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Arizona Democratic Incumbent Senator Mark Kelly Projected to Win Reelection; Nevada Republican Senate Candidate Adam Laxalt Losing Vote Count Lead over Incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto; Georgia Senate Race Headed to Runoff Election. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired November 12, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:38]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Voting still under way in several key races as the balance of power -- reading through the votes is what is taking place still, as the balance in Congress hangs in the balance. Whew! All right, today, the fight for control of the U.S. Senate is down to just two important races. CNN now projects incumbent Democrat Senator Mark Kelly holding onto his seat in Arizona, beating Republican Blake Masters. Senator Kelly holding a victory speech earlier today in Phoenix. But his opponent, Republican Blake Masters, is still not conceding.

With Kelly's win, Democrats and Republicans are now locked in a neck and necktie in the U.S. Senate, with only two races undecided. In Nevada, a race between Republican Adam Laxalt and Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is still too early to call. More updates are expected as Clark County is due to hold a press conference this hour. And in Georgia, a runoff election between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker still weeks away.

CNN has teams on the ground in those key battleground states covering all the latest developments in these critical elections. Let's go first to CNN's Kyung Lah live in Phoenix. So Kyung, Senator Mark Kelly now claiming victory. What was his message to supporters?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically he's responding to the various news projections, including CNN projecting that he has indeed won the U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican Blake Masters. And he met with supporters earlier today, in just the last couple of hours, telling supporters that he appreciated their work, that this was a long-fought campaign, a very expensive campaign as well with the stakes very high, that being control of Congress. Arizona now remaining in the Democratic column. And here's a little bit of what he told his supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): You are all the reason that we are successful. (APPLAUSE)

KELLY: And I also want to thank our state's election officials, honorable Republicans and Democrats who are doing the important work of making sure that Arizonans' votes and voices are heard, their votes are counted as quickly and as transparently as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Now, Blake Masters has not conceded, but he did tweet this, saying that that could be possible. He tweeted, quote, "We are going to make sure every legal vote is counted. If at the end Senator Kelly has more of them than I do, then I would congratulate him on a hard- fought victory."

But I just want to bring you back inside the elections department for just one second. We are still going through the count here. I say "we," but I am observing what these workers are doing. These are long hours that they are pulling, 14 to 18 hours to complete a diligent count. This is something that happens every single election. It takes days to get through all of them. So while we call races, they don't have anything to do with that. They simply do the count. And they do it very diligently and very carefully following state laws.

I want to give you a live look at what's happening outside this building. There is a protest, what they are calling a vigil happening outside. And I'm not going to play what they are saying, but these are angry people who are shouting conspiratorial lies over bullhorns at the people who are doing this. so they are trying to continue the count, and outside there is not a huge crowd. Let's keep it in perspective. Not a very big crowd. But enough of a crowd that we really hope that the people who are doing the hard work of democracy are not hearing what is happening outside. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Right. Hopefully it does not threaten to intimidate anyone as the process is under way. Not voting underway, but vote counting that continues. Kyung Lah, thank you so much.

So with a 49-seat Senate split, all eyes are now turning to Nevada where the Senate race is still too early to call.

[14:05:05]

CNN's Rosa Flores is live for us in North Las Vegas where ballots are still being counted at this hour. Voting is not happening, as we said at the top of the show, but vote counting is. So Rosa, where do these races stand right now?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Fred, until a few hours ago, both campaigns were very optimistic about their chances here. Well, that changed a few hours ago. I can tell you that according to a Nevada political strategist telling my colleague Dan Merica, they say that the mood has changed inside the Adam Laxalt campaign, saying that the mood is, quote, "awful," that they are, quote, "shocked and depressed," and that various fractions of the Republican Party are now pointing their fingers, saying that their challenger, Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto, could actually take the lead.

And if you read the latest tweet by Adam Laxalt, you can see traces of that as well. I want to read it to you, if we can pull it up. Adam Laxalt tweeted, quote, "Here is where we are. We are up 862 votes. Multiple days in a row the mostly mail-in ballots counted continue to break in higher Dem margins than we calculated. This has narrowed our victory window. The race will come down to 20,000 to 30,000 election Clark drop-off ballots." To correct Mr. Laxalt there a little bit, according to Clark County officials, we don't know exactly how many drop-off ballots are included in those 20,000 to 30,000. Those also include mail-in ballots. Now to continue reading his tweet, quote, "If they are GOP precincts or slightly Dem leaning, then we can still win. If they continue to trend heavy Dem, then she will overtake us. Thanks for all the prayers for millions of Nevadans and Americans who hope we can still take back the Senate and start taking our country back."

Here is what we have monitored ever since Election Day. On Wednesday, the day after the election, Adam Laxalt was ahead of Catherine Cortez Masto by about 22,000 votes. We have since seen that advantage shrink from 22,000, to 15,000, to 8,900. Now, like he mentioned in his tweet, it's down to 862 votes. It is a 0.1 percent charge in. Right now there are outstanding, CNN estimates more than 50,000 ballots out there that have not been counted yet. The majority of those are right here in Clark County where I am.

I want to give you a breakdown, because this will give you a sense. So there are about 23,000 mail-in ballots and also potentially drop-off Election Day ballots as well. Now, there's an additional 9,659 ballots that have to be cured. Those signatures might not match. The voter must do something to cure the ballot. And there's another 5,555 provisional ballots. Now, the deadline for those to be counted is until Wednesday.

There's another 12,000 ballots out there in Washoe County. We are not expected to have an update on Washoe County today, so it's going to be interesting to see how those go. And Washoe County is a swing county. Then there's 1,000 more ballots in Douglas County. That's a Republican stronghold. And, again, Fred, the new information here that we're getting is that there's about 50,000 ballots out there. Today is deadline day for all of the mail-in ballots, all the mail-in ballots that were postmarked on Election Day have to arrive here to the building that you see behind me for them to be counted. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, lots of blanks there, lots of conditions still have to be met, and every minute counts. Rosa Flores, thank you so much.

All right, now to Georgia where Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker kick off a one-month sprint to a key runoff race that, like Nevada, could still determine control of the U.S. Senate. CNN's Nadia Romero joining me now with the latest on this. So what more are you learning about what the next four weeks might look like?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And you're right, it is a sprint, because it used to be nine weeks. But then we had the Republican-led legislature here in the state of Georgia changing a lot of election laws after 2020 election. One of them was shortening the time period between an election and a run-off election. So now just about a month, December 6th is that date. Between now and then, both candidates need to must make sure that their supporters are energized to continue going on.

[14:10:00]

There's a lot of fatigue. And when I speak to people on both sides of the aisle, they were hoping that things would be over on Election Day. That's not going to happen. So you want to make sure if you're Raphael Warnock, if you're Herschel Walker, that your supporters come out and vote for you.

But then there's that about two percent of the vote that that third- party candidate was able to get. Those people, you want them to come out and vote for you. So you have to try to get new voters, sway them your way. And this will be a challenge for Reverend Raphael Warnock to get people to come out and vote again. A lot of those absentee ballots, mail-in ballots are Democrat leaning. And so there is a shortened time period for you to request that absentee ballot and to get it in and have it be counted.

On the other side of the aisle, when it comes to Herschel Walker, he has to decide who is going to stump for him. And there's a lot of questions on whether or not that would be someone like former president Donald Trump who handpicked Herschel Walker to be the guy from the Republican party to take on this race. Or does he go with Governor Brian Kemp. Kemp and Trump have been feuding for years now, but kemp won overwhelmingly in really a landslide victory for his reelection campaign as governor. This will be an important race because the control of the Senate could rest again here in the state of Georgia.

WHITFIELD: And then, you know, this race -- the changes that you talked about from nine weeks to four weeks, it's sparking other conversations about its history.

ROMERO: The history, and was this built on voter suppression, specifically on suppressing the black vote? If you look at runoff elections, you will largely see them in formerly slave-owning states like Georgia. After the Civil War, the south lost, black men were able to vote. And so those former slave owners are now standing toe to toe with the people they used to own, the black men who they used to own. And their thought was, how can I limit their voting power?

This is coming from the Georgia NAACP and from civil rights leaders who will tell you that this all comes from limiting the power of the black vote. That's why you have to have 50 percent plus one vote in order to win an election, a statewide election here in Georgia. It's also part of the reason why, if you look back at 2021, Raphael Warnock was the first black person to win his seat, to win a Senate seat in the state of Georgia despite the fact that there has been up to 40 percent black population into this state. People will point to the racism that has been built into the system, but it's the system that we have today. WHITFIELD: Nadia Romero, thanks so much for all that. Appreciate it.

A major blow for Putin's war in Ukraine.

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(CHEERS)

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WHITFIELD: The Ukrainian army recaptures a key city from Russian forces. Residents there celebrating and singing in the city streets. We'll take you there next.

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WHITFIELD: Ukrainians living in the city of Kherson have no water or power, but plenty of euphoria after Russian troops retreated. They lived under brutal occupation for eight months and were liberated Friday after Russia withdrew its troops. This returns the strategic region's capital and surrounding areas back to Ukrainians, a major blow for Putin's war effort there. And now authorities are introducing a curfew to ensure safety for the civilians. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more detail from the city.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I'll tell you a little bit about our journey down here, because it was quite the journey, driving through vast areas of countryside. Going through -- there were mines on the road. There were blown bridges on the road to get here. The Russians really made it hard for Ukrainian forces to advance down here and liberate Kherson. That said, the countryside is almost entirely deserted. Very, very few vehicles on the road, and the roads badly damaged.

So I think for this city to get the restoration of power, to get their Internet connection again, and everyone has been coming along here to use our Internet connection that we're talking to you on right now. To get these things established, there's clearly a lot of damage that has happened, and it's clear that it's going to take a long time. But this is just a moment of euphoria here, just a moment of celebration where people can come in the square and show their flags. Remember, back at the beginning of the war this was the city, back when the Russian troops rolled in here, the beginning of the war, this was the city that tried to resist. They had protests.

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ROBERTSON: They're celebrating.

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(SINGING) ROBERTSON: This is what liberation looks like. This is what liberation feels like. The people of the city tried to resist the Russians. The Russians suppressed them. This is what Ukrainians are like when that suppression comes off.

(SINGING)

(APPLAUSE)

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[14:20:03]

WHITFIELD: Joy and pride. Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

Renowned graffiti artist Banksy has a new mural on display in another liberated town near Kyiv. The artwork shows a female gymnast balancing atop a pile of rubble near a building that was hit in Russian strikes. Banksy shared three images of the piece online Friday with a simple caption reading "Borodianka, Ukraine."

All right, still to come, President Biden continues a high stakes trip overseas meeting with Asian leaders, including a face-to-face sit-down with China's Xi Jinping.

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WHITFIELD: As the election drama continues to play out here in the U.S., President Biden is in Cambodia for a meeting with Asian leaders. It's the latest stop on his weeklong trip overseas. He arrived in Cambodia after attending a climate summit in Egypt. His next stop is the highly anticipated G-20 summit in Indonesia, and there, he will hold his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office. CNN senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly is traveling with the president in Cambodia. So Phil, hi again. What more can you tell us about these meetings?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, I think when you take a step back and you look at President Biden's first two years in office, so much of what was done, whether it was on the domestic front or whether it was on the foreign policy front, was tied into the through line of trying to compete with China, trying to ramp up that competition at home with industrial policy, manufacturing policy, and abroad with how the U.S. has attempted through both economic and military means to meet China, which has been particularly muscular and confrontational to some degree when it comes to Taiwan over the course of that period of time.

That moment now transitions into a very real test for the president on a face-to-face basis, that first bilateral sit-down between President Biden and Xi Jinping. Obviously the two have spoken several times by phone over the course of the last two years. When Biden was Vice President, the two spent a lot of time together personally. But I think there is a recognition when you talk to White House advisers about how critical this meeting is at this moment in time where there is a very real possibility that competition could tip into confrontation. It's something White House officials say they don't want, but they recognize as China continues to grow, as China continues to accelerate its development on both the economic and military fronts, has become a very real possibility.

And at the center of this meeting when they reach Bali will be the idea of trying to understand the -- as White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan put it, sharpening the understanding of where each side stands. There are red lines, there are specific issues that they want dealt with, not because they think there's going to be resolution to any of those issues in this one bilateral meeting but because it could lay the groundwork for meetings to come between the two leaders, but also between their teams. That's really the central focus of this meeting, no clear end game here from this meeting. But the hope, when you talk to White House officials that the possibility of conflict recedes into just a very intense competition, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

All right let's talk further on this upcoming meeting and the high stakes nature of it all. Susan Glasser is with us. She is a CNN global affairs analyst and a staff writer for "The New Yorker". Susan, good to see you. So what do you think President Biden hopes to accomplish in this first face-to-face meeting with President Xi Jinping?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, they are defining expectations down. That is understandable. I think the phrase that came out of the White House the other day was trying to establish a floor for U.S./China relations in this new, much more adversarial environment. So obviously they are not looking for any big deliverables in the way that you might have expected at this kind of a superpower meeting in the past to go.

It's remarkable that this is the first face-to-face meeting they have had. Of course, that is a problem of the pandemic, and China's very extreme inward looking zero COVID policy. Xi Jinping has basically had almost no travel outside of China in the entire time that Biden has been president. So it's an extremely important meeting.

But I think that the course of these two countries as being adversaries is already set. Xi in winning, securing a third term and essentially, potentially being China's leader for life, has made it very clear that reabsorbing Taiwan into mainland China is a key part of his goals for the his tenure.

The question that many American analysts have had is really what is the timetable, how long to prepare? And recently, there have been very alarming comments, suggesting that the timetable may be much shorter than had been previously expected. So that's one thing I think that will be foremost for President Biden who, as you know, has repeatedly, four different times, suggested the U.S. would come to Taiwan's defense militarily. So there's going to be that overt question of how quickly could this come to active hostility. I think that's number one. Number two, Biden has had a very strong week. His hand is much better

because of the elections here in the United States, and also because of events on the ground in Ukraine where his policy of support for Ukraine against Russia is looking very, very encouraging right now.

WHITFIELD: OK, those are encouraging signs, as you put it.

[14:30:00]

But the meeting also comes as the Pentagon recently issued fresh warnings that China poses the most comprehensive and serious challenge to U.S. national security. Trade is a contentious point as is China's support of Russia amid its war in Ukraine. So how difficult will it be for Biden to ease the tension on those issues?

GLASSER: You know, Biden is one of those leaders who does have a sort of old-fashioned belief in the power of face-to-face diplomacy. However, Xi -- it's highly unlikely that there is just going to be a magical bond between the two that resolves any of the -- and one of the contradictions in the Biden administration's national security strategy which they just released is being very clear that there is a long-term competition between the United States and China while also speaking in vague terms about the need for cooperation between the two on global issues such as climate change.

It's really just not clear at all that there is a constructive path back to cooperation for the United States and China right now, and for me, that's one of the big questions coming out of this meeting is, is there any optimism at all on a path forward on some of the less supercharged issues between the United States and China. I think it's right to be wary of any kind of magical outcome from this, though.

WHITFIELD: And you made mention of Taiwan earlier, and I'm wondering how you think the president might handle that issue, because China is still not very happy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit there.

GLASSER: Well, that's right. Not only that but, again, Biden, when the president of the United States repeats something four different times, no matter how many ways in which the White House staff says oh, no, it's not a policy change, I'm sure that analysts in Beijing think that the president was speaking quite clearly. And that is a flashpoint that is really hard to see any constructive way past for Xi and Biden.

One question is whether Ukraine's strong resistance to the Russian invasion might make China think twice about the plans that it had or Xi's desire to reabsorb Taiwan. And I do think that this is where you see events influencing each other in the world. And I'm sure that that's one of the messages that President Biden will be carrying to Xi is, like, hey, look, this isn't working out so well for your buddy Vladimir Putin. You should rethink it now before it's too late.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then lastly, President Biden making that short visit to the U.N. climate summit in Egypt. And while there he told the world the United States is ready to take back its leadership role on global warming, and actually apologized for the U.S. pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. Of course, the U.S. back into it. How impactful do those words make that commitment to the globe, the world stage, that is U.S. wants to be a leader again in that, and can be?

GLASSER: Well, I think President Biden is up against a lot of understandable skepticism. And notwithstanding the encouraging results for him in the midterms, I think many international leaders are looking at the international divisions and polarization in the United States right now. And one of the things that they are looking at is how good is the word of any individual American president if in two years or four years, another leader may come in and have an abrupt change in policy.

And it might not be the return of a Donald Trump, but any Republican official who might come in, almost all of their leading political figures in the U.S. have cast skepticism no climate change and a lack of commitment to the kind of policies that President Biden and his administration have pursued. So the biggest question looming over all American diplomacy right now is whether you can have a long-term commitment with a country like the United States that has so many short-term political disruptions.

WHITFIELD: All right, Susan Glasser, we'll leave it there. Thanks so much.

GLASSER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, former president Trump suing the January 6th committee to block a subpoena for his testimony and documents. Why Trump says the committee's demands violate privilege protections around the executive branch, next.

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[14:38:49]

WHITFIELD: Lawyers for former president Trump have filed a new lawsuit pushing back on document requests from the January 6th select committee, making it unlikely the panel will have time to enforce a subpoena before the congressional probe expires if Republicans take control of the House. CNN's Katelyn Polantz joining me now from Washington. Katelyn, what more are you learning?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Fred, this does look to be the end of the road for this House Select Committee subpoenaing Donald Trump for both documents and testimony. So the House had set up deadlines for this week for documents, and then they wanted him to testify on Monday. Donald Trump essentially isn't responding to that with anything of substance. He's not turning over documents, and he's not showing up for testimony.

And what he is doing in this lawsuit is he's kicking that dispute he's having with the House over their subpoena to the federal court system. That's the offramp that is going to put the House essentially in a dead end here as they try to seek things.

Now, he is making a lot of legal claims. Some have more merit than others in this lawsuit, but one of them has been unsettled by the courts. It's how much protection around the West Wing, around the presidency is there of confidentiality, executive privilege.

[14:40:02]

He claims he has absolute immunity for testifying about what he did while he was in office while he was president. That's why he says he doesn't need to show up for testimony. And he also writes that the subpoena seeks documents that plainly reflect presidential decision- making and deliberations including but not limited to discussions with subordinate individuals in the Department of Justice concerning the 2020 election and conversations with members of Congress regarding pending governmental business.

So that is what he is not going to sharing anything about around the presidency. He also mentions there are political discussions related to his campaign that he is not willing to share. So these are all of the claims that Donald Trump is putting forth right now. And ultimately, Fredricka, there is just not going to be enough time for the court system to makes a decision before this Congress ends and this House Select Committee theoretically expires if the Republicans do take control. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much.

Coming up, respiratory illnesses soaring this season, especially in children under the age of five. I'll talk to a pediatrician about what signs parents should be looking for next.

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[14:45:40]

WHITFIELD: Remarkable bodycam video showing Kansas City officers responding to a call about a four-week-old baby who had stopped breathing. We want to warn you that this video is very graphic.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. There she goes. There you go. Come on. There you go. Come on. Come on. Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's breathing now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Thank goodness. Baby Kamiya is doing well. But public health experts say respiratory illnesses like the flu or RSV and COVID are all soaring this season, especially in children under the age of five. Let's go now to Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez live for us in New York. All right, Doctor, so experts are calling this season unprecedented. What are you seeing?

DR. EDITH BRACHO-SANCHEZ, PRIMARY CARE PEDIATRICIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER: I am seeing so many children -- Fredricka, it's great to be with you -- coming down with so many different viruses. I wish I could tell you it was just RSV, but I'm also seeing influenza now, I'm seeing rhinovirus, enterovirus, so many kids, so many viruses going around right now.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. So it's all of that. And then a lot of parents feel very helpless, because they're not sure what's going on with their babies. It is hard to sometimes identify when they're in trouble. So say in the case of the four-week-old that we saw, the mom reported she had stopped breathing. But what advice do you have for parents? What are some of the things they need to look out for so that perhaps they can, in the nick of time, also get help?

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: Yes. I think the first thing to say is a lot of kids, as I mentioned, are getting sick this season. A lot of kids will get sick if they haven't already. Most kids are going to recover and they're going to be totally fine, Fredricka. But now is the time to learn those signs. First, listen to your parent's intuition. If something doesn't feel right, reach out to your pediatrician. If things are looking really dire, of course, run to the emergency room. We will take care of you. And then learning those signs that your child is starting to have respiratory distress is what we call it, trouble breathing for short, right, another way to call it. So learning those signs is so important right now.

WHITFIELD: And what do parents do, I guess, ahead of their child being exposed to all of these viruses, all these germs? What do people need to be doing?

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: I always tell my family, I wish I could give you something that would keep your child from getting sick. I don't have that. We don't have that magic remedy that is going to keep kids from getting sick. They are viruses that go around every season. My own little baby has been sick a lot this season already. So the best we can do is go ahead and protect our kids against the things we can protect them against. So I'm talking flu, go ahead and get that flu shot. I'm talking COVID, including the primary and the boosters for the COVID vaccine. And then things that we often forget, getting enough sleep, getting good nutrition, those are the things that are going to boost your immune system so that even if you do get sick, because a lot of us will this winter, you will get it a little bit more mild.

WHITFIELD: OK, great advice. Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, always good to see you. Thank you so much. Continue to you and your little ones stay healthy and safe this season.

BRACHO-SANCHEZ: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, there are fewer teenage smokers today than a few years ago. That's good news, right. According to the latest data released by the CDC, more than 3 million middle and high school students in the U.S. say they are using tobacco products. But that's down from more than 4 million back in 2020. CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard takes a closer look.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This new study shows that about 11 percent of middle and high school students, so that's nearly one in nine, reported this year that they're currently using tobacco products. And when it comes to the exact products they're using, e- cigarettes appear to be the most commonly used among middle and high schoolers, followed by cigars and then traditional cigarettes, although traditional cigarette smoking has been steadily declining in the past two decades.

[14:50:01]

And it also appears that certain groups of students were more likely to report tobacco use. Higher use was seen among students who identified as American Indian or Alaskan native, or LGBTQ, those who had severe psychological distress, had a low family affluence, or those who weren't excelling academically. And the report says tobacco use is important to track because it's the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death among adults here in the United States. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much for that.

All right, on a tiny remote island in the middle of the Pacific, a very special archeological dig is under way to find those who made the ultimate sacrifice in war. That is next.

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[14:55:43]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. A Frontier flight from Cincinnati to Tampa had to make an emergency landing in Atlanta overnight after a passenger was found with a box cutter. According to an airline spokesperson, the passenger was later taken into custody. No passengers or crew members were injured. No details have been released yet on the circumstances leading up to the discover of this box cutter. But all passengers were deplaned and provided with overnight hotel accommodations in Atlanta.

And then later on today, this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree will arrive in New York City. The 82-foot tall Norway spruce traveled from Queensbury, New York, a town of around 29,000 people located 200 miles north of Manhattan. The tree is about 85 to 90 years old. As you see it right there, huge. And, according to the Rockefeller Center website, a lighting ceremony will be held later on this month where the tree will be adorned with over 50,000 LED lights and a 900-pound Swarovski Star featuring 3 million crystals.

No man left behind is an enduring promise spanning generations of service and sacrifice. It is the commitment of the U.S. service members to return their brothers and sisters in arms home. That vow is on display as military retirees and archaeologists excavate the remains of a World War II marine. From a remote battlefield in the Pacific Ocean to the sacred soil of cemeteries right here in America, CNN's Mike Valerio has the story.

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DAVID MCCANNEL, NEPHEW OF GUNNERY SERGEANT ARTHUR B. SUMMERS: This is his steel helmet, totally corroded.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a precious relic returned from the sands of what once was a lonely Pacific battlefield.

MCCANNEL: It's a gold ring.

VALERIO: Possessions from Don and David's McCannel's uncle, Marine Corps gunnery sergeant Arthur Summers, an American hero they never knew.

Do you have any memories from back then of just what your family said about Arthur?

MCCANNEL: My mother said to me my brother was killed in Tarawa, and his body was never recovered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For four solid hours they pound Tarawa with high explosives.

VALERIO: Tarawa, November 20th, 1943. It was a brutal battle during World War II, American troops confronting Japanese forces on a sandbar the size of the National Mall. It may seem like paradise in the middle of the Pacific, but it's a place replete with the ravages of war. Japanese canons, bunkers, and stunningly, hundreds of unmarked graves, resting places with the remains of U.S. marines and sailors killed nearly 80 years ago.

PAUL SCHWIMMER, HISTORY FLIGHT: When I said that I'm scarred, this is not a normal thing for somebody to be doing.

VALERIO: Paul Schwimmer is a retired Army Reservist and volunteer with the group History Flight. Its work is often solemn and scarring. Veterans and archeologists digging on Tarawa since 2009 have helped the U.S. government identify at least 96 sets of American remains. Schwimmer remembers the remains of one of the first marines he found.

SCHWIMMER: The kid that was staring me out of that picture was 16 years old. I had the toughest time the next day.

VALERIO: The remains of Sergeant Summers are among the latest discovered by history flight.

And here in East Wenatchee, Washington, a burial with full military honors for summers.

Killed at 27, his nephews and descendants now proudly look on. The promise of no one left behind finally fulfilled.

MCCANNEL: The thing about this that's important is that this is how we bury the dead. We do not leave them in the middle of nowhere. This is the best country in the world, and this is part of it.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Heroes forever. All right, that was our Mike Valerio reporting. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Don't

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