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Countdown to Midterms; Fetterman and OZ Spar in Only Pennsylvania Senate Debate; DOJ Asks Judge to Force Trump White House Lawyers to Testify; St. Louis School Gunman Describes Himself as Perfect Storm for Mass Shooter; Russian Court Upholds Brittney Griner's Prison Sentence; Sunak to Face First Questions in Parliament as Prime Minister. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 26, 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]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he's on TV, I'm lying. I had a stroke, he never let me forget that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Fetterman takes everything to an extreme and those extreme positions hurt us all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just how much information the Justice Department wants particularly about people's interaction with Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most important witnesses for the Justice Department's criminal investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We likely have a recession in the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything is going up except our income.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.
FOSTER: Hello it's Wednesday, October 26th. 9 a.m. here in London. 4 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast.
U.S. election day now less than two weeks away and Democrats are on the defensive, desperate to keep their ever so slim majority in Congress. Close races in battleground states like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada could alter the balance of power. Voters know this and are motivated. More than 9.2 million early and absentee ballots have already been cast. That's on par with the midterms of 2018 which had the highest early voter turnout in recent history for midterm elections.
And these are the main issues driving voters to the polls. According to a recent survey by Monmouth University, Americans want the federal government to address inflation and unemployment. Crime is also a top concern. Economic issues are getting a heavy play in Pennsylvania where the country's highest stakes Senate race is underway. Republican celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz faces off against Democrat John Fetterman on Tuesday during their one and only debate.
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JOHN FETTERMAN, DEMOCRATIC U.S. SENATE NOMINEE FOR PENNSYLVANIA: I am also having to talk about something called the Oz rule, that if he's on TV, he's lying. He did that during his career on his TV show. He's done that during his campaign about lying about our record here and he's also lying probably during this debate.
MEHMET OZ, REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATE NOMINEE FOR PENNSYLVANIA: I want to bring civility, balance, all of the things you want to see because you've been telling it to me on the campaign trail. And by doing that we can bring us together in a way that has not been done of late. Democrats, Republicans talking to each other. John Fetterman takes everything to an extreme and those extreme positions hurt us all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Oz has the endorsement of former U.S. President Donald Trump and says he'll support Trump if he runs for president again in 2024. Meanwhile, Fetterman struggled at times during the debate. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Two weeks before election day one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country in Pennsylvania unfolded with an unusual debate here Tuesday night in Harrisburg. The big take away was John Fetterman's health. There's been a question. Is he strong enough? Has his health improved enough to be a United States Senator? His doctor says it has. But the voters of Pennsylvania will have to make that decision for themselves without question.
John Fetterman's who's the lieutenant governor of this state, who's been recovering from a stroke since May, struggled to get his point across and many turns. He struggled to articulate his attacks his campaign has been making on social media for months directly with Mehmet Oz standing just a few feet away.
It was clear John Fetterman was trying to make his case, his position on Democratic policies. Supporting abortion rights without question. Largely supporting the Biden agenda but differing on immigration and a few other matters. But throughout the debate in some respects, it was uncomfortable just to watch him to struggle to try and keep up to the speed of the debate.
Now he was reading closed captioning, that is what he uses to help process the sounds he is hearing. Now Dr. Oz largely did not talk about this directly. He tried to keep the issue focused on the issues and now he says that John Fetterman is too extreme for Pennsylvania. Focusing on crime, focusing on the economy and inflation but this was a debate unlike any we've seen in this midterm election campaign. Again, different viewers will drive different calculations about what they saw. Democrats may largely give Fetterman the benefit of the doubt. The question will other voters do the same.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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[04:05:00]
FOSTER: New York is one of 36 states voting for governor this year. Incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Lee Zeldin squared off on Tuesday in their one and only debate. Hochul criticized Zeldin for his support of Donald Trump and his election conspiracy and she questioned his stance on the Supreme Court decision on abortion. The candidates talked a lot about gun control and fighting crime.
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KATHY HOCHUL (D) NEW YORK GOVERNOR: There is no crime There is no crime fighting plan if it doesn't include guns, illegal guns, and you refuse to talk about how we can do so much more. You didn't even show up for votes in Washington when a bipartisan group of enlightened legislators voted for the assault weapon ban. And we've lost another child and a teacher yesterday in St. Louis because people will not support what I was able to get done here in New York and that is a ban on assault weapons for teenagers.
LEE ZELDIN, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Unfortunately, Kathy Hochul believes that the only crimes that are being committed are the crimes with guns and yet you have people afraid of being pushed in front of oncoming subway cars, they're being stabbed, beaten to death on the street with hammers. Go talk to the Asian-American community and how is impact them with the loss of lives. Jewish people targeted with raw violent antisemitism on our streets. It happened yet again. We need to be talking about all of these other crimes. But instead, Kathy Hochul is too busy patting herself on the back, job well done.
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FOSTER: As Democrats seek to hold on to their slim majorities in the House and Senate, one official says President Biden has directed the Democratic National Committee to transfer an additional $10 million to the two groups campaign arm. And We're told that he also offered another $8 million to fundraising ahead of the critical midterm elections. This would bring the total amount of DNC funds transferred to $27 million, a record for the Democratic Party.
Early voting in Georgia is soaring to new heights. The Secretary of State reports 1 million ballots have already been cast. At this point in the midterm elections that number was around 590,000. Authorities say a small number of ballots may have been lost when a mail truck caught fire in Baker County on Tuesday and election officials are investigating a fake ballot detected last week in Spaulding County. And the rest of the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona, two
counties plan to hand count ballots in the midterms. In Nevada there are nine counties there are plans to begin hand counting mail-in ballots this week. One in Arizona, two Republicans in the Cochise County Board of Supervisors have voted to authorize a hand count audit in all precincts even though the county attorney the move violates state law. Both moves a sign of distrust of the electronic vote tallying machines in parts of the country.
The U.S. Justice Department is trying to break through Donald Trump's attempts to avoid scrutiny of his actions of the day of the Capitol riots. Sources tell CNN they're trying to get additional testimony from Trump. White House lawyers Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, as CNN's Evan Perez has the details.
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EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to compel the top two lawyers from Donald Trump's White House to provide testimony to a grand jury about conversations with the former president. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin are among the most important witnesses for the Justice Department's criminal investigation looking into Trump's efforts to impede the transfer of power after the 2020 election.
The two men pushed back against Trump's false vote fraud claims and legal wrangling that is playing out in a series of court fights, one that the Justice Department has been winning. In recent weeks the Justice Department won a judge's order to obtain new testimony from top advisers to former Vice President Mike Pence. Greg Jacob and Marc Short were compelled to answer questions to the grand jury which has opened the way for the Justice Department's criminal investigation to reach further into Trump's inner circle.
All four men previously declined to answer at least some questions about the advice and the interactions with Trump when they testified in recent months. Trump lost the battle related to Jacob and Short before the Chief Judge at the U.S. District Court in Washington DC last month. Now the disputes are likely to spawn several more court fights that will be crucial for prosecutors as they work to bring criminal charges related to Trump's post criminal efforts.
Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
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FOSTER: Meanwhile, Hope Hicks is having a transcribed interview with the January 6 committee. Sources tell CNN Trump's former communications director already had an informal interview and is now being called back for a formal discussion. According to multiple books, Hicks told Trump he lost the 2020 election and received pushed back for not believing the vote had been stolen.
[04:10:00] Police say the 19-year-old gunman who killed two people at a St. Louis high school was armed with an AR-15 style rifle, more than a dozen magazines and over 600 rounds of ammunition. A school dean said he almost became one of the shooter's victims.
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MANFRET MCGHEE, DEAN OF ARTS, CENTRAL VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS HIGH SCHOOL: I stepped into the hallway to find out, you know, a little bit more about what was going on. At that moment the shooter was in the hallway and fired a shot at myself and another co-worker.
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FOSTER: Investigators found a handwritten note inside the gunman's car that he drove to the school. The interim police commissioner read some excerpts.
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LT. COL. MICHAEL SACK, INTERIM COMMISSIONER, ST. LOUIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: I don't have any friends. I don't have any family. I've never had a girlfriend. I've never had a social life. I've been an isolated loner my entire life. This was the perfect storm for a mass shooter, end quote.
So, in reading this we can see, you know, some of what's going on inside his mind. He feels isolated, he feels alone, quite possibly angry and resentful of others who had what appeared to him to be healthy relationships and so a desire to lash out.
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FOSTER: Officials credited locked doors and a swift law enforcement response from preventing more deaths.
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MATT DAVIS, PRESIDENT, ST. LOUIS BOARD OF EDUCATION: You saw the police response. It was massive. It was overwhelming. If you talk to the law enforcement, they don't believe that it is in the best interest of our society to allow people to have these high powered rifles, especially when they fall into the hands of people that want to do harm.
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FOSTER: And we're learning more about the victims as well. Jean Kuczka was a 61-year-old teacher who died protecting her students. Her daughter told CNN she was looking forward to retirement. Alexandra Bell was a student who was looking forward to her 16th birthday, according to her father. The school's principal offered words of comfort to her students.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. KACY SHAHID, CVPA PRINCIPAL: There's no award for these type of situations and moments so I want the students of Central Visual Performing Arts to know as well as the staff and our community at large that stands with us that we will get through this together.
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FOSTER: Now in just a few hours a Wisconsin jury will resume deliberations in the case of a man accused of deliberately driving his car into a Christmas parade last year. Jurors met for nearly 2 hours on Tuesday night without reaching a verdict. Darrell Brooks is a accused of killing 6 people and injuring dozens when he plowed his SUV into the crowd in Waukesha last December. Brooks has been representing himself in court. He told the jury he didn't drive into the crowd on purpose and asked them to consider whether his car may have malfunctioned.
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's lawyers tells CNN her clients are still hoping for a prisoner swap after a Russian court upheld her prison sentence on Tuesday. U.S. officials say they continue to work to free Griner and Marine veteran Paul Whelan who is also jailed in Russia.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are in constant contact with Russian authorities to get Brittney and others out and so far, we have not been meeting with much healthy response. We're not stopping.
NET PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: The denial of Brittney Griner's appeal is another repudiation of justice which only compounds the original injustice of her detention. There is communication regarding her case. There is communication regarding the case of Paul Whelan. The fact is, however, that this process has not moved as swiftly as we would have liked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: For more on the story I'm joined by Clare Sebastian. It's difficult to know what's holding things up. Presumably, you know, Americans aren't offering the Russians what they want.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT Well, they think say they haven't had a serious counter offer yet from the Russian side. But of course, what happened in court on Tuesday really piles the pressure on this prisoner swap. Brittney Griner said to be very upset. She didn't have that much hope going into it according to her lawyers. But of course, after eight months in Russian detention, you do hold out a glimmer for things like this. So, she is very upset. And of course, the question now is what happens to her as she goes on to serve her sentence. Where will she go? And this is a question that was put to her lawyer last night. Take a listen.
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MARIA BLAGOVOLINA, LAWYER FOR BRITTNEY GRINER: It will be penal colony potentially. But I mean, this is how the system works. So, every person who has been accused and becomes convicted goes to a penal colony. So, as I said It's a bit too early to talk about this.
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SEBASTIAN: And I think part of not wanting to say too much about that is because it's so upsetting to her family. The fact that she's going to a Russian penal colony. Conditions in these places are not generally that great.
[04:15:00]
The State Department reports about overcrowding, abuse by guards, limited access to health care, all of those things. We've seen those things reported by the other American detainees. Paul Whelan who is in a penal colony himself, they could be remote as well. So, Moscow again, pressure is mounting on the prisoner swap. But as you heard the State Department spokesman say things are not moving as quickly as they like.
FOSTER: Just remind us what the Russians ideally would like from the U.S. as we understand it.
SEBASTIAN: So, we don't know. But what the U.S. is put forward is what they called a substantial proposal. That apparently was put on the table back in June. So, even way before her trial started. And that was to swap Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan for Viktor Bout, that convicted arms smuggler.
FOSTER: Clare, thank you.
Still to come, trusted brand Adidas, billions of dollars lost. Businesses turn their backs on rapper Ye after he doubles down on his antisemitic comments.
And there was supposed to be allegedly a 20 minute walk but a trip into an Arizona cavern turned into a 31 hour ordeal for a family of tourists. Their story just ahead.
Plus, heavy rain is headed to some bone dry parts of the U.S. meteorologist Pedram Javaheri will have our forecast.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, some good news across the areas of the United States that need it most. We're talking about wet weather and we've seen plenty of it across the central region of the U.S. Where parts of this area, 100 percent of some of these states underneath a drought condition and more rainfall in store here. We'll touch on this coming up in a couple of minutes.
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BIDEN: We're here with a simple message, get vaccinated. We're already seeing a rise in flu and RSV and other respiratory illnesses, especially among young children. So, take precautions. Stay safe. You can spend Thanksgiving with family and friends with a piece of mind knowing that you've done your part for everyone's well-being.
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FOSTER: U.S. president Joe Biden rolled up his sleeve on Tuesday for his updated COVID booster shot. The president is using eligible Americans -- urging eligible Americans to follow his example as the nation heads into a possible winter case surge.
The White House is concerned about the triple threat posed by COVID- 19, the flu and RSV. He's encouraging Americans to get vaccinated for COVID and the flu. Meanwhile, the U.S. has seen a steady uptick in RSV cases since August. President Biden's COVID response coordinator says he's hopeful there will be an RSV vaccine by next fall.
Now here in London the British government's new leader will soon face a grilling from lawmakers during his first Prime Minister's questions in parliament and his first full day in office. Rishi Sunak quickly got to work filling out his cabinet on Tuesday as he prepares to tackle the economic and political turmoil. Mr. Sunak is also focused on reaffirming relationships. He held a call with the U.S. President Joe Biden and agreed on the huge strength of the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. CNN's Bianca Nobilo joins us here with more on this. And you're looking at Prime Minister's questions, of course. But first of all, what did you make of the cabinet picks.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's clearly trying to telegraph he's going to back up his calls for unity with action. Because he's drawn from the right of the party, the left of the party. He's got figures that supported Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt all involved in government in some capacity.
There have been criticisms. Let's face it, he's not going to have a honeymoon period. He doesn't have a mandate of an election. So, he's got a lot less room to maneuver. Some say that he should have given Penny Mordaunt, his potential rival, a bigger job and that was quite a bit of a snob. But most controversy has been centered around the re- appointment of the Home Secretary Suella Braverman. So, she was sacked by Liz Truss just a week ago for sending a confidential official document from her personal Gmail. She admitted to that security breach and then resigned. Now we understand there's more going on behind the scenes then just that. But if you look at the --
FOSTER: But she made an offer for the job to support Sunak.
NOBILO: This is the thing, so on the weekend her coming out in favor of Rishi Sunak became one of the most instrumental factors in Boris Johnson's campaign losing momentum and possibility and Sunak gaining it. Because she was a key figure head of the right of the party.
FOSTER: And in terms of the Prime Minister's questions, I mean, a hell of a challenge is in it, on your first day of the job going straight into that moment. NOBILO: Yes, 24 hours since he walked into Downing Street as Prime
Minister for the first time. And it's always the most nerve racking thing for any Prime Minister from very competent communicators like Blair. They would still say that at the end of their 10 year this is what worried them the most. And he's had so little time to prepare.
It will be interesting to see how he -- you know, if he thrives or if he struggles. He hasn't usually been very spontaneous and you have to be able to think on your feet against the MPs. The key thing though will be if the benches behind him give resounding cheers when he's, you know, trying to rebuke anything that Keir Starmer is trying to attack him with. And let's face it, there's quite a lot for him to go on. And I think the Labour Party is going to be focusing on their criticisms of the cabinet appointments, possibly Sunak's wealth and maybe the fact that he looked like he was trying to stab Boris Johnson in the back earlier in the year.
FOSTER: Bianca, we'll be back for that. We look forward to it.
Now we'll going to have a look at the weather. More than 25 million people in the southeastern U.S. were under severe storm threats on Tuesday with high winds capable of producing tornadoes putting some people at risk. But the storms are moving on bringing much-needed rain to areas struggling with drought conditions. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the latest forecast.
JAVAHERI: Good morning, Max. Yes, the wet weather certainly has been good news for portions of the southern United States. We've had some severe weather in the last couple of days as well. Generally, the straight line winds are the primary concern. Some of the reports across the Lone Star state of Texas, because some damage and some images to share with you of a fire house that receive some damage with winds that were gusting up to 60, 70 plus miles per hour times as the system rolled through.
But for now, we'll take a case of a severe, clear day here for most at least. Pockets of wet weather around the Northeast, portions of the Northwest also dealing with wet weather. But you'll notice, of course, we've seen a lot of this rainfall in the past few days. Areas of eastern Oklahoma, portions of Missouri, into Arkansas as well.
[04:25:00]
Widespread coverage of 2 to 4 inches in a region that is really drought stricken.
And then up towards the northwest, the interior portion of the northwest also seeing the beneficial snowfall come down. But we touched on this. The areas of this region have seen up to 100 percent of their state -- Oklahoma we're talking to you -- with drought conditions in place. But again, notice over the next few days, parts of Oklahoma, certainly into Texas, areas of Arkansas, beneficial rainfall is in store.
Now Washington and Oregon also in the same category of drought. And then you'll notice, over the next five or so days additional rounds of wet weather in store. So, a lot of good news for folks that need the rainfall.
Much cooler air has filtered in. So, in Green Bay and Chicago where it was close to 70 degrees. Only the 50s in store for your Wednesday afternoon.
Eastern U.S. expect Halloween and into early next week to be above average. The Western U.S. for that same time period, expect above average in the wet weather department. Temperatures when you look at the spreadsheet, across Seattle in the next seven days, maybe five of them bring wet weather across the region. Just a couple of weeks ago it was 88 degrees in Seattle. The best they can do now, about 53 degrees. About 60 in Omaha, Max, in Washington around 70 and New Orleans, not a bad day, has there, around 74 degrees.
FOSTER: Not bad at all. Now a family vacationing in Arizona is glad to be back above ground after what was supposed to be a leisurely 20 minute walking tour in the caverns of the Grand Canyon turned into a 31 hour ordeal. The group of eight including two small children took an elevator ride into the cavern. But when they went to leave, the elevator malfunctioned and they were stuck.
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DOUGLAS GRASHEL, WAS STRANDED AT GRAND CANYON CAVERNS: We had water to begin with and they brought us down food after we requested it. And then after many questions that were asked, they finally decided that besides myself, my wife, Sherry, the toddlers and the baby, there was no way in the world that we were going to be able to make it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: 31 hours passed before rescue crews were able to get the family back to the surface. Grand Canyon Caverns haven't responded to CNN's request for a comment.
Still to come, Adidas responds to the public outcry for Adidas cutting ties with Kanye West. But some of his former fans are carrying it even further, Bernie pricing merchandise in protest of the rapper. The latest in the controversy next.
And also, they're supposed to be enjoying their golden years but for many senior citizens, rising inflation is not only taking away the relaxing peace of retirement but forcing them to make some painful, hard choices. That's ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
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