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GOP Wins Force Democrats to Reassess Strategy Heading into Midterms; Voters Embrace Moderates, Reject Progressives in Several Mayoral Races; Kids Ages 5 to 11 Receive First Doses of Pfizer COVID Vaccine. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 03, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

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ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: A good Wednesday morning. Top of the hour here, I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Jim Scuitto.

A big night for Republicans, and to quote our colleague, Van Jones, a five alarm fire for Democrats. This morning, a major potential shift in the landscape. Republicans pulled out victories in states Democrats saw as a litmus test for upcoming midterms, and, frankly, they had no trouble winning in 2020 New Jersey. A shock for Democrats who anticipated an easy victory for incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy, while the votes coming in may be turning in his favor, that race is neck and neck, has been all night, has been all morning. Right now, Murphy 5,000 votes ahead of his Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli.

HILL: Meantime, a major disappointment for Democrats in Virginia. That's a state President Joe Biden won by ten points just last year. CNN can project Republican Glenn Youngkin will defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe actually just conceded that race.

Liberal agenda items also soundly rejected in several key elections and ballot measures across nation. Winners of the night, the biggest winners, policing, education and the economy, including in Minneapolis, where voters there rejected an aggressive bid to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a city council-run public safety department.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and decisively so. First, let's begin with the latest on that incredibly tight New Jersey governor's race where the incumbent, Phil Murphy, has, though, in recent hours, added to his count this morning.

John Berman is at the magic wall this morning. John, so it's inching up his margin. Where are the remaining votes concentrated, and what does that mean for where this is likely to go?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Inching up, separated now by 5,700 votes. It was 61 votes all night long. you Can see it growing bit by bit here. Where is the remaining vote? Right now, 85 percent of the vote in. Let's look at what happens when you look at the counties where you have, oh, 87 percent or less of the vote in. You can see they're blue counties, Democratic counties, meaning there is more votes for Democrats there potentially, Hudson County, where you have Jersey City, New Jersey, 80 percent reporting. It's a county where Phil Murphy has 73 percent of the vote.

Look at Essex County right next door, that's Newark, it's the biggest urban center in New Jersey, Phil Murphy has got 73 percent of the vote there, just 72 percent in. So, as this number gets closer to 100, the Murphy campaign thinks he will be able to stretch his lead some.

Are there Republican votes left? Not as many, right? Look down here at Cumberland County, 79 percent in. But you can see, it's a smaller county right now. You are dealing with tens of thousands rather than more than 100,000 votes, so not as much room for the Republican to grow.

One thing I do want to point out. Phil Murphy, whose lead may very well inch up over up over the next hour, you know, gets a 1, 2, 3 percent, this is a state that was won by Joe Biden by 16 percent. This was a big Biden state. So, something has changed here.

And I just want to show you where some of these other places are that Biden won, well, I screwed that up. You can look at here, look at overall, this is the state overall. You can see right now in the counties where Phil Murphy is leading, these are the counties that Joe Biden won, then you can see there are a few counties here that Joe Biden won that Phil Murphy is not winning, including some big ones, Morris County, which is a little bit further out of the city than these counties right here. That's a county that Jack Ciattarelli is leading by more than 20,000 votes. It's a county that Joe Biden won. So, some flips there even as Phil Murphy inches his lead up more and more.

HILL: Yes, and important to see that full picture there, Berman. Thank you.

CNN National Correspondent Jason Carroll is in Ft. Lee, New Jersey. So, as we are looking at where we stand this morning, those numbers, as Berman pointed out, ticking up in Phil Murphy's favor. Are we hearing from either camps this morning or are they just waiting for this to finish playing out?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're really waiting for this to finish out. There're still not a lot of Republican votes out there. Both campaigns are well aware of that. But the race is still at this point too close to call. And when you look at the lay of the land here, especially in places like where I am in Bergen County, and I know, Erica, you've heard this before, but this is one of these spots where if you look at Democrats, they're really -- and you look at what happened with Murphy, he is really underperforming here, especially when you consider how he did last time. Last time during the gubernatorial race, he won this county by 15 points. This time around, he's only ahead by about four points or so and already 86 percent is already reporting here.

I mean, when you look at the campaign that Ciattarelli has run, I mean, basically, Republicans are saying that this race is closer than Democrats expected because of how Ciattarelli really went after Murphy on several key points, basically going after him on mask mandates, going after him on things like critical race theory, property taxes.

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CARROLL: People here in New Jersey pay more property taxes than anyone else here in the country. It's Ciattarelli's understanding that Murphy really just didn't really have an understanding of that.

Murphy, for his part, really is saying that, look, he ran on his progressive ideas, raising the minimum wage, expanding paid family leave. Both candidates at this point basically saying they are going to wait for every vote to be counted.

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GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): We're going to have to wait a little while longer than we had hoped. We're going to wait for every vote to be counted and that's how our democracy works.

JACK CIATTARELLI (R), NEW JERSEY GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I wanted to come out here tonight and tell you that we've won. But I'm here to tell you that we're winning.

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CARROLL: Erica, if Murphy is able to pull off a win here, he's going to be the first Democratic gubernatorial candidate to do it since 1977. Erica?

SCIUTTO: Jason Carroll there, thanks so much.

Well, moments ago, we should note this, Terry McAuliffe has conceded to Republican Glenn Youngkin, as CNN projects that he lost the Virginia governor's race. Of course, Erica, something that the former president still has not done from 2020, important moments in our democracy when those who lose the races acknowledge the results.

HILL: That they are. CNN Washington Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty following all of these developments for us from Arlington, Virginia. So, the concessions statement went out, Sunlen. Do we know if McAuliffe and Youngkin have spoken this morning?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are told, according to McAuliffe aides telling my colleague, Dan Merica, that the two men have not spoken directly on the phone, yet they say that McAuliffe reached out to Glenn Youngkin before this official concession statement went out. But they were not able to connect, that he did not pick up that phone line. But certainly notable, as you say, that this concession formally came out just a few minutes ago, McAuliffe acknowledging that they came up short, congratulating Glenn Youngkin, and saying, quote, I hope Virginians will join me in wishing the best to him and his family.

Certainly for Democrats in Virginia, this is a big gut punch for them. We had McAuliffe officials yesterday acknowledging overnight, really, that they underestimated Youngkin. In the end, the race for them just shifted in the final weeks, in the final month of the campaign. Glenn Youngkin, who was able to really rally supporters to get out to the polls over some state and local issues, most notably education, which really did resonate with voters, according to the exit polls. And that's something that the governor-elect last night acknowledged in his victory speech.

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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 downpayment 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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SERFTAY: And Democrats nationwide, as well as here in the Commonwealth of Virginia will certainly have a lot to pour over through these results. But, notably, the exit polls last night show that only 43 percent of Virginians approved of the job of President Joe Biden, so, certainly, this bumpy first year of his presidency affecting Terry McAuliffe's loss in the end.

SCIUTTO: And the other one the polls keep showing, right, as parents want involvement in decisions about their children's education, as Youngkin was noting there. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks very much.

Let's look mayor race results now in several major cities. They highlight a trend of voters leaning away from progressive Democrats. Perhaps the most stunning in Buffalo, New York, the incumbent mayor, Byron Brown, declared victory of having to mount a write-in campaign for a fifth term because he lost the primary. Democratic Socialist Candidate India Walton had beat Brown in the primary. The county will not begin counting write-in votes for two weeks, so we will not know for sure name is on those ballots.

In Seattle now, a moderate former city council president, Bruce Harrell, won there. He repeatedly criticized his opponent's prior support for defunding the police and promised to remove homeless encampments from the city.

HILL: In New York, Eric Adams won decisively to become the city's second black mayor. The Brooklyn borough president and former police captain ran on a promise to both beef up and reform the NYPD. He's and called himself the face of the new Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK MAYOR-ELECT: I am progressive in my policies.

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When you go online and see my 100 steps forward for New York City, you see how progressive I am. But we have to be practical.

Let's be practical and progressive, not preach to people but provide services to people.

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HILL: One exception for progressives in Boston, where City Council Michelle Wu will become the first woman and person of color ever elected as mayor in that city. Wu was actually a protege of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Joining us now Republican Strategist Doug Heye and Errol Louis, Political Anchor for Spectrum News. Good to have you both with us this morning.

Doug, Jim and I have been talking about a lot this morning, and there are these notes of its wake-up call. Our colleague, Van Jones, was very clear, this is a five alarm fire. One of the things that really seemed to be missing, if we are looking specifically at Virginia, Doug, is a real focus from Democrats on kitchen table issues and that worked for Youngkin.

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, absolutely. And if you go back to the Youngkin campaign, how it began, he started his first advertising campaign talking about repealing the grocery tax. So what does that do? One, it hits a safer Republican issue over repealing any tax, it goes to families too and what they're dealing with on a daily basis. It also, as we've gone through the past year, hits on what we're dealing with all of us in COVID, which is one of the things of inflation, which is only getting worse and worse.

So, he has been able to talk about these things, they aren't the Donald Trump issues, that I think a lot of people wanted him to emphasize, certainly Democrats tried to tie him to Donald Trump. He talked about issues that affected every day Americans, affected parents. It's one of the reasons he was successful.

SCIUTTO: Yes, no question. I mean, it's the economy, stupid, point lives on.

Errol Louis, suburban women, they were decisive in 2018 as Democrats picked up a lot of seats in the midterms, again in 2020. Here, they seem to have been decisive for Republicans, particularly on issues like having a voice in their children's education. Also on crime, it surprised me that reproductive rights were not a talking point for Democrats. And I wonder given the Supreme Court's leaning now, and the possibility of abortion being outlawed in many more states than Texas, is that a path forward for Democrats in the midterms and 2024? ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'd be skeptical about that, Jim, in New Jersey, and they share the market here in New York. So, we watched a lot of their ads across the river. And what we saw was a lot of these ads where there's a woman staring into the camera saying, the Republicans scare me they're going to take away my right to choose. It doesn't seem to have paid off for Phil Murphy. Those tactics, I think Doug is exactly right, they really pale in comparison to kitchen table issues that Democrats really should be focusing on.

I'm not sure what they think they're going to get by dragging up the corpse of the Donald Trump presidency and trying to run against that, because there are some people who get energized by Donald Trump, that's just a fact, and the reality is, for those who don't like Donald Trump, he's already in the rear view mirror, and elections are supposed to be about the future. So, real tactical mistakes that Democrats really do have to think about going into the midterms.

HILL: There are things for both parties to think about here, right, Doug. So, if Republicans look at for what worked, right, for getting both Ciattarelli close to Murphy and having it be where we still have not -- do not have a winner declared in that state. Looking at Youngkin's win in Virginia, what is the major takeaway and do you think it can be used in other states for Republicans?

HEYE: Yes, sure. You know, Glenn Youngkin obviously campaigned as a different kind of Republican. Was he aligned with Trump? Sure. But was he an acolyte, an a mini me of Donald Trump? Absolutely not. So he points the direction forward for Republicans. Also what we saw in New Jersey was an emphasis on family issues, pocketbook issues.

And I can tell you I was in New Jersey, Erica, about three weeks ago visiting friends and family, seeing Bruce Springsteen, as one would do, and I was stunned at what I was hearing from Democrats who said this is going to be a very close race. Republicans who are enthusiastic race, yard signs for Ciatterelli, not just in Republican areas, like Rumson, but in Holmdel.

I was telling people back here, look at New Jersey, this is going to be a real problem for Democrats. And what we're seeing because critical race theory was not a big as an issue in New Jersey, say as it was here, as it points away forward, these pocketbook issues. Any time I visit my aunt in Little Silver, New Jersey, she is 87-years-old -- hi, Aunt Lou Anne (ph), if you're watching -- the first thing she does after she feeds me some gum drops, which she does, is she complains about her property taxes.

SCIUTTO: No question. We should note that critical race theory is not being taught in Virginia, but yet it motivates voters.

Errol Louis, I do want to show some numbers that came in CNN's polling about parental involvement in education decisions. Because what they show is that, really, across the board, those who support Youngkin or McAuliffe, they want a lot or some say in what schools teach. What do Democrats take from that? How do they message to try to claw some of that issue back from Republicans?

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LOUIS: Well, there are two takeaways. One is that McAuliffe made an unfortunate gaffe by saying parents shouldn't be telling schools what to teach. Well, no parent wants to hear that. I don't want to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that. So, that was just a mistake.

But let's -- what you just mentioned, Jim, critical race theory is not being taught in Virginia and yet the winning candidate ran on it. Well, that's a very important statement for Democrats. This is basically fear mongering. This is basically race-baiting in a modern guy saying, well, you should have the right to get this critical race theory out of the schools. Well, it wasn't there in the first place. So, it's clearly about something else. It's about disfavored groups appearing to make progresses, meaning this is backlash politics of a kind that has been operating in the south for a long, long time. That's something Democrats ought to take seriously and get prepared for in the midterms.

HILL: Errol Louis, Doug Heye, good to see you both this morning. This kicks off more of what we will be talking about as we lead into 2022. Thank you, both.

Up next, kids ages 5 to 11 already lining up this morning for their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. We'll take you live to one of the first hospitals now administering those shots.

Plus, the Supreme Court right now considering a major Second Amendment case, how it could impact carrying firearms in public. That's also ahead.

SCIUTTO: A big case. Finally, the city that has become a joke for almost winning finally has a reason to celebrate. Later this hour, the Atlanta Braves surprise and their rise to becoming World Series Champions.

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SCIUTTO: All right. So you want some good news? I think we all do.

HILL: Yes, yes, I do.

SCIUTTO: So, here it is in this pandemic that has changed our lives for more than a year-and-a-half now, as of this morning, 94 percent of Americans are now eligible for a COVID vaccine, that's because the CDC has now cleared the way for 28 million children age 5-to-11 to get their shots.

HILL: I have an appointment for my 11-year-old on Monday, and he is very excited. Kids and parents lining up in many areas for that Pfizer vaccine.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt really nervous but now it's over and now we're vaccinated. That's a big step into making the world normal again and so we all don't need to wear masks and for everyone to be safe and healthy.

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HILL: CNN Correspondent Rosa Flores is live at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. Rosa, what are you seeing there?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a very emotional day. I talked to two parents and they both broke down in tears and tears of emotions but tears joy is what Jennifer Herrington tells me. I want to introduce you, this is Jennifer Herrington and her daughter, Parson Herrington. She's nine years old. She just took the shot and she told me she feels good.

Now, I wanted to share part of your story because I thought it was so incredible. Parson was 11 months old she had a lung transplant here at Texas Children's Hospital, and now she is back for this shot. Tell me about coming back here to get this shot.

JENNIFER HERRINGTON, DAUGHTER RECEIVING PFIZER COVID VACCINE: You know, it's a real like you mentioned emotional day for us because we have spent a lot of time in quarantine as a family. And so for today, it's almost like it's a first step to hopefully get living again. We always say that Parson got new lungs not to live under a rock or -- and our lung transplant team is -- they've been so great to remind us often that we got new lungs so that she could live. So that's -- today is a new first step in that, a first step in that, which is great to get the vaccine.

FLORES: Parson, tell us what you are looking forward to.

PARSON HERRINGTON, NINE YEARS OLD, RECEIVED DOSE OF PFIZER COVID VACCINE: I am looking forward to going back to school in person because I miss my friends very, very much. And I want to see my family.

FLORES: Your family. You told me your family was in Dallas. And you also mentioned a few other things you want to do.

P. HERRINGTON: Yes. I want to go back to church. And I want to go on play dates.

FLORES: On play dates. She's going to be able to actually have play dates.

P. HERRINGTON: Yes, finally.

FLORES: Yes. What has life been like for her during the pandemic?

J. HERRINGTON: So, you know, it's almost like we live on egg shells because it was a respiratory virus and because of her compromised immunostatus, it's been so -- you know, we've been fearful, we've stayed at home a lot, we've stayed away from others. If we've chosen things, we've chosen outdoors rather than indoors, based on the recommendations. P. HERRINGTON: We have a golf cart.

J. HERRINGTON: Yes, we got a golf cart. We've gone on hours and hours of golf cart rides around the neighborhood just you to pass the time and, you know, get fresh air.

So, quarantine was different for us than a lot of people just because we have got to protect the gift that we have been given.

FLORES: Yes, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your time. And, Parson, thank you so much.

Jim and Erica, a lot of emotions here, because a lot of parents are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the sense of perhaps some normalcy for their children.

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HILL: Absolutely. Rosa, what an incredible story, thanks so much for introducing us to Jennifer and Parson. Wow, I can only imagine, Jim, what that last nearly two years has been like for their family.

SCIUTTO: No question. And, by the way, when you hear children being wiser than adults, although we hear that every day, so many that we are hearing this morning.

HILL: Yes, such an important reminder. There are still, understandably, so many families who may have questions about the COVID vaccine, especially now that it's been made available for 5 to- 11-year-olds, and we're here to help you with some of those questions.

CNN is so compensated to team up for our sixth town hall, for children and families, for teaming up with our good friends at Sesame Street. You can join Dr. Sanjay Gupta, me and our friends, like Big Bird, Elmo, maybe a little Rosita. We're going to be here with you Saturday morning at 8:30 A.M. for the ABCs of COVID vaccines. And if you have a question, I just tweeted out that link so you can send us your question. You can find that on Twitter @ericarhill.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, the Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms. Does it guarantee a right to carry a loaded firearm in public? We're going to go live to the Supreme Court Next where that question is now in debate.

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