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Many Voters Unhappy with State of U.S. Economy; Democrats Worry About Looming Republican "Red Wave"; South Korean Source: Pyongyang's ICBM Test Likely Failed; Trump Aide Kash Patel Set to Testify Before Grand Jury in Mar-a-Lago Documents Case; Trump Lawyers Saw Justice Thomas as Key to Delay Elections Results; 911 Audio of 4th Grader in Classroom During Massacre; U.S. Capitol Police: Home Not Monitored at Time of Attack. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 03, 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]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world, I'm Bianca Nobilo.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Regardless of party, to meet this moment of national and generational importance we must vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A real vulnerability I think in the strength of our democracy, in that the window between when the last vote is cast and the last vote was counted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kim Jong-un feels completely liberated to fire unabated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do believe that North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a significant number of artillery shells.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My colleagues and I are strongly committed to bringing inflation back down to our 2 percent goal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your credit cards is going to cost more. That auto loan is going to cost more. That mortgage is going to cost more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: It is Thursday, November 3, 8 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington. We're now in the home stretch with just five days until the U.S. midterm elections and when it comes to soaring inflation in the state of the economy, Americans are making it clear they want to seek change.

NOBILO: Perhaps now more than ever after the Fed hiked the interest rates up once again, deepening fears of recession and sending mortgage rates to a 20-year high. Now according to a new CNN poll, when it comes to fixing the economy, more than 70 percent of likely voters favor House Republicans. Another survey shows nearly 3/4 of the total respondents say things in the U.S. are going badly. That's actually a slight improvement from a few months ago. Just over 25 percent feel good about the state of the country.

FOSTER: Critics say Democrats may have made a strategic era in messaging while focusing heavily on abortion rights while Republicans things like taxes and inflation. Now during this final stretch both parties, heavy hitters are hitting the campaign trail. Former President Donald Trump trying to sway voters in several swing states over the next few days. And the U.S. President will visit New Mexico today before meeting up with his friends and former boss Barack Obama in Pennsylvania this weekend. Joe Biden says the future of American democracy could rest on next week's vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. If he refuses to accept the will of the people, he refuses to accept the fact that he lost, he has abused his power and put the loyalty to himself before the loyalty to the Constitution. And he's made a big lie, an article of faith in the MAGA Republican Party, minority of that party.

The great irony about the 2020 election is that it's the most attacked election in our history and yet, and yet there's no election in our history that we can be more certain of its results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: President Biden was speaking just blocks before a mob of Trump supporters tried to stop those very election results from being certified. And this time around he's warning that democracy is on the ballot. CNN's Phil Mattingly has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Just six days out from the moment votes start to be counted. Most Democrats around the country are talking about the economy, talking about health care, trying to find some way to hold back what increasingly looks like a red wave in the midterm elections.

President Biden taking a very different approach on Wednesday night. It was something that was driven according to several visors by several weeks of the president's rattling with the moment the country currently finds itself in. It was really crystallize in the way of the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul. Now the president is obviously very close with the Speaker, knows her husband, Paul Pelosi. But it was the broader repercussions of what that attack meant and

what it could portend in the future that will really be the driving factor that drove the president to give these remarks that he had been considering for several weeks. They were sharper than very similar remarks he gave back on September 1st. They were more urgent and they were more clear that this is a decision for voters to make a decisive one, according to the president. For him, the stakes couldn't be higher.

[04:05:00]

BIDEN: This is no ordinary year so I ask you to think long and hard about the moment we're in. In a typical year we're often not faced with questions of whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. But this year we are.

MATTINGLY: Now the reality here is this. As you look towards those midterm elections, officials know this is not the issue that is driving voters -- that is the economy, that is inflation. The president however still felt it is critically important to make these remarks and casting them in a very political light.

They do say though when you talk to the White House advisers, the Democrats will pay attention to these remarks. This does breaks through to the Democratic base. A Democratic base that has seen its enthusiasm drop over the course of the last several weeks. Perhaps electorally that has an impact. But the president the broader message was what was important. The message he delivered in very stark terms, very urgent terms and terms that made very clear he was very concerned about the direction of the country.

Phil Mattingly, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: I mean, there's so many interesting things about this election, isn't there. But from our point of view, it's, you know, you normally get an election result, it's a clear-cut result, we report it. But I think this is the first time we're now looking at see how many people contend the results and challenge them because they don't believe the vote is fair.

NOBILO: Yes, well that's what we were saying. That obviously in political system you have people having different ideas and supporting different parties. But the idea that a large portion of the electorate actually doesn't have faith in the democratic system itself anymore is something unprecedented.

FOSTER: Yes, same as Brazil as well.

Now elsewhere, North Korea is making unprecedented moves in its missile program with Pyongyang firing at least 23 short-range missiles on Wednesday, the most ever in one single day. And this morning the stakes are getting even higher.

NOBILO: North Korea has now conducted its first suspected intercontinental ballistic missile launch in months. A South Korean government source tell us the test didn't go as planned. However, the U.S. and South Korea are already responding by extending their military show of force in the region.

FOSTER: Let's go to Blake Essig joining us from Tokyo. I me, we keep talking about how this is escalating every day. How do you see the last 24 hours?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, Bianca, what we're seeing from North Korea as you mentioned, is absolutely unprecedented. And with the extension of "Vigilant Storm" -- the joint large-scale exercise involving hundreds of aircraft and thousands of service members from both United States and South Korea currently underway. There could be an even stronger response from Pyongyang coming. Perhaps that could be the country seventh ever nuclear weapons test that many experts believe is imminent. And despite the U.S.'s effort to speak with North Korea, to potentially de-escalate tensions, U.S. officials have recently said that North Korea isn't responding. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We continue to seek serious and sustained dialogue with the DPRK. But as we've made no secret of, the DPRK has refused to engage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ESSIG: Now one day after North Korea fired off a record 23 missiles, including eight short range ballistic missiles, Pyongyang launched another three today including one that the South Korean government sources say was an intercontinental ballistic missile. That source says that the ICBM likely failed midflight and occurred after successfully separating at the second stage before falling into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. That means that the ICBM possibly failed in the third and final phase when it's supposed to re-enter the atmosphere and strike its target.

A South Korean government source also said that the ICBM tested was likely the Hwasong-17, it's most advanced weapon to date. This weapon was last tested just this past March.

Now as a result of today's launch, warning sirens were heard and residents were told to evacuate inside a building or underground. That happened not only on one South Korean island but also three prefectures where missiles were originally believed to have flown over. Now in response to today's weapons test the United States, Japan and South Korea have all come out and condemned this launch -- Max, Bianca.

FOSTER: Blake in Tokyo, thank you. Frightening situation for the people.

We are following new developments into the investigation of handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, former president Trump's resort and residence.

NOBILO: Sources say that Trump aide Kash Patel is now set to testify before a grand jury. CNN's Sara Murray has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, so this is Kash Patel, he's an aide to former President Trump and he has now been ordered by a judge to testify before the grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation. He's been given immunity in exchange for this testimony.

Look, this is significant because this is someone who has been out there claiming that the former president declassified the documents. He also was sort of intimately involved in the documents at Mar-a- Lago.

[04:10:00]

So, this gives prosecutors an opportunity to get information from him, to ask him, you know, whether Trump actually did declassify the documents when he, you know, is under oath without him, you know, facing potential legal ramifications. So, in some ways it's a ways prosecutors to get his testimony but he also gets immunity when he appears before the grand jury.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: We also have new developments in Trump's attempts to overturn the results in the last presidential election. His lawyers are concerned that he may be prosecuted if he filed a court statement with his false election fraud allegations. That's according to emails obtained by the January 6 Congressional committee. Other emails show Trump's attorneys saw Justice Clarence Thomas as key in his attempts to delay the certification of election results.

Among other things attorney Kenneth Chesebro wrote that getting a case before the Supreme Court and having something positive about the case written by Justice Thomas would be the best shot of holding it up the vote count in Congress. CNN's Paula Reid has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: You can see in these emails of former President Trump's attorneys trying craft a legal case that would ultimately make it to the Supreme Court, specifically Justice Clarence Thomas who they hoped would issue either a stay or even an opinion declaring the results of the election in Georgia in doubt.

The goal was just to get any case to the Supreme Court in the hope that Justice Thomas or any justice, they said, would potentially stop the counting of electoral votes. Now why were they so focused on Justice Thomas? Well, he's the justice who is responsible for any emergency action out of the state of Georgia and the surrounding region. But this does raise some questions because of course his wife Ginni Thomas , she has come up multiple times in this Congressional investigation into January 6. Not only did she attend the January 6th "Stop the Steal" rally but

investigators have uncovered text messages that she was sending then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushing these false claims of election fraud.

Now former Trump attorney John Eastman, he has been fighting in court to try to keep these emails from the committee. But a federal judge ordered that they should be turned over because they are potentially evidence of a crime. In these emails the judge argues there specifically there is possible evidence of trying to metal with a congressional and official proceeding.

Also, in these emails, you see these attorneys, they are concerned that they or their clients could potentially be prosecuted. Because the former president, he has signed a verification in one of these legal cases supporting verifying these false claims of election fraud and they argue in late December. By that point he had been informed that this was in fact, not true. And they were concerned that once again, he signed one of these verifications and submitted it to the court that they believe the U.S. attorney or a local prosecutor could eventually go after their client or even after the lawyers.

And that is, of course, exactly what happened. There are now multiple investigations into this conduct. And again, we're getting to seeing those emails because a judge has ruled -- a federal judge has ruled that they are potentially evidence of fraud.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We have new details on the massive shooting in Uvalde, Texas in May. CNN has obtained more never before released 911 phone calls from some of the children inside Rob Elementary School. Injured fourth grader Miah Cerrillo was on the phone with a 911 operator when a burst of gunfire came from the shooter. Yesterday we told you about Khloe Torres's 911 call. Both Miah and Khloe survived.

These children's parents want these calls made public after saying they were misled about what happened for months. And they say that if it wasn't for reporting from CNN's Shimon Prokupecz and the team, they simply wouldn't be getting any answers. A warning now, this report contains some very difficult audio. Here is Shimon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A little girl by the name of Miah Cerrillo. She gets on the phone. Our report last night was with Chloe Torres. Chloe hands her the phone at some point, and so Miah then takes the call and is talking to the 911 operator.

And this just shows again, the continued lack of response, the lack of any kind of sort of way that police forced their way into the room, the fact that they took their time. Another significant thing that happens on this audio is that there are gunshots. We do not air those gunshots out of respect for the family, but again it all paints a picture of law enforcement that did not respond appropriately, that failed as officials there in Texas said.

And again, this is something that the families have asked for us to play and to come forward with because they need answers and they say this will help, hopefully, bring transparency. Take a listen.

MIAH CERRILLO, ROBB ELEMENTARY SHOOTING SURVIVOR: Hello?

DISPATCHER: I'm here. I'm here. I'm here.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK. Is the killer in the building?

DISPATCHER: I'm sorry?

[04:15:00]

MIAH CERILLO: Is the killer in the building?

DISPATCHER: Yes, he's still there in the building, so I need you to be quiet and do not open the door until we tell you to.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

DISPATCHER: Everyone needs to be as quiet as possible.

MIAH CERRILLO: He's shooting.

DISPATCHER: Stay quiet. Make sure everybody stays quiet.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

The officers are (INAUDIBLE).

DISPATCHER: Are there officers there?

MIAH CERRILLO: (INAUDIBLE).

DISPATCHER: OK. Hold on. Hold on. Don't do anything.

MIAH CERRILLO: The officers are in the building.

DISPATCHER: What was that?

MIAH CERRILLO: I think the officers are in the building.

DISPATCHER: OK, officers are in the building , but do not open the door until I tell you.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

DISPATCHER: Everyone needs to stay as quiet as possible.

MIAH CERRILLO: OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The father of that little girl you just heard spoke to Anderson Cooper. He said he's very proud of his daughter despite the trauma that she faced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL CERRILLO, FATHER OF MIAH CERRILLO: Now I know why my daughter was so mad and I'm very proud of my daughter, she did what she had to do to survive.

I mean, if my daughter and Khloe had the courage to take the phone away from the teacher to call 911 to let them know that they're still alive and they need help, why not one officer jumped and said, hey, we need to go in there. They still waited outside for a very long time to get any kids or to break the door down or anything, they took too long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Our thanks to Shimon Prokupecz and his team and the Uvalde parents for sharing their story about the 21 lives lost that day.

NOBILO: The gunman who carried out the 2018 massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Nicolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murdering 17 people in the rampage. But a jury failed to unanimously recommend the death penalty angering many of the survivors and victims' families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL SCHULMAN, PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM'S FATHER: You're dead. I don't want to hear your name. I'm not going to see your face ever again.

DR. ILAN ALHADEFF, PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM'S FATHER: You will not own us nor our feelings. We will go on glorifying Alyssa's life through our foundation, Make Our School Safe, and like my wife said, we will be her voice.

SAMANTHA FUENTES, WOUNDED BY PARKLAND SHOOTER: You have no power anymore, you have no future, you have nothing. I'll get to walk out of this courtroom without cuffs and you will not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Of those killed, 14 were students and 3 were staff members who died trying to help students to safety.

Still ahead, the police force charged with protecting U.S. lawmakers had no idea the home of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been invaded by violent intruder. Now some U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers.

FOSTER: And a psychedelic relic of the 1960s drug culture may have real-world potential now. How magic mushrooms could help with depression.

And Derek Van Dam is standing by in Atlanta with details of a major winter storm heading into the U.S.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right, Max. We will be measuring snowfall in feet over the Western U.S. but with all of the cold air that's pent up behind the system is going to interact with warm air. And that means we have a recipe for severe weather. I'll show you where and who is expecting the stronger storms coming up after the break.

[04:20:00]

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NOBILO: Welcome back. U.S. Capitol Police confirm the home of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was not being monitored during Friday's violent home invasion that left her husband in the hospital with serious injuries. And they say it's because she was in Washington at the time.

FOSTER: Paul Pelosi remains hospitalized and with threats against public officials and their families on the rise, one Democratic lawmaker has some hard questions for Capitol Police. CNN's Whitney Wild has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: House Democrats are looking for answers. The letter from Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren makes clear the capital police told Congress back in December 2020 that they were concerned about the heightened threats including those to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Adding that she gets the most threats of any member of Congress and yet this brutal attack still happened. They want to know why and what the department is doing to stop any future attacks.

The letter says this: The incident and related circumstances including the manner in which Speaker Pelosi and her family were targeted raise significant questions about security protections for members of Congress, particularly those in the presidential line of succession.

Further, the letter asks for answers about their relationship with the San Francisco Police Department. Do they even have a formal agreement to protect speaker Pelosi's home. And why the department turned down a role on the FBI's joint terrorism task force in San Francisco.

And finally, the letter turns to prosecutions for threats. The U.S. Capitol Police tracked more than 9,200 threats in 2021 but they only presented 271 cases to U.S. attorneys and prosecutors only accepted 27 cases. They want to know how many of those threats and cases that were presented to U.S. attorneys and tracked in general involved members of leadership.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Capitol Police confirming CNN's reporting that the agency first learned of the attack at Pelosi's home after the fact when someone noticed the San Francisco Police Department's lights and sirens on outside the home and noticed this on a live feed of the camera that was positioned on Pelosi's home that feeds directly into a D.C. command center. The agency tonight acknowledging, that they were not watching that camera in real time noting that those cameras are just a fraction of the more that 1,800 cameras they have going and have to watch at any given time. Adding that Pelosi was back in DC during the attack.

Whitney Wild, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:25:00]

NOBILO: The Western United States is now bracing for a major winter storm. Plus, in the days ahead the cold front will collide with warm, humid air from the south and that will be a recipe for severe storms including possible tornadoes. But you don't want to hear about it from me, you want to hear about it from Derek Van Dam, who joins us now from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta -- Derek, tell us more.

VAN DAM: Although you did a great job, Bianca.

NOBILO: Thank you.

VAN DAM: I'm telling you, you don't want to see temperatures like this in the upper Midwest this time of year, even though you might being basking in some sunshine in abnormally warm temperatures, it isn't normal. So, we're going to have some sort of roller coaster here in the coming days. And that is in the form of a cold front that Bianca mentioned just a moment ago. Temperatures in Minneapolis yesterday were warmer than Las Vegas, Nevada. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, they actually tied their warmest November temperature ever, 75 degrees.

Well, it's all going to come crashing down thanks to this cold front you see basically bisecting the middle parts of the U.S. right now. And that collision of air masses is unfortunately going to be the recipe for the chances of severe weather. Today, we're focusing our attention on the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandle.

But as the week progresses towards Friday, we're going to see the chance of severe weather actually increase especially into the afternoon and evening hours. So here it is today, slight risk, that's a level 2 out of 5 from the Storm Prediction Center. Texas, that includes Amarillo, just west of Oklahoma City as well as Wichita.

But look at Friday, that's an enhancement that shading of orange. And that includes the Dallas Fort Worth region. We're talking about millions of Americans under an enhanced risk of severe weather. That's a level 3 out of 5, according to the Storm Prediction Center. And it's, again, all thanks to this cold front.

Which, by the way, is producing a significant amount of snowfall across the inner mountain west. We're not going to measure this in inches, it will be in feet on those higher elevations. But as that cold front moves east it starts to trigger off the thunderstorms. Again, Texas Panhandle today, then further eastward towards Dallas and just outside of Houston. That cold front will cool temperatures for places like green Bay and Minneapolis. No more record high temperatures for you.

And then we focus our attention on the next weather maker approaching the Pacific Northwest. We already have winter weather alerts for millions of Americans and there's the potential for snowfall piling up in feet across some of these ski resorts looking to cash in on an early-season -- Bianca, Max, back to you.

NOBILO: And that is how it's done. Derek, thank you so much.

Now fears of a recession loom even greater in the United States after the Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the sixth time this year. We'll find out what that means.

FOSTER: And the new warnings for users of dry shampoos. Troubling levels of cancer causing chemicals are found in even more brands. Those details just ahead.

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