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Midterm Elections Just More than Two Weeks Away; Conservative Lawmakers Set to Choose Next Leader and Prime Minister; Mordaunt and Sunak Officially in Race to be Next Prime Minister; Record Turnout for Early In-Person Voting in Georgia; Zelenskyy Denies Russian Claim Ukraine May Use Dirty Bomb. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 24, 2022 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world, I'm Christina Macfarlane in for Max Foster here in London. Just ahead --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am worried about the level of voter turnout among young people and working people who will be voting Democratic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The midterms have mostly been a referendum on the party in power.
BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Hasta la vista, baby.
LIZ TRUSS, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He still has his own set of baggage coming in to Downing Street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a total joke. We're the laughing stock of Europe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: It's Monday, October 24th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Washington where political developments on both sides of the Atlantic are front and center this hour. In the U.S., the critical midterm elections are now just more than two weeks away and key races will decide who will lead in Congress and whether the Democrats can hold on to their slim majority and whether Republicans will make gains. We'll have much more on this in just a few minutes.
But first, here in the U.K., we could soon learn who will be the next leader of the ruling Conservative Party and the new Prime Minister. Former finance minister Rishi Sunak in House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt are in the running. While former leader Boris Johnson announce he'd be bowing out. Mordaunt has said she's in it to win it. While Sunak says he wants to fix the economy and unite the party. CNN Scott McLean is following developments from outside 10 Downing
Street and I'm joined here in London by John Rentoul, chief political commentator with "The Independent" and visiting professor at King's College London. Well, let's begin by going to our Scott outside Downing Street, not far from here. Scott, Johnson has said when he announced that he was backing out yesterday that he had the votes but not the unity. I mean, I guess we'll never know whether or not he was telling the truth, but the reality is that this could help Penny Mordaunt with that 100 vote count even though we know Sunak is the clear front-runner this morning.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so what we know From the British Press Association, Christina, is that in terms of public declarations of support, Rishi Sunak has more than 140. Penny Mordaunt has less than 30. At least publicly Boris Johnson had more than 50 but still well short of the 100 he would have needed. Now it is entirely possible that he did, in fact, have the 102 MPs that he says he did behind him, but good chunk of them were unwilling to come out publicly with that declaration given the political sensitivity around picking a -- backing a horse this late in a race.
But you're right. Penny Mordaunt now is trying desperately to pick up some of those supporters from the Boris Johnson camp as is Rishi Sunak as well. And if there are indeed 102 of them, Mordaunt will have her work cut out to get the lion's share. She has sort of built herself as the unity candidate between the warring camps of Boris Johnson Rishi Sunak who is credited with perhaps being the man who caused the down fall of Boris Johnson in the first place when he resigned as his position chancellor. So, Mordaunt will have to pick up some of those votes.
And both of these candidates have been rather conciliatory when it comes to the news that Boris Johnson was dropping out of the race. Rishi Sunak for his part said, that although he has decided not to run for Prime Minister again, I truly hope he continues to contribute to public life.
While Penny Mordaunt said: In taking this difficult decision last night, Boris Johnson has put country before party and party before self. He worked to secure the mandate and the majority we now enjoy. We should put it to good use and I know he will work with us to do so -- Christina.
MACFARLANE: Well, I guess one of the challenges for either candidate who wins is going to be having Boris Johnson back in the cabinet and have to manage that. Scott, thanks for now. We'll come back to you in just a second. I want to bring in John Rentoul here. Who I heard laugh slightly, John, at the mention of Penny Mordaunt being in it still to win it.
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So, what are you hearing this morning about the vital 100 count?
JOHN RENTOUL, VISITING PROFESSOR, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: She's it to win a bigger job in cabinet, I think. She's got, what, she's got just under five hours to get up to 100 backers from the parliamentary party. She is currently below 30. There's a long way to go. And you know, she's hoping to pick up the lion's share of Boris Johnson's supporters, as Scott said, but I don't think she'll get anything like even half of them. I mean, a lot of them have already switched to Rishi Sunak, thundering to the aide of the victor and obviously hoping for some of the spoils themselves.
MACFARLANE: So, is this what we're seeing now this morning is people jumping on the Sunak bandwagon, hoping for, you know, a potential place in cabinet. We saw I think in the last sort of half hour Peter Patel coming out in support of Sunak. A big Boris Johnson backer.
RENTOUL: Well, absolutely. You know, he's clearly going to be Prime Minister this afternoon unless Liz Truss wants one more night in number 10. I don't think she'll get that. I think Rishi Sunak will be Prime Minister this afternoon.
OK, so let's go back to Scott just to talk about the implications of Sunak in the prime ministerial seat. Because we know that, Scott, that is largely predicted Truss's mini budget to fail. And we know of course, former chancellor he steered the economy through the present pandemic but none of this, Scott, compares to what is going to await him in his entry as new Prime Minister.
MCLEAN: Yes, I'll be curious to know if he can get through the next few days if he is indeed the new Prime Minister without saying I told you so when it comes to Liz Truss's now disastrous mini budget. And you're right, he will have some serious decisions ahead of him. The current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt has already called them eye watering and that is after they reversed virtually everything that was in that now disastrous mini budget.
There is still a lot more to do to fill the black hole in public finances and whether or not you're going to trim back from the promises on defense spending or health care or any number of other areas. Or try to kind of trim the fat from all the government departments. These are all the decisions Rishi Sunak will have.
Now he is well positioned that in the fact that he was sort of the architect of the massive public spending that we saw throughout the course of the pandemic. And clearly, he had a plan in mind to actually pay it back afterwards. Whether or not that plan can go ahead as he originally envisioned it given inflation at this point is another thing. But he'll have also not only this but he'll also have to contend with, of course, the war in Ukraine, which Britain continues to be a huge supporter of the Ukrainian government, plus a number of looming public sector strikes over the winter. There's no shortage of things for Rishi Sunak to get to work on and this on top of winning back public favor for his own party if he has any chance of actually remaining Prime Minister beyond the next two years.
MACFARLANE: Yes, Scott. And John, just to pick up on what Scott is saying there, obviously a massive amounts of multiple crises really to face for Sunak, but also how is he going to attempt to do any of that without complete unity within his party? And do you expect he will have it and how long will that be for? RENTOUL: Well, no, he won't. I mean, the party is very divided,
demoralized and in many ways completely unready to survive the next two years. But he was the best candidate to unite the party as much as possible because -- rather than the alternatives which is Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt. And he's also going to be helped in his initial days and weeks in office by the fact that Liz Truss has made such a mess of the economy and such a mess of the premiership that he can blame a lot of the chaos on her. He can say, well at least interest rates gone up, it's most unfortunate because my predecessor blew up the government. Whereas if he'd won in September, he would have faced -- I mean, he wouldn't have faced quite such bad problems, but he would have faced rising interest rates and rising inflation.
MACFARLANE: Yes, so there is that in his corner at the very least. Unfortunately, we have to leave it there. But John, thank you for joining us this morning. We will see what the hours have ahead and of course thanks to Scott McLean as well outside 10 Downing Street.
Well, just over two weeks until the U.S. midterm elections and inflation and the economy are at the top of voters' minds. The latest CNN Poll of Polls preferences signals voters are showing equal support for both parties, though preferences that close have often resulted in Republican victories in the House.
Meantime, a CBS/YouGov poll shows voters believe the U.S. economy is now getting worse but the lean towards Republican support has Democrats and others worried. Senator Bernie Sanders said Democrats should change up their economic policy if they want to keep precious seats.
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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I think what the Democrats have got to say is we are going to stand with working people. We're prepared to take on the drug companies. We're prepared to take on the insurance companies and create an economy that works for all of us. Is the abortion issue important? Yes. But we have also got to focus on the struggles of working people to put food on their table.
And I think it's important that when we talk about inflation, Republicans will say, well, this is Joe Biden's fault. Really? Our inflation rate is much too high. It is 8 percent. It is 10 percent in the U.K., 10 percent throughout Europe, 7 percent in Canada. Inflation is a global problem caused, A, by the breaking of supply chains because of the pandemic, by the war in Ukraine and as I said, significant part of inflation has to do with corporate greed.
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MACFARLANE: Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argues that Republicans have offered no solutions to resolve their inflation either.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: The fight is not about inflation. It's about the cost of living. And if you look at what we have done to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, to bring down the cost of energy and the rest in our legislation, you will see that that has been opposed every step of the way by the Republicans and they have no plan for lowering the cost of living or helping with inflation.
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MACFARLANE: Well, not surprisingly Republicans are pushing back against those claims. Some members of the House and Senate say they tried to play nice but their ideas were thrown out. They're confident that the election will result in a change of power.
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REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I know when we did the infrastructure bill on the House side any way last year, every Republican was shut out of being part of that discussion. Not a single amendment -- and I had a couple nonpartisan amendments, for example. You know, so Republicans have tried to work with -- reach across the aisle and have been shut out of many of those conversations.
SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): I think they are responsible. The American voter is going to hold them responsible election day. I think there's no question Republicans will gain control of the House. And in a very narrow environment, just as likely as not to gain control of the Senate, but we still won't have control of the administration and bad regulatory policies and bad energy policies will continue to stoke what's now a fire of inflation that got way out of hand before Democrats knew what they were doing.
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MACFARLANE: Well, meantime there's been record voter turnout in the state of Georgia. More than 700,000 people have already cast ballots during the first week of early in-person voting. CNN's Nadia Romero has the details.
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NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Record turnout here in Georgia for this midterm elections. We're outside of a polling location here in Dekalb County. And at this location alone, the poll workers told me that in the first two hours of voting they saw 200 people come in. That just speaks to the excitement of people wanting to get out and make sure they cast their ballot.
But let's look at the statewide numbers. Across the state of Georgia, already more than 740,000 people have voted. And we saw a dip, though, when you look at Saturday compared to Friday. Saturday only about 80,000 people voted compared to more than 140,000 on Friday alone. But still those numbers are quite impressive. Especially when you compare to 2018. Now we know that people want to come out and vote and that voter
turnout is really record breaking at this point, but there are still some concerns about voter insecurity, voter fraud, voter integrity. So, we spoke with an election official about how they're working on that in this county. Take a listen.
KEISHA SMITH, DEKALB VOTER REGISTRATION AND ELECTIONS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: We are excited to see so many of our voters coming out in historic numbers during advanced voting in Georgia. So, we are processing record numbers. And when we compare it with the last midterm in 2018, we're outpacing those numbers for sure.
We're here working 365 days a year to prepare for operating efficient and safe elections. And so, that's what we're doing. And that's what they'll see.
ROMERO: And voters tell me that they're being driven to the polls by key issues like abortion, inflation and immigration, but also key races like Georgia Senate race that has national attention as well.
Nadia Romero, CNN, DeKalb County, Georgia.
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MACFARLANE: Well, early voter turnout in the state of Arizona looks a little bit different, though. Multiple instances of voter intimidation have been reported, including two individuals dressed in tactical gear spotted near a ballot box.
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Other reports say groups have harassed people turning in their early ballot, shouting names at them while taking their pictures. Arizona has seen widespread election denial after Donald Trump's loss in 2020.
And in the day ahead, a jury selection will begin the tax fraud trial of Donald Trump's company. The Trump Organization has been charged with ten counts in a scheme that allegedly made off the books payments to executives. Among them the company's former CFO Allen Weisselberg, he pleaded guilty to 15 counts and is set to testify as part of a plea deal.
The federal trial of members of the extreme right group the Oath Keepers resumes today. Prosecutors say the group's founder Stewart Rhodes was like a general on a battlefield during the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, ordering his followers to do everything to keep Donald Trump as the president. But on Friday, a former FBI agent testified that Rhodes never specifically directed or ordered members of his group to enter the Capitol. Rhodes and four other Oath Keepers pleaded not guilty to seditious conspiracy charges.
Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney says she expects former president Donald Trump to comply with a subpoena and testify before the House committee investigation -- investigating the attack on the Capitol. The subpoena orders Trump to turn over documents by November 4th and to give deposition testimony beginning about November 14th. Cheney says the committee will treat Trump's testimony with great seriousness.
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REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): We are going to proceed in terms of the questioning of the former president under oath. It may take multiple days and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves. He's not going to turn this into a circus. This isn't going to be, you know, his first debate against Joe Biden and the circus and the food fight that became. This is far too serious set of issues.
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MACFARLANE: Well, the committee formally sent its subpoena to Trump's attorneys last week. Cheney also was asked what's at stake in these elections. Take a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your number one issue threats to democracy as a voter?
CHENEY: It is. I think that when you look at the extent to which we're facing challenges now that threaten to unravel the fundamental institutions and structures of our election system and process, that is the basis and the foundation on which we can have all these other debates. So, it absolutely is the number one issue.
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MACFARLANE: Cheney says there is no question that Trump will do anything he can to stop a peaceful transfer of power which makes him dangerous.
All right, just ahead, the matchup for the Major League Baseball's World Series is set after two thrilling games that went down to the wire on Sunday.
Plus, Ukraine braces for even darker days ahead as Russia strikes more of its critical infrastructure.
And as Pedram Javaheri will tell us, the Western U.S. gets an early taste of winter.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so a winter wonderland of sorts here when it comes snow showers about two months away from Christmas Eve and we have parts of nine U.S. states underneath these winter alerts. Break these down, coming up in a few minutes.
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MACFARLANE: We're back with startling video coming in from the Philippines where a Korean Air passenger plane overran the runway. Thankfully there were no injuries and all 162 passengers safely evacuated. The airline said the flight which originated in South Korea had attempted to land twice in poor weather before overshooting the runway on the third attempt. Goodness me.
Well, the U.S., U.K. and France are joining Ukraine in rejecting an unsupported claim from Russia that Kyiv may be using or about to use a dirty bomb. Russia's defense minister made the claim during calls with his Western counterparts including the U.S. defense secretary. But Ukraine says it's an attempt by Moscow to escalate the war.
Meantime, Russia appears to be losing more ground in the Kherson region. Ukraine says some Russian troops are pulling back from their positions near strategic river there and Ukrainian officials say Russia is increasingly targeting critical infrastructure, cutting off access to power, water and the internet for thousands. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week around one third of Ukraine's power grid has been knocked out. Another official says at least 90 percent of the country's wind power is destroyed.
Let's get more now from CNN's Nic Robertson who is live for us in Kyiv and Clare Sebastian who is in London. Clare, just to come to you first briefly, there is concern here that Russia are using these allegations of a dirty bomb as a pretext for escalation. How serious is this threat? And what is the international response been?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christina. I can tell you that there has been a lot of alarms from the international community over this joint statement came out last night from the U.S., U.K. and French sides. All three of them, of course, their defense ministers held calls with Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, at his request on Sunday saying that openly warning Russia not to use this as a pretext for escalation, calling the allegations that Ukraine could use a dirty bomb on its territory transparently false.
Of course, perhaps more dangerous is how implausible this is. Ukraine of course gave up its nuclear weapons the Soviet era nuclear weapons on its territory in 1994 and hasn't had a nuclear weapons program at all since then. And this is raising concerns that Russia could be using this as what's called a false flag operation, accusing Ukraine of doing something to provide cover for it to do it and then pin the blame on Ukraine. And this is something that President Zelenskyy talked about and suggested in his nightly address last night. Take a listen.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing, Russia has already prepared all of this.
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I believe that now the world should react in the toughest possible way. If Russia has prepared another round of raising stakes and another escalating step, it must see now preemptively and before it's any new dirt that the world will not swallow that.
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SEBASTIAN: Well, I think it's clear the international community is trying to show that. The other thing to note here is that it's very unusual to see this much diplomatic activity from Sergei Shoigu, the Russian foreign minister. He is usually the behind the scenes type of leader. So, four calls to different foreign defense ministers in one day, three to his U.S. -- two to his U.S. counterpart in face space of three days highly unusual. Taken with the situation on the battlefield where Russia is on the back foot of course does suggest we are already seeing signs of escalation here as we head into the ninth month of this war -- Christina.
MACFARLANE: Clare, thank you. Let's turn to our Nic Robertson in Kyiv for us this hour. Nic, we were hearing just then about Russia continuing to target Ukrainian infrastructure. We were saying that at least 90 percent of the country's wind power he has reportedly been destroyed. What are the implications of this for Ukraine as winter begins to set in and what has been the impact of these latest attacks?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, the last big round of attacks on infrastructure came on Friday and energy officials here believe it was worse than two weeks ago Monday when Russia began initiating it, sort of war of attrition against the electrical generating system here. The assessment is 1.5 million people without electricity on Friday. The effort to sort of repair and reconstitute what's damaged is ongoing. President Zelenskyy praised those workers.
But there's a real understanding here that Russia is strategically targeting the weaker points on the energy infrastructure and particularly those that have knock on effects for example in the center of Ukraine an energy installation hit there, supplies electricity to a coal mine. There are very few coal mines actually operational in Ukraine and of course, the coal that comes from them goes to power stations to generate electricity. So, it's a double whammy taking out that power station, putting the mine out of action, denying all these power plants their fuel.
You have hospitals that are without water. You have air raid systems that are without electricity. So, police have to drive around with loud speakers to tell people when there's an air raid. So, all of this is having an attritional and accumulative effect. It's things like big transformers, big generators, the power lines of -- big switching structures rather, the big power lines that you see outside of the big generating plants. Russia is going for those it seems potentially because there just easier to knock out, on the outside of the buildings, not like the big generators on the inside.
But this is strategic and uncareful. And the air defenses have been stepped up. They're much more effective in the capital in Lviv in the west, Odessa in the south. So, Russia is also now looking for the holes in that and targeting the areas where the air defenses are less strong.
MACFARLANE: Yes, strategic escalation I think by the sound of things. Nic Robertson in Kyiv. Thanks very much, Nic and our thanks to Clare in London as well. Now snow is blanketing parts of the U.S. right now, but it's still
warmer than average for this time of year. CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now from the weather center. And Pedram, tell us what's going on here?
JAVAHERI: Yes, Christina, the seasons are changing for some across the Western U.S. and we do have parts -- large parts of the Northwestern United States underneath winter weather alert. In fact, parts of nine states here with some areas that could see an additional 5 to 6 inches on top of the 20 plus inches of snowfall that came down over the weekend across some of these areas. And notice the current snow depth in some of these regions again over two feet of snow on the ground.
Now, there are cold weather alerts to be had with temps as cold as 19 degrees. The transition is definitely in place and we know just a few days ago we were talking about excessive warmth across parts of the California into Washington and Oregon. Well, they even have cold weather alerts in place now, too, and lots of what's happening here, of course, a lot of talk about the cold and the snow showers. But we know a lot of what's happening is beneficial. Because 50 to 80 plus percent of the states of Washington and Oregon underneath drought conditions. And notice over the next week or so, significant amount of rainfall on the coast and significant amount of snowfall across the higher elevations which a lot translates of course to getting their water reserves set up for the upcoming season. And also helping in the fire situations they've experienced in recent days as well.
Notice as the system migrates off towards the east, we do expect some rounds of heavy rainfall across parts of the central United States as well. And also, in this region between the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, between 70 to upwards of 100 percent of say the state of Oklahoma underneath drought condition. So, any rainfall in this region is going be beneficial. We talked about the Mississippi River and of course, the drought situation ... in that landscape. And additional rounds of rainfall will be in store to help the situation. You'll notice, the western U.S.
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