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Election Officials Urge Patience As Key Vote Counts Continue; Trump Family Divided About Potential 2024 Presidential Run; Biden Touts Climate Record At UN Summit In Egypt. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 11, 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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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon. Hello and welcome, I'm Boris Sanchez. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.

Americans are still waiting to see who will control Congress. Election officials in western states are urging patience while their poll workers are in overdrive to process and verify every ballot. In the House, Republicans are seven seats away from the 218 needed to take over. The Senate control is neck and neck though. Democrats currently have 48 seats, Republicans at 49.

SANCHEZ: Of the balance of power right now hangs on three states Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. If either party takes both Arizona and Nevada, Georgia's December runoff no longer makes the difference. But if they split, Georgia, as it did last year, once again becomes the center of America's political universe. In Arizona, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly leads his Republican rival Blake Masters. And in Nevada, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto is just behind Republican Adam Laxalt with tens of thousands of votes still to be counted.

GOLODRYGA: So let's get straight to the ground in Arizona first, CNN's Josh Campbell is in Phoenix for us. Josh, what are officials there saying about votes that are still left to be counted?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Bianna, we'll start statewide. In the state of -- state of Arizona right now, we're looking at approximately 540,000 ballots that are yet to be counted. Obviously, every one of those ballots is important because of the tight margins in these key races, the U.S. Senate race as well as the state's gubernatorial race.

Here where I am in Maricopa County, the most populous county in Arizona, there are still an outstanding 340,000 ballots to be counted. That process is happening behind me here at the county election center. Now I want to hone in on a particular batch of ballots that could give us an indication of where this election is going. And that is the 290,000 ballots that were dropped off on Election Day by those who had received their ballot in the mail. This is important because as we start to get more information from that tranche of ballots that will indicate whether we're seeing -- we're moving in the direction of the Republicans or the Democrats. We know a lot of Republican leaders had suggested to their supporters that they actually vote that way. Even though they had a mail-in ballot, they suggest that they bring them to the polls on Election Day.

That's also why these number --countings are taking so long because that is a rigorous process. These people behind me that are working, doing their civic duty, have to check the signature on those ballots, they have to ensure that they match up with the voter information. Now, that process itself, the slow methodical process has been the start of a lot of conspiracy theories that we've saw -- we've seen recently, particularly by Kari Lake, who's a Republican gubernatorial candidate. She has suggested that officials here are purposely slow- walking or slow-rolling that election process in order to help Democrats.

That has drawn a lot of ire from election officials, including a man by the name of Bill Gates, who is the county election supervisor, a Republican. He spoke out against those conspiracy theories. Take a listen.

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BILL GATES, CHAIRMAN, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: For me 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.

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CAMPBELL: Now the race is tight here, as we mentioned, will finish -- we'll finish by looking at those two key races, the U.S. Senate race, Senator Mark Kelly up against venture capitalist Blake Masters. That spread as of last night was about 115,000 votes. On the gubernatorial race, it's Katie Hobbs, the Secretary of State versus Republican Kari Lake, a much tighter margin. We're looking at about 27,000 votes.

So still 100 -- several 100,000 votes left to be counted in this state. We'll have to watch and wait and see where this goes. We are expecting another release of ballots here in Maricopa County. We were told a short time ago by election officials that could come around 8:00 p.m. local time hour, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, all lies on the state. We'll wait as they count. We will bring you the results, Boris and Bianna.

SANCHEZ: We'll of course be monitoring that very closely. Josh Campbell from Phoenix, thank you so much.

We want to pivot to Nevada now. And that's where we find CNN's Rosa Flores who's live for us there. Rosa, how many ballots are left to count there?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here statewide, the estimate is about 95,000 ballots.

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And let me break it down for you because the majority of those ballots are right here in Clark County, home to Vegas. So according to officials, there are more than 62,000 ballots remaining. Now, some of those ballots are from drop boxes from Election Day, others are provisional ballots and others are ballots that need to be cured.

Now, Clark County is a Democratic stronghold. 7000 more ballots are in Douglas County. That is a Republican stronghold, it's a rural county. And then there's an additional 22,000 that are in Washoe County. That is a swing county here in this state.

Now, all of these mail-in ballots that are remaining need to be postmarked by November 8. That was the day of the election. Now, this is one of the things that we are monitoring and we're going to be asking about because the -- by law, those votes can be counted if they're mail-in ballots, so long as they are postmarked by the day of the election.

Now in Washoe County in Northwest Nevada, one of the things that they started seeing there is that some of the mail-in ballots that are being received were postmarked November 9. Those ballots cannot be counted because they are not postmarked on Election Day. Now, we are about to learn more. There's a scheduled press conference here in Clark County in the building that you see behind me. We're going to be there. It's at 11:30 Pacific, 2:30 Eastern. We're going to be inside. We're going to be asking questions. We are hoping to learn how many more ballots are outstanding.

And this is the most populous county, Boris and Bianna, so that should give us an idea of just how many more ballots are out there with the caveat, of course, that because of universal mail ballots, these ballots can come in until tomorrow -- can come in until Saturday. And so long as they come into the building that you see behind me, those ballots can be counted so long as they are postmarked Election Day.

GOLODRYGA: It's so interesting, Rosa, and so important, I think for our viewers to see those poll workers behind you in the video that we had shown split-screen working methodically there, so many hours after Tuesday, just to show viewers to show Americans how transparent they are in the process is indeed working. Rosa Flores, thank you for everything you're doing to keep us up to date as well.

SANCHEZ: We want to update you on some reporting that's new today into CNN. CNN has learned that members of Donald Trump's family are divided about the former president's 2024 aspirations.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Now, this is all happening as the family is gathering to watch Tiffany Trump walk down the aisle at Mar-a-Lago. CNN's Kate Bennett joins us now with these details. Kate, if it was a family affair inside the Trump White House, you're finding out that may not necessarily be the case for the next run. What are you hearing?

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I spoke to several people who are close with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump and they tell me that the couple is not going to be involved in potential Donald Trump's second run for the White House. That includes campaigning for him. That includes should he win and being inside the White House and this is a big change for Jared and Ivanka.

Of course, they were key in the Trump administration the first time around. They were certainly two of his most close advisors. Everything went through Jared Kushner, as we know, as we read through the years during the Trump administration. Ivanka Trump, not only his daughter but a very close confidant for him as well. But in the two years since the White House, the couple has decided they are no longer interested in politics. They have moved on whereas perhaps their father has not from politics.

Now I will say this. As the family is gathering for Tiffany's wedding this weekend in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle are on board. I am told that Don Jr. will campaign for his father, should he decide to run that he will be one of his advisors. Same goes for Eric Trump, the other adult Trump's son, and that he will be involved.

But certainly, it is a change for Donald Trump should he run not to have Jared Kushner, not to have Ivanka Trump by his side. This is a family that post-White House has definitely split in terms of how they see their own futures and whether politics is involved. And Jared and Ivanka have decided that it is not for them, moving forward.

GOLODRYGA: All right, Kate Bennett, thank you.

BENNETT: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Let's dig deeper now on the state of Republican politics following the midterm elections. Joining us now is pollster and strategist Frank Luntz. Frank, we appreciate you sharing part of your afternoon with us. A lot of Republicans are on pins and needles awaiting this potential special announcement from Donald Trump next Tuesday. Some advisors are urging him to postpone, at least until after that early December Senate runoff in Georgia. How do you think Trump might impact that race?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER & STRATEGIST: It could be significant. It was significant two years ago when Donald Trump went down out there and said that the Georgia election was stolen and therefore your vote doesn't matter.

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And thousands of Republicans stayed home as a result. And they lost two seats that they otherwise would have won. In the polling that we did in 2020, the generic ballot was in favor of the Republicans, but the actual vote was not. And that's because Republican voters stayed home. They don't want Trump to be blamed for what happened then. And they don't, frankly, want Trump to be blamed for what happened on Tuesday night when a whole lot of Senate candidates who could have won, didn't, because the feeling was they simply were not the strongest candidates. They had flaws, and the election slipped away from them. And it's interesting that Republicans picked up seats in the House, haven't picked up seats in the Senate. And the former president is being blamed for that.

SANCHEZ: And, Frank, if you are Herschel Walker, do you want Trump coming down to the Peach State to rally and campaign with you?

LUNTZ: You do, but you don't want him in Atlanta or the Atlanta suburbs. You want him in the outer parts of the state, which is harder to get to. It requires more work.

Donald Trump is still the number one Republican in America today. There's no doubt about it. But his overall patina has been flawed considerably or darkened considerably. And in the Atlanta -- the Atlanta suburbs, he is a negative. And this is something that his candidates did not really understand.

And I'm not convinced that he understands either, that for every one voter who thinks he's God, you've got one and a half who thinks he's horrible. And it had an impact in Pennsylvania, had an impact in New Hampshire. You're watching that impact right now in Arizona. Trump is brilliant at giving at providing the margin of victory and a primary. But he is kryptonite when it comes to the general election.

SANCHEZ: That's fascinating. One bright spot for Republicans if we're looking at Tuesday night was New York, where they picked up, I believe it was four House seats, they swept Long Island, they kicked out Sean Patrick Maloney, the DCCC chair, what do you think was key to their success in blue New York?

LUNTZ: Frustration not just for the economy, but frustration with crime and the feeling that the Democrats were not doing enough to keep people safe and secure. In fact, that's what the Republicans did best. People who lived in suburbs, who knew what was going on in New York City, lived away from that and chose to live away for a reason. They wanted to keep their family safe, and they could afford to do so.

And those voters switch to the Republicans and the other key factor was Trump. He wasn't there. He wasn't involved. He wasn't engaged. He wasn't picking winners and losers. He was not part of the process. In the places that Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Hampshire, places that Trump was involved in, he did not -- the Republicans did not do well. Places where Trump did not campaign in such as New York, the Republicans did quite well.

SANCHEZ: So if what you're saying is that Donald Trump is kryptonite, how would you counsel Republicans to shift away from him? I mean, he still wins primaries for a lot of these candidates. How can they be successful in primaries without the former president?

LUNTZ: That's a very legitimate question. That's something that Republicans have to decide. In the end, Donald Trump has every right to run. And he has -- in fact, it's more than that. We need to acknowledge that he's still the most popular Republican nationwide. But when he attacks the very popular governor of Virginia and he's been going after the extremely popular governor of Florida, you're going to watch Trump's numbers start to deteriorate. It's one thing when he's attacking Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden, Republicans expect that.

But when he's attacking the next generation of Republican leadership, mark my words, the party is going to turn against him. And the angrier he gets at other conservative Republicans, the more that they're going to punish him with a loss of support and a loss of faith and confidence in his message and what he -- what he brings to the political process. I -- if I were advising him right now, I would tell him to take a very long vacation, simply disappear for the next 30 days because he's destroying himself every single day by attacking Ron DeSantis, Glenn Youngkin, people who other Republicans, respect and appreciate and voted for in big numbers in the previous elections.

SANCHEZ: I am skeptical that Donald Trump is going to disappear for 30 days or any amount of time anytime soon. We'll see whether he makes that announcement next Tuesday. Frank Luntz, thanks so much for the time.

GOLODRYGA: President Biden is on the world stage right now for claiming the U.S. is back as a Global Leader on the climate crisis and calling on other nations to step up.

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SANCHEZ: Plus, the Biden administration's top border chief is being asked to resign over his handling of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. So far, though he is refusing that demand. We have new details ahead.

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SANCHEZ: President Biden says the United States is back as the leader in the global fight against climate change. That was at the COP27 Summit in Egypt today. And he also implored other nations to do "considerably more to reduce global warming."

GOLODRYGA: The president is now in route to Cambodia, where he will attend a summit of Southeast Asian Leaders.

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Then it's on to Bali for the G20. There, he is set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live at the White House. So, Jeremy, foreign policy is in his wheelhouse. What are the president's biggest priorities here as he sets on these travels over the next few days?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, he's going to be hitting just about every hot-button foreign policy issue that you can imagine during this multi-day swing that he's doing. Right now, the president is aboard Air Force One en route to Cambodia where he'll participate in the ASEAN summit of Southeast Asian Nations. While he's there. he has everything from Indo-Pacific security on the agenda as well as trade. And he's going to be meeting directly with the heads of Japan and South Korea, where they are also expected to address North Korea's increased missile activity and the potential that we have heard about for months now of another nuclear test from North Korea.

From there, the president on Sunday heads to the G20 in Indonesia, where again, the president is going to be addressing in particular Russia's invasion of Ukraine and some of the consequences of that on the food security front, for example. But on Monday at the G20 Summit in Cambodia, that's where the president is going to have his biggest meeting of this trip. And that's the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping where we expect the president to address the relationship in general there. There are so many topics for them to touch on, including climate change, including Indo-Pacific security. But more than anything, advisors have told us that the president wants to take a measure of Xi Jinping for their first face-to-face meeting to get a sense of where this relationship is going and to try and avoid any miscommunication going forward.

Today, though, the president was addressing climate change at the COP27 Summit in Egypt. We heard President Biden for the first time be able to not just give the rhetoric about the U.S. wanting to be a leader on climate change, but actually be able to tout some progress that the U.S. has made with $370 billion in investments to tackle climate change, pass through the Inflation Reduction Act. The president also urged other nations to do more. Listen.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we're going to win this fight, every major emitter nation needs to align with the 1.5 degrees. We can no longer plead ignorance to the consequences of our actions or continue to repeat our mistakes. Everyone has to keep accelerating efforts throughout this decisive decade.

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DIAMOND: And the president announced additional actions today including to strengthen methane emissions regulations, but he's going to face a challenge, particularly if the House goes Republican. And that's something very clear. Even as the president wants to do more, he's going to have to work with the other party that doesn't always acknowledge the reality of climate change, Bianna, Boris.

SANCHEZ: A very good point. Jeremy Diamond at the White House, thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: A source tells CNN that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has just asked his U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner to resign. Now, this comes as the administration faces enormous criticism for its handling of the U.S.- Mexico border.

SANCHEZ: Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who's breaking this story. Priscilla, help us understand what got Commissioner Chris Magnus under fire and what is he saying about all of this. PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, as you mentioned there, he has been under intense pressure and criticized both internally and publicly. Now, this is coming at a critical time for the agency which has grappled with record border arrests over the last year. And officials tell me that, he, Magnus, seemed disengaged and he wasn't attending some meetings. And so he had been facing criticism internally in that agency.

And this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asked Magnus to resign. Now he refused and remains in the post. And in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Magnus said "I am excited about the progress I made and look forward to continuing that work." Now as a reminder, Magnus was picked by President Joe Biden to lead CBP which is the largest federal law enforcement agency and he was confirmed by the Senate late last year and he took the helm thereafter, at a very difficult time for the agency which in addition to border security, also oversees trade. And now the commissioner is under fire and potentially in a situation where the secretary has asked him to resign.

Now we should also note that I'm told by a source that DHS Deputy Secretary John Tien and CBP Deputy Commissioner Troy Miller are carrying out his day-to-day duties, though Magnus remains in the post. DHS and the White House have not yet responded to the comment, Bianna, Boris.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And it's interesting to add that the per year reporting, Priscilla, that the -- President Biden himself supports Mayorkas's decision to fire Magnus nonetheless, he refuses to resign at this point. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you.

SANCHEZ: So earlier today, Vice President Kamala Harris, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and First Lady Jill Biden visited Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Veterans Day. The vice president laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate "the best of America and all of their sacrifices."

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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here on hallowed ground, we also remember those who gave their lives for our nation. We remember our service members who have not yet returned and their families, and we reaffirm our commitment to bring home all those missing in action.

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GOLODRYGA: Harris also noted this is the first Veterans Day since the administration passed the PACT Act, which expands health benefits to any veterans exposed to toxic substances while serving.

SANCHEZ: Hey, if you've been feeling under the weather lately, you're not alone. It's just the beginning of flu season and half the country right now is reporting high or very high levels of respiratory illnesses. We have details on how you can try to keep your family safe.

GOLODRYGA: And this disturbing story, a noose is found at the construction site of the Obama Presidential Center. What police are now saying about this discovery? Straight ahead.

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