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Biden Focuses On Policy Wins Ahead Of Midterms; January 6th Committee Subpoenas Former President Trump; Ukraine's Power Grid Hit By Fresh Wave Of Russian Attacks; Inside Secret Ukrainian Drone Workshop; Trump On Putin: "I Don't Think He'll Stand For Losing"; Claims Of Voter Intimidation At Drop Boxes In Arizona; "Unprecedented" Rise In Respiratory Virus In Children Across U.S.; Car Found Buried In Backyard Of $15M California Mansion. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 22, 2022 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:00]
KATE BENNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: American flag.
Kate Bennett, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: We'll be watching it take flight, maybe.
Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM right now with Sara Sidner, right now.
SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Sara Sidner for the indefatigable Jim Acosta.
Millions of ballots are already cast with just 17 days to go until election day. At stake, control of both chambers of Congress. The Democrats have control now, but whether they can hold onto their power is still in question. President Biden says he's not going anywhere. At least he doesn't intend to.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reason I'm not making a judgment about formally running or not running, once I make that judgment, a whole series of regulations kick in and I have to treat myself as a candidate from that moment on. I have not made that formal decision, but it's my intention, my intention to run again. And we have time to make that decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: But before that, his party needs to weather the midterms. Biden is maintaining an optimistic tone about his party's fate as most do, while acknowledging that many Democrats in key races are on shaky political ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: And here's what I think. It's been back and forth with them ahead, us ahead, them ahead. Back and forth. And the polls have been all over the place. I think that we're going to see one more shift back to our side the closing days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: It's part of his carefully crafted midterm strategy in the closing days, focusing on policy wins while tactically planning campaign stops knowing that his presence on the ground in tight races might be risky.
CNN's Joe Johns joins me now from Delaware where the president is now.
Joe, can you take us inside the White House strategy in the closing days of this midterm campaign?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's pretty clear that the president would like to get out there more but there are also concerns about what could happen on the ground in some of those tight races and whether those voters for Republicans might actually think it could be a problem and they might be inflamed and rush to the polls, and sort of have deleterious effect on a Biden run.
So all of that is to be considered. And I think you also have to point out that other question of whether he is going to run again looms very large. It's pretty clear the president doesn't want to set into place all of the machinery that comes along with announcing a re-election. However, he's going to have to do it at some point. He has other things to consider. One thing is, will Donald Trump get in the race? Another thing is his age, he's the oldest American president.
And there's just the question of the midterms, what's going to happen there. So a lot for this president to think about in the closing days of this midterm campaign -- Sara.
SIDNER: We just talked about, Joe, one of the things that the president has been doing, which is really touting policy wins that he has made and the Democrats have made. But after giving that speech on his student debt relief policy, we now know that a federal appeals court dealt a real blow to that policy. What is the latest on that?
JOHNS: OK. Well, the court essentially said hold on, don't start canceling any debt until we can take a closer look at this. And one of the central issues, of course, is whether the president has the power to go ahead and start throwing out these loans without Congress weighing in. The administration says Congress weighed in years ago and gave the White House that power.
So the president, for his part, in an event just yesterday at Delaware State University, went after Republicans for trying to pick apart the program. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Republican members of Congress and Republican governors are doing everything they can to deny this relief even to their own constituents. As soon as I announced my administration's plan on student debt they started attacking it, saying all kinds of things. Their outrage is wrong and it's hypothetical. But, you know, we're not letting them get away with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: The administration says nothing has changed as far as taking in applications for this program. They're going to review the applications. The one thing they can't do until they clear the courts is actually start canceling debt.
Back to you, Sara.
SIDNER: All right. Joe, from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. We appreciate your time, Joe.
[15:05:03]
Lawyers for former President Trump say they will review a subpoena issued by the January 6th Committee and respond as appropriate to what they are calling an unprecedented action. The committee is trying to compel Trump to sit for a deposition under oath and to provide documents, a lot of them, about January 6th and the 2020 election. It is not clear if Trump intends to comply.
In the meantime, there are stunning new developments in the Mar-a-Lago document investigation coming from the "Washington Post," which is reporting that several of the classified documents recovered during that FBI search of Trump's estate included, and I'm quoting here, "highly sensitive intelligence regarding Iran and China."
CNN's Sara Murray has more on the rising stakes for the former president along multiple legal fronts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion.
SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That man, Donald Trump, now issued a formal subpoena from the House select committee investigating the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. Looking --
CHENEY: Both for his testimony under oath as well as for documents.
MURRAY: The committee writing, "In short, you are at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. The evidence demonstrates that you knew this activity was illegal and unconstitutional, and also knew that your assertions of fraud were false."
The committee calling for Trump to hand over documents by November 4th and appear for testimony November 14th. They're calling for a broad range of records, including calls made by Trump or at his direction on January 6th, calls to members of Congress, documents related to the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers, communications about blocking the certification of the election and anything on destroying materials or contacting witnesses. But it's unclear if Trump will comply.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: They really want to damage me so I can no longer go back to work for you. And I don't think that's going to happen.
MURRAY: The former president tapping two lawyers to take the lead on responding to the subpoena and risking possible contempt of Congress if he ignores it.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): U.S. law is, if you are subpoenaed by Congress, you are expected to come in and speak to us.
MURRAY: Meanwhile, Trump and the Justice Department still battling over documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
TRUMP: They should give me immediately back everything they've taken from me because it's mine.
MURRAY: But "The Washington Post" now reporting among those documents seized include some of the most sensitive information the U.S. has on two of the biggest threats on the global stage, Iran and China. According to "The Post," at least one of the documents describes Iran's missile program. And others detail highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at Beijing. Trump arguing, whatever the FBI seized from his Florida estate belongs to him.
According to court filings, among the documents Trump kept from his presidency are six clemency requests and a couple of papers related to immigration and border controls. Prosecutors say those are federal records that belong to the government, offering a glimpse at how Trump lawyers and DOJ are locking horns as they sift through thousands of documents.
TRUMP: They took it from me in the raid. They broke into my house.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: They got into his house legally, we should note.
Joining me now CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig.
Elie, first on the subpoena that was sent to former President Trump, the committee is looking for a huge range of documents, including, and these are just some of them, communications with any member of Congress, Michael Flynn, Roger Stonie, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and so on and so forth. What options does Donald Trump have at this point?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Sara, the next move is Donald Trump's. He's really got three options. First of all, he can comply. The subpoena says you need to turn over documents by November 4th and then come in and testify behind closed doors at a deposition on November 14th. He can choose to do that. Second, Donald Trump and his team, they can try to negotiate with the committee. That happens all the time in the real world of subpoenas, will testify as to this topic but not that topic, for example.
Or third, and I think probably most likely at this point, Trump can just defy the subpoena saying, no, I'm not coming in. You've got to make me do it. If that happens, the committee then will have a decision to make. Do they go to court and try to get an order from a judge? Probably not because that's going to take way more time than the committee has. Do they hold Donald Trump in contempt, send him over for potential prosecution by DOJ as we've seen with Steve Bannon and others?
So that's how this is going to play out now. We're entering into a sort of complicated game of strategic legal chess.
SIDNER: Yes, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. And we will talk about what's happened to Steve Bannon in just a bit. I want to dig a little deeper into some of the "Washington Post" reporting that not only said that documents seized from Mar-a-Lago contained highly sensitive intelligence on China as well as Iran's missile program, but that the information, according to the "Post" were shared with others and could expose intelligence gathering methods that the U.S. wants to, of course, keep hidden, keep secret.
[15:10:10]
That's why they are deemed secret. So how can this affect the DOJ's case and, for example, you know, how a judge might, if they do decide to go and get a subpoena, or get a -- try to get him basically to testify, and how does this affect their case?
HONIG: Yes, so, it's remarkable, first of all, Sara, to look at just how important, how sensitive, how dangerous these documents reportedly are, according to the "Washington Post." Prosecutors are absolutely going to take this into account. If you just look at the Black Letter Law, what's in the statute books, there are some laws where prosecutors have to prove documents are government documents.
There are other laws that you have to prove that they're classified. But just how sensitive isn't technically a consideration. But I can assure you that's something prosecutors will be looking at. It will make them more likely to charge really just as a matter of prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutors can and do and should exercise discretion. And also, you're thinking about jury appeal as a prosecutor. The more sensitive these documents, the more serious the case. The stronger a pitch you're going to have when, if and when the day comes when you have to stand in front of a jury.
SIDNER: That makes sense. We're turning to another case now. Also very significant. Senator Lindsey Graham has asked the Supreme Court to block his subpoena from a Georgia grand jury investigating attempts there to overturn the 2020 election results. Now his argument is that he's protected by something called the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution. Can you explain what that is and if this might work for him? HONIG: That's a constitutional law exam. So, yes, the Speech and
Debate Clause is part of the Constitution that says sitting members of Congress cannot be forced to answer questions outside of Congress but about their legislative duties. And so Lindsey Graham argued well, I'm immune from a subpoena. Well, the Court of Appeals disagreed and the District Court disagreed. They said you do have to answer questions about topics other than your legislative activities.
And by the way, Senator Graham, according to the Court of Appeals, your coordination with the Trump campaign, your efforts to reach out to state legislators, your public statements, none of that is legislative, quote-unquote, so you do have to testify about that. Lindsey Graham is now trying to get the Supreme Court to review it. I don't think the Supreme Court is going to take that case. I don't think the Supreme Court is going to disagree with what's already happened, and Lindsey Graham will have to testify.
SIDNER: That will be really interesting as well. There's another big bit of news. Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for defying a subpoena for the January 6th Committee. As you mentioned a bit earlier, he does not have to serve any time so far until the appeals process plays out. And he seemed very pleased by the outcome. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP CHIEF STRATEGIST: Today was a judgment day by the judge. On November 8th.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boo!
BANNON: There's going to have judgment on the illegitimate Biden regime, and quite frankly, and quite frankly, Nancy Pelosi and the entire committee. And we know which way that's going. This is democracy. The American people are weighing and measuring what went on with the Justice Department and how they comported themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: He's been convicted. He's been sentenced. But now he's appealing. What does it tell you that the judge has allowed him to stay out of jail while this appeal goes forward?
HONIG: So, Steve Bannon has been sentenced to four months in prison. That's a reasonable sentence if you look at it legally. The recommended sentencing guidelines range here was one months to six months. Prosecutors wanted six months. Judge went close to that, he went in the middle. But the reason the judge is allowing Steve Bannon to stay out until his appeals are over is in the judge's view, Steve Bannon has a reasonable chance of success on appeal.
Doesn't mean he's going to win on appeal. I don't think Steve Bannon, personally, I don't think he will win on appeal. But this is a sensible ruling by the judge because the last thing you want is for someone in that position to go in, serve their entire sentence, four months, and then six months, 12 months from now, however long the appeal process takes, the appeals court to come back and say the conviction was no good. Then you had somebody serve time that they never should have been served in the first place.
So I think the judge found a reasonable middle ground here by saying you have your appeal. If you win, God bless. If you lose, then you've got to do your four months.
SIDNER: All right, Elie Honig. Always a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much.
HONIG: Thanks, Sara. All right.
SIDNER: And coming up, the critical role of tech warriors in Ukraine's resistance to the Russian invasion. CNN goes inside a secret drone workshop. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:18:35]
SIDNER: Ukraine's fragile power grid has been dealt another major blow after being hit by a new wave of Russian attacks.
You're looking at new images just in to us of a power plant that was hit in the northeast of the country today. A Kyiv official tells CNN more than 1.5 million people are in the dark right now nationwide. Meantime, in the southern port city of Kherson, Russian officials are now urging residents to get out as a Ukrainian offensive or counteroffensive is pressing ahead.
Our international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is on the scene in Kyiv.
Nic, can you give us a sense of how much of Ukraine's power grid is still operational and have they managed to counter any of these missile strikes?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There are some really sort of bad news statistics with the Ukrainian government today. As you were saying, 1.5 million users without electricity. In 11 of the regions across the country, people are having blackouts. In some areas, one of the towns that was hit today, Rivne, the hospital there is without electricity. So they have to bus the water into the hospital because otherwise they don't have running water there.
It's also taken out the air defense system warning so the police have to drive around with loud speakers to let people know when there is an air raid on.
[15:20:05]
Another power station taken out south of here feeds electricity to a coal mine. Well, they can't mine the coal. The coal is used to fire the power station. So that's another part of the power grid that's being taken down. What the engineers here believe, the engineers who run the power grid in Ukraine believe is that the Russian military is working with Russian power grid engineers to target the weak spots in the system, like the big transformers and all those sort of big cable areas that you see on the edge of a power plant that feed off the electricity at a high voltage to substations further down the line.
Why? Because they're outside and they're easy to target. So those are the sort of the bad stats if you will. The good stats today were in Kyiv and Lviv, the main city in the west of the country here. The air defense systems took down every missile that was fired in. In Odessa, almost the same. The bad stat is that Russia has been looking for the weak points. So it hit the power facilities in the north, five cities in the east, and a number of cities in the center and to the south.
And this is an accumulative effect. So to your point, what really is up and running, well, the majority of the country is up and running. But imagine two weeks ago when this wasn't even on the horizon, everything pretty much across the country is working just fine. Now cities across the country that are hundreds and hundreds of miles from the frontlines, like Rivne, running out of water are finding themselves as if they were front line cities, having those conditions so it really is beginning to bite and become an accumulative problem here, Sara.
SIDNER: That's really disappointing. I didn't know there was a counteroffensive that is happening where Ukrainians are fighting back in any way they can. But the temperature is about to drop. It's 40 to 50 degrees at night there now, and winter is coming. And so these power grids are going to be, you know, really, really, really important to try to get some of them if possible restored.
Nic Robertson, it's always a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much.
Ukrainian officials now accusing Russia of planting mines around a critical dam in the southern part of the country. The purpose, so Russian forces can stop Ukraine's counter offensive by potentially flooding the area which, by the way, would leave hundreds of thousands of homes under water. But Ukrainians are fighting back with sheer ingenuity.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen got an access to a secret Ukrainian drone workshop.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As the crow flies, the frontline is only a few 100 yards away in Bakhmut. Ukraine's forces are both outmanned and outgunned here but holding on because they say they're outwitting the Russians.
We've been given access to this secret workshop where tech savviness is leveling the battlefield the commander tells me.
STARSHINA, 93RD BRIGADE, UKRAINIAN ARMY: It's game changing stuff because we have no so much forces, we have no so much guns and bullets and so on. So we have to be smart for no dying.
PLEITGEN: The place is run like a startup. No idea is off limits. The soldiers work around the clock repairing, modify and arming consumer drones, led by a young wiz known as the Serpent.
THE SERPENT, 93RD BRIGADE, UKRAINIAN ARMY (through translator): It's way better to know in advance that an assault is coming. Literally every meter, we are watching every centimeter here. It helps us to save lives during both the assault and the withdrawal.
PLEITGEN: Ukraine's army says the Russians have around five times more troops here than Kyiv does. The brigade filmed this video they say shows Russian simply charging towards Ukrainian positions out in the open, disregarding the lives of Moscow's own soldiers.
THE SERPENT (through translator): There are a lot of them and they have a lot of weapons. We have creativity.
VARNAK, 93RD BRIGADE, UKRAINIAN ARMY: In our platoon, I do bombs.
PLEITGEN: And they have their weapons expert, a 19-year-old who goes by the callsign Varnak and turns grenades into aerial bombs in his makeshift bomb factory.
VARNAK: We reroll them as a sign for drone dropping.
PLEITGEN: He removes any excess weight and attaches a pressure fuse.
(On-camera): It's finished.
VARNAK: No. We need the table. And then some tape, and you take this on a drone. Take this. And just drop it.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): It's not just drones. The unit also built this radio controlled gun turret and a kamikaze cart packed with explosives.
[15:25:04]
All of this is developed on the battlefield for the battlefield helping Ukraine's army turn the tide here.
STARSHINA: We defend our positions. And now we come to -- we will make counter offense and we are as successful in it.
PLEITGEN: Like so many of the troops defending Bakhmut, the tech warriors often worked to exhaustion, thinking up new ways to blunt Russia's massive assault despite a lack of heavy weapons.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Bakhmut, Ukraine.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SIDNER: As you know, Russia is also relying on drones, some of which the White House says are being supplied by Iran. Those so-called kamikaze drones explode on impact and have been pummeling Ukrainian cities and infrastructure including the electricity grid. U.S. officials say Iran is even sending its own personnel to Crimea to train Russian troops on how to use those drones.
Joining me now CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel, Cedric Leighton.
Colonel, how does Iran's involvement complicate the war going forward?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Sara, it's a very interesting piece because what the Iranians are doing is they're involving themselves in the war effort itself. And the very fact that they are there, that they are physically on the ground in Crimea, possibly in other areas, that really means that they are directly involved.
So, what this might do is it might also allow for NATO forces to set foot in Ukraine as well, in a kind of a tit-for-tat response if the West was willing to go down far. But regardless, what it does is it creates a situation where not only must the Ukrainians deal with the Russians, they also potentially might end up dealing with Iranians as well as they move forward in their counter offensives.
SIDNER: I'm just curious just thinking through this, is like if you have Russia and Iran involved, the global community at large, I mean, how does that really complicate it for the rest of the countries that are looking at this and supporting Ukraine in its efforts against Russia?
LEIGHTON: Yes, in some place I think it might do, Sara, is it might allow countries who are perhaps a bit more on the sideline of this conflict to start getting involved probably on Ukraine's side. Russia, Iran, other countries, you know, like North Korea and even China now have fewer and fewer friends as they march through this particular aspect of this conflict.
So the Russians and the Iranians are making common cause here but it also serves to bind together other countries that are more supportive of Ukraine. Certainly the NATO countries. I think their resolve is stiffened. It could potentially involve other countries in the Middle East as well. But what it does show is that the Russians have a very difficult time picking their friends and getting those friends to support them like this.
SIDNER: I want to show you and the audience some pictures that we've gotten that are just in courtesy of Maxar Technologies. It shows a new anti-tank trench. It's more than a mile long and was dug by Russian mercenaries in eastern Ukrainian town. And you're looking at it from obviously from above. And the Russian state media says it will eventually be 135 miles long. Why are they digging this? What is going on here?
LEIGHTON: So I doubt that they're going to be able to make this trench 135 miles long, even though that's probably their goal to do that. But what they're trying to do, Sara, is they're trying to limit the mobility of the Ukrainian forces. Those trenches and then the tank traps that they've set up, these triangular pyramid-like structures that are on the ground there, those are designed to stop tanks and armored personnel carriers and other mobile elements of the Ukrainian military from -- from actually exercising their capabilities and moving forward right now so far at fairly fast speeds.
They are trying to prevent that from happening and trying to preserve, before the winter sets in, what the Russians have right now.
SIDNER: Colonel, we lost you for just a second. But you did make clear that you don't think this could go forward, but the purpose of it is also very clear.
I want to let you listen to what former President Trump says. He believes that Putin is going to use some type of nuclear weapon in Ukraine. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you think Putin would use nuclear weapons?
TRUMP: Well, I don't think he'll stand for losing. So in some form, maybe limited form.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:30:00]
SIDNER: So that's him taking to FOX's Brian Kilmeade there. He talks about -- he thinks they're going to use them in some form. Do you think he's speaking from a place of knowing something or just out now guessing?
LEIGHTON: I think he may have some idea of what Putin might be thinking. Not that he and Putin have necessarily discussed this. I don't think that's the case.
But I do think, since Trump has, of course, met with Putin before, he is looking at what he thinks Putin might do. And I think he understands that Putin does not want to be backed into a corner and does not want to find himself on the losing side of things.
In that sense, from a character assessment standpoint, what the former president says might be correct. I think it is less likely Putin that will go with nuclear weapons right now. He will probably go with more sabotage-type operations.
But nonetheless, we must consider it a possibility.
SIDNER: It is terrifying to everyone in the world that the thought of using any type of nuclear weapon at this point.
Colonel Cedric Leighton, it's always a pleasure to have you on and to give us some insight.
LEIGHTON: Thank you so much, Sara. It's always good to be with you.
SIDNER: Coming up, the Justice Department is receiving more allegations of voter intimidation at ballot drop boxes in Arizona. Some of it caught on surveillance video, a complainant is saying. What one couple says happened to them while they were simply dropping off their ballots.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:35:31]
SIDNER: The U.S. Justice Department has three complaints of voter intimidation in Arizona.
This surveillance video from Maricopa County shows one of them. You see a voter pull up to use an early voting drop box while his wife waits in the car.
Suddenly, you see him sort of look off to the side and start talking to someone who is out of frame before he backs up and leaves.
Now, that's because, according to a complaint, there were eight to 10 people, who were filming the man and his wife, accusing them of being a mule to stuff drop box, and taking pictures of their license plate.
Arizona, of course, is no stranger to election fraud conspiracies.
Our CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outside the Maricopa County Elections Department, a small group of people is gathering, watching and recording as voters return early ballots at this drop box as election workers enter and exit.
BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: They're taking pictures of them. And regardless of what the intent is of these people who taking pictures of our elections workers, they're harassing people. They're not helping further the interest of democracy.
LAH: To be clear, there's nothing illegal about standing 75 feet away from a ballot drop box on a public street.
But at another drop box in Maricopa County, a voter filed this complaint that alleges a group of people filmed and photographed a voter and his wife as they tried to vote, accusing them of "being a mule," taking photographs of their license plate and following them to the parking lot.
The voter intimidation complaint filed with Arizona secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, who is also running for governor, has been referred to the Department of Justice and Arizona attorney general's office for investigation.
This complaint comes in a state that never stopped chasing conspiracies about the 2020 election.
From the multimillion dollar and problem plagued partisan review of Maricopa County's ballots to 2022 with the rise of the Trump-backed candidates, like Republican nominee for governor, Kari Lake.
She's among a full slate of statewide candidates who has denied the truth about the 2020 election. When asked about the complaint about voter intimidation, Lake said she
had not heard about it. Then added this.
KARI LAKE, (R), ARIZONA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: This is another reason we have to restore integrity. We can't have half of the popular or more doubting our election.
It's not impossible to restore honesty and integrity to our elections. And I assure you, when I'm governor, we will do that.
LAH: Lake says this, even as there's no evidence of widespread election fraud.
Joining her in sowing doubt about the election, Blake Masters, Republican U.S. Senate nominee.
In the primary, Masters said this in a campaign ad.
BLAKE MASTERS, (R), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE FOR ARIZONA: I think Trump won in 2020.
LAH: That helped him win Trump's endorsement.
In the general election, Masters has shifted his stance, saying he hadn't seen evidence it was stolen.
But then, just last week, at a political event, when asked about election integrity, Masters replied:
MASTERS (voice-over): A lot of people saw things they did not like in 2020, to put it mildly. So we will have an army. We're going to have a lot more eyes and ears and boots on the ground this time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: CNN senior national reporter, Kyung Lah, reporting for us there.
Now, coming up, children's hospitals across the United States are filling up as an unprecedented surge of a virus, referred to as RSV, sweeps the country. The warning signs parents need to look out for, right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:43:12]
SIDNER: An alarming outbreak has some U.S. hospitals scrambling with a high number of children infected by Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV.
The Respiratory Syncytial Virus is very common in children, but it can be deadly, and appears to be spreading at unprecedented levels among children nationwide.
Our Brian Todd has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REBECCA, MOTHER OF CHILD WITH RSV: The drive to the emergency room was really scary and really intense.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This mother of a 5-year old, who was hospitalized with difficulty breathing, told us of an anxious drive to the emergency room.
REBECCA: Things got worse since we were admitted. I've seen, starting last night, that he's progressively having a harder time breathing.
DR. RUTH KANTHULA, PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST, MEDSTAR GEORGETOWN: RSV is one of the scariest infections to see in a child, especially when it's in your baby. So you'll see your baby breathing really, really fast, and you feel like there's nothing that you can do.
TODD: Around the country, doctors are reporting a spike in cases of RSV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, a common respiratory illness that is occasionally severe in babies and young children.
Pediatric hospital beds are more full now than they've been in the last two years. Some children's hospitals are overwhelmed, scrambling to make space, using tents. And it's only October.
Why is it spiking this year? Experts say one key reason is because kids are back in school after the pandemic. Many children haven't built up their immune systems and masks and social distancing are a thing of the past.
KANTHULA: So for these kids, this is the first time they're seeing a lot of these viruses.
TODD: RSV symptoms sometimes seem similar to cold and flu -- runny nose, decrease in appetite, coughing, sneezing, wheezing and fever.
KANTHULA: You should think about bringing your child to the emergency room when you notice your child is having what we call respiratory distress or increased work of breathing.
[15:45:07]
And so that's typically characterized by breathing really fast and a difficulty catching their breath.
DR. JIM VERSALOVIC, PATHOLOGIST-IN-CHIEF, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: That should be an alarm for any parent. We can see this disease rapidly progress, that children need attention quickly.
TODD: There's no vaccine and no specific remedy. But severe cases can be treated in a hospital with fluids, oxygen or even a ventilator and ice packs to bring down the fever.
ZOEY GREEN, LINDY'S (ph) MOTHER: I don't know how but she slept with those ice packs on top of her. TODD: This 4-month old, Lindy Green (ph), was taken by ambulance and admitted at Cook Hospital in Houston.
JEFF GREEN, LINDY'S (ph) FATHER: Started running a pretty significant fever, not eats as much.
TODD: Doctors say, to avoid RSV, clean surfaces in your home, have kids wash hands, cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing, don't share things like toys and cups, and avoid close contact, like kissing or cuddling.
For cases that don't require hospitalization, keep a child hydrated and give Tylenol or Motrin if they have a fever.
KANTHULA: Day five is peak of symptoms. So parents will notice that their child might be more uncomfortable at day five. And then their symptoms resolve and they get better.
TODD (on camera): Dr. Ruth Kanthula says what worries her about this uptick in RSV cases is that, unlike in previous years when the virus was seasonal and predictable, this time, she says, it has the potential to circulate beyond next spring when it might normally subside and extend into next summer or even possibly beyond.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: Our Brian Tood on the dangers of Respiratory Syncytial Virus.
Now, to a bizarre story out of California where landscapers working on an estate outside San Francisco spotted a car that had been buried in the backyard. The Mercedes convertible was nearly six feet underground.
Our Camila Bernal is tracking this weird story and joins me right now.
Camila, I understand that police were called in and brought a cadaver dog to the scene? What more do you know?
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara. Let's start from the very beginning. Look, this is a very wealthy neighborhood. And the owners of a $15 million home, they decided they wanted to do a project, and that's why they called those landscapers.
And then when the crews went out there, they began digging, and they found this car that authorities say was about six feet underground. So of course, investigators were out there.
They found it Thursday. They were out there Friday. And of course, they are there again today. They brought the dogs out. The dogs smelled something.
Here's what police is saying about what these dogs detected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAN LARSEN, COMMANDER, ATHERTON, CALIFORNIA, POLICE DEPARTMENT: I've done a few questions with different canine officers. And what they said it could be human remains. They could be reacting to blood. They could be reacting to old bones. They could be reacting to human vomit.
It could be any one of those combinations of things that the dogs are reacting to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERNAL: Now, Atherton police are saying, look, the crews were out there, the landscapers were out there. Maybe someone was injured. There was blood. Maybe someone threw up.
That could be an explanation to all of this. But it also could be part of a bigger investigation. Because you could possibly have human remains out there.
Again, this car was reported missing about three decades ago. Authorities looking into that and the owner of the car that has since died. We know there were unused concrete bags this that car.
We know the crews are carefully working and taking their time just in case they find something. But part of that car, or at least part of that car is already above ground.
But, of course, a lot of questions and a big mystery. Because everyone wants to know what that car was doing there -- Sara?
SIDNER: It sounds like a part of a 30-year-old mystery is solved. They found a car reported missing back then. But my goodness.
I know you will keep tracking this. Thank you so much. It's good to see you, Camila.
BERNAL: Thank you.
SIDNER: Coming up, NASA looking to explain the unexplainable with an entire team devoted to researching the UFOs.
[15:49:00]
Plus, join Stanley Tucci as he explores the heel of Italy's boot. Don't miss an all-new episode of "STANLEY TUCCI, SEARCHING FOR ITALY" tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.
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SIDNER: The truth is out there and NASA is on a mission to find it. The space agency just announced a team of experts will take part in its independent study of UFOs. Or to use the technical term, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon.
The 16 experts include astronomers, astrophysicists, biologists, and former Pentagon officials. They will spend nine months studying unclassified data on UFOs and recommend ways NASA can better use that data.
Now, to the city of Philadelphia. It had a record high number of homicides last year. And incidents of gun violence continue to surge there.
It's a danger that Tyrique Glasgow knows well. He had been shot 11 times when he himself was a drug dealer in his south Philly neighborhood.
But since returning home from prison a decade ago, he's been a force for good and for change.
That's why he's this week's "CNN Hero."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYRIQUE GLASGOW, CNN HERO: When you run a block, you're the one that community people know. It's a dangerous life but a normal life.
Going to jail really woke me up. If our community was going to follow me for some of the negative stuff, I said, let me see if they will follow me for something positive.
You can grab what you want.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Make yourself at home.
In 2019, we opened up our Community Engagement Center, which used to be the community drug house. But now, it's a safe place for our children.
[15:55:03]
How many people here got kids?
We provide clothing, food, vegetables. We have hot meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
One chicken?
Giving people what they need not only helps them to stay consistent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was down and her hope is up.
GLASGOW: That's what she's here for.
My relationship with the Philadelphia Police Department is cool. Seeing the officers in a different light. It builds trust and it builds confidence.
They need to see that all cops aren't bad.
It's really about your heart and what you want to do.
We're trying to create a safe haven and environments for the whole neighborhood. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: It's really important work. To find out more about this story, go to CNNheroes.com.
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