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Candidates Head Into Final Stretch With Control Of Congress At Stake; GOP Senator Ron Johnson Won't Commit To Accepting Midterm Election Results; Over 1,000 Requested Absentee Ballots Never Mailed In Georgia; Voting Access, Abortion Rights At The Center Of Georgia Secretary Of State Race; Nancy Pelosi Speaks Out Following Hammer Attack On Husband; Acosta One-On-One With Former NY Governor George Pataki; DOJ Mulls Possible Special Counsel If Trump Runs In 2024; Trump Adviser Kash Patel Granted Immunity, Testifies In Mar-a-Lago Probe; FAA To Weigh In On Whether Airplane Seats Are Getting Too Small. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 05, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:22]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the states that could determine the fate of the United States Senate. With those critical midterm elections just three days away, it's all about the states where the races are still considered big tossups. That includes Pennsylvania. President Biden, former President Barack Obama and former President Donald Trump are all in that state today home to a neck-and-neck Senate race.

Just a short time from now Biden and Obama will hold a rally in Philadelphia for Senate candidate and current lieutenant governor John Fetterman, and then later tonight it's Trump trying to drum up support for television doctor, Mehmet Oz. Remember, Republicans only need to pick up one Senate seat -- every race is critically important at this point.

In the meantime, across the country, voters understand the stakes. More than 34 -- look at this. 34 million ballots have already been cast across the country with key battleground states reporting numbers are up from four years ago.

CNN has reporters in key battleground states across this nation. Let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly in Philadelphia.

Phil, you cannot emphasize how critically important that battleground state is right now. And you just have to look at who the surrogates are. You're covering them all today. What's it look like, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Where the top players in the party are in the final days tells you everything you need to know about the critical races and the biggest players in the Democratic Party are here. They will be here in Philadelphia. It is a recognition of two realities here, Jim. The first is just how critical the Senate race in particular is in this state.

It's a pickup opportunity for Democrats as they have extraordinarily tight races for several of their incumbents. They view this is a necessity and a very real pickup opportunity. But the others, what this race has become, and this is a race about base voters and turning them out, Jim, Philadelphia in 2020 went to President Biden by 64 points. In a state that President Biden only won by 80,000 votes.

This is a blue stronghold. They need turnout here in the cities, that's why President Obama was in Pittsburgh earlier today and delivering this message in support of John Fetterman. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Listen, it's easy to joke about Dr. Oz and all these quack remedies he's pushed on TV, but it matters. It says something about his character. If somebody is willing to peddle snake oil to make a buck then he is probably willing to sell snake oil to get elected.

You deserve better than somebody who is just trying to make a quick buck, somebody willing to say anything to get attention. You deserve somebody who knows you. You deserve somebody who stood side by side with you, somebody who will work every day and fight for you, somebody who is actually from Pennsylvania. You deserve somebody like John Fetterman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Jim, that is a cutting and direct attack line from the former president, a critical voice over the course of the last several days for several Democrats around the country. But the focus is here and it's interesting that he's having a very rare rally with President Biden. They've obviously had two very different travel schedules, two different kind of ways of doing things, strategies almost, but the messages is same, the goals are the same as well.

And one thing that I would definitely say, Jim, going forward is there is a recognition. Young voters, black voters as well, critical here. Base voters. And that is why they're in Philadelphia. This is the final push for the most critical state probably when it comes to the Senate and the entire midterm race -- Jim.

ACOSTA: You are absolutely right, Phil. What happens there in Philadelphia might well determine the balance of power in the United States Senate.

Phil Mattingly, thanks so much for that report. Really appreciate it.

Now let's go to CNN's Omar Jimenez live in Wisconsin, another very crucial state where incumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson is taking the maybe I will, maybe I won't approach to accepting election results.

Omar, what's the latest? What can you tell us?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, and he didn't budge on that today. We just got out of an event with Republican Senator Ron Johnson and Republican candidate for governor Tim Michaels, and others. Johnson laid out in plain terms for his supporters that this election

is a fight for freedom. Earlier this week, though, at another campaign stop that we also went to here in windy Waukesha, Wisconsin, he told us in another part of the state that he could not commit outright to accepting the results of Tuesday's election. He instead told us I sure hope I can.

Now we followed up on that today and said between then and now, is there anything that's made you feel better about Tuesday's election and he instead cited a case out of Milwaukee where a now former election official has been criminally charged for allegedly obtaining military ballots for fake voters and sending them to a state representative to make a point. Here's a little of our exchange.

[16:05:19]

JIMENEZ: And it doesn't make you feel better that she got caught in this instance?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): She got caught by -- and being prosecuted by and defended by a bunch of Democrats. I do not know what's happening. It is the most bizarre story. It's just suspicious, and we should be doing everything we can to restore confidence.

LT. GOV. MANDELA BARNES (D), WISCONSIN SENATE NOMINEE: Our strategy has been the same since day one. Show up everywhere, talk to everybody. We're not assuming anybody's political allegiances and we're not assuming that any part of this state is going to show up for us, and any part of the state won't show up for us. We're meeting where they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And that was Johnson's opponent Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, who's trying to break through in polls that have been too close to call, have shown no clear leader over the course of now months. We have asked him what his final strategy was in these days. He also, though, committed to accepting the results of Tuesday's election.

At every stop that we've been really across the state, on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, we've heard about how close elections are here in Wisconsin. They say it's about as much as Wisconsin's identity as cheese curds and beer at this point, but I think jokes aside, those jokes will likely become a reality on Tuesday as both candidates have made clear they are campaigning on the country being on the line -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Omar Jimenez, and it's an important reminder, we'll remind it to our viewers throughout this program.

You know, there are election deniers and people who question election results and people who are not committing to honoring election results in so many critical races around the country. As a country we just never have gone through something like this before. We're seeing it play out in real time. Omar Jimenez in Wisconsin, thanks so much for that.

Right here in battleground Georgia, hundreds are being urged to vote in person after an investigation revealed that more than 1,000 absentee ballots requested in the state's Cobb County were never sent out.

CNN's Nadia Romero joins us now with more on what officials are calling a critical error.

Nadia, tell us about this.

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, and this is happening out of Cobb County. It's alarming, really, as one of the counties that covers the city of Atlanta, and we are learning more from a letter that was sent out by the election office to its board members and by the Cobb County spokesperson releasing a statement saying that listen, we know that there have been concerns about voter integrity, voter fraud because of the 2020 election, Jim, this really fuels that fire, and unfortunately so.

And that's why they came out with these statements saying that this was human error. This was not done intentionally. That more than 1,000 absentee ballots that were requested were never mailed out to those people. And so the question as to why or how did this happen, and we're being told that it happened in many different reasons. One being that the election office saw extreme turnover since the 2020 election.

A lot of people left those offices so they hired new people including one of the supervisors who was in charge of absentee ballots. I want you to read a part of a statement that was released to us saying again, our absentee supervisor failed to upload the daily file of accepted ballots into the mailing machine or to have staff manually stuff the envelopes. It appears that she did not employ any process to check outgoing ballots against the daily accepted reports to verify that all ballots were created.

And they also say part of this issue was because of a law that was passed here in the state of Georgia by the Republican-led legislature saying that they wanted to change a lot of the election laws and part of it was shrinking that timeframe, shrinking the timeframe that you could request the absentee ballot, an absentee ballot. So those absentee ballots came in a lot quicker than they normally would, and they just didn't get those process.

All of it, though, the Cobb County spokesperson saying is not an excuse. This was an error. They're doing everything they can now to fix this problem, that means overnighting those ballots to people who requested them and never received, contacting those voters by phone and by e-mail as well, and doing their best to remedy this.

But ultimately, Jim, they're saying if you can vote in person on Tuesday, that's probably your best bet but we know that people request absentee ballots because they may be deployed. They may be out of state and they may not be able to physically access the location, so this is definitely a big issue in Cobb County -- Jim. ACOSTA: It's a huge issue. All right, Nadia Romero, thank you very

much.

And joining me now is the Democrat running to be the next secretary of state in Georgia, Bee Nguyen. She is a Georgia state representative.

And I want to start by getting your reaction to this investigation in Cobb County that Nadia Romero was just reporting on. What do we know about this?

[16:10:04]

BEE NGUYEN (D), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: So what we know is there were 1,000 ballots that were requested and were not sent out to voters and now we are just a couple of days away from election day. The bill that was passed, Senate Bill 202, shortened the timeframe in which counties can actually send out these absentee ballots, and not only that, the workload has increased for election workers and the resources have decreased.

What we have been talking about is an election administration crisis. People are leaving because of the harassment, because of the threats, and because of these new laws that make it more difficult to administer their jobs. And so now here we are a couple of days from an election and 1,000 voters is a lot of voters.

And so we know under law that if you request an application by mail and you don't receive it you can still show up on Tuesday and vote in person, but again we're talking about military overseas voters, we're talking about college students who may not be able to come back and vote in person on Tuesday, so certainly voters will be disenfranchised because of this mistake.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you, because there's been record turnout here in Georgia. That's what we've been hearing. And the current secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, the person you'd like to replace, has been saying, well, see -- and other Republicans have been saying this, see, this is a proof that all of the Democratic complaints about the election law that was passed here, that they were not founded, that they were maybe an overreaction by Democrats, and let's listen to what Brad Raffensperger has to say and I'll get you to respond to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: We have a record turnout. It's never been easier to register. We have record registrations. We have 6.9 million registered voters, active registered voters, and it looks like maybe we'll probably be pushing well over four million which is what we had in 2018. We won't hit the presidential number of five million, but still, we're showing that here has proper guardrails and accessibility and we believe that we're the model for election integrity but also election access.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And Senator Nguyen, what do you think when Raffensperger says that? What's your response?

NGUYEN: Well, we know something that's very important in that voter turnout is not a reflection of whether or not voter suppression exists, and under Senate Bill 202, there has been a lot of work to educate voters on how they need to change their voter behavior and there has been a huge push for people to vote early and vote in person.

We also know that some of the provisions of Senate Bill 202 are restrictive in nature and do disenfranchise voters, including the provision that allows those unlimited mass voter challenges. We're talking about at least 65,000 Georgians who have been challenged. In the county of Forsythe, one individual alone challenged the eligibility of over 30,000 people. There are voters who have turned up at the polls and they are told that they have been challenged and they're not given reason as to why they're challenged.

It creates chaos, it creates voter intimidation, and voters feel disenfranchised for that because it is their fundamental right to vote. And so we have to be very, very careful when we talk about these laws that were created because Republicans did not like the results of the 2020 election and the 2021 election, and they have said that out loud. The Heritage Foundation behind closed doors said this bill was created to make it harder for Georgians to vote and then they took the footprint of the Georgia bill, and copied it and introduced it to states across the entire country because of what happened in the 2020 election.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you, because you have a tough challenge here of unseating an incumbent. And on top of that, I suppose there are some Democrats here in Georgia who will say well, Brad Raffensperger stood up to Donald Trump. Independents in the state might say. What is your response to that?

NGUYEN: Well, counting the votes should be the bare minimum and we are at a point in our country where we view that as something that should be lauded as courageous, but I also am an elected official who took an oath to our country and to our Constitution and I understood when I took that oath that following the law would be the bare minimum.

I am running for secretary of state because I believe in protecting access to the ballot box and it has been shown that over the last four years in the state of Georgia, our laws have become more restrictive and not more expansive under Brad Raffensperger and he has also pledged to further restrict our laws including eliminating automatic voter registration.

ACOSTA: And I wanted to ask you, just very quickly. Do you think Donald Trump broke the law when he attempted to overturn the election results here in Georgia? And do you think he should be indicted for that? There is an investigation here in Georgia taking place as we speak. What do you think?

NGUYEN: I do think that the former president broke the law. I think that there are many people who are complicit and allowed this to happen in the state of Georgia, including the fake electors who showed up to our state capital and tried to overturn the results of the election, and including many other officials who are not being held accountable for their actions. It has created a dangerous environment in the state of Georgia, and it has sown seeds of doubt as it pertains to the validity of the 2020 election.

[16:15:02]

And there are still sitting elected officials who are continuing to sow the seeds of doubt, who are running for election currently, and they are running on the premise of the big lie, so we have a lot of work to do to protect our democracy, and we have a long way to go in our country before we stabilize what is currently happening with our democracy.

ACOSTA: All right. Senator Nguyen, thank you very much for your time. Good luck on Tuesday. We appreciate your time very much. Thank you.

NGUYEN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And make sure to join CNN for special election coverage starting Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. As we go to break we are waiting for President Biden and former President Barack Obama. They're going to be taking the stage in just a few moments. Speaking in Philadelphia at a rally next hour for Democratic candidate for Senate, John Fetterman. A very important race there in that battleground state. Much more coming up from Georgia in a few moments. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says her husband faces a long haul of a recovery.

[16:20:01]

She spoke out publicly on camera for the first time since Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked with a hammer inside their San Francisco home. He was released from the hospital this week. He is recovering after having surgery to repair his fractured skull and injuries to his hand and arm.

CNN's Camila Bernal is following this for us.

Camila, what can you tell us? What's the latest?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. So Speaker Pelosi again saying yes, this is going to be a long recovery. She described this incident as tragic, but also says that her husband is going to be OK, saying he is at home recovering with his family. She took the time to thank her supporters for their well wishes. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind words, your prayers and your good wishes for Paul. It is going to be a long haul, but he will be well and it is just so tragic how it happened, but nonetheless, we have to be optimistic. He is surrounded by family, so that is a wonderful thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: Now in this video released by her team, she also read part of a poem that she shared after January 6th, use it to say that the country needs to come together and be respectful. As we know, the man accused of attacking her husband asked for Nancy Pelosi during this incident. Of course, a lot of the information coming from authorities is also coming directly from the attacker, David DePape, and from Paul Pelosi, who also talked to authorities according to the San Francisco D.A.

He had an interview with both the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department, and the D.A. is saying this was a successful interview. She says that Paul Pelosi has memories of this incident and also saying that he was able to answer a lot of the questions from law enforcement.

In the meantime, we know that the accused attacker, he waved a court appearance on Friday in San Francisco. He is facing at least six charges related to this incident, including attempted murder, assault, robbery. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the state charges, but if found guilty, he could spend a lot of time behind bars -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Camila Bernal, thank you very much.

In the meantime, Democrats in New York are bracing for potentially stunning losses on election day with the governor's race so tight even former President Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail today.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joins me now.

Gloria, this took a lot of Democrats by surprise, how quickly this race tightened. What can you tell us?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it is all about that closing message in the last several days before the election. We have the last weekend of early voting here in New York and Democrats are trying to rally behind Kathy Hochul, as you said, in a very close race with her Republican challenger Lee Zeldin. President Bill Clinton just left the stage here a few minutes ago and he was trying to draw the contrast between Zeldin, the Republican Party, and the incumbent, Governor Kathy Hochul, talking about what Zeldin stands for and that which Kathy Hochul stands for, saying that reproductive rights and gun reform, and access to civil rights and human rights, access to democracy will all be at stake should the Republican win this election now.

Now, as you said, this very much coming as a surprise here in New York. Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one and this is a state that has not elected a Republican governor in 20 years, so we have seen a flurry of campaigning from Hochul camp in the last couple of days. She has crisscrossed the entire city, meeting with different communities and trying to rally support. Listen to a little bit of what the former president had to say just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I want you to be scared and I want you to be mad. And the last thing I want you to do is think.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: We are facing a contrast. There's never been a greater contrast between -- I'm scared, too. You're scared. I'm scared. We all should be scared. That's how we're going to win because we will overcome fear with our vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: So that is the main message, what's at stake. They are saying that there is a big contrast between these two candidates trying to draw attention to this race just a couple of days left before the election next week. And Democrats here worried about the potential outcome. Governor Kathy Hochul has been getting a lot of help from some big Democrat names. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was here just earlier this week.

[16:25:04]

Also campaigning for her, Vice President Kamala Harris. And tomorrow she'll be out in Westchester joined by President Joe Biden -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Gloria Pazmino. Thank you very much for that report.

And joining me now is the last Republican to win the governorship in New York state, an office he held for three terms, former Governor George Pataki.

Governor, thanks so much for joining us. It's been about 20 years since you were last elected. Coming up on that. You said earlier this year, though, that you believe the conditions were ripe for the same kind of upset when that you got when you beat Mario Cuomo back in 1994, Why did you say that then and how are things looking now, do you think?

GEORGE PATAKI (R), FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Yes, Jim, absolutely. I felt it months ago and today it's even stronger. There are three overwhelming issues facing New York. One is crime. Hochul has failed on crime. The other is taxes. We are leading the nation in losing people, population, because the cost of living and the taxes are too high, and then there's inflation. And Albany has been on a spending binge that has helped inflate all these costs.

You know, I want to be respectful but I just heard former President Clinton and he said we are scared and angry. Well, that's how New Yorkers are. They are scared about crime and they're angry that Hochul in Albany haven't done anything about it. So I think this is a nailbiter. It is clearly the closest race probably since I got elected the first time, and anything can happen.

ACOSTA: But wasn't crime much higher in this country when both you and Bill Clinton were in office than it is now? PATAKI: No. When I took office, New York state was the most dangerous

state in America. When I left office, New York state was the third safest. The only states that were safer were like Utah and South Dakota, but we've seen that reversed because the same policies -- giving criminals the right to commit crime after crime after crime without any consequence were put back in place two years ago.

And New Yorkers know that, and they know that Hochul hasn't done anything about it. And, you know, I can't tell you the number of Democrats -- I'm in the city all the time and obviously there I'm surrounded by Democrats. I can't tell you the number of Democrats who've come up to me and say, I've got to vote for Zeldin. You know, this just isn't tolerable. We can't go through this anymore.

So I think it's going to be a very close race but it would not surprise me if we see this massive upset where Zeldin is the victor.

ACOSTA: Well, let me mention -- let me bring up another Clinton you know all too well, former secretary of state and New York senator, Hillary Clinton, who has campaigned for Kathy Hochul. She labeled Republicans on this issue of crime. Let's listen to what she had to say. I'll get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I want to say one word about this emphasis on crime that we've seen in every ad I've run across from the Republicans. I find it ironic and frankly disturbing that when Paul Pelosi is attacked by an intruder in his own home with a hammer, the Republicans go silent about that crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What's your response to that?

PATAKI: I mean, the idea that every Republican, including New York candidates, have to comment on an issue there -- we all felt bad that this happened. It's horrible for Paul Pelosi, but the number of victims of random crime in New York City and New York state is through the roof. And I think the message is the right message. And you know, Zeldin, I have talked to him about this many times, he is simply going to put in place many of the policies I had to put in place when we were the most dangerous state in America. They will work. New York will be safer. People will have more confidence.

ACOSTA: And why do you think New York would elect Lee Zeldin when he has an alliance with Donald Trump? Also voted against certifying the election results. What do you think about that? And I know, Governor Pataki, you know, I know your politics well. I have to think that you are uncomfortable with seeing some of these election denying candidates running for public office around the country. That's not George Pataki style politics.

PATAKI: You know, everybody has a different style of politics but what's on the ballot is not the 2020 election. What is on the ballot is, are we can have safe streets? Are we going to have our business stay here and our children have a job and opportunity in New York? Are we going to see massive inflation and billions in borrowing out of Albany the way we've seen in Washington? That's what the voters care about.

And to me it's looking forward.

[16:30:00]

And I've always tried to look at the future to see what was best for New York. For Republicans, Independents and Democrats. I have no doubt, this year, electing Zeldin is best for New York.

ACOSTA: And do you think it's a good idea for Trump to announce or essentially hint that he is running for president right around the midterms?

Do you wish that story had not gotten out there? Is that story getting out there helpful to Republicans. Like Lee Zeldin, in a place like New York, I'm sure he would rather keep the former president off the TV screens for a couple of days.

PATAKI: Absolutely. It is classic Trump that it has to be about him. It's not about him. It's about the future of our states and the future of America.

And I just cringe when he does whatever he can to get publicity going forward. But that is not the point here. It is not about Trump. It is about New York.

And when you look at New York's future, there's no question in my mind, without Zeldin, we are going to continue to have unacceptable rates of crime.

We'll continue to lead the nation in having people leave the state for another state. And we are not going to see the bright future that we deserve to have as New Yorkers.

This is a great place, great city, great state, with terrible policies. Zeldin will change that.

ACOSTA: Former New York Governor George Pataki. I know the Hochul side of things sharply disagrees with some of the things were saying there.

But always appreciate your time. Thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

PATAKI: Thank you, Jim. Nice to be here.

ACOSTA: All right. Thanks a lot.

Coming up, Elon Musk lays off thousands of Twitter employees, including those who fight misinformation, right before the critical midterm election.

And now, Twitter's founder is issuing an apology. We will tell you all about that coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:36:03]

ACOSTA: Twitter founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, is apologizing after the new owner, Elon Musk, implemented a massive round of layoffs.

Thousands of staffers at Twitter got pink slips yesterday, including 15 percent of its Trust and Safety workforce, the group charged with moderating content.

And now Dorsey is saying he's sorry for growing the company too quickly.

CNN tech reporter, Brian Fung, joins me now.

Brian, what else is Dorsey saying? This is very interesting to a lot of folks who are worried about what Elon Musk is doing to Twitter right now.

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Jim, Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, sounding a contrite note as he tweeted today, and I quote:

"Folks at Twitter, past and present, are strong and resilient. They will always find a way, no matter how difficult the moment. I realize everybody is angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in the situation. I grew the company too quickly and I apologize for that."

Very interesting to see Dorsey taking some responsibility for the layoffs that hit more than 3,700 people this week.

What is interesting is what Dorsey did not talk about, which is the potential impact these layoffs may have on the election just days away.

Twitter is saying that it remains committed to protecting the integrity of the election. And Elon Musk has said that nothing about Twitter's content moderation policies have changed.

But you have seen civil rights leaders raise lots of concerns this week about whether Twitter will be able to enforce its policies because of the layoffs, even if the policies themselves have not changed.

And civil rights leaders have called for advertisers to suspend their advertising on Twitter, which some have done, and which Musk has said has contributed to a steep decline in revenues for the company.

Which is very concerning for one of the world's most influential social media platforms.

All of this coming just days before a pivotal election. And nobody -- the company seems to be able to tell us whether the content moderation during the election and post-election period will be precisely the same as what we saw in previous years.

ACOSTA: All right, Brian Fung, a very important story at Twitter, laying off people who are supposed to be moderating content, being on the lookout for new information while, at the same time, the new owner has been spreading misinformation.

But we will have more on this as it develops.

Brian Fung, thank you very much.

For all you Powerball fans out there, the Powerball jackpot is still up for grabs and tonight's Jackpot is a record $1.6 billion. That is the highest it has ever been.

The winner of Powerball, whether it's you or me, likely me, will wind up with just over $782 million if we choose the lump sum. I'm going with the lump sum if it happens to me.

You may be asking yourself, what are the odds of being the lucky winner? They are not very good. As I know from playing too much.

But Powerball officials say your chances of snagging this enormous prize is one in 292 million. You have a much better shot of being bitten by a shark or being struck by lightning than winning the Powerball.

So take that into consideration as you are buying lottery tickets this evening.

In the meantime, former President Trump apparently eyeing the third week of November to announce another presidential run. So what would that mean for the multiple investigations against him?

[16:39:32]

CNN's senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, joins me up next to break it all down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Welcome back. I'm Jim Acosta, coming to you live from battleground Georgia just days away from the midterms.

In Pennsylvania, the presidential power is out and on the trail. At any moment now, President Biden and President Obama will take the stage in Philadelphia.

And then in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, former President Trump will be rallying his followers.

We are also learning new details about former President Trump's own political ambitions. Sources tell CNN that top Trump aides have been telling reporters that Trump has been eyeing the third week of November to announce a possible 2024 run.

We are also learning Justice Department officials have discussed whether a Trump candidacy would create the need for a special counsel to oversee federal investigations related to Trump.

CNN senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig, joins us now.

Elie, explain why the Department of Justice would be considering a special counsel at this point after they have been spending all this time conducting these investigations.

And I suppose there's this issue that has been raised now. Is Donald Trump going to announce that he is running for president to throw another wrench in these investigations?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Jim, well, under the law, the only valid reason to appoint a special counsel is to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest.

[16:45:02]

And the concern would be, if Trump announces officially that he is running, then you would have a situation where Joe Biden's selected attorney general would be and potentially prosecuting the personal who is potentially running against Joe Biden for 2024.

As you alluded to, arguably, that has been the case for a long time now. It's no surprise. But I guess the argument would be if Trump makes it official, then you're looking at a more concrete conflict of interests.

What would that look like? A special counsel is really a federal prosecutor. It's like the U.S. attorney. But a special counsel does have some more distance in political and practical insulation from the attorney general.

The most famous recent example, of course, was Robert Mueller. So DOJ is going to have an important decision to make, really potentially quite soon.

ACOSTA: In the meantime, the former president has missed a legal deadline to turn documents over to the January 6th committee, which I suppose is not a shocker. But the committee had issued him a subpoena. What happens now?

HONIG: The committee has to decide, do they want to allow this deadline to slip or do they want to go to the courts or potentially seek contempt?

It appears the committee has given Donald Trump a little bit of extra time here. That happens sometimes, but only when you believe the other party is operating in good faith.

But, Jim, the calendar is so important here. We are 59 days away from a new Congress taking over. That is all the time the committee has at most. They've got to get their work done if they are serious about this in under two months now.

As you said, Trump has a time-honored practice of trying to delay. He's pretty close to the finish line here. It seems to me like he is trying to drag his feet.

ACOSTA: Right. That is the playbook as always.

And Trump adviser, Kash Patel, testified this week before a grand jury investigating the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. This was a person charged with interacting with the National Archives in the Justice Department about these documents.

Patel says he was compelled to testify and granted limited immunity. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: This entire raid on his house, I believe, was to prevent the disclosure now that the government gangsters are back in charge of their corrupt activities from Russia- gate on down.

What they have done is a shock-and-awe campaign based on what "Vogue" magazine would've done by a pictorial display of splashing around papers on the floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Elie, what do you think? Could Kash Patel really end up as a valuable witness for the prosecution or is he still really acting as a propagandist for Trump in all of this?

HONIG: Yes, I'm quite skeptical on all of this, Jim.

On the one hand, the fact that prosecutors gave Kash Patel immunity, what that means is they saw something usable in his testimony.

It means he has to testify in the grand jury. He cannot take the Fifth. But his testimony cannot be used against him. That's why we call it immunity.

On the other hand, you have to be realistic. We just heard this guy is a longtime cheerleader for Donald Trump. He has said things out in public, including that Donald Trump declassified those Mar-a-Lago documents.

So if you were to come clean now and say, no, he never declassified, it will be a disaster trial because the cross examination on this guy is going to be but you first did say he declassified.

So I'm not super optimistic that Kash Patel is going to be a star witness here for DOJ.

ACOSTA: All right, Elie Honig, thank you very much. As always, we appreciate it.

Coming up, you're looking live in Philadelphia where, any moment, President Biden and former President Barack Obama will take the stage in support of Pennsylvania Senate candidate, John Fetterman, in that critically important contest. Also in Pennsylvania tonight, former President Donald Trump, who is

campaigning for Dr. Mehmet Oz and his followers. We will bring you all the action in the next hour. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:00]

ACOSTA: The FAA is considering whether to do something about the shrinking size of seats on commercial planes. The agency received more than 26,000 public comments about seat sizes with many 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 --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome aboard.

MUNTEAN: -- 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.

[16:55:02]

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

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)

ACOSTA: Pete Muntean, excellent report there. We all want more leg room on those planes.

Thanks, Pete, for that report.

Now I'm here in Georgia, one of the three states with toss-up Senate seats on the line. The other two, Nevada and Pennsylvania, are also very important at this point.

But we want to show you this right now. Live pictures from Philadelphia where former President Barack Obama and President Biden are about to take the stage to rally Democrats in a critical Senate race.

Former President Trump is also traveling in the state tonight. We will get a live report on all of this, next.

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