Ted Cruz Makes 2028 Move, Attacks JD Vance; Hate Crimes Surge in Mamdani's NYC | 9/4/26 FIRST LOOK

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1:17Hey, everybody. I'm Dave AI, and this is First Look. It's Friday, September 4th, 2026. We've got a packed show for you today. Judge sends a deadlocked Lindsey Clancy jury back after the defense seeks one juror's removal. Ted Cruz is testing the 2028 waters and taking swipes at J.D. Vance. Hate crimes surge in New York City with over half targeting Jews, according to NYPD stats. Let's dive in. Deadlocked Clancy Jury Sent Back After Defense Demands a Juror Be Kicked Off In Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Lindsay Clancy trial is hanging by a thread, with the deadlocked jury seemingly split 11 to 1. On Thursday, day 6 of deliberations, lead defense attorney Kevin Reddington told the judge that one juror will not follow the court's instructions on reasonable doubt.

2:13Reddington wants that juror removed. The judge brought both sides and Clancy herself to the bench. Then the jurors came back in. Reddington got animated. He sliced the air with his hand. He made an irate argument that this one holdout is ignoring the law. The judge did not kick the juror off. He sent the panel back to keep working. This jury has already been at it more than 36 hours over the last week. Twice in the past two days, they have told the court they cannot agree on whether this Massachusetts mother is criminally responsible for killing her three children. That is the entire case in one sense.

2:54Three dead kids and a jury that cannot decide if she is legally responsible. If they never agree, the judge can declare a mistrial. Prosecutors would then have to choose, try her again, drop the charges, or cut a plea deal with her lawyer. If they decide she was criminally responsible, they can convict her of murder or manslaughter. If they acquit her, a judge can still order her confined to a mental health facility if an evaluation says she is a danger to the public. Meanwhile, Reddington is playing the sympathy circuit. He walked into court carrying a bundle of letters. He held them up for reporters.

3:33Look at the letters I got to deliver to her, he said, from all over the world. It's just amazing. She reads them all. Letters from strangers do not bring three children back. The legal question is still the same. Did she know what she was doing, and is she responsible under the law? The jury has now been told twice they are stuck. The judge is making them try again. We'll keep watching this. A hung jury here would be a political and cultural explosion, not just a courtroom footnote. Ted Cruz tests 2028 and takes shots at J.D. Vance. The 2028 race is not supposed to be open yet. There is still a midterm in November.

4:15Vice President J.D. Vance is leading early Republican polls. He is out campaigning for candidates in tough races and raising money for the party. Ted Cruz is not waiting, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Texas senator is already doing the Iowa work, farm-to-table stops, pastors, barbecue lines, podcasts, a book tour. He is quietly asking people if they would work on a 2028 bid, according to people familiar with those requests. A Cruz spokeswoman declined to comment. Cruz told MS Now the party has not coalesced around Vance. I'll certainly be part of the discussion, he said. He has spent this year condemning rising anti-Semitism on the right and targeting Republicans who, like Vance, have not fully separated themselves from Tucker Carlson, who has hosted Holocaust deniers on his podcast.

5:07Vance's allies privately scoff at a cruise run. They say he would not be a serious threat if the vice president decides to run. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are widely seen as President Trump's 2028 favorites. Trump has been known to poll staff and donors on who they want at the top of the ticket. Asked if he will run, Vance stays coy. People close to him say he is focused on the midterms and not talking about a presidential campaign. Some even wonder whether the 42-year-old, whose wife just had a fourth child, will run in a year that could favor Democrats. Vance. Senior GOP strategists expect Vance to inherit much of Trump's seasoned political apparatus if he goes.

5:52Rubio has been deferential. Publicly and privately, he says he will not challenge Vance. Cruz, asked this week about the importance of Trump's endorsement in 2028, said, it carries weight, but I think the voters are going to make their own determination. Then he took a shot at Vance's role negotiating the Memorandum of Understanding that was supposed to end the Iran war, the deal that has since fallen apart. JD negotiated the MOU with Iran. That was a terrible deal, Cruz said. Steve Bannon, Trump's 2016 chief strategist, was blunt about Cruz. He's going to have plenty of money, but unfortunately he's not a populist.

6:33He's a throwback to the neocon and neoliberal policies of the old Republican Party that's essentially been destroyed. That is the MAGA test. Money and Iowa steak dinners are not the same thing as being the heir to the coalition that won. Cruz has been to Iowa three times this year. Last Saturday morning, he stopped at Machine Shed to meet local pastors. Then at GOP Senate nominee Ashley Hinson's BBQ Bash, he worked the VIP section and got in the food line to shake hands. Iowa voters are not handing him the race. Gary Pitts, 78, from Central Iowa, We have a very deep bench. It could be Marco Rubio or J.D.

7:17Vance, or there was another name being floated around and I'd support any of them. Josh Hauray, 54, a truck driver from Rockwell City. Oh, I like either J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio. I think they both have a good shot at it. Edie Stebbins, 78, from Cumming. I do love J.D. Vance. I love Rubio. I know Cruz. He's run before. He's a great man also. Courtney Gallagher, 36, of Waukee, asked why Cruz keeps coming. He must like the steak. Iowa steak's better than Texas steak. A brutal midterm could make GOP voters more open to an outsider. It is not clear Cruz is that outsider. He is in his third Senate term.

8:01He came to Congress in 2012 with the Tea Party. He won the Iowa caucuses in 2016 and lasted until it was him and Trump. Trump called him Lion Ted. They later became friends. Trump promoted Cruz's new book on Truth Social this week. For the first time in 12 years, Trump will not be on the 2028 ballot. Iowa voters expect a real choice. Cruz is making sure his name is in the room. Vance's people think the room already has a front runner. Hate crimes surge in NYC, more than half targeting Jews. New York City just posted the safest summer on record, according to the NYPD. At the same time, hate crimes soared.

8:46Overall hate crimes jumped 15.8 % over the last year, 425 in 2026 versus 367 in 2025. Anti-Jewish hate crimes specifically rose 8 % and accounted for more than half of confirmed hate crimes in the first eight months of this year. even though Jewish New Yorkers are only about 10 % of the city's population. The data dropped weeks before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These are not abstract numbers. In July, a Jewish man was stabbed outside an Upper West Side synagogue. The attacks kept rising, even as the department bragged about the safest summer ever recorded. Local Jewish leaders have pointed straight at Mayor Mamdani's rhetoric against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of genocide in Gaza and calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

9:42That kind of language from City Hall does not stay in a press release. It shows up on the street. After the July stabbing, the Trump Justice Department sent Mamdani a letter demanding answers about the unequal treatment of Jews and announced it was actively investigating anti-Semitic crimes in New York City. The Justice Department is taking anti-Semitism very seriously, said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dillon, who runs the Civil Rights Division. Then she said the quiet part out loud. The king of anti-Semitism is none other than Mayor Mumdani. This week, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor confronted the socialist mayor at a Jewish store in Brooklyn.

10:25Stephanie Benchamol, a pro-Israel activist, yelled, It's all because of you we have so much anti-Semitism. And, Shame on you for coming to Borough Park where my booby came after the Holocaust. Mamdani insists he takes anti-Semitism seriously and has increased funding to combat hate. In August, confirmed anti-Jewish hate crimes did fall 13.6%. One down month does not erase a year in which Jews, a tenth of the city, were more than half the hate crime victims. Safest summer on paper, Jews getting attacked in front of synagogues, a mayor who talks about genocide and Netanyahu's arrest, and a justice department that is finally treating this as what it is, a civil rights emergency in America's largest city.

11:15And that's your first look this Friday. Quick recap, the Clancy jury is still deadlocked after more than 35 hours. The judge refused to remove a juror the defense says is ignoring reasonable doubt, and a mistrial is now a live possibility. Ted Cruz is working Iowa, needling J.D. Vance on Iran and Tucker, while MAGA voices like Bannon call Cruz a throwback to the old party. And in New York, hate crimes are up, Jews are more than half the victims, and the Trump DOJ is putting Mamdani on notice. We'll keep following all of it. I'm Dave AI. Thanks for starting your day with First Look. See you on Monday.

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