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Key States Count Votes As Control Of Congress Remains Undecided; Stocks Surge As Inflation Cools More Than Expected In October; Biden Welcomes Drop In Consumer Prices, Credits His Economic Plan. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 10, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga, welcome to "CNN NEWSROOM."

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Boris Sanchez. We're grateful to share an afternoon with you.

And, Bianna, I've been a huge fan of your work for a long time. This is actually the first time we're getting to Anchor together so this is a treat.

GOLODRYGA: It's a whole new world. I'm excited to have -- to have these two hours with you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: The same -- the same. So, we are tracking the very latest results in the midterm elections and we're still closely watching the vote count and a handful of states this hour with control of the Senate and the House still hanging in the balance some 40-plus hours after polls closed in many states. The three remaining races will determine the fate of the Senate. In Arizona, Trump-back Blake Masters is trailing incumbent Mark Kelly but a quarter of all votes have yet to be reported there.

GOLODRYGA: And in Nevada, incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto trail slightly behind Republican Adam Laxalt. And in Georgia, that contentious Senate race between incumbent Raphael Warnock and Trump- back former football star Herschel Walker heads to a runoff on December 6.

Let's start it all with the outstanding votes still coming in, CNN's John Berman is at the magic wall with that. So, John, let's begin in Nevada, where do things stand now and what votes are currently outstanding?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: First of all, I thought you guys were going to sing like an Aladdin duet, with a whole new world. I think I'm a little --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

BERMAN: I'm a little disappointed it didn't get to that.

SANCHEZ: We should.

BERMAN: But we'll talk --

GOLODRYGA: That's for the next hour.

BERMAN: We'll talk about Nevada in the meantime, and hopefully this satisfies people. Look, you can see Adam Laxalt had a very narrow lead over Catherine Cortez Masto, a lead of about almost 16,000 votes. In Nevada, the rules are if ballots are postmarked by Election Day, they can actually arrive until Saturday, and they will be counted. So we estimate -- and we don't know for sure because more votes could still arrive, we estimate there could be anywhere from 110, 000 to 135,000 votes still to count. And that includes in a couple of the very large counties, including Clark County here, which is 75 percent of the state. You can see Catherine Cortez Masto actually was the lead, she's the incumbent by the way, over Adam Laxalt here. There's about maybe 80,000 mail votes and drop box votes still to be counted there.

And in Washoe County, which is kind of a swing County, we think there may be 20,000 mail votes to be counted but there could be more, and more still could come in. And we're starting to see reports of some of the more rural, very red counties mail votes also. It's key to find out what this vote looks like. We'll learn more over the next several hours. We'll get a report tonight. They'll keep on counting these. We'll get a report tonight when those come in, what the breakdown of the votes are there. Last night, there were some counts from Clark and Washoe County in those skewed heavily Democratic, and Catherine Cortez Masto was able to close the margin for about a 23,000 vote lead down to 15,000, guys.

SANCHEZ: And, John, let's focus on Arizona because they're waiting on a big batch of votes to be counted and reported. What's the status of that Senate race?

BERMAN: Well, when you say big, I'm going to write this number because it's -- they have 560,000 votes still to be counted. That's a big number right there even in multicolor as you go across. In Arizona, ballots need to arrive by Election Day or they can be dropped off by Election Day. It's mostly a mail-voting state. And these counties have just a lot of votes to process.

They have a long time to do it. They have several weeks to do this now. And that's just the way they get it done in this state. There are some 400,000 votes still counting in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state. You can see Mark Kelly, the incumbent Democrat with a lead of about eight points there.

We know from two years ago -- and I should note that overall he's got a 95,000 vote lead there. We know from two years ago, Joe Biden won Arizona but was by like 10,000 -- 11,000 votes. Donald Trump the margin between the two candidates kept on closing as they counted more votes there. Typically in most states, mail seems to favor Democrats. In Arizona, the late-arriving mail ballots, the last election skewed more toward the Republicans so we just don't know who will favor -- it could be enough to give Blake Masters a runway to overtake Mark Kelly.

We'll have to wait and see. A sort of the polar opposite, as in Nevada where there could be the runway for Catherine Cortez Masto to overtake Adam Laxalt. We're going to have to wait and see, guys.

GOLODRYGA: The one commonality is the wait-and-see.

BERMAN: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: I hear what you're doing there, John. So, let's turn to the House and to a small number, perhaps the closest race in the country. Hardline Trump Republican Lauren Boebert has just pulled ahead of her Democratic challenger Adam Frisch, what is going on there in Colorado?

[14:05:05]

BERMAN: All right, let's take a look at that. That's the Colorado Third Congressional District, Lauren Boebert now with the lead of 433 votes -- 433. That is very close there. I just pulled up the counties. I want to give you a sense, maybe where there are still ballots left to be counted. Up until about an hour and a half ago, Adam Frisch, the Challenger was ahead by I think it was literally 64 votes.

GOLODRYGA: Yes.

BERMAN: But now, Lauren Boebert's ahead by 433. We think in Pueblo County, which skews slightly democratic, and it is one of the larger counties, there are still a few thousand votes left to count. So it's possible with a margin so small this could flip again, although she grew her lead in the last hour from the mid three hundreds to 433. I know it doesn't seem like a lot but these numbers have been very narrow.

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GOLODRYGA: Yes, it was just -- recently, it was -- isn't in the 60s. John Berman, you have been busy for us. Thank you, my friend. We will see you hopefully if you're standing in the next hour. Thank you.

BERMAN: Whole new world, guys -- whole new world.

SANCHEZ: We'll send a -- we'll send a magic carpet you're way. John Berman, at the magic wall, thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Thanks a lot.

SANCHEZ: We do have reporters on the ground in key locations spread across the country. CNN's Josh Campbell is in Arizona. He's at the Maricopa County Election center right now. And, Josh, the Board of Supervisors said there were some 400,000 votes that still have to be counted where you are. What's the latest on that?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Boris. Numerous votes still have yet to be counted here. We're talking about 400,000. And that includes 290,000 ballots that were dropped off. They were in envelopes but dropped off on Election Day itself. For whatever reason, someone had their ballot but decided that they want to actually go to a polling location or dropbox and put -- and actually submit that. And that still has to be counted. We're told that those 290,000 haven't begun to be counted yet. That's next in the queue.

Now, that's Maricopa County, we're talking about the most populated county here in the state of Arizona. But if you go south to Pima County, we're talking about Tucson, still 160,000 votes yet to be counted there. We're told that those results might come sometime next week. So, a lot of patients as our colleague, John King likes to say, pack your patients, these votes are being counted. And we'll just have to wait and see what those results are.

Where I'm here now in the processing center, this was fully staffed with a lot of people, a lot of volunteers, a lot of election workers. One thing I want to point out that we've been seeing all day is what's called this adjudication process. And that is if there's a ballot that is submitted that has some type of issue that requires greater scrutiny, by state law, it actually is reviewed by a bipartisan team, a Republican, a Democrat that goes through and tries to determine what is the issue here and how was that rectified. The head of elections here in Maricopa County spoke to CNN this morning to talk more about that process. Take a listen.

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BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: Let's say maybe on one of those races, the voter marked both, you know, candidates, let's say in the Senate race, and maybe they circled one and said no, I mean this, that goes into adjudication. And we have boards of one Republican and one Democrat. They looked at those to try to determine what the voters' intent was.

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CAMPBELL: Now, voter intent, that is key here. Again, these Republicans and Democrats looking at the ballots trying to determine what did the person mean to do. And this is so important to point out because we've heard so many of these conspiracy theories that perhaps the longer it takes to vote that there might be some kind of mischief at play. It's actually quite the opposite and talks to officials.

This is election integrity at work, election security, this methodical process that's underway. One official actually described it and said, it's much like if you go to the airport, right, imagine if there wasn't TSA screening, you would get to the gate a lot faster but how much confidence would you have in the security of that process? That's what they're doing here, going through methodically, trying to ensure that every vote that's submitted is legitimate, and every legitimate vote is counted, guys.

SANCHEZ: That's such an important point, Josh, especially because there are candidates out there specifically in Arizona that might weaponize that process to their advantage. Josh Campbell, from Maricopa County, thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: Well, the CNN decision desk estimates that there are about 135,000 votes that remain to be counted in Nevada, plus any mail-in ballots that have until Saturday to arrive. CNN's Gary Tuchman is live outside of the Clark County Election center in Las Vegas. Gary, when could we have some answers?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna and Boris, John Berman just gave some excellent analysis about Nevada, and now let me add to it here on the ground. We're not going to get final answers today, but today could be a very pivotal day. That's because inside the Clark County Election department here in the most populous county in Nevada, more than 75 percent of the population, they will be counting tens of thousands of mail-in votes.

We were told yesterday at a news conference, they will be coming 12,700 mail-in votes that arrived in the mail yesterday. They also told us they would be counting votes that were dropped in election boxes on Tuesday -- on Election Day, more than 300 boxes throughout the county.

[14:10:00]

We did not know that number yesterday when they told us they were going to do that, we found that out last night and it's a huge number about 57,000 ballots. So, you're talking about very small margins, as John Berman just mentioned 15,812 in the Senate race, 34,000 in the gubernatorial race, and this county, as I said, heavily populated, three-quarters of Nevada, it's heavily Democratic, the most democratic county in the state of Nevada. There are also mail-in ballots being counted in Washoe County, which is the second largest county where Reno's located, and in other small counties. But this is the big enchilada. This could make a difference in the race.

What's really important to point out and I think this is crucial. There are a lot of people who are saying, why is this taking so long, it's close, it's taken long, it's got suspicious. This is exactly what would have happened if it wasn't a close race. Because in Nevada, there are 1.8 million registered active voters in Nevada. Every one of them got a mail-in ballot. It is the number one way to vote here in this county, mail-in ballot. And you have until Saturday -- it has to be postmarked by yesterday but as long as it arrives by Saturday, it will be counted and it would have taken that long anyway. Bianna and Boris, back to you.

GOLODRYGA: The counting is methodical, there is no room for error, and we're just reminding viewers and everyone in the country watching this that patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to our elections. Gary Tuchman, thank you.

Well, money is pouring into Georgia as the state Senate race heads to a runoff. Today the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced a $7 million investment to boost incumbent Raphael Warnock.

SANCHEZ: Man, it's not just money pouring in, it's some familiar faces as well. We want to take you to the Peach State now and CNN, Nick Valencia, who's live for us in Canton. Nick, Republican challenger Herschel Walker is going to be joined by Senator Ted Cruz at a rally tonight. Both parties pulling out all the stops less than a month before voters go right back to the polls.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And we're seeing this doubling down in investment from both parties in these respective campaigns as they begin this election -- you know, this next long four weeks of campaigning in this run-off. And it was earlier today, that incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock kicked off things just about a block or so away from his church, Ebenezer Baptist, and he has painted this previously this choice between Herschel Walker and himself is not so much a choice between a Republican and a Democrat, as much as it is a moral choice between right and wrong. And it was earlier today standing in front of a mural of famed civil rights icon John Lewis, and he appeared to plea -- make a plea to those voters who may not have voted for him in the midterms.

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SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, (D-GA): I'm going to need you to stick with me for four more weeks. Can we do that? They are going to throw every dollar at us that they can, every lie, every attack but I think we have something better. We have the truth. And we have hope for the future.

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VALENCIA: And later this evening at 6:30, we will begin to see the start of that Republican leadership cavalry coming to town to stump for Herschel Walker when he's joined by Senator Ted Cruz when he kicks off things for his runoff campaigning. One of the big questions though, after Tuesday is whether or not we will see Walker begin to distance himself from former President Donald Trump. Will Donald Trump show up here in Georgia in the next four weeks, or will we see Walker begin to distance himself as we've seen other Republicans start to do since Tuesday? Boris, Bianna.

SANCHEZ: That is a fascinating point. Nick Valencia, live from Canton, thank you so much.

VALENCIA: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Well, some good economic news, inflation cooled much more than expected last month. Wall Street shares that loving the news, but what does it mean for you? We'll tell you, up next.

SANCHEZ: And some in conservative media are pulling no punches on former President Donald Trump. They are touting Florida's governor Ron DeSantis as the Republican Party's future. We'll discuss next.

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[14:18:09]

GOLODRYGA: The Dow is surging today after a new report showed that inflation is showing signs of cooling. Prices jumped, but not as much as economists were expecting.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Let's bring in CNN's Matt Egan right now. Matt, what was your biggest takeaway from the Consumer Price Index?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris and Bianna, you know, it does look like inflation is finally chilling out. Month over month, prices were supposed to heat up. They didn't. That was encouraging.

Year over year, 7.7 percent gain for consumer prices, normally, that is alarmingly high. But we're obviously not in normal times. This is actually a nine-month low for annual inflation and it is a big improvement from the 9 percent inflation we saw over the summer.

Now, of course, this doesn't mean inflation is gone. People are still feeling the sticker shock at the gas station, and at the grocery store. But we have seen some prices start to drop. We saw month-over- month, price declines for apparel, airfare, used cars. That was a big one and one of the big reasons why inflation was cooler than expected. Moody's economist Mark Zandi, he told me that he thinks that today's inflation report does suggest that inflation is "definitively moderating" and he thinks that inflation will be significantly lower a year from now as long as oil prices don't go crazy and as long as China's COVID locked down policies don't ramp up.

This report, of course, set off an earthquake on Wall Street. We see the Dow up by more than a thousand points, over 3 percent. We're actually seeing bigger gains for the S&P500. The NASDAQ is up 6 percent. I mean, that would make a great month. And we're seeing that all in one day. All three are on track for their best day since 2020.

Investors are obviously hoping this means the Fed will be able to stop slamming the brakes on the economy sooner enough. Some though, they think the market could be overreacting just a bit. Former New York Fed President Bill Dudley he told me that this is just one report and he stressed that the jobs market has not cooled off quite enough.

[14:20:06]

GOLODRYGA: One does not make a pattern but this is definitely encouraging and welcome news. We also saw mortgage rates, though are up again, credit card rates have hit a record high, what more do we know on that front?

EGAN: Well, the Fed's war on inflation is making it more expensive for all of us to borrow. That is a feature, not a bug of this Fed policy to try to cool things off by making it more expensive to borrow. So we've seen credit card rates hit record highs. I mean, it is -- there's never a good time to carry a credit card balance but this is arguably the worst time. Experts are saying now is a good time to -- if you have a credit card balance to consider transferring that to a zero-interest credit card or to take out a low-interest personal loan to try to pay some of that debt off.

Mortgage rates we know continue to go up sharply above 7 percent for the first time in 20 years. This has just been a dramatic move. And this means that you can afford less home. Let me show you what I mean. If you looked at a $500,000 house a year ago at sub 3 percent mortgage rates, you are now paying $1,000 more per month than you would have a year ago all because mortgage rates have gone up. And remember, this is not going to get you an extra bedroom or an extra -- I don't know, a man cave or anything like that. This is all money that's going to the bank and it is making it that much harder to afford homes right now.

GOLODRYGA: Man cave or woman cave, anybody is still struggling to get an affordable loan out there. It's amazing to see how quickly those rates have gone up. Matt Egan, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much, Matt. Everybody loves a good cave, whether a man, a woman, or anything else. So perhaps in the least surprising news of the morning, President Biden has taken credit for today's economic -- strong economic data, pointing to his economic plan. Even though yesterday he acknowledged the struggles that a lot of Americans are facing, though he argued the nation is on the right track. Listen to this.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The voters are also clear that they are still frustrated. I get it. I understand it's been a really tough few years in this country for so many people. And it's hard to see the results from actions that we took a while we have -- but were have to implement what we've done. But I believe we took the right steps for the country and for the American people.

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GOLODRYGA: Joining us now is CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Alice Stewart along with Xochitl Hinojosa. She is a CNN political commentator and former DNC communications director.

Xochitl, let me begin with you. As we just heard there from Matt, a better-than-expected inflation report, President Biden came into the midterms with very low approval ratings and came out of it with the best midterms of any sitting president in 20 years. Given all the headwinds that the party and the administration were facing, what do you make, and how do you explain there are better than expected outcome here?

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Well, it's pretty incredible, especially where President Biden was even about a year ago. I will say that President Biden should be taking a big victory lap right now. While the economy is strong, there were struggles with inflation and gas prices. One thing that President Biden did, though, is he talked about the economy. There's a lot of criticism of the Democratic Party leading up to the midterm elections. They weren't focused on the economy, enough, but they passed the Inflation Reduction Act to lower costs.

You had about 19 speeches and events from the president since October 1 until the Election Day talking about the economy. He understands that people are struggling, and he is trying to address it as much as possible. The other thing that I think that has been helpful is that days leading up to the election, you saw President Obama on the campaign trail really making that case for Democrats about who do you trust with the economy, who do you trust on issues of crime, these are experienced candidates. And he made that clear contrast compared to Republicans who had a very terrible field because they lacked that recruitment in the final year ahead of the midterms.

SANCHEZ: And, Alice, to you, it seems that momentum is swinging a bit toward the Democrats here, given that the anticipated red wave was more of a trickle, and if this economic news holds into the coming months and inflation continues to go down, how do you think that might influence a potentially Republican-controlled House, even Senate?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, only in America can a party celebrate the fact that we're potentially going to lose the House and maybe even the Senate. But I appreciate the Democrats' optimism. And look coming out of these elections, our CNN exit poll shows that three in four Americans are dissatisfied with the economy and say that the status of our economy is poor. And moving forward, if there's divided government and if Republicans do end up taking control of the House and the Senate, they're going to have to work across the aisle.

[14:25:01]

And I appreciate the -- President Biden's words yesterday saying that he plans to bring Republicans and Democrats to the White House and have conversations about how both sides can move forward with their agendas. But it's going to be an uphill struggle when we have Republicans that are really committed to tackling inflation, reducing government spending, and implementing policies that will help secure the border and also fight crime in comparison.

SANCHEZ: But, Alice, doesn't it say more about a weakness within the Republican Party and perhaps division within the party that with all this economic headwind, with all the anticipation that Republicans were going to dominate on Tuesday, it didn't happen? I mean, that is the reason for Democrats to celebrate.

STEWART: That's absolutely a concern, Boris. And we attribute a lot of that to candidate quality. We've been talking about that for quite some time. Former President Trump picking certain candidates to run and unfortunately, there's -- a lot of their focus was on election- denying and conspiracy theories, and that hurt us. And I think moving forward, and we're hearing more and more that the Republican Party really needs to take a lesson from this election and look at who they want moving forward to be the face of the party.

And I'm old enough to remember when former President Trump said Republicans are going to get tired of winning, quite frankly, we're tired of losing, and the party needs to decide if they're going to be a party of winning elections or worshipping Donald Trump. And we're seeing more and more Republicans are looking to put him in the rearview mirror and find a new face to the party, absolutely.

GOLODRYGA: So, Xochitl, clearly a mandate from voters here to get things done and you can just see an example of the expectations being so low that this and the resulting so far that we're seeing would be somewhat of a victory for Democrats, given that we are very likely to see a change in power in the House, at least. What should the president focus on in the lame-duck in these last few months in anticipating that we may see a change and Republicans come into power in Congress?

HINOJOSA: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: You know, we had Senator Klobuchar on this morning talking about continued funding for Ukraine being on the agenda, passing the Electoral College Act, and obviously, the debt limit and raising the debt ceiling is going to be a factor. What should the president be prioritizing in the weeks ahead?

HINOJOSA: Well, those are absolutely the issues that I think that Congress will focus on. I think that the president is -- as he said yesterday, he's looking for bipartisanship. He understands that there -- he's likely working with a divided Congress. And he is a master of the Senate. He understands the way that Congress works. And so, I think that you will see President Biden a bit more hands-on trying to figure out how to negotiate deals.

But then you also have the Democratic base, who is going to come out and various constituencies are going to come out and say, Democrats, you owe us. We delivered on Latino voters. We delivered on black voters. Where is the DREAM Act? Where is the Voting Rights Act? Where are all of these issues that you promised us in the last presidential election and heading into 2024? You still need to deliver on.

So I think it's a very tough position for the White House. But I do think that you will see a president try to find common ground with Republicans on it -- on issues, you know, like that you mentioned before because he understands the importance of bipartisanship.

SANCHEZ: Now, there are some questions about how well Democrats did deliver with Latino voters, but we got to leave the conversation there. Xochitl Hinojosa and Alice Stewart, thank you both so much for the time.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

Well, hundreds of thousands are without power as Tropical Storm Nicole hammers Florida with dangerous storm surge and heavy rain. We are live on the ground up next.

SANCHEZ: And Russian navy vessels are seen preparing for a possible test of a nuclear-powered torpedo. We have some exclusive reporting to CNN next

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