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Biden Approval Rebounds To 44 Percent With Midterms Less Than A Month Away; Biden: China Is Most Consequential Geopolitical Challenge To U.S.; Ukraine Liberates More Villages As China Continues Air Assault. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 12, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Victor Blackwell, welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

Fewer than four weeks until the midterm elections and CNN has a new poll telling us what Americans think of their government right now, views of President Joe Biden have improved slightly over the summer. His approval rating is now at 44 percent, that's up from 38 percent in July. But the national outlook on the economy that's still bleak. Only 22 percent of Americans rate economic conditions as good. Most Americans have no confidence that Biden, Congress, and really the Federal government, as a whole are doing enough to address the economy or the other major issues facing the country.

CNN political director David Chalian is here to break down the new numbers. OK, so let's start with the approval rating first, 44 percent, a better than July, still not where he wants to be underwater right now. How could this impact the midterms? Take us through the numbers.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. So here, here's that 44 percent approval. Listen, you'd rather be on the uptick than on the decline, so Biden will take this. But you're right. It's not precisely where a president would like to be especially this close to the midterm election. He's still upside down, but up from that 38 percent in June or July. And take a look at this where the uptick is coming from, Victor, right?

Among Democrats, he was at only 73 percent approval with his own party back in the early summer. They've gone up nine points to 82 percent approval. He's also made ground with independence up eight percentage points here from 32 percent to 40 percent. But this -- a 40 percent approval rating among independents again, that is a bit of a warning sign for the president and his party, even though it is an increase from what we saw at the low point in the summer.

And take a look -- you asked for the midterm impact. Take a look where Biden falls compared to his modern-era predecessors at this point, like within four weeks out from the first midterm election in their presidencies. Where do you see Biden? You see him right here, 44 percent. So, he's right in company with Obama in 2010 who lost 63 seats in the House that year, Reagan in '82, who lost 27 seats. His party did that year. You see Clinton '94, lost big, and, of course, Trump lost a lot of seats in 2018 when Democrats won 40 seats there to take over the majority, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes, 44 percent, that would put them in good company for the midterms. Now let's talk about the economy. Poll after poll shows us that this is issue number one for voters. That's a problem for the president.

CHALIAN: Well, it is because of the mood that we're seeing right now. So, we asked folks what -- how do you rate current economic conditions? Only 22 percent say somewhat, were very good. And this up here, somewhat or very poor adds up to 78 percent. Nearly eight in 10 of voters in this poll tell us the economy is in bad shape.

And take a look here in terms of the competitive districts. So, we did a sort of subset of the 50 most competitive House districts to look at what things look like there. It's worse. The perception is worse. 83 percent say that it's poor. Only 17 percent say that it's good, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, David, I want to bring you back to our conversation in just a couple of minutes. We want to take a stop in Georgia right now. And this new poll finding that the state Senate race really is unchanged by this major controversy for Herschel Walker. Senator Raphael Warnock continues to hold an advantage here by about seven points in this new Quinnipiac poll.

Walker is again denying that he ever paid for an abortion after The Daily Beast published allegations and receipts from a former girlfriend. Now, today, the Washington Post reports the same woman says that she had to repeatedly push for him to pay for the procedure. Walker says he supports no exceptions for abortion bans.

CNN national political -- politics reporter Eva McKend is live in Atlanta. So, what did we learn from this new interview with Herschel Walker?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: (AUDIO GAP) behind him and go back to campaigning and being at his rally yesterday, you wouldn't even know he's mired in scandal. Walker enjoying the full weight of the Republican establishment not only in terms of the show of force on display in Carrollton from Republican top brass but the National Republican Senatorial Committee, they'll continue investing for him in this state. Here's how Walker spoke about the allegations in an interview with ABC.

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LINSEY DAVIS, ANCHOR, ABC NEWS: I know. Initially last week, you were saying you weren't even sure who the woman was.

HERSCHEL WALKER, REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE, GEORGIA: Which is true. DAVIS: But at this point, you now know who she is.

WALKER: Yes, yes.

DAVIS: And have you had a conversation with her?

WALKER: Not at all. So, I didn't know who it was until last week. And I went, oh, and I said that's not true. And -- but they still ran with it and so I said, you know, that's not true. I would say that's a lie. I call it a lie. And right now, I say, I'm going to go back to campaigning and people can continue to do whatever they want with that story.

DAVIS: If I can just get you to say yes or no, did you ever have a conversation with this woman at any time about an abortion?

WALKER: No.

DAVIS: Did you ever, to your knowledge, give money to pay for the cost of an abortion?

WALKER: No.

DAVIS: Is she lying?

WALKER: Yes, he's lying. Yes, she's lying. Yes, she's lying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: I should note, CNN has not been able to independently verify the core allegations here. Now, it's really up to Georgia voters, though, to decide who they believe. But I don't anticipate Walker's answer is going to change much, even if more details emerged from his accuser. And in my judgment, it doesn't appear to be changing things here on the ground a whole lot. His rally yesterday filled with enthusiastic supporters.

And I almost wonder, Victor, if this drip, drip, drip of information is having the reverse effect. I met one woman, for instance, at that rally in Carrollton who told me she wanted to come actually to show her support for Walker in the wake of these allegations. Meanwhile, Walker's opponent, Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock, he is going to be campaigning tonight in Atlanta as part of a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. Walker is off the trail today, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Eva McKend with the latest reporting out of Atlanta, thank you very much. Let's bring back now CNN political director David Chalian, and includes CNN senior political correspondent Abby Phillip, and managing editor of Axios, Margaret Talev.

Abby, first to you, that after the reporting from The Daily Beast that this Georgia Senate race is essentially the same. I mean, Walker's negative says unfavorable are up a little bit from 51 to 55 but it's still essentially the same race. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that that is really interesting and it perhaps tells us a lot about how durable Republican support can be for candidates, even in the wake of these allegations. I mean, this is a Republican Party who has weathered allegations like this for other candidates, in particular, former President Donald Trump when he was running for president with the Access Hollywood tape. That's literally the model that Herschel Walker is kind of modeling his response after.

But I will say this, I mean, he -- his position in the race of visa vie Raphael Warnock is perhaps about the same, but he is still running behind the other Republican on the ticket, Brian Kemp. There are going to be some ticket splitters, some Republicans who vote for Brian Kemp for governor, but who will not vote for Herschel Walker in the Senate race and that also seems to have not changed a whole lot.

BLACKWELL: Margaret, preventing the bottom from falling out is really not the goal of the Herschel Walker campaign, right? They're still, according to this latest poll, seven points behind. There is a debate on Friday. What is the national investment? We saw Cotton, we saw Scott there, what more are they potentially going to do to get him over the finish line?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We're starting to see, Victor, not just in Georgia, but all around the country in races that looked very, very tough for Republicans in recent weeks, a major infusion of cash that is going to come in from various committees. And I would expect to see that in Georgia because it is still a state. The key in this case is not necessarily an outright win by Herschel Walker. It's to get this to a runoff.

There is a third party candidate, a Libertarian candidate who in the most recent Georgia news consortium poll, also out today holds now an estimated 4 percent of the vote. If it is as close as that poll says it is within the margin of error -- that poll does not talk about a seven-point lead for Raphael Warnock, it talks about around a three- point lead. If it's that close, and you've got a libertarian polling 4 percent, you live another day, you live to a runoff and it stretches this thing out until the end of the year when gas prices could get worse, inflation could get worse. And a number of things could happen.

So, I think the goal for Republicans is to keep the fight going as long as possible. And the goal for Walker is to try to do no harm. Some interesting cross ads, that poll that I mentioned, or that suggests that Walker has lost quite a bit of support from black voters and from some women voters, but that white voters really have not in Georgia, abandon Herschel Walker at that point. And those are all the dynamics that are going to be at play in the closing weeks of this race.

BLACKWELL: David, let's go to Pennsylvania and this new interview with NBC News with the Democratic nominee, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. And the reporter here asked him why not released more medical records. We've not heard from your doctor in six months. Here was his answer.

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JOHN FETTERMAN, DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE, PENNSYLVANIA: I feel like we have been very transparent in a lot of different ways when our doctor has already given a letter saying that I'm able to serve and to be running.

DASHA BURNS, CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS: Don't voters deserve to know your status now?

FETTERMAN: Being on in front of thousands and thousands of people and having interviews and getting around all across Pennsylvania, that gives everybody and the voters decide, you know, if they think that it's really the issue.

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BLACKWELL: I'm really interested to hear what Democrats say about this because I remember in the 2016 campaign, Democrats saying that we need to see Donald Trump's medical records. We can't just accept the letter. And, of course, our reporting, after that letter brought out a lot of reasons why there might be some questions about it. But what do you make of that answer we heard from the lieutenant governor?

CHALIAN: Well, first what I make of it is it wasn't an answer. It was a non-answer to the question. He did not give an answer to why he won't release his full medical records. And quite frankly, since the very first moment of this incident, his stroke, it took days for the campaign to put out information initially. The information has been reluctant and certainly not full-throated in any way.

I've been saying for months, that there really is a burden on him running for Senate to be as transparent as possible. I know he's trying to portray himself in his campaign that way. But he is right at the end of the day, we'll see if Pennsylvania voters actually believe that he's been somewhat less than full-throated and transparent and if that actually matters to their vote. I don't know that we've seen any evidence yet that it does but we've got a few weeks to go here before we count the votes.

BLACKWELL: Do we have any -- and, David, I'm going to stay with you on this. Do we have any indication to what we can attribute the tightening of this race? This was a double-digit advantage for Fetterman not too long ago, and now it's much tighter than that.

CHALIAN: Well, for a while, Mehmet Oz was not anywhere near the level of advertising on the airwaves with the money that Fetterman was. And so once the Republicans started advertising and getting into the game in a more robust way, and you know, quite frankly, once the issue of debates and his health coming back into that because Oz really tried to inject that as an issue in sort of the debate over debates and if Fetterman was going to be able to debate or not, that came at precisely the moment Oz was increasing, as were sort of his allies outside spending groups, increasing the amount that they were putting on the air, it tightened. But I don't think we should be surprised at all that it's heightened. It's Pennsylvania. It is one of the most contested battleground states in the country.

BLACKWELL: Abby, let's turn.

TALEV: I was just --

BLACKWELL: Yes, go ahead -- go ahead -- go ahead.

TALEV: Yes, I was just -- he says that Oz is sort of retreated or stepping away from Trump, for general election purposes probably hasn't heard him either with a lot of those sort of more centrist Pennsylvania voters and kind of keeping Doug Mastriano at arm's length, moving away from Trump positioning himself as more of a general election candidate has also come at the same time.

BLACKWELL: That's a good point, Margaret. Let me move to Jake Tapper's interview with the president last night. And, Abby, we don't know if the president is leaning in one direction or another, if he's made up his mind, or is waiting to tell people what he's going to do about running for reelection. But here's what he said about that decision about running for a second term.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to make this about my decision. I'm going to make this about this off-year election. After that's done in November, then I'm going to be in the process of deciding.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is one of the calculations that you think you're the only one who can beat Donald Trump?

BIDEN: I believe I can beat Donald Trump again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: We're parsing here, but he didn't say I'm the only one who can beat Donald Trump, right? How is this playing -- this moment, how is this playing in the Democratic Party?

PHILLIP: Yes, he didn't say he was the only one. But I mean, just look at that last part of the answer. That is someone who actually I think feels pretty confident in his mind about how that matchup would go. And I do think that when -- you know when I talk to Democrats who are close to the White House, there's really not that much uncertainty about where this is all heading. They don't want to announce a reelection campaign right now. The timing does not make sense to do that.

But I think that there is a great expectation that Biden is likely to be running for reelection. And not a whole lot of Democrats are really seriously looking at who alternatives could be. Do they -- would they prefer that there was maybe another generation that came forward? Absolutely. I mean, Democrats are openly talking about just the fact that Biden is going to be one of the oldest presidents ever if he were to win reelection.

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They talk about that openly. But I think at this point, there is a sense that Biden is likely to run again. And you see it in that interview, the look -- the kind of almost a little smile on his face at the end, he thinks that he's beat Trump once he knows how to do it again. And so, I think that's what a lot of Democrats are expecting going forward.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We heard from Tim Ryan in this debate just a couple of days ago that he does not want the president to run for a second term. Of course, that helps him in Ohio. Abby Phillip, Margaret Talev, David Chalian, thank you.

All right, we're following a major foreign policy moves by the White House. The administration says it's now reassessing the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, and it's naming China as America's most consequential geopolitical challenge. Plus, President Biden says Russia's recent nuclear threats could result in catastrophic mistakes. His assessment of Putin's mental state, we'll get into that next.

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BLACKWELL: President Biden just declared that China is America's most consequential geopolitical challenge. This was part of his newly released national security strategy. This is a document required by Congress. The president also details the threat from Russia and explains how it's different from China. He wrote this in part, Russia poses an immediate threat to the free and open international system recklessly flouting the basic laws of the international order today, as its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has shown. China, by contrast, is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order, and increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to advance that objective.

And Russian rockets continue to rain down on Ukraine. This is the third day of Vladimir Putin's intensified assault. But Ukrainian defenders are still making progress in pushing back. A regional official says they have liberated five more villages from Russian control in the Kherson area. Today, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with about 50 other NATO defense ministers about providing Ukraine with more air defense systems. And the latest Russian assault hit a town in eastern Ukraine, at least seven Ukrainians die, eight were wounded.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Kyiv. What's it been there today? What's it been like?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, hi there, Victor. Well, there has been a sort of a constant air raid siren alarms on and off going on the entire part of the day. In fact, just about -- I'd say about six or seven minutes ago, there were sirens going off here in the city once again. And as we speak right now, Victor, the city is still under an air raid alert. That hasn't been put back. It's still in place right now, even though the sirens are not going off.

So everybody who's in this city is urged to get off the streets. Obviously, all the stores are closed. Anyway, curfew is going to go into effect soon. But this is really something that we've seen throughout the entire day as we have in the past couple of days as well. In the nights, we also had a lot of air raid alarms here in the city. And essentially what the Ukrainians are saying is they are able to shoot down a lot of the rockets and missiles that are being fired at their city specifically Kyiv, but of course, a lot of others as well.

But the big issue they have is they say that they use those old Soviet-era surface-to-air missile systems and they say they simply don't have enough of those. And they don't have enough rockets for those either. That's where they're watching so closely today, that NATO meeting, where NATO pledged, obviously under U.S. leadership to provide Ukraine with more of those surface-to-air missiles and with more modern ones, Western ones. They say those can't come soon enough, especially in light of what we've been seeing here in the country, some of those rocket attacks, of course, that attack on that market that you were talking about, as well, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about this nuclear plant and some of the concerns about the safety after it had to go on to generator power. What's the latest on that?

PLEITGEN: Yes. You know this is the second time in only five days, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, that power to the power plant was cut. That means that the power plant is not on the power grid. And that means the cooling systems that that -- that that power plant needs to obviously cool the reactors and other important systems, those are not working and they need to jump to emergency power, which means diesel generators.

Now, the latest that we have is that that power has been restored but of course, as far as the International Atomic Energy Agency, and also the international community, quite frankly, are concerned, it's a very difficult situation and dangerous situation and certainly one that continues to be recurring. That power plan has been a big problem for a very long period of time. The Russians now claim it's there's. Ukrainians say it's not. There's a lot of shelling going on there, a very dangerous situation, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Fred Pleitgen for us in Kyiv, thank you, Fred. William Taylor served as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and is now the vice president for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Mr. Ambassador, good to see you again. Let me start here with this NATO meeting, after of course, the latest Russian attacks. Is this time to do more than what we heard from the ministers of defense provide more of what they've already given Ukraine, but to elevate their weapons support? I remember you were one of those couple dozen diplomats who said that we need to provide the partial air security to create this no-fly zone over Ukraine. Is it time to escalate the weapons support for Ukraine?

[14:25:00] WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Victor, it's clearly time to escalate the weapons support. And it sounds like that's what the NATO advisors are talking about. That is to be able to provide them anti-aircraft weapons and longer-range anti-aircraft weapons and anti-missile defenses, this is obviously what's needed right now. And that sounds like that's what the ministers and the experts who are there meeting are saying.

The question is how quickly can they get these missiles to them, the anti-aircraft missiles? It's important that they get there now. It sounds like the Germans are either about to or maybe have delivered this brand-new system. The Americans are providing that system. So that's what's needed. It needs more, and it needs to be now.

BLACKWELL: So, what we've heard from the administration, though, is that some of those longer-range weapons would be escalatory, that could potentially reach into Russian territory, and they've stayed away from that. But what you hear from this message from defense secretary Austin and from the others is that we are now going to move into that direction, not that we're going to give them more of the weapons that we've already supplied.

TAYLOR: We are going to give them more. You're exactly right. We're going to give them more and they're going to be more capable. The Ukrainians have been very responsible. They have used the weapons that we provided and their own weapons, so the most -- to only shoot within the occupied territories, within Ukraine. That's what the Russians are. That's where they need -- that's where the Ukrainians need to attack the Russians on Ukrainian territory. That's what they need.

But they need the longer-range weapons to do that, Victor. They need to be able to hit well behind the front lines so that they can go after ammo dumps and fuel depots and headquarters, Army military headquarters. That's what the -- that's what they've been doing very well. They need longer-range weapons, and again, they need this anti- aircraft more.

BLACKWELL: All right, I want you to take on what the president said last night in his interview with Jake Tapper about President Putin's mental state. Listen to this.

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TAPPER: Do you think Putin is a rational actor?

BIDEN: I think he is a rational actor who's miscalculated significantly.

TAPPER: So if he's -- if he's not rational, and --

BIDEN: I didn't say he's not rational.

TAPPER: You said the speech is (INAUDIBLE).

BIDEN: I think -- I think the speech, he --

TAPPER: OK.

BIDEN: His objectives were not -- I think he thought -- Jake, I think he thought he's going to be welcomed with open arms, that this was -- this has been the home of Mother Russia in Kyiv, and ever he was going to be welcomed. And I think he just totally miscalculated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: What do you make of the president's distinction that he created there, that he's not saying that Putin is irrational, but his statements are irrational? What's the value geopolitically, and how do you think that's heard inside the Kremlin?

TAYLOR: So, I think what the president was saying was that he believes President Putin is rational. That is he doesn't think President Putin is irrational. But you can be rational and make very bad decisions. Putin has clearly made terrible decisions, blunders. That's to say he's irrational, as he says he makes mistakes. Maybe you had bad information. Almost certainly he had bad information. Almost certainly, he thought that his military, the Russian military was better than it was. Turns out, it was not so good.

He -- now Putin probably thought that the Ukrainians were not going to fight back. Well, he was really wrong about that. The Ukrainians are fighting back fiercely and successfully. So President Putin can be rational and make bad decisions on bad information that's got him into this deep hole. President Putin is now desperate. He's now looking -- he's now looking for some way to move forward and he doesn't have any good options.

BLACKWELL: Ambassador William Taylor, thank you.

Doctors have a new warning when it comes to common heart medications and the COVID treatment, Paxlovid. We'll talk about that. And as winter approaches, the White House says the U.S. is not equipped with adequate COVID testing. Details ahead.

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