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Biden & Obama Stump For Fetterman In High-Stakes PA Senate Race; Trump Holding Rally For Oz In PA Tonight After Teasing 2024 Run; Security Officials Working To Ensure Accurate Vote Count; First Lady Jill Biden On A Swing State Blitz Ahead Of Election Day; Secret Service Agents In Trump Motorcade Speaking With 1/6 Committee; Justice Department Mulls Possible Special Counsel If Trump Runs In 2024; Source: Trump Aide Kash Patel Testified To Grand Jury; Results Of Key Races May Not Be Decided Election Night; U.S. Pledges $400 More In Security Aid To Ukraine. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired November 05, 2022 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: A reporter in Chile was telling the audience about rising crime rates when a parrot perched on his shoulder and plucked an air pod right out of his ear and flew off.
We have no idea whether the correspondent ever got back his stolen property. He continued with one on his ear.
Hopefully for him that parrot hates his play list and brings it back. He looks pretty distraught there, doesn't he?
All right. Well, this hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are three days away from Election Day.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pittsburgh, I am here to ask you to vote!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most important of all is the Senate race for Democrats who are trying to flip a seat.
LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA) & U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm ready to serve Pennsylvania. He's running to use Pennsylvania.
DR. MEHMET OZ, (R), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE FOR PENNSYLVANIA: I want to go to Washington and bring balance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Georgia is often referred to as the center of the political universe. It is a true battleground state.
HERSCHEL WALKER, (R), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE FOR GEORGIA: 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 hard working people. He doesn't know struggling people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: I'm Alex Marquart, in Washington, D.C. Pamela Brown is off tonight. Thank you so much for joining me. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
It is just three days before the critical midterm elections. On this final weekend of campaigning, candidates and their big-name surrogates are making their case to voters in closing arguments.
In Pennsylvania tonight, President Joe Biden has been sharing the stage with his former boss, Barack Obama. They are stumping for Democrat John Fetterman in what could be a pivotal seat in deciding who controls the U.S. Senate.
Also tonight, and also in Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump has been campaigning for Fetterman's opponent, Dr. Mehmet oz. It's one of several stops that the former president will be making in the runup to Tuesday's election.
Early voting is up compared to the 2018 midterms. More than 38 million people have already cast ballots in 47 states.
Let's head out to the campaign trail. CNN's Phil Mattingly is in Philadelphia where President Biden and former President Barack Obama campaigned together.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, national Democratic officials made clear Pennsylvania is their primary pickup opportunity in the U.S. Senate.
Pennsylvania is a race they absolutely have to win as some of their top incumbents are in intense battles in other states in the country.
You need to win Pennsylvania. For Democrats, that means they need to win Philadelphia and they need to win it big. The county President Biden won by 60 points back in 2020.
They need to run up big numbers here. That's really what undercuts everything at this moment. This is about turning out Democratic voters.
For Democrats, this is about Republicans turning out their voters. This is not about trying to persuade the other party. This is about getting your party to vote.
And that might include throwing a few political zingers towards their opponents, as President Biden did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I lived in Pennsylvania longer than Oz has lived in Pennsylvania. And I moved away when I was 10 years old.
MATTINGLY: Alex, that's kind of a rarity for President Biden on the campaign trail. He's had a focus on smaller events that tried to lay out the details of what he's accomplished up to this point, what members have done to help him with those accomplishments.
President Obama has been trying to convey a message of energy or at least energizing Democrats that they need to come out in midterm elections.
While their approaches may be slightly different, their messages overlap, including the highest stakes of messages as President Obama laid out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Fundamental rights are on the ballot. Truth and facts and logic and reason and basic decency are on the ballot. Democracy itself is on the ballot. The stakes are high.
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: Yes.
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: The stakes are high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Alex, this will be the only joint rally the former president and the current president, his former vice president, will have together. Obviously, just a couple of days left.
But it really underscored the importance of Pennsylvania and the necessity some Democrats feel in picking up this now open seat.
As Brendan Boyle, the Congressman from this area, said just a few hours before the two presidents took the stage with the two statewide candidates, the eyes of the nation are on Pennsylvania.
That is certainly the case over the course of Saturday -- Alex?
MARQUARDT: Yes, they absolutely are.
Our thanks to Phil Mattingly in Philadelphia. Let's head across the state to CNN's Jessica Dean. She is in Latrobe,
which is near Pittsburgh. That is where former President Donald Trump had been campaigning with Senate hopeful Dr. Oz.
[20:05:08]
Jessica, what have you been hearing tonight?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, former President Trump just took the stage. We can still hear people cheering behind us. It is a big rally here in one of the more rural parts of Pennsylvania.
Of course, that's where President Trump did well when he was on the ballot, particularly in 2016. He was able to wrap the score in these parts of the state, which is something Dr. Oz is hoping to do, while at the same time towing the line as a moderate Republican.
We have seen him tack to the center in his closing message both at get out the vote rallies and on television. We heard him talk more about that message. It is one he stuck to tonight.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OZ: I'm not a politician. I'm a surgeon. And what surgeons do is tackle big problems, and we do it successfully. In my case fixing broken hearts by working with everybody, by making sure we unify people in the operating room. Not divide them. The same will work for our nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Most interestingly, two names that did not come out of Dr. Oz's mouth when he was on that stage, Donald Trump or Doug Mastriano, running to be governor here in Pennsylvania. He simply stuck to what is his typical stump speech, Alex.
While today was about the candidates motivating their key bases. With Oz out here in the more rural parts and Fetterman in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with former President Obama and President Biden.
Both candidates will end the day in Bucks County. It is full of Independent voters. It is no accident that they will both be closing out Sunday.
Those are the voters that could very likely make a key difference in this race. And that's why we will see both of the candidates in that area tomorrow as we get ever closer to Election Day -- Alex?
MARQUARDT: Yes. Very telling that Oz did not mention their names.
The tireless Jessica Dean out on the campaign trail. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. In suburban Atlanta, an elections investigation revealed a troubling
oversight. More than 1,000 people in Cobb County, Georgia, requested absentee ballots but they were not sent out until this morning.
A spokesman for the country described how this happened, saying, quote:
"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 she did not employ any process to check outgoing ballots against the daily accepted report to verify that all ballots were created."
Now, earlier this evening, I spoke with the director of Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA. The director, Jen Easterly, spoke to me about cyber security concerns ahead of Election Day.
And even though election officials are saying there are no credible threats at this time, this election, Easterly said, is more complicated than any in recent memory.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN EASTERLY, DIRECTOR, CISA: It is a very complex environment. Probably more complex than we have ever seen because of the array of threats.
We still have cyber security threats from nation states like Russia, Iran, China. You have unprecedented physical security concerns.
And then, of course, you have got rampant disinformation, which can be used by foreign adversaries to sow discord and undermine confidence in the integrity of our elections or to insight physical violence.
As you said, though, we have no information about specific or creditable threats to disrupt or compromise infrastructure.
But we are working closely with state and local election officials to make sure they have everything that they need on Tuesday to run safe and secure elections.
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.
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 of the things that happened over the past five years to include a lot more paper ballots -- I think we have over 90 percent paper ballots -- that we have been able to provide what is necessary. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: That was Jen Easterly, the head of CISA.
Presidents aren't the only big name on the election trail will just days to go before the midterm elections. Dr. Jill Biden has been on a swing state blitz in the run up to Tuesday in many states.
[20:10:04]
She is, in fact, more popular than her husband and a hit with Democratic women voters, especially when it comes to talking about abortion rights.
CNN's Kate Bennett is with us right now.
Kate, the first lady has been veering into more personal territory, telling more personal anecdotes. What has she been saying?
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is one of the benefits a first lady can bring to a campaign trail. She can tell stories the president can't.
One of the things she talks about and has talked about many times is a story from when she was a teenager and a friend needed an abortion and abortion wasn't legal at the time, and how secretive and how dangerous it was for her friend.
And she sort of said to the crowd that she's speaking to, Jill Biden says this is what we don't want to go back to. I remember how this was. Let's not go back there.
She's speaking to women who are busy, who are moms, who are juggling lots of things, and they're thinking of elections, but that's one of many things they have to do today.
So she's got this to do list today, including today in Arizona, another pivotal state.
But it is interesting she's leaning in to being the busy mom, the teacher, and really trying to attract and connect with female voters.
Let's take a listen to what she said today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: What you are doing today matters because this race is going to be close, and the only way we can win is by voting. So put voting at the top of your to do list.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BENNETT: You know, very much so she's a teacher first, right? She has these to do lists. But she has been in states where the president has not been, including
Wisconsin and Georgia, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and today in Arizona. Tomorrow she will be in Texas. Monday, she will be in Virginia.
She has really been deployed. She cleared out her schedule for the last two weeks of October, this first week of November, knowing she was going to be in demand and she certainly is.
MARQUARDT: Campaigning not the only critical part of these races. You also have fundraising as well. How effective has she been on that?
BENNETT: Most first ladies are the secret weapons of the DNC. They can go into smaller rooms and humanize a candidate.
The first lady has raised millions of dollars, according to people I spoke with at the DNC. The text messages, e-mails and personal appearances. She has been a help this time around.
She knew it was going to be a tight race. Therefore, she's going all over the place.
By the way, she will be in the classroom on Tuesday. She teaches an English class at a community college.
MARQUARDT: Really impressive.
BENNETT: Yes.
MARQUARDT: Unbelievable. As you said, she's really very well liked among Democrats.
Kate Bennett, thank you so much for coming in. Appreciate it.
New tonight, details emerging about the death of a child star turned trouble adult, singer and actor, Aaron Carter. He died at just 34 years old.
He was found earlier today in his home north of Los Angeles. Carter is best known for his spring of pop albums he released starting in the late 1990s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Over the past several years, Aaron Carter was open about his drug use and issues with mental health.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says they responded to a call for help at Carter's home this morning.
A source close to the Carter family tells CNN that Aaron Carter was found dead in his bathtub. No official word tonight about a possible cause of death. Our condolences to the Carter family.
Let's take a look at this. Frightening video from New York City. This is in Manhattan's Midtown East. The woman you see in this shocking rescue video, she did survive.
At least 30 people were hurt in that apartment building fire. Officials say that two of those people are critically injured.
Firefighters think the fire started on the 20th floor by a lithium-ion battery connected to a bike or to a scooter. The chief fire marshal said this is close to the 200th fire caused by lithium-ion batteries this year alone.
Now, after the final ballots are cast on Tuesday, that is when the real fun begins, and that is counting the votes. We will show you what to expect on election night itself.
Plus, Iran makes a startling admission saying that they did give Russia weaponized drones before their invasion of Ukraine started. Does Ukraine's president believe that?
And next, the January 6th committee demanded documents from former President Trump by Friday morning. They didn't get them. So what happens next?
[20:14:45]
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARQUARDT: The January 6th congressional committee is giving former President Trump to comply with its subpoena for documents that the panel wants for its investigation.
The January 6th committee now saying that Trump's legal team has until no later than next week to begin turning over those records.
Trump also remains under subpoena to provide deposition testimony beginning on November 14th.
The committee's work continued this week with lawmakers hearing testimony from a Secret Service agent in the lead car of Trump's motorcade on January 6th.
Joining us now to discuss this is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jennifer Rodgers.
Jennifer, thank you so much for being with me this evening.
Let's start with that Secret Service angle that the January 6th committee has been so focused on. What are they looking for? What is the committee looking for?
JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think they're looking for a couple of things. They're trying to complete the picture of what happened in the lead-up to January 6th and what role Secret Service agents played in all of that.
[20:20:04]
Remember, there was testimony about not -- Mike Pence not wanting to get into the car, his Secret Service agents detail not trusting what was going on there.
We know that thousands of text messages are missing. We know that, in the lead-up when threats were coming through to the Secret Service, they were not properly relayed to other agents. So there's a lot going on with the Secret Service.
And also remember, of course, the Secret Service is sometimes the closest people to the people whose actions we want to know about, like the former president, Donald Trump.
They hear basically everything that's going on because they're in the room at the time. So it makes sense that they would want to hear from those folks.
Especially about the incident in the car when Donald Trump reportedly was wanting to be taken to the capitol and the Secret Service agents were telling them he couldn't be.
I also think they're trying to get on top of a little bit of oversight, given all the problems with Secret Service as an agency. There are a lot of legitimate questions about what's happening there, even to this day.
MARQUARDT: The committee powering ahead with their work, even though it may no longer exist in just two months.
We now have the former president hinting that he could run for re- election. CNN initially has learned that announcement could come as soon as November 14th.
And we have also been told that the Justice Department is considering appointing a special council if the former president decides to run. And you said that you are not really sure that that's a good idea. Why?
RODGERS: Well, a couple of reasons, Alex. There are costs to that, and the cost is basically a delay. It takes time to set up a special council office, get a staff in place, get office space and get up to speed.
The benefits you would get from the special counsel I really don't think are there now.
The benefits are you have someone who is at least arguably independent so it doesn't look so much like it is a political hit job. I don't think a special council is going to get any benefit on that front now.
I think no matter who is appointed, Trump and his followers will immediately call it a witch hunt no matter what. So I don't think you get that benefit. Nor do I think there's a chance that a special council would survive a
transition into a second Trump presidency or the presidency of a Trump follower.
John Durham's investigation lasted into the Biden administration because the Biden administration acted in good faith to let him continue his work. I just don't see that happening if we transition to a Republican in 2024.
So I think there's no benefit to appointing someone. It is not worth the cost of the delay it would take.
MARQUARDT: You mentioned so many people closest to a president. Another person who is still very close to former President Donald Trump is Kash Patel.
And we have been told that a federal judge has ordered Patel to testify before a grand jury that has been investigating the handling of those federal records that were taken to Mar-a-Lago.
Patel has been given immunity. What does that tell you about the case that the Justice Department is building against Trump?
RODGERS: Well, it means they're moving very, very quickly. I mean, it wasn't long ago that he took the bit. The fact they're moving so swiftly I think says a lot about their sense of urgency.
They also clearly want to nail down that this nonsense about former president declassifying everything is just that. It is nonsense. It is not a legitimate defense.
But I also think the fact that Kash Patel was talking so much to the former president and he was involved in this transition about what was happening with these documents, they want more from him than just to debunk the declassification theory.
I think they want to know what they were planning, what did the former president say about these documents, what were the discussions all around what was going to be taken, and why and what was going to happen with them?
They can learn a lot from Kash Patel. And I think that's what they intend to do.
MARQUARDT: Patel had the proximity to answer some of those questions.
Jennifer Rodgers, thanks so much for joining us.
RODGERS: Thanks, Alex.
[20:24:03]
MARQUARDT: All right. Election Day is on Tuesday. But it could take more than a week to get some final results in a number of races. We'll explain why next on CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARQUARDT: It may seem unthinkable but Democrats in New York State are bracing for what could be a potentially stunning Election Day loss.
The governor's race between Democrat Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin has gotten so tight that former President Bill Clinton, a resident of New York himself, came off the bench to hit the campaign trail.
Let's go right to CNN's Gloria Pazmino on this high-stakes contest in the historically deep blue state -- Gloria?
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alex, President Bill Clinton just got off the stage a few moments ago. The message here has been all about the closing argument for Democrats here in New York.
As you mentioned, in a surprisingly close race, the governor, Kathy Hochul, facing a close race from the Republican challenger.
They tried to draw the contrast between the Republican Party and the Democrats, talking about what they believe could be at stake should they lose the governorship.
They talked about access to reproductive rights, gun reform, climate change, all kinds of priorities that Democrats have been trying to rally behind ahead of the midterm elections.
President Bill Clinton even urging people to get out and vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is serious. This is serious. I know the average election rally whoop di doo, whoop di doo. Your life is on the line here.
(CHEERING)
CLINTON: The young people in this audience, their lives are on the line.
[20:29:54]
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): We are facing a contrast. There has never been a greater contrast between it.
I'm scared, too. Are you scared? I'm scared. We all should be scared. That's how we're going to win. Because we overcome fear with our vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAZMINO: This is the last weekend of early voting here in New York. And all week, we've been talking about the record breaking number of early voters that have cast their ballots across the country. Here in New York, more than 800,000 people have voted early.
So Democrats are trying to make a last minute pitch to voters to get out and cast that vote. There is concern among Democrats that there's a lack of enthusiasm in the electorate that has been reflected in some of the polls and we've been watching Governor Kathy Hochul really go on a flurry of campaign events in the last few days as she finds herself locked in this extremely tight race against Republican challenger, Lee Zeldin. She will be getting some additional help on the campaign trail. Tomorrow, she'll be campaigning alongside President Joe Biden in Westchester. Alex.
MARQUARDT: Yes. One of the tightest races in the country. Gloria Pazmino on the campaign trail in New York. Thank you very much, Gloria.
Now, when election results start coming in on Tuesday night, voting experts have two words of advice, be patient. There's a good chance that we won't know the outcome of some of the key races soon after the polls close, and expect early leads to change as well. CNN political director David Chalian is at the magic wall.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We're going to focus in on battle for control of the United States Senate and I'm going to explain why you need to pack a little patience as you watch the election results come in on Tuesday, because it may be that this is not resolved. We may not know which party will control the U.S. Senate on Tuesday night when we go to bed.
These are the 35 Senate races this cycle. They're in light gray here because this is the live map. We're waiting for votes to come in. These will start turning red and blue on election night. But keep your focus on five states, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. These battleground states will determine which party controls the Senate.
I want to talk specifically about Pennsylvania for a moment, because this is what I mean by pack your patience. It's the Fetterman/Oz Senate race. We know that in Pennsylvania, elections officials cannot even open ballots and begin processing and counting that absentee mail until polls open on Election Day. And it's going to take some time. There's going to be a substantial amount of absentee vote and it's going to take some time to count.
So on election night, when this first starts filling in, I would imagine Mehmet Oz is going to have a big lead. Now whether or not he wins at the end, I don't know. But he's going to come out front with a big lead because Election Day vote, which tends to be more Republican will be counted first before the absentee vote which tends to be more democratic. So the more pro-Fetterman vote will start filling in as the night and possibly days wear on.
An example as a reminder to folks is to go back to the 2020 presidential election. OK. And let me come out here and use Georgia as an example, 7:16 p.m. on November 3rd and 2020, votes just start coming in, Donald Trump way ahead, watch that timestamp. OK? 8:07, Donald Trump still way ahead. Midnight, November 4th, Donald Trump 315,000 votes ahead, eight percentage points ahead of Joe Biden. Twenty-four hours later, Donald Trump's lead is cut to 33,000 votes still quite close, but Trump on top. Twenty-four hours after that, still 4:47 a.m. November 6, Donald Trump has 665 vote lead.
It was not until November 7th that Joe Biden actually came ahead of Donald Trump in Georgia. And as we know, Joe Biden won the state of Georgia. It just took some time for all of that to get voted. So when you watch the returns come in on Tuesday, be aware you may need patience.
MARQUARDT: And that is why we need to be patient, David Chalian, at the magic wall for us. Thank you very much too, David.
Now, Ukraine has restored power to a key nuclear power plants, the biggest power plant in Europe after Russia knocked it off the grid a few days ago with shelling. Next, Colonel Cedric Leighton joins us to break down what's happening in Ukraine as well as in North Korea. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:35:46]
MARQUARDT: The United States is pledging more military support for Ukraine. National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, in a visit to Kyiv announced an additional $400 million in security assistance. Sullivan also repeated the administration's pledge to continue supporting Ukraine's war effort for as long as it takes, despite some bipartisan concerns about such an open-ended and expensive commitment.
Meanwhile, a positive step for Ukraine's battered power infrastructure, the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia is now reconnected to the power grid after Russian shelling knocked it offline. That power plant is the biggest in Europe, critical to not just Ukraine but to Europe as well. It has lost power multiple times since the war began.
Joining us now for more is CNN military analyst, Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, if we look at the Ukrainian battlefields what we're most focused on right now is this area down here Kherson, and there's some speculation that the Ukrainians may soon mount an offensive there. How significant would that be?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Alex, it's going to be usually significant. In fact, let's zoom into this area right here. So this is the city of Kherson right here. And you'll notice right on the Dnipro River, which flows into the Black Sea, this is a major artery, you think of the Mississippi River in the U.S. It's basically the same kind of kind of river.
[20:40:05]
So what you're looking at here is if the Russians withdraw from the West Bank, which is actually to the North of the East bank here, if they withdraw from this area, that means that all of this becomes Ukrainian territory, potentially, and the Russians would have to withdraw into this area. If they do that, then what happens here is they will end up going into an area that will force defensive fighting in this region right here. Keep in mind, this is this the Zaporizhzhia plant that you just talked about, the nuclear power plant, the City of Zaporizhzhia is still in Ukrainian hands, that's up here. But if the Ukrainians control this area, if they get to control this, that's going to be a major victory for the Ukrainians, no matter how you slice it.
MARQUARDT: And it's hard to tell in this map that the city of Kherson is actually on the West side of the river. And that has been arguably one of the biggest successes that Russia has had in the wars, the only provincial capital that they've -- that they've been able to conquer so far.
LEIGHTON: That's right.
MARQUARDT: We should note, this is just north of Crimea. From Crimea, the Russians have been launching these Iranian drones, they have incredible range. And now, we have the Iranian foreign minister admitting that drones were sent to Russia before the war started. We have President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, saying that Iran is actually downplaying what the support that they have offered the Russians. And he also said that around 10 Iranian drones are being shot down per day. What kind of effect are these drones having? How much help are they giving the Russian forces?
LEIGHTON: They're giving the Russian forces that incredible amount of help, Alex, this is a video of the Shahed 136 drone, which is the most common drone that the Russians have been employing. They also received a lot of training from them.
And if we go quickly back to the Ukraine map, they are basically having an effect in all of these areas, not only on the front lines, in areas, especially right along here, but in cities like Kyiv, and even in some cases to the West, not quite to Lviv. But they are having an effect in all of these areas, central Ukraine, and of course, the south central part of this country as well.
And the other thing is, of course, to watch out for operations in this area, because that is Ukraine's Main port, Odessa, and that is an area of course, where all the grain flows out of Ukraine. And that becomes an important thing, whether or not that continues.
MARQUARDT: Yes, those drones have been extremely effective and in striking terror really in the hearts of Ukrainians because they have attacked so many areas.
Cedric, let's turn to North Korea now. We have seen this remarkable series of missile tests, more than 30 missile launch events so far this year, including this intercontinental ballistic missile that was launched a couple of days ago. What is North Korea trying to achieve with these tests?
LEIGHTON: So, Alex, what they're trying to do is, first of all, with -- this is a video of the Hwasong-17. So this is their long-range ICBM intercontinental ballistic missile, which was designed to potentially hit U.S. territories, not only Guam, but also Hawaii, and potentially even the West Coast of the United States, depending on how they actually make this work.
Now, in terms of the tests, what they're trying to do here, they've had 31, by CNN's count this year, they -- they're trying to not only draw attention to themselves, but they're also trying to say that we are going to keep our nuclear power. We are going to be able to keep our weapons no matter what you do.
So this is a statement by the North Korean saying that we are going to, in essence, keep everything that we have done so far. And there is nothing that you can do to change our regime, to train -- change the weapon systems that we're using or anything of that nature.
MARQUARDT: And now experts and officials are saying they expect a nuclear test paired with these missile tests really any day now. Let's talk about what we're also seeing in the skies in terms of military aircraft. There's been a huge amount of activity over the course of the past few days.
The South Koreans, the Americans carrying out an exercise called Vigilant Storm. And then we also saw a couple of days ago, the North Koreans sent around 180 military aircraft near the border with South Korea. How concerned are you about something going wrong when you've got all these -- all these planes in the sky?
LEIGHTON: So it is a matter of concern. There are a lot of exercises that I've been involved in during my military career. And in this particular case, Alex, what we're seeing here B-1 bombers, F-35 jets. And right here, you see F-16 jets.
Now, the South Korean's F-16, B-1s right here, and the F-35 looks like this. The South Koreans have both F-35 and F-16 jets. And what they're able to do with these is to work with -- collaboratively with the U.S. They're able to work with the U.S. and make a combined air picture and that becomes really important to the combined air efforts are really important for our efforts.
Because when you look at the Korean Peninsula, this is a really small country, South Korea in comparative terms. But what we're doing is we're putting a lot of airpower here and we're sending a message to the North Koreans and to anybody else who's listening like China and Russia, which is up here that we are defending not only South Korea, but also Japan and the rest of the Western Pacific.
[20:45:13]
MARQUARDT: We heard Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin saying that he believes that deterrence is working, North Koreans are being deterred. And that, of course, is the goal of these exercises to show North Korea what could be done. But when you see North Korea's response, do you agree with Secretary Austin?
LEIGHTON: Well, the fact that the North Koreans sent 180 aircraft toward the South Korean border, in essence, they were flying right along this line right here -- a north of this, and the South Koreans and the U.S. responded with this. Yes, deterrence does work because the North Koreans didn't come further south. We don't go further North, but they don't go further South. So it protects South Korea, it prevents a repeat of what happened in 1950 when the Korean war started, which was an invasion by North Korea of South Korea. And that is something that really showcases the defensive capability and the deterrence capabilities of the U.S. and its allies.
This exercise vigilance storm we under, it was extended by a day and I believe it ended today.
LEIGHTON: Right.
MARQUARDT: There is -- do you have a sense of what the U.S. may do next? We know Secretary Austin said that they will rotate assets and not place more permanent assets.
LEIGHTON: Yes. So what the -- what the U.S. is generally going to do is they're going to move troops not only into South Korea, but also into Japan, particularly in the island of Okinawa. There'll be rotational forces coming into both of these areas. And what that ends up doing is it shows that more and more of U.S. forces of our force posture is experienced in fighting in this area. So if you exercise, you train like you fight, right, and if you train with these exercises, that really upset deterrence -- deterrent value of what the U.S. forces and the allied forces can do.
MARQUARDT: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
LEIGHTON: You bet, Alex.
MARQUARDT: We'll be right back.
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[20:50:25]
MARQUARDT: As President Joe Biden hits the campaign trail for candidates ahead of Tuesday's midterms, CNN's Daniel Dale takes a close look at several messages that the president has delivered on the campaign trail.
DANIEL DALE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alex, President Biden has indeed made false and misleading claims in that campaign pitch. Here's something Biden said last week.
(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)
DALE: That is not true. The most common gas price when Biden took office was actually 2.39, not over $5. So the President made it sound here like gas has gone way down during his presidency, when in reality it has gone up.
Now, perhaps this was a gaffe. In other recent speeches, he has accurately said gas was over $5 this June, not when he became president. Regardless, the price of gas is important in these midterms. And this time, he was just wrong about it.
This next Biden claim about Social Security is definitely deliberate and it's pretty egregious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: On our watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the biggest increase in their Social Security checks they've gotten.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DALE: This is super misleading political spin that Biden has kept repeating. Here is the truth, the 2023 increase in Social Security checks will be unusually big. But Biden doesn't mention, that is just because the inflation rate has been unusually big. A decade's old law requires that Social Security go up by the same percentage a certain measure of inflation has gone up, so that 8.7 percent increase in people's check next year is happening because the inflation measure has also increased 8.7 percent.
And here's another inaccurate boast from President Biden, he claimed twice this week the Democrats have cut the federal debt in half.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Last year alone under our leadership, the Democrats in Congress -- the Democrats in Congress now without any Republican vote, really reduced the deficit by $1,400,000,000,000. One year. More than any time in American history. We cut the federal debt in half, a fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DALE: That is not a fact. The federal debt that is borrowing plus interest has continued rising under President Biden hitting a record 31 trillion in October. What has been cut in half is something else. It's the federal budget deficit, the annual difference between spending and revenues.
But even here, Biden taking credit is at best highly questionable, that decline in a deficit is primarily because temporary pandemic spending from 2020 expired as always planned, not because of Biden's actions, actions that in fact, many analysts say have actually worsened the deficit picture.
Now one more claim. Here's Biden at a rally on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: No, no, no that fell on Trump. They passed a $2 trillion tax cut, not a penny of which was paid for and affected only the top 1% of the American public. Come on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DALE: That's not true either. Now, Biden correctly said in other speeches that the Trump tax cut overwhelmingly benefited the top one percent, the Tax Policy Center think tank found in 2018, that that top one percent would get more of the income benefits from the tax cut than the bottom 60 percent combined.
But it's not true that the 2017 tax law only benefited the top one percent as Biden exaggerated here. In fact, people of all income levels got the Trump tax cuts. The Tax Policy Center also found that the tax law would quote reduce individual income taxes on average for all income groups and in all states and that between 60 and 76 percent of taxpayers in every state would get a cut. H&R block data in 2019 and validated this finding that two-thirds of its returning customers had indeed paid less in tax that year than they did the year prior.
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[20:55:37]
MARQUARDT: It was a very dramatic finish in Major League Soccer's championship match tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This kick. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: The game went to penalties. And with that kick, LAFC defeated the Philadelphia Union. And the crowd in Los Angeles going wild. This is the first championship for LAFC. Their backup goalkeeper, John McCarthy, he had to come in, in the 117th minute when their starter got a red card, which is an automatic ejection. McCarthy then went on to stop every single shot during the penalties and then absolutely was named match MVP.
Thank you so much for joining me this evening, I'm Alex Marquardt. CNN's Special Report, "Perilous Politics: America's Dangerous Divide," hosted by Kyung Lah, is next. Have a good night.
