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States Still Counting Votes as Key Races Remain in Limbo; Control of Congress Still Unknown Days After Elections; President Biden Speaks at U.N. Climate Summit in Egypt. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 11, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Is set to speak at the U.N.'s climate conference in Egypt.

[10:00:002]

This follows his one-on-one meeting with Egypt's president. We're going to bring you those remarks live.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: But as the president begins his week-long trip to North Africa and Asia, back here in the United States, votes still being counted to determine which party will control Congress going forward. Two critical Senate races undivided still in Nevada and Arizona. We are expecting updates, however, on those vote counts throughout the day. Perhaps the final answer tomorrow in Nevada, but we'll see.

HILL: Yes, we'll see.

Let's begin right now in Arizona, Maricopa County officials say they do expect to start releasing results from mail-in ballots today. CNN's Josh Campbell is at the county's election center in Phoenix.

So, Josh, we're talking about an estimated 540,000 ballots still not counted there. It takes time.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It takes time, indeed. And, of course, we're talking about a very tight margin when you look at these two key races, a U.S. Senate matchup between Senator Mark Kelly and venture capitalism Blake Masters. As of last night, that split was about 115,000 votes. On the gubernatorial race, it's a lot closer. We're looking at about 27,000 votes separating Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake, and as you mentioned here in Arizona, still hundreds of thousands of ballots yet to be cast.

Where I am now in Maricopa County, they are still waiting on 340,000 ballots. That includes two -- I know that's a lot of numbers but that includes 290,000 ballots that were delivered in person that were intended to be voted by mail. So, if a person gets a ballot and they don't actually put them in the mail, they can take them Election Day, drop it off, but that means it has to go through a separate process where the signature is verified, the voter is verified. That's why we're seeing the backlog. But election officials here are asking for patience as they move through that process. They're also contending with conspiracy theories, particularly from the gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, who has suggested that officials here in Maricopa County have been slow rolling, or slow walking the results for political purposes. That causing election officials here to come out slamming those comments, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: Quite frankly, it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow rolling this when they're working 14 to 18 hours. So, I really hope this is the end of that now. We can be patient and respect the results when they come out.

ALLIE BONES, ARIZONA ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, it's ironic to us that people who are calling, you know, into question the integrity of this election and want faster results don't understand that it's actually those processes that add the integrity to our election process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: And that is the key focus of the election officials are saying, that it's taking time because it's such a robust, rigorous process in order to ensure voter integrity.

So, these votes continuing today, we're hoping to get some more updates throughout the day, and, of course, in this race that so many people around the country are watching, particularly in the Senate race, which could actually impact the balance of the Senate, guys.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. All right, Josh, we know you'll keep us updated. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: All right. Another tight race to watch, Nevada, there are roughly 95,000 votes still left to be counted there, certainly enough to turn things either way.

CNN's Rosa Clark, she is in Clark County, at the election center there, Clark County around Las Vegas. So, things tightened overnight. You said last hour that they expect to have most votes counted by tomorrow, most, not all? I mean, does that mean we don't necessarily know what the final result is?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we don't know. What I can tell you is that I just got an email from the public information officer of the secretary of state's office, and they tell me that they will be posting results at 9:00 A.M. Pacific, 12:00 Eastern, and also this evening, at 8:00 P.M.

Now, this is new because we've seen those updates happen in the evenings only. So, again, we're going to be monitoring that because at 9:00 A.M. Pacific, 12:00 Eastern, we're expecting results to be posted to the secretary of state website. The other thing that we're expecting is at 11:30 Pacific, 2:30 Eastern, we're expecting a press conference to happen in the building that you see behind me here at Clark County. And we're expecting to hear an update from officials to give us a better sense of when they're expecting for the majority of the votes to be counted. Now, last we heard, as you said, Jim, they expected the majority of votes be counted by Saturday.

Now, one of the things to look into, and to look at, is, according to the registrar, there were 626 votes that were received by mail yesterday. Now, is that an indication that the number of mail-in ballots that are arriving has decreased? Yes. That's according to the registrar.

Now, one other things that we're going to be looking at because of a development in Washoe County, which is a county in Northwest Nevada, is what they saw there in the new mail-in ballots that they have started receiving is that some of them are postmarked November 9th, which is the day after the election. And, again, the rules here in Nevada is everybody gets a mail ballot, anybody that's registered, but you have to postmark that ballot on the day of the election.

[10:05:09]

And so, Jim and Erica, that's what we're going to be paying attention to, workers that are processing these ballots are going to have to look at the postmark date. So, long as it's postmarked Election Day, it can count. If it's postmarked the day after, it doesn't count. Jim, Erica?

SCIUTTO: Yet another detail to watch. Rosa Flores there in Las Vegas, thanks so much.

Well, right now, millions of dollars are already being poured into the Georgia's Senate runoff, yet another race that could also possibly decide control of the Senate, depending on what happens out in Arizona and Nevada. So far, groups have invested another $10 million into the runoff that just began, that on top of millions already spent. Of course there will be more if this is the race that decides control of the Senate.

CNN National Politics Reporter Eva McKend joins us now from Atlanta. Now, maybe the control is decided before this runoff, but we don't know. And folks are already drawing a lot of money that way. So, how is that going to play out in the coming days and weeks?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, Jim. This is a whole lot of money. All of the ads that you see on T.V., it costs money to do that, $271 million in the Georgia Senate contest, during the election cycle on those televisions ads.

To put that in perspective, that is actually $100 million less than what was spent in Pennsylvania but more money going to be pumping into the state in the weeks ahead. Senator Warnock, for his part, is getting a $7 million boost from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. That is a key fund raising operation for Senate Democrats. Meanwhile, Herschel Walker, he will get about $2 million from the Senate Leadership Fund and another $1 million, about $1 million from anti-abortion groups.

So, this is a very costly affair. You talk to Georgians, they say they are sick of seeing the ads but they're likely to see a whole lot more of them in the final sprint here, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Eva McKend in Atlanta, thanks you so much.

Joining us now to discuss these tight, undecided races, a lot more, Jackie Kucinich, Washington Bureau Chief for The Daily Beast, and Heidi Przybyla, National Investigative Correspondent for Politico.

Jackie, I know this is a horse race question, but based on the models and the data we see so far, is Georgia going to decide control of the Senate or are we more likely to know before then based on results of Arizona and Nevada?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think if you talk to Democrats, they're keeping their fingers crossed that Georgia is not the deciding factor, and it's more of a deciding factor of whether Joe Manchin will be the key person in the Senate rather than Democrats.

However -- but I think this week, when I've been talking to folks yesterday, especially, there's a lot more optimism about Arizona for obvious reasons than Nevada because it is such a tight -- I mean, they're known for these really tight races.

But that is -- and I think that's also going to determine how much spending you're going to see in Georgia, right? They're already investing a ton of money. But if that ends up being the center of the political universe come December, I think you're only going to see those numbers go up and it's only going to rise, obviously.

SCIUTTO: No question. Okay, Heidi, looking at the House, it still remains the most likely outcome that Republicans do take control of the house though with a smaller majority than expected but control, nonetheless, and, therefore, the speakership. There is a fight already under way within the Republican Party in the House over who that speaker will be and what the issues will be, a lot of pressure on McCarthy from the Freedom Caucus.

I want to read a quote from a senior GOP lawmaker to CNN and a story out just this morning describing members of the freedom caucus. They are a bunch of selfish Prima donna a-holes, as far as I'm going, who want attention for themselves. They are trading effectiveness for the warm embrace of their social media followers. It indicates the division you have within that party going forward.

Are we going to see more of that? We're seeing it between Trump and DeSantis. We're seeing it here inside the House -- Republicans in the house. Is that going to be a very public battle in the coming couple of years?

HEIDI PRZYBYLA, NATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Yes, I think it is going to be. Look, it's less a question of whether McCarthy will be the speaker if they take control, it looks like they probably will, but it's how the heck is he going to govern with a slim majority now? It's likely that when they have this informal vote, which only requires a majority behind closed on Tuesday, that he does pull it out. But what are the concessions that he's going to have to trade with the Freedom Caucus in order to get all of their votes, and he's going to need every single one to get to 218 when they do the formal vote.

Now, one of the first things that they're pushing, I'm told, is a rule that would allow a vote at any moment for them to oust the speaker. Now, this was the threat that was leveled against John Boehner when he was run out of town by Mark Meadows, if you'll recall. So, if McCarthy gets in, and he probably will, he's going to have that hanging over his head on everything that he does.

And if you listen to some of the quotes coming from the other side, from the Freedom Caucus folks, they talk about the need for a speaker who is, quote, committed to waging war against a woke and weaponized government.

[10:10:10]

So, they're going to want to see just the type of investigations that is going to be really difficult for McCarthy to navigate.

SCIUTTO: Yes. We saw Matt Gaetz already throw his support behind Jim Jordan.

Okay, the other big question is when really former President Trump announces his candidacy for 2024. He released a statement confirming he will make a, quote, special announcement this coming Tuesday. I wonder, Jackie, there was, it seems, successful Republican pressure prior midterms for the former president to push any such announcement to after the midterms, worried about negative effect on those races. Now, there's concern about the potential effect it might have on a Georgia Senate race. But the president, also, has concerns about legal deadlines coming up. Does he announce next week?

KUCINICH: Oh, man, Jim, I think after the last how many years, I think we have learned not to guess what the former president is going to do. But you are hearing a lot of concern from Republicans involved in that Georgia race, because let's not forget how toxic the former president was the last time there were Georgia runoffs, where people just stayed home instead of going and supporting the Republican candidate.

So, the more that the focus is on the former president, the closer they get to the runoff, that could have a real impact in Georgia. Not to mention the volleys he's lobbing over, you know, in Florida, a Republican governor who just registered some pretty big wins in that state.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KUCINICH: So, really, they want the attention on Herschel Walker and mobilizing the base there, not on the former president. SCIUTTO: Heidi, arguably, both parties could learn something from this midterm election, right? Parties don't always learn messages. They will maximize their mandate, perhaps exaggerate their mandate. We heard President Biden when asked whether he has any course corrections in mind. He basically answered, no, nothing, kind of stick with the plan. Is that the most likely outcome for both parties, doubling down, say, with MAGA on the Republican side and Democrats sticking with what we saw these past two years?

PRZYBYLA: I don't know that that's going to be the solution on the Republican side. I think that President Trump is not going away. I think that if you look at the indications from many Republicans now putting out the statements, just look at the cover of the New York Post and the Murdochs moving away from Trump, the party, very much wants to move away from this direction. They want to go in the direction of folks, like Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia, who proved to be a successful model, who didn't repudiate Trump, but also didn't hug him. Trump is already attacking him on social media.

But if you look at the performance, Jim, of election deniers, they have been repudiated up and down the ballot in state after state with the exceptions being red states. The one exception might be Kari Lake in Arizona. You know, for the most part, these folks have conceded. But if she does not win, mark my words, there will be a fight in that state. She's not going to go away. She's already made it clear that she's going to challenge those results.

For the Democrats, you know, we could have a long discussion here about lessons, but let's just give credit where credit is due. They were not expecting -- everybody Democrat I spoke to even was not expecting it to be this close in the House.

SCIUTTO: Yes, no question, agreed on that. Jackie Kucinich, Heidi Przybyla, thanks so much to both of you.

Just moments from now, President Biden overseas in Egypt. He will speak at U.N.'s climate conference Sharm El-Sheikh. We will bring you that speech when it begins live.

Plus, Ukrainian soldiers have now liberated the strategic city of Kherson, in the south of country, from months of brutal Russian occupation. Residents there raising the Ukrainian flag, tearing down Russian propaganda, tears in the eyes of many of them, tears of joy.

And on this Veterans Day, a live look here at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. The vice president will be there in the next hour.

And we want to also want to share with you a sincere thank you to the many veterans watching, we hope now, men and women, who served this country in the Armed Forces. We are grateful to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00] HILL: Any moment now, President Biden set to speak at the COP27 Climate Change Summit in Egypt. He is expected in those remarks to tout several major new U.S. investments toward limiting climate change.

SCIUTTO: That is a sharp contrast from the last time Biden showed up at a climate conference empty-handed.

CNN White House Reporter Kevin Liptak, he's traveling with the president, joins us now live from egypt. Kevin, the message from the president to world leaders, keep their eye on the ball. What does that mean?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPOTER: Yes. I mean, usually, that kind of message generates some eye-rolling along world leaders, particularly when it comes to climate. It hasn't necessarily been backed up in law previously, but the president does feel like he's walking into this summit today with some more authority in this area after passing nearly $370 billion meant to combat climate change. That's part of the Inflation Reduction Act. He'll also talk in the speech today about efforts to reduce methane emissions.

[10:20:02]

So, the president really trying to leverage these actions that the United States has taken over the past year and trying to convince other world leaders that are here to try to take their own more significant ambitious actions to help reduce and combat climate change.

Now, whether that message will be well-received sort of remains to be seen. One of the overriding themes of this summit is poorer nations calling on wealthier nations, like United States, to do more in paying things like climate reparations, essentially paying poor nations that are bearing the brunt of climate change.

Now, that's an idea that is politically untenable in the United States, particularly for Republicans are to take one or more chambers in Congress. And that is sort of the dilemma for the president as he embarks on this around-the-world trip. He'll go from here to Cambodia. But let's listen in to the president. See what he has to say.

SCIUTTO: Kevin Liptak, thanks so much from Sharm El-Sheikh. And I believe we do have a live picture there from the podium where the president is expected to speak. It should be momentarily.

We do have, as we wait, Washington Post Columnist Josh Rogin and David Sanger as well. David, U.S. And China have enormous tensions. The U.S. and China almost also happen to be the world's biggest emitters of climate changing emissions. Can the world tackle this problem without those two countries working together?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's a really great question, Jim, because the core problem that you're going to see when the president meets on Monday with Xi Jinping of China is that, right now, there really is no common agenda between the two countries on climate or almost anything else.

Remember, it was just back during the Obama administration that we saw the U.S. and China actually reach an agreement. Former Secretary John Kerry, who, of course, is the climate czar for this White House, just recently got re-engaged with China on environmental issues and then only briefly. So, there's considerable reason to doubt that they really will have much of a common agenda here.

HILL: They are set to, though, have a conversation. The White House revealing Thursday President Biden will meet face-to-face with Xi Jinping in Bali on Monday. Josh, what is the focus of that meeting need to be? And what do you anticipate it will be?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, I'll just say, first of all, on the climate change issue, you know, the reason that China withdrew from the climate change talks with the United States was presumably because Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan. That should tell you sort of how they view this issue. They also refuse to deal with John Kerry because the U.S. was sanctioning them for forced labor abuses Xinjiang.

So, at the same time, the U.S. hasn't met its international climate change obligations either. There's a bill in request of $11 billion to help developing countries that the Congress hasn't funded, and that's a Democratic Congress.

Now, when President Biden meets with President Xi for the first time as presidents, these are guys who known each other for 25 years and spent all of this time together, the goal is to put guardrails on what is steadily becoming a very awful U.S.-China bilateral relationship. We're going into full blown competition on technology, trade, tensions over Taiwan, human rights, it's all going south. So, they're going to try to find a way to keep talking because that's the bare minimum that we need, frankly, to make sure that this competition doesn't devolve into conflict.

SCIUTTO: Again, the president's comments there to begin momentarily.

David Sanger, one frequent phenomenon in summits like this, any international agreement is discussed, is you will hear from foreign leaders, okay, the U.S. is in but for how long, right? If there's a change of government here, party, we saw that with the Iran nuclear deal, we saw that with climate commitments, the Paris Climate Accords, do world leader, do they believe U.S. commitments when they hear them?

SANGER: Well, they've got good reason to doubt it. And, of course, the question about President Biden that you hear from leaders in Europe, you hear it in Asia, Jim, is Biden the blip, the interruption between President Trump and someone (INAUDIBLE), or does he indicate or sort of return of kind of normal, diplomatic engagements of the United States?

I think that President Biden feared he would be going into this meeting having lost big on Tuesday and that he would be regarded more as the blip. I think he can now make a legitimate case that voters did not reject the approach of his party or its philosophy, even if he loses one from part of the House.

SCIUTTO: David, hang on there. This is the president coming to the podium. Let's listen to him live.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Friends, partners, Speaker Pelosi, members of Congress who have traveled here to represent the United States, and fellow leaders, it's an honor, it's an honor to once again participate in this critical summit.

[10:25:10]

And I'd like to thank our host, President Sisi, for bringing us together at this pivotal moment. Thank you, Mr. President.

Let me start by acknowledging that this day is a day of commemoration at home in the United States. It's Veterans Day. America's veterans and their families, survivors and caregivers, are the very spine and soul of the United States. And on this special day, on every day, I honor all of those who sacrificed to our nation, like my son. I want to thank one proud American veteran, a lifelong public servant, and dear friend and literally one of the most decorated men to fight, Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry. John?

John, your commitment, your passion, your diplomatic expertise have been absolutely critical, absolutely critical, to delivering incredible progress on climate issues over the past two years. I thank you, pal. I thank you for being my friend.

Here in Egypt, the great pyramids and ancient artifacts stand as testament to a millennia of human ingenuity. We see our mission to avert climate catastrophe and seized a new clean energy economy not only as an imperative for our president in the future but to the eyes of history.

According to the world, the World Meteorological Organization, the past eight years have been the warmest on record. The United States, in the United States, we're seeing historic drought and wildfires in the west, devastating hurricanes and storms in the east.

Here in Africa, here in Africa, home to many nations considered most vulnerable to climate change, food insecurity. Hunger follows four years of intense drought in the Horn of Africa. Meanwhile, the Niger River in West Africa, swollen, swollen, because of more intense rainfall is wreaking havoc on fishing and farming communities.

In Nigeria, flooding has recently killed 600 people, 1.3 million more are displaced, seasonal livestock migration routes have been used for hundreds of years are being altered, increasing the risk of conflict between herders and local farming communities.

The climate crisis is about human security, economic security, environmental security, national security and the very life of the planet. So, today, I'd like to share with you how the United States is meeting the climate crisis with urgency and with determination to ensure a cleaner, safer and healthier planet for all of us. From my first days in office, my administration has led with a bold agenda, to address the climate crisis and increase energy security at home and around the world. We immediately rejoined the Paris agreement. We convened major climate summits and re-established -- I apologize that we pulled out of the agreement. We established major economies forum to spur countries from around the world to raise, raise their climate ambitions.

Last year, COP26 in Glasgow, the United States helped deliver critical commitments that will get two-thirds of the world's GDP on track to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Over the past two years, the United States has delivered unprecedented progress at home through a generation of investment and upgrading of our nation's infrastructure, we're making up our power grid, better able to transmit clean energy, expanding public transit and rail, building nationwide network of electrical vehicle charging stations, over 50,000.

And this summer, the United States Congress passed and I signed in law my proposal for the biggest, most important climate bill in the history of our country, the Inflation Reduction Act.

[10:30:00]

It includes less than I asked for but a significant amount, $368 billion.