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Some Supplements Failed To Lower Cholesterol, But Not Statins; Thousands Of Mail-In Ballots At Risk Of Rejection In Pennsylvania; Michigan Judge Rejects GOP-Led Bid To Throw Out Detroit Absentee Ballots; Iowa Teen Who Killed Alleged Rapist Escapes From Custody. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 07, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Well, a new study says about half dozen supplements popular with heart patients do not help lower bad cholesterol compared to a low dose of a statin.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: The study also says that they don't improve cardiovascular health. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to explain. So, explain, what more does this study tell us?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, this was a really interesting study. What they did was they took almost 200 adults and said to them, you know, we're going to divide you into groups.

[15:35:00]

Some of you will take a statin, some of you are going to take a placebo -- which is a pill that does nothing -- and then others will take fish oil, others will take garlic, all sorts of things that they gave them dividing them up. Only the statin group after four weeks saw a decrease in cholesterol. So, the bottom line here is if your doctor tells you, hey, your cholesterol high, I want you to go on a statin.

Don't argue with him and say, no, I want to take garlic instead. Statins work, they work and they're safe. It doesn't say that these vitamins or supplements are useless. They might be useful for other things, but if your heart may be in trouble because your cholesterol is high, a statin is a way to go, not garlic.

GOLODRYGA: The statin the most effective. That is very interesting. Also interesting to us, people who -- there's a debate always as to whether people like daylight savings time or not, but I know health experts are saying there's permanent daylight saving time will hurt our health. So, will it?

COHEN: Right, so there are all these proposals in Congress to -- about what to do about daylight savings time. So, let's take a look at what would happen if daylight savings time became permanent -- which is one of the proposals that's out there. I want you to take a look -- I chose Chicago sort of randomly, a city in the middle of the country. When you look at Saturday when we were in daylight savings time, the

sun rose at 7:30 in the morning and it set at 5:30 in the evening. And then on Sunday when we went out of daylight savings time, the sun rose at 6:30 in the morning and it set at 4:30.

So, in other words when you are in daylight savings time, the sunrises later, so that's important. Look at that Saturday, 7:30 in the morning. What some sleep experts say is, look. That's not great. The sun rises early. Our circadian rhythms -- our body's rhythms are set to rise early with the sun, and when you make the sunrise an hour later, it's not good for our circadian rhythms.

It's not good for our cortisol levels. Then it's -- therefore it's not good for our blood pressure or our heart health. So, there's a whole theory that we start messing around with these times, it messes around with our body clock, but other people will tell you, look, it's an hour, we'll adjust. And we'd rather have that sunlight at 5:30 than, you know, at night. We'd rather have that light, you know, later in the evening. So, everyone has their own opinion on this.

GOLODRYGA: I'm indifferent, I guess. I like gaining an hour for that one day, but other hand that, you know?

BLACKWELL: Yes, that extra hour. Nothing beats it. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

A Philadelphia election official said more than 3,400 mail-in ballots are at risk of being rejected. We'll explain why next.

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BLACKWELL: Pennsylvania is home to that neck and neck race that could decide who controls the Senate but more than 3,400 mail-in ballots are at risk of rejection. That's because the state Supreme Court barred local election from counting ballots with missing or incorrect dates or the return envelope -- or on the return envelope I should say.

A CNN analysis finds that in avalanche of early lawsuits in battleground states like Pennsylvania could pave the way for disputes over tomorrow's election results. Ben Ginsberg is a Republican election lawyer and CNN contributor.

Jessica Huseman is the Executive Director of Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on elections issues. Welcome to you both. Ben, let me start with you. I want to first play what we're hearing from the Philadelphia city commission about the threat of rejecting these 3,400 or so ballots.

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LISA DEELEY, CHAIRWOMAN, PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONERS: (INAUDIBLE) confidence that when they count the vote, they won't be denied their right for that vote to be counted based on clerical errors or issues that have no real relevance to their ballot. Above all that, they should have clarity. So, these decisions that come down this late in the game, they really upset voters, and they do reinforce mistrust in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A county judge rejected a GOP effort to reach out to -- the GOP tried to block the county from reaching out to the people who made these mistakes. A judge rejected that Republican effort. Again, I said you typically represent Republicans in this effort. Where do you land on this?

BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I have some problems with this. Look, the principle behind the country is that every valid voter should be able to vote, and what's at issue with these Pennsylvania ballots is the date they put on the envelope which is not meaningful if the ballot's received by election day because then you know it's a valid ballot.

So, this seems to be the sort of procedural ballot -- the procedural fight with the aim of knocking out voters who don't happen to agree with Republicans and I think that's a bad principle.

BLACKWELL: Jessica, as we look at the -- the spate of lawsuits across the country, there are always lawsuits in elections, but what do you make of the election lawsuits that we're seeing before the vote, and some of them I should say are brought by these groups that kind of carried the water for the big lie in 2020?

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JESSICA HUSEMAN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, VOTEBEAT: You know, I think that it is really them setting the groundwork for what they'll be doing after the election if they are already filing lawsuits like this. Who can imagine what they'll be doing after the election now that they are more organized and they have systems in place to collect information and also to fundraise to do this legal work. So, I think we're in for quite a ride over the next few weeks.

BLACKWELL: Ben, do you think that there is some impact, some residual impact of even if the lawsuits are thrown out that questions the validity of the votes in some of these really crucial races?

GINSBERG: It's certainly possible. I mean, number one there may be a deterrent effect on people who just think the whole voting process is messed up. So, they don't go out to vote. Number two, it can be used -- it's kind of a credibility concern about the final results that come, and number three, Jessica's absolutely right. These suits that are filed now can be the part in the basis for post-election litigation.

BLACKWELL: Let me go up to Wayne County, Michigan. I mentioned -- that Bianna actually mentioned earlier in the show -- the rejection of a lawsuit from the Republican running for the Secretary of State there to throw out ballots from Detroit. The judge wrote here.

The idea that the court would single out one community in the state to be treated adversely when plaintiffs have provided no evidence in support of their allegation simply cannot be allowed to occur.

Jessica, when you look at this, Republicans say -- and Scott Jennings was just here making the case -- this is about preventing fraud. This is about protecting the legal votes. When you see a lawsuit like this that focuses only on Detroit, you see what?

HUSEMAN: I see a heck of a pattern that does not support anything that these folks are really talking about in Detroit. They are absolutely correct that the lawsuit only focuses on Detroit. It doesn't seem to have any specific evidence that things in Detroit are particularly bad or significantly worse than anywhere else in the state.

And I'll remind you that in 2020 and early 2021, a lot of the same issues sort of occasion issues revolved around the same communities in Michigan and Wayne County. There were accusations of racism made then. The accusations of racism being made now are simply consistent with the exact same criticism we heard two years ago.

BLACKWELL: A flood of lawsuits we're seeing focused on the mail-in ballots and a lot of them are being tossed out. Ben Ginsburg and Jessica Huseman, thank you.

Corrections officials in Iowa say a teenage girl who killed her alleged rapist has escaped custody. The latest twist up next.

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GOLODRYGA: Authorities are searching for an Iowa teenager convicted of killing her alleged rapist when she was 15 years old. Corrections officials say Pieper Lewis, now 18 years old, escaped from custody Friday.

BLACKWELL: Lewis was serving five years' probation after pleading guilty to killing 37-year-old Zachary Brooks. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is with us now. So, what are you learning about how she escaped?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Bianna, good afternoon to you. Corrections officials say the now 18-year-old cut off her electronic tracking monitor. That was on Friday morning. And here we are, Monday, three days later, authorities still do not have a location for this teen. So, a lot of folks may be asking what's next. We'll get to that in a moment. But let's step back and take a look at the back story.

So, all the she escaped from this residential facility on Friday, but previously she pleaded guilty to killing her alleged rapist when she was 15. She was sentenced to five years' probation. And because of a law in Iowa, she was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to the family of her alleged rapist.

Now her sentence, we should say, she received a deferred judgment and that was from the Polk County District Judge David Porter. But now, because she has escaped from this facility, there's a probation report that was issued, and they are asking, corrections officials with the department of corrections, are asking for her probation to be revoked and the original sentence to be reinstated. Initially she was charged with first-degree murder. She's now 18 and a warrant is out for her arrest -- Victor and Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Every detail of this story is just so unsettling. Adrienne Broaddus, thank you.

Well, it's the final night of campaigning for the midterm election. And sources say President Trump may leverage the moment to make his own 2024 announcement. More on that straight ahead.

[15:55:00]

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BLACKWELL: Before we go, we need to give a shoutout to Bianna crushing it at the New York City marathon yesterday. Applause in the studio. Here she is smiling, showing off the hardware.

GOLODRYGA: My friend Jackie who helped as I was training along the way. Let me tell you, this one was brutal. This was my third marathon. My second New York. It was hot out there. I stopped at every water station. I cursed myself in Russian and in English as I was running, to be totally honest. Crossing that finish line, I had a face only a mother could love. But it was worth it. I will say this 24 hours later.

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And you're so inspired to see all these people out there running for causes, for charities, wounded veterans, amputees, you know, people guiding blind runners, and, of course, all of the New Yorkers out there, the benefit of having warmer weather is people were really out there in droves.

BLACKWELL: You finished, though.

GOLODRYGA: I finished.

BLACKWELL: That's the thing. You finished.

GOLODRYGA: You're going to wheel me out today, carry me off set. But it was great. Other CNN-ers did it as well. Ana Cabrera finished an whole hour ahead of me, Evan Perez and Laura.

BLACKWELL: Well done. Well done.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: "THE LEAD" starts right now.