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Supreme Court Rejects Bid By Sen. Graham's Request To Block Subpoena In Georgia Election Meddling Investigation; Cheney: Jan. 6 Committee "In Discussions" With Trump's Attorneys For Him To Testify Under Oath; FBI: Suspect Who Attacked Pelosi's Husband Wanted To Show Congress There Are "Consequences To Actions"; Mike Pence Attends Rally With Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp; Delta Pilots Willing To Strike, If Necessary, For Higher Pay. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 01, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:49]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: And I'm Bianna Golodryga. Happening right now, President Biden is just taken to the stage in Florida to rally Democrats ahead of the midterms. We'll bring you that live shortly.

Meantime, two major developments in the two separate investigations involving the former president, the Supreme Court has just rejected Sen. Lindsey Graham's request to block a subpoena. Now this is from the investigation into the 2020 election in Georgia where a district attorney is demanding that he testified before grand jury.

BLACKWELL: And the Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection says that they could be one step closer to getting former President Trump to testify.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): The Committee's in discussions with President Trump's attorneys and he has an obligation to comply and we treat this and take this very seriously. We haven't made determinations about the format itself, but it'll be done under oath. It'll be done potentially over multiple days. We have significant questions based on the evidence that we've developed and as I said, what we know already about the extent to which he was personally indirectly involved in every aspect of this effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Sara Murray is following both of these developments. Let's start with Lindsey Graham, where does this go from here now?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, the Senator really did not want to have to show up in Georgia before this grand jury. Now the Supreme Court's decision makes clear he's going to have to. His testimony has been set for November 17, but he does have a lot of wiggle room still. I mean, what the lower courts said is that there are still some things he can't be asked about because it has to do with his legislative activity, essentially his role as a U.S. senator.

So when he gets before that grand jury, which is the secret process, he can object to certain questions and say, this has to do with what I was doing as a senator, I don't feel I should have to answer that. It's possible he could still move forward and litigate certain questions in court.

But it's a win for the DA. She wanted him in front of her special grand jury. She said she wants to wrap up her investigative work by the end of the year, so this works toward that timeline. And remember, she wanted to ask him about calls he made to Georgia officials around the 2020 election, including one call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where Raffensperger thought he was trying to convince him to throw away votes, which is something Graham has denied.

GOLODRYGA: Surely just though, as you said, a narrow scope of questioning there. Let's get your take on what we just heard from Liz Cheney. Is there really a chance that we could see Donald Trump testify before this committee or is this just posturing?

MURRAY: Well, look, I mean, there are discussions going on behind the scenes, that's what Liz Cheney is making clear and I think that's what has to happen both from the Committee side, as well as from the side of the Trump team. The Committee has to show that they've made some good faith discussions, some good faith potential accommodations to try to get the former president there.

And the former president's team, if he doesn't want to end up in a situation of Steve Bannon, needs to have some kind of an engagement with the Committee before they decide to move forward with whatever they want to do next. Is this a guarantee that he's going to appear and that he's going to testify? No, absolutely not. It means that they are having these discussions behind the scenes.

Trump obviously has a variety of other legal issues hanging over them and there are plenty of lawyers who would say you shouldn't be putting your client before a congressional committee under oath when you have all these other potential legal problems out there. So we're going to have to see how this plays out.

His deadline to provide documents is this Friday, the deadline for him to provide testimony was November 14th, so we should get more updates on how this is going in the coming days.

BLACKWELL: All right. Sara Murray, thanks for the reporting.

MURRAY: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: We're also following new developments this hour on the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband in their San Francisco home. The White House and the U.S. Capitol Police are responding just as the suspect is about to be in court for the first time since the brutal assault on Friday.

In the last hour, the chief of the U.S. Capitol police called for more security resources to "provide additional layers of physical security for members of Congress." Chief Tom Manger said that this is on top of the enhancements made after the January 6 Capitol riot.

BLACKWELL: Now, the White House declined to answer whether it supports the additional security measures.

[15:05:03]

But the Press Secretary said that the President takes security for members of Congress very seriously and condemns political violence regardless of party.

Let's go now to CNN's Veronica Miracle in San Francisco. So this accused attacker will be in court in about an hour and a half, tell us about the charges he's facing from both state and federal prosecutors.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Bianna, David DePape is facing multiple state charges here including attempted homicide, burglary, elder abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, among other felonies. And just between those charges, he faces 13 years to life in prison. In addition to that, he faces two federal charges and if convicted of those, he faces a maximum of 50 years in federal prison.

Now we are learning very chilling new details from the court documents filed yesterday in an affidavit. David DePape is described as going to the Pelosi residence seeking out Nancy Pelosi wanting to target and kidnap her. And when he discovered that she wasn't there, he told police that he was willing to wait for days in order for her to return home. He also said to police that he took the hammer and struck Paul Pelosi as punishment for Nancy Pelosi's actions.

Also in that affidavit, David DePape is described as wanting to break Nancy Pelosi's knees so that she would have to be wheeled in front of Congress so that other members of Congress could see the consequences of their actions. He's also - he also described her as the leader of a pack of lies for the Democratic Party and the District Attorney here for San Francisco, Brooke Jenkins, says that this was absolutely politically motivated. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE JENKINS, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY: ... was something that we have to take very seriously and it's very sad to see that we are once again at a point in history where people believe that it's okay to express their political sentiments through violence. And so I think it really demonstrates that we have to calm things down, we have to decide that we are going to be more respectful as an American society, that it's okay to disagree, but it certainly is something that has unnerved us all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MIRACLE: And Paul Pelosi is still recovering in a local hospital

from his very serious injuries, including a skull fracture. Speaker Pelosi put out a statement last night saying while her husband is recovering, he has a very long road ahead of him, Victor, Bianna?

BLACKWELL: All right. Veronica Miracle for us there.

Again, DePape will be in court in about 90 minutes. Thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Joining us now to discuss is CNN Senior Political Correspondent Abby Phillip and CNN Senior Political Analyst John Avlon. We also want to remind viewers that we are following President Biden there, campaigning in Florida. He's currently speaking on Social Security and prescription drugs and everything that his administration has done for Americans to effort, a lot of these issues that really is vital to millions of Americans and threatening in his words that Republicans could take that away. We'll bring you his comments in just a few minutes.

But let me turn to you, John, and as we're covering this attack on Paul Pelosi, because let's not forget that DePape was espousing these anti - these election denial, right, conspiracy theories and I'm curious to get your take given that there are election deniers on the ballot currently, do voters at least think twice now given what has just happened to the Speaker's husband as they make their way to the polls?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's a cautionary tale in terms of what happens with this violent online extremist rhetoric. It can bleed over into real world violence. We should learn that in January 6th. I think we see a vivid, an ugly example of this, again, not just election denial comments on this blog but QAnon sort of nonsense and other things.

I don't think most voters will associate this with Republicans writ large in their districts. I think at the end of the day, most voters will look at things like inflation and crime. But the larger backdrop of candidates who have embraced or espoused extremism in the form of overturning an election. We got to remember as a country, we reap what we sow and this is a vivid example of those kinds of worst case scenarios.

BLACKWELL: And Abby, beyond just the election denial, there is the extra layer on top of it from some of those on the right, like Kari Lake who made the joke about Paul Pelosi, Don Trump Jr. and what he posted on his social media. Kari Lake says this is a First Amendment issue, I'm allowed to talk about this.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, look, she's allowed to say whatever she wants, I think voters have to decide whether they want their elected officials saying things of that nature. I think John's right. Look, voters are going to vote on the things that are closest to them, their pocketbooks, et cetera. But you do have Democrats across the country and Kari Lake's example is one example of this, maybe Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania is another example of this. [15:10:01]

Democrats running against these Republicans who are election deniers who are who are a part and parcel of the conspiracy theories that this guy was drowning in. And I don't think you can really get away from that and if Democrats are trying to make an argument about extremism, it got a little bit easier. But that's not going to be enough to win elections in the most competitive of these races where I think it's going to turn on the overall climate.

GOLODRYGA: Let's turn to Georgia where former Vice President Pence is campaigning with Gov. Kemp right now.

AVLON: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: We just heard comments from him moments ago, let's play the sound and get your reaction to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm supporting the whole ticket here in Georgia. But I'm here for Gov. Brian Kemp today, because I've had the privilege to know him from before he was governor and to work with him during our time as vice president. We probably had no greater partner before economic growth for law and order or for our values than Governor Brian Kemp.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Supporting the entire ticket, did not mention Herschel Walker's name but alluded to the fact that he will be voting for him and that were supporting him. Does that change the trajectory of that race at all for voters?

AVLON: Well, first of all I think it's fascinating that Mike Pence is campaigning for Kemp, both men having very serious conflicts with Donald Trump since January 6th. And I think it continues something we saw on CNN this morning with our colleagues interviewing Gov. Kemp where he didn't want to talk about Herschel Walker either.

There is a sense that there is - the top of the ticket is trying to separate themselves from Herschel Walker because so much of what he has said and done is frankly indefensible and Kemp's trying to reach out and win over moderate voters and independents in Georgia and he's got a good shot at doing that. But not if he's sort of taking on the baggage of Herschel Walker, a lot of which is self-inflicted, frankly.

BLACKWELL: Let me stay in Georgia for this because Nicquel Terry Ellis has an interesting piece on cnn.com. The black men say they feel ignored by politicians and a historic Senate face-off between two black men isn't helping. Now, some polls have suggested that black male voters were shifting some of them away from the Democratic Party, Trump got 12 percent of black men in 2020. But the men of this story were insulted in a way that the Republican Party put up Herschel Walker against Warnock and to say that this is the person you thought would - that veer us over to the Republican Party. PHILLIP: Yes. And I think you saw there was a viral clip that went

viral like yesterday of a very influential black pastor in Atlanta ...

BLACKWELL: Jamal Bryant, yes.

Phillip: ... Jamal Bryant, making that exact argument that it is two black Americans, especially in a state like Georgia, the birthplace of the civil rights movement to put up a candidate like Herschel Walker, who is in the words of some of these critics is a caricature of a certain type of black man, someone who's had infidelity problems, many children out of wedlock who self-proclaimed not a very smart person, so there's that.

But I do think that the broader point of Nicquel's piece is that there is a problem for Democrats among black men, even Latino men, where there is a little bit of drifting over to the Republican Party. And the reasons for that are very diverse and there are many, but I think the bottom line is those voters want to be spoken to directly by the Democratic Party. They don't feel that way right now.

And there has been something about the Trump era where Trump didn't have to talk about immigration in a different way, he could still demonize immigrants, he could still say offensive things and he's still been able to make some inroads in these communities. And I don't think that Democrats have really looked at that and figured out what's going on there.

And we may be seeing in this midterm cycle another cycle where there's that erosion. They're not - Republicans are not going to win black man or win black voters, but erosion in these critical states do - does matter.

GOLODRYGA: And we've spent a lot of time focusing on these four states, right: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, but I know something that you're really focusing on as well are these so-called sleeper election states. Talk about why and why North Carolina is something that we should all be watching.

AVLON: North Carolina is a classic example where Democrats have not been investing as much time and energy but this is a much closer race than folks might expect of a former Supreme Court justice of the state Cheri Beasley, running against Ted Budd, a very conservative Trumpist congressman who voted to overturn the election. This race is close.

And look, the dynamics in North Carolina not only Obama won it in 2008, but independent unaffiliated voters became the largest voting bloc back in March. So this thing is much more up for grabs than you might think. And there are a lot of these sleeper races outside the Big Four we've been focusing on, which could surprise people.

And look, what Democrats will say nationally is: you know what, these elections tend to slip away at the last minute in Ohio, in North Carolina, therefore we're not going to invest.

[15:15:02] But I think it undercuts the argument of candidate quality, which

actually benefits Democrats arguably in both these states where Tim Ryan and Beasley are excellent candidates, potentially, who could become national leaders if they win. So there are a lot of races that we're not paying as much attention to that could surprise folks.

PHILLIP: And in some cases, those two candidates might want to stay away from the National limelight. They have been able to put up tough fights because they distance themselves from national Republicans and they - I think they both might want more financial investment ...

AVLON: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

PHILLIP: But they don't necessarily want to be part of these national headlines. The other thing I would say to your point, I'm also fascinated by these races, but those two states: Ohio, North Carolina, they're also places where the polling was pretty off in 2020. And I think that's why there are some nervousness among Democrats that they can trust what the numbers appear to be saying about how close they are.

BLACKWELL: All right. One week left.

AVLON: There you go.

BLACKWELL: All right. Abby, John, thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

PHILLIP: Can't wait.

GOLODRYGA: Well, as we just mentioned, former Vice President Mike Pence, just ensured voters that he is supporting the entire GOP ticket in Georgia.

BLACKWELL: He was out campaigning with Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, who is in a tight race with Democrat Stacey Abrams. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is covering this one for us. Dianne, what is the former Vice President's message to Georgia voters?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor, Bianna, the former vice president actually still on the premises here before heading to their next stop on this bus tour, telling the people who showed up and coming to Georgia that Brian Kemp has done, in his opinion, a good job over the past four years. At one point telling them that he's supported Brian Kemp before, supporting Brian Kemp was cool.

They went over the way that Kemp handled the pandemic, something that is very familiar to anybody who has heard Kemp's stump speech over the past few months here. The elephant in the room, of course, being the former President Donald Trump who not only encouraged an opponent but endorsed that opponent heavily in the primary against Governor Brian Kemp. No real mention of any of that today. There were a couple of mentions

of the Trump-Pence ticket and what appeared to be a little joke from the former vice president when encouraging people to go out and vote early, saying you should email, you should call, you should even tweet if you need to do that, everybody kind of laughed about it.

But more than half even we heard the former vice president talking about Kemp's opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, attempting to cast her almost as a scary figure trying to pit them against each other in manners saying that you've got to not just keep her out of the governor's mansion, but keep her away from any other higher office.

This is something that the Kemp campaign has tried to do repeatedly on the trail attempt to say the Democrat's Stacey Abrams is looking to go beyond Georgia. Brian Kemp making the assessment that she potentially could even try to go as far as the White House. That, of course, is something that the Abrams campaign has said has many different undertones to it, saying that she is - said she wanted nothing more than to be governor, which of course is why this is a rematch from that 2018 campaign between them.

Again, they have another hit here. We did try to ask the question as to whether or not former Vice President Mike Pence or, excuse me, or Gov. Kemp would do sort of a unified ticket thing. If there was any plans to appear with Senate candidate Herschel Walker, they did not answer that question. Bianna, Victor?

GOLODRYGA: Though he did make news saying he's supporting the entire GOP ticket in that state. Dianne Gallagher, thank you.

BLACKWELL: And join CNN for a special town hall with former Vice President Mike Pence moderated by Jake Tapper. It airs November 16th at 9 pm Eastern only on CNN.

GOLODRYGA: Delta pilots say they are willing to go on strike over a better pay deal. Details on the contract negotiations up ahead and whether a looming strike could impact the holiday travel season.

BLACKWELL: And what that blue checkmark on Twitter will cost you now, Elon Musk just announced the new verification policy.

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[15:23:44]

BLACKWELL: We got some breaking news, this is out of Newark, two police officers have been shot. We're told they're in stable condition.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Athena Jones is following this for us. Athena, what more do we know now?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning - well, good afternoon, this is still an unfolding story. Of course, a lot is still developing but this area where the shooting took place is under a heavy law enforcement presence as they search for this shooter. What we know as of right now, these two police officers shot Tuesday

afternoon - this afternoon in Newark, New Jersey, that's right across the river. Authorities are still looking for the suspect. This is according to several law enforcement agencies. We know that the FBI Newark is assisting police there on the ground.

Now both of these police officers are said to be in stable condition, according to two sources. New Jersey's governor, Phil Murphy, tweeted about this saying he is aware of the situation and closely monitoring it. Here is what he said in the tweet: "I am in touch with local authorities and the state is providing resources as requested. We will continue to support local law enforcement and ensure that all residents are safe."

So a lot we still don't know about this. But, of course, there's been a lot of focus this election season on concerns about crime in our streets, and subways, and transit systems and it's especially concerning to see when it's the police themselves who are falling victim to these crimes.

[15:25:06]

It's unclear at this point whether these two were targeted or what were the circumstances surrounding this shooting, but we will certainly share more as the story develops.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Again, these officers are in stable condition. Of course, we hope for their full recovery and Athena will let you get back to reporting. If you get more, we'll bring you back. Athena Jones, thank you.

GOLODRYGA: We are entering the busy holiday travel season and a pilot strike could be looming.

BLACKWELL: Delta airline pilots say they're willing to strike if necessary in a push for better pay. They say they're currently working under an outdated contract from 2016.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now with more. So Pete, where did the negotiations stand now and how much of an impact would this have on travelers?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You can breathe a pretty big sigh of relief if you're looking at booking tickets for holiday travel, because we know that this will unlikely impact holiday travel. In fact, the vote to strike, if necessary, by Delta pilots, in fact, would need to take about a dozen more steps to ultimately get to a strike. So no real impact right now, that is the good news.

What is interesting, though, is that this is all taking place as so many airline pilot unions are going through contract talks: Delta, United, American and Southwest, all big four carriers. In fact, just today, United airline pilots voted against a tentative contract agreement put up by the airline. Delta, perhaps the most dramatic so far. In fact, they just held the union vote yesterday. Ninety-six percent of its members from its chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association participated in this vote 99 percent of Delta pilots voted for a strike if necessary, mostly a symbolic move here.

We can't underscore that enough, but Delta pilots really just want more pay, restructured pay, in some cases, and especially because the airline is reporting huge revenues for the third quarter. In fact, you can almost really say here that the pandemic recovery has really hit its peak. Things are pretty good for the airlines right now.

Delta puts out this line, it says, "Delta pilots are not on strike, so this authorization vote will not affect our operation for customers. We're confident that the parties will reach an agreement that is fair and equitable, as we always have in past negotiations." So nothing happening when it comes to Delta pilot striking just yet. If it does come to pass, then we may see a strike sometime early next year, but nothing happening for the holiday season.

BLACKWELL: All right. That's some good news, Pete Muntean. Thank you, Pete.

A big change is coming to Twitter. Elon Musk just announced that users will be able to buy the blue check verification for eight bucks a month.

GOLODRYGA: Twitter's new owner said this $8 will get you priority in replies, mentions and searches, the ability to post long video and audio half as many ads as well as paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with Twitter. Let's see how people react to that.

BLACKWELL: Was it worth eight bucks a month?

GOLODRYGA: I don't know. He had it at 20 or something before so he's come down to eight, I don't know how people are going to respond, we'll see.

BLACKWELL: All right.

GOLODRYGA: Well, University of Florida's next president will be Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, with a unanimous vote by the school board's Board of Trustees, Sasse will become U.S. 13th President.

BLACKWELL: The senator spark controversy on campus over his past comments about LGBTQ plus rights. Last month, protesters entered an open forum with Sasse and chanted against his appointment.

GOLODRYGA: Sasse said in a statement: "I am incredibly gratified by the engagement. In a community this big, there is going to be a lot of diversity of opinion, and that is a good - not a bad thing."

BLACKWELL: All right. The final hour of voting in Israel in the fifth election in fewer than four years, we're live in Jerusalem, with the latest next.

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