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Trump Says He Expects Iran Talks To Resume This Week; U.K. Police Arrest Five Men On Suspicion Of Terror Offenses Near Air Base Used By U.S. Forces; Skyrocketing Diesel Prices Hurting American Farmers; Republicans Go On Offense For Democratic House And Senate Seats; Testimony Resumes Tomorrow In Caleb Flynn Murder Trial. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired September 27, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

MICHAEL FITZ, FOUNDER, FAT BEAR WEEK: He limped all summer as a yearling cub back in 2007 when I first saw him, and he powered through that. Now he is a very big, successful adult male at Brooks River. His before and after photos looked great. He's not the biggest bear in the river, but Fat Bear Week isn't just about body mass. It's also about considering the stories of those individuals.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Honestly, you could plug this right into any college football playoffs, any basketball playoffs, the metaphors are all there. Taught you about toughness and resilience. You taught me a lot, too.

Michael Fitz, appreciate you taking the time. Good to see you.

FITZ: You're welcome. Happy Fat Bear Week.

JIMENEZ: There we go. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM, folks. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York.

Tonight President Donald Trump is suggesting U.S. negotiators will engage in talks with Iran this week. The president's comments come just a day after he rejected Iran's latest proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. He called that proposal unacceptable.

CNN correspondent Julia Benbrook joins us now from the White House.

So, Julia, let's start with what the president is saying about these potential talks.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you pointed out, President Donald Trump says that he believes that talks with Iran in some form are possible in this next week. And he said this in an interview with Axios. I want to pull part of it up for you now. He said specifically, "I expect more talks with Iran. They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal I want to make. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand."

Now there he seems to be referring to a recent proposal from Iran that they said would lead to the swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange to some of its long standing demands of the United States. Trump has said that he has rejected that proposal. In fact, he called it unacceptable. And the details of the proposal are still scarce. But Iran's foreign minister says that it did nothing more than that memorandum of understanding that both the United States and Iran agreed to back in June, but it was scrapped shortly thereafter.

All of this taking place just days after Trump spoke at the United Nations General Assembly. And he did use a decent portion of that speech to focus in on this conflict. He said that he was in deciding mode when it comes to Iran, that he believes that there could be some sort of an agreement shortly after the midterms, suggesting that Tehran is working to put some political pressure on him.

But at that same time, he said, you know, there could be a deal basically in a matter of weeks. The midterms are not that far off. He also said, though, that he could choose to annihilate Iran, adding that he could drive them into, quote, "hell with no chance of survival."

We are very near that seventh month mark of this conflict. It's gone on much longer than he originally predicted.

JIMENEZ: And certainly some serious rhetoric, at the very least, coming from the president during those remarks.

Julia, we are separately following this breaking news out of England, where an investigation is underway after police there arrested five men on suspicion of terror offenses. And it happened near an air base that U.S. forces use, specifically B-1 bombers involved in targeting Iran. Has President Trump commented on that? What are we hearing from the White House?

BENBROOK: He did actually, as he traveled out today. He said that both the United States and the United Kingdom had been investigating, watching these individuals for quite some time. He went on to say that the arrests were a good thing. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The arrest in the U.K. was fantastic. Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had him under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: And then, as you pointed out, Omar, that area has played an important role in this conflict with Iran, as that base has been used to help facilitate some of those U.S. strikes against Iran.

JIMENEZ: All right, Julia Benbrook, really appreciate the reporting on both fronts.

I want to bring in CNN's senior national security analyst and former Homeland Security assistant secretary, Juliette Kayyem, who joins us now. So, Julia, let's start with these arrests in England. What stands out

to you from what we know so far?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So we'll be careful because the British under law and by disposition have been very, very vague about what's going on. We certainly know it's a counterterrorism investigation. We know local authorities have essentially deferred to the national government and that counterterrorism investigation.

What we know is that three white vans in the middle of the night get relatively close to RAF Fairford, which is also a major positioning for the United States Air Force.

[18:05:03]

It is where we launch our largest bombs, the B-52s and B-1s, for the war in Iran. And got -- the vans got awfully close. A neighbor said they saw something odd, and the men were arrested, at least five of them in three vans. That's all we basically know except, of course, that the base has been under threat. It is housing U.S. forces. And the Islamic regime has earlier said that any support of U.S. military missions by Britain would be viewed as an attack by Britain against Iran, and that they would take -- that they could take actions against it.

JIMENEZ: And as you correctly point out, we are -- details are still slim at this point as we're trying to get more information in this breaking news environment. But based on the location of where these arrests took place, especially the proximity to the base there, does that -- how does that change the nature of an investigation like this based on what we know so far?

KAYYEM: So you're going to assume that it's not good. And I'll just be honest with you. Look, these three vans get relatively close to the base. They then, the men from where the arrest takes place, seem to leave the vans. And we do know that later on there are devices that look like anti-bomb devices getting some large boxes or packages out of the vans. Again, we don't know specifically, but what we would be looking at an investigation is, had they been there before, were they looking at areas of vulnerability near the base? Was there access to the base from that street?

The confusion -- the one confusing narrative here, and I think that the prime minister has sort of started to say, look, no speculation yet. We'll come out with information when we have it, is that President Trump said that these men were under investigation. If that's true, based on intelligence and counterterrorism information sharing, it is not at all clear to me how these vans would have gotten so close to the air force base and only been tipped off by a neighbor.

So what I'm looking for is, you know, who was following these vans, when, and how did they get so close? Or is this something unrelated to another counterterrorism investigation underway?

JIMENEZ: Sure. And as we look at the individual pieces of this story and the context around it, so we have those arrested on suspicion of terror, at the very least, counterterrorism led operation. You have the proximity to the base. And then in the background, you also have the U.S.-Iran war that has been really going to a stalemate at this point.

When you look at just these individual pieces, what does this tell you about how this conflict affects U.S. allies that are not necessarily involved in the kinetic action directly that we've seen back and forth between the U.S. and Iran?

KAYYEM: Yes, it's a great question. And I mean, look, we have known that not just our Western European allies who have been skeptical of this war, many of them are not even supporting our military missions from there, the British have gone back and forth on this, that these are democracies. They have populations who view the war and do not like this war. And so they have to be responsive to their populations.

That's just in Europe. In the Gulf, we're seeing the same thing that those -- the Gulf States that had once been supportive of the United States are feeling abandoned by the United States in this war. So if you're Iran, you are looking at those fissures and taking advantage of them. I want to be clear here, though, I have long said on this network and elsewhere, the -- it is not at all clear to me why Iran would authorize a terror attack in Western Europe right now, given that they kind of have the narrative of the win right now in terms of the Strait of Hormuz.

This may be either unrelated to the war in Iran or might be people also who were just radicalized by the war in Iran but have nothing -- have no direct ties to the revolutionary forces. So those are the three options, right? That Iran directed this, that someone gets radicalized or group gets radicalized because of it and goes after the air force base, or it's unrelated. All three of them are being -- all three theories are being investigated right now.

JIMENEZ: Sure. And we await details on all of those fronts as we try to get more information on what exactly happened here.

Juliette Kayyem, really appreciate the time and insight. Thanks for being here.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: And meanwhile, we are 37 days away from the midterm elections, getting ever closer.

[18:10:04]

While Republicans, though, are on defense, trying to hold on to control of Congress, there are some races where they've gone on offense. We're going to have more on that just ahead. Plus, we're also following the nor'easter that is slamming the East Coast. After days of flooding it is not over yet. And then the second week of testimony will happen in the murder trial of an ex-"American Idol" contestant accused of killing his wife.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:11]

JIMENEZ: Throughout this election season, we've been hearing how Democrats are likely to take control of the House and could end up winning the Senate as well. But Republicans aren't conceding anything yet. On defense, they're trying to hold on to House and Senate seats that Democrats are targeting, but they're also on offense, hoping to actually flip some House and Senate seats that Democrats now control.

Republicans thought redistricting might give them an edge in districts President Trump won two years ago. But with the president's approval ratings at record lows, that strategy may actually backfire.

So for more, we want to bring in CNN's senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein.

And you've been looking at some of this because Republicans have their sights on 22 Democrats in particular running in districts that Trump won in 2024. Just tell us a little bit about those districts.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. You know, Omar, the history is that it's been very difficult for the president's party to oust House and Senate members from the other party during midterm elections, especially during the wave midterm elections. If you look at the House elections that have been particularly bad for the president's party really over the last 50 years, whether 1982, 1994, 2006, 2010, 2018, those are the five big wave elections, the president's party didn't beat more than four House -- it didn't flip more than four House seats held by the other side in any of those elections.

But Republicans have good reason to feel like they have more opportunity this year, largely because of the gerrymandering offensive. 22 House Democrats are running in November in districts that voted for President Trump in 2024. That's as many House Republicans as were running in districts that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2018. Ultimately, Democrats in 2018 beat 20 of those 23 Republicans who were in the split ticket districts.

The problem Republicans face this year is really the same issue they're facing in the seats that they are defending, which is the decline in President Trump's approval rating to the point where he is probably underwater in almost all of these districts, including ones that he won comfortably in 2024.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, the president's job approval numbers are at record lows, which I think is complicating the election field for Republicans in particular. How is that factoring into what you're calling the Republican offensive, targeting Democratic congressional seats here?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. You know, it really is important. You know, we know that President Trump's approval rating has fallen and is underwater. But I don't think people appreciate how different it is than these other elections. I mean, if you go back and look at those same elections where the president's party had a really bad midterm, Bill Clinton in '94, George W. Bush in '06, Barack Obama in '10, Trump himself in '18, Biden in '22, Trump's approval rating now is significantly lower than any of those presidents, including himself and -- in 2018.

And, you know, in his first term, essentially 90 percent of people who disapproved of him voted Democratic, both in the House elections and in every Senate election except for the one with Susan Collins in 2020. So Republicans have to defy history here. They have to run significantly better among voters who disapprove of him than they did during his first term in order to avoid a really bad election night.

Now, in the gerrymandering, some Democrats were put in districts that were really strongly Republican, where Trump won 57 percent or more. There are half a dozen House Democrats in districts like that, even with this decline, those are going to be hard for Democrats to hold. But Republicans are hoping to make bigger gains in places like Florida and Texas and Ohio, in districts that Trump won about 55 percent of the vote or less.

And in many, if not all of those, today, he is under 50 and Democrats have much more of a fighting chance than it looked like when those districts were drawn only a few months ago.

JIMENEZ: You know, two years ago, when President Trump was reelected, one of the storylines there was about the inroads he had made with Latino voters. And there was a big question over whether that voting bloc was going to stick around with the president as elections continue. But Latinos do seem less enthusiastic about Republicans overall heading into the midterms. What do you think accounts for that?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, you know, look, it's the combination of a significant backlash against the ICE enforcement tactics. By and large, Trump's efforts to gain control of the southern border have received good marks from Latinos as among other voters. But the intensity and really ferocity of the ICE enforcement, the breadth of it, the extent to which it is sweeping up longtime residents of the U.S., people with no criminal record, that is a factor.

[18:20:03]

And then, of course, the inflation. You know, Latinos, there are a lot of Latinos who are living with modest incomes, with very little cushion, very little economic cushion. You know, I talked to a candidate in south Texas, Democratic candidate Johnny Garcia, who's running in one of the three south Texas seats that Republicans redrew, Texas Republicans, to make them more friendly to the GOP, likely to flip.

You know, he still has an uphill race, but he's in the game. And he said to me as we were talking, you know, for many Latino men, there's nothing they prize more than their Trokita, which is kind of the souped-up pickup, he said. But now they're driving their wives' minivan because they can't afford to fill up the Trokita with either gas or diesel. It's sitting in the driveway. So Democrats, I think, you know, are -- do have a chance to confound this Republican gerrymander, particularly in Texas, but also in Florida, in places where Republicans were hoping that the '24 Trump performance among Latinos was a new, higher baseline. That looks woefully premature and optimistic at this point.

JIMENEZ: Ron Brownstein, we'll work on the enunciation of Trokita next time. Roll the R's a little more.

BROWNSTEIN: Trokita.

JIMENEZ: Yes, yes.

BROWNSTEIN: All right. Yes.

JIMENEZ: Hey, little by little, we'll get you there. Hey, I appreciate the insight.

BROWNSTEIN: All right. Got close.

JIMENEZ: Yes, exactly. Good to see you. Thanks for taking the time.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

JIMENEZ: All right. Also happening now, we want to keep you updated on this powerful nor'easter lashing the New England coastline. These are live images and there's not much image. You can't see much based on the conditions hitting Boston right now. One person is dead across these storm conditions. Thousands are without power and there is still a threat for more flooding.

We'll tell you where all of those impacts are being felt the most and what you can expect moving forward, coming up.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:26:17]

JIMENEZ: Now to the East Coast of the United States, where a deadly nor'easter is slowly starting to let up after soaking several states this weekend. But there are still a lot of areas in for more heavy rain. One person was killed as well and four people injured, including two children in New York City Saturday in separate instances of high winds toppling trees.

Thousands are still without power after being hit with heavy rain, flash flooding and wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour in some spots.

Meteorologist Melissa Nord is tracking all of it for us, and she joins us now with the latest.

Melissa, what are you seeing? MELISSA NORD, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We're seeing that this storm, Omar,

is lingering. And that's the big picture. I mean look at this live picture right now. This is Boston. And you can see it looks doom and gloom. But the winds actually in Boston are better than they were first thing this morning. That doesn't mean the airport delays are any better. Boston has seen almost 400 delays, over 350 cancellations today alone. And so it's a mess for air travel. And it's a trickledown effect as well where it's, you know, dominos where we've got other parts of the country that are being impacted because of these flight delays in the northeast as well.

We're seeing some improvements, though, in terms of the max winds coming down. We did have peak wind gusts yesterday and first thing this morning, 60, 70, even one two 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts across the northeast. Now you're seeing, look at this, Boston gusting to 33 miles an hour. Nantucket 25. That's nothing for them. And then 21 there in New York where the Yankees game was canceled and will not be played because they've got wild card game coming up, starting on Tuesday.

So winds are really getting better as this storm is sitting right off the coast. And as we approach sunset, you can see those, the last of those clouds visible on satellite. Peak wind gusts from yesterday and first thing this morning, over 70 miles an hour. A lot of different cities. But the circulation itself is on kind of lower New Jersey. It's right there, but it's weakening. The pressure is coming up. And this storm is slowly going to work its way now up the coast.

So it's going to take that slug of moisture northward with it. But this evening, that slug of moisture working right through the heart of New York City and Philadelphia as well. You can see onshore flow still battering the coast, pushing into Long Island as well. And it's going to be really messy tomorrow morning in Boston. So you can see, embedded within this, because we've got this deep moisture working off the coast of the Atlantic, there's going to be some heavier rainfall rates. Those could lead to some isolated flash flooding.

Monday morning that's going to be for New York and Boston. Then by the end of Monday, Monday, rather, clearing Boston, heading up the coast into Maine -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. Melissa Nord, really appreciate the forecast for us there.

And we are going to continue to monitor the storm throughout the hour. But if you want some checks in the meantime, you can check on it to 24/7. You can download CNN's new weather app. Use the QR code at the bottom of your screen, or you can find a link to the app at CNN.com/Weather or the iPhone App Store.

All right. It's almost time for American farmers to get crops into the ground. But now rising fuel prices are making it a lot more challenging. We're going to talk about what exactly they are facing, coming up.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:59]

JIMENEZ: We've all seen how higher energy prices are driving up gas prices at the pump and record diesel prices clocking in at $6.47 a gallon can light a fire under inflation as well, driving up costs for a lot of industries like trucking, which can then lead to price increases to so many things we find in our store shelves. One other group feeling the financial pain, American farmers, and many of them are turning to lawmakers for help.

Aaron Lehman, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, joins us now.

And, Aaron, you were at Farm Aid Music Festival last night, which is an event to raise money for American farmers. But you look at diesel prices, we've seen them at record levels as of late. What would you say is the most significant impact of diesel being at the level that it is right now?

AARON LEHMAN, PRESIDENT, IOWA FARMERS UNION: Well, we're just seeing costs for everything that we use as inputs going up. I mean, over the past few years, we've seen increases in pesticide and seed and repairs, labor, healthcare. But the recent increases in fertilizer prices and diesel prices have caught everyone at the worst time possible.

[18:35:08]

JIMENEZ: And tell me that. What do you mean by at the worst time possible? Is it because the other costs are elevated as well?

LEHMAN: Well, definitely. Everyone is tightening their belt as much as they can. But we're going into a very busy harvest season. And I live on a fifth generation medium-sized farm here in Iowa. And even on our farm, we use up to 400 gallons a day during the harvest season. And so that's like an extra $1,000 a day more in fuel costs than last year.

JIMENEZ: And to be clear, you're talking about 1,000 gallons --

LEHMAN: That's hitting farmers --

(CROSSTALK)

JIMENEZ: Gallons of diesel fuel, right?

LEHMAN: Well, 400 gallons of diesel fuel a day. And that's because it's so much more expensive this year we're spending about $1,000 a day more than last year during our busy harvest season.

JIMENEZ: I mean, you lay out the numbers. I mean, that's the real impact that you all are seeing on a daily basis. So -- I mean, going into this fall season, you have that, I guess, forecast in your mind and you're laying out a plan to deal with it as best you can. What is your prediction for how farmers are going to be able to deal with this? Yours is a fifth generation, but I can't imagine everyone's is in as stable a position.

LEHMAN: Well, all farmers are feeling the real impact right now. So farmers are putting off purchases of in replacements of machinery that really needs to be replaced. They're putting off new innovations or new things on their farm because now is just not the right time to be spending money that we don't have. You're putting off fertility issues sometimes so that you can just get through the next growing season.

So it's very, very difficult to tighten your belt, especially at this time of year. The real danger is, is that, you know, we're really not creating a good path in agriculture for the next generation of farmers. We need new and beginning farmers badly in Iowa and all across rural America. But we need to make a real opportunity for them in order to attract new and beginning farmers. That's the real long term threat that's facing us in farm country.

JIMENEZ: So you think given how -- what the situation is right now with really no clear end in sight right now could impact the one of the next generation to become farmers?

LEHMAN: Absolutely. You know, I mean, we have young people who are eager, smart, gritty, determined. But if we can't make a real path for them to have success on the farm, we will lose another generation. You know, when I grew up in the mid '80s during the farm crisis then, we kind of lost a generation of very innovative people who wanted to go into farming, who wanted to go into agriculture.

And that's the real danger, long-term danger here is that we're not creating an opportunity for our rural communities to really succeed into the next generation.

JIMENEZ: So what would you say, what is your message to President Trump and lawmakers about the struggle that you're seeing right now and what you need?

LEHMAN: Yes. Many of the things that we're facing now are the result of just bad decisions being made. We haven't passed a full farm bill for eight years. We are three years overdue. The farm bill -- a good farm bill would provide stability for us and farm country right when we need it most. We also know that the war that came in an unpredictable way for the industry and for farmers, that meant higher prices for us, even though farmers did nothing wrong.

And that's a sign that we're in a broken system and we need to do something to fix it now to get back on the right path. It's not fair for us to be unable to make a profit while our consumers are still paying more for food.

JIMENEZ: And just one more follow-up before we go, because obviously the war began, you know, in February of this year, but many farmers were already dealing with the effects of tariffs leading up to that, trying to figure out and calculate what might be more expensive, what might be cheaper. How would you compare the impact of tariffs to what you were seeing there in Iowa with some of the effects we're seeing related to the war? LEHMAN: Yes, it's been similar. It's raised the input prices for what

we need to grow a crop. But the thing with tariffs is we're trying to get to fair trade so that we can get a fair deal on the farm. But it hasn't gotten there. This strategy has not worked in getting fair trade and made for higher prices for what we grow.

[18:40:06]

So the tariffs and the increased input prices because of the war on fertilizer and diesel, it's really been a double whammy. And it's coming at precisely the wrong time for farmers.

JIMENEZ: Aaron Lehman, I really appreciate you taking the time and laying that out for us. I think it's important for our audience and beyond to understand the exact impacts that you're seeing. Appreciate the time.

LEHMAN: Thank you so much, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

All right. Coming up, the Lindsay Clancy trial, we'll get you some details there because she'll be back in court this week for the first time since a judge declared a mistrial in her triple murder trial. We will tell you what to expect.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:45:29]

JIMENEZ: Testimony is set to resume on Monday in the murder trial of Caleb Flynn. The ex-"American Idol" contestant is accused of killing his wife. Last week, the jury heard from Caleb Flynn's former mistress, who testified about their affair, and prosecutors say texts between the two show a motive for why Flynn, they say, killed his wife back in February.

CNN's Jean Casarez catches us up on what else happened in court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prosecution had a full day on Friday of testimony. One witness, Special Agent Andrea Kinzig with the FBI, took the stand. She had done an extraction of Ashley Flynn's cell phone. And she found many things in it. One, she said that there was some frustration in the marriage between Ashley and her husband, Caleb. At one point relatively close to her murder, she had asked him where he was in a text, and he said that I'm worshiping, and she asked him, is it her?

And the evidence has shown that she did know or potentially knew about the extramarital affair that he was having. At another point, the day before she was so brutally killed, the extraction of the phone showed that she went to Casey's General Store, which was also a gas station. She went to Goodwill. She went after that to a car wash to get the car done. And then in the afternoon, she went to Target, and then she went home. And she did not leave the house. And it was several hours later that she was actually murdered.

We want to play for you a little bit, about 14 hours after the killing, her husband, Caleb Flynn, voluntarily went to the police department. They asked him a lot of questions. It was a lengthy interview. It was played for the jury. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALEB FLYNN, ACCUSED OF KILLING HIS WIFE: And I close the door, I froze. I was scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's OK.

FLYNN: I didn't know what happened. I mean, I knew what I heard, but I didn't know. Did I -- I don't -- I walked out and the door leading to the garage was open, and I turned, went into the room and said her name and grabbed her foot. Just imagine (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: The prosecution's case in chief continues on Monday. We did hear in open court that they have another video to play to the jury, and it is a long one. Once the prosecution rested their case, the big question is, will the defense present a case and will the defendant, Caleb Flynn himself, take the stand?

Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right. Jean Casarez, appreciate it.

I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson. He is also a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.

Joey, good to see you as always. But we heard some of the most explosive testimony when Flynn's ex-mistress took the stand. What do you see as the most damaging evidence the jury has heard to this point?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Omar. Great to be with you. You pick it, right? There's a number of things that have been compelling with regard to the prosecution's case. Now, what is that? Let's start with regard to the actual mistress. The affair itself, OK, you can argue that a person having an affair is not necessarily inclined, right, to kill their wife. It's not just the affair, Omar. It's the 100,000 text messages and what were on those text messages, like what?

Like the fact that you're talking about hating your wife, like the fact that you're thinking about killing her, right? To clear a way for you both to be involved. Like the fact that you have no qualms whatsoever in expressing yourself in that regard, not only the hatred, but the fact that what you're planning to do and the timing in terms of, hey, you know what? I want to be with you. And oh, boy, you know, 24 hours later, your wife is gone? That's damning.

And then, of course, to Jean Casarez's excellent reporting, you have him, now, I'm going to say, Omar, testifying. You and I have spoken before about, hey, does someone testify in a case? I'd argue he has already testified because of the interrogation tape. And why is that important? Because of the inconsistencies that are going to be argued that are on it. You happen to have been sleeping at the time that, in fact, your wife was killed.

You were on medication, and you were asked to leave the bedroom. The dogs woke you up. You talk about this intruder.

[18:50:02]

Well, you know what? The detectives say the evidence is not consistent with someone actually breaking into your house. I could go on, but the bottom line is, yes, it's circumstantial. That means that you don't have a direct eyewitness. You don't have someone pointing to him that says he did it. But with respect to the actual motivation as to why he did it, prosecutors certainly have that. And they are playing that up big to argue that he's guilty of murder.

JIMENEZ: So do you see that as weighing more than, for example, prosecutors still haven't recovered the murder weapon?

JACKSON: So I do, and I think it's important to point out that, and I say this reluctantly as a defense attorney, but defendants do not get brownie points or credit in the event that they are guilty for being clever about their crimes. We see that in connection with prosecution of cases where they can't find, prosecutors or law enforcement, the body. We see that in instances like this case where you may not have a murder weapon, but their argument, prosecutors are saying, hey, look, if it looks like smoke, perhaps there's a fire.

We should not, and of course, he said, who were looking at there, the defendant, he had a gun, but it disappeared, right? His gun was stolen. We don't give people credit for being clever at disguising their crimes. And so, again, innocent until proven guilty. That's why we're having a trial. But with regard to the absence of a murder weapon, Omar, that is not outcome determinative. It's a factor. And the defense is seizing upon that.

No murder weapon, no eyewitnesses, no direct connection to him doing this. But there certainly seems to be a mountain of circumstantial evidence, which is suggestive of guilt.

JIMENEZ: Before we go, I just want to ask you about the other high profile case we've been following. Lindsay Clancy, she's going to be back in court on Tuesday for the first time since her mistrial. What are the key questions you are looking to get answered here?

JACKSON: Yes, so the big issue with that, Omar, is whether we're going to actually see the judge evaluate what they're doing at this particular hearing in regard to saying, hey, there really should be double jeopardy here. What does double jeopardy mean? Double jeopardy means that you can't

be accused of the same offense twice. Right? If one was litigated, it's over. And the defense saying there should be no mistrial here, judge. There should be no retrial here. Because guess what? This juror that they're arguing that muddied up the pot, remember, it was 11 to 1, apparently, with jurors saying she should be found not guilty for reason of insanity.

The defense is seizing upon that, arguing that there was not what we call, Omar, a manifest necessity, which is, in English, a compelling reason to declare a mistrial. Prosecutors say, are you serious? If ever there was a compelling reason, it would be here. They deliberated for seven days and said they couldn't find a verdict. So the judge is going to have to deal with that question. It's an uphill battle for the defense.

The defense is arguing that that juror would not really negotiate or actually deliberate in good faith. Prosecutors are saying he certainly did. And he said as much later on, there's no basis to say there should not be a retrial. And therefore, the defense's motion with regard to dismissing this on double jeopardy grounds at least, should be dismissed. So that's the real meaty question. They're talking about whether there was sufficient evidence in this case. There'll be a lot going on, but that's what I have my eye on.

JIMENEZ: Sure.

JACKSON: Whether or not the judge says, no retrial, this case is over. I doubt, Omar, that's going to happen.

JIMENEZ: All right. Joey Jackson, always appreciate you stopping by. Thank you for taking the time.

We'll be right back, folks

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:58:28]

JIMENEZ: David Chang is back tonight with a new episode of "THE DETOUR," which takes him on a road trip from Dallas to San Antonio with Cristela Alonzo. I actually sat down with Chang to talk about his favorite parts of filming this episode, and the new flavors he encountered along the way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Woodstock, Texas. One of the things that I thought was so cool about this was the influence of all these other cultures on barbecue itself. So you have like what you might typically traditionally think is as American barbecue. And then all of a sudden you've got folks making halal barbecue, you've got curry infused in some of the flavors as well. Was that something you were surprised by?

DAVID CHANG, CELEBRITY CHEF, HOST, "THE DETOUR WITH DAVID CHANG": When I do these trips, I try to come up with a hypothesis, and I was thinking like, oh, Texas is really important in the upcoming election. It's like a purple state. Let's see if it's reflected in its food. And sure enough, it was. And the irony to me was in a lot of cities or states, places that I'm just as guilty of being -- having bias, right?

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CHANG: As anybody else. And I was like, ah, it's going to be really stuck in its ways. I couldn't have been more wrong. There were places in Texas that we visited that were more embracing of new ideas, of halal barbecue. I don't know if other places that are, quote-unquote, "more open" to things would have been embracing of it as well. It was nice to be proven wrong. There were so many assumptions that I had about Texas on that trip that were wrong. Like one, for example, is, oh, everybody eats barbecue.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CHANG: Wrong.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CHANG: You know? Like Cristela is from Texas.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CHANG: She's like, oh, I never really had barbecue. You know, I had mostly Mexican food. Along the way, we went to one of the most exciting restaurants I've been to in years.