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Control of Congress Undecided as Key States Count Votes; Biden on Midterms, It was a Good Day for Democracy; Growing Calls Within GOP for Party to Move on from Trump. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 10, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: But in Costa Rica, just backed away from something they started at Glasgow last year to be -- along with Denmark, the first country to move past oil and gas.

[10:00:09]

So, because of Putin's war, because of the energy crisis we're going through now, it's so much harder. The mood has changed in just a year. The stranglehold of fossil fuels is still there and the loss and damage thing is starting to move a little bit. The big countries are starting to reach for the check they promised to pay almost a dozen years ago. But there's a lot for the president to do to win over hearts and minds.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, there really is. Bill, I appreciate it. Thank you.

WEIR: You bet.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

HILL: And I'm Erica Hill.

Right now, votes still being counted in critical as yet undecided House and Senate races. Those races will help to determine which party will ultimately control Congress. An election night red wave didn't materialize for Republicans. They are on track though this morning to win a narrow majority in the House. Again, though, we have a lot of seats that haven't been called, 35 uncalled House races. Republicans are leading in 11 seats. They're going to need nine here to retake the majority.

SCIUTTO: All right. And the Senate much tighter. Republicans currently have 49 seats confirmed, Democrats with 48. Control now depends on three states. Two of those, Nevada and Arizona, still too close to call. Georgia is headed to a December runoff after neither candidate managed to get 50 percent of the vote. Back to Georgia, Erica, to determine everything, yes.

HILL: Deja vu all over again.

Let's start this hour in Nevada, where thousands of votes remain to be counted. CNN's Rosa Flores is live for us this morning in Clark County. So, what is the latest in terms of outstanding votes this morning, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's difficult to tell, Erica, and that's the point that officials have been making, is that they just don't know exactly how many ballots are out there because this is the first midterm that Nevada has universal mail ballots. All that means is that every registered voter, all 1.8 million of them, received a ballot in the mail unless they opted out. And so long as they placed that ballot inside a mailbox and it got postmarked on Election Day, it could be counted until Saturday. And so that's there's why there's this uncertainty and the races here right now are razor thin.

Let me go through those really quickly with you because in the U.S. Senate, Republican Adam Laxalt, has a less than 3 percent margin ahead of Democratic Incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto. That's razor thin. The governor's race, Joe Lombardo, the Republican has a less than 5 percent gain over the incumbent governor, Democrat Steve Sisolak. The secretary of state race, Jim Marchant, the Republican, has a less than 1 percent lead over Cisco Aguilar, the Democrat.

Now, this is what we've been hearing from officials here in Nevada. It is just unclear exactly how many ballots are out there. They are, of course, waiting to count all of them and there are tens of thousands, Jim and Erica, that we know for sure. There's about 80,000 of those that we heard from the Clark County registrar yesterday. These were either in the hundreds of drop boxes that had not been counted on Election Day or they were mail ballots that were received and are yet to be processed completely. And so those tens of thousands are still not reflected in the results that we just talked about. So, clear as mud at this point.

SCIUTTO: Yes, And, as always, a lot more votes to be counted, but that's the important part. Rosa Flores, thanks very much.

HILL: In Georgia, the two top Senate candidates will face off again on December 6th in a runoff race that could determine control of the Senate. How did we get there? Well, neither Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock nor GOP challenger Herschel Walker reached that 50 percent plus one threshold, so it automatically triggers that runoff there.

Control of the Senate, as we mentioned, potentially on the line here and perhaps not surprisingly plenty of money already being poured into the state in both campaigns.

SCIUTTO: All right. So, let's break down the numbers. A closer look at what we're seeing, particularly in these outstanding races in Arizona and Nevada.

CNN Anchor John Berman at the magic wall. He hid such a great job, as you always do, last hour. So, walk us through, and folks like me who need it slowly, walk us through the map.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Believe me, I need it more slowly than everyone. It's taking me hours to work this map up. And just one thing I want to point out what Erica was saying, it may come down to the runoff in Georgia in December or maybe not because, right, you have Nevada and Arizona, which are still uncalled. If either party wins both Nevada and Arizona, they would control the U.S. Senate no matter what happens in the runoff in Georgia.

[10:05:02]

I want to focus this hour in on Arizona, what's happening there and what could happen. Right now, Mark Kelly, the Democratic incumbent, leads by 95,000 votes. Actually, his lead grew as more ballots were processed overnight in Maricopa and Pima Counties. I'm going to give you the percentages there of what happened last night in just a second.

What I want to show you is how Blake Masters could potentially, depending on how the rest of the vote comes in, make up that gap. So, let's put up the black board here for a second, if we can. We think there are 560,000 votes remaining. I'm going to write that down, 560,000 remaining. If he were to win, Blake Masters, 60 percent of the remaining vote, let's do times 60 percent here, that would give him 336,000 votes.

The important number here, which I will write down for you, is that would net him, and I've got to put my glasses on for this, that would be a net -- a net of roughly 112,000 votes, which you can see is greater than the margin separating them now. So, if you're Blake Masters, oh, that's a good thing.

But, but let me swipe this out here. This is why I want to tell you what happened last night. There were more ballots counted in Maricopa County last night, 61,000 votes counted in Maricopa County. And I told you that Blake Masters, he's looking at 60 percent. Well, who got more votes in that batch that was counted overnight? It was actually the Democrat, Mark Kelly, who got 55 percent. So, in the ballots that were counted last night, Blake Masters not hitting the numbers he would need there.

The same thing was true in the south in Pima County, where there were 13,000 votes counted last night. Within that batch, Mark Kelly, not Blake Masters, got 67 percent. So, if you're looking at this, and you're Mark Kelly, you're thinking, oh, that's a good thing.

But on the other hand, I've given you the one hand, the other, now back to both hands here, we just don't know the remaining 560,000 votes, what that will look like. In Arizona, historically, the last few elections, the later the ballots have arrived, the more Republican they have been. We're waiting until tonight to see that batch, what that looks like, to get a sense of what direction this might be headed. But I wanted to show you the path for Blake Masters if it goes a certain way.

SCIUTTO: John Berman breaking it down, we'll be watching in the coming days. Thanks so much.

HILL: And as we all wait here to see just how those votes are going to fall, President Biden is already touting Democrats' midterm performance, calling it a good day for democracy.

SCIUTTO: CNN White House Correspondent M.J. Lee outside the White House.

And, M.J., this is an expectations game, obviously outperformed expectations, but still appear poised to lose the house and the Senate still hanging in the balance. So, what is the sales pitch in effect post-election from the president?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you heard directly from the president yesterday. You saw him sounding victorious and defiant, unlike a number of his predecessors who, after their first midterm elections, had to really promise a major course direction change for the country, the president saying that, regardless of who ends up controlling Congress, he is going to largely stay the course.

He said he's willing to continue working with members across the aisle on important issues, like bringing down inflation, national security issues. He also said that he is very much prepared to exercise his veto power if he sees Republican efforts to undo some of his major accomplishments. This is a little bit more of how he talked about how he plans to govern in the next two years. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What in the next two years do you intend to do differently to change people's opinion of the direction of the country, particularly as you contemplate a run for president in 2024?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Nothing, because they're just finding out what we're doing. The more they know about what we're doing, the more support we'll see.

The problem is that major piece of legislation we passed, and some of it bipartisan, takes time to be recognized.

So, I'm not going to change the direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Now, one area where he, of course, acknowledged there's more work to do was on the economy. He said that he understands a lot of families across the country are still very feeling frustrated and feeling a lot of pain. And just looking ahead, he does go aboard tonight in part to attend the G-20 summit in Indonesia. So, we're going to get a pretty good sense of how he now talks to foreign leaders about what is at stake in the U.S. now that the midterm elections are sort of somewhat behind him. But we are, of course, still waiting for the full results.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It never seems to end on the night. M.J. Lee at the White House, thanks so much.

[10:10:01]

HILL: What you just heard there, President Biden doesn't have any plans to change direction, but what about the GOP? There is plenty of speculation this morning that a possible GOP primary showdown between former President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is more and more likely, a faceoff President Biden says would be interesting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Who do you think would be the tougher competitor? Ron DeSantis or former President Trump? And how is that factoring into your decision?

BIDEN: It would be fun watching them take on each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Fun to watch.

Joining us now, CNN Politics Reporter and Editor at Large Chris Cillizza.

So, former President Trump may be feeling heat a little bit after Republicans appear to have underdelivered. That, of course, is not how he's spinning it, important to note. Conservative media also has a pretty interesting take on these results.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR AT LARGE: Yes. I'm using this term advisably. There are some cracks in Donald Trump's support among conservative media. I want to show the New York Post cover. Donald Trump as Trumpty Dumpty, that he had a big fall. This is the New York Post being the New York Post. I mean, let's not say this is the entire conservative movement. But it is worth noting that on the day after the election, they had a headline about Ron DeSantis and how strong he was. On the second day after the election, they have a headline about Donald Trump and maybe him losing his grip on the Republican Party.

On a more serious note, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has an editorial that makes the point that I've tried to make to people over and over again, just in pointing out Donald Trump's record. He's won one race, 2016. He lost the House and the Senate during his time in office for Republicans and he lost the 2020 presidential race. Then you go to 2022, there have been losses there too.

So, I think you're seeing, Erica, some, some elements of discontent within the Republican Party about Donald Trump. I hesitate to say that's the entire party. I think we have to be careful in making generalizations like that, but there's at least some.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And, remember, on January 7th, 2021, there were a lot of folks who were pronouncing the end of the Trump reign, as it were, and things changed in the wake of that.

All right, when we look at a potential Trump/DeSantis showdown here, first of all, is that realistic, right? Does DeSantis openly step up to him? And what does it look like?

CILLIZZA: I do think it's realistic. I think DeSantis is putting the pieces together to run. I want to cite a couple of things from the exit polling, and this gets to the be careful about generalizations about Donald Trump. In the exit polling, 73 percent of Republican had a favorable opinion of him. 23 percent had an unfavorable opinion. So, he's a still popular within the party. Let's not say it's all over for Donald Trump.

But I want to go to the DeSantis number, if we can pop up that up. In Florida, he was asked, would you want Ron DeSantis to run for president. These are people who know him. 72 percent said yes. So, I think there is some momentum for DeSantis. He raised a ton of money, $200 million for his campaign. He has a lot of that money still left on hand. He had a huge night compared to the Republicans more generally and compared to Trump more generally. So, I actually think we may see this fight and I think Donald Trump is a little worried about this fight with Ron DeSantis, which is not a trait that we usually associate with him.

HILL: No, it's not. We also won't hear it out loud, but wouldn't be surprised if he was a little worried. Chris Cillizza, I appreciate it. Thank you.

CILLIZZA: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: We will hear the attacks and nicknames.

Coming up next, I'm going to speak live with Republican Congressman and member of the January 6th Committee Adam Kinzinger, what role he believes the former president played in these midterm results and how a Trump/DeSantis showdown looks to him.

HILL: Plus, we're going to take you back live to Florida. The state once again hit by a major storm. We'll take a look at the latest track. This is now Tropical Storm Nicole, but, of course, it made landfall as a category 1 hurricane earlier this morning.

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SCIUTTO: This morning, former President Trump continuing to get much of the blame for Republicans' failed red wave on election night. It comes after a long list of election deniers that he handpicked and endorsed lost their races.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote this morning a piece titled Trump is the Republican Party's biggest loser. It reads, we're quoting here, since his unlikely victory in 2016 against the widely disliked Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump has a perfect record of electoral defeat. The GOP was pounded in the 2018 midterms owing to his low approval rating, Mr. Trump himself lost in 2020, then he sabotaged Georgia's 2021 runoffs by blaming party leaders for not somehow overturning his defeat. That gave Democrats control of the Senate.

Joining me now to discuss, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Congressman, thanks so much for taking the time this morning. REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Yes, you bet. Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: You've heard The Wall Street Journal editorial, that criticism not limited to that newspaper. And I should note, you've been saying for some time that support for Trump among GOP voters is weakening. Is this election, in effect, the fourth in a row that Trump as leader of the party has lost? Is it it for the former president?

KINZINGER: No. I don't think this is it. I think it's going to take a number of losses for the GOP to kind of fully exercise, if you will, the Trump influence, the Trump thing. And we'll see what happens. This is definitely a blow to him. And while it's generally I guess probably would be a decent election for Republicans likely to take the majority, possible to take the Senate, it's not what was expected.

[10:20:00]

So, this going to have to be a lot more hits to Trump.

Look, here's going to be the real question that we've got to watch over next week. Does Donald Trump try to throw Kevin McCarthy under the bus for this? Which, of course, he will, but it's never Donald Trump's fault. That's what's going to be kind of rich to watch, frankly.

SCIUTTO: If he throws McCarthy under the bus, is McCarthy not the incoming speaker of the House?

KINZINGER: I think it's very likely. I mean, again, McCarthy has put together, I think, a pretty strong play for speaker even in a tight majority. But where Donald Trump can have an influence is if he decides people like Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, the typical crew, cannot vote for him and must have some kind of a play of denying him the speakership, that's where you can see that happen. It's also quite possible they give Kevin the speakership and make his live frankly a living hell over the next year or two.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Let's talk about effect on the race for the GOP nomination in 2024. You have said that this makes that race wide open, that it might open a path for a moderate candidate not named Trump or even DeSantis, who a lot of folks are talking about. Who exactly? Who has a potential path to that nomination?

KINZINGER: So, what's what I don't know. And I think you can look at names like Tim Scott, who I think is -- can really bring a different kind of perspective to the GOP. There're people probably we're not even talking about. The question is who really has the courage to do it. Because even when you're looking at the DeSantis thing, he had a very strong night, the question is, does he now turn around and take on Donald Trump? You're going to make most of the base of the party upset. You're going to have to win that fight. So, I think that's the real question, is who's got the courage to do it and who's going to go out there with a strong message.

And to win in a primary, the message can't be that necessarily Trump is awful, even though many of us believe that, it's got to be, hey, it's time to move on. Here's a vision for the future. Because the one thing the Republican Party has been lacking is a vision for the future or ideas for the future. We've got to get back to that.

SCIUTTO: Do you run in 2024 for the Republican nomination?

KINZINGER: No, certainly not my intention. I'd never rule anything out, but I'm excited to frankly be out of the House. I have an organization, Country 1st, by the way, country1st.com. And we're going to do what we've been doing, taking on toxic tribalism. Because there's a ton of stuff that actually unites as Americans but nobody's talking about it. We just focus on what divides us.

SCIUTTO: Does a Trump/DeSantis battle for the Republican nomination weaken both of them as potential Republican candidates in 2024?

KINZINGER: I would say no for DeSantis. Yes for Trump. I mean, the thing that Trump's got going for him is everybody's too scared to take him on, and those of us that do end up getting excommunicated from the party. So, if you have somebody takes him on that actually ends up with quite a big following in the GOP, that's devastating to Donald Trump.

For DeSantis, if he does it and comes out on top, I think it refines him, it helps him to build his own brand. But let's keep in mind, every time at this point in time in a race and a primary, the frontrunner has never ended up being the nominee. You think of basically every election back. Maybe a different situation now but that's kind of what we look at.

SCIUTTO: It's a good point.

You heard President Biden when asked if he's going to course correct it all following this election because, by the way, it looks like the Democrats will at least lose the House here, he said I'm not going to do anything, he said, I'll do nothing. Are he and Democrats missing a lesson from this election as well?

KINZINGER: Yes, they really are. And this is their big risk that they run is that they had a better than expected election, so it's, hey, we're doing everything right. Look, it's not. I mean, I think the January 6th committee, I think the attack on Paul Pelosi had an impact and dampened kind of Republican turnout, also invigorated Democratic turnout, plus abortion. But, look, inflation is a huge issue still. The border is a huge issue. Crime is a huge issue.

And look at Wisconsin. The Democrats lost to Ron Johnson, one of the most disliked politicians in the country, because they put up wrong candidate. Democrats still have to put up people that can attract the center. You guys would have crushed Ron Johnson if he would have put up a different candidate.

SCIUTTO: And they lost a lot of seats in normally blue New York in the House as well.

Final question, you mentioned the January 6 committee. As you well know, the committee gave Trump more time to turn over subpoenaed documents. Any remains under subpoena, we should note, for his own testimony. Is it likely, is it realistic that he testifies to your committee?

KINZINGER: Well, again, we'll have to see. It's expected. I mean, it's the law. If he doesn't, he'll have to answer to the American people for that because our time is limited on this committee. We're going to continue this investigation as long as we can.

Really, I think a lot of the focus is looking at DOJ and what they're going to do. But let me be clear, it is the law that Donald Trump show up to our committee to speak to us

SCIUTTO: Congressman Adam Kinzinger, good to have you on t his morning. Thanks so much.

KINZINGER: You bet. Good to see you.

HILL: Still to come here, from advertising struggle to a chaotic rollout of a new pay for verification process, what is Twitter Owner Elon Musk's new message as the company faces fresh scrutiny?

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