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Biden, Trump, Obama Hit The Trail In Final Sprint To Midterms; Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Major Affirmative Action Case; Suspect Arrested In 2017 Killings Of Two Indiana Teens; "Planet Killer" Asteroid Spotted Hiding In Sun's Glare. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 31, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:34:11]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: A couple of hours from now, President Biden is set to unleash on big oil's big profits as Americans pay up at the pump. It's the latest in a string of speeches aimed at sharpening his economic message before the midterms.

And with just eight days left, both parties are ramping up on the trail to rev up voters. President Biden heads to Florida next. Former Presidents Trump and Obama are also lending their star power to candidates in key states this week.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is joining us.

Jeff, how critical are these final pitches in these places?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, time is running out to make these pitches, so they're critical in terms of not persuading voters, Ana, but trying to get voters to the polls.

One difference about midterm elections, the participation is not as high as presidential year elections. That's why former President Obama is out on the campaign trail over the weekend making the argument.

[13:35:02]

And take a listen to how he's framing this conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When gas prices go up, when grocery prices go up, that takes a bite out of people's paychecks. That hurts.

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: But the question you should be asking is, who's going to do something about it?

(SHOUTING)

(APPLAUSE)

OBAMA: The Republicans are having a field day running ads talking about it. But what is their actual solution to it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So the former president there trying to make this a choice election, trying to get voters to focus on the differences between the two parties and trying to motivate and fire up Democratic and maybe some Independent voters.

At the same time, while we heard the other former president give an endorsement in the New Hampshire Senate race.

This is one that's been really interesting that we've been keeping an eye on for some time. Senator Maggie Hassan is a Democrat who is locked in a pretty tight re-election race, but not one of the closest.

But this is interesting in a sense, look at the endorsement the former president tweeted out this morning on his own social media platform.

He said he's giving the full and complete endorsement to a Don Bolduc. "He's asked for my endorsement and he's got it, complete and total. His opponent is a disaster on crime, the border, inflation and all else. Vote for Don Bolduc."

So we will see here. The reason this race is significant is because it does potentially hinge on the majority.

Democrats face a big headwind next week, and they're looking at some potential challenges in some of the second-tier battlegrounds, that certainly is one of them.

So both former presidents trying to fire up their respective bases -- Ana?

CABRERA: OK. Jeff Zeleny, appreciate it. Thanks for that update.

Affirmative action in college admissions is the focus at the Supreme Court today. Justices are considering whether some universities violated student rights by using race as a factor.

Thye decision could mean fewer higher education opportunities for some black and Hispanic students.

CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, is at the Supreme Court.

Jessica, help us better understand the arguments the court is hearing today.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, two cases today. One against the University of North Carolina, the other one against Harvard. The UNC case just wrapped, and the Harvard arguments will begin at any minute now.

Interestingly, the newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is actually not hearing the Harvard arguments. That's because she recused herself from the case because, before she joined the court, she was on the board of overseers at Harvard.

The Supreme Court will be considering whether or not to completely ban affirmative action at colleges and universities all across the country, despite the fact that the court has upheld affirmative action since 1978.

These two particular cases were brought by a group of students called Students for Fair Admissions. They've been arguing that affirmative action discriminates against Asian-American students and whites in favor of black and Hispanic students.

Now they have actually lost repeatedly at the lower court. This has now gone up to the Supreme Court. The arguments today.

And it's quite likely that this solidly conservative court will end up banning affirmative action. We've heard from the justices in three hours of arguments this morning. The conservative justices leaning that way.

In particular, they've been asking, why race-neutral factors aren't enough, and why colleges shouldn't rely on race-neutral factors when they're looking to diversify their campuses.

One justice we've heard repeatedly from on this issue is the chief justice, John Roberts. And we know, in past years, in past cases, he has repeatedly been critical of using race in any number of scenarios.

So it is all a question as to whether or not this court will ban universities and colleges from considering race at all as a factor in admissions.

Interestingly, over the past several years, nine states around the country have banned affirmative action. And what we've heard from some universities in those states, particularly the University of California system and the University of Michigan.

They say that, in those resulting years after affirmative action has been banned, Ana, they say they have not been able to achieve the racial diversity on their campus that affirmative action allowed.

So these colleges saying, for the most part, it's been a detriment to them.

But it does seem that this court is poised to overturn their own precedent and possibly ban affirmative action. It's something we'll know more in the next year. Their opinion likely issued in the spring or the summer -- Ana?

CABRERA: Jessica Schneider, from the Supreme Court, thank you for that report.

[13:39:29]

It is a murder case that shocked a small town and gripped the nation. Now years after two eighth grade girls were killed on an Indiana hiking trail, police have made an arrest. Details ahead.

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CABRERA: Police in Delphi, Indiana, announcing they have made an arrest in the killings of two teenagers, Abigail Williams and Liberty German. The girls went missing while on a hike in 2017.

One of the only pieces of evidence at least publicly was a final grainy video recorded by Libby of a man walking toward her. He says justice four words, in order, "Guys, down the hill."

Police now say that man was Richard Allen. And they've just charged him with the girls' murders.

[13:45:02]

Our Jean Casarez is here with us now.

And what do we know about this man, Richard Allen, and what led to his arrest?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a huge day for the families just to have an arrest in this case.

We know about Richard Allen, that he's 50 years old, that he lives in Delphi, a very small town of less than 3,000 people. We know that he's worked at the local CVS.

We know that on October 13th, detectives -- and this is from HLN -- came to his home -- and we have a picture I believe -- they executed a search, detectives did, for hours.

And Barbara McDonald, producer at HLN, says that he came out along with his wife. They stood outside. His wife sat in their car for a little bit. But for hours, detectives searched and took things out of the home.

We know that he was arrested last Wednesday. He was formally charged on Friday with two counts of murder. He has already had his initial hearing. He has pleaded not guilty.

CABRERA: Again, this is such a small town, about 3,000 people. A man who works at the local CVS. He resembles the sketch. Why did it take nearly six years?

CASAREZ: Here's some brand-new information. Barbara McDonald of HLN spoke with the family of Abby German, Libby German today.

And her aunt said that she's a regular at the CVS. That she went there in 2017 when she was having the pictures made for Libby's funeral. And that he helped her.

And that Rick Allen, as she knows of him, Rick Allen, he helped her making the pictures. And he said, look, I'm not going to charge you anything because this is for the funeral. And that is chilling right there. CABRERA: So chilling. No kidding.

As far as, you know, again, what police are sharing, seems like they're very tight lipped, why?

CASAREZ: It is amazing because the charging document is sealed. This is a public document. This is -- I've seen hundreds, thousands of charging documents, and they say very little. But this is sealed.

We also know that Libby's aunt told Barbara McDonald that she didn't recognize the pictures, the sketches they had put out with him. She never correlated the two. She doesn't think there's a similarity there. Maybe in person there isn't a similarity.

Everything is sealed. That is amazing right there. They say it's because it's an open investigation.

But they also say they know there will be a hearing because people are going to -- probably the media is going to say this is public information, we have a right to know.

CABRERA: OK. You're going to stay on top of it as always.

CASAREZ: Yes.

CABRERA: Jean Casarez, thank you very much.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

CABRERA: Astronomers spot a, quote, "planet-killer asteroid" hidden in the glare of the sun. Just how close could it get to earth?

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[13:52:13]

CABRERA: A planet-killer asteroid has been spotted in earth's vicinity, the biggest in years. I'm serious about this. You can't make it up.

We could be on a collision course. Many, many years from now. The thing is, scientists aren't sure exactly when.

CNN space and defense correspondent, Kristin Fisher, is here to explain.

Just how worried should we be, Kristin?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, these asteroids definitely pose a risk but it's a different risk.

I tell you what what's more concerning is almost how they were found. There were three large, near-earth asteroids that have been hidden by the glare of the sun. Kind of lurking there.

And it really poses a problem for telescopes on the ground that are critical for spotting these potentially earth, problem-causing asteroids or asteroids that pose problems for earth. You have to use telescopes to spot them.

And so astronomers found these three asteroids. Two of them are big enough that they are categorized as planet killers, which means that they are about a kilometer or .6 miles across.

And one of those asteroids is the largest potentially hazardous asteroid to be discovered in the last eight years.

And it does have an orbit that could come close to earth at some point. We just don't know when. Likely many, many generations from now. But certainly could pose a threat down the road.

And this is something that happened back in 2019, something very similar, where astronomers noticed a potentially dangerous asteroid, just a few days before it made a very close pass to earth.

And so you know, Ana, we talked a lot about NASA's DART mission, recently. This mission to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid and push it off course. NASA was successful in doing that.

But in order to make that technology successful, Ana, you have to find the asteroid. You have to see it well in advance.

And the reason the discovery announced today is so concerning is because these asteroids, again, just snuck up on astronomers but would not allow NASA the time to deploy the kind of technology that was used successfully used during that DART mission -- Ana?

CABRERA: Oh, wow. I guess we'll track it. We'll see what happens. This is kind of alarming.

I do want to get your take on another space story here. Because as a kid, we all made that drawing, you know, with the smiley face on the sun.

Well, it turns out it is scientifically accurate. Take a look at this. You see the actual sun with an actual smiley face right now. Explain what we're looking at here, Kristin.

FISHER: It does look like a smiley face. Some people have said it looks like a jack-o-lantern just in time for Halloween.

What you're seeing is essentially pieces of a solar storm. And so the reason that can sometimes cause problems here on earth is it can disrupt satellites in particular. And that can disrupt our GPS.

[13:55:11]

Fortunately, this solar storm not to cause any -- not supposed to cause any big problems on earth. But again, we got some new images just in time for trick or treating.

CABRERA: All right, thank you so much, Kristin Fisher. And that does it for us today. Thank you all for joining us. I'll see

you back here tomorrow, same time, same place -- unless I win the Powerball jackpot. Hey, you can't win if you don't play, right?

The news continues with Victor Blackwell and Bianna Golodryga right after this.

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