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Trump's Clout Faces Test in Tight PA, NC Races; GOP's Cawthorn Battles to Survive Series of Missteps; Police: Church Shooting Suspect Upset Over China-Taiwan Tensions; U.S. Holds 1st Public Hearing on UFOs in Decades. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired May 17, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:30:26]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Today, the power of the Trump endorsement is on the line. It is primary day in five states.
And establishment candidates are on the defensive and 2020 election deniers are on the ballot. As voters head to the polls today, the results could tell us a lot about where things are headed nationwide in November.
CNN is on top of the key races.
Let's start with Jeff Zeleny and the Republican Senate race in Pennsylvania.
Jeff, celebrity doctor, Mehmet Oz, got the coveted Trump endorsement. He's facing an unexpected challenge on the right.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATION AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He certainly is. That is something that has developed, Ana, over the last several days here in the closing days and hours of this race.
Kathy Barnette has been running for more than a year, but she really has taken off in recent days. Largely because of this has been a vicious two-man battle between Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, a former hedge fund manager and Army veteran.
And they've been spending so much money and time attacking one another, Kathy Barnette has run up the middle at least somewhat.
The question is where all those Trump supporters and voters are going to go. Are they going to follow his lead and support Dr. Oz or are they not?
But in his final campaign rally last evening, Dr. Oz had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MEHMET OZ, (R), PENNSYLVANIA U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: One of the reasons President Trump believes that I will win the general election is I will do very well in the color communities around Philadelphia. I can speak to people who are not quite sure about how the Republican Party fits into their lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So that, of course, is where we are going to be watching this evening. Those counties right around here in Philadelphia, Montgomery County and beyond.
Can Dr. Mehmet Oz pull out supporters there? And of course, if he does, can he unify the Republican Party?
But Kathy Barnette and David McCormick also running strong in the race. Any predictions at this point are very foolhardy. But, Ana, a much more competitive race.
The reason why is matters, Democrats hope to pick up a seat here, the seat of retiring Senator Pat Toomey -- Ana?
CABRERA: And that is going to be one to watch, the GOP side.
But on the other side of the aisle, in Pennsylvania, an uphill battle for a Biden-style Democrat, Conor Lamb, trying to upset Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.
And Dan Merica is coving this race for us.
So we know Fetterman wasn't able to be on the trail in the final days after suffering a stroke. In fact, we just learned he cast his own ballot in the race from the hospital by an emergency absentee ballot.
Has this development changed the dynamic of this race at all?
DAN MERICA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, it has certainly injected some uncertainty into what was a pretty certain race. John Fetterman had a significant lead headed into primary over his two opponents.
Rep. Conor Lamb represents an area in western Pennsylvania, and Malcolm Kenyatta, a state rep. from the Philadelphia area.
It has injected some uncertainty. But I've called around a number of Fetterman supporters and some on the fence who said they're not going to change their plans for primary day because of the stroke that Fetterman suffered.
He's in the hospital behind me. Has been here since Friday. As you note, he voted via emergency absentee ballot today in the primary.
The question the voters have is, how does this impact the November election when he could be facing a Republican?
His wife spoke with CNN yesterday and really didn't entertain that thought. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GISELE FETTERMAN, WIFE OF DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE JOHN FETTERMAN: Our family is the most important thing. And him being well is the most important thing. Knowing that he's going to have a full recovery, it allows us to have him take his break and be ready and strong to take on November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MERICA: Interesting dynamic in Pennsylvania. It's neither of the top candidates for governor or Senate on the Democratic side will be at their election night parties.
Fetterman will be behind me in the hospital recovering from the stroke.
And we found out today that Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general and the only candidate on the ballot for the Democrats for governor, has just tested positive for COVID and will not be at his election night party either -- Ana?
CABRERA: A lot of twists and turns.
Guys, stay with me as I take everyone to North Carolina now where Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn's reelection bid has created a rift in his own party.
Some top Republican lawmakers have publicly spoken out against him, including the GOP leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, and both Senators from that state.
Dianne Gallagher, to you now.
Cawthorn still has Donald Trump's backing. How is this race looking?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. The embattled congressman fighting off seven different candidates in his primary today.
He did receive that last-minute push from the former president on Monday, primary eve, where the president said, in part:
"When Madison was first elected to Congress, he did a great job. Recently, he made some foolish mistakes, which I don't believe he'll make again. Let's give Madison a second chance."
[13:35:08]
Of course, look, it would take me all day almost to run down all the different mistakes, missteps and scandals attached to this freshman congressman, the youngest member of the U.S. House.
That is what many of his opponents are running on right now. Essentially, several of them have told me they're basically just as MAGA, just not as embarrassing, Ana.
And you can -- look, the deal in North Carolina is he can't just win. He must get at least 30 percent of the vote tonight to avoid a runoff with the next-highest vote getter. That likely, according to polling and talking to people around here,
would be State Senator Chuck Edwards. That man is the person who received much of the support from people like U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, in North Carolina.
As well as many of the state Republicans as well who say they felt like it was time for a more serious member in office there -- Ana?
CABRERA: Dianne Gallagher, Jeff Zeleny, Dan Merica, thanks to all of you.
Just to sum it up, it is election night in America. The races to watch will be Pennsylvania's primaries, where former President Trump's powers are being put to the test, plus North Carolina, where Congressman Cawthorn is trying to keep his job.
CNN's live coverage starts tonight at 7:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
Nestle is rushing in baby formula produced outside the U.S. to help deal with the critical shortage. We'll have the latest on that.
And new details on the motive behind a deadly church shooting in California. Police say it's connected to political tensions between China and Taiwan. More on that ahead.
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[13:41:33]
CABRERA: Billionaire Elon Musk says his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter can't happen until issues over spam and fraudulent accounts are resolved. This is just the latest twist in the Musk/Twitter saga.
And some analysts speculate the world's richest man may be using the debate over spam and bots to drive down the price of the Twitter deal or to back out altogether.
Musk estimates that 20 percent of all Twitter accounts are fake. Twitter says it's less than 5 percent.
Nestle announced today that it is flying baby formula to the U.S. to help ease the nationwide shortage and will rush shipments from facilities in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
This, as the FDA makes it easier to import formula from other countries. Companies will have to show what product they have, how it's labeled and its nutrition nutritional value.
The FDA has also reached an agreement with formula maker, Abbott, to resume production at its plant in Sturgis, Michigan. Production at Abbott was shut down in February.
Officials say it will take six to eight weeks after Abbott restarts the plant for the product to reach store shelves.
In the meantime, the American Academy of Pediatrics say parents of babies over six months can substitute whole cow's milk if no formula is available, but they need to include plenty of iron-rich solid foods in that baby's diet as well.
Now to the moment a group of Taiwan churchgoers tackled and hogtied a gunman but not before he could shoot six people, killing one.
The suspect, 68-year-old David Chow, is due in court later today as we're learning what may have motivated the attack and just how much more deadly it could have been.
Stephanie Elam is outside the church in Laguna Woods, California.
Stephanie, what are you learning?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, there's so many things. We're standing right now in Santa Ana outside the courthouse because the suspect is expected to make his first appearance today.
And this, after we've learned so much more about the planning that went in by the suspect. We know now that he placed four Molotov cocktails throughout the church.
It's not clear if he went to the service before the luncheon that was happening at the church. But we know that he had stored extra magazines, more ammunition there.
He had put Super Glue in the locks to try to disable them. And he'd also nailed one of the doors shut and also chained some of the doors.
But what we've learned now is that it really was the congregation, working in concert -- and we have a picture now that we can show you of just how the congregation came together to disable this man.
All because his gun jammed. And because his gun jammed, they were able to take advantage.
In fact, take a listen to Pastor Billy Chang talk about how he responded in that moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PASTOR BILLY CHANG, FORMER PASTOR OF IRVINE TAIWANESE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: When he shoot about seven or eight time, I see our member of our congregation all hiding under the table.
Somebody had to take some -- I see his gun is down, say I listen, I chase -- I run to him. I bring the chair to hit the gunman. I'm afraid he would pick up his gun to shoot again, so I use my whole --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ELAM: Authorities say that the suspect immigrated to the United States many years ago. But was born in mainland China but grew up in Taiwan. And was motivated by his hate for Taiwan. They that they've found plenty of writings among his possessions.
[13:45:08]
Also worth noting that the pastor mentions Dr. John Chang. He was there, according to one of the parishioners, with his mother -- who rushed the suspect and tackled him. And that's how they were able to bring him down. The pastor said he was shot three times, and that is what cost him his life.
But they're saying, altogether, the heroic acts of these people is what kept this from becoming a worse tragedy than it is.
And also worth noting, Ana, too, that the FBI has opened up a federal hate crime investigation into this.
CABRERA: Yes, I heard an investigator on the air this morning saying more people surely would have died had it not been for those brave actions of the churchgoers.
Stephanie Elam, thank you.
Mysterious, controversial, secretive. The stigma around UFOs has kept many from taking them seriously for decades. That changes today.
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[13:50:26]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that thing, dude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not, is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there's --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that thing! It's rotating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa! Got it!
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: WOOHOO!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Not science fiction, UFOs are real, and lawmakers say a potential national security threat. Today, the first public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena in 50 years.
But we didn't get a lot of answers. One Pentagon official said he had no explanation for the flashing triangle shapes shown in this new declassified video.
Joining us now is Michio Kaku. He's a professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York. Great to have you here with us, Professor.
You've seen the videos. What can you conclude about these objects?
MICHIO KAKU, PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: Well, you know, 50 years ago, during the first congressional hearing, there were 12,000 reports from one eye-witness saying, I saw something in the sky.
Now we have hours of video tapes from seasoned Navy pilots, and we can frame them, frame by frame, analyze their characteristics. They fly between Mach 5 and Mach 20, 20 times the speed of sound.
They zigzag. So the centrifugal force would crush the bones of any human inside one of these crafts. They can fly under water. And there were 11 incidents where they almost collided with Air Force and Navy ships.
And so we're talking about a whole new ballgame now. We have testable, reproducible, and, hopefully, falsifiable (ph) evidence that something is happening in the skies.
CABRERA: Wow. The chair of this committee said this was an important hearing because UFOs are a potential national security threat. Do you think that's true?
KAKU: Definitely. I think we should look into it. Questions -- (AUDIO PROBLEM) -- are experimenting with hypersonic live vehicles, hypersonic ones.
In fact, they're actually being used in the Ukraine. The Russians have shot many hypersonic drones at the Ukrainians.
However, these sightings go back to the 1940s when we didn't have anything approaching that capability. So, only recently have the superpowers been capable of creating hypersonic devices that can, in fact, go up to Mach 20 and maneuver.
So we're in a whole new ballgame now.
CABRERA: So again, you note that only military craft could execute some of these maneuvers, identified in video like the hypersonic drones or hypersonic glide vehicles.
But what we've seen used in the war in Ukraine hasn't included that capability. So are there any countries that we know of with that capability currently?
KAKU: No. In fact, two years ago, the United States abandoned its own hypersonic drone program because, when you maneuver and zigzag, you sometimes spiral out of control and crash.
So the Russians are actually the most advanced in this category. But we've seen how often they misfire and they land in the wrong place in the battle in the Ukraine.
So, we see the fact that, right now, nobody has this technology. As one Pentagon general said, quote, "They're not ours," unquote.
CABRERA: So, I think a lot of people wonder, what are the possibilities this could be extraterrestrial?
KAKU: Well, we have to keep an open mind. Some people say that the distance between stars is so great that they could not possibly be alien craft.
But imagine that these devices could be from a civilization a thousand, a million years more advanced than us. Then, of course, interstellar travel becomes a possibility. Something that we cannot rule out.
CABRERA: For so long, this has been regarded as, you know, science fiction. Do you think this hearing and more transparency can change that?
KAKU: I hope so.
There's something called the Giggle Factor. Any time a pilot or a scientist talks about UFOs, people start to giggle behind your back.
But I think that now the tide has turned. We're taking this seriously now.
[13:54:55]
CABRERA: A fascinating discussion. Again, to think the objects can fly Mach 5 to Mach 20. That's up to 20 times the speed of sound. The G forces could crush a human being. Serious stuff. And really, really interesting.
Michio Kaku, thank you very much for sharing your expertise with us.
And that does it for me today. Thank you for being here. I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, you can always find me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.
The news continues after a quick break.
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