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Biden, Obama And Trump, Campaigning In Pennsylvania Today; 1K- Plus Georgia Absentee Ballots Never Mailed In Cobb County; Singer Aaron Carter Dies At 34; Fed Stays The Course On Rate Hikes Despite Recession Fears; Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Apologizes For Mass Layoffs; Dems' Chances To Keep Control Of The House, Senate Dwindle. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired November 05, 2022 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:41]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are now just three days away from Election Day.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pittsburgh, I'm here to ask you to vote.
DEAN: It is no coincidence that we have three Presidents in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This Tuesday, you must vote Republican in a giant red wave.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Most important of all is the Senate race where Democrats are trying to flip a seat.
JOHN FETTERMAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm running to serve Pennsylvania. He is running to use Pennsylvania.
DR. MEHMET OZ (R), PENNSYLVANIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I want to go to Washington and bring balance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Georgia is often referred to as the center of the political universe. That is a true battleground State.
HERSCHEL WALKER (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: He has failed as a Senator, we need somebody to go to Washington to speak for us.
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): He doesn't know hardworking people, he doesn't know struggling people.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A startling new admission from Tehran. Iran's Foreign Minister saying Iran did provide a limited number of drones to Russia, but it was in the months prior to the conflict.
MARQUARDT: I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington. Pamela Brown is off.
Thank you so much for joining me. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's begin this hour on the campaign trail. That's where we find our CNN, Phil Mattingly, he is in Philadelphia where President Biden and former President Obama are appearing together and Jessica Dean is in Latrobe, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh ahead of former President Trump's appearance there with Dr. Oz.
Phil, let's start with you. Three Presidents, past and present in that State, that really says -- it really says everything about how important the races in Pennsylvania are.
MATTINGLY: Yes, Alex, I think it's fair to say Pennsylvania is important based on who is here today. And I think, look, this is a moment three days before Election Day when both parties are going all in on their most important races, their most important States, and for Democrats, they are making clear, it is the State of Pennsylvania, and it is the big City of Philadelphia.
The reason why is quite simple: They need their voters to vote. That sounds simplistic to some degree. However, Midterm Elections are often the moments where Democrats in particular see major drop offs in their kind of stalwart homes, places like Philadelphia, places like Pittsburgh, that's where President Obama was earlier today. Now, he is here.
A presidential bookend of some sorts for Josh Shapiro, who is speaking behind me, running for Governor and John Fetterman who is running for Senate.
President Biden going before them, President Obama to close this event in Philadelphia, and the mood to some degree is of a rally-like atmosphere that we haven't necessarily seen as much over the course of the last several months, particularly for President Biden.
They have been very focused at the White House of trying to have tailored events to talk about the President's accomplishments in their view, to buck up certain members. This is a very tried and true campaign rally. And this is purely driven to get out the vote in this critical city.
Alex, Philadelphia County was a county President Biden won by more than 60 points in 2020 in a race in a State that he only won by 80,000 votes. They need that kind of margin here. The exact reason that President Trump right now is in Western Pennsylvania, and that's why Biden and Obama are here.
President Obama will be speaking after John Fetterman. Obviously, that Senate race is what everybody really has their eyes on here, a pickup opportunity for Democrats as they have several other very tight races.
This is a race Democrats say they need to win. They think they can win. And now, you've got a former President and the current President trying to deliver that win -- Alex.
MARQUARDT: Yes, just like old times, and we will be bringing you the audience, more of what President Obama and John Fetterman have to say a little later in the show, and Phil Mattingly, we will get back to you in Philadelphia. Thank you so much.
Let's turn now to Jessica Dean.
Jessica, former President Trump tonight campaigning with Mehmet Oz. He has been trying to distance himself a bit from the former President in this General Election.
DEAN: He certainly has, Alex.
He has really been touting himself as a moderate as he seeks to really get the support from the Commonwealth's Independent and kind of swing voters that do exist here.
This is a very, very purple State and Oz has talked about that again and again in the last week both at his get-out-the-vote rallies and also on TV. The ads flood the television here. It is the most expensive race -- Senate race in the country.
And so tonight, to have him appearing at a rally with former President Donald Trump, it is a fine line for Mehmet Oz, because of course, Trump turns out the base in big numbers.
Just look at this giant crowd of cars behind me that has shown up on a Saturday night to see the former President.
[18:05:09]
DEAN: So, they certainly need the base to turn out. That's how you win in Pennsylvania. You've got to get your base to turnout and then you swing the Independent voters.
And so, Oz, it will be very interesting to see what he has to say tonight and what the former President has to say tonight, if we see them on stage with one another. These are all things that we're keeping our eye on this evening.
Now earlier, we were back in Pittsburgh with Oz's opponent, Democrat John Fetterman and former President Barack Obama as they were also rallying earlier in the day another Democratic stronghold of Pittsburgh, and Fetterman really sharpened his attack on Oz when it comes to his relationship with President Trump. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FETTERMAN: Today, Dr. Oz is going to be standing with Donald Trump on the stage.
[BOOING]
FETTERMAN: And I'm going to be proud to be standing with a President that is a hundred percent sedition free.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: And again, as Phil was saying, Alex, as you were saying this race so incredibly pivotal. It is an open seat. So Democrats would love to pick it up, Republicans certainly want to hold on to it and it could very well determine who controls the Senate. That's the reason we have three Presidents in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania tonight.
MARQUARDT: It is indeed a very fine line. It will be very interesting to see how Mehmet Oz walks that line.
Jessica Dean in Latrobe, Pennsylvania; Phil Mattingly in Philadelphia. Thank you both. We will be back with you later on this evening.
Now, let's go to suburban Atlanta where an elections investigation has revealed a troubling oversight.
More than 1,000 people in Cobb County requested absentee ballots, but those ballots weren't sent out. That is, not until this morning.
CNN's Nadia Romero joins us now.
Nadia, what went wrong here?
NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alex, that's what's so alarming because we know that there are so many checks and balances and things that were put in place, especially since the election of 2020, here in the State of Georgia and throughout all of these counties to try to make sure something like this would not happen.
And Cobb County is one of the larger counties in Georgia covering the Metro Atlanta area. So how did this happen?
We're being told by the Elections Office through a letter to its Board members and by the Cobb County spokesperson that this was simply human error by one of the supervisors.
Take a look at a statement sent out by the Board of Elections Chair that says: "While human error was clearly a factor, I believe reduced timeframes of the receipt of requests for and processing of absentee ballots provided under SB 202, as well as the turnover in the Elections Office are also significant factors."
So you see there, she mentioned turnover. They lost a lot of people in their staffing, so a lot of people had to be retrained for these positions. We're being told that people in the office are working 80- plus hours a week, they are overworked.
And you saw she mentioned SB 202, which was the bill that was passed here in Georgia by the Republican-controlled legislature that really changed the timeframes for accepting and processing absentee ballots that changed early voting, it changed a lot of things on how the vote process is worked out here, the election process in the State of Georgia.
But all in all, both of those folks, people say that there is no excuse for what happened and they are trying to remedy the situation -- Alex.
MARQUARDT: Of course, so many people rely on those absentee ballots. I want to go back to Phil in Philadelphia where Senate candidate John Fetterman is on stage and he has been speaking about the stroke that he suffered earlier this year. Let's take a listen.
FETTERMAN: ... and, and Doug Mastriano --
[BOOING]
FETTERMAN: ... a true -- a true -- a true exercise in moderation, but tonight -- tonight I get to spend the stage with two Presidents.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
FETTERMAN: Our next -- our next Governor...
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
FETTERMAN: And we are all 100 percent sedition free.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
FETTERMAN: And Oz of course, stands with Mastriano and they all want to ban all abortions right here in Pennsylvania.
[BOOING]
FETTERMAN: But I've got to tell you -- I've got to tell you, we're so grateful to have Josh Shapiro as our next Governor because he wouldn't ever let that stop on his watch.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
MARQUARDT: All right, that is Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman speaking on stage at a rally in Pennsylvania. Following him will be former President Barack Obama. We will keep monitoring that rally and bring more to you during the course of the show.
[18:10:11]
MARQUARDT: Let's turn now to the Midterms, coming up, of course on Tuesday. The nation's top cybersecurity officials are saying that there are no specific or credible threats to disrupt Election Day, but if you have a sense of unease about what could happen in the next few days, you're not alone.
Only 26 percent of Republican voters say that they're very confident that their in-person votes will be counted correctly compared to 55 percent of Democratic voters. Confidence then drops for Republican voters when it comes to absentee or mail-in ballots, just 10 percent saying that they are very confident that those votes will be counted accurately. Hereto, Democratic voters have much more confidence.
Overall confidence in the vote count accuracy, that has declined since the events of the 2020 election.
Jen Easterly joins us now. She is the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency known as, CISA.
Director Easterly, thank you so much for joining us at what is a very busy time for you, a very critical time for the country.
You have talked about a very complex threat environment. What are you most concerned about? What are you going to be watching most closely for in these next few days?
JEN EASTERLY, DIRECTOR OF THE CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: Yes, well, great to be with you, Alex.
It is a very complex environment, probably more complex than we've ever seen because of the array of threats. You still have cybersecurity threats from nation states like Russia, Iran, China. You have cyber criminals, you have insider threats. You have these unprecedented physical security concerns, threats of violence, intimidation, and harassment. And then of course, you've got rampant disinformation, which can be used by foreign adversaries to sow discord to undermine confidence in the integrity of our elections or even to incite physical violence.
As you said, though, we have no information about specific or credible threats to disrupt or compromise election infrastructure, but we are working very, very closely with State and local election officials to make sure they have everything that they need on Tuesday to run safe and secure elections.
MARQUARDT: How do you walk that line when you do have those foreign adversaries -- China, Russia, Iran, as you mentioned -- interfering, trying to amplify disinformation that is created here in the United States that is being spouted by so many American politicians, including some who are actually running for office. How do you combat that? And how do you assure Americans that the information that they're getting is accurate?
EASTERLY: Yes. So our mission as America's cyber defense agency is to reduce risk to election infrastructure, and we are very concerned about disinformation from foreign actors and that is what we are focused on.
We do a focus in many ways to ensure that the American people have confidence in the integrity of their elections and you know, when they see disinformation, they can actually recognize it, they can question it, and they cannot amplify it.
And so we do a couple things, we put out information about the tactics of disinformation, and then how Americans can build resilience to it, recognize it, question the source, investigate it, not amplify it.
We have an election literacy site called Rumor Versus Reality that puts out accurate information. But at the end of the day, elections are surprisingly complicated and technical. And so, what we really do is we focus on those State and local election officials who know the most about their voting infrastructure, and we're really amplifying their voices as trusted voices. I have to emphasize though, Alex, you know, CISA is a nonpartisan agency. We work with election officials, regardless of party, regardless of politics, whether they're elected or appointed to ensure that they all have what they need to run safe and secure elections.
I think we need to recognize that ensuring safe and secure elections is a non-partisan issue, and so we all need to work together to make sure that that is the case.
MARQUARDT: What do you say to those State officials who say that they're not getting enough support from the Federal government, not getting enough support from CISA?
We've heard from the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Meagan Wolfe, she said that the Federal partners are providing less backing than they did around the 2020 election. We have the Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson from Michigan who we are going to be speaking with later this evening, saying that there's not enough funding for election security and the security of election officials. What would you say to them?
EASTERLY: Yes, well, I actually was just in Michigan and Wisconsin last week, and I met with Administrator Wolfe and met with the Election Director in Michigan, and asked them were they getting everything that they needed from us, and they were actually really pleased with the support that we've been providing.
We've been working with State and local election officials over the last six years to provide tools and resources and information, and one of the reasons why I think the American people should have confidence in the integrity of the election is because we have put so much effort in developing mechanisms around information sharing through the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
[18:15:03]
EASTERLY: We have provided all kinds of no cost services. We can always do more and we will do more, but I'm very confident that all the things that happened over the past five years to include a lot more paper ballots, I think we've got over 90 percent paper ballots, that we've been able to provide what is necessary.
Now, with respect to funding, there are grants that are available both through the Election Assistance Commission with the Help America Vote Act, and also through grants from Homeland Security, one of the things that I'm very excited about is this new State and local cybersecurity grant program, which can be accessed by State and local officials.
And so we've been working with them as they develop their programs to be able to access for election infrastructure.
MARQUARDT: We only have a couple of moments left, but I have to ask you about what's happening at Twitter.
Civil Rights groups have been very critical of the severe cuts that Elon Musk is making at Twitter and how that could impact election integrity. Have you seen anything that is adversely affecting the elections in terms of what's happening at Twitter? How much more complicated is that making your job in combating disinformation?
EASTERLY: Yes, so to be clear, we don't flag anything to platforms around misinformation, disinformation. That is entirely up to those platforms, Twitter, social media, based on their terms of service and how they enforce it.
What we are doing is very focused on countering foreign influence operations and we do that by providing accurate information, and by amplifying the voices of local election officials who are really the true experts. So if the American people have any questions, Alex, they should be going to those State and local election officials, those election directors and asking them those questions about voting. They are really the best sources for that information.
MARQUARDT: That is absolutely critical: Get your information from your State and local officials.
Jen Easterly, Director of CISA, thank you so much for joining us, again, at a very, very critical time. Really appreciate it.
EASTERLY: My pleasure. Thanks for the time, Alex.
MARQUARDT: All right, we are following breaking news. Singer Aaron Carter has died. Carter was best known for a string of pop albums that he released starting in the late 1990s.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]
MARQUARDT: CNN's Chloe Melas joins us now.
Chloe, obviously, this is devastating news for the Carter family and so many of his fans. He was just 34 years old. What more do we know about how he died?
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Yes, good evening.
It's really upsetting. He was just 34 years old. And look, you know, I've interviewed (Nick) so many times over the years, and back before I worked at CNN, and you know, he had long suffered with drugs and alcohol addiction.
Just this fall, he lost custody of his 10-month-old child and he entered rehab again, because he was trying to turn his life around to regain custody of his child.
He has been in the headlines for not the things that he loved, which was music and making art and that has been really hard for the people around him over the last several years.
You know, he went on "The Doctors." He's been on television shows talking about his issues with addiction. You know, I confirmed this news earlier from a family friend that he was found dead in a bathtub in his home. Again, no further details from authorities as of right now as to what happened. We haven't heard yet from his older brother, Nick Carter, who is one of the members of the Backstreet Boys. But again, you know, Aaron had several hit songs in the early 2000s. He was on Nickelodeon. A few years ago, he was on "Dancing with the Stars."
You know, he had highs and lows and ebbs and flows. But, you know, at times he would come out and say "I need help;" other times, he would say publicly, "I don't need help, and I don't have a drug and alcohol problem."
It's incredibly sad. And I was just talking to my colleague, Lisa France at CNN and we were talking about how you really see this with younger stars who grow up in the spotlight, sometimes in the shadow of their older siblings, and just -- he has talked so publicly about his struggle with fame, and all of the attention and his family has had issues and not just him with drugs and alcohol.
One of his sisters, she died of a drug overdose, a prescription pill overdose when she was 25 years old, and that really shook the family deeply.
And so, you know, again, the details around his death still unclear, incredibly sad, tragic. He was a talented guy, really a kind soul. And we've seen this with so many stars, whether it's Whitney Houston, but you know, so many celebrities who have struggled with drugs and alcohol.
And Aaron, he did enter rehab even just this fall. As far as I could tell, and people around him, he was really trying to turn his life around.
MARQUARDT: That really -- it really is just so devastating as you noted, they had lost their daughter, Aaron Carter's sister, that's incredibly sad.
[18:20:10]
MARQUARDT: Our thoughts, of course are with the Carter family.
Chloe Melas, thank you so much for bringing us that report.
Let's go back to Philadelphia where former President Barack Obama is now on stage. Let's take a listen.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is good to be back in the center, right now of the sports world.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: Phillies have a chance to tie the World Series tonight.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: Eagles look like they might be the best football team in the country.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: The Sixers, well, it's early. It's still early. So we won't talk about them right now.
But I'm not here to talk about sports, people. I am here to talk about something more basic. I'm here to ask you to vote.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: For your next Governor, Josh Shapiro, for your next United States Senator, John Fetterman.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: For all the Democrats up and down the ticket, and listen, let's face it. If you're at this rally, I'm assuming you're voting.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: But I don't just need you to vote, I need you to gather up your friends and family and make sure that they are also voting.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: I know there are probably some students here...
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: Right?
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
OBAMA: You know, you know that roommate of yours, who, well-meaning, nice person, but they are a little bit slack. You know, they are the folks who are like, they are like, they'll leave stuff in your little mini fridge a little too long because they forgot about it. Sometimes they miss class in the morning and in the afternoon.
MARQUARDT: All right, that is President Barack Obama, the former President getting out to vote for Senate candidate John Fetterman and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, we're going to keep monitoring that rally in Philadelphia.
Meantime, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:26:57]
MARQUARDT: That is former President Barack Obama rallying for Democratic candidates in Philadelphia with his former Vice President and current President Joe Biden. They are speaking alongside John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro, it is a big rally in Philly.
We will continue to monitor it and bring you more of that throughout the course of the evening. Well, let's turn overseas to Ukraine.
Iran's Foreign Minister has now confirmed for the first time that his government did send a limited number of drones to Russia which of course invaded Ukraine back in February. But Iran is saying that that was before the war broke out. He claims that it was just drones and not missiles, which the Iranians have also been accused of willing to send Russia for their fight in Ukraine.
CNN Salma Abdelaziz is in Kyiv with the latest.
Salma, what are we hearing?
ABDELAZIZ: Alex, a startling new admission from Tehran. Iran now saying it did provide a limited number of drones to Russia, but adding the caveat that those were given in the months prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This admission happening in a press conference Saturday with Iran's Foreign Minister, but there is a big but here. Yes, Iran admitting giving these drones, but not admitting that these drones have been used here in Ukraine.
Instead, Iran's Foreign Minister saying he is in touch with his Ukrainian counterpart and that he has requested concrete evidence from Ukraine that this is taking place on the ground and going on to say that if indeed they were provided that evidence, that Iran would not be indifferent to the matter, really vague statement there.
But just to give you some context, Iranian drones have been found -- or their remnants here in Ukraine -- according to Ukrainian officials. They've terrorized civilians including here in Kyiv and Western officials, Western sources familiar with Iran's weapons program say more weaponry is on the way, that Iran is preparing to send more drones and more ballistic missiles to Russia.
An important note here, this admission could have consequences for Tehran. The United States and other allies have said if Iran continues to provide weapons to Russia in its illegal war here in Ukraine, it could face more sanctions -- Alex.
MARQUARDT: All right, our Salma Abdelaziz in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Thank you so much.
Now we are not seeing any let up in tensions in the Korean peninsula. Earlier today, North Korea fired four more short-range missiles after launching more than two dozen earlier this week.
Now the dictatorship in Pyongyang is saying that South Korea's ongoing joint military exercises with the United States are what they call a constant provocation that will trigger sustained counter action on North Korea's part.
Now since releasing that statement by North Korea, US B-1 bombers and F-16s have joined those air exercises with South Korea. Just days before voters go to the polls, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates yet again. Catherine Rampell will join us next to explain what it will mean for the election. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:34:27]
MARQUARDT: This week, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates yet another three quarters of a percent and it's an aggressive trend that we've seen all year which is designed to cool inflation. Now, some critics want the central bank to hold off on any future hikes, they argue that a recession poses a greater overall threat to the economy.
To break this all down, let's head straight to CNN Economics and Political commentator Catherine Rampell. Catherine, thank you so much for joining me this evening.
As you know, this was the fourth consecutive three quarter point increase and you have the head of the Fed, Jerome Powell, saying that the Federal Reserve has to - has some ways to go that cause stock markets to drop.
[18:35:06]
So what do you make of the Fed's strategy?
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: What Fed Chair Jay Powell was trying to get across was that the Federal Reserve is in fact monitoring signs of weakness in the domestic economy and the global economy. And we are seeing that, of course. But inflation remains uncomfortably high.
So they have to do what they can, which is raise interest rates in order to get inflation down. What the Fed decided to do, of course, was to raise interest rates by three quarters of a percentage point. There is some indication that going forward they will raise rates by a smaller increment each time. So it's a little bit gentler, a little bit less aggressive. Because, of course, they're worried about what happens to labor markets, what might happen to GDP growth, things like that.
But they're going to keep their eye on the ball. They're going to keep raising rates for a good long while until inflation gets under control.
MARQUARDT: Let's talk about the labor market. The October jobs report better than expected, 261,000 positions created last month, the stocks went up on that news, the stock with the various indices. This is one of the best job markets ever. So why is the Fed Chairman saying that the economy might actually need to shed some of those jobs?
RAMPELL: Well, he hasn't said that the economy needs to shed those jobs. I think there's sort of a misperception of what's going on here and people think the Federal Reserve is trying to tank the economy or trying to drive unemployment upward. In fact, what they're hoping to do is to cool the economy just enough to get inflation under control, but not so much that they accidentally kill the patient with their medicine.
So among the indicators that the Federal Reserve is looking at, for example, is the number of vacancies, the number of job openings.
In theory, you could have the number of job openings and there are now about two per unemployed worker come down without displacing a lot of people who already have jobs. Now, that may be an optimistic timeline, but that's the kind of outcome they're looking for. They don't want people to lose their jobs. They don't obviously want people's wages to go down.
What they're hoping for is that they can cool the economy just enough without causing a lot of pain. But Powell, among others has indicated, that's a tricky balance to get right and they may get it wrong. In the past, the Fed has gotten it wrong.
MARQUARDT: All right. Catherine Rampell, we have to leave it there. As always, thanks for your time and expertise. Really appreciate it.
RAMPELL: Thank you.
MARQUARDT: All right. Well, just one day after Elon Musk laid off thousands of Twitter employees, some users are getting a preview of what the company's blue subscription plan may look like. We'll show you next in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:41:50]
MARQUARDT: Elon Musk, the richest man on planet Earth is defending his decision to fire thousands of employees of Twitter which he of course recently acquired. He claims that he has no choice as Twitter was losing over $4 million a day. This also comes as Twitter's co-founder, Jack Dorsey, he's apologizing to employees that were laid off. He says that the situation is his own fault for growing Twitter too quickly.
CNN Tech Reporter Brian Fung joins us now. Brian, thank you so much for being with me.
Clearly, Musk is going to shake things up and now he's proposing a subscription service to help increase those revenues. What do we know about this?
BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Alex. Earlier today, there was an app update on iOS' App Store that suggested this feature allowing people to pay $8 a month to get a blue checkmark on their accounts would soon be available. CNN tested that. It didn't seem like the feature was actually working. And later, a product director at Twitter said that they're still testing things out in real time.
So it does seem like they are in a final sprint here to launch that feature. But the kind of messy rollout here kind of underscores the chaos that's really going on at Twitter right now, especially with these layoffs where you have civil rights leaders saying that it could harm Twitter's ability to detect misinformation and counter misinformation during the elections.
MARQUARDT: It's really notable that this is happening right in the middle of this critical midterm election. The civil rights groups, as you say, they've voiced some concern. Now we've heard President Biden, who's also raised concern about Twitter's ability to fight mis and disinformation, what did he have to say?
FUNG: Well, he was saying that Twitter spews lies and really just focusing his ire at Elon Musk for what Musk believes is a change in the platform to better accommodate what he describes as free speech. Now, you have lots of election security experts who are warning that this plan, particularly to provide paid verification on Twitter could actually make it easier for bad actors to spread misinformation.
Former assistant director Chris Krebs just tweeted a few minutes ago: "Main concern with the new Twitter Blue offering is the verified logo has been a marker of trust, i.e. 'we've confirmed the person is who they say they are.' Now it's 'we're taking their money and their word for it.' On the cusp of election where source of info is critical, a major risk," Alex.
MARQUARDT: Yes. And we just heard from Krebs' successor, Jen Easterly, who's saying the onus is on the social media outlets and Twitter to enforce their own policies, because the federal government, of course, has no say. So lots of concern, lots of questions about what Musk is going to do with his version of Twitter as we head into these midterms. Brian Fung, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. What are the chances that the Democrats can keep control of the House of Representatives and the Senate Data. Data guru, Harry Enten, joins us next to run all the numbers. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:49:30]
MARQUARDT: Democrats have seen their chances of holding on to both houses of Congress dwindle in recent weeks. So where do things stand right now? For that answer, we go straight to CNN Senior Data Reporter, Harry Enten, who joins us to run the numbers, Harry.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: So look, if we look at the House of Representatives, I think it's a pretty simple ballgame, right? The chance that the Democrats maintain control there is down to just 11 percent. That would be a true surprise if Democrats are able to do that.
If they hold the House, boy, things are really looking up for them.
[18:50:02]
In terms of the Senate, it's basically a 50-50 proposition at this point, right? I think if you asked me a few weeks ago, we've done a number of these segments sometimes with you, Alex, sometimes with Pam, sometimes with other anchors and what we essentially saw was Democrats were favored to hold onto the Senate. Right now, they're the slight underdogs.
But when you see that their chance is 46 percent, that really just means it's a jump ball, ball game. It could take days to potentially figure out unless the polls are off, which they could be in that case, maybe one side easily walks away. But at this point, the best bet in the Senate is basically a 50-50 proposition.
MARQUARDT: So if Democrats were to win that jump ball, how would they do it?
ENTEN: So how would they do it? So this gives you a pretty good indication. As Democrats' road to 50 seats, these are four races, Democrats likely need to win three of them and they're all within the margin of error. Look at this Arizona, Mark Kelly up by two points, that's within the margin. Over to Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman tied. Georgia tied and Georgia at this point is the most likely to be the 50th seat and, of course, you need a majority of the vote there to win in November. Otherwise, there's a runoff.
My bet at this point is there's probably going to be a runoff, of course, we'll see. And if that's the case, it could be we have to wait until December, Georgia runoff in December to know who controls the United States Senate. But don't lose track in Nevada, where there's a very interesting race. Right now, the Republican there, Adam Laxalt holds a very small edge, but again, well within the margin of error. The truth is at this particular point, as you said, Alex, it's a jump ball.
MARQUARDT: And we have been watching President Biden at a rally tonight in Philadelphia alongside his old boss, Barack Obama. How much of an impact can he have President Biden on these elections?
ENTEN: I don't think most Democrats watch Joe Biden campaigning with them. I mean, I know he's going up to Westchester, New York tomorrow. We're just south of Westchester, I am right now in New York City. And I can tell you, Westchester is very blue and you go, why is he going to Westchester, it's probably because he's not really welcomed in a lot of places and that's because his approval rating is just 40 percent.
And if you look at when a President's approval rating is 46 below - 46 percent or lower in midterm elections, the average seats won by his party in the House. It's just 202, just 202, and of course, 218 is needed for a majority. So when we talk about that first slide and Democrats having only about a 10 percent chance of holding on to the house, it's because Joe Biden's approval rating is so low at this point, it looks like Democrats are going to suffer major losses in the House of Representatives.
MARQUARDT: But as you know, well, Harry approval ratings aren't everything. They aren't always the best predictor of who's going to win. And you in fact, have some interesting numbers about Republican candidates. ENTEN: Yes. So one of the big differences why we're seeing the big
differences between the house odds and the Senate odds is because the Republican voters in their primaries decided to nominate candidates who the voters, at least in the polls, suggest are not very well, like, look at the four key races that we spoke about in slide two, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
The net favorability of the Republican candidates in all of these states is underwater. That is more people have an unfavorable view than favorable view in all these states and it's not particularly really close minus nine points for Blake Masters in Arizona, minus 15 points for Herschel Walker in Georgia, minus five points for Adam Laxalt in Nevada and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, minus 11 points.
Though he is closing the poll, so ultimately, the question is, will voters just like the Republican candidates enough to overcome Joe Biden's very low approval rating? That's going to be the real question heading into Tuesday at least in the Senate races.
MARQUARDT: Harry, I want to switch gears pretty dramatically. We've got the Powerball draw coming up, yet another one. I always wonder a guy like you who knows the numbers so well, who knows how infinitesimally small the chances of winning are, do you go out and buy Powerball tickets?
ENTEN: No, I don't. Although I should point out that the chance of winning Powerball is something like one in 292 million versus the chance of winning Mega Millions is something like one in 303 million. So your chance of winning the Powerball is actually slightly better than winning your chance of the Powerball.
But I will say I dream about what I might be able to do if I win. So my thing is, I would move up to Salem, Massachusetts and open up a Halloween store. Give the kids nice candy, have a fun time in Massachusetts, think of old New England, old colonial America. But Alex, my question to you is, what would you do if you won and I need a selfish answer. None of this I want to give to charity.
MARQUARDT: No, no, I've thought about this a fair bit and I should say I do have one ticket that I bought at a 7/11 out in Fairfax, Virginia at the urging of my wife, we understand the stats. I don't know that I would change all that much. I think I would keep coming to work, I say that now on air. I think I would travel better. I think I would treat myself to a bit more comfort when it comes to traveling. But besides that, I'm not sure I would change all that much.
ENTEN: Well, at least that's a better answer than I heard from Anderson Cooper last night who couldn't give me an answer, so I'll give you that and maybe we'll go on a first class trip you and I together.
MARQUARDT: That would be great.
ENTEN: Fantastic.
MARQUARDT: I would enjoy nothing more. [18:55:03]
We'll head to Italy next summer. Harry Enten, thanks so much, sir. Appreciate it.
ENTEN: Thank you.
MARQUARDT: And be sure to check out Harry Hansen's podcast it's called Margins of Error. You can find it on your favorite podcast app or at cnn.com/audio. Our thanks to Harry. We'll be right back.
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MARQUARDT: Tonight's Powerball drawing will be for a record $1.6 billion with a B ... dot
