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Police Searching for Two Men Accused of Killing Ten in Stabbing Spree; Today, Biden Hits Key Battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; Suspect Charged in Abduction of Still Missing Memphis Teacher. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 05, 2022 - 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 ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill in for Jim and Poppy today. Welcome to a holiday edition of Newsroom.

We're following several stories on this Labor Day. Right now in Canada, a major manhunt under way, after at least ten people were killed, up to 25 stabbed in all, a heinous murder spree covering more than a dozen crime scenes. Officials are warning the two suspects are on the run. They should be considered armed and dangerous.

Following that story for you, we're also keeping our eye on a very busy day on the campaign trail here in the U.S. Minutes from now, President Biden will depart for a pair of major events in two critical battleground states, Wisconsin and back to Pennsylvania. The president set to speak to American workers in Milwaukee later today and then it's off to Pittsburgh where he'll speak with a group of steel workers.

The trip, of course, coming just days after Biden's predecessors told Pennsylvanians that the current president is a, quote, enemy of the state.

But first, let's begin in Canada with CNN's Paula Newton is live in Ottawa with more on this manhunt and also more information about these attacks. Paula?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Erica. And, unfortunately, in the last hour, the police chief in Regina, Saskatchewan, about three and a half hours from where these crimes took place, believed to be the last sighting of these suspects.

The update from the police chief there not good because he says that, look, at this point these suspects have not been apprehended, and more than that, he is clearly reaching out to the public to give them tips as to the whereabouts of these suspects, which suggest that they do not have a lot of leads coming in at this time.

And just to recap, again, this could end up being one of the worst mass killings in Canadian history. Two suspects now still on the run, Myles and Damien Sanderson. I will point out the police have no identify if they are related in any way. They also do not have clear motives for what have been absolutely grotesque and vicious attacks, both targeted, police say, and random.

They have a lot of law enforcement on this right now, alerts out in a vast area. We're talking it covers thousands of kilometers. And yet the closest thing they have to clues is the fact that a person in the public apparently called in a tip that they may have seen the suspects in Regina, again, three and a half hours from where these crimes originally took place. That was around midday yesterday, and nothing since.

I also want to point out that the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, says that he is keeping tabs on this and looking at it quite carefully. Late yesterday, he released a statement as well saying that, as this is an unfolding situation, I encourage everyone in the area to listen to the advice of law enforcement, to take shelter and follow the proper precautions. Those responsible for today's abhorrent attacks must be fully brought to justice.

The issue here, as you can hear it even in the prime minister's tone, people are being told to be careful, that these suspects are armed and dangerous, if they are spotted, to move away from wherever they are and call police. Erica?

HILL: Paula Newton, we know you'll continue to update us. Thank you.

Well, back in the U.S., a holiday, certainly no reason for a break from politics. There you see, that should tell you the president is getting ready to go somewhere. In fact, any moment now, the president is set to leave for his first campaign stop. Today, he is headed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joining us now from the north lawn. So, Jeremy, what are we expecting to hear? Is going to be more from the president, more of what he was talking about in Philadelphia last week?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Erica. We've heard President Biden begin to lay out his -- the crux of his midterm campaign message over the last couple of weeks. And there have been two central messages. The first one is the one that you are mentioning in Philadelphia, where the president is talking about the threats to democracy, going after MAGA Republicans and the like.

And the second message though is the one that I think we're going to hear more of today, and that is a message focused on the economic successes of President Biden, believes he's been able to deliver for the American people, the legislative successes over the last few month, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which delivered these health care and climate change reforms.

[10:05:08]

But the president, as the White House is saying, is going to be talking about the dignity of the American worker on this Labor Day, a heavy focus on the union support that the president enjoys. He has described himself in the past as the most pro-union president, and I certainly expect him to focus on that as he visits Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today as well as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Now, both of these states, key battleground states where Democrats believe they have perhaps the best chance of picking up a couple of Senate seats. Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes is running in Wisconsin. He has not, as of yet, expected to appear with the president, though the governor, Tony Evers, who is running for re- election, is.

And then in Pennsylvania, you have John Fetterman, who is running against Dr. Mehmet Oz, for a seat previously held by a Republican, so another very key seat here. And President Biden and the White House certainly believe that they have the wind at their backs heading into this final two-month stretch of this midterm campaign season. They have seen inflation slightly tick down. They have seen these legislative successes. And they also believe that a very clear contrast is being established between President Biden and the Democrats and the Republicans led by former President Trump. Erica?

HILL: Jeremy Diamond, I appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, of course, as we talk about the road to November, also a bit of a change for Republicans now facing their own challenge in the buildup to the midterms, including fears that the former president's return to the headlines could actually be hurting their chances of gaining control of Congress.

Joining me now, CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten. I mean, Harry, this felt like a given for a long time, right? Republicans are going to take back the House, they could take over the Senate. Things have changed a fair amount in terms that have outlook.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, things have changed a fair amount. And the thing that if I were a Republican that I'm worried about is Trump now back in the news. He's dominating the headlines.

And one way we can see this is by looking at the percentage of people who are searching for Joe Biden on Google versus the percentage of people searching for Donald Trump. You know, you go back to June. They were basically even. Then all of a sudden, obviously, you had the hearings that were happening about January 6th. Then Trump starts to overtake him, get into the mid-50s of the people who were searching for it the two of them.

Now you look at the past month of August, what do you see? You see Trump just dominating on the searches, getting about two-thirds of them of the people who are searching for either him or the current president, Joe Biden.

And look at what happened to the generic congressional ballot during that same period of time. Republicans had a two-point lead a few months ago back at the end of June. That dropped to a point advantage at the end of July. And now if you look at the data, what do you see? You see that the Democrats are actually ahead. So, there's a pretty clear correlation going on. The more Trump is dominating the headlines, the worse it is for Republicans. HILL: So, it looks like when they are finding the information on Donald Trump is, perhaps not favorable information that they're finding, they're searching all these Google searches.

ENTEN: Exactly.

HILL: This is really -- in so many ways, right, we are in unprecedented territorys, easy for me to say on a Monday morning. Is there any way to gauge at this point what this looks like, right, as Americans are potentially weighing -- I know it's a long way off, but at the same time, you can't talk about November without looking ahead to 2024 and the potential for an incumbent and a former president. That's got to be coming into play.

ENTEN: This is just really weird times, right? If you look essentially at the Google searches, you know, at this point in the 2010 midterm cycle or the 2014 -- or the 2018 midterm cycle, the former presidents were not getting searched basically at all, right? The current president was dominating the searches, nearly 90 percent in both the 2010 and in the 2018 midterm cycle. I'm also having a --

HILL: It's a Monday, my friend. Don't worry.

ENTEN: It's Monday. And you compare it to now and basically see, you know, Biden getting only about a third of the searches. It's just so much different. So, I think the normal rules of politics may not necessarily apply both to this midterm election and ahead to 2024. And I think we're all just trying to figuring out these are weird, unprecedented times. What are the voters actually going to do?

HILL: Right? I mean, everything is unprecedented. It's not just these political races and trying to figure it out based on what we've seen before. Look at the economy. I mean, we talk to Christine Romans every day about this. The rules don't apply anymore.

ENTEN: You have such good job growth but you also have such high inflation. You never basically see that. Things are just -- they're weird.

HILL: They are weird.

ENTEN: But they're never weird with you.

HILL: Well, thanks, Harry. It's not weird with you either. Always a pleasure, my friend.

All right, one of the key issues already motivating Democratic support in early special elections, that we know very clearly is abortion rights.

CNN's Dana Dash takes a look now at how one Republican is using that very issue to save her own race in Michigan.

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DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At the Michigan State Fair, Labor Day weekend means livestock competitions. Proud grandfather Dick Rossell came watch her granddaughter Abby show her pigs.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my pig. Her name is Billy Jean. I love her to death.

BASH: Still, even here, Labor Day weekend means Election Day is around the corner.

DICK ROSSELL, MICHIGAN VOTER: I lean towards the right, but I want what's best for the state and for the country, you know, when it comes to my politicians.

BASH: So, you're undecided?

DICK ROSSELL: Yes.

BASH: His wife, Dawn, is undecided, too. They are both Republican voters weary of a total ban on abortion.

Has abortion ever been an issue that has driven your vote before?

DAWN ROSSELL, MICHIGAN VOTER: No.

BASH: It's new this year?

DAWN ROSSELL: Yes. I want to hear more what Tudor Dixon has to say about abortion before I decide if that's who I am going to vote for.

BASH: Tudor Dixon is Michigan's Republican nominee for governor. So far, most of what voters hear about her abortion position from Democratic ads flooding the airwaves.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's told us exactly who she is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you for the exemptions for rapes in incest in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am not.

BASH: Since winning the Republican primary August 2nd, Dixon has kept a low profile on the campaign trail.

Her Democratic opponent, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, not so much.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): The only reason Michigan continues to be a pro-choice state is because of my veto and my lawsuit.

BASH: Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Whitmer filed a lawsuit to prevent a 1931 Michigan abortion ban from taking effect. The state Supreme Court now gets the chance to rule on whether an abortion rights measure that drew nearly 600,000 valid signatures will be on the ballot in November.

WHITMEER: The vast majority of people in this state support a woman being able to make her own decision, whether it's one they would do or not.

BASH: It's a motivating issue for voters like Emily Shereda and her mother, Rhonda, who joined Governor Whitmer at a women's roundtable on Wednesday.

EMILY SHEREDA, MICHIGAN VOTER: People are more so in the middle, like my mom, they will be more so pushed to vote for people who are going to protect their reproductive rights.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could not have said that better myself.

BASH: Not everyone agrees.

AARON GARDNER (R), STATE SENATE CANDIDATE: I don't think that the abortion issue is a big deal in Michigan.

BASH: Aaron Gardner, a Republican running for state senate and Tudor Dixon supporter, was protesting outside a Whitmer campaign event.

GARDNER: Most of people care about is money in their pockets. Let's be realistic. Gas prices have been skyrocketing through the roof and our leadership in Michigan and in Lansing has failed the voters multiple times.

BASH: In Bay City, Whitmer touted job creation at a new manufacturing plant, addressing economic issues head on.

How much of an uphill climb is it for you as the incumbent governor?

WHITMER: People are struggling to put food on the table. The costs of everything has gone up. We've seen the cost of gas continuously come down for the last month-and-a-half. That's a good thing. I'm trying to give people relief.

BASH: Through a spokesman, Tudor Dixon declined our request for an interview. Her campaign would not share detail on any public events or provide a surrogate for us to speak with.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want education freedom in the state of Michigan.

BASH: Dixon watched Virginia's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin win his blue-leaning state last year by campaigning on the cultural divide on education. She's borrowing from his playbook.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We think you should know what schoolbooks are in your library and we think you should know what the class syllabus is for your child.

BASH: Whitmer has learned, too.

WHITMER: I've created a parent advisory council. To me, I think it's really important not to be disconnected but to really empower parents.

BASH: Michigan's governor became a national figure during the pandemic. Her decisions on closures and masks were not always popular. We heard that back at the Michigan State Fair.

What do you think of Governor Whitmer?

RON GORDON, MICHIGAN VOTER: I think she's done a bad job, especially with COVID situation shutting the state down.

BASH: And yet -- do you like Tudor Dixon?

GORDON: Yes, I did, everything, except the abortion issue, that it seems like she's -- you've got to be more liberal with that abortion situation.

BASH: Voters in a crucial battleground state up in the air as summer comes to a close.

Dana bash, CNN, Oakland County, Michigan.

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HILL: And our thanks to Dana for that report.

Still to come here, the desperate search for a Memphis woman abducted during a Friday morning run. How officials are now targeting their hunt and what we're learning about the suspect.

Plus, as kids around the country head back to school, there's new data that details the devastating impact of a pandemic when it comes to learning.

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HILL: At this hour, Memphis police are desperately searching for 34- year-old Eliza Fletcher. She was last seen early Friday morning while jogging near the University of Memphis. Officials say surveillance video shows a man forcing her into a black SUV. A suspect, Cleotha Abston, has been charged with her kidnapping. Police say the SUV at the scene belonged to a woman linked to his home address and that cell phone records also tie him to the site of Fletcher's abduction.

I'm joined now by retired Supervisory FBI Special Agent Steve Moore, CNN Law Enforcement Contributor. Steve, it's good to see you this morning.

I was struck last hour, Gary Tuchman, my colleague who is on the ground there in Memphis, said that he was told by police that the suspect is not cooperating, isn't really talking at this point. How much does that complicate matters if you have a suspect in custody but they won't talk to you?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's obviously going to make it -- you know, make it detective work at this point. It's much easier when they confess. They own up to everything. But now, the thing that's going to help the Memphis police is that Abston didn't do anything really to cover up his crime. He didn't think it out. He didn't plan it. This was a crime of opportunity.

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And crimes of opportunity are the easiest to solve because nobody figures it out beforehand and nobody works hard to cover it up afterwards.

HILL: The affidavit also said that the police found, quote, physical evidence that she suffered serious injury. That evidence is also key here in terms of potentially tying someone else to this crime.

MOORE: Yes, it is. And the evidence, unfortunately, I think would be blood found in the car. So, you know, it ties -- it ties her to him. They have got video. I mean, really, they are even without finding her, they can still prosecute. My hope is that she's still alive somewhere, but either way, somebody's going to know he will have talked to somebody. This is not going to be the great unsolvable crime.

HILL: As I noted police say, the SUV at the scene belonged to a woman linked to his home address. Cell phone records tie him to the site of Fletcher's abduction. Police say there were sandals that were found near the site of her abduction that had Abston's DNA on them. All of these feel like you're connecting the dots, right, but do they add up to a straight line?

MOORE: Yes, yes. This is just right down the line, Erica. This is the kind of crime tragically that happens every week in America where somebody who is mentally, you know, deranged in a certain way find an opportunity, finds an opportunity, finds an undefended person and we have -- we have a tragedy. So, this is not going to be something that's out of the ordinary, unfortunately.

HILL: Steve Moore, I appreciate you joining us. Hopefully, we'll get some further updates later in the day. Thanks again.

MOORE: Thank you.

HILL: Rescue crews searching for any signs of survivors at this hour after a seaplane crashed into Washington State's Mutiny Bay, that's just north of Seattle, as you can see on the map there. It happened Sunday afternoon. Nine adults and a child were on board the plane when it went down.

First responders have recovered the body of one person. No sign though thus far of the other nine people. Officials say the cause of the crash remains unknown.

Still ahead, a heat wave bearing down on Southern California has officials really concerned about more than just the 10 to 25-degree temperature bumps. The conditions are also extremely dangerous when it comes to fires right now.

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[10:25:00] HILL: Nearly 50 million Americans are under heat alerts this Labor Day as massive heat wave grips major parts of the western United States, some areas of California actually seeing temperatures 10 to as much as 25 degrees above average. And for the sixth day in a row, state officials are asking residents to conserve electricity, all part of an effort to avoid power outages.

CNN's Natasha Chen joining us live from Los Angeles this morning. You've been battling this right there along with so many other people in the state of California and in the west. Where do things stand this morning, Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, we're seeing seen a lot of people come out now to get in an early run or get in their exercise now that it's just past 7:00 local time before the heat really starts kicking in, before 4:00 P.M. this afternoon, when they will be asked to turn off their thermostats and try to power down to reduce the stress on the electric grid.

Right now here at Santa Monica Pier, we're also noting that there is an advisory for people not to actually swim or surf or play in the water because of high bacteria levels that are above state standards. So, a lot of people will be flocking out here on Labor Day, but they are advised not to actually get in the water.

I want to point out that the records that were broken as far as temperatures yesterday, more than 45 cities across the map that you're seeing there, including some coastal cities that typically avoid excessive heat. And then if you look further into the week, there are more than 170 places that are expected to potentially break records and temperature as well.

And keep in mind, when we talk about three-digit temperatures here, for example, Death Valley is going to see 124, Long Beach, you know, yesterday was 109, breaking a record that they set in 1988, Anaheim at 107, those people going to Disneyland in that kind of heat, we're talking about these coastal areas that sometimes do not historically have essential air in older buildings because it didn't really need to be necessary before. So, some of these places, people do not have A.C. so that may make the situation even more difficult.

Of course, fire dangers especially now with these conditions. We're talking about the mill fire up in Northern California, near Oregon state line. We found out that two people have died in that fire, two women aged 66 and 73 were found on Friday. More than a thousand people had to evacuate there, more than 4,000 acres burned, Erica.

HILL: Natasha Chen with the latest for us. All right, we'll keep an eye on it. I know you will, Natasha. Thanks you.

There's major news out of the U.K. this morning. Britain's conservative party chooses the nation's next prime minister. Liz Truss will replace embattled P.M. Boris Johnson, who, of course, announced his resignation in July.

[10:30:01] Truss will the U.K.'s fourth prime minister in just six years and its third female prime minister.