Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Clancy Defense: Jury Asked To See Prescription Drug Bottles & Knife; 579 Dead, 90 Americans Among 1,900 Plus Missing After Nepal Flood; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Is Interviewed About Grand Jury Finds FL "Misappropriated" Taxpayer Funds. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 28, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:01:24]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news. An update from the Lindsay Clancy murder trial. We just learned moments ago about a question the jury asked the judge last hour. CNN's Jean Casarez is in Plymouth, Massachusetts, covering the trial for us. So what did they ask, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, we just understand that Kevin Reddington, defense attorney, has reentered that courtroom. So we've got to stand by, see if anything is going to start happening. But what we do know, and we were able to confirm, is that the jury asked for a bag of pill bottles and also the knife. All right, let's talk first about those pill bottles.

And our affiliate is saying that they saw two plastic bags filled with pill bottles that were handed to the clerk, which conceivably then would be taken to the jury. And the jury can look at evidence in the deliberation room. They are free to do that. Well, in regard to the pill bottles, we know that a focus of this case has been the immense amount of prescriptions that she was prescribed and that she took now and then, off and on, some she chose not to take.

But there were two instances in the trial where pill bottles were a part of it. First of all, the defense attorney even held him up during the closing argument that he went to the house with Patrick Clancy the day after this all happened. So the defense attorney came on board right away. And on the nightstand, in the drawer, there was a plastic Ziploc bag, and he held it up yesterday. Again, it was part of evidence of pill bottles.

But the law enforcement never collected them. He said in closings law enforcement never chose to collect them. The second time in this trial we know about pill bottles was Patrick Clancy. During his testimony, the husband of Lindsay, he had a paper bag of pill bottles. And he carried them in his car after this all happened. And the jury learned that there were just a few pills taken out of each bottle, not many.

But they went into evidence. They were shown to the jury. But we do believe it's plastic Ziploc bags. Two of them, our affiliate is saying, was given to the clerk. We don't know why. But this is something that at least one juror wants to look at and assess.

Second, the knife. This is what we know factually on the knife. The knife was from their kitchen. Now, the defense and prosecution, they vary on when the knife was gotten by Lindsay Clancy. But we know she got it from the kitchen, went upstairs. And this is when she did the wounds on her wrist and the cutting of her neck.

Every single first responder and at the hospital said that they were superficial wounds. The defense pushed back on that. But it was a very serious attempt at suicide. We also don't know why they want to look at that knife. But that is something that they're interested in assessing themselves. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Jean Casarez, reporting for us. Thank you very much. We'll continue, of course, to monitor what's going on inside the court. And we'll bring you updates as they become available.

And there's more breaking news we're following right now. Military rescue teams are back along Nepal's border with China at this hour. The Red Cross now estimates the flash floods there have affected more than 90,000 people. We have new rescue video here. For example, Nepal's army pulls people from a tunnel of a power plant. Muddy and exhausted soldiers carry and even slide survivors to safety, 579 people, 579 people are now confirmed dead in Nepal alone. And more than 1,900 are missing.

[11:05:18]

Minutes ago, the U.S. State Department announced that 90 Americans are still unaccounted for. Rescue operations had been suspended because of this swollen barrier lake. It was created when the landslide clogged the river with trees and debris. The fear was that it would collapse. Officials now say it is slowly draining.

But a second lake, almost as big as the first, has now formed in that very same area. CNN senior international correspondent Will Ripley is in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and spoke to American survivors. He's going to tell us what they are now seeing and saying.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just really difficult to describe this scene here. But there's a woman who just came and looked at a list of people who are being treated and also a list of people who are confirmed dead. We don't know the specific details of what she saw, but you can see on her face just how anguished she is right now. And we've seen this type of scene just repeated over and over and over again here in the capital of Nepal.

This is the teachers' hospital. It's one of the busiest medical centers in this city. And let me show you this way. Let's just walk through the crowd here, John, because there's a whole wall of people here. And the number of pictures have kind of been increasing throughout the day, photos of people who are missing, family members who are waiting here, hoping that their loved ones are going to end up on this list here.

This is a handwritten list of names of people who are confirmed survivors who are being treated right now at this hospital. All day, people have been hearing that there might be more survivors brought in, but as of the six hours or so we've been out here, still only 31 names on this list.

But if you look at this table over here, the number of people who are now registered as missing has grown from 1,200 when we arrived here this morning to now more than 1,600 people. All these people who are here gathered at the table are adding the names of their loved ones to the list. And about a five-minute walk from here, there's a morgue with a much larger wall of photos of dead bodies and a much larger crowd of people looking at these photos of dead bodies, trying to see if they can identify their loved ones there.

And I saw people, bodies of all ages. There were men, there were women, there were children. There were also photographs of body parts. They actually were trying to photograph arms and legs that might have had tattoos on them, hoping that family members might be able to help identify these remains. Now, the worst of it is the video that you've seen now, undoubtedly, at the China-Nepal border crossing. That large concrete structure that looked to be about seven stories tall, with that giant black wave crashing over it, and another angle that showed rows after row of blue buses that were just washed away like toys.

Within the last couple of hours, we have spoken with the only two known Americans who survived from that border crossing. They were sitting on one of the buses. Their names are Patabi and Anjana. They're from Northern California, from the Bay Area. They said they were sitting on the bus, just chatting with some other tourists from Italy, and all of a sudden they looked outside the bus and saw people running. And they knew that something was wrong.

Then they looked up the hill and they saw a massive wall, a black cloud, as they described it. They didn't know if it was water. They didn't know if it was smoke. But they knew that it was moving very quickly down the hill towards their bus and the other buses that were all parked in a row. They had had breakfast at the hotel with members of tour groups that were inside that building getting their visas processed to cross from Nepal into China, into the Tibet region of China. Those people have disappeared, presumed to be gone.

Even people on their own bus, when they saw this black wall approaching of water, they ran to the right and other passengers ran to the left, and they'd never seen them since. But they ran up a hill and they were able, just sparing a matter of seconds, to be able to get to a vantage point where they could then turn around and watch the horror that was unfolding beneath. Here's a portion of that interview that we just did. Please take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANJANA RAJA, AMERICAN SURVIVOR OF NEPALI FLOOD: So the way it came is it came just like a tsunami. It just came going all the way up. And just like a tsunami, how it sweeps going like a row, it just took the buses, the vans, houses, people, everything. We saw people just getting sucked in the water. It was so traumatizing to see that. People are screaming, but of course water doesn't hear anything. It just kind of sucked them in. I don't know if they were thrown away somewhere in the shore, but then this happened. It was just a span of 30 minutes. In 30 minutes, everything was swept and gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:10:01]

RIPLEY: They don't know exactly how they did it, but they crawled and climbed and ran their way up that hill along with a small group and a local tour operator who they say really saved their lives because he told them where to go higher and higher up the hill. They didn't have a cell signal, so they had no idea what was happening until at one point they did briefly have a cell signal, and at this point they still didn't know if the flood was over, if there was going to be another event.

But what they did when they had a brief cell signal is they picked up the phone and they called their daughter. And in that 60-second phone call, while they had a cell phone signal, they gave their daughter all of their passwords for their accounts because they thought that they might not survive, and they wanted her to have all the information that she needed so that she could do what needed to be done if they didn't make it home. And they told her they love her and to please take care of their younger son, her brother, who's in the Boy Scouts.

And then the call got cut off, but they've now survived, and we have much more of this interview with them. We had a long conversation with them, and we'll be sharing that with you throughout the day here. But it was just extraordinary and harrowing to hear the details of how they survived.

BLITZER: Will Ripley reporting for us. What a heartbreaking, awful story indeed. And to our viewers, you can find out how you, yes you, can help Nepal's flood victims. Simply go to CNN.com/impact and you will learn more.

Still ahead, a bombshell report from Florida. A grand jury is reportedly accusing the state of Florida of funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into political campaigns. I'll ask Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz about the allegations.

And a Situation Room special report. The silent mental health crisis underway right now inside the U.S. Navy and the culture that keeps so many sailors from getting help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there are so many more people struggling than we realize because they're afraid to speak up for whatever reason it may be. Maybe it's pride, maybe it's fear of repercussions, you know, whatever it may be. And that's sad. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:40]

BLITZER: Happening now, growing questions about how Florida used millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. A grand jury report leaked to CBS Miami states that Governor Ron DeSantis' administration, "misappropriated $10 million from a health care settlement meant for needy kids into the Hope Florida Foundation." That's a program championed by Florida's first lady, Casey DeSantis. The report says the transfer was, "part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities." But that there's insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally. Governor DeSantis said he was not involved in the settlement agreement and called the controversy, in his word, a hoax.

Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, what are you hearing from your constituents about all of this?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): Well, thanks for having me and for shining a light on this. My constituents are and have been outraged that DeSantis, Moody, who is now our U.S. Senator, and Uthmeier, who was rewarded from being DeSantis' chief of staff and is now our attorney general. They literally robbed taxpayer funds meant to provide health care to poor children and funneled it into dark money political campaigns, including PACs controlled by Uthmeier and the Republican Party of Florida. It is unbelievable. It is corrupt. And heads need to roll and prosecutions need to begin.

BLITZER: As you know, several Florida Democrats are now pointing to this scandal to argue that some Republican officials in your sunshine state are corrupt and should not be reelected. But this grand jury report leaked to CBS Miami finds there is not enough evidence, at least not yet, to charge anyone. So is that really a fair line of attack?

SCHULTZ: Well, absolutely. If you look at the grand jury report, it really draws a direct line to Uthmeier, who was Governor DeSantis' chief of staff. He signed off on funneling these taxpayer funds meant to pay for health care for poor children to fund the governor's political campaign to defeat a medical marijuana amendment.

That money went to dark money political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida. Ron DeSantis, Senator Ashley Moody and Attorney General James Uthmeier need to testify. They should have testified in front of the grand jury. I'm not sure why the grand jury didn't call them. But the state attorney in Leon County needs to begin prosecutions. And there are many more heads that need to roll.

But let's just let this sink in. Ron DeSantis, Senator Ashley Moody and James Uthmeier signed off on and were responsible for taking health care from poor children and letting it to be used for fighting their own political wars instead of making sure that we could keep poor children healthy. It's sickening. And I mean, the roads, the lines clearly lead directly to them. And now Ashley Moody and James Uthmeier are asking voters to reward them. They need to be defeated at the ballot box this November. They're both up for election. Neither of them have been elected to either of the posts that they hold now. And they need to be defeated. And they need to be prosecuted.

[11:20:13]

BLITZER: On that issue, the Florida Republican Senator Ashley Moody, who's running for re-election against Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon, is defending her past role as Florida's attorney general in this settlement. Moody says that during this, "political season," her words, "there may be a tendency to misrepresent the facts." The other officials you name checked are also defending their handling of this situation. What's your response to what they're saying?

SCHULTZ: I mean, first of all, I don't know how you could suggest that there's a political bent to a grand jury report. The grand jury clearly says these funds were, they used the term misappropriated. I'll use the term stolen. Because we're talking about funds coming from a corporation that were paying restitution, basically paying back the state, because they overcharged for prescription drugs, and they owed the state $67 million.

They took $10 million at the direction of DeSantis, Uthmeier, and Moody, and their underlings, and funneled it into Hope, Florida, which funneled it right into dark political action committees so that they could defeat a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That is illegal. It is unlawful. It is unacceptable.

And they are responsible, and they need to be held accountable for it through prosecution, and certainly held accountable by the voters, who should not reward them with continuing in public office.

BLITZER: And speaking of the upcoming midterm elections on November 3rd, you have not yet endorsed the Democratic candidate Angie Nixon in the Florida Senate race since she upset Alex Vindman in the primary. You previously supported Vindman, as we know. Do you now plan to back Nixon, and if not, why not?

SCHULTZ: I'm focused on making sure that Hakeem Jeffries can become Speaker of the House and that we win a Democratic majority. As you know, Wolf, DeSantis rigged our House congressional map with an unconstitutional mid-decade redistricting. They tried to take away four seats from us, and I want to make sure that my incumbent colleagues, Jared Moskowitz, Darren Soto, and Kathy Castor, and the Open Florida 22 seat, they're reelected, and a Democrat is elected in 22.

I certainly want to see Ashley Moody defeated. Angie Nixon ran a great campaign, very grassroots, door-to-door, neighbor-to-neighbor, and we need to make sure that Ashley Moody is not returned to public office.

BLITZER: All right, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as usual. Thank you very much for joining us. SCHULTZ: My pleasure. Thanks so much.

[11:22:57]

BLITZER: Up next, a battle over free speech. Journalists fired from the military's independent newspaper are now suing the Pentagon. I'll ask one of them why she's taking the defense secretary to court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Happening now, pushing back on the Pentagon. Three people fired from the military's independent newspaper, the Stars and Stripes, are now suing top military officials. They claim the Defense Department retaliated after the paper published a story that exposed conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. The lawsuit comes after a whole bunch of journalists say they were illegally pushed out following an interview with CBS where they publicly supported editorial independence.

Joining us now is Lara Korte, the paper's Middle East reporter, who was fired last week among the other journalists. So why did you, Laura, and your colleagues decide now to actually go ahead and formally sue the Pentagon?

LARA KORTE, FORMER STARS AND STRIPES REPORTER, FIRED LAST WEEK: We feel like these firings are retaliation for asserting editorial independence, which, as you know, is a longstanding tradition of Stars and Stripes, and also codified in the Pentagon's own regulations. We're hoping to stop these firings, but also reaffirm the First Amendment rights of ourselves and the journalists that we work with.

BLITZER: You're asking for your jobs back as part of this lawsuit, as we all know. Are you concerned at all about the potential fallout if you are successful? Could you lose your access to your sources, for example?

KORTE: I'm not. I haven't thought that far ahead, to be honest. Obviously, protecting our sources is very important. What we're really trying to focus on now is the importance of maintaining an independent and free press for service members. You mentioned the USS Abraham Lincoln earlier. You know, there are challenges aboard that carrier.

There are people afraid to speak out. And we feel like having access to a free and independent press that covers the military, that covers those issues, is a critical right, not just for all Americans, but, you know, especially for these military members.

BLITZER: In January, as you know, the Pentagon said it was aiming to, "modernize your outlet," Stars and Stripes, "by refocusing its content away from they described as woke distractions." Were you and your colleagues given any directive at all about what stories to cover moving forward?

KORTE: No. And I mentioned this in the CBS interview. I didn't feel like my job had changed at all following any of the Pentagon announcements. Whether it's the tweet that Mr. Parnell put out in January or the modernization memo that came out in March, I was still able to do my job. I was reporting as I normally do. Nobody was telling me not to write something. Nobody was telling me to write something. So going on CBS and talking about that we saw at Editorial Independence and weren't being censored was in line with normal practice.

[11:29:57]

BLITZER: And on a personal note, I always loved Stars and Stripes going back to my days as a Pentagon reporter. I would read it all the time. Lara Korte, good luck to you. Good luck to your colleagues. Thanks very much for joining us.