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Biden Wraps Up West Coast Campaign Tour; Obama To Campaign In Michigan And Georgia; Xi Jinping Poised To Rule With Iron Grip For Many Years; Fire At Iran's Notorious Evin Prison Injures Eight; Occupied Donetsk City Takes Fire; Russia's Influence Waning In Former Soviet Republics; Democrats Losing Ground In Texas With Latino Voters; Teddy Bears Left For Queen Elizabeth II Going To Charity. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired October 16, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, President Biden is at home in Delaware after a campaign swing to three Western states. Ahead, why he says this year's midterm elections are the most important in decades.

Plus, Chinese leader Xi says China will take Taiwan by force. A live report from Beijing plus reaction from Taipei.

And Elon Musk changes his mind when it comes to offering key support for Ukraine. We'll look at the decision and its huge implications in the war against Russia.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: President Biden has just wrapped up a rare four-day campaign tour across the West Coast ahead of the critical midterm elections. Much is at stake as Democrats try to hold on in Congress and win key local and state elections. Biden's approval is low across polls, fueling worries that it could weigh down the party at the ballot box.

So instead of stumping alongside the most vulnerable candidates, the president is going to Oregon and California and highlighting his achievements and raise millions of dollars from donors.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is, I think, the most important off-year election that we've had in -- since Roosevelt's time. I mean that sincerely because so much is at stake. If we are able to keep the House and keep the Senate, we can continue

to do the things we've been doing, which are really going to make change to the country.

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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Arlette Saenz has more on the critical campaign stops on the West Coast.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden wraps his four-day Western swing with stops in Portland, Oregon, a state he won by 16 points in the 2020 election. The president traveled to states like Colorado, California and Oregon, Democratic strongholds, where he believes his policies would help Democratic candidates.

The president campaigned in part on behalf of the Democratic nominee for governor, Tina Kotek, who is facing a much tighter race as she's challenged by two opponents. The president is hoping to drive out the vote, especially as voter registration in the state ends on October 18th.

While the president was both in California and here in Oregon, he talked about ways to lower prices for Americans as inflation remains a top concern for voters heading into these elections.

The president touted enhanced Social Security benefits and also tried to explain some of the elements of the Inflation Reduction Act which would help lower prices, particularly when it comes to prescription drugs.

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BIDEN: This year the American people won and, for the first time, Big Pharma lost.

Now Big Pharma tries to raise drug prices faster than inflation, they're going to have to write a check to Medicare to cover the difference. They're going to not be able to do it. They're going to cover the difference.

And look, instead of that money going into the pockets of drug companies, they're going into your pockets in the form of lower drug prices. Now there's more money at the end of the month to pay those grocery bills, get your car repaired, buy your grandson a birthday gift.

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SAENZ: While he was out West, the president did not visit Nevada or Arizona, two states with hotly contested races for Senate, governor and the House. Next week he will be turning to a very close race and that is in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

President Biden will be traveling there on Thursday to Pittsburgh and also be participating in a fundraiser with the lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, a Democrat candidate for Senate.

The president is also focusing his attention on a state that was very critical to his own election back in 2020 -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, traveling with the president in Portland, Oregon.

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BRUNHUBER: Former president Barack Obama will travel to Atlanta and Detroit for campaign events in the final weeks leading up to the midterm elections. He will campaign with Democratic candidates on October 28th. It's not clear yet which he will stump with.

Obama will join Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and other Democratic candidates for a "Get Out the Vote" rally. The former president wants to do his part to help Democrats win next month's critical elections.

This week the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attacks on the Capitol revealed new evidence and testimony.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MAJORITY LEADER: Why don't you get the president to tell them to leave the Capitol, Mr. attorney general, in your law enforcement responsibility?

A public statement they should all leave.

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BRUNHUBER: Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump knew he lost the 2020 election, even as he continued efforts to overturn the results. In a rare move, the panel voted to subpoena Trump.

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BIDEN: The testimony and the video are actually devastating. And I've been going out of my way not to comment. We'll see what happens. But it's -- I think it's been devastating. I mean, the case has been made, it seems to me, fairly overwhelming.

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BRUNHUBER: There's no word yet on when the committee will release its final report or whether it will make any criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

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BRUNHUBER: An extraordinary moment in modern China's history is taking place right now in Beijing, with leader Xi Jinping poised to rule that country with an iron grip for many years to come. The gathering of the Communist Party Congress only happens every five

years. Xi Jinping is heading for his unprecedented third term. He threatened to seize Taiwan by force if necessary. Listen to this.

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XI JINPING, PRESIDENT OF CHINA (through translator): We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest of sincerity and the utmost efforts but we will never promise to renounce the use of force. And we reserve the option of taking all measures necessarily.

This is directed solely at interference by outside forces and a few separatists seeking Taiwan independence.

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BRUNHUBER: That line received the biggest applause of Xi's two-hour speech. He went on to say China would continue to modernize all aspects of military so it could, quote, "effectively carry out all tasks." We have Steven Jiang and Will Ripley with more.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: Kim, first of all, the central theme is very clear. The only way to restore China's rightful place on the global stage is to restore the Chinese Communist Party's dominance.

He has said all the right things. He promised to renew economic growth focusing on innovation, which some say has been stifled precisely because of his government's sweeping crackdown on the private sector, especially on the tech industry.

And the sharp economic slowdown China is facing due to his intransigence on the strict COVID policy despite evidence against its effectiveness and despite growing public frustration and resentment toward the policy.

Thirdly, the one word we kept hearing during the speech was struggle, better translated as fight. He talked about fighting COVID-19, fighting separatists and fighting unilateralism and hegemony.

That makes it clear he is very unlikely to back down on policies both on international and domestic issues. Lastly, Kim, when it comes to opaque Chinese politics, it's not always about the obvious.

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JIANG: Sometimes it's the more subtle signs. People have noticed and said he paused during the two-hour speech and clearing his throat and sipping water. That leads to assessment of his stamina, which is increasingly important, given the important amount of power concentrated in his hands and he needs and wants to make his personal stamina the issue big and small. This is going to be a physically demanding job. Given the global implications, there have been concerns.

BRUNHUBER: Thanks, Steven. Let's go to Will Ripley in Taipei.

Let's drill down on what Xi said in Taiwan, the language, forceful and blunt as we expected.

What did we learn?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we learned is there is not only, you know, zero desire to change course or to even listen to the perspective of the Taiwanese government, which has run this island, it has evolved into a democracy over more than 70 years of separation.

In fact, the Communist rulers in Beijing have never once governed this island. And yet they claim this island and they have for decades as their own. Only difference is now China has a military that, if it's not capable of doing it, it will be in the very near future. That is one of Xi Jinping's stated goals.

So you have this much smaller but vibrant democracy that doesn't have formal diplomatic ties with most of the countries around the world but has friendships with powerful like-minded democracies.

Saying what they have consistently have said, that Taiwan will not accept a unilateral reunification with the Mainland because they don't feel it's a reunification; they think it would be a hostile takeover.

They say the whole point of having a democracy is that the voters, the majority of the public, decide their future. And poll after poll especially over the last few years since 2019, when people in Taiwan watched the chaos in Hong Kong, watched the freedoms of Hong Kong be taken away under what was supposed to be "One Country, Two Systems," it has made the prospect of any one country, two systems for Taiwan unacceptable.

According to the opposition party, the KMT, which is traditionally pro China, does not have any platform that will accept "One Country, Two Systems." So you have this government saying that Taiwan will never compromise on values of sovereignty, democracy and freedom.

We know the national security team of Taiwan is closely monitoring what is transpiring in Beijing as we speak. With Xi Jinping's consolidation of power and his stated intent that, in his generation, Taiwan should be reabsorbed with the Mainland, it is certainly perhaps not the most pressing, urgent concern in that they think it's going to happen tomorrow.

But the widely held view is, at some stage, likely during Xi Jinping's rule, China will make a move to bolster its military, improve military training, enhance self-defense capabilities preparing for that day that China decides to try to fulfill the promise that Xi Jinping made today. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much, Will Ripley. Appreciate it.

For more on this, let's bring in James Miles, who's the senior writer on China for "The Economist" and joins us from London. Thanks for being with us. We spent time talking about the nuance of

the language president Xi used. It's even more important, I guess, than it might be in, say, a presidential State of the Union speech.

So what were your overall impressions in terms of the tone, the length, the language compared to what we've seen before?

JAMES MILES, "THE ECONOMIST": Well, it's striking, not least I suppose, in terms of the visuals of this. I've been covering party congresses since the 13th Congress in 1987. And there is almost nothing different about this one, almost nothing that you would see in the Great Hall of the People that connects China with the 21st century visually.

This is old-style Communist Party-choreographed, controlled pageantry. And everything is as Xi Jinping would wish it, as the party leadership would wish it, in terms of its being a homage to the party, to Mr. Xi, with absolutely no dissent during this event, which we expect to last for about a week.

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MILES: In terms of the language of the speech given by Xi Jinping, I think one striking thing is how relatively short it was. It only took two hours for him to deliver this one compared with three hours five years ago at the last party Congress.

I think what was also striking was perhaps less of the more strident language we heard five years ago, the more confident language about China moving to the center stage of global affairs.

His remarks on Taiwan were still hedged, still talking about assisting with policy of peaceful reunification in spite of those hardline warnings around that as well. And really a sense of caution, talk of the great waves and strong winds that China will be facing in the years ahead.

There's every reason for Mr. Xi to feel cautious. And he covered the stringent controls of the virus, which is one reason, battering the economy. He didn't give any promise of ending that. But I think that's going to be something we watch for closely during this Congress, any sign of tweaking in that.

BRUNHUBER: So I mean, you've covered so many of these. Take us through why these party congresses are so important. It's much more than just a speech.

MILES: Well, they're important because they are summing up really everything the party believes in. And this takes place only every five years. So what Xi Jinping says will be, you know, in effect, the gospel for the party for the next five years.

So it will be read and reread extremely closely by millions of officials around the country. But the event is particularly important, of course, for leadership changes -- and there are sweeping changes that have already taken place in the buildup to this at the provincial and lower levels of the party hierarchy.

This will culminate at the end of the Congress. There will be another, smaller meeting of a new central committee the day after the Congress and that will choose a new politburo -- not a new, the same general secretary, same chief of the armed forces, in other words, Xi Jinping.

But it will be a big reshuffle. At least half of the politburo will be changed. A couple, we expect, at least of the politburo standing committee, that's the very apex of power, seven men.

So a huge event for China politically and something that they've been gearing up for, with extraordinary intensity for months and months. Everything has been sort of subservient to this aim of ensuring a smooth party Congress without any embarrassment whatsoever emerging from any part of the country.

BRUNHUBER: So before we go, I mean, you touched on China's place in the world. I wanted to ask you about its relations with the West, specifically with the U.S.

What have you learned here?

MILES: Well, if you search for the word America, you get zero results. Search for Russia, Ukraine, zero, zero. Search for China and you get more than 100 results. This is really all about China across -- with reference to China's position in the world and Xi Jinping's initiatives to establish China as a global power.

His global development initiative, his global security initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative, all of these things very closely associated with Xi Jinping but avoiding specific mention of those crucial global issues, which, you know, hang over the global economy, global security and, of course, have a great impact on China.

So the point of this speech, I think, was really to instill listeners with a sense of feel-goodery about China's rise in the world without really addressing those particularly difficult problems, I think.

BRUNHUBER: Fascinating. Really appreciate your analysis, James Miles. Thanks so much.

MILES: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: North Korea is reaffirming its ties with Beijing to mark China's 20th National Party Congress. North Korean state media says Pyongyang received a message from Xi Jinping this week, in which the Chinese leader emphasized how the two countries should continue to strengthen their relationship.

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BRUNHUBER: North Korea in turn sent a congratulatory message, praising Xi's leadership and thanking the Chinese president for his support.

Fire breaks out at a notorious prison in Tehran, injuring at least eight people. Who is blamed for igniting the blaze.

And Elon Musk backs often a threat over a service he has in helping Ukraine fight Russia. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: A fire is now under control at a notoriously brutal prison in Tehran, where Iran's political dissidents are held. At least eight people were injured, according to the state media.

Iran's governor says the fire was started by the prisoners inside the facility. We do know some Americans are being held there. Let's bring in Nada Bashir.

This comes in the context of weeks of protests in Iran.

What more are we learning about what caused the fire?

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NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Kim, the picture of what took place yesterday to cause the fire is still unclear. We are hearing contrasting accounts of what actually happened within the prison, those images circulating late last night.

The videos of the black plumes of smoke rising from the prison complex drew widespread concern from Iran and the international community. This is a prison that houses hundreds of political prisoners, journalists, writers, lawyers, many of them in prison for speaking out against the Iranian regime.

This is a huge concern because we have seen demonstrations, protests sparking up across the country. We've heard from a activist group.

They've been sharing the video coming out of Iran throughout the protests. In the videos they circulated yesterday, last night, there were sounds of gunfire in the background around these prison -- this prison complex as well as, of course, reports of the Iranian security forces have been deployed to the prison complex.

We also heard from the IranWire reporting according to a source they had within the prison that there had been a revolt within the prison complex and that a fire ensued. This stands in contrast expectedly from the government's own line.

They say that "thugs" had been responsible for riots within the prison and that a fire had ensued in the clothing warehouse on the prison complex. But they were quickly -- quick to assure that the fire was under control and being dealt with by the authorities.

We have seen widespread international reaction, concern because this prison houses foreign nationals as well. We heard yesterday from the U.S. State Department, Ned Price, "We are following reports from Evin prison with urgency and we are in contact with the Swiss as our protecting power.

"Iran is fully responsible for the safety of our wrongfully detained citizens, who should be released immediately."

We are aware of the U.S. citizen who reimprisoned in the Evin prison complex for at least seven years, wrongfully detained. But this comes on the back of weeks and weeks of demonstrations.

Iranian authorities were quick to say this wasn't connected to what they've said were riots. This has raised concern. We've seen a violent crackdown by the Iranian authorities of any signs of dissent, even the prison home to many political prisoners who've been detained there, some of them for years without being able to contact family members, some of them.

So this is a real point of concern. We are still seeing protests taking place. We've also seen in the last few days calls on social media, circulating for a national uprising. This has grown far more serious. This has morphed into a total regime change. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Nada Bashir.

In Cuba, officials say protesters who have taken to the streets after hurricane Ian damaged the island's power grid could soon face charges. People have been coming out at night, calling for electrical service to be restored.

Others have demanded Cuban leaders step down. When hurricane Ian struck the island almost three weeks ago, it left the power system in worse shape. A note published said prosecutors are investigating charges of arson and vandalism of state property.

Nowhere seems safe in Ukraine. Still ahead, school buildings take a hit and end up being destroyed by Russian missiles. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: We're getting word of new strikes in Ukraine affecting people on both sides of the front line. Russian missile strikes in the Zaporizhzhya region destroyed two schools there. Nearby homes were also hit and no casualties reported.

The occupied Donetsk city also came under fire, which reportedly destroyed an administration building there. This shows smoke after the alleged strike Sunday morning.

All that is happening is after an attack at a military facility across the border in Russia. Russia's Tass state news agency says two gunmen opened fire at a training center in Belgorod, leaving dozens dead or wounded. We're joined from London from Scott McLean.

Scott, let's start with the latest on the shooting.

What more do we know?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not a whole lot of information, Kim. We are piecing together the details we have. The local governor of Belgorod, this is a region of Russia just across the border from the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. The local governor is calling this a terrorist attack.

He says 11 people were killed, 15 wounded, none of them civilians. We're talking about military personnel here. According to the local media, these were personnel that were volunteering to join the front lines of the special military operation, what Russia calls its war in Ukraine.

Specifically the drill that was taking place at the military training facility was a shooting drill, so target practice. Just imagine the chaos of Russian troops firing at targets and then all of a sudden being fired on themselves by two gunmen.

Those gunmen were shot and killed. The Russian state media report says they were from ex-Soviet states, though it does not go into detail as to where exactly they were from, why they were at that training facility and whether they were part of this drill at all or whether they had some other kind of role. It's not clear.

The president says 220,000 of 300,000 troops have been called up so far, though that is very, very controversial in that country. Of course, there have been protests and thousands of people heading for the exits as well. This attack comes the same day as an attack on an oil storage facility in Belgorod.

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MCLEAN: One of 10 oil storage tanks on this site were hit, leading to a large fire, this plume of smoke that you see there in the sky. This is really not unusual as of late.

On Friday, you had Russia using its missile defense system to shoot down what it said was incoming fire from the Ukrainian side. On Thursday, you had an ammunition depot hit in the Belgorod region. You also had an apartment building that was hit by some debris.

Now the Russians say that this was debris left over from it striking down incoming fire from Ukraine. The Ukrainians say this was a Russian missile aimed at Ukraine that had misfired.

All the while you had President Putin acknowledging last month there have been attacks on Russian soil. You have the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, saying these attacks have ramped up this month, more than 100 in a single week this week alone, Kim.

Yet the Ukrainians have not acknowledged any of these attacks inside the borders of Russia. President Putin says, look, these are attacks that are using Western weapons, something that obviously Western allies were supplying.

Ukraine with weapons are very fearful of because they don't want the appearance that they're somehow waging a proxy war on Russian soil, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Scott McLean. Appreciate it.

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk seems to have backed off a threat to stop funding his SpaceX firm's Starlink system in Ukraine. The nation uses Starlink for military communications. One senior Ukrainian official said it's essential. Musk said the Pentagon should pay tens of millions of dollars for the service to continue.

Now he's tweeted, "The hell with it, even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free."

Russia is focusing a lot of its time, attention and resources on its war in Ukraine and that's raised concerns among some close neighbors that were once Soviet republics. As CNN's Ivan Watson reports, Russia's influence on them is on the decline.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On his 70th birthday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of other former Soviet republics. And he called for the resolution of conflicts that erupt in the region.

Of course, Putin is directly responsible for launching the biggest war in recent history in this part of the world.

WATSON: Russia's invasion of Ukraine was aimed at reasserting Moscow's control over part of the former Soviet Union. Instead, this increasingly disastrous war has weakened Russia's influence across the region, including here, in Central Asia.

KADYR TOKTOGULOV, FORMER KYRGYZSTAN AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Unless something changes dramatically and Russia rebounds, we'll see Russia's role, certainly, diminishing in Central Asia, for sure.

WATSON (voice-over): Kadyr Toktogulov is a former ambassador to Washington from Kyrgyzstan, a small former Soviet republic with close economic and security ties to Moscow.

TOKTOGULOV: To see this kind of attack by Russia against Ukraine was certainly disorienting, because it sort of showed the things -- terrible things that Russia is capable of.

WATSON (voice-over): Of the leaders of the former Soviet republics, only Aleksandr Lukashenko of Belarus has publicly supported Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russia conducted joint military exercises with its other four mutual defense treaty allies. But when it comes to the Ukraine war, they have all stayed publicly neutral. And that includes Kazakhstan. In January, the authorities here used deadly force to crush a violent uprising that left dozens dead.

Moscow answered an urgent call for help from the Kazakh government, leading a deployment of troops here on a brief peacekeeping mission.

WATSON: You can still see burn marks on some buildings after the violence last January. Russia came to the Kazakh government's help in its time of need. But the Kazakh president has made it clear he will not be getting involved in Moscow's war in Ukraine.

WATSON (voice-over): As Russia's military faces more and more setbacks in Ukraine, tensions have exploded in other areas, long seen as Russia's backyard.

Deadly fighting raged across the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in September. Meanwhile, hundreds died in separate cross- border clashes last month between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Moscow refused to call for military assistance from its treaty ally, Armenia. And now the Armenian government is working with the European Union to negotiate a settlement.

Moscow is on the back foot, due to its destructive war of choice.

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WATSON (voice-over): And that's leaving a growing power vacuum across the former Soviet Union -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Almaty.

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BRUNHUBER: Funerals are underway for victims of Friday's mine explosion in northern Turkiye. Rescue workers found the body of the last missing person at the coal mine on Saturday. That brings the death toll to 41. For families, friends, colleagues it's simply heartbreaking.

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ADEM USLUOGLU, NEARBY MINE WORKER (through translator): I heard this sad news on my way home. And I am in deep grief right now. There are things that words cannot describe. When words aren't enough, when your throat is tied up, you can't speak. We just don't want to go through this kind of pain ever again.

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BRUNHUBER: As victims are laid to rest, the investigation into the explosion continues. Early indications is methane gas is believed to be the cause of the blast.

Just ahead, midterm elections are just a few weeks out. Stay tuned.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. midterms are just over three weeks away. For many voters, the economy is their top issue. During a campaign stop in California on Friday, President Biden touted the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed earlier this year by the Democrat controlled Congress and signed into law by the president.

It aims to bring town prices and boost the economy. Biden says Americans can't expect that kind of relief if Republicans take control of Congress.

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BIDEN: Here's the bottom line, so please hear this. When it actually comes time to do something about inflation around the kitchen table, Republicans in Congress are saying no. And if Republicans take control, the prices are going to go up, as will inflation. It's this simple.

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BRUNHUBER: A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS asked voters which party they're most likely to vote for in Congress in the upcoming midterms and slightly more than half of registered Latino voters said they will vote for Democrats.

And just 23 percent say they will vote for Republicans. But 65 percent of Latino voters say they disapprove of Joe Biden's handling of the economy. Latino Americans are the fastest growing demographic of voters in the country right now.

They could prove decisive in more than a dozen competitive Senate and House races and three of them are in South Texas. Recent elections and polling indicate that more Latinos are now leaning toward Republicans. CNN's Boris Sanchez has the story.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Running in Texas' 15th district, Republican Monica De La Cruz is an entrepreneur, a mother of two and a former Democrat.

MONICA DE LA CRUZ, (R-TX) CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: The Democratic Party has abandoned us and taken us for granted.

SANCHEZ: Part of a trio of Republican Latinas on the ballot in South Texas, an area that's overwhelmingly Hispanic, De La Cruz is poised to redefine the region's political tradition alongside Cassy Garcia, a former Ted Cruz outreach director, and Congressman Mayra Flores, the first Republican elected to Congress from the Rio Grande Valley in more than a century.

The triple threat, as the GOP calls them, signaling a potential political realignment as Donald Trump made gains with Latinos in 2020.

DE LA CRUZ: My abuelita was Democratic.

SANCHEZ: De La Cruz was won over and inspired to start her new career in politics after attending her first Trump rally.

DE LA CRUZ: He didn't have a political background. He was a businessman. And his business policies, again, they made sense for people. He stood up against the establishment and he put forth policies that worked for American families.

SANCHEZ: Pro-tax cuts, pro-border wall and opposed to abortion rights, policies that persuaded Rodolfo Sanchez-Rendon, whose restaurant, Teresita's Kitchen, has struggled because of inflation. He says he now pays three times for what he used to for a box of eggs, while faulting Democrats for undervaluing faith, family and small business.

And Democrats aren't doing that?

RODOLFO SANCHEZ-RENDON, RESTAURATEUR: They aren't doing that.

SANCHEZ: Why?

SANCHEZ-RENDON: Well, I'm not seeing it. I don't know why but they're not.

SANCHEZ: Independent contractor Edgar Gallegos (ph) says it boils down to results over rhetoric.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll take a mean tweet right about now over what we've got now, yes.

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SANCHEZ: Another former Democrat, Giancarlo Sopo, led Trump's Hispanic advertising in 2020.

GIANCARLO SOPO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: So what people have to understand is that Hispanic Americans have blue collar working class values.

Who is America's blue collar billionaire?

Donald Trump.

SANCHEZ: Pointing to trends over the last decade that show Latinos experiencing gains when it comes to incomes, home purchases and starting new businesses, Sopo says that many Latino voters view Trump aspirationally.

SOPO: Donald Trump to them is the first Hispanic president because he shares those blue collar values.

SANCHEZ: You, I imagine, don't agree with that?

MICHELLE VALLEJO, (D-TX) CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: No, I do not.

SANCHEZ: Michelle Vallejo is the Democrat running in Texas 15. She is also an entrepreneur, operating the Pulga Los Portales flea market her parents founded some 25 years ago.

Like her opponent, Vallejo is also a political newcomer, challenging an establishment she says has too long ignored the community's needs. But she's a progressive, pitching voters on guaranteeing abortion rights, expanding Medicaid and Medicare and raising the minimum wage.

VALLEJO: And I'm looking forward to hopefully earning their support and their vote, even if they do support and adore Trump, because I'm fighting for all of our families here in South Texas, whether they're Republican, independent or people who have never felt engaged by the political system before.

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BRUNHUBER: These Paddington bears left to honor the late Queen Elizabeth will soon have a new home. We'll have details on the good deed next. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: American basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo is being treated for a brain tumor. The NBA released a statement on behalf of his family, saying that the 56-year old is receiving the best care possible from a collaborative team of specialists in Atlanta and is in great spirits as he begins treatment.

Mutombo was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 2015, playing 18 seasons for six different pro teams.

More than 1,000 teddy bears left in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth will be donated to charity.

The stuffed animals, including many Paddington bears, were left outside of Buckingham Palace by mourners paying their respects following the queen's death last month. Officials say the teddy bears will be professionally cleaned and delivered to Barnardo's Children's Services in the coming weeks.

More than a month after Queen Elizabeth's death, we are getting new images of her beloved corgis with their new custodian. The Duchess of York posted pictures to celebrate her 63rd birthday.

Sarah Ferguson was close to the queen, entrusted with the pets and calls them the presents that keep giving. The queen owned dozens of corgis throughout her lifetime. The royal pets even appeared during her funeral.

While Her Majesty's pooches got to live in palaces, chances are they didn't get to belly up to the bar.

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BRUNHUBER: Anheuser-Busch is releasing the beer for dogs in time for Thanksgiving. It's appropriately called Turkey Brew, similar to 2020's Dog Brew.

Don't worry about man's best friend getting blotto. There is no alcohol but sweet potato, turkey and peppermint.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): A tune sung by the late rock superstar Freddie Mercury. This is Queen's first track with the singer's unique vocals in eight years. The band recorded the previously unreleased song for a 1989 album, "Miracle."

Brian May and Roger Taylor teased its release in June, describing it as a little gem that they had kind of forgotten about. Mercury died a few years after recording the tune from AIDS-related pneumonia, a struggle he largely faced in private.

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BRUNHUBER: In Broadway tradition, the lights were dimmed on Saturday evening to mark the passing of a luminary, Angela Lansbury. She died this week at the age of 96. She had great success on Broadway beginning in the 1950s.

But Angela Lansbury is perhaps best remembered by many as Jessica Fletcher, the mystery writing sleuth in the long running TV series "Murder, She Wrote," and she was also the voice of Ms. Potts in "Beauty and the Beast."

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more news. Please do stay with us.