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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Blake Masters, Sen. Mark Kelly Locked in Close Arizona Senate Race; No Clear Leader in Latest Polling for Georgia Senate Race; Polls Show Tight Races in Key Senate Battlegrounds; From Voter Fraud Believer To Election Poll Watcher; Oprah Picks Fetterman Over Oz. Aired 8-9 pm ET
Aired November 04, 2022 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE SENIOR REPORTER: We do know that these congressional subpoena dates can shift. It does look like there is some conversation between the two, but here is the update next week. There is a deadline -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Right. And it sounds like to Katelyn's point, there are conversations maybe that's why they extended, but, they say that very significant date coming up.
Katelyn Polantz, thank you very much.
And thanks to all of you for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
[20:00:26]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening.
For the first time since her husband was savagely attacked by an assailant who allegedly intended to hold and harm her, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spoken on camera about the ordeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Paul came home yesterday, that enables me to be at home with all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your kind words, your prayers and your good wishes for Paul.
It is going to be a long haul, but he will be well, and it's just so tragic how it happened. But nonetheless, we have to be optimistic. He is surrounded by family, so that's a wonderful thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, she sent out the video in a tweet which reads in part: "With a grateful heart, I thank all who sent kind words and prayers for Paul. It's a long road, but he will be well. Our security, our democracy, our planet, our values are on the ballot."
We're in something of a unique moment in American history, it seems. There is much that is familiar and normal in a Midterm Election, and at the same time, there is so much that is not normal.
Normal is candidates crisscrossing their States and districts making closing arguments with control of Congress for the next two years at stake.
Normal is big name surrogates campaigning with all the interest they bring and all the questions, too, about the difference they might make.
Normal is having economic issues front and center with Republicans focusing on high inflation, hoping that will work against Democrats, Democrats pushing back today on new strong job numbers hoping that will give them a boost.
All of that is recognizable in keeping with the normal patterns of American electoral politics, but then there are the things which are not normal.
Armed civilians at polling places despite zero evidence of any problems with the nearly 35 million early votes already cast or candidates refusing to say straight up they'll accept the outcome in their races.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I sure hope I can, but I can't predict what the Democrats might have planned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That is Senator Ron Johnson, who added: "Let's see how this plays out," which is not normal and shouldn't be, but it seems becoming the norm, at least among many Republican candidates who are either trying to play to 2020 election deniers or are in fact election deniers themselves.
Like these four Republicans running in Arizona to be the Attorney General, a Senator, Governor, and Secretary of State who will oversee the 2024 election.
Any or all of those candidates could win on Tuesday, the races are that close, which is why we begin tonight with CNN's Kyung Lah in Scottsdale.
So Kyung, less than a week to go, how are voters responding to closing arguments from election denying candidates in key races?
KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I met a mother of four who really sort of cut through the noise. She is a small business owner as well. And she said, what is her number one issue? What is really inspiring her to vote is the price of food, the price of milk. The inflation that she is seeing that is affecting what is happening to her family.
And to sort of underscore that point, I took the question directly to Republican nominee, Blake Masters, and I asked him very simply, you are an election denier. What do you say to moderates? There are one- third of the registered voters here who are independents. What do you say to moderates about your -- you know, their concerns that you are an election denier?
And he very simply said that he doesn't think that voters care about what he is saying about the 2020 election, that what they care about is the economy, as well as crime and the border.
And he was at the border with the rest of the top of the Republican ticket. It was a photo op, you know, planned before local and national press. And what you heard from them was that message, that it is those pocketbook issues.
They didn't talk, you know, all of them about their lies about the election and all of them have supported the Donald Trump lie that the 2020 election was stolen, it was not, and even Kari Lake at that event continued to say that she would accept the election results here in 2022, only if they were fair and transparent, not that she will accept the election results.
So Anderson, they have not changed. That election lie has not gone away. They just believe that voters care less about it.
COOPER: Kyung Lah, I appreciate it.
Next to Georgia, which held the keys to control of the Senate with runoffs in 2020, it could again this time. CNN's Dianne Gallagher joins us there.
You're at a polling place that closed not long ago in Atlanta. What are the closing arguments for the candidates there in Georgia?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Anderson, the polling places may have closed, but there is still plenty of people standing in line to vote on this final day of early in person voting in Georgia.
[20:05:05]
GALLAGHER: The line you can see behind me here, it wraps all the way around that building as people want to cast their ballots, be part of what looks to be potentially record breaking early voting numbers according to the Secretary of State's office, at least more than 2.3 million ballots already cast, which makes those closing arguments from these candidates even more crucial for the votes that are left out there.
Now, in the Senate race that the entire nation has been watching, incumbent Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock is leaning heavily on his record, highlighting his bipartisanship while casting his opponent, Republican Herschel Walker as a man who is not just unprepared for office, but unfit to serve.
Herschel Walker, meanwhile, leaning heavily on his roots here in Georgia and his celebrity as a football player, while doing everything he can to tie Warnock to the Biden administration calling him a vessel for the Biden administration and tying him to inflation, crime, and other social issues that rile up his conservative base.
Now, look, the heavily tracked gubernatorial race, the rematch between incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp and the Democrat, Stacey Abrams, something that people here in Georgia are paying very close attention to. We're watching Kemp talk again about his record, talk about the pandemic keeping businesses open and try to cast Abrams as someone they should be afraid of.
Abrams, meanwhile, she, Anderson, is focusing on abortion and voting rights and the cost of healthcare and talking about trying to make Georgia a better, more inclusive State for everyone.
COOPER: Dianne Gallagher, appreciate it, from Georgia.
Perspective now from CNN senior political commentator and former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod; also CNN's one and only senior data reporter, Harry Enten; and Abby Phillip, CNN senior political correspondent and anchor of "Inside Politics Sunday."
So Harry, walk us through some of these close Senate races.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, so we've got some fresh polling from three key Senate races, two of three of which Democrats probably need to win to maintain control, they may need three of three.
Let's start in Arizona. Right? What we have is Mark Kelly and a new Marist College Poll, barely ahead of Blake Masters, the Republican, but well within the margin of error, no clear leader there.
Go to Georgia with the latest Marist College Poll has a dead even race, 49-49. Of course, Georgia, there's a special rule there, you need a majority of the vote, even if you lead after all the votes are counted on Election Day, if no candidate gets a majority of the votes, that means a runoff in December that could ultimately determine control the Senate. Right now, we could in fact be heading towards a runoff.
And finally in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman, of course, is taking on Mehmet Oz, we have two different polls. One that shows Fetterman up by six, and the other one that has it tied. So, who really knows?
COOPER: David, I mean, in Arizona, Democrats had been pretty confident of Mark Kelly. That seems very, very close. Where are you watching?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, you know, there is a certain gravity to all of this that are -- that's determined by the environment. And, you know, the inflation and the economy and general sense about the direction of the country are things that you would look at when you're evaluating these races, and I think that gravity has taken hold.
Republicans have spent a lot of money emphasizing these issues, that gravity has taken hold. These races have tightened. In Arizona, there is a concern that the Governor's race could end up -- because there is some enthusiasm on the Republican side about Kari Lake -- it could end up dragging Blake Masters and most people, I talk to think Kelly will hang on, but nobody really knows how this is going to go.
COOPER: Abby, both parties making closing arguments on the economy. Where do Democrats want the focus to be and what are Republicans looking at?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY": Well, look, Democrats very clearly want to be talking about things other than the economy. I mean, I think that if they felt like they had a strong message to take to voters on that issue, that would be the focus, and they know that in some of those races, they have to be on the economy, but they also want to talk to their voters about abortion. They want to talk to them about democracy issues.
That's why you saw President Biden out this week, you know, giving that speech on democracy, and it seems perhaps a little bit perplexing, because that issue is a little bit further down when you look at some of the polls, but for Democratic voters, it does matter a lot and I think they are in the phase now, where they are really focused on that.
And Republicans, meanwhile, are talking obviously, a lot about inflation, talking about the problems with the economy and affordability, when they are also talking about issues like crime.
But it is interesting to see also a lot of Republicans in pockets of the country, bringing up some of these culture war issues, whether it is transgender rights or critical race theory, or what have you. You're seeing some of those other isolated issues popping up in individual States, again, on the Republican side, that is all an effort to rile up their base, get those folks out to the poll.
COOPER: I mean, Harry, if Democrats lose just one seat in the Senate, they lose control. You look at Biden's approval numbers -- how -- I mean how are they going to avoid losing seats?
[20:10:05]
ENTEN: Yes, I mean, look if you go through history and you look at past midterms in which the President's approval rating is below 50 percent and in this particular case, Joe Biden's approval rating is in the low 40s, eighty percent of the time, the party in power, the President's party loses at least one Senate seat.
So if Democrats manage to hold on, they're really going against history. History suggests that one of these close races where even Democrats might have the slightest advantage right now may go the other way.
AXELROD: The question, Anderson is, can they take a seat that belong to the Republicans? That's why Pennsylvania is such an important insurance policy against losing elsewhere and people are watching that race between Dr. Oz and Fetterman. That's one where Fetterman has basically clung to a lead throughout, it's narrowed quite a bit. He had a rough debate.
But, you know, I spoke to Republicans and Democrats today. No one was willing to make a prediction on that race. It's really interesting because Oz is still sitting there with a very negative favorable rating. He is not well-liked in the State.
One other point on that race, Donald Trump is going to be in the State tomorrow. Mehmet Oz is spending his final days trying to persuade suburban voters in Philly that he is a moderate, that he is a conciliatory figure.
But he'll be in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on the other side of the State tomorrow with Donald Trump. And you've got to wonder about these mixed messages. He's going to be with Doug Mastriano, the sort of hard-right candidate for Governor and Donald Trump, and he is going to run back to Philly and try and persuade people that he is moderate.
It's a pretty hard line to follow.
COOPER: Abby, if the Republicans do take back control of the House, which polling says is likely. What does that agenda look like for 2023 for them?
PHILLIP: Well, look, it's really easy to run against things as they are and run on things being bad, but it has been actually pretty difficult for Republicans to articulate a positive sort of economic agenda.
The big chunk of it that they have talked about is on tax cuts. They want to make the Trump tax cuts permanent. They want to rollback Biden's tax increases.
The problem is that I'm not sure there's a whole lot of evidence that that is going to deal with the economic problems that the country is facing right now, principally inflation.
But again, I mean, in this kind of environment, Republicans are finding it easy and also, you know, perhaps beneficial to them to simply say things are really bad. We understand your pain, and not really offer to voters anything or much in the way of concrete proposals for what they will actually do if they are given power.
COOPER: And Harry, I mean, if the Democrats lose both chambers or either chambers, what does it tell us about national elections in 2024?
ENTEN: Zero. It says zero, zero, zero.
Fact of the matter is, the party in power almost always loses House seats and even so, in the elections where the party loses House seats, you look ahead to the next presidential election, more than half the time, that President actually wins reelection.
COOPER: David Axelrod, Harry Enten, appreciate it.
AXELROD: No more coffee, Harry. COOPER: Abby Phillip, thanks for being here.
ENTEN: Can't help it. Woo.
COOPER: He hasn't had any.
Next, some breaking news from the January 6 Select Committee that the former President has missed a subpoena deadline today to provide documents to the Committee.
Coming up next, bestselling Trump biographer, Maggie Haberman on the new reporting that the former President has a date circled to announce he is running again.
Later, CNN's Elle Reeve has an inside look at how Republicans are training those who believe in the former President's voter fraud conspiracy theories to be poll watchers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:33]
COOPER: Some breaking news tonight: The former President has missed a legal deadline to turn documents over to the house January 6 Select Committee.
CNN's Sara Murray has latest, she joins us now. What do we know, Sara?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, the Committee just put out a statement saying that they have heard from the former President and his counsel, and essentially, they are giving him a little bit more time to begin producing these documents.
They said: "We've informed Trump's counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week, and he remains under subpoena for testimony starting on November 14th."
So look, in the past with other witnesses, the Committee has been willing to push these document deadlines back. What is key is to have some engagement going on behind the scenes, and it seems like at least at this point, this is what's happening -- Anderson.
COOPER: So what is the Committee's next move and what happens?
MURRAY: So, now we wait to see how this plays out. You know, the Committee said by next week, the Trump team has to start producing documents. So we'll see if there was some good faith effort by the Trump team to hand over some documents or to at least say, you know, we can give you these documents, we have privilege concerns about these others, or we may see them continuing to try to delay, delay, delay.
You know, we don't know if the Trump team is going to try to be in any way cooperative with this Committee or if they could ultimately try to file a lawsuit or something like that and essentially kick the can down the road because they expect the Committee's work to expire early on in January.
We've asked the Trump team repeatedly today, how they're going to play all of this, and we have yet to hear back from them -- Anderson.
COOPER: Sara Murray, appreciate it. Thank you.
Today CNN, "The New York Times" and others, including AXIOS, which broke the story are reporting that the former President could announce another run sometime on or around the 14th of this month.
Sources familiar with the matter telling CNN that some of his top aides consider this timeframe ideal if Republicans do well on Tuesday.
As for the one, soon perhaps future candidate, here is what he said yesterday at a rally in Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will very, very, very probably do it again. Okay. Very, very, very probably.
Get ready. That's all I'm telling you very soon. Get ready. Get ready.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Joining us now, CNN political analyst "New York Times" senior political correspondent, Maggie Haberman. She, is of course the bestselling author of the remarkable book "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America."
So Maggie, how real is -- I mean, this is happening. This is real. What are you hearing?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It sure seems though, Anderson. Look with Donald Trump, you never want to say it's an absolute.
Jonathan Swan of AXIOS was careful not to, but I have been hearing from multiple people that it's likely to be that week of November 14th. They consider it an ideal time as you said, because it would be right after the Midterms.
[20:20:04]
HABERMAN: He had been talking about announcing before the Midterms, that really worried a lot of Republicans who tried to talk him out of it through various methods telling him he would be, you know, blamed if they lost.
Remember, he loses some things by doing this, Anderson. What he thinks he gains is some protection from Justice Department investigations and he tries to forestall the rest of the field, especially in a week that Mike Pence's book is coming out.
What he loses is the ability to use his outside groups to pay for legal bills. The clock starts on his hard dollar fundraising and hard dollar spending. So, it's not without risks, but you know, he has been out of the limelight in a way that he can't stand and I think that's a big piece of this.
COOPER: Is that what -- I mean, is that what tipped the scale, you think?
HABERMAN: I think what tipped the scale is always with him getting attention is the biggest deal. I think that wanting to freeze the field and wanting to send a signal to the Justice Department that he is going to make it as hard as possible on them publicly, should they move ahead with any kind of indictment of him or in Georgia, of the Fani Willis investigation, that's a State investigation. I think that all of these are factors. I don't think one necessarily outweighs the other. But I think that he has always thought that getting in sooner rather than later made more sense.
COOPER: Do you know -- I mean, do you have a sense of what his campaign will look like at this stage? Or I mean, is it going to be these big rallies? Does he have staff?
HABERMAN: It's a really good question. And the answer on staff is it's pretty lean right now and you know, folks around him will say that's by design, because they consider 2020 to be fairly bloated. But it's also frankly, reflecting the reality that so far, and in some cases, it's because people are tied up with the Midterms. In some cases, there are people who are very leery of getting involved in Donald Trump's orbit because of the constant churn around him, legal and otherwise.
And so I think it will be small, at least going into early 2023 assuming he does get in. I think you will see some small number of political events happening after he declares. We don't know if the declaration would be a rally, or if it would be a press conference, and I think they're looking at both.
Then I think he will resume rallies the way he had before. I don't think you're going to see him suddenly become a retail politician. He's never liked it, he has never been good at it and I don't think he thinks he needs to.
COOPER: You just heard Sara Murray's reporting that former President Trump missed the subpoena deadline to provide documents to the January 6 Committee. Would an announcement complicate any potential dealings with, I guess, it would complicate any dealings with the Committee.
HABERMAN: Well, I don't know that it complicates it. I mean, I think it's certainly become something else that he points to. I think Donald Trump is running out the clock because he thinks that the Committee is going to go away if a House majority is given to Republicans after next Tuesday, which at the moment, polling indicates that most likely will be, it's just not clear what the margin will be if that happens.
But his assumption is and his aides assumption is this is going to at some point end and as Sara said, I think they have to decide whether they want to file a lawsuit to just help stall that motion.
COOPER: Do you think he would hold his announcement even if the Georgia election results are still undecided?
HABERMAN: Well, I do, but I think that he will be under pressure not to and we'll see what happens. If there is a runoff, I think that is absolutely a complicating factor.
You know, he is already being blamed and continues to be blamed for the losses in Georgia on January 5, 2021 in those runoffs. I'm not sure that anyone around him thinks it is a wise idea for him to face that again.
COOPER: Do you think -- he announces, does he then get, I guess then it sort of -- I don't know how much coverage he has been getting on, you know, FOX News or, you know, big conservative outlets. Does that make him more bookable on those shows?
HABERMAN: I think it's the problem for him, Anderson. I think for a number of reasons the conservative media landscape has changed for him. I think one major reason is that so many of these outlets have gotten embroiled in defamation lawsuits by election companies because of the lies about the election in 2020 that were spouted on their platforms or on their websites or on their programs. And I think that there is some risk in their minds in having him on.
You know, but he has very visibly not been on FOX News very much. He's not on Newsmax. You know, he is really relegated to, you know, other podcasts or some conservative radio. It's just a very different world than it was in 2015 when he first got into politics.
COOPER: Interesting point. Maggie Haberman, appreciate it. Thank you.
In both his winning 2016 campaign and his 2020 defeat, the former President enjoyed strong support, obviously, from White evangelical voters, 77 percent in 2016, according to Pew Research Center, 84 percent in 2020.
With that in mind, our Gary Tuchman visited a Baptist Church in Virginia where the Pastor seemed to buck that trend during the last election and his congregation did not like it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At the Stuarts Draft Baptist Church in Virginia Shenandoah Valley --
BILLY COFFEY, PASTOR, STUARTS DRAFT BAPTIST CHURCH: Good morning, everyone. It's good to see you all here and worship together.
TUCHMAN (voice over): This Sunday service is led by a Pastor who took the place of this Pastor.
WILLIAM KOPP, FORMER PASTOR, STUARTS DRAFT BAPTIST CHURCH: I don't want to start controversy. Apparently, God does, and I'm just the messenger.
TUCHMAN (voice over): Taking his place after this outdoor sermon during the worst of the COVID pandemic, just a few months before the 2020 presidential election.
WILLIAM KOPP: Why will we not finally admit that we have put a liar in our White House? Why will we not finally admit that that is antichrist.
TUCHMAN (voice over): And William Kopp would have been the spiritual leader of this Evangelical Southern Baptist Church for 14 years, wasn't anywhere near done talking about then, President Donald Trump.
WILLIAM KOPP: Eighteen thousand fact checked lines in 1,100 days is more than just unacceptable. It is more than just sin. It is more than just wrong. It is demonic.
TUCHMAN (voice over): And then Kopp added this.
WILLIAM KOPP: And you can't deny it, because Jesus says it. And if you choose to deny that, then you choose to deny Jesus.
You can't have it both ways. You can't support the lie and claim the truth. You can't support the antichrist and support the Christ.
TUCHMAN (voice over): This is William Kopp and his wife, Carol today.
After you made this sermon, what happened to you?
WILLIAM KOPP: I was fired.
CAROL KOPP, WILLIAM KOPP'S WIFE: I knew when I heard it that we would not be staying at the church.
JIM BROOKS, DEACON, STUARTS DRAFT BAPTIST CHURCH: I want to say he was a friend.
TUCHMAN (voice over): Jim Brooks is a Deacon at the church.
JIM BROOKS: The thing that got me was at the very end, Pastor Kopp said that if you voted for Trump, you are not a Christian. That was the biggest thing for me.
TUCHMAN (voice over): Within 48 hours William Kopp says the church leaders, including Deacon Brooks, asked for his resignation.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Is what you're saying, do you believe that people cannot be good Christians or thinking Christians if they support Donald Trump?
WILLIAM KOPP: That's a real tough one, and probably that's exactly what I'm saying.
TUCHMAN (voice over): William Kopp says his sermon criticized other political and religious leaders, too, and contends it was not a political speech, but a moral one.
Sermons in evangelical churches, combining politics, morals and faith are far from rare. Two days before the 2020 election, listen to this pastor in Maine.
KEN GRAVES, LEAD PASTOR, CAVALRY CHAPEL BAPTIST: We have an election on Tuesday. I pray God's mercy grants President Donald Trump victory. I don't have a problem standing here in front of you saying so.
TUCHMAN (voice over): And four days after Election Day, this Texas Pastor referring to the so-called stolen election,
TERI COPELAND PEARSONS, SENIOR PASTOR, EAGLE MOUNTAIN INTERNATIONAL CHURCH: Expose all wickedness intended to steal, to kill, and destroy the electoral process in these battleground States.
Now, let's pray.
TUCHMAN (voice over): According to surveys from the Pew Research Center, it appears there is a strong association between Trump's political movement and the evangelical religious label.
The research from last year further indicates that among all White adults who participated in both the 2016 and 2020 surveys, 25 percent describe themselves as born again or evangelical Protestants in 2016, twenty-nine percent describe themselves this way and 2020.
COFFEY: In 2 Corinthians 5:21.
TUCHMAN (voice over): The current Pastor of the Stuarts Draft Church, Billy Coffey, who talked to us off camera says he loved Pastor Kopp, but told us many congregants were upset and hurt by what he said, and would leave of Pastor Kopp did not. So it was a matter of saving the church, rather than saving the Pastor.
The new Pastor telling us, when you mix religion and politics, it won't make religion better.
William and Carol Kopp have now moved to North Carolina, and have joined a Presbyterian Church where he will occasionally fill in for pastoral duties.
What do you think the Lord thinks of what you said in your sermon that day?
WILLIAM KOPP: Well, done my good and faithful servant.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Gary, did William Kopp indicate if he had any misgivings about how we handled the situation?
TUCHMAN: Well, Anderson, I did talk to William Kopp about that. Obviously, his life has changed a great deal, but he says he is comfortable with what he did and he believes what he said in his sermon is "biblically supported" -- Anderson.
COOPER: Gary Tuchman. Appreciate it. Thanks. Coming up, CNN's Elle Reeve introduce us to a man who believes the
2020 election was stolen and is now being trained to be a poll watcher, part of a number of such people who will be at polling stations across America in four days.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:24]
COOPER: After false claims by the former president in the last election about poll watchers being prevented from observing the vote counting process, which did not happen. He and party officials this year have put a premium on recruiting additional Republicans to become poll watchers. Poll watching whoever requires training. And CNN's Elle Reeve who has an inside look at some Republican poll watchers you're doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): So, what are they training you to do then when you're watching --
CHILD: Observe.
REEVE (on camera): Well, what are you looking for exactly?
CHILD: Observing. We're looking for oddball stuff, I guess.
REEVE (voice-over): John P. Child is training to be a poll watcher, part of a wave of organizing among people who believe the 2020 election was stolen.
CLETA MITCHELL, TRAINS TRUMP SUPPORTERS AS POLL WATCHERS: All over the country, we're deploying people to be poll watchers -- to watch everything that's happening.
REEVE (voice-over): Generally, it's a good thing when more people get engaged in their local government, but some of this engagement is motivated by lies.
CHILD: Especially the mail-in ballots, that's where the big issue was in 2020 because in Pennsylvania, there were 1.8 million mail-in ballots that went out; 2 1/2 million come back. There's a -- hello, question, maybe?
REEVE (on camera): Are you sure about that?
CHILD: Yes. Look it up -- sure.
REEVE (on camera): Can we Google it?
CHILD: Google -- I wouldn't -- yes, you --
REEVE (on camera): You --
CHILD: It's everywhere. REEVE (on camera): OK. So, the first result is from the A.P.
CHILD: There you go.
REEVE (on camera): A.P.'s assessment, false. In the weeks before the November 2020 election more than three million Pennsylvania voters requested vote by mail.
REEVE (voice-over): We met John at a poll watcher training put on by Delaware Country conservatives. The organizer wouldn't let us in but John agreed to an interview, and he brought the training materials.
CHILD: My head was spinning at the end of it. I -- it's a rabbit hole.
[20:35:05]
REEVE (on camera): Well, so tell me about --
CHILD: I liked it better when I didn't know any of this, honestly.
REEVE (on camera): Tell me about what was so mind-blowing in this?
CHILD: Well, the whole chain of custody thing of V Drives, that was astounding.
REEVE (voice-over): The documents go through many technical and procedural details of how votes are counted after polls close, and question whether each is an avenue for cheating. It casts an enormous cloud of suspicion over the vote without any proof.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: And we're going to prove it to you on --
REEVE (voice-over): It's part of a real nationwide movement led by MAGA influencers who circulate false information of election fraud in podcasts and in tours across the country.
DAVID CLEMENTS, FORMER PROFESSOR: And notice how mail-in votes will occasionally switch with in-person votes.
REEVE (voice-over): They've inspired citizens to get involved at the local level to hunt for proof of fraud and to prevent it from happening on Election Day. They have not found proof of fraudsters.
What election officials are worried about is that these efforts could intimidate voters.
CLEMENTS: You have to get into the ring. You cannot fight this on social media.
REEVE (on camera): I have watched, like, many of these different presentations , Steve Bannon, like this guy who calls himself the professor presenting this evidence. But none of that stuff adds up to the millions of votes between Trump and Biden.
CHILD: So, you're not convinced and we're a bunch of -- REEVE (on camera): I'm not convinced.
CHILD: -- crazy people then?
REEVE (on camera): I didn't say you were crazy.
CHILD: Well, sure you are. It's --
REEVE (on camera): I didn't say you were crazy.
CHILD: No. We're deluded. We're misled.
REEVE (on camera): Maybe misled.
CHILD: I don't see it that way, but --
REEVE (on camera): I know you don't see that. I know you don't see --
CHILD: But that's OK.
REEVE (on camera): -- it that way. But I guess one of the reasons why it's important to talk to people like you is to see if there's a place where there could be reconciliation.
CHILD: Yes. Go back to same-day voting and paper ballots.
CHRISTINE REUTHER, COUNTY COUNCILWOMAN, DELAWARE COUNTY, PA: We get these comments. People come to us at county council meetings and say we need to use paper ballots. I'm like, we do use paper ballots. Do you understand? We use paper ballots.
REEVE (voice-over): Dealing with election misinformation has become a big part of the county council's job.
REUTHER: So, the votes are cast on a paper ballot and then they are scanned, and the results of that vote are tabulated on the scanner. But you're not really voting on the scanner, you're voting on the paper ballot. And that paper ballot is maintained as a record of the voter's vote.
REEVE (voice-over): Delaware County, in Pennsylvania, has fought 15 election lawsuits against 2020 election deniers and won all of them, but it cost more than $250,000. And officials are worried about how much more time and money this movement will drain with the midterms.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mail-in ballots are susceptible to fraud and --
REEVE (voice-over): At the biweekly county council meeting, most of the public comments falsely suggested that something sketchy is going on with elections.
REUTHER: Somebody can stand up at one of our meetings and they get three minutes to say whatever they want and spout off lies about the election. There's not much I can do about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're talking about electronic digital devices. Every one of those is providing a gateway for outside intervention or in-house intervention as it may be.
REUTHER: I guess I would just say to them, do you really think all of us want to go to jail? Do you really think everybody in government and everybody who works in our election department wants to go to jail? Because we'd be doing something really illegal. And I'll tell you something. If I thought somebody was doing that, they should go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has to be some degree of trust in those who serve the public that they are doing something for the public good -- and that, we have lost. I don't know our way out but this is the world we live in right now.
REUTHER: There's some kind of cognitive dissidence out there where people are saying well, we've got to save democracy by overturning an election. That's more of a dictatorship than it is democracy.
CHILD: I'm open to putting my eyes on things.
REEVE (on camera): Will you accept the results of these midterm elections even if it's not the results you want?
CHILD: Accept it?
REEVE (on camera): Yes.
CHILD: Well, what, am I going to start a revolt? No. Accept it?
REEVE (on camera): Yes.
CHILD: I have to accept it. What else are you going to do?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And Elle Reeve joins us now. It's fascinating. I mean, he seems like a nice guy who clearly, you know, believes this stuff. This is a grift though, I mean, you saw so many of these people doing the podcast. And I mean, it's a grift. It's a business -- they're making money off this?
REEVE: Oh, yeah. They have lots of ads for gold and supplements and all that kind of thing.
COOPER: And how concerned are you? I mean, after talking, after seeing this, how concerned are you about these people watching?
REEVE: Oh, very. But you have to understand that all of these people, they think they're the good guys.
COOPER: Right.
REEVE: They think they're going to stop subversion of democracy. And I think that gives them a really intense level of emotion and attitude that they've created this cloud of suspicion over every single part in the process. And so, what happens on election night when they're actually there and something catches their eye like, that's what they're worried about. What kind of guys might start.
COOPER: They're being misled, but it's sad. Elle Reeve, I appreciate it. Thank you so much, really fascinating.
[20:40:00]
Just ahead Oprah Winfrey offering her endorsement in that close Senate race in Pennsylvania not for the person she's known and promoted for, for years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: I mentioned earlier how close the Senate race in Pennsylvania is, and our Democrat John Fetterman just got a big endorsement from Oprah Winfrey. This what she said on Thursday evening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: I will tell you all this, if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: This Morning John Fetterman express gratitude for the endorsement during the interview on ABC's The View.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does this mean to you and your campaign?
LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D) PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I mean, she's an icon. I mean, it's unbelievable. It's an honor. And I'm so grateful. And, you know, she understands what's at stake here in this race. And as I said it was just incredibly, incredibly honored to have her support in this race, truly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Unclear what if any impact her endorsement may have but it is notable, given she promoted Mehmet Oz for years on her daytime talk show. CNN's Randi Kaye has details of their story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MEHMET OZ (R) PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: My friend and mentor Oprah Winfrey.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Long before Dr. Mehmet Oz got his own show, he was a regular on Oprah's talk show, making more than 60 appearances.
OZ: All these chemicals, get you going up because it's fight or flight and somebody's coming at you and you guys are going to fight it or you're going to run.
[20:45:04]
KAYE: He held up his hand on TV the first time she got acupuncture.
OZ: So, as these needles go in what they're really going to do is they're going to be placed in their nerves. And as these nerves are stimulated.
WINFREY: When are they going in?
OZ: Not yet, not yet.
KAYE: And odd her audiences with spellbinding demonstrations.
OZ: This is a female heart. You get the whole that one.
WINFREY: OK.
OZ: It's about the size of your fist. And this is the male heart.
KAYE: Oz appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show from 2006 to 2011, during which the Harvard educated heart surgeon became a household name. In 2009, Oprah's company launched the Dr. Oz Show.
WINFREY: Excellent. My son grew up and has his own show. He left home, you're doing all right, Son?
OZ: I am, mom. I'm doing all right.
KAYE: The program was a massive platform for Dr. Oz.
OZ: Whoa.
KAYE: But it didn't come without trouble. In 2014, a study in the peer reviewed British Medical Journal found that of the 40 randomly selected episodes from Oz's television show. His health recommendations were based on evidence just 46% of the time. But despite the criticism, the program drew millions of viewers and built a loyal following, but it wasn't enough for Oprah. Randi Kaye, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming up, putting politics aside talking about the biggest Powerball prize in history and Harry Enten is back to tell us there's actually a strategy to picking your numbers which I find hard to believe. We'll have details on that.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATE REPORTER: We'll see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:49]
COOPER: One lucky person could soon be cashing in on the biggest ever lottery jackpot an estimated $1.6 billion is now at stake and tomorrow night's Powerball drawing pushing it just slightly above the last record set in January 2016. This will be the 40th drawing since the jackpot was last one in August. If no one wins, it'll tie the record for number of consecutive drawings without a grand prize winner. Despite being the biggest prize ever, the winter decided to take the lump sum will only walk away with about $780 million.
Back with me again tonight, our favorite senior data reporter Harry Enten. So why are you here?
ENTEN: I'm here because I'm going to give you advice on how to win.
COOPER: OK, how do you win?
ENTEN: OK. First off, there are some numbers that seem to win more often than the other. But that's complete chance, OK.
COOPER: OK.
ENTEN: The way you want to win or maximize your chance of winning the biggest prize is to pick numbers above 31. Why? Because people often choose anniversaries and birthdays. Of course, there's only 31 days max in any month. So, if you don't want to split the prize, pick numbers above 31. That way you don't have to split the prize if you do win.
COOPER: OK. So, what would -- OK , what would most people do when they win? Do they go for the lump sum, do you know?
ENTEN: Often they do go for the lump sum. But here's some other things that I think are interesting from the numbers that people often do.
COOPER: OK.
ENTEN: The polling shows that most people will in fact split the prize with their family and friends. So, if you win, I expect the million dollars.
COOPER: OK.
ENTEN: Two, they do in fact quit their current job if they do win. I hope you don't quit if you do, in fact, win because I like you a lot. But, of course, for me the question is what would I do if I won? Well, let me tell you that I would go and move to Salem, Massachusetts and start running a Halloween store because I just feel like that would be so tidy.
So, I guess my question to you, Anderson --
COOPER: What's it, come on.
ENTEN: -- is what would you do if you won the -- let's say nearly $800 million lump sum or over a billion dollars if you decide to have the 30-year annuity?
ENTEN: Selfish answers only by the way, no given to charity.
COOPER: I wouldn't do anything different, I'm I like what I do.
ENTEN: You like what you -- would you buy like a nice place in Bermuda or something like that?
COOPER: No.
ENTEN: How about maybe you could buy a sports team and then learn about sports?
COOPER: No, I would not do that. Yeah. I don't know. I would -- you know, I would give away I mean what do you -- that's a lot of money.
ENTEN: That is a lot of money. So, give it to charity. It could be one thing that you do. But maybe here's the idea, we can go on a cruise ship together.
COOPER: No.
ENTEN: No.
COOPER: No, no.
ENTEN: How about you send me on a cruise ship?
COOPER: I'll send you on a cruise -- I will happily send you on a cruise ship.
COOPER: Thank you. Thank you. And we can go to lunch too, why the heck not?
COOPER: Sure, yes.
ENTEN: Right.
COOPER: How's your wallet doing?
ENTEN: My wallets doing well. I can -- right now I actually have a 5.2 billion and I think are 1.2 billion.
COOPER: Yeah, you do have a lot.
ENTEN: Yeah.
COOPER: Harry Enten, thank you.
ENTEN: Thank you.
COOPER: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:11]
COOPER: At the end of a week, we'd like to remember somebody who has recently died who lived a life that we think you should know about. Tonight, we remember a woman by the name of Hannah Pick-Goslar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNAH PICK-GOSLAR: My name is Hannah Pick. I was born in Berlin 12 November 1928.
COOPER: Hannah Pick-Goslar was born in Germany, but to escape rising antisemitism in the early 1930s. Her family moved to Amsterdam. It was there she met another little girl would become an important friend. Hannah described for seeing her in a documentary called That's What I Hope.
PICK-GOSLAR: The first week that my mother went to the grocery shop with me. She met another lady with her little girl.
COOPER: That little girl was Anne Frank.
PICK-GOSLAR: And so, Anne and me went to be friends, the first week in Holland. Later, we always went together to kindergarten, to school and so on and so on.
COOPER: Oftentimes, Anne's father took both her and Hannah to his office while he worked.
PICK-GOSLAR: And then Anne and me we had big fun, we would throw a little bit water at the people that were passing. We would play with a telephone from one home to another.
COOPER: Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940. And two years later, part of that office building became a hiding place for the Frank family, where Anne would write her diary that was published after her death in 1947 as a book called The Diary of a Young Girl. The Franks were arrested in 1944. And, Anne and her sister ended up at Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. Hannah ended up there too. She heard a rumor that her friend, Anne might be in a nearby part of the camp and went to find her.
PICK-GOSLAR: And that night I tried to go as near, it was forbidden, to go as near as I could to the fence. And somehow, I call, Hello? Hello?
COOPER: Word got to Anne and soon both girls met. They spoke to each other separated by a barbed wire fence.
PICK-GOSLAR: And really it was not Anne, the very nice little girl I knew from Amsterdam. A sad little girl. The first thing, we both cried. And then she asked if I can help with some food.
COOPER: All Hannah could manage with some cookies, bread, dried prunes and a little bit of sugar. She stuffed it in a sock and threw it over the fence. The first time another prisoner is stolen. And later she tried again.
PICK-GOSLAR: And she caught the package, but that was the end. We saw one another at the end of February, and then I didn't see her anymore.
COOPER: Hannah would never see Anne Frank again. After she was freed. She learned that in had died in Bergen-Belsen. Hannah moved to Switzerland and eventually emigrated to what would become Israel. She became a pediatric nurse and lived to be 93. She died recently at her home in Jerusalem, survived by her three children. Tonight, we remember Hannah Pick-Goslar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Incredible life. The news continues, I want to hand it over Jake Tapper and "CNN TONIGHT".
