Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Three Presidents Descended On P.A. In Final Weekend Before Elections; Biden Touts Economic Wins As Voters Prepare For Election Day; Jan. 6 Committee Talking To Agents In Trump's Motorcade; Nevada Democrat Incumbents Vulnerable 3 Days Ahead of Midterms; Power Outages Leave Kyiv Cloaked in Darkness, Residents on Edge; Fact-Checking Biden's Claims on Campaign Trail; FAA to Weigh in on Whether Airplane Seats Are Getting Too Small. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired November 05, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:38]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All right. It is the final weekend on the campaign trail Election Day for 2022 midterms. It's now just three days away.

And candidates are blanketing their states making their final pitches to voters. Several key races to watch. Today, many eyes are on Pennsylvania which could play a pivotal role for control in Washington.

Democrat John Fetterman taking on Republican Mehmet Oz in a neck and neck contest and they're pulling out all the political firepower. A total of three presidents holding events across the state of Pennsylvania. President Biden and former President Obama holding campaign stops for Fetterman while former President Trump is something for Oz.

CNN's Jessica Dean and Arlette Saenz are following the latest on the trail. Jessica, you first. You were in Pittsburgh. This is a critical stretch for both of Pennsylvania's senate candidates.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Fredricka. We're now just three days away from Election Day. And they're now starting to take the stage down behind me but that's where a former President Barack Obama was just about an hour ago, maybe a little less than that. Rallying this crowd for John Fetterman.

Look, this is a Democratic stronghold. Fetterman needs a big turnout in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area if he is going to win statewide on Tuesday and that is why we are seeing the former president here.

And Fetterman speaking before Obama kind of sharpening his attack on Oz. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA) SENATE CANDIDATE: Today, Dr. Oz is going to be standing with Donald Trump on the stage. And I'm going to be proud to be standing with a president that is 100 percent sedition free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Again, very sharp words from John Fetterman here on the trail in Pittsburgh. Now from the former president we heard a lot of what he's been talking about, as we've seen him campaign through some critical swing states across the country.

Earlier this week he talked about the issues that are really defining this election, crime, inflation, the economy, abortion rights. And he talked about the stark choice between Fetterman and Mehmet Oz in his view. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Listen, it's easy to joke about Dr. Oz and all these quack remedies he's pushed on T.V. but it matters. It says something about his character. If somebody is willing to peddle snake oil to make a buck, then he's probably willing to sell us snake oil to get elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Now from here, we will travel out to Latrobe, Pennsylvania. That's where former President Donald Trump will be rallying for Republican candidates in the state including Mehmet Oz, we will hear more about his pitch to voters. And Oz really walking that fine line between appealing to moderates, Fredricka, which he has done in his closing ads, in his closing get out the vote rallies.

And appearing with former President Donald Trump who of course appeals mightily to the Republican base within the Commonwealth but kind of turned off independent voters in 2020. The question is, will Oz be able to kind of walk that very thin line?

WHITFIELD: All right. Jessica Dean, they're in Pittsburgh. And now Biden will be heading to Pennsylvania, but right now he's in Illinois and that's where we find our Arlette Saenz traveling with the president. So, the president's message there?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, fried President Biden really took aim at Republicans over their stance on Social Security and Medicare as he is seeking to draw a contrast with the GOP on issues that can affect American's pocketbooks.

Here in Joliet, Illinois, the president talking about his administration and democrats plans to try to lower prescription drug costs as well as preserve Social Security and Medicare which the president says would be on the chopping block if Republicans gained control of the House and senate.

The president and the White House in these final days of the election keenly aware that the economy and inflation are a top of concerns to voters. So they've really sought to address economic issues as they make their final pitch for Democrats in this campaign. And the president here in Illinois, also had some choice words for some protesters that had assembled outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Generations of Americans have counted on it. And it works. We didn't have Social Security. The poverty rate for those over 65 will be four times what it is now, four times. I love those signs when I came in socialism.

[13:05:04]

Give me a break. What idiots. Socialism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now the president while in the Chicago area also last night attended a fundraiser where he warned that if Republicans gained control of both chambers of congress that it would be horrible for the next two years, but he vowed that he would have that veto pen to be -- to be able to veto legislation if Republicans sends certain things over to the White House. Now, the president has also been trying to strike an optimistic tone saying that he does believe that they'll be winning in the House and Senate come Tuesday.

And over the course of the next few days, he has a series of events where he's going to be stumping for candidates starting this afternoon when he links up with his former boss, President Obama over in Philadelphia to campaign for John Fetterman.

That's one of the few competitive senate races that the president has gotten into in this closing week of the election. And then tomorrow, he's heading over to New York for a last-minute stop with the state's Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul Cole who is in a much closer than expected race against a Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.

The White House over the course of the past week has also been focusing on some of those blue states where democrats are vulnerable in their races as they're trying to ensure that they have as many democratic governors in state houses across the country to help enact their agenda. The president really has been trying to frame this all -- this election as a choice and not a referendum on his -- on democrat's agenda or his time in office.

And so, he's trying to deliver some of these closing pitches particularly on the economy in these final days.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz and Jessica Dean, thanks to both of you. We'll check back with you.

All right. Let's talk even more on all of this. So how will this final pitch to voters play out on Tuesday? Joining us right now, New York Times political editor, Patrick Healy. Patrick, so good to see you. So, the New York Times has been talking to voters in these battleground states. And what are the big issues that is driving them to the polls?

PATRICK HEALY, NEW YORK TIMES POLITICAL EDITOR: Yes. What we have heard sort of repeatedly, Fred, has been that the economy more than -- more than anything else, and particularly, gas prices, cost of rent, cost of housing, cost of groceries, cost of medical bills, really focusing, I think voters on asking, do we want more democratic government in Washington?

Do we feel like the democrats controlling the White House, controlling congress have been able to put the country on a strong path that that these voters really kind of feel in their pocketbooks. And just the degree to which the economy has driven so much has been -- has been interesting, Fred. I mean, as we've seen over the year, you know, abortion rights has become an issue, certainly at times, threats to democracy have been certainly a concern in a lot of states.

But we've been doing now these focus groups with voters about three a month in battleground states. And repeatedly, what keeps coming up for voters is a sense that they want the government, whether it's Washington or state capitals to do something about the economy, and skepticism about whether the Democrats can really make change happen in the economy.

WHITFIELD: You know, and to that point, we saw President Biden today, campaigning in Illinois, and he's touting his administration's efforts to lower prescription drug costs, protect Social Security, some of the economic issues that people are worried and concerned about. Will that resonate with voters when seemingly voters are also talking about the immediate expenses of like rent, of gassing up their cars?

HEALY: Fred, I think it's really hard. I think it's going to be really hard right now. There are just so many voters in this country who look at Washington and say, you know, President Biden may be saying the right things about Social Security, about Medicare, but does change ever really happened? Does Washington ever actually sort of do things that has an effect on my pocketbook?

And so, I think that they hear these things, especially in a campaign season, but if they're not feeling them directly and if they don't trust that the Democrats have been running all of government for the past two years and that things have gotten a lot harder for at least a good number of voters. There's just skepticism that kind of argument can really break through.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know, there are a lot of interesting things about, you know, your focus groups in Arizona. You know, for example, the New York Times asking the 12 participants if U.S. democracy is in danger of collapsing. Eight of the 12 said yes. Have you seen this kind of despair, leading up to an election before and I wonder also as a result of that despair, is that provoking people to be a lot more engaged on the -- with the power of their vote.

[13:10:02]

HEALY: It's a great question. I covered the presidential races in 2004, 2008, 2016 and 2020 midterms as well. I've never seen -- never anything like kind of this level of frustration and anxiety. A sense of our democracy, something that all of us are taught about as children, something that we're allowed to vote, you know, we become citizens as we -- as we get older, but sort of a sense of either, for some voters kind of mistrust that leaders believe in democracy and are going to defend it.

And for a lot of other voters, Fred, just a real sense that democracy and threats to democracy are just not something that they care about in their bones in the way that they feel like elites on some of the coasts of America talk about it.

They want -- so we talked to one woman in Arizona as you noted in that focus group who said, you know, I live by the border. It is so bad here in terms of the economy, job opportunities, immigration, people coming over.

I hear all of this talk about threats to democracy. But what I want is help here and that's what I'm going to be voting on. So, just that that sense of despair. Yes, it's there. But it's also just so many issues motivating people.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's an interesting sentiment because when you listen to former President Obama while in Pittsburgh earlier today and he talked about the economy, but his approach was that the current state of affairs is a consequence of the legacy of the pandemic.

And I can't say I've heard a whole lot of candidate speak about the economy in that way. And I wonder if he's also giving a cue, perhaps to other Democrats about, you know, the issue is -- an -- the economic issue is a consequence of the legacy of the pandemic.

And what voters want to hear and this is what Obama said, he said, voters want to hear what you're going to do about it. And when you just now talked about that voter, you know, and she's voting based on what the solution is what's going to be done. Even Obama said, you know, can't -- you can't just talk about raising taxes, because that's not actually the solution to how people are looking for relief.

HEALY: That's such a -- just briefly, that's such smart insight, Fred and it really resonates with what with what I've heard. People do talk here and there about the long tail of the pandemic, but people are really voting and I think moved by what they're feeling right now by those monthly bills in October as they go to do early voting.

But I think there is a sense and if President Biden had maybe the communication skills or leaders in the Democratic Party were able to sometimes talk the way that President Obama can as you sort of noted.

It may be more convincing to voters to understand that what they're -- that what they're going through now economically isn't because of some policy that President Biden passed a year ago. It's because of a very sort of long tail, frankly, that could go back to the, you know, the Great Recession in 2008. All of this is interlinked, but trying to make those arguments in the heat of a campaign just can be so challenging.

WELKER: Yes, indeed. All right. Patrick Haley, great talking to you and seeing you. Thanks so much.

HEALY: Good to see you, Fred. Take care.

WHITFIELD: All right. All right. Still to come. The House January 6 Committee getting a window into former President Donald Trump's motorcade on the day of the U.S. Capitol attack. The committee is interviewing Secret Service agents who were inside the cars. Details on that straight ahead.

And later, we go to the key state of Nevada, where the GOP has one of the best opportunities to pick up a democratic seat to gain control of the U.S. Senate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:04]

WHITFIELD: The January 6 Committee has extended its deadline for Donald Trump to provide subpoenaed documents. The new deadline for documents is no later than next week. Trump also remains under subpoena to provide deposition testimony beginning November 14th. The committee's work continued this week with lawmakers hearing testimony from members of the former president's Secret Service detail. CNN's Whitney Wild has details.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: The house January 6 Select Committee is getting a window into former President Donald Trump's motorcade on the day of the U.S. Capitol attack. Sources tell CNN the committee interviewed a Secret Service agent who was in the lead car of former President Donald Trump's motorcade on January 6. That interview could really help the committee collect more detail about the planning that day, as well as former President Donald Trump's movements.

Friday's interview which has not been previously reported is the fourth with Secret Service agents and officials in five days. The panel continuing to expand its focus on the agency and the speed here highlighting the commitment to digging into what the Secret Service knew and what the Secret Service saw that day. Further, sources tell CNN that an interview with the driver of Trump's presidential vehicle could happen as soon as next week.

That's agent's testimony is critical in the effort by the committee to try to corroborate explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson in which she claims Trump lunged at the wheel of the car. And then at his security detail when he learned he couldn't go to the Capitol after his speech on the Ellipse. Sources tell CNN the committee expects to interview several more Secret Service agents as well.

WHITFIELD: Whitney Wild, thanks so much. All right. Let's talk more about all of this with Renato Mariotti. He is a former federal prosecutor and the host of the podcast On Topic. So good to see you.

(CROSSTALK)

RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely. Good to be here, Fred. WHITFIELD: Great. Let's go right let's begin with the Secret Service interviews and the documents. So what specifically does the committee want?

[13:20:03]

MARIOTTI: Well, the committee really wants to see the traffic between Secret Service, they want to understand -- when I say traffic, I mean the communication traffic. They want to understand what they're saying to each other to try to validate and corroborate some of the testimony that we heard, for example, from Cassidy Hutchinson that was disputed off the record by unnamed Secret Service agents, for example, but there's been no testimony under oath. And so I think that's what they're really looking for more than anything,

WHITFIELD: Right. And then remember a lot of their cell phone communication, all that texting between a lot of a Secret Service, I mean, that's nowhere to be found because of a migrating of the system.

MARIOTTI: Exactly, right. And I think it has raised a lot of questions for sure.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So this week, Trump also hinted that he would likely run for reelection. And CNN has learned that his announcement could come on about the same day that he was expected to reply to a subpoena of his testimony. What does that tell you about his defense team strategy or perhaps even his state of mind in terms of cooperating or not?

MARIOTTI: Yes. I don't expect him to cooperate, Fred. I never did. But what this suggests to me is that for him, the timing of the announcement is part of his strategy. I think he thinks that that is going to be an answer to the January 6 Committee. And I also think that he believes or at least I think you can infer that he believes that announcing that he will run for president very early will in some way insulate him from potential indictment.

WHITFIELD: And then what about this prospect of, if he is to run, there is a feeling within his camp that that sort of insulates him from further investigations. And that the DOJ is even considering now kind of a special counsel. What does that mean, that there might be considerations of a special counsel?

MARIOTTI: Well, first of all, I don't think it insulates him, Fred. In fact, I think it's already baked in. In other words, the DOJ is investigating him. And I think they assumed all along that they will be criticized for doing so.

Because, you know, either he's going to be the candidate, you know, the like nominee or likely candidate or he's somebody who, you know, there would be -- they would be blamed for him not being a candidate or something along those lines.

So I think that's going to happen. But as Special Counsel, I think the purpose there is really to insulate the Justice Department and the political appointees to the top from this decision this way. You know, there's somebody who's not up directly appointed by Biden who would make that decision in the first instance.

And then one way or the other, whatever Merrick Garland decides to do, whether he decides to go with that person's decision or not, it would become public and there'll be some transparency there.

So, I think it's a valuable step, but it's obviously not going to end any kind of speculation.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then sources are telling CNN that a federal judge ordered Donald Trump advisor Kash Patel to testify before a grand jury investigating the handling of federal records at Mar-a-Lago. What does Patel being granted immunity suggest to you in terms of the Justice Department building its case?

MARIOTTI: It strongly suggests to me Fred that they are building a case against Trump. Kash Patel in my mind is somebody, the subject of the testimony supposedly, his witnessing of verbal statements by Trump declassified documents. And that is not the sort of thing that the Justice Department would be investigating on its own.

They're investigating that and they're trying to lock in his testimony so that they can undercut a potential defense that Donald Trump has that somehow Kash Patel witnessed him declassified documents just., you know, in a private room verbally somewhere.

And so, you know, the fact that they got immunity tells me that they're willing to gamble away any leverage against Kash Patel in order to make sure that they get his testimony locked in under oath, so they can undercut that at a potential trial of Trump.

WHITFIELD: All right. So fascinating. Renato Marriotto. Always good to see you. Thanks.

MARIOTTI: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's get back to the campaign trail. Candidates are delivering their final arguments to voters with just now three days to go until the midterms. And one of the tightest races is in Wisconsin where Republican Senator Ron Johnson faces Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes. CNN's Omar Jimenez joining me now from a Barnes campaign event in Milwaukee.

So, Omar the senatorial race has been neck and neck. What are you hearing out there today?

OMAR JIMINEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we're at a campaign event for Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes. He's the Democrat in this race running against a two-term incumbent Republican Ron Johnson. And obviously we're in the final stretch here. This is three days to Election Day. And Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes tell us -- we're live on CNN right now.

Tell us what is the key This weekend to get you over the finish line and Ron Johnson didn't commit to accepting the results of the 2020 election. What's your response?

[13:25:06]

MANDELA BARNES, WISCONSIN LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Our strategy has been the same since they won't show up everywhere talk to everybody. We're not assuming anybody's political allegiances. And we're not assuming that any part of the state is going to show a force in any state of the -- any part of the state won't show a force. We're meeting people where they are, because there's so much more that folks have in common with one another than I ever had was self-serving politicians like Ron Johnson.

Now, Ron Johnson not committed to accepting the election results. It's just the height of arrogance. But that's what he's been for the last 12 years. We saw him try to overturn a free and fair election just because he didn't like the result of 2020. He supported a violent insurrection in attempt to overthrow of the government because the person he wanted to win was not successful in the 2020 election.

We know how long he'll take it, but he wasn't successful in 2021. We're not going to let him be successful again.

JIMINEZ: Thank you. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. So, that's really the crux of the final message here for these candidates. This is a canvassing event that they're doing here similar to what they're doing throughout the weekend.

And for his part, part of what he alluded to was earlier this week, Senator Ron Johnson at a campaign event did not outright say he would accept the results of Tuesday's election and said -- he said we're just going to have to see.

And I don't know what Democrats have planned. Now, we weren't clear on what exactly that meant. But of course, that set off a firestorm just given the fact that there were -- there was a plot of fake electors that was tied to the Ron Johnson campaign which he's denied knowledge of. And while Johnson did commit to accepting the results of the 2020 election, he didn't dispute anything there.

Of course, hearing this answer this time around, sets off another set of concerns. On his front, though he did cite a case out of Milwaukee which is an election official, and now former election official that was criminally charged for allegedly obtaining military ballots for fake voters, allegedly to make a point. Now, Wisconsin election officials say well, this played out exactly how it's designed because this person was actually caught.

It does not give out any sense of widespread voter fraud. We'll see though, how that translates to the campaign trails. We've got some events with Ron Johnson later this afternoon as well. But obviously these candidates are in full force knowing it is going to be a close election as they usually are here in Wisconsin and we'll see if that plays out on Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: All right. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much for that. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:31:40]

WHITFIELD: All right. Three days. Just three days until Election Day, and several key races are extremely tight, including in Nevada.

Democrats have won the Silver State in every presidential election beginning in 2008, but their margin has narrowed each time.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Governor Steve Sisolak are among the Democratic Party's most vulnerable incumbents.

I want to bring in Tabitha Mueller for more on all of this. She's a staff reporter for "The Nevada Independent," and joining me now live.

Good to see you.

What matters most to voters there?

TABITHA MUELLER, STAFF REPORTER, "THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT": So, there's a lot of different topics that are on the election ballot this year.

Of course, you're seeing what we hear across the country, the economy, abortion. People have -- there's a lot of high housing crisis here, and people are really worried. They're carrying that tension to the ballot box.

As you said earlier, we are seeing some extremely tight races here, both in the Nevada Senate race and in governor's race. I mean, we might actually see the closest Senate race in a long time.

I think the last time we had as close a race was 1964 in the Nevada general election when incumbent U.S. Senator Howard Cannon defeated Republican Paul Laxalt by 48 votes. And that is Adam Laxalt's grandfather.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So what has made the difference --

MUELLER: It will be a really tight race.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It will be a nail-biter.

What has made the difference for voters? What is it they are looking for in their candidates that they want to hear from concretely?

Because candidates are all sides are all talking in generalities about, you know, the economy or, you know, women's reproductive rights, about border issues.

But what specifically is driving voters to make a decision about candidates who are touching on those things?

MUELLER: So I think, in specifics, I think it's people saying this is what I can do for you.

We've seen a really interesting trend here in Nevada at least where GOP supporters have actually gone kind of the other direction as far as election denialism, right?

Adam Laxalt has had some statements that he made surrounding the 2020 election, saying that it wasn't a fair election, And so we've seen a lot of people saying that's not what we stand for.

And actually, 14 members of Laxalt's family did not -- endorsed his opponent, Catherine Cortez Masto, in the race.

You're also seeing a lot of concern from Latino voters about issues like immigration. And we're hearing from voters about the economy and gas prices and things that are very close to home.

I think that sometimes candidates can talk in generalities, but what I think voters really like to hear are specifics, here is how I can help you, here is what we're going to do to fix things in your state.

Also abortion, right? I think that Catherine Cortez Masto stands on abortion, in saying, hey, this is where, you know, we want to protect abortion rights nationally, has really gotten an audience in Nevada.

WHITFIELD: So, every state has a different process for counting the votes. Walk us through the tabulation process in Nevada and when we can expect to find out who voters have selected.

[13:35:03]

MUELLER: So, we're going to have Election Day. People will line up and they'll cast their ballots. Once Election Day is over, that's when they'll start counting.

I cannot give you a hard and fast deadline of when we will be able to call the results of the election. It just depends on how quickly those ballots get counted.

Not only do they have in in-person, but we also have mail-in ballots. And we have seen an increase in mail-in ballots since those were allowed here in the state.

WHITFIELD: OK. And Latino voters have helped bring in Democratic wins there, but that was before the pandemic, disproportionately hitting minority families hard.

A fact that's not been lost on Republican challengers who heavily targeted their votes.

How critical is the Latino vote for particularly as it pertains to the tighter races in Nevada?

MUELLER: I think the Latino vote is going to be very critical here. Cortez Masto continues to court Latino voters as she did in 2016.

And they could make up as much as 15 percent to 20 percent of the electorate. And you're also seeing Adam Laxalt reaching out to those communities as well.

WHITFIELD: OK. Tabitha Mueller, we'll leave it there for you. We'll be watching. Keep us posted on the developments there. Thank you so much.

MUELLER: Thanks so much for having me.

WHITFIELD: Fantastic. Thank you.

All right. Still to come, millions of Ukrainians are experiencing power outages due to Russian bombardments. We'll show you how residents of Kyiv are learning to live without access to power and water, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:57]

WHITFIELD: Millions of Ukrainians continue to deal with power outages caused by Russian attacks on infrastructure. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy accuses the Kremlin of waging energy terrorism on his country.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Kyiv and has more on how residents are coping with the blackouts as winter approaches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): Week four of Ukraine's new struggle against the cold and the dark. Rolling blackouts blanket Kyiv. Nighttime is spooky.

And we are entering this high-rise apartment complex to see how the residents are coping with Russia's constant attacks on key infrastructure.

(on camera): Hello?

(voice-over): Up to the 12th floor. No light in the stairwell but our cameras. And no elevator.

Iuliia Mendel meets us, hobbling down on crutches on the foot she fractured by tripping over the steps the first night of the blackouts.

IULIIA MENDEL, KYIV RESIDENT & JOURNALIST: Hi.

AMANPOUR (on camera): Hi.

(voice-over): She's a journalist and a former press secretary to President Zelenskyy.

MENDEL: Good to have you. How are you?

AMANPOUR: Together, we visit her neighbor, Natalia, with her 18-month- old daughter, Lina, just one of a whole generation of war-traumatized Kyiv kids, especially with the constant air raid sirens.

(on camera): Is she stressed?

NATALIA HORBAN, KYIV RESIDENT: She is, like, oh, oh! She's pointing to into the window so that she knows that something goes wrong.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): The two of them are recovering from a two-hour ordeal trapped in their tiny elevator when the power went out.

Now all over Kyiv, residents are putting small care boxes inside with water, snacks and anti-anxiety medicines.

By the time we sat down to talk, the power popped back on again after nine hours on this day.

(on camera): Do you feel demoralized? Do you feel like, okay, all right, enough already, it's time to surrender and negotiate?

MENDEL: No way. Look, we have passed through the hardships of '90s, and we didn't have light, water and heating for hours and hours every day.

That then was desperate because we knew it was about poverty. Now it's about war, and we know that we must win.

AMANPOUR (voice-over): Winning this phase of the war comes with weapons like these to charge phones and any other emergency equipment.

HORBAN: It's the most important thing here to have in Ukraine. It's a power bank. Without it, you don't have any connection. And it's the most important now to know that your relatives are OK.

AMANPOUR: They tell us generators are almost all sold out and super expensive now, as well as candles, torches and head lamps.

Natalia has improvised light from a water bottle and her iPhone.

Downtown, it's dire for businesses, too. Every beauty salon operates on hair dryers for that blowout, and of course, water to wash out the shampoo and the dye.

Olena is taking her chances today.

OLENA, HAIRHOUSE CUSTOMER (through translation): After we finished dyeing it, I might have to go home to dry it, but it's fine.

AMANPOUR: Just one floor here has power, and the others are dark.

Before the war, Hairhouse had 150 clients a day. Now it's more like 50. And the salon has lost 60 percent of its revenue.

But as Dmitry, the commercial manager, tells me, they keep calm and carry on.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV, COMMERCIAL MANAGER, HAIRHOUSE: I believe that we should work even without light, even without electricity. We should help our army. We should help our people.

And we will do our job until the end. And I believe that sooner or later, the light will come. AMANPOUR: Like so many civilians, they say, enduring these hardships

on the home front is part of their war effort supporting their troops on the front lines, who are fighting to keep Ukraine independent, fighting for their homeland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Christiane Amanpour in Kyiv. Thanks for that report.

[13:45:01]

Coming up, President Joe Biden hitting the campaign trail in the country, making his final pitch to voters ahead of the midterm elections. We'll fact-check some of his campaign claims next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. President Biden rallying Democrats in the Chicago area just a short time ago.

Biden has made several appearances recently as Democrats scramble to hang onto control in Congress in next week's midterm elections.

But on the campaign trail, some of Biden's messaging has included false and misleading claims.

[13:50:01]

CNN's Daniel Dale has been fact-checking Biden's claims. And he's with us now.

So let's run through a few of the bigger claims that the president made, starting with what he said about gas prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, the most common price of gas in America is $3.39, down from over $5 when I took office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: How does it stack up?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: The last part of that claim is just not true. The most common price of gas in early 2021 was $2.39. Not even close to $5.

He makes it sound like gas has fallen during his presidency even though even though it increased.

This one might have been an inadvertent gaff. Because he has said correspondent in other speeches that the price was over $5 this summer, in June, not when he took office.

Nonetheless, the price of gas, we know, is maybe the most important price in this midterm campaign. And he was just wrong in a live televised speech.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then let's hear about what the president said about an increase to Social Security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I know it was. For the first time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the biggest increase in their Social Security checks they've gotten.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So, was the president right in that claim?

DALE: This one is a super misleading political stand that the president keeps doing.

So, yes, it is true that the increase in Social Security payments for 2023 will be unusually big. What Biden doesn't say is that that increase is strictly because inflation has been unusually big.

A decades-old law requires that the increase in Social Security payments match the increase in the inflation rate by a certain measure.

So an 8.7 percent increase in Social Security payments. That is only because -- not anything Biden has done but the inflation rate by that measure is also 8.7 percent.

WHITFIELD: OK. So the president also talked about the deficit in a recent appearance. And this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The Democrats in Congress, without any Republican vote, reduced the deficit by one trillion, 400 billion dollars.

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: One year. More than any time in American history. We cut the federal debt in half. A fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So, Daniel, is that fact?

DALE: There are two problems here. Number one, it is just false that President Biden and Democrats have can you tell the federal debt in half.

In fact, the debt has continued rising under President Biden. It hit a record $31 trillion in early October.

What has been cut in half is the federal budget deficit. That is something different. That's the difference between federal spending and revenues.

Even then, it is highly questionable, as best, or misleading for President Biden to take credit there.

Because the vast majority of the reason that the deficit has fallen is because temporary pandemic spending from 2020 simply expired as planned.

So it wasn't by Biden's his own actions. In fact, many analysts we've spoken to say Biden's actions have worsened the deficit picture, not improved it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Daniel Dale with all the facts. Thank you so much.

DALE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Cramped cabins are nothing new on airplanes, right? But the FAA may be pumping the brakes on plans to shrink seats even more. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:39]

WHITFIELD: The FAA is considering whether to do something about the shrinking size of seats on commercial planes. The review comes after the agency received more than 26,000 public comments about seat sizes, with many of them begging for more room.

CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Luxury is what flying was supposed to be. But these days, legroom is shrinking as passengers are getting larger.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things are definitely getting too small on planes.

AMELIA MARTIN, PASSENGER: We're dying. And it doesn't matter what airline it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't imagine seats or aisles being smaller than they are today.

MUNTEAN: Now, the Federal Aviation Administration is considering whether to stop airlines from making seats smaller.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Evacuate, evacuate. Leave everything. Come this way.

MUNTEAN: The agency is under a congressional mandate to study whether seat size could slow an evacuation. But in 26,000 public comments, many focused on comfort. PAUL HUDSON, PRESIDENT, FLYERSRIGHTS: The idea is that the more people you can jam into a plane, the more money you'll make.

MUNTEAN: FlyersRights President Paul Hudson says airlines are trying to squeeze out more profit.

This week, six U.S. Senators told the FAA to act urgently and not wait for seats to get any smaller.

So I decided to put airlines to the test.

(on-camera): Two things necessary for this little experiment of our own, a ticket and a tape measure.

(voice-over): On this United Airlines Flight, legroom was right at the industry standard, 30 inches. But it all depends on the airline.

Legroom can get even tighter on ultra-low-cost carriers. Twenty-seven inches is what we saw on this Allegiant Airlines Flight.

FlyersRights proposes a minimum of 32 inches legroom and seats that are wider. Dimensions it says would fit 90 percent of Americans.

HUDSON: That would make a huge difference.

MUNTEAN: In its comment to the FAA, the airline industry's top lobby said it would not compromise on safety but told the government to stay out of regulating passenger comfort.

The FAA and the Department of Transportation declined our interview requests.

[13:59:49]

PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: Their position to date has been, how uncomfortable you are is between you and the air carrier.

(END VIDEOTAPE)