Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

New Footage Shows Congressional Leadership Scrambling On 1/6; Human Remains Found In Search For Missing Oklahoma Men; Tass: Two Gunmen Kill 11 Russian Military Recruits In Belgorod; Suspect Arrested In Connection With Stockton, CA Serial Killings; Dems Look To Maintain House Control Amid Slimming Chances; Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) Discusses Weight Of Winning Georgia to Control the Senate; Jurors Report Tension, Threats After Killer Avoids Death Penalty. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired October 15, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:32]

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): My opponent has a problem with the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The highly anticipated Georgia Senate debate in the books.

HERSCHEL WALKER (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: On abortion, you know, I'm a Christian. I believe in life.

WARNOCK: I've never pretended to be a police officer.

WALKER: There is not a problem. This is real.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four bodies pulled from an Oklahoma River near an area cyclists were reported missing last week.

CHIEF JOE PRENTICE, OKMULGEE, OKLAHOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT: All four bodies were submerged in water for what appears to be an extended period of time. I do suspect foul play.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in the Kyiv region, a critical power infrastructure was struck by those kamikaze drones.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At the same time though, we are hearing that Ukrainian forces are in fact moving forwards in the southern direction around Kherson.

There is a race here to prepare new positions so they can't be seen by Russian drones.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I am Pamela Brown in Washington and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin tonight with extraordinary behind the scenes video of how Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders as they fled the Capitol during the January 6th attack. This exclusive footage shows in vivid detail how the nation's senior most lawmakers transformed a nearby military base into a Command Center and frantically worked with the Vice President to put down the violence on Capitol Hill.

All right, let's bring in CNN's Zachary Cohen. Walk us through this video that we're just getting in.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Pam. This is really the first time that we're getting a look inside Fort McNair on January 6th after Members of Congress were evacuated from the Capitol, right?

And so we know that people like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer were all taken to the secure location where they -- video shows we're frantically trying to figure out a way to certify the election for Joe Biden, and while they were there, Nancy Pelosi gets on the phone with Mike Pence and they tried to figure out, they needed to find a way to vote on certifying the election either at the Capitol or somewhere else. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Mitch is here. We met with him earlier.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Nancy, just so you know -- we talked about, we will not get the Capitol cleared out for two to three days. We should do it here.

PELOSI: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. It seems like there are overriding wishes to do it at the Capitol. What we are being told very directly is it is going to take days for the Capitol to be okay again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, Pam, we obviously know that it didn't take days for the Capitol be okay again, and later that night, Congress met at the Capitol and certified Joe Biden's win, but a few things jumped out about that video. One is the genuine level of concern between Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence on the other line about their safety and about the security kind of status of the US Capitol at the time.

But the other is the fact that, you know, they were working across party lines at a time when I mean, the political partisanship is probably at an all-time high. They are working across party lines to make sure that they get to vote and certify Joe Biden's win. And third is the absence of one individual who does not come up in any of the video clips and that is Donald Trump, but we've heard a lot about how Donald Trump not, you know, take any steps to quell the violence that day.

A hundred eighty-seven minutes is something we've heard repeatedly from the January 6 Committee about Donald Trump's absence during that time. So, this video really is remarkable on a few fronts.

BROWN: It is and even though he wasn't mentioned, he looms large in these videos, right, because he was the President of the United States.

I also want to talk about the Secret Service and how it is responding to the allegations that it had advanced information about the potential for violence on January 6th. What are they saying?

COHEN: Well, Pam, we have obtained new documents from the Secret Service and these are -- include internal communications -- Secret Service communications that were handed over to the January 6 Committee and they show that law enforcement agencies across the spectrum from the Capitol Police to the FBI to the Secret Service were talking about concerning online social media rhetoric, right? And these are posts on places like Parler, other right-wing sites there, talking about, you know, violence against Vice President Mike Pence. They are talking about attacking the Capitol or making sure that lawmakers don't certify the election on January 6th.

And, you know, these were posts that were getting shared across various agencies, which is something I think the Secret Service is trying didn't make clear, they were talking to their interagency partners ahead of that day. But what these documents also show is that there was no formal assessment from the FBI, from the Capitol Police, at least in this batch of communications that said, look, we're going to see the kind of violence that took place on January 6th.

[18:05:15]

COHEN: And I think that that is sort of the discrepancy that is being pointed to especially after Thursday's hearing where the Committee pointed at the Secret Service and said, look, we had witnesses from your agency come in and say that there was no Intelligence indicating specific threats against Mike Pence, and listen to what Adam Schiff had to say about that on our air after Thursday's hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We intend to bring people back in from the Secret Service. You know, some who may have testified in ways that we don't find credible now that we have obtained this documentary evidence, but other witnesses potentially that we haven't heard from as well.

So we intend to follow up in that way and of course, you know, the big witness we want to hear from is the former President himself.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, of course. And I do want to get to that, Congressman. Alisyn is here with Laura, as well.

But I just want to ask you, one more thing about the Secret Service: What did they do about those threats? I mean, since you've presented this evidence that they knew, they had a heads up, they knew that there were direct and credible threats against Members of Congress 10 days or more before January --

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The morning of, in some cases.

CAMEROTA: I mean, they had -- for days, they knew about this, and so why didn't they do anything? What should they have done? And did they lie? Did some Secret Service agents lie to the Committee about this?

SCHIFF: Well, that's a very good question and we are trying to determine whether people were candid with us when they testified before. We're also looking into issues, which I can't go into the particulars, that there may have been efforts to obstruct our getting information about some of the incidents that we've talked about in the hearing today. So, there is more to get to the bottom of.

In terms of why they didn't do more to try to protect those that they are meant to safeguard and guard, it is a very good question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, the Secret Service, in a statement is arguing that on January 6th, it executed its mission, which is to protect people like Mike Pence and protect the President of the United States. But at the same time, as we heard from Congressman Schiff and from the January 6 Committee, they have a lot of questions as to why all of these concerns about online social media posts that were calling for the kind of violence we saw on January 6th, why more wasn't done once those were flagged.

BROWN: All right, Zachary Cohen, thanks so much for that reporting.

And turning now to the latest on a grim discovery last night in northeastern Oklahoma. Police in Okmulgee say that they pulled the human remains of four adult males from a river southwest of town. Now, we still don't have confirmation whether these are the remains of four close friends who reportedly were last seen Sunday night when they went out for a bike ride.

CNN's Camila Bernal is following this story. So, Camila, the says it will be up to the Medical Examiner to identify these bodies and determine how they died before the case progresses. Is there any progress on the autopsies?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Pam.

So we know the Medical Examiner's Office in Tulsa began working on these autopsies at 8:30 in the morning, but we also know it is going to be difficult to identify these bodies because they were in the lake and so, it is going to take some time.

Authorities believe maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning, we'll have some confirmation that is if they make it public immediately. So, we are waiting on all of that. But it is important to point out that they found these bodies because someone was around the lake and told police that they saw something suspicious.

So the cops went out there, they started searching and in fact they found those bodies and now, they transported them to Tulsa, but I want you to listen to how the Chief of Police described these bodies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRENTICE: That all four bodies were submerged in water for what appears to be an extended period of time, and therefore, identification will be a little bit of a challenge. I don't know that the four bodies that we've recovered are those men. I do suspect foul play in the discovery of the four bodies, what led to them being there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: Now, until we get that official confirmation from the Medical Examiner's Office, this is being looked at as two different cases. So, the case of the bodies that were found in the lake and then the case of the four missing men.

Now, these were all friends, all young, between the ages of 29 and 32. They were out hanging out on Sunday night and they all have their bikes. At least two of them we know had their cell phones on them.

So authorities were able to track the cell phone data until these phones were turned off or lost power and that cell phone data took them to two different junkyards.

[18:10:00]

BERNAL: Now, the already searched those areas. They've been looking all week. They had not been able to find anything and in fact, the lake was about five miles from the closest junkyard. So authorities there saying, look, we weren't going to search in the area near the lake because it wasn't in the path of those cell phones and the data that they had found there.

And so they're still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and there are still so many questions, because whether it's one case, two cases, or even if they connect the dots, we still want to know, what were they doing on Sunday? Why or how did these bodies end up in this lake? Who is responsible if anyone is responsible for all of this? So. really a lot of questions that we're still asking authorities tonight -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Camila Bernal, thanks so much for that.

And turning now to the war in Ukraine and the conflict extending beyond its borders. Russia's state news agency is reporting that two gunmen had opened fire on military recruits in a training session and Russia's Belgorod region. The Defense Ministry is quoted as saying "The gunmen are believed to be from former Soviet States. They were shot dead after reportedly killing 11 people and injuring 15 others."

Also in Belgorod today, Russian officials say that a missile fired from Ukraine hit an oil depot. Now, this week, Russia's Secret Service accused Ukrainian forces of increased shelling of Russian territory.

And in southern Ukraine, Russian officials say Ukrainian forces have begun a counteroffensive to recapture territory in the Kherson region.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Ukraine -- Fred.

PLEITGEN: Hi there, Pamela.

Well, the Russians are saying that the Ukrainians are now starting that counteroffensive on Kherson in earnest.

The Ukrainians of course, have been sort of shaping the battlefield there over the past couple of days even as we've seen these big missile strikes. They've been gaining ground down there in the area around Kherson. And for them, this is a really important offensive. They obviously want to take the regional capital of that area. The town also called Kherson, it is one of the first places that the Russians took when they first invaded Ukraine. They are really putting a lot of effort into getting that back.

Here is what we're learning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice over): Even as Russia has been bombarding Ukraine with missiles and drones this week, Ukrainian forces have been pushing Moscow's troops back in the south of the country raising their flag in newly liberated areas like this village called Arkhanhelske.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The boys worked for six, seven months on liberating Arkhanhelske. They are raising the flag of a free and united Ukraine.

PLEITGEN (voice over): The Kherson region is one of the areas recently illegally annexed by Russia, but Ukraine's Army is now advancing so much that Russian installed officials are asking for civilians to be evacuated to Russian territory.

VLADIMIR SALDO, RUSSIAN-APPOINTED HEAD OF KHERSON (through translator): Because of this, the Kherson administration has decided to organize opportunities for Kherson families to travel to other regions of Russia for leisure and study.

PLEITGEN (voice over): Kyiv denounced the move saying Russia is deporting people rather than saving them. Ukraine has vowed to take back all the territory Russia has seized, the country's President said at a celebration for Ukraine's Defenders Day on Friday.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): By defeating this enemy. We will respond to all enemies who encroached on Ukraine and those who lived, who live, and who will live on our land. This will be a victory for all our people.

PLEITGEN (voice over): But in the East, a different story, civilians fleeing a Russian advance on the industrial town of Bakhmut.

The charge being led by Wagner, the private military company headed by the man known as Putin's chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin. These photos showing Wagner troops on the ground in the areas surrounding Bakhmut.

On social media, Prigozhin announced Thursday that Wagner forces have taken a small town on the outskirts of the city.

"The Wagner group has established complete control over Ivangrad," he said. "I want to emphasize that there was not a single person from other units except the employees of Wagner group in Ivangrad." Wagner has long been known for brutal tactics. CNN has unearthed evidence of the group's mercenaries committing massacres on civilians in Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, and the Central African Republic.

Recently, Wagner and Prigozhin have dropped their shadowy veil. Prigozhin himself seen recruiting convicts in prisons, admitting he owns Wagner and even attending funerals of one of his fallen fighters.

Wagner units have already been prominently involved in Russia's campaign in Ukraine. It seems they are now the spearhead of Vladimir Putin's invasion force.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (on camera): And you know, Pamela one of the really interesting things, I think was Yevgeni Prigozhin, the head of Wagner writing that press release really saying that it was only Wagner forces that had taken that town outside of Bakhmut.

There are some people who believe that there is a real push to gain power by you have Yevgeni Prigozhin and in fact, that there might be a power struggle going on between Yevgeni Prigozhin and the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu. It certainly seems as though there is a really uneasy situation in Moscow right now -- Pamela.

[18:15:30]

BROWN: Yes, it certainly does. Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much for that.

And we have much more news for you tonight, including rising tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia. President Biden suggests there could be "consequences" after the US ally backs and oil production cut. So what could those consequences be?

Plus, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker battle face-to-face for the only time in this election cycle. We'll break it down and all the key moments just ahead.

But next, you know what that music is, Harry Enten. He is going to run the numbers for us and show us how past Presidents fared in their first midterm elections.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:16]

BROWN: While Republicans may be regaining ground in the battle for control of Congress, CNN senior data reporter, Harry Enten, he is here to run the numbers.

All right, so Harry, how do things look right now?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: So essentially, you know, if you look right now, at the Choice for Congress, you will look on this particular date, what do we see? We see a tie. That is a better position for Republicans than where they were a month ago when Democrats held a one-point advantage, but you could see that there was this tie that was shifting towards the Democrats from June 15th when the Republicans were up three points, then two points, then a tie, then Democrats up one. Some of that momentum seems to be reversing itself, of course, Democrats gained after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

BROWN: All right, so looking back at history, how do poll numbers translate to the ballot box?

ENTEN: Yes, so you know, we always talk about, you know, this generic ballot, and we kind of go, okay, the viewers should know what the heck it means.

Well, I'm going to tell you what it means because that's what I do. So, if we look essentially back through history, you know, essentially, the polling at this point, right, in the generic ballot, what we see as a tie right there, we don't know what the eventual House net seat gain is going to be.

This time, it is kind of in between where we've generally seen historically when Democrats are having a generic ballot, they do in fact, tend to gain House seats; when Republicans are ahead, they tend to gain House seats. This is closest to 2014, right, when the GOP was up three points, it's a little more Democratic. That year, the GOP picked up a net gain of 13 seats, which is generally I think most forecasts are sort of thinking where we're going to end up is that Republicans are going to have a seat gain, but it's not going to be the same level as it was, say in 2010. When it was a 63-seat gain. We're not looking at anything like that at this point.

BROWN: All right, let's look at President Biden's approval rating. It keeps inching up a little bit. How does that all factor in?

ENTEN: Yes, so inching up is the right term, it is inching up.

BROWN: Inching.

ENTEN: It's not soaring through the air, you know, essentially --

BROWN: Much to the chagrin of the White House, but they would love that though.

ENTEN: Yes, they would love it. You know, if he was at 63 percent, they'd love that.

Look, right now, he is at 43 percent. That is higher than he was a month ago when it was 42 percent, higher than it was in the middle of August when he was at 40 percent. Significantly higher than it was in the middle of July when it was 38 percent. So, 43 percent is better, but it is not exactly great, right?

BROWN: No, but I mean, you look at other Presidents, right? It was around that to recent Presidents we've had.

All right, so let's talk about, let's see how they're going to affect the midterms. That's the next question here. ENTEN: Yes, so you know, as you were pointing out, compared to other Presidents, at this point, first midterm, right? Forty-three percent. That looks a lot like the 43 here, right? It looks pretty close to Obama, 45, it looks pretty close to Clinton, 45. Bush was the outlier right there at 62 percent.

Look at the eventual in that House seat gain here. If this 43 percent looks like the Trump 43 percent, the opposition party that particular year, the Democrats gained 40 seats. I don't think we're necessarily looking at that, but you can see the opposition party has gained anywhere from 40 seats to 63 seats when the President's approval rating is in 43 to 45 seat ban.

So look, this perhaps tells a little bit of a different story than a generic congressional ballot, which suggests, you know, a closer race for Congress. This suggests that Democrats may in fact get blown out.

BROWN: All right, so we will have to wait and see on that. Also, Big Game tomorrow, you and Wolf Blitzer no doubt will be watching it.

ENTEN: Yes. I do not quite have the facial hair that Wolf Blitzer has, you know, and I'm perhaps a little bit younger, but Wolf is young at heart.

BROWN: He is.

ENTEN: Look, the Bills -- he is -- the Bills are taking on the Chiefs tomorrow. I can just say, let's go Bills. And the other thing I will note, on a scale from zero to 100, the importance of this game according FiveThirtyEight, 99; quality, 99; overall; 99.

I will rate this game though at 150 if the bills are able to beat the Chiefs. It's all I want. Please, please, please, Josh Allen, Do it. Patrick Mahomes, go down, go down, go down. Go down. Go down.

BROWN: Will you still come on the show, if I say I'm rooting for the Chiefs, because that's where my husband's family is from?

ENTEN: I will still come on the show. It's just a game. Although it's a game. That means a lot to me.

BROWN: Clearly, all right, Harry Enten, thanks so much for that.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BROWN: And be sure to check out Harry's podcast. "Margins of Error." You could find it on your favorite podcast app or at cnn.com/audio.

And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The midterm elections are now just over three weeks away. We're going to ask Congressman Tom Malinowski, how he feels about the Democrats' chances of holding in the House, as his own race is now being called a bellwether.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:29:10]

BROWN: And this just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Police in Stockton, California say they have made an arrest after a series of six murders they say were related.

Let's bring in CNN's Camila Bernal. What have you learned -- Camila.

BERNAL: Hey, Pam.

Look, this is a case that we have been following for days now because the people of Stockton were terrified to just go outside, and now authorities are saying that they have arrested Wesley Brownlee.

He is 43 years old from Stockton and authorities are saying they were able to arrest him thanks to two things. First, all of the tips and the help from the community. And then the second was just old fashioned police work.

They say thanks to the tips, they were able to zero in on one possible suspect. So, authorities began to just watch his every move. They knew where he lived, and they were watching to see when he came and went from the house.

[18:30:44]

And early this morning, they say at around two in the morning, they believed that he was out there trying to kill his next victim. The chief of police using words like he was out hunting. He was on a mission to kill. He was, again, wearing dark clothing.

He was wearing a mask around his neck and he, according to the police chief, was out in areas that were dark, going to parks stopping and going to another location, looking around seeing what he could do. And that's why they're describing it as hunting and looking for the next person to kill. Here is what local authorities are saying now about this, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KEVIN LINCOLN, STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA: We will use every resource at our disposal to make sure the people of our city are protected and feel safe, and that no parent has to worry about taking their kids to a park, that nobody would have to worry about looking over their shoulder when they go to the grocery store and that our unhoused population here in the city of Stockton will be able to rest a little bit easier tonight as we take the next steps towards getting them help in healing in their life.

RON FREITAS, INCOMING SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. And the suspect's reign of terror in our community has come to an end. As the incoming district attorney, I look forward to prosecuting him to the fullest extent of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERNAL: And he was arrested with a gun so that is obviously a big piece of evidence that will be key in all of this. He is expected in court on Tuesday and that's when we will know exactly what charges he is facing. But you heard it right there, they're promising just to do everything they can to get justice for these victims, Pam.

BROWN: Yes. Thank goodness, the tips came in. Police did their old fashioned police work and found him when police say he was out hunting in the early morning hours. Camila Bernal, thank you.

BERNAL: Thank you.

BROWN: Well, some Friday night fireworks in Georgia as two men competing in a closely watched center race squared off in their first and only debate before the election. Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock clashed with Republican nominee Herschel Walker on topics including abortion rights, the Biden agenda, Medicaid expansion and policing. Walker an outspoken abortion opponent, again, denied allegations that he paid for the procedure after a former girlfriend got pregnant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERSCHEL WALKER, (R) U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE IN GEORGIA: Well, as I say, that's a lie and - well, most thing I put - I put it in a book, one thing about my life is I've been very transparent, not like the Senator. He's hear things, but at the same time, I say that's a lie, and on abortion - I'm a Christian, I believe in life and I tell people this, Georgia is a state that respects life and I'll be a senator that protects life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Now, Warnock did not address the abortion controversy directly, but did question Walker's honesty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): We will see time and time again tonight as we've already seen, that my opponent has a problem with the truth. And just because he says something, it doesn't mean it's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The debate moderator scolded Walker at one point when he pulled out what appeared to be a police badge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: And you know what's so funny? I am work with many police officers and at the same time have to ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Walker? Mr. Walker?

WALKER: No, no, no, no, when he said problem with the truth ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Walker? Mr. Walker? Excuse me, Mr. Walker, please ...

WALKER: ... when he said problem with the truth, the truth is, is here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... out of respect, I need to let you know, Mr. Walker.

WALKER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are very well ...

WALKER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... aware of the rules tonight.

WALKER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you have a prop.

WALKER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is not allowed, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Walker repeatedly linked Warnock to President Biden. Warnock did little to reject that idea, but know that he pushed back on the administration's suggestion of closing a Combat Readiness Training Center in Savannah.

Well, we are a little over three weeks from midterm up - from the midterm elections and the balance of power could tip in either direction. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski. Hi, Congressman, thank you for coming on the show.

So just like the Senate race in Georgia, your house race is now being called a bellwether, a Democratic win in Georgia is key to maintaining control of the Senate, control of the House is also up in the air and could hinge on your race. Do you feel the weight of that?

REP. TOM MALINOWSKI (D-NJ): I was about to say no pressure, but I'm used to it. I flipped this long-held Republican seat in 2018 in a close race, had another close race in 2020. The seat was redrawn to be, basically, a Republican seat in redistricting this year.

[18:35:00]

We've clawed back to a 50-50 race in all the polls and absolutely I feel - we all feel in this district that we get to decide in the seventh district of New Jersey, which way the wind is blowing in America for the next two years.

BROWN: House Democratic leaders have been bullish saying Democrats will keep the house after the midterms and even add more seats. Do you agree with them? MALINOWSKI: I think we are in a very strong position to keep the house right now. And I see a lot of commentary out there about how Democrats are running on abortion and Republicans are running on inflation. I think it's a lot more complicated than that. Indeed, many, many voters in my district and including many Republicans are upset about the fact that women across America, families across America, are losing rights that they took for granted for 50 years.

But at the same time, they see from the Republicans a lot of messaging about how bad inflation is, but no messaging about what their solution would be. And I think we look at the emerging leaders of the Republican Party, the Marjorie Taylor Greenes, the Jim Jordans, the Kevin McCarthys, they don't actually have an economic agenda. They - apart from maybe eliminating Social Security and Medicare.

And so they don't give a lot of comfort to voters in my district who are rightly concerned about the problems in the economy and meanwhile, we've actually been doing stuff from an infrastructure bill to the TRIPS bill that brings manufacturing jobs back to America, the prescription drug benefits.

BROWN: Really quickly, before we get too far into that, I want to make - I want to talk about abortion.

MALINOWSKI: Go ahead.

BROWN: You brought it up, obviously a key issue for Democrats. Abortion - it appears to be really the hottest issue ahead of the midterms. Your opponent says, you support abortion on demand even in the last trimester, is that accurate?

MALINOWSKI: My goodness, I sometimes wonder whether my opponent has ever met an actual woman. He seems to think that they are women in New Jersey and across America who carry their pregnancy to the ninth month, who've named their baby, who picked out clothes in a crib and then five days before they give birth, they just for the heck of it want to terminate that pregnancy, it's ridiculous.

He knows and we all know that abortion in late term is something that only happens when the health or the life of the mother is at risk. Roe v. Wade was absolutely clear that late term abortion would only be permitted under those circumstances. And his party right now across America is not banning late term abortion. They're banning abortion, period. And so he voted in our state Senate in January ...

BROWN: So hold on, just to be clear, you are in favor of allowing late term abortion in cases where the mother's health is at risk, correct?

MALINOWSKI: I'm in favor of leaving that decision to medical authorities, to doctors and the mother, which is the law in New Jersey, by the way. And my opponent wants to overturn the law in New Jersey. We are comfortable with leaving this decision to women and their doctors.

He wants to bring the government in to make that decision for women and their doctors. We see the consequences of that across the country. In the world that he wants a woman who has a miscarriage, in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy would be suspected of committing a crime.

Women and doctors - women who are told by their doctors that they have to have this procedure to protect their health or their life would have to wait for some sort of government panel to review the evidence and to give them permission as they're bleeding in the hospital. That's not something that we want in the state of New Jersey and it is also not the issue, because what Republicans are doing in every state under their control, is banning abortion, period, often with no exceptions for the health or life of the mother and my opponent would nothing about that.

BROWN: And we should note, your opponent supports abortion ban at 20 weeks with exceptions with that. So I want to ask before we let you go, the Congressional Leadership Fund is running this new ad. And it's a accusing you of using insider information to profit off of the COVID 19 pandemic. I want to play a little bit of that now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch closely. This is why you hate politicians.

MALINOWSKI: This is not the time for anybody to be profiting off of selling ventilators, vaccines, drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Malinowski profited from stock trades in medical and tech companies that were involved in the COVID-19 response.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just another insider politician trying to get rich in office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So that is stemming from an AP report that said you profited from the pandemic by trading stocks. I know you have since established a blind trust and support congressional stock reform, but is that enough to overcome these allegations and win the trust of the voters?

[18:39:59]

MALINOWSKI: That's extraordinary hypocrisy, that ad. My opponent not only was invested in the stock market throughout the pandemic, but lives off the stock market. He bought and sold stock in pharmaceutical companies.

BROWN: But I'm asking about you. I'm asking about you, is that enough?

MALINOWSKI: I understand. But if you're going to attack somebody for having had investments in the stock market as 50 percent of the American people do, when you're running against me, a candidate who had very similar investments is not something that will produce anything more than an eye-roll From the voters of New Jersey.

We are concerned about issues that affect our lives: inflation, the state of the economy, jobs, competition with China, the pandemic, whether we maintain - keep the rights and freedoms that the Supreme Court treaded when the Roe v Wade decision was issued, this is not something that voters are asking me about. I'm out there talking to voters every single day, unlike my opponent, who was basically sitting at home and allowing these ads funded by outside Super PACs to speak for him. If that stuff was working, I would not have fought back to a tied race in a district that was supposed to go Republican this year.

BROWN: Okay. Let me ask you about the last issue here that you've spoken out about Saudi Arabia. You've called for withdrawal of U.S. troops from there and you've also vocalized your support to punish them by attaching legislation to an upcoming defense bill. But couldn't these measures only push Saudi Arabia further into the arms of Russia and China?

MALINOWSKI: There's absolutely no way in which Saudi Arabia can get what it needs from Russia and China. The United States of America guarantees the security of Saudi Arabia. Russia is not going to be defending the Saudis. They can barely defend themselves right now. They have very little to share with their client states around the world.

China is not going to be patrolling the Persian Gulf or protecting Saudi Arabia if there's a war with Iran. And the Saudis know this, they play this Russia-China card as a way of avoiding consequences for these actions that they take. The Saudi government chose to stand with Russia against the United States by announcing this drastic, radical, a cut in production of oil in order to hurt us, hurt our allies and increase the Russian government's revenues at a time when Russia is brutalizing Ukraine.

BROWN: All right.

MALINOWSKI: There have to be consequences for that. There's strong support in Congress, unless we see a change between now and the end of the year, I believe that there will be legislation passed.

BROWN: Congressman Malinowski, thanks for your time.

MALINOWSKI: Thank you.

BROWN: And we should note we invited Congressman Malinowski's opponent, Tom Kean, Jr., to join us on air, but his campaign did not respond.

He has spoken out against Vladimir Putin and his brutality and now he is facing criminal charges in Russia. Up next, we're going to speak to a Russian author and journalist now wanted by the Kremlin, about his message to put Putin and fellow Russians back home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:13]

BROWN: Turning now to the war in Ukraine and our next guest who is a Russian author, journalist and now a wanted man. Last week, the Russian government named him a foreign agent for his criticism of Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine. Dmitry Glukhovsky joins us now. Thanks so much for taking time to talk with us. So Dmitry, four months ago, a Moscow court ordered your arrest in absentia for allegedly discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. Tell us more about why you have drawn the ire of Vladimir Putin.

DMITRY GLUKHOVSKY, NAMED BY RUSSIA AS A "FOREIGN AGENT": Well, actually, there's been a campaign to persecute pretty much a lot of public personalities who dare to oppose the war. For me, the choice was pretty obvious. I have a lot of friends in Ukraine and then it was very black and white situation for me, I couldn't keep my mouth shut, unfortunately, for them or for me, but I'm still something that doesn't regret it all.

So basically, I've used my Instagram account as well as my other social media and I wrote a number of articles and opinion articles, colors for the Guardian and (inaudible) and The Deadline (ph) and criticizing the war and calling basically the war a war. And now with the new legislation, that's already crime.

We'll be accused of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces when you say that they're responsible of conducting mass executions and civilians are just plainly bombed in Ukrainian cities. And you're facing after 15 years in jail, like in my case, because I personally accuse Vladimir Putin of being responsible for releasing (ph) this work.

BROWN: So you mentioned the article, I want to read an excerpt from it. This is what you wrote in March for The Guardian. You said you urge your fellow Russians, "to not believe the lies and to always demand the truth to stick out like a sore thumb, to debate, to stand up for our dignity and to fight for it." Are enough of your fellow Russians willing to risk what you're risking, your freedom or more?

GLUKHOVSKY: Well, you never know. I hope that there was a long waiting line before (inaudible) of those guys who are waiting for their extrajudicial killing. So far, I'm risking an arrest and after 15 years in jail if I'm going anywhere near Russia, like Russia former CIS, because they all do collaborate and extradite. There are cases in Russia of also artists being not only bullied but also poisoned before such as the famous Russian author (inaudible) who was poisoned just - with the same agent as Alexei Navalny ahead of him, a couple of years before.

[18:45:02]

So things do happen, you can never guarantee that ...

BROWN: So you must be worried for your safety.

GLUKHOVSKY: Well, you should - you can never feel safe when you criticized the authorities in Russia, but I think that they should be pragmatical in deciding who they should eliminate first. Basically, it's still not (inaudible) there are cases, I would say, when it's possible to keep your mouth shut, but not in a case when your country is unleashing under very false pretext, just completely made out predatory war against its neighbor, ruining a thousand years of friendly and brotherhood relations just because a person wants to inscribe his name in the history books as somebody who reunited the once possessed and then later lost lands, yeah.

BROWN: Yeah. That person being Vladimir Putin. All right. Dmitry Glukhovsky, thanks for coming on the show. We really do appreciate your time. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:55:42]

BROWN: New outrage in Florida, more than four and a half years after the school shooting rampage in Parkland, 14 students and staff members died in the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. But the jury deciding the killer's fate recommended life in prison without parole for the killer this week, not the death penalty. CNN's Brian Todd takes us inside the heated deliberations and the backlash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDGE ELIZABETH SCHERER, SEVENTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA: ... was trying to get my attention.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Florida jury that sentenced the Parkland shooter to life in prison faces more scrutiny. Prosecutors asked the judge to interview a juror who claimed to have been threatened by another juror during deliberations. Prosecutor Carolyn McCann describing a call her office got from the allegedly threatened juror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLYN MCCANN, ASSISTANT FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY: A support staff member who took the call said that the person who left the message was upset and then said that they seemed frightened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): The Broward County Sheriff's Office says it will investigate the alleged threat. Another juror, Melody Vanoy, told CNN she was not personally threatened, but that it got ugly after the vote. Jurors like her who voted for life in prison instead of the death penalty were treated with disrespect and sarcasm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELODY VANOY, JUROR IN PARKLAND SHOOTING SENTENCING: The energy was so heated that we wanted to get out of that room. They had to take us down for over 30 minutes to just give us fresh air, so we could kind of move around and separate, that's how heated it got after the fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): The tensions in the jury room also reflected in a letter written by another juror to Judge Scherer denying that she had made up her mind to vote for life in prison before the trial even started. That juror saying she'd heard that others who did vote for the death penalty had accused her of that. "Some jurors became extremely unhappy once I mentioned that I would vote for life."

Parents of the young victims remain unhappy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY MONTALTO, FATHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM GINA MONTALTO: It's just an unfathomable verdict. I would want them to place themselves in our shoes and look at the innocent victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): These jury room dramas not surprising to veteran judge, Gregory Mize.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY MIZE, FORMER SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE: The stresses build up and people's habits and foibles among the jury can rankle one or another and tensions build. We have strangers trying to come together to reach unanimity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): But could any of this change the outcome of the life sentence?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL CALLAN, FORMER PROSECUTOR: It's highly unlikely that the court will set the verdict aside or that the outcome of the case would be changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (on camera): Both Paul Callan and Judge Gregory Mize say it's also possible that one or more of the jurors could come back to the court at some point and say they regret voting the way they did. But they say that likely won't change the finality of this verdict either. That it would take an extraordinary set of circumstances to reopen this sentencing case. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right. Thanks to Brian.

So Georgia's Senate race takes center stage as early voting there begins on Monday. Some critical moments from last night's debate just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: You know so funny? I am work with many police officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)