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Republicans Inching Closer to House Majority; Ron DeSantis Captured Media Attention; More Suspense in Nevada Election Count; Kevin McCarthy Will See Who Supports Him; Red Wave Didn't Happen. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 10, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

I want to get to our lead story. The U.S. midterm elections have turned into more of a cliff hanger than a red wave for Republicans. The GOP is inching toward control of the U.S. House of Representatives, but the battle for the Senate could go on for days or even weeks.

So, let's get a quick snapshot of where things stand at this hour. In the Senate, Democrats now hold 48 seats, Republicans 49. They need to pick up two seats to get control. In Arizona, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly is leading Republican Blake Masters with hundreds of thousands of votes still to be counted.

In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt is ahead of incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto. State officials say results may not be final until next Thursday. Two hundred eighteen seats are needed to control the House. Democrats are lagging behind with 191 compared to 209 for Republicans. Thirty-five races are still yet to be called.

Now, President Biden isn't claiming victory but he is breathing a sigh of relief. A Republican led House will require a more bipartisan approach from the White House, but a slim GOP majority could provide some openings for the president.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Based on what we know as of today, we've, we've lost very few seats for certain, we still have a possibility of keeping the House, but it's going to be close. It's a moving target right now, but it's going to be very close.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Kevin McCarthy is widely expected to become the next speaker of the house and he faces an uphill battle in bringing together diverse factions in the Republican Party. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Do you have the votes for both the majority in the speakership?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Yes.

UNKNOWN: You do. What about the Freedom Caucus? Have you, have you spoken to President Biden today?

MCCARTHY: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right. Live now on Capitol Hill is CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. So, let's build on that. What's the challenge ahead for McCarthy or whoever ends up the speaker?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kim. Yes, Kevin McCarthy there is seemingly confident, but he's already really having to navigate some headwinds in his quest to become speaker. He had originally wanted to gain at least 20 seats to cushion, not only his majority in the House, but to cushion his race in the speaker, make it easier for him to win the speakership.

So, this is certainly going to be an uphill battle for him, and we've already see that play out because the Republicans have not -- did not win as many seats as they originally wanted to. They're facing a slimmer majority, and we're seeing the more conservative elements of the Republican Party, namely the House Freedom Caucus, already try to exert their control and leverage some power here.

And now, sources tell CNN about potentially two dozen current and incoming members are potentially willing to vote against Kevin McCarthy for the next speaker. And a source telling CNN that they are even considering the potential of running essentially a long shot challenger to him in order to exert some concessions from him ahead of time.

Now, Kevin McCarthy, we have seen him essentially respond to all this pressure over the last 24 hours. We've seen him really huddle with advisors, hit the phone. He's calling members. Trying to shore up some support, making sure that he does have that support.

He's playing up big that he was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, which will go far with many conservatives. The first step in all of this happens next week. That is the first vote where he will -- the leadership election. He just needs to win the majority of his conferences support to be nominated. But then of course, the big vote comes in January where he needs 218 votes in the full house.

Of course, all of this, Kim, made so much harder for Kevin McCarthy because of the dynamics of what happened on election day on Tuesday night. The Republicans in the House not winning as many seats as they would have wanted.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. All right. Thanks so much. Sunlen Serfaty in Washington. I appreciate it.

And joining you now with more from California, John Phillips is a political columnist for the Orange County Register and a KABC radio talk show host and Mo Kelly is a political commentator and host of the Mo Kelly show.

[03:05:04]

Thanks so much both of you for being here with us. So, there's going to be a lot of finger pointing among Republicans. So, John, let's start with you. What -- who do you think is to blame here?

JOHN PHILLIPS, TALK SHOW HOST, KABC RADIO: Well, whenever you set expectations so high and you don't meet them, there's going to be a lot of finger pointing, going on. Certainly, Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the House Republican, so he is the one ultimately who decides which races they play in, which races they don't, where, what money gets spent and where it gets spent. He's certainly in charge of candidate recruitment.

So right now, I would imagine there is a lot of animosity in that caucus and a lot of questions for Kevin McCarthy. Now that leads to the question of, if you don't let Kevin McCarthy or you want to punish him for not delivering in this election, who do you replace him with?

And at this point, there's no other candidate who has the votes to displace Kevin McCarthy, and that ultimately will have to happen if you want to knock him out of the speaker's chair and replace him with someone else.

BRUNHUBER: Now, in terms of blame, we know Donald Trump won't take any of the blame himself. He said this in a recent interview before the midterms. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That's a summary of the Trump doctrine in a nutshell there. So, Mo, how much was, was Trump a drag do you think here in this race?

MO'KELLY, HOST, THE MO'KELLY SHOW: I don't think that he helped their cause. Obviously if he was a positive force, they would've had a better showing. But I will say this, I think the Democrats should not be too celebratory in nature if only because politics is a zero something game. And if we look at this, we take away all the spin. The Democrats are

in a worse position than what they were before the midterms, losing the House of Representatives is considerable in nature. If anything, it signals the end not to be hyperbolic, just to be factual. It signals the end of the Biden legislative agenda.

The Democrats won't be able to get anything significant done at all going forward, and there'll be a slew of investigations being Hunter Biden, or impeachment proceedings confronting the Democrats.

So, Joe Biden, whether he runs or not in 2024 is neither here nor there. The Democrats will be placed in a position where they can't get anything done, and they won't be able to generate that positive momentum for 2024. So, Donald Trump may have been a drag on the Republicans, but still the damage has been done.

BRUNHUBER: The conservative media seemed to be pivoting now to Ron DeSantis as the de facto leader of the party. So, John, how, how messy will that divorce from Donald Trump be?

PHILLIPS: Very, very messy. Clean up on aisle seven. Ron DeSantis was the huge winner out of yesterday's elections because he not only won, but he won an exceeded expectations. He won in a blowout against a guy who has won statewide office in Florida before, and he did it with the diverse coalition.

I mean, you look at who voted for him in that election, he won in places like Miami Dade County, which are, is a majority Latino county. If you want to win a national election in this country, you have to have appeal beyond the Republican base.

And what Ron DeSantis proves in Tuesday's election is that he has that. And I think that's what's led to part of the frustration that you've seen from former President Trump. Ron DeSantis looks like a much stronger candidate today than he did before election day, and that has President Trump worry.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, let me ask you then, Mo, DeSantis says, I mean, he won a bigger, he won bigger in so-called swing state Florida than Democrat Gavin Newsom won in your states there of California which is deep blue helped, as John said by a relatively strong Latino support.

So overall exit polls showed Democrats won about 60 percent of Latinos overall down from 65 percent in 2020. So, it looks like this real, it is a real twin trend towards Republicans. It's not just a -- just a blip.

MO'KELLY: Well, I would say styles make fights and it depends on who in this hypothetical Ron DeSantis would be facing. If he's facing a Joe Biden that looks a certain way, if he faces a Gavin Newsom, I think that looks very differently in nature. So, I don't want to speculate as far as what 2024 will look like. Other than that, I would agree that Ron DeSantis is the rising star within the Republican Party. He has all the Trumpian positive qualities, but none of the baggage which would be slowing him down.

[03:09:56]

But we don't necessarily know what a tough primary fight would look like if it had Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump throwing elbows at each other.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, we'll end with this with both of you here for Biden and the Democrats, the idea of, you know, gee, we didn't get shellacked seems like a pretty thin basis from mandates. So, what do Biden and the Democrats take from this?

PHILLIPS: Well, they should pivot towards the middle. They should look at issues like border security and say, OK, it's more beneficial for the Democratic Party for us to work with Republicans and do something to solve the problem. That's what Bill Clinton did after he took his losses in 1994 and he won a second four-year term.

However, I don't see that happening. I see them digging in their heels and saying, the problem is we weren't loud enough about the positions that we took in the first two years. If they do that, they are setting themselves up for a shellacking in the next election.

BRUNHUBER: Mo, you seem pretty skeptical about the idea of the Biden administration being able to get anything done. Is there any way to triangulate towards the middle here?

MO'KELLY: I don't know if they'll triangulate to or to middle. I expect President Biden to do some executive actions to be able to say that he got something done, he got something through. But ultimately if the economy improves, that will be his record that he will run on. If it doesn't improve or if it gets worse, then you will see probably more bad news for the Democrats in 2024.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have to leave it there. I really appreciate having you both of you on, John Phillips and Mo'Kelly. Thanks so much.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

MO'KELLY: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, a live report on the tight Senate race in Nevada where a staunch Trump ally and election denier holds a slight lead over the Democratic incumbent.

Plus, heavy winds and rain lash Florida as Hurricane Nicole comes ashore. We're tracking the storm live from the CNN weather center. Pedram?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kim, you know, the National Hurricane Center just giving us an update. Hurricane Nicole has officially made landfall near Vero Beach, Florida. We're going to break down the details. Power outages, they're really coming in rapidly across this region, upwards of 55 plus thousand customers without power. We'll break it down. Coming up in a little bit.

[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: In the fallout of the U.S. midterms, two election deniers endorsed by Donald Trump are now locked in tight Senate races in Arizona and Nevada that are too close to call. The outcome of both will impact the balance of power in the upper chamber.

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt who fought to overturn the 2020 election claiming it was rigged. Also, a slight lead over Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. But about 160,000 ballots are still being counted, including larger than usual numbers of mail- in ballots that are still arriving. Now final vote totals aren't expected until later next week.

Tabitha Mueller is a political reporter with the Nevada Independent and joins us live from Reno.

Thanks so much for being here.

So, we knew that it would take a while to get the results, but I know there have been some issues. What's the latest.

TABITHA MUELLER, POLITICS REPORTER, THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT: So, it looks like the results are starting to come in. Right? We had some results come in this afternoon, some results in Washoe County specifically and Clark County, which are the two most populous counties here in Nevada.

And those definitely saw Democrats gaining a bit more of an edge than initially was shown because Republicans had kind of some really big gains initially through in person voting on election day.

BRUNHUBER: So, the large uncounted ballots that are out there, is there any sense of whether they favor Democrats it sounds like you're saying?

MUELLER: Yes, so generally, what we've seen here in Nevada is that in per -- mail-in ballots typically favor Democrats. We were seeing a lot of mar -- like a two to one margin, so favoring Democrats and that's been something that we've continued to see throughout this election really.

And one of the things that I do want to notice that here in Nevada we have opened up more ways for people to vote, right? So, past a law that allowed for mail-in voting, folks can sign up to vote in person, register to vote there.

So, we we're seeing an unprecedented number of these mail-in ballots, but that's in part because of the state's efforts to open up voting to, to residents here.

BRUNHUBER: So, with results now coming in, is there anything that you're learning from the exit polls and from the turnout in terms of, you know, top issues and so on and so forth?

MUELLER: So, I think there's some of the top issues that we've seen throughout the election, right? The economy, inflation, abortion rights. We've also seen a lot of concerns about election denialism, fears surrounding some of the top races where, you know, are we going to have candidates concede these races. Are we going to have any problems coming out of the election this year?

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that was a big fear. I know there have been lots of threats against election officials and with an election denier running, could we see sort of weeks of litigation and possibly violence?

MUELLER: That's always the potential. I know that there have been a lot of groups and organizations warning of the potential for violence, warning that, you know, we might see some lawsuits coming out of this. We already in the governor's race, we saw some lawsuits in the Republican primary.

None of those were successful and obviously Joe Lombardo is the primary candidate running -- or he's the general election candidate running against it's Governor Steve Sisolak. But it's really going to depend and time will tell what will happen with that.

[03:20:00]

BRUNHUBER: All right, so take us through the race. Was the fact that it was so close a surprise? I mean, how did things play out?

MUELLER: No, I think that we expected this to be a very close race. I mean, the Senate race was always going to be close. Those top ticket races. We're in an election year where economies a big issue. Republicans have been hammering that home. Nevada is a fairly purple state.

You have Clark County, which is a very strong democratic hold there. And the majority of the ballots that remain to be counted are in Clark County, but you also have Washoe County, which is the second most populous county, and that's a very purple county.

I will say too, that because of the way that mail-in ballots are counted you -- we kind of -- I kind of expected this a little bit to see, you know, Republicans maybe doing well, one minute, Democrats doing well another. So, this I think is pretty normal for what we would expect given the mail-in ballots in the way that mail-in ballots typically favor Democrats.

BRUNHUBER: We saw Latinos in Florida vote in huge numbers for a Republican. Are we seeing a similar shift in Nevada as well?

MUELLER: I'm not sure on that. We have seen both candidates in the Senate races, both candidates reaching out to Latino voters, courting them heavily. The culinary union, which is the largest union here without canvassing getting voters out to vote in using both Spanish and English.

So, I think we'll have to wait and see kind of how those break down. But from what I'm seeing it, I think that time will tell again.

BRUNHUBER: All right, well we will all be watching. Absolutely. Tabitha Mueller, thanks so much for being here with us.

MUELLER: Thanks for having me on.

BRUNHUBER: Still to come, balance are still being tallied in several key races across the U.S. How some of them may impact the balance of power in Congress. That's next. Stay with us.

[03:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to our coverage of the midterm elections here in the U.S. Let's get a quick snapshot of where the Battle for Congress stands right now.

In the Senate, Democrats hold 48 seats and Republicans 49, which means the GOP needs to flip two Democratic seats to get to the 51 seats required to gain control of the Senate.

Now, the final outcome hinges on three key races, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, and Georgia may be the decider as it heads to a December runoff between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker.

In the House, Republicans would need 218 seats to control the chamber. So far, they have 209 with Democrats lagging behind with 191 seats. But Republicans are closer to winning a majority. They have fallen short of the predicted red wave. Listen to Joe Biden here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: While we don't know all the results yet, at least I don't know them all yet. Here's what we do know. While the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave. It didn't happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex joins me now from Colchester, England.

Thanks so much for being here with us.

So, Natasha, the economy was still the most important issue overall for voters according to the exit polls, but abortion was a huge driver top issue, I think in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and that surprised a lot of people. You as well?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Yes, it did because the economy was supposed to be the main thing that people were voting about. If you look at four years ago, two-thirds of the American voting public thought the economy was going well, and the Democrats were still able to pick up some 40 seats.

Now, you fast forward four years, only 25 percent of the American voting public thinks that the economy is going well, and the Republicans weren't really able to capitalize on this. Instead, you had a lot of Democrats actually really motivated to, to go out and vote because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

So, 61 percent of Americans said that they disagreed with overturning Roe v Wade, and 70 percent of those, or 71 percent of those actually voted Democratic. And I think the Republicans misunderstood how energized the Democratic base would be. True the economy was important, but it didn't end up being important enough to lead to a Republican wave.

And this is in spite of the fact that the party that's in opposition to the incumbent president typically does really well in midterms. This is also in spite of the fact that the Republicans gerrymandered seven districts in their favor. And there were 30 laws passed since 2020 that restricted voting.

So, the Republicans really should have done a lot better. And I think the elephant in the room, of course, is Trump. He appears to be a liability to the party. And I think the Republicans are going to have to rethink about whether or not he really is the future.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Let me ask you about that. I mean, it really has been a bad year for Donald Trump with all the legal issues. It seems to be getting worse. I mean, his candidates have underperformed, his party underperformed, and his major rival, Ron DeSantis, had a huge win and is now being crowned by the right-wing media, sort of the leader of the party.

But, you know, quitting Donald Trump, it's harder than it seems. Are they really going to be able to pivot away from him?

[03:29:58]

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, that's a great question and I don't know if they are. They seem to be transfixed by him. Trump has a psychological hold on this party even to their detriment, I think they believe that he's able to really motivate the base and get them out to vote like no other candidate is. But I think what they're missing is that Trump equally motivates people to vote for the opposition.

Now, Ron DeSantis had a really good night. He was viewed as a governor that was able to handle Hurricane Ian pretty well, and worked with Joe Biden on that. And he won his reelection bid handily. So, he's definitely going to be the biggest challenger to Donald Trump.

But the question is whether or not people can move away from him, because right now we still have Republicans that don't even want to publicly criticize Trump, that are willing to just go the, you know, the extra mile for him.

So, whether or not they can quit him is very important because if they decide to stick with him, I don't think that they're going to do well in 2020.

BRUNHUBER: Now, who will Republicans be facing in 2024? That's the question. You know, Joe Biden, after these midterms was sounding very positive about the performance, and then he's talking about running again. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My answer is yes, my plan is to run for reelection. That's my expectation.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Do you plan to run for reelection?

BIDEN: Yes. Look, my intentions, I said at the beginning is that I would run again, but it's just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again, that remains to be seen.

TAPPER: And do you think you'll make a decision before the end of the year?

BIDEN: Well, look, I'm not going to make this about my decision. I'm going to make this about this off your election. After that's done in November, then I'm going to be in the process of deciding. My guess is it'd be early next year we make that judgment. But my plan to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right. So here you, you saw him consistently sort of saying, you know, he plans to run, he plans to run. The fact that he did historically well for a midterm president do you think that that will influence his decision to run in 2024?

LINDSTAEDT: I think it could. I mean, if you look at an interesting statistic of voters that somewhat disapprove of how Biden is doing. Forty-nine percent of them still voted for the Democrats. So, he's not hurting the party as much as Trump is comparatively speaking.

And you know, the Democrats also did well with independents. Forty- nine percent voted Democrat over 47 percent for Republicans. So, the Democrats are doing well in a lot of categories in spite of Biden, in spite of the fact that, that he doesn't have a great approval rating.

But you know, the Democrats are going to really have to focus in the next two years, they've got to deal with most likely a House that's going to be led by Republicans and they're going to have to campaign more effectively. They have a lot of challenges facing them.

One of the big challenges is the fact that the Republicans did better in almost every demographic category compared to 2018 midterms. They did better with men, with women, with whites, with Hispanics, with African Americans. And so, this is something that the Democrats are going to have to really address.

And if you think about Biden, he is older. He's perceived as being older, and he really just isn't a dynamic speaker. When you look at some of the footage of Obama speaking to crowds in Pennsylvania, I mean, he's just electrifying, energizing the crowds, and that's the issue with Biden. He isn't that bad, but he doesn't really energize the base in which, in the ways in which the Democrats would like.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have to leave it there. Thanks so much for your analysis, Natasha Lindstaedt. I really appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

BRUNHUBER: A dramatic setback for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, how Russia intends to withdraw from a key city it captured early in the war. Plus, U.S. President Joe Biden will try to give a shot in the arm to efforts to fight climate change. We'll have a live report from COP 27 summit in Egypt and will be headed later today.

And later, Florida braces for a rare November hurricane. And would stay prepared for Nicole just weeks after Hurricane Ian. Stay with us.

[03:35:00]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (through translator): This is one of the most important days with one of the most beautiful sunsets, Kalynivka village in Kherson is liberated. Gory to Ukraine. We've taken the heights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, that's a Ukrainian soldier lifting his country's flag above a formerly occupied village in the southern Kherson region. Russian forces have been ordered to withdraw from all areas west of the Dnipro River, including the key city of Kherson. The move could amount to the biggest military shift in months and cost Russia the only Ukrainian regional capital it's captured during this invasion.

Here is CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Without acknowledging failure, Russia's top general in Ukraine announced an apparent retreat from Kherson.

SERGEI SUROVIKIN, COMMANDER OF RUSSIAN OPERATION IN UKRAINE (through translator): This is a very difficult decision. At the same time, we will save most importantly the lives of our troops and the overall combat effectiveness of the troops.

[03:39:55]

ROBERTSON: An admission of defeat that has been foreshadowed for several weeks. Civilians forced to evacuate east across the strategic Dnipro River. The Russian flag gone from Kherson's main administrative building. Fewer troops on city streets, Russian checkpoints in the city gone, and significantly Tuesday night, blowing several key bridges on front lines to slow Ukraine's advance, all indicative they're readying for retreat.

Ukrainian officials remain cautious. Presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak tweeting, actions speak louder than words. We see no signs Russia is leaving Kherson without a fight. Ukraine is liberating territories based on intelligence data, not staged TV statements.

Complicating their assessment, the sudden death Wednesday of a senior Russian installed official Kirill Stremousov in a road traffic accident according to Russian state media. Precise details or the implication still unclear.

Regardless the retreat, immediate some troops to stay close fight from the east bank of the Dnipro River. Others to bolster other fronts.

SUROVIKIN (through translator): Part of the forces and means will be released, which will be used for active operations, including offensive ones in other directions in the operation zone.

ROBERTSON: Losing Kherson is a huge blow to Putin, captured in the opening days of the war it will be the first regional capital to be retaken by Ukraine less than six weeks since Putin illegally annexed it and declared it part of Russia. Ukrainian forces have been readying to retake Kherson for months and finally appear poised to do so if it's not a trap.

Nic Roberson, CNN, Kramatorsk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is taking the Russian announcement with a grain of salt. Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Zelensky says Ukrainian troops will proceed carefully around Kherson without taking any unnecessary risks.

He also told Christiane Amanpour Russia has been sending mixed messages about its real intentions here. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): So, they're ready to defend this region and they're not ready to leave the city. And the fact that they are in these homes means that they are seriously preparing. But we are also seriously prepared for these developments, but we are not considering this as just one single operation. We have a strategy and different directions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And you can see Christiane Amanpour's full exclusive interview with the Zelenskyy on her program on Thursday. That's 6 in the evening in London, 8 p.m. in Kyiv right here on CNN.

Actor Sean Penn is showing his support for Ukraine by loaning President Zelenskyy one of his two Oscars. The Hollywood star and the activist has seen handing Zelenskyy the statuette in a video post on the president's social media.

Zelenskyy for his part presented Penn with the Order of Merit. Thanking him for the symbol of faith in Ukraine's victory. Penn told Zelenskyy when you win, bring the Oscar back to Malibu.

President Biden is expected to leave Washington Thursday night heading to the U.N. climate summit in Egypt. He's scheduled to be at the COP 27 summit in Sharm El Sheikh on Friday where other world leaders are already meeting.

They're pondering their next move in an effort to tackle climate change at the time when reports show they're not only off mark to meet their goals, but also, they're running out of time.

David McKenzie joins us from Sharm El Sheikh. So, David, what are you expecting from Biden and the U.S.?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think President Biden, as he arrives on Friday will come at a very critical moment in these meetings, these climate meetings. And you say we're potentially running out of time.

Well, the world has run out of time already. Blowing past emissions levels to get to the Paris agreement agreed upon levels. So drastic action is needed. Say, climate activists and the many millions of people around the world dealing with these climate catastrophes that we've seen last year, over the last year.

I expect President Biden to tout his own legislative wins with the Inflation Reduction Act that has put in billions of dollars into transitioning towards renewable energy in the U.S. He will also likely have meetings here with other leaders to try and push forward the agenda, though one issue certainly is on top of this.

[03:45:58]

Despite the announcement of Secretary Kerry, the climate envoy on a new carbon offset plan that could bring millions of dollars to developing countries, is that right now at least, the U.S. and China are having no formal talks here.

BRUNHUBER: OK. So, David, then if they aren't talking, I mean, can we expect anything from the two of them at the summit?

MCKENZIE: Well, we have had the Chinese envoy saying, envoy Xie saying that there have been some informal talks. Both him and Secretary Kerry have touted their personal relationship over many years. But since House Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan a huge taboo in Chinese government circles, there has been a deep freeze in the relationship between the U.S. and China.

Many people here I'm talking to you say that China and the U.S. need to cooperate to, at the very least, show leadership for other nations for a pathway forward to get us out of the climate crisis. I think it might be ambitious to think that freeze will thaw during these meetings because ultimately it will take Xi Jinping, the president of China, to signal that there will be resuming talks.

But there is some optimism that potentially the climate is one area that these two competing nations can cooperate. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right. We'll be watching. David Mackenzie in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Thanks so much.

Still to come, coastal cities in Florida on alert as Hurricane Nicole comes ashore. More on the danger they faced days before the storm became an imminent threat when we return. Stay with us.

[03:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: All right. These pictures that we're showing you here, they're live pictures out of Florida as Hurricane Nicole makes landfall. Heavy rains are pounding much of the state, battering the coastline with high waves and storm surge. Some residents were evacuated ahead of the storm after their homes were deemed structurally unsafe. Thanks to eroding shorelines already weakened by Hurricane Ian.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins me with the latest. Pedram, so just made landfall.

JAVAHERI: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: How bad is it and where is it heading?

JAVAHERI: You know, it's across portions of eastern Florida made landfall near Vero Beach, Kim, and the storm system still 75 mile per hour sustained winds. We suspect it'll stay there for at least an hour or so before we begin to see some gradual weakening with the storm system.

But just to show you the rarity of a storm of this magnitude coming ashore, you've got to go back to November of 1985. The last time the United States saw a hurricane make landfall in the U.S. In the month of November, it was Hurricane Kate. And in fact, since the 1860s only been two other storms in the month of November that have made landfall this time of year.

So very unusual setup. In fact, it is so unusual that there are blizzard warnings in place across the northern tier of the United States and a landfall hurricane across the southern tier of the U.S. You got to see the battle of the seasons taking place at the same time. With it upwards of 50 plus thousand customers in the dark right now across the state of Florida.

We expect us to potentially expand here in the coming hours as the system makes its way across the interior portion of Florida. And with it again, winds would not be surprised to see these winds gust at maybe 70, 80 miles per hour for at least the next couple of hours near landfall, gusts, forecast up to about 90 miles per hour. So, this is why we're seeing this widespread reaching impacts of power outages. And when it comes to Hurricane Ian, that was a category four system. This particular storm when it comes to Ian, had tropical storm force winds that expanded about 320 miles from the center.

Of course, you look at Hurricane Nicole, a much smaller system as far as the strength of the winds within it. But the tropical storm force winds extend some 500 miles from its center, so that's why we think the impacts real. It could be pretty far, far reaching here.

Southern Georgia, parts of the Carolinas as well see these tropical storm force winds. That push up close to 40 miles per hour, and as it makes its way inland of course you'll see this kind of push into southern Georgia, possibly even central Georgia, near areas approaching Atlanta in the coming hours as well where the winds pick up an intensity and the rainfall also makes its presence felt across this region.

The system will quickly move across areas of the northeast and by Friday and to Saturday it is entirely out of here, meets up with an incoming system and produces some wintry weather. But look at the northern tier of the U.S. Not only is there a concern here for blizzard conditions across the northern area of the U.S. but possibly some significant ice accretion as well.

Places such as Bismarck work your way towards areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Snowfall mounts could push up to say 12 to 18 inches in the coming hours. And ice could also accumulate as much as a half an inch across places such as Fargo.

Anytime you exceed about, say a quarter of an inch to a half an inch of snow -- ice accumulation tree limbs, of course, way down and come down power outages and major disruptions are expected. So, all of this taking place essentially at the same time as a landfall tropical system takes place.

And again, not often you see a weather map where you have temps for highs in the teens across the United States, and a hurricane making landfall in the southern U.S., incredible disparity in temperatures. And that cold air, Kim, is going to shift farther towards the east and just like that wintry conditions settle in for a large area of even the Midwestern U.S. in the coming days.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Pedram Javaheri. I appreciate it.

Yes, well, Twitter's new system to flush out fake accounts is apparently no match for imposters. Now the company has started requiring users to buy blue check marks, which should prove their account is legit. But just hours later, Twitter appeared to be flooded with imposters who created blue check accounts posing as politicians, celebrities, or even major companies.

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Now, those impersonated included former U.S. President Donald Trump, basketball star LeBron James and video game company Nintendo of America. Now, some users said creating fake account was actually easy, even though Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk said the new system would deter imposters.

All that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. You can follow me at Kim Brunhuber. CNN Newsroom continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

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