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Record Turnout In Georgia Where Senate Control May Be Decided; Doctors Warn Of Unprecedented Rise In RSV Cases In U.S. Children; January 6 Committee Subpoenas Trump To Testify; New Russian Strikes Knock Out Power Across Ukraine; Appeals Court Pauses Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Program; British Conservatives Expected To Vote For New PM By Oct. 28; U.S. Women's World Cup Team To Face Netherlands, Vietnam In Group Play. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired October 22, 2022 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:07]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are just over two weeks from the midterm elections. New numbers show nearly six million ballots have been cast already in 39 States.
NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are talking about more than 660,000 people all across the state of Georgia who have already voted. Record voter turnout that started on Monday.
MIA EVANS BUCKNER, GEORGIA VOTER: Our vote does count. Women's rights are on the line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are seeing an uptick in RSV nationwide. And in particular, when it comes to kids having to go to the hospital.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are taking drastic measures to deal with the surge that they're seeing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're seeing some institutions putting up tents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things have actually gotten worse since we were admitted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just about six weeks ago that Boris Johnson was leaving Downing Street in disgrace.
BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now the UK is abuzz with talk of a Boris come back.
PAULA REID, CNN HOST: I'm Paula Reid in Washington. Pamela Brown is off and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The balance of power and the power of the vote.
In just over two weeks, the midterm elections will determine which party will control the House and the Senate and the high stakes mean high turnout.
Nearly six million Americans have cast early votes in 39 States. In Georgia, which of course tipped the Senate to Democrats two years ago, it has been a week of record breaking turnout.
The State says, more than 660,000 people have cast early votes with more than 140,000 just yesterday.
CNN's Nadia Romero has spent a day at a polling place in Atlanta, and she has the latest.
ROMERO: Paula, this is the first Saturday of early voting here in the State of Georgia. You can see behind me long lines here. One voter told us that it took her 27 minutes to get from the back of the line all the way to the front, and by the time she got her valid ID to the poll workers, it took her just about 10 minutes to vote, but that's what it takes in some polling locations we're seeing across the State of Georgia.
And here we're talking about key races. We have a gubernatorial race with our incumbent Governor, Brian Kemp, with a rematch with Democratic challenger, Stacey Abrams, but people are also keeping a close watch on our Senate race here because of the national implications, and that is why people tell me they came out to vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VERONICA HAYGOOD, GEORGIA VOTER: I believe in that -- you know, teaching my kids because I have one that's like, I'm not -- I'll vote later. No, we're going as a family. So yes, I think it's very important to do it as a family.
BUCKNER: Your future is on the line. I have a 19-year-old son and I've heard you know, some of the fodder about you know, it is not important, I don't matter. Yes, we do.
And as a parents, it is really important for us to note the history of how far we've come as African-Americans, not only in the State of Georgia, but as a whole nationally and we've done that through legislative action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMERO: Now another reason why voters tell me that they want to participate in the early voting process is because of the key issues that matter most to them.
People tell me that it's the abortion issue. It's inflation. It's the economy. It's healthcare. That is what is driving people to come out to the polls and vote early as well -- Paula.
REID: Nadia Romero, thank you.
Now, record turnout in Georgia comes despite long waits at some polling sites. Some watchdog groups say the State's new laws making absentee voting more difficult is part of that reason. Now, Reverend Lee May is the member of Faith Works, a group formed by
religious leaders to combat voter suppression. Reverend, thank you so much for being with us tonight.
Now, Georgia election officials say there was a computer problem on Monday. But that overall, the delays have been minimal. Is that what you've been hearing through your work?
REVEREND LEE MAY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FAITH WORKS: Well, yes. We are concerned about every day that the election is occurring. We, as a group, a coalition of pastors, Faith Works, are concerned. We are concerned with the outcomes of Senate Bill 202 and we have come together as a coalition to increase voter turnout.
And so when you see things like computer malfunctions and long lines, it does disturb us, but we're here with our feet on the ground to make sure that anyone who desires to vote will have the opportunity to vote, and that we're there as an advocate for them.
REID: Well, here's what Georgia's Secretary of State said about Monday's lines: "There were some reports of voters waiting in line for more than 30 minutes from a few popular voting locations in metro areas." But isn't that exactly the problem that if the lines are in metro areas, that these delays could affect minority voters more than White ones?
MAY: Absolutely. It took me -- I'm in DeKalb County. It took me 24 minutes from the moment I got in line, which was extended outside the building to the moment that I walked outside the building after voting.
One of our other Pastors, coalition members, voted in Fulton County and it took him three hours to vote.
[18:05:10]
MAY: And so the discrepancy: Some places fast, some places long, it does bother us. And again, issues like that arise out of Senate Bill 202, which we believe made it harder for people to vote, we have to be concerned about that. Things like, we can't give water or food to those persons who are standing in line for an extended amount of time is problematic for us. And again, that's why we're here as an advocate for them.
REID: So during his debate with Herschel Walker, Senator Raphael Warnock said, it's not just longer lines that are targeting Black communities. Let's take a listen to exactly what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): They've made it harder for folks to use the drop boxes, they've shortened the registration times. Folks are saying, you know, you shouldn't have to not -- you should be able to get food or water in a line.
While are the lines so long in certain communities and not others? (END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: What is your reaction to what he just said? You just talked about how not being able to provide water and some of these other changes have made it more difficult to do the work you do. So what is your reaction to what you just heard?
MAY: So, just to look at the real logistics of what Senate Bill 202 did. It decreased the number of absentee drop boxes from 2020 to 2022. For example, in Fulton County and DeKalb County, two of the most densely populated counties in our State had 30-plus absentee drop boxes in our individual counties. Now, we both have about eight each. That's problematic.
What does that do? Because of the changes in the Election Law, because now that they've lowered the number of absentee drop boxes, because they've now taken the outside boxes and placed them inside, and only during daily operational hours, from nine to five, it has limited the amount of people that could vote early, and it is filling the lines up now. So yes, it is problematic.
And because this is occurring in those more urban areas, it is now affecting more people of color, African-Americans and other communities that it's not affecting in other areas throughout the State.
REID: Well despite all of that, the Secretary of State's office is citing record turnout during early voting. Let's just look at some of these numbers. So far, 660,000 people having taken part in in-person early voting. Now, to compare at this point in 2020, obviously a presidential election year, that number was 746,000. And in 2018, the previous midterm election year, it was only 397,000.
So what do you think is driving so many people to the polls, despite some of these changes in the State in terms of how people can vote?
MAY: Well, yes, you know, we say at Faith Works that if it were not for Senate Bill 202, you notice I keep saying that the name of that Election Law, if it was not for Senate Bill 202, there would not be a Faith Works. Because of the limitations, the obstacles, the barriers that that Election Law provided, it caused us to come together as a coalition of pastors around the State to ensure the increasing numbers of voters on that day.
So we believe simply this, that we all win when more people come out to vote. We are not partisan. We are not affiliated with any party or candidate. We simply believe when more people come out to vote, our government will better reflect the people it is called to represent, and that's our whole goal and I'll put money on it -- I'm not a gambling man -- but I will put money on it, that it's because of the work that not only we are doing as Faith Works and a coalition of pastors, but also other advocacy organizations that are intent on making sure that we have more people come out to vote.
We want to make sure that they were registered, which has passed now. We want to make sure that they're educated. We want to make sure that they're mobilized. And here's the thing, we also want to make sure that each vote is protected at the end of the day, and that's the work that we've been doing.
REID: Well, Reverend, even though you say you're not a gambling man, that seems like a safe bet to explain at least some of this turnout.
Thank you so much for joining us.
MAY: Well, thank you for having me.
REID: President Biden steps to the line and throws on the brakes. The President says he is not ready to formally declare that he will seek a second term in office, but says at this point, that's the plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reason I'm not making a judgment about formally running and not running, once I make that judgment, a whole series of regulations kick in, and I have to be -- I treat myself as a candidate from that moment on.
I have not made that formal decision, but it is my intention -- my intention to run again and we have time to make that decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:10:08]
REID: Earlier this month, the President told CNN's Jake Tapper that he will officially make his decision after the upcoming midterms.
And if you're watching us from the waiting room of a hospital because your child has come down with RSV, you're far from alone this Saturday night. Take a look at the surge in reported cases of the respiratory virus, more than 7,300 in a single week this month. That's the highest number for any week in the past two years and this data is likely just a small fraction of the total number, but the trend is clear.
CNN's Brynn Gingras reports from Connecticut, just one of the places where children's hospitals are overrun with patients.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS: Yes, this is a very common virus among children. What's not common is this surge that many hospitals all across this country, but particularly this one here in Connecticut is seeing.
Now, this hospital reports on average, each night 15 to 25 boarders as they call them for the past two weeks. That means children who are coming into the hospital are having to stay in beds that are typically used for triage just because they can't get into the hospital because they are at full capacity.
They have turned play rooms into hospital beds. They are taking drastic measures to deal with the surge that they're seeing. We also got reports from this hospital that October is the first time since June that the number of RSV cases has outnumbered COVID cases among children.
So extremely alarming, extremely overwhelming for these doctors, nurses, and hospital staff.
Now to prepare for really another surge possibly of the flu on top of RSV, what this hospital has done is coordinated with the Governor of the State, the Department of Public Health, even the National Guard to kind of possibly set up a field hospital in this area where I'm standing right now if it comes to that, that they just need help and room for an influx of patients.
They haven't pulled the trigger on that just yet, but that is certainly possible in the near future. And again, the CDC saying this is a surge that they are seeing all across the country. Any doctor will say, make sure you get your kids vaccinated with the flu vaccine to help prevent sort of the raze in the flu, because RSV numbers are so bad as well.
I'm Brynn Gingras, CNN, in Hartford, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
REID: Still ahead tonight in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'll talk to two doctors from hospitals in Ohio and Colorado as they deal with the surge in RSV cases, and what their advice to parents is.
Plus, after a week of waiting, the January 6 Committee formally subpoenas former President Trump. So, what's next?
And as colder weather sets in, Ukraine is accusing Russia of targeting their power production. Could this change the war? We will break it down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:16:59]
REID: New fallout from the Uvalde, Texas school rampage where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in May. The Texas Department of Public Safety confirms to CNN that State Trooper and Sergeant Juan Maldonado has been fired. He was among the first to respond arriving less than five minutes into the massacre. But while law enforcement from School Police to State Police infuriated families by waiting 77 minutes to move in on the killer, plenty of people still have a job. Texas officials won't say why Maldonado was terminated.
But as CNN reported exclusively on Thursday, this, State Police Captain Joel Betancourt remains on active duty even after sources say he ordered a delay of the classroom breach because he thought a more highly skilled team was on the way.
And former President Trump's legal team says there are discrepancies in the ongoing privilege disputes involving those documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. In its early round of back and forth concerns, less than two dozen documents that were segregated out by the Justice Department's so-called Filter Team. Meanwhile, the former President's attorneys say they will review the
subpoena issued by the January 6 Committee and respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action.
Now, CNN's Jeremy Herb joins us now.
All right, Jeremy, what's your latest reporting on the subpoena and those documents?
JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, let's start with the subpoena, Paula. And basically, the biggest thing here is this House subpoena that was issued on Friday, it is wide in scope, and it asks for the President to respond by giving documents by November 4th and then testimony by November 14th.
One of the things the Committee did on Friday was they actually released the full contents of the subpoena, and it just shows more of the details about what they're searching for.
For instance, the Committee asked for not just the communications that Donald Trump had directly related to January 6th, but also when he was seeking to get others to help him put aides and associates on the phone.
The subpoena also shows just how wide the scope of the people involved with these communications and involved with Trump's elections team that the committee wants to hear from. It includes Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, John Eastman, the key architects many of whom pled their Fifth Amendment right when they testified before the Committee.
Now, the key question hanging over this that we don't yet have an answer to is how does Trump respond and whether he will comply in any way, and of course, that is an especially pressing question given that there is only potentially two months left of this Committee.
Now if we turn quickly, the documents investigation is a separate -- kind of playing out at the same time investigation following the August search of Trump's Florida estate and what we saw on Friday there was that the Trump's team put out these discrepancies related to some small subset of the documents that the Special Master took.
The key thing here though, this is an early back and forth, but what it really shows is just how drawn out this Special Master process may be if the DOJ is unsuccessful at trying to get it stopped through the courts -- Paula.
[18:20:05]
REID: All right, Jeremy, thank you so much for breaking down all of those legal controversies for related to the former President. We appreciate your reporting.
And while Trump's decision to run again for President is still up in the air, his Boeing 757 is revved up and ready to go just in case. According to flight data studied and analyzed by CNN and aviation experts consulted by CNN, Trump's jet spent several hours over the last week running pattern flights above a small airport in Louisiana. Pilots were likely testing various updated components before heading to the Palm Beach International Airport, where the plane arrived Wednesday evening.
It remains to be seen whether the plane is being prepped for use again as Trump's biggest campaign prop, but does appear that he is flying the plane to Texas tonight for a GOP rally.
And Ukraine is shooting some Russian drones right out of the sky, but others are hitting their marks tonight and it's having a major impact on Ukraine's power infrastructure. The latest from Kyiv, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:25:25]
REID: We're just getting details about a deadly tragedy at a Dallas hospital today. Two hospital workers were shot and killed at a Methodist Dallas Medical Center around 11:00 AM local time. That's according to a statement from the hospital's police department. It says one of their officers arrived at the scene and shot the suspect who is now in custody.
In a statement, the hospital says: "Our entire organization is grieving this unimaginable tragedy. Our prayers are with our lost coworkers and their families, as well as our entire Methodist family."
And we're working to get more information on this breaking story and we'll update you throughout the evening.
And tonight, Russia unleashing a barrage of missile attacks on Ukrainian power facilities. Airstrikes like that one have left more than a million Ukrainians without electricity, as Ukrainian officials accuse Moscow of trying to black out the entire country.
CNN's Nic Robertson is in Kyiv with the latest.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Paula, Ukrainian officials say they were able to shoot down about half of the cruise missiles fired into the country Saturday and about two thirds of the drones. However, the power generating company here say that the effect of the barrage on Saturday was worse even than two weeks ago, Monday when Russia first began targeting the electrical grid.
What Russia has done is targeted some of the weak places in the air defense network, the capital Kyiv, Lviv, the big city in the West, Odesa in the south, most of the missiles fired there taken down. But five cities in the East hit, a number of hidden cities in the center of Ukraine hit as well.
In Rivne for example, in the West of the country there, the hospital without electricity, water, being bused into that hospital. Also in Rivne, the air defense system, the announcement system taken down, electricity off there.
So the police have to drive around announcing that on loudspeakers when there is an air warning there.
It's getting into the way that the country runs, 1.5 million electrical subscribers without electricity, 11 regions across the country having to institute blackouts, and in one case in the center of the country, the power grid taken out there is what feeds the mine, the mine can't work. They can't mine the coal, therefore they don't have the coal for their power generating stations.
They believe that Russia is working with its engineers specifically to target the weak points in the electrical grid system here. The generators, the switching transformers, rather, and the parts of the equipment that are outside of the buildings, the easier targets to cripple electricity here.
It's a very structured and careful campaign by the Russian military is the assessment from power officials here -- Paula.
REID: Incredible reporting.
All right, let's discuss all of this with Mason Clark. He's the lead Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
All right, thank you so much for being with us. What do you make of Russia once again, targeting Ukraine's critical infrastructure, especially as Putin's forces are losing territory elsewhere,
MASON CLARK, LEAD RUSSIA ANALYST, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR: Right. So, this wave of strikes, particularly in the last two weeks has actually been a change in the sort of targeting the Russians have done on war, and may start to have an effect as in the previous report on Ukraine's ability to support its citizens as we go into the winter.
Now, throughout the war, the Russians have conducted sporadic strikes against Ukrainian cities, oftentimes against residential areas, civilian targets, but now they're getting much more focused and trying to have this concrete effect of destroying the Ukrainian energy grid in the hopes of impeding Ukraine's ability to take care of its civilians.
Now, the Russians are also likely hoping that this will try in some way to force the Ukrainians to surrender or at least enter talks. This is actually quite similar to how the Russians supported the Syrian dictator Assad throughout their involvement in the Syrian Civil War. They would do this often to rebel held territory, and while it's very unlikely to force the Ukrainian government to surrender or even really erode the will of Ukrainian population, it will make things more difficult for the government in Kyiv, to quite simply provision and take care of its citizens, particularly with how much of the buildings and shelter in Ukraine have already been damaged by the war.
REID: All right, I want you to take a look at this. That's the dam that Ukraine says Russia has mined with explosives. The water reserves there, it's equivalent to the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
So in terms of the overall strategy, how significant is a move like this? CLARK: Sure.
[18:30:10]
Well, so that's an interesting case and that the Russians are likely going to destroy the Kakhovka dam in order to slow down Ukrainian forces that are advancing on the city of Kherson. We've seen Russians, particularly in the last 72 hours, accelerating preparations to evacuate from that key city in the south and leaving behind some limited military forces that are preparing for block by block fighting in the area.
And it's likely they'll blow the dam in order to slow down the advancing Ukrainians, making it harder for them to move up to Dnipro River and give the Russians time to pull back as they are suffering under very successful Ukrainian strikes and attacks.
REID: Interesting. All right. I also want to put up some images of these Iranian manufactured kamikaze drones. Ukrainian officials say they've shot down hundreds of them in recent weeks. The Pentagon says that Iranians are also on the ground in Crimea training Russians to use them. So how significant is this for Ukraine and also potentially for the United States?
CLARK: Well, it's important that the Russians are having to rely on these Iranian-provided drones, the Shahed 136, I mean, the main one. They're using them to replace their own precision-guided missiles, most notably the Iskander and the Kalibr that the Russians used earlier in the war that they're now running out of due to this going on longer than the Kremlin expected.
So they're having to rely on Iran and these trainers likely from the IRGC to show Russian forces how to operate them and quite possibly fly them themselves in some measures. It's certainly going to be affecting how the U.S. is thinking of where Iranian forces are sending their various capabilities, whether or not these resources are being shifted away from possible attacks against U.S., U.S. assets, pardon me, in the Middle East and what this means for how isolated Russia is as it tries to rebuild its ever dwindling stocks of military supplies.
REID: Interesting. We also saw, of course, this week President Putin declared martial law in the territories of the Ukraine under occupation by Russian forces and here's what a former Kremlin insider, one of Putin's former speech writers reacted: "In general, all this looks not so much as a struggle with an external enemy, but as an attempt to prevent a revolution ripening inside the country." Do you agree?
CLARK: I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, though. Certainly, the Kremlin's policies are exacerbating internal discontent in Russia. We're particularly observing that the mobilization efforts the Kremlin is enacting are disproportionately targeting ethnic minorities, poor citizens, and leading to a lot of discontent and even violence on some Russian military bases.
So in many ways, this announcement of martial law and sort of economic mobilization is intended to control the flow of information and, of personnel, in the areas near the war in Ukraine as well as across the country better control the ongoing Russian effort to, frankly as fast as they can rush men and equipment to the front lines to try and halt these Ukrainian attacks.
REID: And, of course, most people sitting at home right now in the U.S. watching this, they're wondering about a possible nuclear attack, particularly because for weeks, Russians had been escalating their rhetoric about a possible nuclear attack. So how concerned should Americans sitting at home be about that actually happening?
CLARK: We still think it's unlikely. There's almost zero chance of a strategic Russian nuclear attack against either Ukraine and certainly not the U.S. and NATO. The Russians are still trying many means to win this war, conventionally, pressuring the Europeans through energy supplies in the winter, these ongoing strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure and civilian targets and they're - it's still planning for sending a lot more reinforcements into the fight in the coming year.
Everything we're seeing on the Russian military's end shows that they're planning for a longer war not for some quick termination, either through the use of nuclear weapons or a ceasefire. Now, we unfortunately cannot completely rule out the Russians using tactical nuclear weapons, that would likely be a weapon of truly last resort to halt Ukrainian counter offensives and would likely lead to a very immediate U.S. and NATO conventional response against Russian forces in Ukraine.
So Putin would have to gamble that - to put it bluntly - likely losing his remaining forces in Ukraine would be worth the effect of trying to halt the Ukrainian military through the use of tactical nuclear weapons. So in total, not - unfortunately, not off the table, but we still find it incredibly unlikely in the near and medium term.
REID: Well, I guess that's the answer that most people hoped for and we hope you're right. Mason Clark, thank you so much for joining in.
CLARK: Thanks for having me.
REID: President Biden student loan forgiveness plan is on hold after a federal appeals court ruling. What's the White House saying about it? Well, we'll have that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:39:01]
REID: A federal appeals court has temporarily paused President Biden's student loan forgiveness program delivering a blow to one of his key midterm initiatives. The order prohibits the White House from canceling loans covered under the policy as the court considers a challenge brought on by six Republican-led states.
Now, CNN Senior Washington Correspondent, Joe Johns, joins us live. All right. Joe, nearly 22 million people have already applied to have their student loans forgiven, what is the White House saying tonight?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they say they're not backing down. They're going to stay on track and continue taking and reviewing applications to this program. They just can't start canceling debt until they hear from the court. The Education Secretary put out an op-ed in USA Today this morning and a reason for it: "Amid some Republicans trying every which way to block the Biden administration's Debt Relief Program, the department is moving full speed ahead with preparations for the lawful implementation of our program so we can deliver relief to borrowers who need it most."
[18:40:04]
The President speaking at Delaware State University just yesterday slammed the critics of the program, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Republican members of Congress and Republican governors are doing everything they can to deny this relief even in their - 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 hypocritical. But they're - but we're not letting them get away with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: The venue for that is an HBCU Delaware State University where the vast majority of students attending get some type of financial aid, including student loans, Paula.
REID: Well, as millions of people are trying to be unburdened of their debt, they're probably watching this legal challenges very closely. So what are the various deadlines? What's the timeline involved in this case?
JOHNS: Well, it sounds like they really want to get this thing going quick. The court has called for the government, the education department to file their response to this request for an injunction on Monday. And on Tuesday, the states are supposed to file a reply. So they're trying to get out this pretty quickly, Paula.
REID: All right. Joe Johns, thank you so much.
And we're also closely following the key Senate race in Wisconsin where Republican incumbent Ron Johnson was long considered the GOP most vulnerable senator. But in recent days, Johnson has surged ahead of his Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Now keep in mind, this race will decide control of the U.S. Senate.
So for that, we turn to CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent, Manu Raju. He's in Milwaukee with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It
wasn't too long ago that Democrats could hardly believe their luck, despite being saddled with controversy ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Guys, this is a complete non-story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): ... and unpopular in battleground Wisconsin, Ron Johnson decided to run for a third Senate term making him the most endangered GOP incumbent, but the terrain has shifted. And now Johnson has an edge against Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (on camera): How's it so hard to beat him?
TOM NELSON (D) OUTAGAMIE COUNTY EXECUTIVE: People are just hitting their heads against the wall. How did we - how do we let this happen?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): Johnson has benefited from a perfect storm first winning in the 2010 Tea Party wave and then during Donald Trump's 2016 stunner, and now buoyed by voter anger over inflation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (on camera): What has happened in the last two months has changed this race?
ANDY LODUHA, REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIR, ONEIDA COUNTY: Well, I think inflation. I mean, everybody's feeling in their pocketbook.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): After Barnes won his party's nomination in August, a poll showed him up by seven points. Now the same pollster shows Johnson ahead of Barnes by six with likely voters. In the two months since the primary, Johnson and big GOP groups have outspent Democrats by millions on TV, attacking Barnes on crime and immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mandela Barnes doesn't have the judgment to keep our communities safe.
UNDENTIFIED MALE: Mandela Barnes stands with defund the police.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mandela Barnes is a radical leftist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): Putting him on the defensive. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. MANDELA BARNES (D-WI) SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Look, we knew the other side will make up lies about me to scare you.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ron Johnson caught lying.
UNDENTIFIED MALE: Mandela, he's the real deal. Mandela doesn't want to defund the police.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): Barnes' supporters fear that is hardly enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, his campaign seems to be faltering.
RAJU (on-camera): Are you concerned that those attacks may be working?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They seem to be working. Yes, I'm very concerned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): One of Barnes's primary foes and current supporter blames national Democrats for an ineffective as strategy after the primary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NELSON: They have the national party come in and screw things up in the first month of the general election. In my book it's unforgivable. The national party has totally failed us and so it's going to come down to Wisconsin Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): Campaigning in the small towns of northern Wisconsin. Barnes told CNN he was not caught flat footed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (on camera): But are you prepared for this onslaught of attacks?
BARNES: The reality is we always expect to Ron Johnson to distort the truth and try to hide from his own record.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): Barnes' ads have largely steered clear of some of Johnson's controversies, like his downplaying of the January 6 Capitol attack or sowing doubt on the COVID-19 vaccine. Instead accusing Johnson of enriching himself in office and for supporting a ban on abortion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wouldn't just ban abortions, doctors could go
to jail for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (voice over): Barnes who would be the state's first black Senator slated to appear next week in Milwaukee with the nation's first black President Barack Obama, but no plans yet with the current president whose unpopularity remains a liability.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU (on camera): Do you think Biden should run for reelection?
BARNES: I will cross that bridge when we get there. We still got to get through November 8, 2022.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: Now Johnson has been behind closed doors this week with his campaign refusing to tell CNN and other media outlets exactly what, he's doing where he is campaigning.
[18:45:03]
He did appear on Fox News asking for donations including an interview on Tuesday night.
Now, on the Democratic side they are still confident that they could emerge victorious, in part because that same Marquette poll that showed Barnes down by six points showed this race at a dead heat when they test a larger set of voters, testing registered voters rather than likely voters. That means that Democrats to be victorious need to get their voters out to the polls. Manu Raju, CNN, Milwaukee.
REID: Still ahead, the next PM of the U.K. and the efforts of BBB, bring Boris back. Will those calls to BBB really get Boris Johnson to run for his old job as British prime minister? We'll take a look at that and who else is in the running next.
And later, the U.S. Women's Soccer team has won half of the total world championships. Today they learned who they'll face in the next Women's World Cup.
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[18:50:22]
REID: Boris Johnson, the former British Prime Minister arrived back in the United Kingdom this morning just days before a key conservative vote to name a successor to Liz Truss, the outgoing Prime Minister. Although he hasn't publicly declared his interest to become prime minister again, Johnson's allies are rallying behind him. Here's CNN's Bianca Nobilo. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Liz Truss will soon be out as Britain's Prime Minister. Around 200,000 Conservative Party members, a tiny fraction of Britain's population, the same electorate responsible for appointing Truss are expected to vote for her replacement by October the 28th.
Three candidates lead the pack, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Boris Johnson. Former finance minister, Rishi Sunak, was runner up to Liz Truss in the last leadership race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RISHI SUNAK, U.K. PRIME MINISTER CANDIDATE: Honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO (voice over): He warned her tax cutting plans would send the economy into freefall, accusing her a fairy tale economics, words that many now believe have been vindicated. Popular among fellow Tory MPs is nonetheless seen as a traitor among conservative faithful, having played a pivotal role in the final hours of Boris Johnson's premiership.
Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, finished third in the previous contest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENNY MORDAUNT, U.K. PRIME MINISTER CANDIDATE: The Prime Minister is not under a desk as the (inaudible) ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REID: She stood in for Truss to answer an urgent question on the sacking of former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and was praised for her handling of the situation. Given the fractious history of Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, Mordaunt could be seen as the unity candidate.
A familiar face, Boris Johnson is expected to stand just three months after his drawn out departure from number 10.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER CANDIDATE: Like Cincinnatus. I am returning to my plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO (voice over): An admirer of Winston Churchill who famously was Prime Minister twice, Johnson went so far as to compare himself to Roman statesman Cincinnatus in his farewell speech, who returned to power for a glorious second time. The former prime minister was forced to resign following months of controversy around locked down parties and other scandals. He still faces an investigation into whether he lied to Parliament about COVID breaches which could see him suspended.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN WALLACE, U.K. DEFENSE SECRETARY: At the moment I would lean towards Boris Johnson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO (voice over): He enjoys the support of the Defense Secretary after the pair work closely together on Ukraine. Johnson's father also made plain Friday where his affiliations lay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STANLEY JOHNSON, BORIS JOHNSON'S FATHER: I think I'm going to support Boris. I'm pretty sure I'm going to support Boris, I'm just speaking out as a voter, but I want to be sure that he's going to stick to the 2019 manifesto.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO (voice over): Johnson has never lost an election. Allies will point to his 2019 victory as evidence he can unite the Conservative Party and prevent an electoral wipeout that could put the party in opposition for a generation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
B JOHNSON: ... a powerful new mandate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO (voice over): Bianca Nobilo, CNN, London.
(End VT)
REID: New Political faces also in Italy this weekend, Giorgia Maloney was sworn in earlier today as Italy's first female prime minister. She won her election by using a campaign built around anti-LGBTQ themes and a promise to block migrant ships. She's expected to form the most far right government Italy has seen in decades.
Now, one member of her new government is Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister. He's drawn sharp criticism over his recent pro-Putin comments where he boasted about his friendship with a Russian leader. President Biden released a statement earlier today congratulating Maloney and calling Italy a vital NATO ally.
Now, we're working to bring you more on the breaking news in Dallas, Texas, a deadly shooting at a hospital. We'll have the latest just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:59:02] REID: It's almost time for Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and the rest of
the U.S. Women's Soccer team to defend their World Cup title. Now, they don't kick off until next July, but we now know who they'll face in group play. CNN's Don Riddell has more.
DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Paula, the U.S. Women's football team just loves playing in the FIFA World Cup. They've won four tournaments that's equal to half the number of tournaments that have ever been played and they've won the last two of them.
Following the tournament draw in New Zealand on Saturday, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan now know some of the teams they'll have to beat if they're going to make it three in a row. The Americans have been drawn in Group E and their toughest opponents are the Netherlands. The Dutch are one of the best teams in Europe having won the Euros in 2017 and this will be a rematch, by the way, of the 2019 World Cup final.
The U.S.A. will also have to play Vietnam, but their third opponent is yet to be determined.
[19:00:02]
One of either Cameroon, Portugal or Thailand will emerge from a playoff to complete the group.
