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Analysis: 30 Million Plus Votes Cast In Final Sprint To Election Day; Biden's Message: Democracy Under Assault By Election Deniers; Trump Aide Kash Patel Granted Immunity In Grand Jury Testimony; CDC Updates Guidelines On Prescription Opioids. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired November 03, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It is the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

We are in the final sprint to Election Day. Candidates have just five days now left to make their cases to voters before the polls close on November 8th. So far, more than 30 million voters have already cast their ballots in 46 states, the most seen in Texas and Florida. Now, that pace is on track to exceed the historic turnout of 2018.

GOLODRYGA: And the pace on the campaign trail is just as intense, big names from both political parties are stumping. Donald Trump is on a push to do four rallies in five days. Now, inside her say he may be campaigning as much for himself as those on the 2022 ballot.

And soon President Biden will speak from New Mexico on student debt relief and a major appeal to voters in these crucial final days.

BLACKWELL: Our correspondents or tracking some of the key campaigns for us: Arlette Saenz is in New Mexico; Gloria Pazmino is in New York; Jessica Dean is in Pennsylvania; and Omar Jimenez is in Wisconsin. Let's start there with Arlette.

Expecting the President to speak about student loan debt relief this hour, his messaging has been wide ranging, let's say, in recent days. What's the strategy?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, President Biden is trying to lay out the stakes of this election. Yesterday, he really zeroed in on the need for voters to reject election deniers and also vote to protect democracy. But as the President makes that push, polling has shown that the economy and inflation remain of top concern to voters heading into next week's election.

And today here in New Mexico, the President will be speaking to one piece of that economic puzzle when he talks about his administration's efforts to address student loans that so many Americans in this country are facing. White House official says the President will be warning of what they describe as disastrous consequences if Republican-led states are successful in their legal challenges to block the President's efforts to offer up to $20,000 worth of student loan relief to Americans.

Now, the White House has hoped that that issue of offering that type of relief to student loan borrowers would help energize voters. The president is also using this trip to New Mexico as an opportunity to try to boost the Democratic governor in the state. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham who is facing a tough reelection fight from her Republican challenger who has really centered a lot of his campaign on crime.

Now, so much of the focus in this election has been on control of the House and Senate. But the White House is also hoping to retain as many Democratic governors seats across the country as they can is that it will also be crucial to enacting the President's agenda.

Now, I'll also note, the President is not traveling to states like Arizona and Nevada, which have very close contests in those Senate races. But First Lady Jill Biden will be traveling to Arizona on Saturday to campaign there with the Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, it's notable that the President will not be campaigning in those states. Arlette Saenz, thank you.

Well, in deep blue New York City, Hillary Clinton will be out campaigning for Democrats as the race for governor is tightening. This evening, she can Gov. Kathy Hochul will appear side by side, Vice President Kamala Harris and New York Attorney General Letitia James as well.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joins us live. So Gloria, what role does Clinton see herself playing here?

[15:05:01]

She was on CNN this morning talking about it.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. She'll be at Barnard College. A all-women's college making the message about how potentially historic this election could be for the incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. Should she win this election, she would become the first woman governor elected here in New York. She is, of course, the first woman Governor after the former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned from office 14 months ago.

And Clinton will be here talking about that unifying message warning voters that they have to get out there and cast her vote and she has been talking about the lack of enthusiasm, something that Democrats have become increasingly concerned about in the last several weeks in the lead up to the midterms.

So she'll be drumming up support for Hochul here talking about the historic nature of this election, but also encouraging voters to get out there. Listen to what the former Secretary of State had to say about it this morning. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Every poll that I've seen shows Kathy Hochul still ahead and I expect her to win on Tuesday. But a midterm election is always difficult for the party in power. Our job is to convince our voters to turn out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, turnout is going to be key even in a place like New York where Democrats outnumber Republicans. Our most recent CNN poll showed that enthusiasm among voters is down 27 percent. That's down from 37 percent the last time voters went out to vote in midterm elections.

So certainly a concern that even in a place like New York, which is expected to go blue every single time, there is a serious challenge here from the Republican, Lee Zeldin and that Hochul might not perform as well as other Democrats would like her to, Bianna?

BLACKWELL: I'll take it. Gloria Pazmino, thank you.

In the frenzy of this final week before Election Day, the most money spent at a Senate race has been in Pennsylvania just under $30 million dollars. Now, Republican Mehmet Oz is in a tight race against Democrat John Fetterman.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Jessica Dean is outside Philadelphia with the latest. So Jessica, how are the candidates using these final campaign days?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon to you both. Well, there's certainly ads flooding the television airwaves, I'll tell you that much, 30 - some $30 million, as you mentioned, Victor, is a lot of money.

And so they're certainly inundating people with ads, but we've also seen them both rapidly pick up their campaign stops here in the last several days. They know that this is go time. That they've got to get out and actually get people to the polls. It's one thing to sell them. You got to get them to vote.

So as you see behind me, this is going to be a John Fetterman event later tonight. Worth noting they said they will wrap up by the time the Phillies play in the World Series tonight. That's also a big, big issue here in Pennsylvania, a lot of attention being paid to that.

But this is a very tight race. Poll after poll shows this is an incredibly tight race with an open Senate seat: Republicans hoping to keep it; Democrats hoping to pick it up. And it could very well determine the outcome of who will hold control in the Senate. So that's the reason millions and millions of dollars have been spent here.

I'll let you listen to both of the candidates with some of their closing messages. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FETTERMAN, (D) PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Always being there to stand up and support all those kinds of core kinds of values, whether it's the minimum wage, whether it's the (inaudible) Act, whether that is protecting abortion rights. Really if you've never had any experience of actually living in Pennsylvania, understanding Pennsylvania, how can you ever effectively fight for Pennsylvania?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yup, that's right.

MEHMET OZ, (R) PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Which is it was so important that we would have a debate and make sure that we could ask hard questions of each other so people can defend their positions. And when I kept pestering and pushing and nudging John Fetterman to answer for his radical positions, he had trouble because these are difficult to explain in a time when so many Pennsylvanians are having their lives turned upside down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And both of these candidates getting a boost from the biggest stars in their party, President Biden and former President Barack Obama coming here to Pennsylvania to Philadelphia and then Obama to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Also on Saturday, former President Donald Trump is coming here to Pennsylvania.

Bianna and Victor, of course, Pennsylvania, a very hard-fought state in 2020, Biden edging Trump out here to win the presidency. So it is a bit of a proxy war once again, but it will be interesting to see them all coming back here over the weekend.

GOLODRYGA: Oz, of course, was Donald Trump's favorite candidate there. We shall see down to the wire, Jessica Dean, thank you.

Well, more than $11 million have been spent on campaign ads. And this last week for the Senate race in Wisconsin.

BLACKWELL: There is no clear leader between Republican incumbent Ron Johnson and Democrat Mandela Barnes. CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Wisconsin at an event for Johnson. What's going on there?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While we're getting ready for Sen. Ron Johnson's latest stops on his bus tour throughout the state in this final stretch to Election Day, really through ads and campaign stops like these.

[15:10:05]

We've been getting an impression on the strategies from both of these campaigns on what they want voters to think about as we head into Election Day. For lieutenant governor, Democrat Mandela Barnes, he has said that he is clearly on offense at this point. He, of course, is taking the fight to Johnson, calling him the worst senator we've had since Joe McCarthy. While Sen. Ron Johnson has preached this idea or tried to paint

himself as someone who can unify Wisconsin, saying that he's even trying to recruit Democrats over the course of this. That said, he also has accused Barnes of someone - as someone who hates this country.

So I asked him, point blank, how does that square with your message of so called unity, take a listen.

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JIMENEZ (off camera): Where does that sort of stand in what you're saying?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Well, that's the truth. So you do have to convey the truth to people, particularly in election. I mean, elections is a choice between two people. And unfortunately, the truth is that the left are the ones that are dividing this nation. It's the left that is angry.

LT. GOV. MANDELA BARNES, (D) WISCONSIN SENATE CANDIDATE: It's right out of the playbook of Joe McCarthy and Ron Johnson is the worst senator we've had since Joe McCarthy. And the whole campaign has just been lies and distractions because he has no record to defend. It's been 12 years and nothing, 12 years of serving himself as wealthy donors and turning his back on the people in the State of Wisconsin.

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JIMENEZ: Now, for Barnes' comments - or for Johnson's comments, Barnes has said obviously he doesn't hate America, but it's been a similar feel and the governor's race here, between Democrat incumbent Tony Evers and Republican Tim Michels. That's the second most expensive governor's race in the country. Polls have shown no clear leader in any of these races, so we'll see what happens in these next few days.

BLACKWELL: Omar Jimenez on the campaign trail. Omar, thank you very much.

Joining us now is CNN's Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger and CNN Senior Political Commentator David Axelrod. He's a former senior adviser to President Obama. Welcome to you both.

David, let me start with you. These very close races, all the stars are out: Biden, Harris, Clinton and Trump. You tweeted this about the president's appearance last night in the evening, his speech: "Issues of democracy are hugely important at this moment and in next week's election. Totally appropriate for the President to address them. Still, as a matter of practical political - politics, I doubt many Democrats in marginal races are eager for him to be on TV tonight." Would you have advised against that speech at this moment?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I probably would have. I probably would have, because - and this is true for any incumbent president in a situation like this, Barack Obama was not being invited into a lot of campaigns back in 2010, because you become the fulcrum of the opposition campaign and they want to make Joe Biden the issue in this campaign, his approval rating is in the low 40s, that's advantageous to the Republicans.

So most campaigns would like him to be sort of on the down low right now and that's why he's not going into some of these most hotly contested states. So I probably would have discouraged - I thought his message was fine. I think democracy is challenged now and there are issues that should be on people's minds when they vote. But as a - just as a practical, tactical political matter, no, I wouldn't have advised him to do that speech.

GOLODRYGA: And Gloria, this really hits on the issue of strategy amongst Democrats in general. We heard from Tim Ryan this morning on CNN this morning, he is in a tight race there in ruby red Ohio and he hasn't been shy about being critical of the party for distancing itself for not giving him the funding that he says that the - his Republican opponent has been getting from Republicans. But listen to what he specifically said about the messaging about the strategy from Democrats.

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REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): The National Democratic Party has never been really good at strategic political decisions, so it's not a surprise here. Thank god that I have enough experience that I've built this campaign not needing them and we really don't want them at this point. We've built a robust machine here in Ohio that doesn't need the National Democratic Party and it's going to give me a level of independence that most senators don't have.

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GOLODRYGA: We don't want them at this point. He's not just talking about the president. He's talking about the National Democratic Party. Is that going to him more votes?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Look, that's his narrative and he's sticking to it because it's been working for him. I mean, this is the ruby red state of Ohio last election. Trump won by, I believe, eight points and he on his own, has been a great fundraiser. He's raised about $48 million on his own and his narrative is better when he says I don't need those Democrats. I ran against Nancy Pelosi, as he said, in his recent ad. I ran against Nancy Pelosi for speaker. I am an independent.

That, for a Democrat, is a great campaign in the State of Ohio.

[15:15:01]

And national Democrats felt and I think rightly so that they had to put their money into places where they had a better shot at winning. And that's exactly what they did and he raised his own money and he's doing really well against J.D. Vance who has not been a great candidate. Could they have thrown an extra few bucks in? Yes, maybe. But I think this works for him to call himself independent. BLACKWELL: David, I talked about the stars out tonight with Kathy

Hochul, the incumbent governor in New York running to be elected now governor. You've got the former nominee, Hillary Clinton, you've got the vice president Kamala Harris, you've got the New York AG Letitia James. Is Hochul in real trouble here?

AXELROD: Well, clearly polling suggests this is a closer race than Democrats anticipated in the state of New York and that's flowed down to congressional races in the state too. And I think crime - the issue of crime has really transformed this race, in a big way. I think - I still think she's the favorite.

And these appearances, much like all the other celebrity appearances as you call them, are at this point all about turnout and trying to get the base of the Democratic Party out that the reason the opposition party generally wins these midterms is because there's more enthusiasm on the part of the out party that wants to express their grievances than the in-party. And so I think the message is going to be: Hey, this is a race and you guys better get out.

GOLODRYGA: Gloria, we live in a world where everything seems to be unprecedented each day. We keep throwing that word out, never seen before, unusual, what have you and you look at somebody like Liz Cheney who's campaigning for Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat that she's never supported Democrat before, but she will be now to preserve democracy.

Elissa Slotkin herself saying that democracy and its preservation is the ultimate kitchen table issue. But when you look at the polling, that just doesn't seem to be the case. That the ultimate kitchen table issue is the economy.

BORGER: Yes, absolutely. I - look, more than 70 percent of the people in this country think that democracy is at risk, okay? But when you ask them, which is the most important issue to you, of course, it's the economy, it's inflation and I think it's only like 9 percent of likely voters say it is about democracy.

So Liz Cheney is out there supporting whomever she can, including Democrats she doesn't agree with a lot on policy. But this is her issue, she gave up her race on it. She is not going to be a member of Congress after January, so it's hugely important to three quarters of the people in this country. But right now, as people are facing high inflation, gas prices, et cetera, et cetera, that's not what they're thinking about.

And to go back to David's point, I think while - I agree with him, while it was important for President Biden to raise this issue, because it comes from his heart and we know this, it's always been a huge issue for him. Right now, I don't think people really want to hear about that as much as they want to hear about how am I going to get through the next pay period.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

AXELROD: Yes. I would just say on the Cheney campaigning, the value of it to Elissa Slotkin and the people she's campaigning for is that she's in a plus four Republican district and whatever Liz Cheney says, the appearance of a conservative Republican saying it's okay to vote for this Democratic candidate is important and I think she's running an ad in Arizona for Mark Kelly.

This is aimed squarely at those Republican leaning independents and maybe falling away to Republicans. And just as a tactical matter, it's really useful in a district like that to have her there.

BLACKWELL: She also said she would - if - lived in Ohio, she'd vote for Tim Ryan.

AXELROD: Yes.

BLACKWELL: And, of course, that's what he'd like to hear for his campaign ...

BORGER: She's out there.

BLACKWELL: ... trying to win over Republicans as well.

GOLODRYGA: She's out there, right.

BLACKWELL: All right. Gloria Borger, David Axelrod ...

BORGER: She's out there.

BLACKWELL: ... thank you both.

AXELROD: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: We're following developments in the Justice Department's case against former President Trump over the documents found at Mar-A- Lago. We've got details for you next.

GOLODRYGA: And the CDC just released updated guidance on taking opioids after overdose has dramatically increased in the last several years.

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[15:23:43]

BLACKWELL: A key Trump advisor has been granted immunity for his testimony in an investigation into the documents found at Mar-A-Lago.

GOLODRYGA: Kash Patel had previously declined to answer questions by asserting his Fifth Amendment right. Joining us now, CNN's Paula Reid. So Paula, Patel being granted immunity shows just, I guess, how important his testimony may be to this investigation.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Bianna. Prosecutors clearly believe that Kash Patel one former President Trump's closest advisors has valuable information, which is why he has been given immunity after he refused to answer questions before the grand jury. Now, he is one of a small circle of close associates who have

potential legal exposure in the Mar-A-Lago document investigation, but now he cannot be prosecuted for any truthful - keyword, truthful - information that he gives in this investigation. Now, what will prosecutors ask him about? Well, there's a lot to discuss with Mr. Patel.

He is of course, a former National Security and Defense official in the Trump administration. He is also one of the people who's designated to interact with the National Archives and the Justice Department as those agencies were trying to get back some of these classified documents that former President Trump took after he left office.

[15:25:00]

Now, publicly Patel has insisted that Trump declassified some of the documents before he left office and he has even publicly blamed the White House Counsel for not completing the appropriate paperwork to change the classified markings. Now, this is very likely something that prosecutors are going to want to hone in on. Because if Mr. Patel says in front of the grand jury with this immunity that, yes, he did believe that the former president declassified these documents, that's what happened, that really muddles certain aspects of this case.

But if he says actually, no, what I said publicly wasn't true. I didn't actually witness that. I have no knowledge of that. It's also problematic because then you have a witness who said one thing publicly and a different thing before a grand jury. So it'll be very interesting to see what he has asked about and what his responses are a lot of questions, of course, about what this means for the former president. But really, we're going to have to wait and see what exactly it is that Patel says to prosecutors before we really have any sense of what this truly means for the former president.

Though, of course, it is never a good day, when one of your closest associates is answering questions from federal prosecutors about potential crimes that happened on your property.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And he can't overstate how close they are, that's an important point how close they were during his administration, the tail end of it and remained to be. Paula Reid, Thank you.

Well, for the first time in six years, the CDC is updating its guidance on how Americans should and should not be using prescription opioids.

BLACKWELL: In recent years drug overdose deaths have dropped - jumped dramatically, though the majority of them are now driven by illicit synthetic opioids. Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. So what are these new recommendations say?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, these new recommendations are in some ways a course correction to what was done in 2016. Those guidelines have come to be seen as too rigid. Obviously, we need to do something about the opioid problem in this country. But it was seen as too rigid when really there are many different kinds of patients and there are some legitimate uses of opioids, for example, for cancer patients in some cases.

So let's take a look at sort of the picture of who's in pain in the United States today. There are - the numbers are really high. About one in five adults experienced chronic pain and one in 14 adults have experienced pain nearly every day over the past three months that limited their life or their work activities.

So the CDC, again, is trying not to do such a cookie cutter approach. Here are some of the pieces of advice that they're giving doctors: They're saying that non-opioid therapy should be preferred for subacute or chronic pain. In other words, if it's not acute, think about prescribing something other than opioids. If you are prescribing opioids don't discontinue them abruptly that can be really terrible for the patient and also consider offering Naloxone when you give an opioid prescription.

Naloxone, of course, is the antidote to overdose. So they're saying, look, if you're going to prescribe someone opioids, you should be thinking about giving them the antidote right from the very beginning, Victor? Bianna?

BLACKWELL: Wow, those numbers are high.

GOLODRYGA: Huge.

BLACKWELL: One in five experiencing chronic pain.

COHEN: They are.

BLACKWELL: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: New Twitter chief, Elon Musk spoke to civil rights leaders as the use of racial slurs on the platform surge. We'll speak to one of the leaders who was on that call up next.

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