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Update on Election Results; Minneapolis Rejects Overhaul of Police Department; Buffalo Mayor Declares Victory; Manchin Outlines Concerns; Supreme Court Hears Concealed Carry Case. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 03, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:51]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We do have --

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: There is breaking news -- sorry, Erica. You do the breaking news. My bad.

HILL: All good.

We've got breaking news. We'll both bring it to you.

Breaking news in the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

How about we hand it over to John Berman for this one?

SCIUTTO: Let's go to Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you guys want to work this out? Do you guys want to work this out for yourselves? All good.

HILL: You -- you give us the numbers. Jim and I are going to take a beat here to talk this through.

BERMAN: All good.

SCIUTTO: Definitely my fault.

BERMAN: All right, look, Phil Murphy, the Democratic incumbent in New Jersey, has now stretched his lead to 5,700 votes. This is happening as more votes are being counted in the state. You want to ask, where these votes came from this time? This county right there, which is Somerset County, New York (ph).

Now, I want to take a look at Somerset. What's interesting here is this county you'll remember from not 15 minutes ago was actually red. Jack Ciattarelli was leading there. But a new number of votes counted there has put Phil Murphy on top.

And let me show you how much he netted there. He netted 2,829 votes in this county, which gave him the lead in that county, and which stretched his overall state-wide lead to 5,000 votes. This matters, as I've said, because as you look around the states, you

look around the state, the counties that have remaining votes, let's look at about 75 percent or more, you can see, they're blue counties. So, Phil Murphy thinks as votes continue to be counted, his lead will grow even more.

Phil. Erica.

Phil. Jim.

HILL: Phil.

SCIUTTO: See, thank you for taking the heat off me, Jack Berman. I appreciate -- I appreciate the look at the magic wall.

HILL: Good thing nobody was up late last night for elections.

SCIUTTO: Yes, exactly.

HILL: Berman, thanks.

Well, speaking of -- let's keep you posted on what else we're seeing in the results from overnight. Voters in Minneapolis rejecting an effort there to overhaul policing. This despite massive protesting and calls for reform in the wake of George Floyd's murder last year. So the ballot measure would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety run by the city council.

SCIUTTO: As it stands, that is no small margin there, 56 to 43. But concerns about gun violence in the city seem to have drained energy from the push for a change in the role for police there.

CNN's Omar Jimenez joins us now live from Minneapolis.

Omar, you've been there from the beginning, going back to those difficult moments after George Floyd's murder. Tell us what this means for the future of policing in that city.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, I'll tell you one thing, that this isn't going to be the end of attempts to try and reform the Minneapolis Police Department. People on both sides of this debate, the yes and no of the ballot question, both -- all believes that whatever was happening right now wasn't working the best -- or as well as it should be. And so, again, just because this ballot measure failed, I have a feeling we are going to see further pushes in the future.

And to remind, as you mentioned, this was a ballot measure that would have replaced the police department with a wider encompassing public safety department. It was never going to get rid of police officers in a single vote. But one thing I heard consistently from those who plan to vote no in recent days was that they didn't believe the ballot language was specific enough about what this public safety department would do and what it would become for the city of Minneapolis.

Now, those that wanted people to vote yes, we are hearing from some of them this morning. One group in particular that was part of the Yes for Minneapolis Coalition that got the more than 20,000 signatures to get it on the ballot released a statement this morning reading in part, these election results do not change the fact that the system we have is not keeping us safe. Police do not keep us safe, and we won't let fear and scarcity divide us or stop us from creating the future we all deserve. To address the challenges facing our city and create real safety for all of Minneapolis, we need innovative solutions and public investment to make them successful.

Now, in the end, the ballot language fails, but we've also seen some city council members who were part of previous ballot pushes in similar public safety regards not get back into office.

[09:35:00]

City Council President Lisa Bender was among the first to push for calls of a public safety department. She didn't run. Another council member, Philippe Cunningham, was among those who spearheaded a similar ballot initiative last year and it doesn't appear he will get re- elected as well. So we're seeing some of the policy side of things play out about a year and a half after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Jim. Erica.

SCIUTTO: You just delineated a lot of messages that voters sent on that initiative and that push.

Omar Jimenez, thanks very much.

Let's turn now to the major mayoral races in the state of New York.

Eric Adams will be New York City's second black mayor. We should note, he's a moderate as well. He easily defeated his Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa.

HILL: And in Buffalo, the state's second largest city, the incumbent mayor, Byron Brown, is declaring victory. He had to mount a write-in campaign after losing the primary to Democratic socialist India Walton.

Let's get straight to CNN senior national correspondent Miguel Marquez.

So, Miguel, the write-in votes have a clear lead. But there is still not a winner being called in Buffalo at this point.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a shock and then a shock back.

So, look, the -- India Walton, who is this self-professed Democratic socialist, has 41 percent of the vote. Write-ins, who's on those write-in ballots, has 59 percent. So the former mayor, Byron Brown, has declared victory. But it's going to be some days before those ballots are counted. This was a shocker all around because he was a very long-term mayor of Buffalo. Lost in a shocker in the primary to India Walton, the Democratic socialist. And then has come back possibly to win this thing in, you know, the most old school shocking way of all, in a write-in. But whether it's New York or Seattle, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Durham, all of these cities seeing people of color, new faces in politics, young people elected, all Democrats, but not necessarily progressives. Even in Boston, where Michelle Wu was elected, and identifies as more of a progressive, didn't run on those hot button issues like defund the police, was talking more about sort of making Boston a much more livable city for the people who live there. So an interesting night for on the left and what it says about the moderates and the progressives in the U.S. right now.

Back to you guys.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Miguel, thank you.

MARQUEZ: You bet.

HILL: Still to come, moderate Senator Joe Manchin says he thinks a deal on President Biden's spending package can be reached by, wait for it, Thanksgiving. But, yes, there's a but, he says there are some issues that need to be fixed before he can sign off. More on that, next.

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[09:42:19]

HILL: President Biden says he is confident he'll be able to get moderate Senator Joe Manchin on board with his sweeping social safety net package. The West Virginia Democrat, however, says he has concerns that need to be addressed to secure his vote on that $1.75 trillion bill.

Joining me now, CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona.

You know, Melanie, it feels like we've been here before. Senator Manchin expressing some new optimism that a deal could ultimately be reached. But he has some very specific asks.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes, quite a few concerns until Manchin is ready to sign off on this social safety net package. The first one being climate change. Manchin, obviously, represents a heavy coal state. And he was the reason why their initial climate provisions were jetsoned from the initial package.

The other issue he has is the taxes and the way this is being paid for. They changed how it was going to be paid for because of concerns from another moderate holdout, and that's Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. He also has concerns over the continued push to expand Medicare. That

has been a huge point of contention. That's something Bernie Sanders, a progressive, is still pushing for and that Manchin has held firm thus far.

And then, finally, he also has concerns about the potential emerging immigration language, which is still being worked out. So quite a few issues still for Manchin here. But he also said he is open to the idea of this being wrapped up by Thanksgiving, which, of course, is still an aggressive timeline, but does signal that he's willing to play ball.

So, a lot of work to be done, but a lot of optimism here on Capitol Hill.

HILL: Ah, yet another deadline, too, just thrown out there.

Melanie, speaking of Senator Sinema, who you just mentioned, I know you're also learning -- we're all learning more about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who negotiated directly with Senator Sinema when it came to this prescription drug pricing deal. What more do we know about those negotiations and where do we stand this morning?

ZANONA: Oh, to be a fly on the wall during that negotiation, right? I mean you don't often see the speaker of the House negotiating directly with a senator. But in this case, there was a lot of concern and frustration on the House side among Democrats that Sinema and Manchin were both out of the control of the speaker.

And when it comes to prescription drug prices, this was an issue that was massively important to Pelosi's moderates and front line members who are in vulnerable swing districts. A lot of them actually ran on lowering prescription drug prices. So, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rolled up her sleeves, got to work and she was instrumental in these negotiations.

And what they came up with was a compromise. There are going to be the ability for Medicare to negotiate some drug prices with certain drugs for -- with certain companies, but it's not everything that moderates and progressives wanted. But, so far, we're seeing that Sinema has signed off and it's probably going to make it into the final package.

[09:45:00]

HILL: Melanie Zanona with the latest for us.

Melanie, thank you.

ZANONA: Thank you.

HILL: Jim.

SCIUTTO: We'll be watching The Hill for those developments.

In just moments, another story we're watching, the Supreme Court taking up yet another topic that bitterly divides the nation, gun rights. What this ruling could mean for the Second Amendment and for you and your community, next.

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HILL: Breaking news, Democrat Terry McAuliffe has just conceded the Virginia governor's race to Republican Glenn Youngkin. Issuing a statement just a short time ago, he congratulated Youngkin and said, quote, I hope Virginians will join me in wishing the best to him and his family.

[09:50:00]

Thanking his supporters as well and said that when he did serve as Virginia's 72nd governor, it was the highest honor of my life. Again, Terry McAuliffe conceding that race to Glenn Youngkin in Virginia.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Well, minutes from now the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that could lead to more guns being carried on some of the nation's busiest streets. The justice will decide if New York's law requiring people to get a license to carry concealed handguns in public for self-defense passes legal muster.

I'm joined now by former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin.

Jeffrey, this is a case that's been watch very closely, I've been watching very closely, because it gets to an issue here as to whether laws in some states allowing people to carry in public could apply in other states, even if those other states oppose such laws. Explain to us how this could transform the Second Amendment rights nationwide and where the court might be leaning on this.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jim, you know, in 28, the Supreme Court in the famous Heller decision decided that there was a Second Amendment right to own a handgun within your home. But in the subsequent years, it's now a long time. They have not really addressed how broadly the right to keep and bear arms for individuals really goes.

And this case is the first time, now with three new Trump justices, the court will explore how broad the Second Amendment right is. The position of the gun rights supporters, the challengers to this law, is that the Second Amendment is like the First Amendment, you can't regulate the free speech in this country, so you can't regulate gun ownership. And the implications of that are really enormous because when you think about gun regulation in this country, the size of guns, how -- where you can carry them, whether you can carry them in public or conceal, whether felons or domestic abusers can carry guns, all of those laws implicate the Second Amendment. And this court may now decide that the government can't regulate guns as much as they have in the past.

SCIUTTO: With enormous effect. And, by the way, against where a majority of the country is on a lot of these regulations. OK, we know where Democrats stand on these things, but according to

"The New York Times," there's a group of prominent conservative lawyers and former government officials in Republican administrations that are filing a brief arguing, and I'm quoting here, that the original understanding of the Second Amendment was that there is not an absolute, unfettered right to carry loaded guns in public. So that's an interesting voice. Does that carry weight with the court?

TOOBIN: Well, I -- those are very distinguished lawyers, but I think you need to -- we all need to recognize that this is Donald Trump's Supreme Court and Donald Trump's Republican Party. Yes, there are a few outliers there, but, you know, one of the things Trump talked about all the time when he was president, and even now, was Second Amendment rights.

Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Barrett have all been very outspoken in their earlier careers about the breath of Second Amendment rights. So, you know, yes, that -- those are distinguished lawyers and they carry some weight, but, frankly, I don't think they are particularly persuasive to where the court is now, where the Supreme Court majority is now. I don't want to predict the outcome of this case, but I also don't want to overstate how important some legal never Trumpers are because I don't think they're that important.

SCIUTTO: Well, it has enormous effects potentially going forward, possibly making it really difficult to pass any sort of gun control legislation.

TOOBIN: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: All right, another case. Our colleague, Ariane de Vogue, who you know well, points out in her piece on cnn.com that the high courts two newest justices, Justice Kavanaugh and Barrett, could play a major role in redrawing the map for the Second Amendment in courts in these kind of cases. Tell us why their votes are so pivotal here.

TOOBIN: Well because Ruth Ginsberg and Anthony Kennedy, particularly Ginsberg, of course, was very clear. She was a dissenter in the Heller case in 2008. She didn't think the two -- the Second Amendment gives individuals any rights. That she thought it applied only to militias, which had been the position of the Supreme Court for decades.

The replacement of Barrett for Ginsberg is enormously important in the Second Amendment area, as it is in so many, because she, at least as far as we know, believes in expansive individual rights for gun holders and the -- for individuals and the right to bear guns. And, you know, what's so important about this is that, as you point out, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs here, you know, this could redraw the gun laws in all 50 states because the Supreme Court's decision about the Constitution apply everywhere.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[09:55:08]

TOOBIN: And that's why this case is such a big deal, even though it only applies to one specific law in New York state.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, listen, it's -- you hear all this talk about state rights, et cetera, often from conservatives. But this is a case where state's don't have the right to regulate even -- to regulate weapons, even when there are large majorities that support doing so there.

Jeffrey Toobin, always good to have you to break it down.

TOOBIN: All righty, Sciutto, see ya.

HILL: Still ahead, a nail-biter of a race for governor of New Jersey. Incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy stretching his lead a bit in the last hour or so as the ballots are still being counted. We're going to take you to the garden state live, next.

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