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Virtual Tie in New Jersey Governor's Race; Youngkin Wins Virginia; Larry Sabato is Interviewed about the Virginia Election; Kids 5-11 Receive First COVID Vaccine. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired November 03, 2021 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Swanson! To (INAUDIBLE). The World Champions!
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: They shut out the Astros to take the World Series in six games.
And this is the Braves first series title since 1995. Very exciting.
CNN's coverage continues right now.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Wednesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Erica Hill.
Overnight, a major shift in the political landscape. In key elections across the nation, liberal agenda items soundly rejected. It was a huge night for Republicans. And to quote our colleague, Van Jones, a five-alarm fire for Democrats. This morning, CNN can project that Republican Glenn Youngkin is the governor-elect of Virginia, defeating Democrat Terry McAuliffe in a state that President Joe Biden won by ten points, and proving that GOP voters who might still oppose Donald Trump still support conservative politics.
SCIUTTO: And it is not just in Virginia. The race for governor in New Jersey remains neck and neck. A virtual tie at this point between the incumbent Democrat governor, Phil Murphy, and challenger Jack Ciattarelli. That race less than 2,000 votes apart. Another shock for Democrats who saw Murphy coasting to another term in office.
The biggest winners of the night on issues, policing, education, and the economy. In New York, CNN projects that Eric Adams will be the next mayor. The former Brooklyn borough president and retired former police captain ran on a pro-police platform, promising to crack down on crime as well as police abuse.
HILL: In Minneapolis, the site of major anti-police demonstrations and protests last year, voters rejected an aggressive bid to overhaul policing in that city. They voted down a ballot measure that would have abolished the Minneapolis Police Department to replace it with a Department of Public Safety.
Let's begin our coverage this morning in New Jersey, where Democratic Governor Phil Murphy is fighting to stay in office this morning.
CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll joining us from Fort Lee this morning.
So, the race is a lot closer than a lot of people expected. What are New Jersey voters saying as they're waking up this morning to learn that this race is, you know, still neck and neck at this point.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I think, Erica, we're hearing from voters with these most recent numbers that we're seeing. We're now seeing that Murphy is slightly ahead but still, even though he's slightly ahead now, certainly some good news for those people out here who support the governor. But if you look at the lay of the land, especially where we are in Bergen County, he's still underperforming. I mean if you look at what he did here last time he was running for governor versus this time, last time he won Bergen County by 15 points. This time around he's ahead by just about four points with 86 percent reporting.
I mean, of course, what's the difference here? And it's Jack Ciattarelli. And the issues that he ran on. When you look at what he did, he really went after Murphy on issues such as property taxes, mask mandates, things like critical race theory. On the flip side of that, you've got Murphy who basically ran on his record and his progressive accomplishments, raising the minimum wage, raising in terms of expanding paid family leave, and doing all that he can to tie Ciattarelli to Trump. Both candidates basically saying at this point we have to wait because the race is so close, have to wait for every single vote to be counted.
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GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D), NEW JERSEY: When every vote is counted, and every vote will be counted, we hope to have a celebration.
JACK CIATTARELLI (R), NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I wanted to come out here tonight and tell you that we'd won. I'm here -- but I'm here to tell you that we're winning.
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CARROLL: Again, the Murphy team feeling as though once every vote is indeed counted, he will end up being governor once again. If he's able to do that, he will be the first Democratic governor re-elected since 1977.
Guys, back to you.
SCIUTTO: That would be quite a moment.
Jason Carroll, thanks very much.
There are still, of course, many votes, as we noted, outstanding in New Jersey and they are mostly, and this is telling, it seems, from largely Democratic areas.
So let's check in with John Berman at the magic wall on where the votes are still to be counted, and where those areas generally lean.
John, what are you seeing?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, let's take a look at where we are right now. You can see it's just 1,600 votes that separates the two candidates. But the key thing is, just 85 percent reporting at this time.
So, where are the votes still to be counted? Largely we think from Democratic areas.
Let's take this down to find the counties that have, say -- hang on, this is where it gets stuck here. If I can take it down to 85 percent or less. All right, let's do 86 percent or less. That's helpful. If you look at the counties that have 86 percent or less of the vote in right now, largely blue counties.
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Look at this, Hudson County, New Jersey, that's where Jersey City is, that is 80 percent reporting. But you can see, Phil Murphy is at 73 percent there. So, he has a big edge in that county that still has to get a lot of that vote counted.
Other counties to look at here, also with a Democratic edge, Essex County, which is home to Newark, a big urban area. The biggest urban area in the state, just 72 percent reporting. You can see here, Phil Murphy has 72.9 percent of the vote. Another Democratic county, you know, Philadelphia, the surrounding areas of Philadelphia, Camden, this is an area where Phil Murphy's at 60 percent. Just 78 percent in. So a lot more potential Democratic votes.
If you want to know these Republican counties that still have some votes to count, Somerset, which is not tiny, a lot of votes there. Jack Ciattarelli with a small edge there, 82 percent in. Also in the south, Cumberland County, not many votes there, Ciattarelli with an edge there.
To get a sense of what could happen as the votes keep coming in over the course of the morning, let's look at Hudson County here. Oops, we'll come out here. I'm sorry, this is a -- the wall is being mean to me this morning. Let's look at Hudson County, New York, and we'll get a sense of where the votes are right now. You can see, Phil Murphy at 73 percent, Jack Ciattarelli at 25 percent.
We just got a batch of counted votes there. And that vote count was about 6,000 new votes counted there. Of that 6,000, Phil Murphy got 3,889. Ciattarelli got 2,157. That is about 63 percent of the vote and about 35 percent of the vote. So you can see, as these new numbers come in, from these largely
Democratic counties, Phil Murphy should be able to stretch his lead out, which is why the Democrats feel better about where things are at this moment. But, obviously, they still have to count these votes as quickly as they can.
Jim. Erica.
HILL: John Berman, nice work at the wall, my friend. Thank you.
As we continue to watch for that, there is a real focus on Virginia this morning, which is a major defeat for Democrats. And, frankly, some called it a warning sign, some called it a wake-up call. Plenty of people are saying, you should have been paying attention.
CNN projecting Republican Glenn Youngkin will be the next governor in Virginia, beating Democrat Terry McAuliffe by a little more than 2 percent.
SCIUTTO: There -- keep in mind, this was an easy win for Biden in the 2020 election.
Let's go to CNN Washington correspondent Sunlen Serfaty. She's been following the results of the governor's race from Arlington, Virginia.
To be clear, Terry McAuliffe has not conceded yet, but the numbers seem to be clear here. Do we know when he'll make that call?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, McAuliffe officials tell CNN overnight that there's no urgency to do so, but certainly the expectation is that is going to have to be the next step here. And Democrats this morning are definitely waking up to this gut punch blow of their loss in the Virginia governor's race among many others in this state. McAuliffe officials admitting that they just underestimated Glenn Youngkin in the end and the race for them just shifted in the end.
Glenn Youngkin was able to tap into a series of state and local issues, most notably education. And that certainly did resonate among voters last night in exit polls. And that's something that the governor-elect gave a nod to in his victory rally last night.
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GLENN YOUNGKIN (R), GOVERNOR-ELECT: On day one, we're going to work! We're going to restore excellence in our schools! We're going to start with 20 charter schools and we are going to make a down payment and close the gap on giving parents an opportunity to select where their kids go to school. Friends, we're going to embrace our parents, not ignore them.
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SERFATY: And Democrats here will certainly have a lot to parse through from last night's results. But certainly notable here is that the exit polls show that 43 percent, only 43 percent of Virginians approve of the job that President Biden was doing. So certainly his first year in the presidency affecting the outcome tonight and certainly could going forward in the midterms as well as the strategy that Terry McAuliffe just zeroed in on throughout his campaign of trying to tie Youngkin to former President Donald Trump. That clearly did not work here either. So Democrats likely going to have to reassess that strategy.
Jim.
HILL: Yes, a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking happening this morning, I'm sure.
Sunlen Serfaty, thank you.
Joining us now to discuss, Larry Sabato. He's director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Larry, always good to have you with us, and especially when so much is happening in your own backyard as we're seeing with this race in Virginia.
You know, these cries of a wake-up call this morning, that this really needs to be a wake-up call for Democrats, I wonder, do you agree with that or is it that maybe more Democrats should have been paying attention?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, it's really both. If this wasn't a five-alarm fire for Democrats, nothing will be.
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This was, of course, local in the sense that you have local issues that make a difference and stir the party base on both sides, particularly Republicans. But the national dimension is impossible to ignore. The fact is that President Biden, with a 54 percent win last year, manages to get below 45 in approval. And, as a result, and a result also of the inaction of the House and Senate Democrats on the two big proposals that President Biden has on the table, Democrats weren't excited.
And I saw that in going through all the votes. The Republican turnouts were unbelievable, particularly in rural counties. It wasn't just the absolute number. A lot of them were small counties without a lot of votes. But when you add them together, and the Republican nominees were getting -- listen to this, 85 percent of the vote, 85 percent. That doesn't happen very often. A major party candidate getting 10, 12, 14 percent of the vote in McAuliffe's case, it tells you the Republican base was completely activated and Democrats, especially in many black areas, and also, I have to say, the youth vote, here in my backyard, they didn't turn out. So when you have that combination, this kind of result is inevitable.
SCIUTTO: Larry, it strikes me that parties often tend to overlearn the positive lessons from elections like this, maybe under learn the negative. But I wonder, if we -- if we turn to the Republican Party here, the thing about Youngkin, right, was that he did not run as a Trump, right? In fact, he put some -- deliberately, very deliberately, put some distance between him and Trump. Is there a lesson for Republicans as well that their path to victory, not just in 2022, but 2024 is not necessarily through the former president?
SABATO: Well, I think that's very obvious from the Virginia case. Now, Trump tried to get involved.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SABATO: He endorsed, even on election eve, he endorsed Youngkin a total of seven or eight times throughout the campaign. I don't think the Youngkin campaign was all that pleased about that fact. But Youngkin kept Trump at arms length. There's no picture, there's no video of them together.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SABATO: I think that was on purpose, don't you?
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SABATO: Trump got -- Trump was slaughtered here by over ten points last year. And New Jersey as well, 16 points. Biden won by 16 points there. And you got a tie. So, you know, there's a real lesson for national Democrats here on a lot of different levels. And while a lot can change in a year, they'd better focus real fast.
HILL: One of the other things, right, that we talked a lot about when it came to Youngkin is his -- his real focus on specific issues, so kitchen table, bread and butter issues, talking about the economy, the grocery tax, gas prices and specifically education really picking up on this gaffe from McAuliffe that he was not able to recover from.
Let's look at the numbers in terms of just how important education was to voters. And it really sets the scene there, for both voters. But you look at how important education was. How much say should parents have in what schools teach? Those who voting for Youngkin, 94 percent say a lot or some. Those voting for McAuliffe, nearly three-quarters. That's a lesson for Democrats, is it not?
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SABATO: Oh, absolutely. I think a fundamental error that the McAuliffe campaign made was that they -- well, the gaffe was the fundamental error.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SABATO: But they never really engaged on the parental influence in the schools issue. They never really engaged with the Republican claims about critical race theory, which isn't taught in Virginia, of course. But you have to engage. You have to present your side of the argument. You can't just walk away from it and try to focus on, say, Donald Trump. And that's a -- that's a lesson for Democrats going forward in 2022. Look at what the other side is saying and refute it if you can.
SCIUTTO: Let's see if they learn those lessons. They've got some time, but not a lot of time.
Larry Sabato, always good to have you on.
SABATO: Thanks so much for having me.
SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, Minneapolis rejected a ballot initiative to restructure the city's police department. And the mayoral race there still has not been called. We're going to take you there live, see what that indicates.
Plus, the incumbent mayor of Buffalo, New York, may have pulled off a successful write-in campaign. This after losing the primary to a Democratic socialist. A look at all of the big wins last night.
HILL: And today is the day many parents and kids have been waiting for. Children ages five to 11 can finally get their first shot of the vaccine.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel excited because now that I'm one step closer to getting fully vaccinated.
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SCIUTTO: This is a very big moment in the pandemic. Right now kids as young as five years old are getting their first doses of Pfizer's COVID vaccine. This comes after the CDC authorized those doses just yesterday for the youngest age group yet. This makes 28 million children now eligible for a COVID vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci says this will lessen the risk of getting the virus, and this is key, not just for kids, but for everyone.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think it's going to make the issue of schools much easier, much safer as we get more and more children. Before we would surround the children with vaccinated people, like adults, like teachers, like school personnel. Now, if you have the children, in addition to the personnel, that diminishes the risk considerably.
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HILL: Millions of pediatric vaccine doses are already arriving at thousands of locations across the country.
Joining us now, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and CNN national correspondent Brynn Gringras. She's live in New York where those vaccinations are happening.
Elizabeth, I want to start with you.
The CDC director saying this moment should really be a cause for celebration for parents.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Parents of children ages five to 11, Erica, they have not been able to rest easy during this pandemic because their children were not as protected as they could be. So they were worried about their children getting COVID, as well as worrying, could their children spread it to vulnerable people, like grandparents, like relatives and friends who were immune compromised.
So let's take a look at this White House rollout and sort of -- and where the vaccines are going to be. I think we all remember the adult rollout back in December/January was, well, a bit rocky. This one looks like -- has all the signs of being much, much smoother.
The rollout will be in pediatricians' offices. That's really key. Pediatricians are great at giving vaccines. They're used to ordering them. They're used to giving them. Also pharmacies, children's hospitals, schools and other locations.
Now, you mentioned the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, she talked a bit yesterday about addressing the question that parents have, which is, you know what, COVID doesn't affect children typically as severely as it affects adults. Why should I give a vaccine to my child? The answer really is, is that COVID can affect children quite terribly. Thousands and thousands of children have gotten very, very sick with COVID, been hospitalized, many of whom were perfectly healthy to begin with, why would you want to roll the dice with your child?
So let's take a listen to Dr. Walensky.
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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CDC: The chance that a child will have severe COVID, require hospitalization or develop a long-term complication like MIS-C remains low. But, still, the risk is too high and too devastating to our children and far higher than for many other diseases for which we vaccinate children.
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COHEN: Now, polling has shown that some parents are hesitant about getting this vaccine for their children. Hopefully in the coming weeks, as they say -- see other children get it, they see how well they're doing, hopefully some of that hesitation will go away.
Jim. Erica.
SCIUTTO: Well, if getting an appointment is a sign of interest in D.C., it's already hard to get an appointment, of course, this part of a country where there hasn't been that same hesitancy, but clearly some demand.
Brynn, you're at an urgent care facility in New York. Are you seeing big lines there? What are parents saying?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's a steady flow of kids actually coming into this doctor's office. I can tell you that they just received 600 doses of the vaccine for children on their doorstep this morning. That's in addition to the 300 they already had. So they have a good amount here and they plan to actually go to schools later on and distribute the vaccine for children and parents who want it there.
But I want to show you and introduce you to Zia and Cathrine Bucci. Zia here is ready to get the vaccine and she is excited because she has some plans, and we'll talk about that in just a minute.
But, Cathrine, I want to talk to you while Zia is getting the vaccine.
Tell me, you were saying your husband's a pilot. This is a stress that you have felt for quite a while.
CATHRINE BUCCI, DAUGHTER IS RECEIVING COVID-19 VACCINE: It is. We were out in Arizona, his job had taken us out there, and so we had lived out there for a while and, you know, things are very different than they are here in the city, and that's actually what brought us back to New York was, you know, the mask mandates and the safety in the schools, everyone taking vaccination so seriously. So this is just thrilling.
GINGRAS: Thrilling. And she's done. All done, Zia!
C. BUCCI: Congratulations.
GINGRAS: Zia, you did great. You're such a trooper. Now, tell me, got the vaccine, what's the first thing you're going to do? You're so excited.
ZIA BUCCI, 9-YEAR-OLD RECEIVING FIRST DOSE OF PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE: I want to watch "Hamilton" on Broadway.
GINGRAS: You want to go to Broadway and watch "Hamilton," because you know all the music. That's awesome. I bet they're going to be so excited to welcome you to that play. You did such a good job. This is --
Z. BUCCI: Hello people watching me (ph).
GINGRAS: Hello to everyone.
And I've got to tell you, there are -- there are actually a lot of children here who are very excited because, guys, I know there is this stress that's taken off parents. But for kids, too. I've talked to kids who said they just can't wait to take off their mask when they go to the playground. They can't wait to have a play date with their friends. So there is some feeling of just finally feeling liberated from this pandemic and that comes today for these young kids. Guys.
HILL: Yes, absolutely. I love the way that Zia just looked as it was happening, right? I think maybe some adults could take some lessons there. Nothing to be afraid of with that needle.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
GINGRAS: Yes.
SCIUTTO: I think, Erica, I cried more tears at my shot than that sweet little 10-year-old.
HILL: Well, we'll all -- we'll all take some lessons from her.
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Brynn --
GINGRAS: I'll let her know, Jim.
HILL: Brynn and Elizabeth, thank you both.
And just a reminder, really excited to let you know that CNN is teaming up with our friends from "Sesame Street" once again. Dr. Sanjay Gupta and I will be hosting our sixth town hall for families. We are here to answer your questions. So, send them in.
Don't miss "The ABCs of COVID Vaccines." It's this Saturday morning at 8:30 only on CNN.
And if you'd like to submit a question, I just tweeted out that link for you. You can find it @ericarhill.
SCIUTTO: That's going to be great. I'm going to be watching that.
Still ahead, voters in Minneapolis deciding on the future of that city's police force in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Big moments there. We're going to take you live, next.
And we're moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures mixed right now after all three major averages closed at record highs yet again on Tuesday with the Dow closing above 36,000 for the first time ever. Corporate earnings, they remain strong. But the Federal Reserve rate announcement coming today. Jobs report on Friday. Sentiment could change if the news isn't what Wall Street is hoping for.
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