say that as a Democrat right now, which is telling for Pete Hegseth -- one quick note, Mark Kelly, military veteran --

SIDNER: Yeah.

MCFARLANE: -- and Democrat from Arizona, told me we don't have a lethality problem like Pete Hegseth says. He says the problem is sometimes we have idiots running things -- Mark Kelly's words.

SIDNER: And that is the way a lot of Democrats and clearly at least one Republican feels about all this.

It is so good to have you here, Scott.

MCFARLANE: Likewise.

SIDNER: Thank you so much for being here. Thank you to you, Jackie Kucinich as well -- Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, very soon, the jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial will be back in court a day after telling the judge for a second time that they cannot reach a verdict. The case could be headed for a mistrial if jurors can't break the deadlock soon. Yesterday the judge gave a final instruction known as the dynamite charge, urging them to keep working toward a unanimous decision.

Now the jury of nine women and three men has now spent nearly 30 hours weighing the fate of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three children. And Clancy, to this point, has pleaded not guilty by lack of criminal responsibility.

But a whole lot to talk about here. I want to bring in Brandi Harden, a criminal defense lawyer. And let's just start with -- look, we're waiting for court to come back in. It's been days to this point. They seem deadlocked.

How likely is it that jurors at this point break that deadlock and get to a unanimous decision?

BRANDI HARDEN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER: So, you know, oftentimes when juries are deadlocked, it really does show the integrity of the jury system. People have gotten in their camps. Either folks really believe in guilt, or they really believe in, in this case, not guilty by reason of insanity.

And I really do think oftentimes when you get two notes like this, like the first time saying we're deadlocked and now another one, even though the judge gives this sort of dynamite charge, it's really hard to get people to change their minds.

And certainly as a defense attorney, you like that. You don't want people to be swayed once they're in the not guilty camp to be changing their minds into guilty. And I think the same is true for the prosecutor. You don't really want people that are on the guilty camp to be changing their minds into not guilty.

And so I think it shows that people are really taking this serious and that they're voting their conscience.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, when -- if they come back and let's just say they're not able to come to unanimous decision, does the judge have to at that point declare a mistrial? Like what is the discretion to potentially keep the jury deliberating further if they're not able to come to a decision?

HARDEN: So, 30 hours is a really long time, even though this was a pretty long trial. And so the judge is most likely going to declare a mistrial after this next note comes back saying that we're deadlocked because it becomes coercive, right? It makes people think we're never going to get out of here and then people are not really voting their conscience. They're voting just to get out of the jury room and we never want that. You don't want a judge to be coercing a verdict and more likely than not, he will declare our mistrial after the next note comes back.

JIMENEZ: All right, Brandi Harden. Really appreciate the time and perspective. Thanks for being here.

HARDEN: Sure.

JIMENEZ: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much. Appreciate it, Omar.

New CNN reporting. Officials telling CNN the U.S. military escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying about 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday. That is a wartime high.

And they did this as they traded strikes with Iran. U.S. officials say they hit dozens of Iranian targets, including air defense systems, radar systems, maritime assets, minelaying capabilities, and communication sites, all while fending off waves of drone attacks and anti-ship cruise missiles.

President Trump took to social media to tout the mission's success, suggesting to rename the strait the Trump Strait.

But oil prices are still about 95 bucks a barrel compared to $60 before the war.

Joining me now is CNN global affairs analyst. Kim Dozier.

I want to get a sense of what this means where the administration is basically trying to notch a win here, saying, hey, we're able to get these ships through the strait now filled with oil.

Does this tell you that the that the war is shifting? That that they're getting the upper hand in the strait?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: This would have to go on for quite some time to be able to say that shipping is open or that shipping is safe going through the Strait of Hormuz.

[07:40:00]

The oil prices are still high, and the fact of the matter is every single time a ship decides to go through with a U.S. military escort, they know that they are an Iranian target. It is a crapshoot. You just have to hope that the U.S. missile systems and the anti-drone systems will keep you safe. But that is, you know, a multimillion dollar bet every time you make the journey.

SIDNER: Yeah, and obviously the companies that are doing this have to agree to all of this and it's a dangerous mission.

At the same time --

DOZIER: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- we're seeing some real concerns inside the Pentagon about the strain of this war. Reports about commanders raising concerns of the duration of deployments.

How serious is this?

DOZIER: Yeah. In addition to the danger of escorting these ships through, there is the cost -- not just the cost that the U.S. taxpayer is paying, but the stress on the troops and the wear and tear on the ships themselves.

That's why you saw Washington Post reporting about a number of senior military commanders saying that they non-concurred. They disagreed with an extension of the deployment of their troops and the equipment because of the strain. Now, the president can -- and the Secretary of Defense can take that in, listen to it, and overrule it.

But from their perspective, these senior commanders were saying this is going to leave us less prepared, say, if China decides to seize Taiwan or we face some other war somewhere else. We're going to be tired and on the backfoot.

SIDNER: Exhaustion often leads to mistakes or misjudgments in any job. And of course, in what they're doing, it means lives are at stake.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is looking at the leadership of the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and saying he's inept. I mean, he has come for him very hard this time. It's the second time he has questioned his leadership. And he says, look, he's focusing more on culture war issues instead of the actual war.

When you consider what has happened here with so many people -- the top military brass walking away or being fired -- where does that leave us? Where does that leave the military at this point in time?

DOZIER: Well, with the departures, a lot of them being dismissals and some of them being, you know, senior officers deciding that I can't work within this structure and deciding to take early retirement, it does take out essentially the top of the pyramid. The military, yes, is vast in size. But once you get to the senior leadership, it takes millions of dollars and decades of service to get to those top ranks.

And around each of those generals, for instance, you've got chiefs of staff and their staff -- their mentees that they have brought along with them. And with each of those departures, it leaves people in the lower ranks wondering, should I stay? Do I not fit?

At the same time, I have to say I've also heard from many in the military community who are entirely for the culture war stuff that Hegseth has been doing, and especially people who've commanded lower level combat units, the rank and file. They say that this really kind of stuff had an effect on them.

So as much as I -- as someone who wants to see more women serving at the higher ranks in the military and have seen the DEI programs make it safer for people within the military to speak out when they feel discriminated against, I've also talked to a number of people who still serve who think that it just got too woke. So within the military, you've got this debate going on and Hegseth represents one strong side of it.

SIDNER: Kimberly Dozier, thank you so much. Thank you for your reporting there too as well. Appreciate it -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, as the school year begins, doctors are filling the void left by the CDC on vaccines. We'll fill you in on that void plus what parents need to know about the flu, COVID, and RSV shots this fall.

Plus, knocked flat down on the street by lightning. I mean, literally knocked down to the ground and somehow still alive and gets right back up, trying his luck by buying a Mega Millions lottery ticket. We'll tell you what happened after this split-second, man, strike by lightning -- crazy.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:48:55]

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, women's rights trailblazer and feminist icon Gloria Steinem has died. Steinem's storied career spanned decades. She fought for women in the workplace, access to abortion, and sex education. She became the face of a second wave feminism in the 1960s and 70s and co-founded Ms. Magazine. She was also a celebrated author and journalist.

In 2013, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Here's Steinem in her own words after receiving the honor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA STEINEM, SOCIAL ACTIVIST AND JOURNALIST: I feel blessed and enthusiastic and lucky to be part of a movement that is fundamental. Humans are communal animals. We need to have that kind of shared community, which doesn't have to do with how different we are. We need to be different. We learn from difference, not from sameness, but from shared values.

[07:50:00]

And I have that. I mean, that's what you have in a movement. It's huge. And so it enables you to keep going and also to be angry when you need to be angry and to do unacceptable things when you -- because you know that there's somebody over there that's going to understand why you did it.

We are linked as human beings, not ranked, but we are also linked to the environment to try altogether to have a paradigm in life that's a circle, not a pyramid, not a hierarchy. To have companions in that worldview. And then at the same time, you know, that we understand that we're a shared humanity and to also understand that we're each unique. We are each the combination of, who knows, millennia of environment and heredity that got combined in this particular way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: A post on her official Instagram page says Steinem died peacefully yesterday, surrounded by some of the many who loved her. It went on to say, "Gloria's greatest gift was her ability to listen to others. To make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lives true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor."

Steinem stayed busy up until the end. She has a new memoir due out later this month. Gloria Steinem was 92 years old -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: I mean, just working truly till the end off across so much.

Now look, with kids back in school and the flu, COVID-19 and RSV all in the air -- a threat this year again -- medical groups are now leading the charge to guide Americans on what vaccines they should get and when.

Now this guidance is typically released by the CDC in the fall, but the agency has been mostly silent, especially for this year, and this year for physician groups along with the American Medical Association and the vaccine project have stepped in to fill that void.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANDRA A. FRYHOFER, PRESIDENT-ELECT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: We're doing this work because we've seen how confidence and vaccines has declined and this devastating effect it's having on our patients. We're dangerously close to losing our measles elimination status. And hundreds of children died from flu in the past two flu seasons. We must restore trust in vaccines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: So let's talk about this now with Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's also a former member of the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee.

So look, some might look at the CDC saying, hey, last year's recommendations also apply this year and say, OK, sounds good. But why is it significant -- the lack of guidance we're getting from the CDC for this year?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA, FORMER MEMBER, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE (via Webex by Cisco): I think it's the lack of promotion.

So, for example, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took over as Secretary of Health and Human Services, he immediately canceled their influenza vaccine promotion effort, which was called "Wild to Mild," which was perfect because that described exactly what you're trying to do with that vaccine. You're trying to tame it, not eliminate it, rather, with that virus.

Because every year for all three of these viruses -- influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, the virus that causes COVID -- those three viruses each caused hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths. But even if everybody in the world got those vaccines every year, those viruses would still circulate because their short incubation period infections.

So the goal is to keep children out of the hospital, keep them out of the intensive care unit, keep them out of the morgue, and that's what the CDC used to promote with these different campaigns. But I think these organizations now feel like it's up to them to do their promotion because the CDC is stepping back.

JIMENEZ: I mean, how significant is that for you as someone who has obviously worked in this field across your career and has seen multiple iterations of the CDC come and go? Have you seen a dynamic quite like this? And I just wonder how you contextualize that.

OFFIT: No. While you've seen definitely different leaders at the CDC, now it's a different time. We have, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, someone who for 20 years has been an anti-vaccine activist and science denialist. I mean, really, a few months ago, in front of CBS News, he said he thought children might be better off not getting an influenza vaccine, even though last year, 2026, about 300 children died of influenza. This year about 200 children have died of influenza. We haven't seen numbers that big since 2009.

And I think that's why these organizations feel it's up to them now to stand up for the science and to stand up for children because our Secretary of Health and Human Services isn't doing that.

JIMENEZ: So we're looking at -- we're talking about primarily four major medical organizations that now have released their own respiratory vaccine recommendations. And, you know, you were laying out the significance of that.

[07:55:00]

But are the vaccine schedules that different than what is typically the CDC guidance? I just wonder how Americans should be parsing through what they might see from these various groups.

OFFIT: Though the schedules that are put out by, for example, the American Academy of Pediatrics is essentially right now the schedule that's being put out by the CDC. But you saw that both President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to change that schedule when they said they wanted to go from 17 routinely recommended vaccines for children down to 10 or 11.

And so I think what these organizations are doing, they're saying, here's the science, here's the recommendations. Even though neither Trump nor RFK Jr. were successful at changing that schedule, they still cast doubt and created chaos. and confusion. These groups are trying to lessen that confusion.

JIMENEZ: Dr. Paul Offit, always appreciate your perspective. Thank you for being here, especially as we're seeing what you described as really an unprecedented guidance dynamic here. Thank you for being here -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Omar.

In New York, a man takes a direct hit from a lightning bolt in Staten Island, and he survived this. It was all caught on a neighbor's doorbell camera. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS FAHMY, STRUCK BY LIGHTNING: Can I come in, please?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes -- please come, come. Are you OK? I'm calling an ambulance for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That was the moment the lightning struck and then you see him survive it. The man was able to get up, and you saw him stagger over to a neighbor's house right after getting struck. He says he felt incredible numbness and a strange tingling all over his body and also burning pain. But somehow, he wasn't seriously injured.

He went to church on Sunday to thank God and then he did what a lot of us would do -- he bought a lottery ticket -- smart man.

All right. Police in New Hampshire are searching for an aggressive animal that has attacked at least three people. This one was caught on camera. Officials say the animal is believed to be a rabid gray fox or what's known as a fisher cat, which is a member of the weasel family. Officials are using thermal imaging drones now to search for the rabid animal. They're urging anyone who is scratched or bitten by it to go straight to the hospital.

Now for the first time, Travis Kelsey is opening up about his July wedding to Taylor Swift on his "New Heights" podcast. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end shared a few details about the star-studded ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS KELCE, TIGHT END, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: It was insane. It's a night I -- we'll never forget. Me and Taylor are so thankful for everybody that showed up, you know. From the vows to, you know, just seeing everyone, to how much fun we had throughout the entire evening and hearing that kind of be relayed through everybody's stories of the night. And it was just so magical, man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. One of the most magical moments, Kelsey said, was from officiating that he got from Adam Sandler. He says the actor got ordained in New York just to marry him and Taylor. The duo got married at Madison Square Garden in an ultra-private ceremony -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: If there was anyone I would trust to handle a rabid gray fox, it would be you, Sara. So I'm going outside with you these days.

SIDNER: No problem.

JIMENEZ: All right. Meanwhile, the nation's largest school district is deleting AI in class for young students. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani imposing new limits on generative AI for public school students through the eighth grade, so we're talking nearly 600,000 kids impacted here.

CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy has been following this story and joins us now with more. It's pretty significant.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: It is huge --

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

DUFFY: -- from the nation's largest school district --

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

DUFFY: -- and as kids gear up to go back to school next week.

So this is going to be a one-year moratorium on generative AI in school for 2K through 8th graders. High schoolers will have limited access to AI through a select set of tools. They will also be given AI critical thinking classes to learn about the benefits, but also the downsides and the risks of this technology. Companion chat bots which, of course, have raised a number of safety concerns -- those will be banned for all grades.

And this policy also includes screen time limits by grade. So just for example, there will be a 30-minute cap on individual classroom screentime for 3rd through 5th graders. That'll go up as kids get older. There are also exceptions to this policy for kids with disabilities or who are learning English.

But all of this really aimed, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, at protecting the relationships between students, between students and their teachers, and then to ensure that kids develop the critical thinking skills that they need as they go through school.

I also just want to play for you a portion of what the mayor said about this policy yesterday. Take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK CITY: The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary. We do not see it that way. I have yet to see a study showing that AI is beneficial for students in elementary and middle school, with the exception, of course, of research sponsored by the very corporations that stand to profit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)