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Body of American Killed in Ukraine Returned; How Effective Are New COVID Boosters?; President Biden Targets Hidden Fees; Midterm Heats Up. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 26, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUDOR DIXON (R), MICHIGAN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: It's not even close to Roe. It's not codifying Roe in our Constitution. But it would be the most radical abortion law in the entire country. The only place that has something similar are China and North Korea.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): None of what she just said is true.

She is the one that said a 14-year-old child raped by her uncle is a perfect example of someone who should not have reproductive rights and the ability to choose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Thanks for your time on I.P. today. We will see you tomorrow.

Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Millions of early votes are rolling in, campaign cash is pouring in, the pressure is on, and the gloves are off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEHMET OZ (R), PENNSYLVANIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: John, because you -- obviously, I wasn't clear enough for you to understand this.

LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Here's a man that spent more than $20 million of his own money to try to buy that seat.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): You and Donald Trump were the masterful COVID deniers.

REP. LEE ZELDIN (R-NY), GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You're poor and let's see because of Kathy Hochul and extreme policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: With 13 days left in the midterm campaign, candidates from both parties are scratching, they're clawing for every last vote.

And there's going to be a lot of votes, if the pre-Election Day ballot numbers are any indication.

Let's start in Pennsylvania today, Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz facing off in their only debate. Some accommodations were made as Fetterman recovers from a stroke, but both candidates had some bumpy answers.

CNN's Jessica Dean is in Harrisburg for us.

Jessica, how are the candidates cleaning things up today?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, even more than cleaning up, the two campaigns are zeroing in on where they think the weaknesses are for the other campaigns from last night.

For the Fetterman campaign, they have really hyper-focused on Mehmet Oz's comments on abortion and if he would support a federal law banning abortion at 15 weeks. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OZ: I have been very clear on my desire as a physician not to interfere with how states decide.

I want women doctors, local political leaders letting the democracy that's always allowed our nation to thrive to put the best ideas forward, so states can decide for themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Oz and his campaign maintaining that they believe that abortion should be decided by the states. But it's that key term where he said he wants it to be decided by a woman, her doctor and local politicians that the Fetterman campaign is really focusing in on, trying to tie him to the Republican gubernatorial candidate here, Doug Mastriano, who, as a state senator, supported a fetal heartbeat bill.

Now, as for the Oz campaign, where they're focusing in on, they're focusing on Fetterman's comments on fracking. He was asked about his change in posture on the fracking issue, that he did not support it for a while and now he does support it. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FETTERMAN: I do support fracking. And I don't -- I don't -- I support fracking. And I stand -- and I do support fracking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: That's the issue that Oz campaign has been focusing in on and also, more broadly, they believe that Oz was able to paint him as more extreme on these issues, and paint himself as a more moderate candidate, which has been their strategy in the last several weeks and now going into the closing days of this campaign. And also we did see Fetterman's health on full display. You saw in

those clips he was halting in his speech. He would lose some words. That is certainly something that we saw throughout the entire debate. It will be up to the voters to decide how they want to factor that in, if they do, if they don't, to their decision when they go to the ballot box -- Ana.

CABRERA: Our thanks to Jessica Dean.

And now to Georgia and CNN's Eva McKend the candidate outside a polling place, where a heated Senate races driving record early turnout.

Eva, what's the pulse on the ground today?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, Ana, we have seen a steady stream of people coming in here early to vote, actually a line right behind me right now.

We have asked people what is their number one issue as we get closer to November? What's top of mind for them? More than one telling us reproductive rights. I know that there's a national conversation about inflation, the economy, but, here, we're hearing about this issue of abortion, perhaps no surprise, given where we are.

We are in Fulton County. That is a heavily Democratic county. More generally, though, some people say they just want to get it over with, get it done early. One woman joking: "Hey, I might break my leg on November 8, so I just don't want to leave it up to chance."

The secretary of state here, Brad Raffensperger, saying this surge in early voting really illustrates that Georgia's voting infrastructure is sound, and that Georgia sort of should be the envy of other states across the country for its election administration.

But Raffensperger's Democratic opponent, Bee Nguyen, says that is not so, that Republicans in this state should not get credit for Democrats being able to out-organize what she characterizes as voter suppression.

But, yes, a key Senate race here that could determine the balance of power in Washington, and we see folks are motivated to participate because of that as well -- Ana.

CABRERA: OK, Eva McKend, thanks.

To Wisconsin, where the Senate and governor's races have no clear leader right now.

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Omar Jimenez is there.

What are you hearing from the Senate candidates in that toss-up?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we just finished up an event with Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, a Democrat here at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

He was talking to college students, really hoping to drive turnout, especially for young voters here, because he says, as Ron Johnson has said about Barnes, that Johnson is too extreme for Wisconsin. But, really, at this point, it's about driving turnout.

We heard similar from Senator Ron Johnson at an event yesterday, where he said he wants Republicans to vote early. Today is now the second day of early in person voting here in the state.

As you mentioned, polls have shown no clear leader between the Senate candidates. We're also seeing the same thing at the gubernatorial level between Democrat Tony Evers and Republican Tim Michels. Evers will be campaigning with Elizabeth Warren here in the state who's coming through, while Michels will be appearing with Virginia's Governor Glenn Youngkin, all of them keenly aware we are less than two weeks to Election Day.

And here in Wisconsin, we have seen a steady increase in midterm voter turnout going back to 1990, a general trend upward. So we will see if that trend continues here with a lot on the line -- Ana.

CABRERA: Thank you, Omar Jimenez.

Let's bring in Athena Jones now. She's here in New York covering a closer-than-expected race for governor.

Athena, what's driving this?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, last night, we saw a lot of focus on crime. This is an issue that Congressman Lee Zeldin has been focusing on for weeks.

But we also saw from Kathy Hochul talking about some of the issues she's been focused on for months, trying to tie Lee Zeldin to the former President Donald Trump. Zeldin was an early supporter. But, really, if you look at this debate last night, the question is whether or not either candidate was able to score enough political points to really change the dynamics of this race.

There weren't any huge gaffes or big knockout punches, but there is clearly a lot of enthusiasm on the Zeldin side. That is why we're seeing this race becoming closer and closer. And that's one of the big issues that Democrats have to be concerned about. We did some reporting late last week talking to voters throughout Brooklyn.

And we noticed, on the Democratic side, registered Democrats, they might say, yes, I know who I'm voting for. I know I'm going to vote for the governor, but I'm not very excited about it. If you talk to folks anecdotally about kind of just lawn signs that you're seeing out on Long Island -- this is -- it's a state race, so out on Long Island, where Lee Zeldin is from, you're seeing a lot of Zeldin signs, not as many Hochul signs.

Of course, a lawn sign or a sign in your window could just be a lawn sign, but it's also a sign, potentially a signal of enthusiasm. So that's another big issue. And when it comes to what Zeldin would have to do to win, to become the first Republican elected to statewide office in 20 years, he'd have to win Upstate.

Now, Upstate is more rural. That's more possible. But, of course, Kathy Hochul is from Buffalo. So she's a known entity Upstate, and she has been known as a moderate. Zeldin would also have to do well in these downstate suburbs, either win them or do very well in them.

But, most importantly, he would have to do very well here in New York City, so about 35 or 40 percent of the vote, he'd have to get in New York City, New York City representing more than 40 percent of the state's population.

CABRERA: OK.

JONES: And this is the part that might be difficult for him, more challenging.

Yes, people here are concerned about the issue of public safety. But there's also a lot of progressives. This is a city that you could argue has gotten more progressive over the years, not less so. Yes, they elected a moderate Democrat who ran on a crime-fighting message, but they have also elected socialists and women to the city council, so -- a lot of women to the city council.

So this is -- it's not clear that Zeldin will be able to close the deal here. But we do know that this is too close for comfort for the governor.

CABRERA: It's such an interesting election season, and we will be watching. We will follow every move. Thank you so much, Athena Jones.

And our thanks to everybody for those pulse of the people reports.

Now, President Biden seems to be sticking to the midterm game plan, keeping some serious focus on the economy, what we know is voters' number one issues across the country. And, today, he's tackling something we have probably all dealt with, those annoying hidden fees that show up on things like plane tickets and cell phone bills.

Let's go to CNN Phil Mattingly at the White House.

Phil, explain what President Biden is doing about this.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the so- called junk fees is something the president and his team have actually focused on quite a bit over the course of the last 19 months, taking actions on things like airline fees, car dealer fees, Internet fees, to some degree as well, today really targeting bank overdraft fees, surprise overdraft fees, the fees that might be doled out to depositors if a check that they deposit from someone else ends up bouncing.

Those are now effectively illegal. And what this is, probably more than anything else, Ana, as you know, every poll you look at makes very clear that the number one issue for voters across the country, usually by double-digit, 10 and 20, 25 points, is the economy. And it's inflation to some degree, which remains near a four-decade high.

And what you have seen the administration try and do, look, they are understand there is no near-term fix, there's no silver bullet when it comes to addressing sky-high inflation. So, what else can they try and tackle or attack to address the cost of living?

[13:10:09]

And we have seen it over the course of the last several weeks, whether it was an additional release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, again, a very clear effort to try and drive down gas prices. Obviously, the president moving forward on his campaign pledge to cancel student debt, up to $10,000 for individuals making under $125,000 a year.

You have had IRS changes related to deductions. You obviously had the Social Security benefits are moving up due to inflation as well, and obviously more action on junk fees here.

I think the biggest question right now, particularly when you look at the polling numbers, you can really pick your pollster on this, pick your race on this, is, is this resonating? Is this enough to really kind of set with voters who are very frustrated about the top line, are very frustrated about what they might be seeing at grocery stores?

The president making clear earlier today in his remarks that they feel like they're making progress, this will have real tangible effects for Americans, particularly in a time of high inflation. Will it be enough to change their views? There's certainly a lot of work to do. And White House officials know that, Ana.

CABRERA: Phil Mattingly at the White House, thank you.

Let's get right to Matt Egan now with more on how this could make a difference for you.

Matt, safe to say these fees cost Americans a massive amount of money every year. Just how much are we talking?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, no one likes fees. But it turns out they're not just annoying. They are expensive.

Let me just give you a few examples here. Late payments, $12 billion. Overdraft fees, which is what Phil was just talking about, $15.5 billion in 2019 alone, hotel resort fees, airline baggage and change fees. And this one is crazy, $28 billion in hidden cable fees in 2019 alone.

Now, the companies would argue that these fees are justified and that they are providing a service. But Biden regulators, they are skeptical. I just talked to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, and he told me that people are -- quote -- "sick and tired of these surprise fees" and that there is an all-of-government effort to attack them.

Now, we should note that one of the things that they have attacked today, they have signaled a crackdown on overdraft fees. We have seen in the last year-and-a-half a bunch of big banks say goodbye to overdraft fees, Ally Bank, Capital One, and Citibank.

The CFPB director, he told me that he wouldn't be surprised to see more and more banks do the same, Ana.

CABRERA: Matt, in other news, a new survey is revealing just how much Americans think they need for retirement.

EGAN: Yes.

CABRERA: And that's a lot.

EGAN: It is a lot, Ana, $1.25 million, that's according to this new survey of adults by Northwestern Mutual. This is up by 20 percent from just a year ago.

And, unfortunately, most people are nowhere near saving that amount of money. The average savings is just under $87,000. More concerning, this is down by 11 percent from a year ago. Now, this makes sense because it's been an awful year for the stock market.

Look at this. The S&P 500 started the year around $4,800. It's now $3,750. It's come up just a bit in the last few days. But this is really just a drop in the bucket. If you look bigger picture, the Dow is down by 12 percent so far this year, the S&P 500 down 19 percent. This is on track to be the worst year since,you guessed it, 2008.

The Nasdaq has almost lost 30 percent of its value. This is, of course, because of recession fears, because of inflation concerns, because of this aggressive Federal Reserve, but, Ana, not surprising. The fact that retirement savings are down and the market is down means that people are expecting to work longer.

A year ago, the average expected retirement age was 62.5. Now it's 64.

CABRERA: OK. Matt Egan, thanks for just letting us know what it is.

There is a new booster for COVID-19, but does it provide more protection than previous versions? We will have new details, new data ahead.

Plus, an American killed fighting in Ukraine is finally coming home after the Russian military returns his body. CNN's Clarissa Ward was there for the transfer. She will join us live from Ukraine.

And new today, a judge ordering former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to testify in a growing criminal investigation into election meddling.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[13:18:32]

CABRERA: Turns out, when it comes to the updated COVID booster shots, newer isn't necessarily better. The new shots were expected to provide enhanced protection against

Omicron subvariants, but new research shows that might not be the case. That doesn't mean you shouldn't get a booster, something the president just did yesterday to promote the shot.

And Elizabeth Cohen is joining us with more on this.

So, Elizabeth, what exactly does this research, the new data that we have say?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, these results were pretty disappointing. Labs at Harvard and Columbia went to see, gee, these new boosters, the ones that are supposed to be so great against Omicron, are they any better than the plain old boosters that we have been getting for months and months?

Let's take a look at what the lab at Harvard found. They said that, when people got the original booster, just the one that people have been getting for months and months and months now, it increased antibodies by 15 times. When they got this new one, the Omicron one that the president got yesterday, it increased antibodies by 17 times, and there really wasn't a significant difference between those two.

Now, I should say that the Harvard lab is a lab that has been doing research for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a competitor to the Pfizer and Moderna ones that make these boosters. But, still, the Columbia one had pretty much the same findings.

But the bottom line here is that the booster that is out there still does good. It will keep you from getting very, very sick. It could keep you from dying. So you definitely want to get it, but it may not be any better than the booster that we -- you would have gotten, say, six months ago -- Ana.

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CABRERA: So, what does it say, then, about the future of these Pfizer, Moderna COVID vaccines?

COHEN: Right, because that's what they were testing, was Pfizer and Moderna.

And, actually, the very high-ranking FDA official was talking to STAT, which is a news outlet. And he was really frank about this. I was very surprised. The FDA doesn't usually say stuff like this. And what he said was, we need to look at other types of vaccines. And there are those out there that might provide more durable immunity.

There have been such concerns that these Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, while they're fantastic, they don't provide durable immunity. So, basically, he said, we owe it to the American people, he used the word we owe it to the American people to try to look at other types of vaccines, not just Pfizer and Moderna -- Ana.

CABRERA: Kind of disappointing news there.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for your reporting.

I want to bring in Dr. Tara Narula now.

And, Doctor, all this comes as we're seeing this big surge in RSV cases, especially among these young and vulnerable individuals, our children.

DR. TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

CABRERA: And, in fact, 75 percent of pediatric hospital beds are full nationwide, even higher in some states, 99 percent of pediatric beds full in Rhode Island, for example.

And it turns out, what we were doing to protect ourselves from COVID has now made us sitting ducks?

NARULA: Exactly.

So we have been talking a lot about this term immunity gap or immunity debt. And, really, what has happened is exactly what you said, that all these wonderful mitigation strategies that we put in place to protect us from COVID, well, they actually protected us from a lot of viruses.

And so we did not see the typical surges we see every fall, winter of RSV, of even the flu. And so now we're paying for it, in the sense that all those children, that whole cohort that was born or raised at a young age in those last couple years did not get exposed to RSV. And, typically, this is a virus that most kids have, most adults get before the age of 2.

So you have a whole group of people now getting exposed to it all at once. In addition, the timing is off a little bit. We see that too, the seasonal changes. So, typically, this is a fall/winter. We have seen the onset a little bit earlier.

But this was really predicted. In fact, there was an article published last August by a pediatric disease infectious group. They put out a position statement saying we very well may see a rise, a surge in the coming years. We should be prepared for it. They did mathematical modeling.

So this is not unheard of. It's just really what was unheard of was the kind of unprecedented hygiene or mitigation strategies. And we have never really seen this historically before.

CABRERA: I mean, I think we all know now we need to wash our hands, stay home if you're sick.

NARULA: Correct.

CABRERA: And there are those ways to kind of keep protecting ourselves. But is there anything we can do to boost our immune systems, to help our kids' immunity?

NARULA: Well, those standard things that we talk about, like eating healthy and exercising, right, those are all -- and sleeping -- those are all good immunity boosters.

But, yes, when it comes to kids, all those same things, so making sure that we're all washing our hands. This is a virus that can live on surfaces, hard surfaces for many hours. So you want to clean and disinfect, cover coughs and sneezes.

And, also, lots of these little kids are getting them from -- getting this RSV virus from older siblings or the adults that may be around them and may either not have a lot of symptoms or really mild symptoms. So if somebody is exhibiting that in your family, in your household, kind of keep them separate, don't use the same towels, don't share drinks.

So all the same stuff we talked about with COVID applies to RSV.

CABRERA: We will take it. Those tips can make a big difference.

Thank you so much, Dr. Tara Narula.

NARULA: Thank you.

CABRERA: At a time when you're probably trying to keep your home as germ-free as possible, what you're using to clean your home could be the problem.

Clorox is warning that tens of millions of bottles of its Pine-Sol product might contain a bacteria that could cause potentially deadly infections in people with weakened immune systems. The company is now recalling eight different versions of its multisurface and all-purpose cleaners. The impacted bottles will have a date code beginning with A4 followed by a five-digit number less than 22249.

If that's yours, throw it away. And you can reach out to Pine-Sol for a refund.

The body of an American killed fighting alongside the Ukrainian military back in August is finally returned by the Russian military. CNN's Clarissa Ward witnessed the transfer today and joins us next.

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CABRERA: Welcome back.

Turning now to the war in Ukraine, a fallen American is coming home; 24-year-old Joshua Jones was killed in August. Today, the Russian military returned his body to Ukrainian custody.

CNN's Clarissa Ward was among the CNN team to witness this transfer. And she's joining us from Zaporizhzhia now.

Clarissa, how did this unfold?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has been months in the making, Ana. Basically, the parents of Joshua Jones and also the office of the presidency of Ukraine and two Ukrainian lawmakers have been working around the clock to try to get the remains of Joshua Jones repatriated, so that his family can have closure and have a proper goodbye.

And, today, it finally happened.