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Lindsay Clancy's Attorney Speaks Out After Mistrial; U.S. Officials Discussing Smaller Presence in Mideast; NTSB Gives Update After Deadly Amazon Cargo Plane Crash; Hunter Biden to Launch Meme Coin Inspired by Laptop. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 08, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Taxpayer funded security meets this week, perhaps as soon as today. And of course, the Sussexes will be hoping for a change in terms of the security, particularly when it comes to protecting their children here in the UK. So the timing of the message perhaps is interesting.

From the King's point of view, he's pointing out that there is no change in their roles. I would like to show you some very exciting news. Not surprising at all.

Prince George did start his first day at school. He's starting at Eton in the footsteps of his father and his uncle. He looked calm and confident.

He is wearing not the school uniform yet, not the archaic traditional tailcoat. Frankly, he looks quite relaxed. I know he's wearing a suit and tie, but there we go.

He will be full time boarding. So this will be a new experience for him.

He's tried boarding before. This will be full time. He's a lucky boy. His parents only live 15 minutes down the road.

And you know what? He can see Windsor Castle from the school. So he'll feel right at home.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Very prestigious school. Wonder how he managed to get in. Anna Stewart, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this hour, the breaking news. The first sit down interview with Lindsay Clancy's attorney since the mistrial. What Kevin Reddington is saying now is prosecutors are deciding whether to retry this murder case.

And there's new video this morning from that deadly cargo plane crash in Miami. A crew member jumping from the aircraft moments after federal investigators are now on the scene trying to figure out what went so horribly wrong here.

And maybe, possibly, employee of the year and century. Cameras catching a supermarket worker racing to save a small child who ran into traffic. I cannot watch that.

I am Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, breaking this morning, Lindsay Clancy's attorney sitting down for his first television interview after a judge declared a mistrial for the Massachusetts mother charged with killing her three children. Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, lashed out publicly on one holdout juror. That was the reason there was a hung jury.

Reddington now clarified his comments about that juror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Split was 11 to 1. Was that in favor, as far as you know, of not guilty by reason of insanity?

KEVIN REDDINGTON, LINDSAY CLANCY'S ATTORNEY: I believe so, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what do you make of the one juror who was holding out?

REDDINGTON: You know, again, I, at the end of the case, made statements to the effect that I was upset. And the reason I was upset, I would defend that individual's right to be a holdout forever. That's part of our judicial system.

And I respect that. And I would certainly defend his right to do that. What I was upset about was after that lengthy trial and the work that everyone put into this case, including these jurors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN's Jean Casarez, who's been covering this case from the beginning. That is a dramatic walk back from that attorney.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely dramatic walk back because he said that he thanked and appreciated all the jurors except one. And he hoped that he didn't get a good night's sleep for a long time. So this is definitely saying now that he would actually defend someone to hold their ground and to keep deliberating.

But the issue was that he believed that he wasn't following the law. You know, I think when we look at this interview, some things that were unexpected were said. And I think the highlight was because he was asked about District Attorney Cruz.

And you said that you absolutely crushed him in this case. And he back walked that and he said, I've known Cruz for a long time. And he seemed to imply he would agree to a plea deal.

I mean, let's listen to what you think. Let's listen to what he said just minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REDDINGTON: He reached out, she went to the woman and infant. She went to the suicide hotlines. She reached out to everybody and anybody that would listen to her and kept saying, I am not good.

I am not well. And it was ignored.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's next for Lindsay?

REDDINGTON: I'd like to say that perhaps Donald Trump, who felt compelled to speak out about this case, may very well. Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady the type of person she is, what she's been through and consider a pardon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: So he's asking the president of the United States to issue a pardon. But John, there's been no conviction. And first of all, this is this is a state level.

BERMAN: Yes, that attorney should know that.

CASAREZ: He wasn't allowed to explain his answer, wasn't asked a question after that.

[08:05:00]

But what he did say was that hopefully in regard to District Attorney Cruz, we will be able to work out something acceptable to both sides. So what does that tell us? He doesn't want a retrial. And that's called a plea deal right there.

Prosecutors are not in a plea deal. It's a negotiation, right? So conceivably, in trial, we had first degree, second degree. We had manslaughter, which many thought would be a compromise with the jury potentially.

And then we had not guilty on several levels. So he's pleading on the public steps, right, to the district attorney, it appears. But as far as a pardon, that's only to someone who is convicted.

And as you said, it's only the federal level the president can handle.

BERMAN: All right, Jean Casarez, very likely the next steps of this will be happening behind closed doors. We'll have to wait and see.

CASAREZ: Absolutely.

BERMAN: Thank you very much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we've got some new CNN reporting for you this morning. Multiple sources telling CNN reporters U.S. military and intelligence officials are discussing a similar presence -- a smaller, excuse me, presence in the Middle East if the Trump administration ends up succeeding in ending the Iran war. The recent fighting with Iran has exposed vulnerabilities, of course.

CNN's Zach Cohen joining me now with his new reporting. You talk about the plan after the war. So far, we don't have a plan to end the war.

But what did you learn from intelligence officials and military officials in this?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Sara, it's interesting that even as the U.S. maintains about 50,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East and even as the war with Iran continues on, U.S. military and intelligence officials are quietly discussing what comes next, what comes after if the Trump administration is able to successfully end the Iran war. One that has exploited and exposed some of the vulnerabilities to U.S. facilities in the region, drone attacks, missile attacks against U.S. bases and installations in places like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, places that the U.S. has for years maintained a very large physical presence and continues to launch aircraft and house military assets in those places.

U.S. officials are looking at potentially reducing and cutting the size of that physical presence, potentially as early as next year. And, of course, part of these discussions, while informal at this stage still, are intended to try to anticipate what might be acceptable to President Donald Trump should he successfully end the conflict with Iran. We know the president ran on a platform of no new wars.

We also know that this war with Iran has been expanded and on a timeline that's far greater and far longer than the weeks-long conflict he initially promised.

And so the U.S. is grappling with those sort of competing motivations, both conversations that are happening in military and intelligence circles, but also there is an element of politics to all this as well. And this is something that we have seen several successive presidents, dating back to the 9-11 terrorist attacks, really have to wrestle with as well. We've seen multiple presidents pledge to pivot from the Middle East towards other U.S. geopolitical priorities yet unsuccessfully doing so. We've even seen President Trump say that he wants to see U.S. forces dramatically reduce their involvement in the Middle East as well.

But, again, starting yet another conflict there coming after years and decades of war and U.S. military intervention. So, ultimately, we'll have to see what the U.S. and what the Trump administration decides as far as the U.S. military posture in the Middle East going forward. But sort of making clear to us that these vulnerabilities to these installations were known prior to the Iran conflict.

But, again, those attacks and the damage inflicted upon those U.S. bases has really added some urgency to addressing those problems, to potentially hardening the defenses of some of those installations in the meantime as well by moving more of the assets underground. But ultimately, U.S. officials have been clear they want to reduce the size of the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East.

SIDNER: All right, we will have to wait and see how this all plays out, because we are still in the midst of that war. Thank you so much, Zach Cohen. Great reporting from you, as always -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And there is new video after that deadly Amazon cargo plane crash. A crew member seen jumping from the burning plane after it crash-landed and hit several vehicles on the ground. Five people are dead, others injured.

And also, breaking overnight, a brazen heist and four priceless paintings stolen, two of them, though, dropped on the way out.

And a driver loses control and crashes right into a collection of classic cars.

[08:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So this morning, there are a lot of unanswered questions still after that Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami. The NTSB is definitely on site. But then they are set to hold a news conference later today to offer an update.

Five people were killed when that plane overshot the runway and crashed into multiple cars. There's also new video, a new angle if you will, from moments after it all happened. It appears to show a crew member jumping from the burning plane.

As you can see, the smoke and fire on the far side. CNN's Pete Muntean is live at Miami's International Airport. What could we -- it's still quite early, obviously, in this investigation, Pete, what could -- are you expecting to hear from NTSB today?

[08:15:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The NTSB did something called planting the flag yesterday, their initial press conference where they lay out the basic facts of what they know. Today we may get a bit of a better readout of what is on the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, which were sent on a 7:22 p.m. flight back to the NTSB's recorders lab in Washington, D.C. for early analysis. That new video is also very telling. That angle we have never seen before. It was actually taken here on Northwest 67th Avenue, and it shows one of the pilots jumping free from the plane to safety out of the front left cabin door, the right side of the airplane on fire at the time.

The NTSB did get a good look at the scene yesterday. They toured it for the first time. A crew of about 30 investigators are here on the scene.

They have not yet interviewed the pilots, but the NTSB did get a good look of this scene, including the white Econoline van. Seven people on board that van that was on the interior perimeter road inside the airport fence hit broadside by that Boeing 767 going about 130 miles per hour, according to preliminary flight tracking data. And I want you to listen to NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy as I asked her how to describe this scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIR: I would describe it in one word of devastating, utter devastation. I mean, you can see on the paved surface tire marks that continues through the grass. There's debris everywhere.

The Econoline van is torn apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: That van operated by Professional Ocean Service Corporation. That is a cleaning company here on Miami International Airport. We have reached out to that company.

We have not heard back yet. By the way, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder will be very telling. We have only heard the air traffic control audio, which is essentially one side of the conversation here, indicating that there was no real problem with the airplane leading up to this crash.

But the voice recorder will tell some key details here. Did the pilots realize that they were coming in too high and too fast? What was the interplay between them?

And did they try to abort this landing that clearly went terribly wrong?

BOLDUAN: Terribly, terribly wrong. Pete, thank you so much for being there. Much more to come from Miami today -- John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now. Hurricane Lowell rewrites the record books as it slams Hawaii.

And then they broke a 100-year record, the wrong kind, the longest losing streak in baseball history. But then something truly miraculous happened.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Hunter Biden is entering the world of crypto with his own meme coin, the name inspired by the controversial laptop seized by the FBI in 2019 that became a target for Republicans. CNN's Matt Egan is with us now, so explain what's going on here.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, John, look, the laptop from hell is back, and soon you can own a piece of it. Hunter Biden reportedly launching a meme coin tomorrow. This meme coin will trade under the ticker symbol "$LAPTOP," and it is expected to trade on base, which is a digital ledger launched by Coinbase.

Now, Hunter Biden himself, he did appear to confirm most of this in this post on X over the weekend that included a mashup of Trump officials criticizing the infamous Hunter Biden laptop. Now, just some other details here about meme coins. Remember, meme coins, they are tradable securities.

They're based on viral sensations, internet memes. But what's important to remember is they have no intrinsic value. And unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, there's actually no practical real world purpose for them.

Now, this meme coin in particular, the founders are going to hold 30 percent of the tokens that includes Hunter Biden himself. However, these founder tokens, they can't be sold for six months, and they won't fully vest for two years. Now, 20 percent is also going to be sent to people who lost money on the Trump meme coin and to subscribers of Hunter Biden Substack.

Now, one thing to remember about meme coins is that they are susceptible to a con job known as rug pulls, where the developers, they pump up the value, but then they step away and the value crashes, leaving investors with massive losses. And look, this might be the first time that a controversial laptop from a political scandal was ever used as a meme coin, but it's not the first time there's been a political meme coin, right?

Eric Adams, the former New York City mayor, launching a meme coin earlier this year that is down almost 90 percent from the peak. The president, just a few days before he started his second term, his meme coin is now down 97 percent. And First Lady Melania Trump's meme coin down 99 percent from the peak.

So a lot of crashing and burning for the politically themed meme coins. And I think this helps explain why Matthew Tuttle, a Wall Street executive, he told me that, yes, these meme coins, they could be amusing, but he said they're really stupid. Investors should just stay away because they're just too dangerous.

BERMAN: I'm not an investment expert, but those don't seem like very strong returns.

EGAN: You nailed it.

BERMAN: All right, I am getting it.

EGAN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: Those numbers say stay away unless you like losing money.

All right, a heroic save caught on camera, a bystander saving a child. Look at this. Who ran into oncoming traffic. That story is just ahead.

[08:25:00] Plus, we're tracking oil prices this morning. Prices are nearing, once again, $100 a barrel for the first time in months. Those stories and much more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, major escalation in this trade war between allies and neighbors. Canada's new retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. have now kicked in today. Up to 50 percent on all kinds of American goods. We're talking about aluminum and steel, dairy, agricultural equipment, electronics, paper, appliances. All total the new tariffs impact about $20 billion ...

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