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Voters in Several States to Decide Key Issues with National Implications; Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Threatens Democrats' Effort to Pass Two Bills this Week; Pfizer Says, Initial Data on Use of COVID-19 Vaccine in Children Aged Two to Five Expected This Year. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:03]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: We've seen a bit of a shift in the tide over the last few days with more and more indictments coming down against unruly passenger. Namely, that passenger accused of punching that flight attended in that incident last Wednesday on an American flight. He is 20-year-old Brian Hsu of Irvine, California. We have learned from these court documents that just came out that he is pleading self-defense, that he recently had brain surgery, he says, and his family was also interviewed, they say he's not been the same since. The flight attendant says she was just trying to keep him from getting to the lavatory when the fasten seat belt sign was on.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Goodness, last place you want to see that kind of violence. Pete Muntean, thanks so much.

A very good Tuesday morning to you, I'm Jim Sciutto.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Erica Hill.

It is Election Day in America. Polls open in statewide elections. It could have national consequences and that's why there is such a focus on this, specifically on two high-stakes races for governor today in Virginia and New Jersey. In Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe locked in a dead heat with Republican newcomer Glenn Youngkin. That race is considered by many to be a preview of what you could be seeing in next year's midterms.

Meantime, in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy trying to become the first Democratic governor to win reelection in that state in 44 years.

SCIUTTO: Democratic candidates were hoping to ride the momentum from legislative wins in D.C. That ain't happening, at least yet. Moderate Senator Joe Manchin now threatening to upend democratic leaders' plans to vote this week on two of President Biden's top agenda priorities, announcing he will not support the social safety net package without greater clarity about its impact on the economy.

He just spoke to our Manu Raju moments ago on Capitol Hill. We're going to have more on that in a moment. There are open questions as to what exactly is said and what the impact will be.

But, first, to Virginia, where former Governor Democrat Terry McAuliffe is hoping for a second term while Businessman Glenn Youngkin is hoping to return the governor's mansion to Republicans. Here is Youngkin making one of his final pitch to voters on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN YOUNGKIN (R), VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Terry McAuliffe, who wants to -- he wants to put government between parents and their children. He wants to force everyone to join the union as opposed to letting it be your choice. He wants to make your life difficult by forcing your employer to fire you if you don't want the vaccine and not let you get unemployment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN National Political Reporter Dan Merica is in Alexandria, Virginia this morning. There is a lot at stake in this race, of course, not just in Virginia, but as we know, Dan, nationally as well.

DAN MERICA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. I mean, first for Virginia, this is obviously the next four years of leadership. It's also become a referendum on the last eight years of Democratic leadership in the governor's mansion. And you've seen a lot of momentum behind Youngkin in part because Republicans are just happy to be in this game. For the last decade or so, it's been impossible for a Republican to get elected statewide in Virginia. So, some of the momentum behind Youngkin is because of that.

And, obviously, there are national implications as well. A Youngkin win would reverberate across the country, it would signal growth for the GOP in 2021, especially in places like the suburbs around Washington, D.C., where I am right now, an area that distanced itself from Donald Trump during his four years in office.

It would also signal big questions for the Democratic Party. Terry McAuliffe has run this race almost explicitly tying Youngkin to Trump. If he were to lose, that would raise serious questions about the potency of that argument, whether voters are still as tuned into and plugged into fears about Trump. It would also raise questions about whether voters support what is going on in Washington. It could be a referendum on Biden and the Biden administration.

And as you note, the possible passage of an infrastructure bill, there a lot of Democrats here who thought that would help. It hasn't happened. There would certainly be some worries and concerns about what could have been if that bill had been passed.

And, lastly, it will raise questions about the McAuliffe campaign strategy, whether they misjudged the issues of this race and they didn't take seriously the issues that Youngkin focused on, whether that's education, the critical race theory bit, economy, as well as crime. Take a listen to what Terry McAuliffe said yesterday about some of those issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY MCAULIFFE (D), VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Right now, look what's going on. Guess how Glenn Youngkin is finishing his campaign? He is doing an event with Donald Trump here in Virginia. I'm here with you and they've got Trump over there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:00]

MERICA: Obviously, Donald Trump was not in Virginia, it was a tele- rally. Youngkin wasn't with Trump, he did not called into the tele- rally even. But that shows how important it was for the McAuliffe campaign to link Youngkin to Trump. There's a strategic reason for that, obviously. Trump lost this commonwealth by ten points in 2020.

There's also the rhetorical reason. There are lot of voters here in the suburbs who fled the Republican Party, were once reliable Republican voters, fled the Republican Party under Trump because of some of the concerns they had about the former president.

Big question going into today and, honestly, for the weeks to come will be does that strategy still work, and that will be something McAuliffe will have to answer whether he loses this race.

SCIUTTO: Lots of votes to be counted. We'll be watching tonight. Dan Merica, thanks very much.

CNN's Brian Todd, he is at a polling place in Ashburn, Virginia. Brian, polls, they opened at 6:00 A.M. local time, it closes at 7:00 P.M. tonight. If a voter, we should note, is in line by 7:00 P.M., they will still be permitted to vote. Do you have a sense there from what you've seen, and speaking to election officials, what the turnout is like?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do, Jim, and it's a very healthy turn out so far in Loudoun County. Early voting was crucial here. More than 40,000 people voted early in Loudoun County. They had over 6,300 people in Loudoun County vote on Saturday alone in early voting.

As of today, though, as far as this morning is concerned, steady flow of voters here at the Moorefield Station Elementary School. About 350 voters have come through the door so far. They had a line going out the door at 6:00 A.M. when they opened.

They have some strict rules here for reporters going in, in live shots, transmitting in there. The long and short of it is I'm not really allowed to go in and talk. But my photojournalist, Andrew Smith, he is allowed to go in. I have got to stay 40 feet outside the door. So, Andrew is going to take you inside where people are registering -- they're not registering but they're checking in to vote.

They check in at that station there ahead of Andrew. He's going to pan to his left and show you the voting stations there. They have nine voting stations where people will go to vote. Again, a steady stream of voters coming through here, at least 350, according to the precinct captain here. And we've talked to election officials here in Loudoun County and they say it's been very, very steady all morning. They do expect a big, big turnout today here in Loudoun County.

And, you know, you talk to -- I saw Dan's live shot just before me, and, you know, Glenn Youngkin talking about the education issue, as the school -- here is the backdrop here. Education is key. We've talked to voters here who come out and talk to us about what's most important to them. The curriculum here, a lot of them believe that critical race theory has been taught in schools. They don't like that.

But it's really not on the curriculum in Virginia, but people here in Loudoun County believe that that's an important issue, the curriculum here, that's been a big debate between Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin feels that he can win this county. It's the fastest growing county in Virginia and the fourth largest county in Virginia right now. So, if Youngkin is going to have a good chance to win today, and it is a very close race, as we know, the poll pretty much even, if he's going to win, this is going to be a crucial county. And the vote here, the turnout here is going to be absolutely crucial. Jim and Erica?

HILL: Yes, definitely had been watching for that. Brian Todd, I appreciate, thank you.

And just a reminder to stay with CNN as we cover election night in America. The stakes are high, as you know. Special live coverage starting tonight right here at 6:00 P.M. Eastern.

Well, President Biden's economic agenda really still up in the air this morning as Senator Joe Manchin is, once again, asking questions about the so-called pay-fors in this bill, the plan to pay for it. After the bill appeared to be gaining momentum, Manchin said yesterday he won't support the bill unless there is greater clarity about the impact it will have on the national debt and the economy.

SCIUTTO: It is a question though about how much his statement actually changes things because on the flipside, Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal has voiced optimism that the social safety net and infrastructure bills will get passed. She says that her caucus has the votes to do so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): My hope and belief in talking to the Senate majority leader, talking to other senators, talking to the president, is that the Senate will move this forward very quickly. Hopefully, we can get it done before Thanksgiving.

On all of this, we are trusting the president to deliver 51 votes in the Senate.

What we are saying is we're part of the Democratic Party. We will vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and we expect that our colleagues across the Democratic caucus will vote for and pass the Build Back Better act. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju, of course has been following this, Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

Manu, let's begin with you. There was a moment about a half hour yesterday after Manchin spoke in Washington where folks said, oh, goodness, the whole house of cards had fallen, then you had Jayapal and the progressives come out and saying, no, we're still moving forward. Can you tell us where things actually stand?

[10:10:00]

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the question is ultimately, can that $1.75 trillion bill become law. And that is just something we don't know the answer to at the moment. They're still trying to wrangle enough support in the House to get moderates in line on that, and then, of course, Joe Manchin, the key voice in the Senate, is still not on board.

We just caught up with him moments ago. While he indicated he is still intent on getting something done, he made clear he has concerns and probably wants some significant changes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Are you suggesting they should abandon this effort all together?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): No. What I've always said were this, we're going to get something done. But I still believe in my heart of hearts with the unknown that we have right now, that we should have waited. We're not going to wait. That ship has sailed and I understand that. So, let's sit down and work in good faith, and I've been doing.

RAJU: What should be dropped from this bill?

REPORTER: Two questions for you. Number one, just to be clear here, did you sign off on the framework on Friday prior to the president's announcement?

MANCHIN: No.

REPORTER: You hadn't signed off? And then the second question --

MANCHIN: No, because that would be disingenuine. I wouldn't do that.

REPORTER: And the second question is what do you say to Democrats who say you threw the president a curveball while he was overseas on the world stage?

MANCHIN: Not at all. I feel, basically, it's time to do something. The president is over there. He went there. He asked for something before he left and everyone ignored it. I didn't ignore it. I thought something could have been done. It was a very easy ask. Just vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. It has a tremendous amount of clean energy in it. It would have helped an awful lot, and it does an awful lot, more than we've ever done before. They couldn't even do that because they were saying it's (INAUDIBLE).

The perfect is going to be the enemy of the good if we have to sit down and be rational.

RAJU: Do you want Medicare expansion out of this? Do you want Medicare expansion out of this?

MANCHIN: I'm not for any expansions but, basically, there is a trust fund that is insolvable. Let's get it solved.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: And that last point very critical because this bill would include an expansion of Medicare to include hearing coverage. He is making clear there that he should not include that. That is a red line for Bernie Sanders, who wants that expansion of Medicare. So they have to sort that out still.

But at the same time, while this bill is -- there's still a discussion about trying to get this done, there's an effort in the House to try to get the larger bill done, passed in the House this week, alongside the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Manchin and other moderates have been demanding the House act on for months. Nancy Pelosi told her caucus this morning she is pushing to try to have votes on both bills this week, and they're trying to get the negotiations done on the larger bill, push the House to pass the infrastructure bill. The progressives are saying they will support the infrastructure bill.

So, potentially, that could become law within days. But the question still is what will happen to the expansion to social safety net? That's something the two sides, liberals, the moderates, and the White House will have to haggle on for weeks to come.

HILL: Yes, it is a really important question.

Kaitlan, I'm curious, as we look at how this is playing out, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg telling CNN this morning the president is closer to getting Manchin on the same page. I keep thinking back to what he said at the CNN town hall. He said, at the end of the day, he always comes around and votes for it, talking about Joe Manchin.

This is, in many ways, what the president has been working on, we're told, behind closed doors. How close is he to making sure that Manchin is on board, Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, they are not there yet. And you saw Senator Manchin saying there that he did not sign off on that $1.75 trillion bill, as it was, last week when the president announced it. And, of course, that was something that the White House had really wanted to get done before the president came on this trip, to go to Rome for the G20 and then to come here to Scotland for this major climate summit. And now the president is preparing to leave this summit in just a few hours and go back to Washington and still, of course, no backing from Senator Manchin on that yet. And it likely explains why the White House, you saw the other day after we had asked President Biden at that press conference, if he had yet gotten the signoff from Senator Manchin and from Senator Sinema on that bill, and the president did not answer directly, but he did flash a thumbs up to reporters in the room. And the White House later issued a statement walking that back, saying that the president was just confident it would get passed overall, not necessarily that they had signed off on it yet. And, of course, now, we can see why that is.

But you see what the president's job is going to be as he's returning to Washington, which is getting Manchin on board. And you are hearing from the progressives, including Pramila Jayapal saying that it is up to President Biden to get Senator Manchin on board, and they say that they are confident he will be able to get all of the votes. But it just shows that the president is going to be returning to the United States, to Washington, with the same kind of dynamic that he left with, which is still getting those critical moderates on board. And, of course, the question is going to be how long that takes.

And it's kind of hung over the president's time here in Scotland because he's been talking about these executive actions that he can take, these pledges that he can sign on to when it comes to conserving forests (ph), this new rule proposed from the EPA on limiting methane emissions. And he is really setting up these aggressive goals of how the United States is going to reduce emissions by about 50 percent by the end of this decade.

[10:15:02]

But, of course, we know a big part of actually getting to that goal depends on this legislation, this hundreds of billions of dollars to try to get there. And, of course, that is a legislation that does not yet have the support of Senator Manchin.

SCIUTTO: Well, I can't think of anything more Washington than walking back a president's thumbs up, but here we are in these negotiations. Kaitlan Collins in Scotland, Manu Raju on the Hill, thanks very much.

Still to come this hour, President Biden's final huddles with world leaders before he returns home from his overseas trip. The major commitments being made to fight climate change, how lasting are they? We'll dig in a little more later this hour.

HILL: And up next, the day many parents and, let's be honest, lots of kids have been waiting for. Could today be the day that children ages 5 to 11 will get the green light for a COVID-19 vaccine? We'll take look at that, and also what you can do as you're waiting for that vaccine rollout.

Plus, a chance to abolish the police following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis today, voters will weigh in on that idea.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: In just a few minutes, members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee will begin their meeting to consider recommending the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11. A liaison to the committee tells CNN he does expect that members will approve it and overwhelmingly so.

HILL: Joining us now to discuss is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So, this is happening. As you know, we're seeing members be updated about cases among children remaining extremely high. I know for a lot of folks, and they see that headline, for them, it may emphasize the sense of urgency about the decision. But does that weigh in at all for these independent vaccine advisers?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think very much so. I mean, where we are in the state of the pandemic, the context is important here. I mean, the numbers have been improving thankfully, but they're coming down from a very high number, as you point out.

So, 100,000 or so children were diagnosed with COVID this past week. That's a big number. Some of those children may get sick, the percentage is small, as we know, thankfully, but there's massive disruptions, isolation, quarantines, parents having to stay home. So there's all the ripple effects. So I think that's part of the decision-making. But also just the overall benefit of the vaccine to these children outweighing the risks, that ultimately is what the FDA decided was true. And as you point out, the CDC is likely to formally recommend it because of that.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Let's talk about rollout here and how people who are watching right now can get their children the vaccinations. There are some differences between how this will be rolled out, and the administration has been preparing for it for some time now, and how vaccines for adults were rolled out. Can you help people understand what they need to watch for and what they need to do?

GUPTA: Yes. So, just in terms of availability now, there's good availability as opposed to what we saw in the beginning of the adult rollout last year. So, many of those doses have already been pre- shipped to pediatrician pediatricians' offices and clinics and things like that, so parents should be able to go directly through their own doctor and get this. Pharmacies, less of an option for these kids, it's going to be through their doctors. So, that's an important point.

But also, right now, if you look at 12 to 15-year-olds, about half of them have been vaccinated so far. The numbers have gone up but still small. Right now, it's expected about a quarter of parents are going to rush out and get this vaccine for their kids right away, about a third are sort of waiting and seeing, and the rest are not inclined to do it. So, we'll see how those numbers change as well.

HILL: I think it will be interesting, too, a lot of folks -- and I've even spoken to families with children who are under the age of five, saying, okay, so, what about my younger kids? If this likely going to happens for the 5 to 11-year-olds, Pfizer actually says we could have more data fairly soon. What more do we know about that?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, it's interesting. We've followed these trials now for a couple of years, and you always get these sort of projections. We've been talking to the clinical trial investigators. But probably by the end of this year, there should be some data on the next youngest group, two to five-year-olds. So, we'll see, obviously, if that happens.

Part of that is dependent on how many cases are out there at a given time. In order for a trial to actually work, there has to be a fair amount of COVID circulating. Hopefully, the numbers continue to go down. If they do, that may push trial results back a little bit. But, end of the year, two to five-year-olds and first half of the next year for younger than that.

HILL: Still great to look at and a reminder if we just take a pause just how impressive this entire effort has been. It's good stuff, I think. Anyway, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, I always appreciate it. Thank you, my friend.

GUPTA: You too.

HILL: Still ahead, policing and crime, two important topics motivating voters in mayoral races around the country today. In Minneapolis, voters will decide whether to replace the police department all together. We'll take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

HILL: Critical issues on the ballot in cities across the country today. In Minneapolis, an amendment would eliminate that city's police department all together, policing replacing it rather with a new department of public safety. The initiative would also get rid of the police chief and city's required number of police officers.

SCIUTTO: CNN's Omar Jimenez has more on a movement that grew in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Leading up to Election Day, canvassers are making a final push to encourage people to vote yes on ballot question number two in Minneapolis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what this new department of public safety is about.

JIMENEZ: Which reads in part, shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to remove the police department and replace with the department of public safety?

[10:30:02]

CASEY CARL, CITY CLERK, MINNEAPOLIS: It's really setting the table, if you will, for policymakers in the future to come forward and say, what should be in the public safety department.