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Protesters Gather As Vote Count Continues In Maricopa County; Nevada Senate Race Remains Tight As Democrats One Seat Away From Control; Arizona Election Official Forced To Tamp Down False Claims On Vote Count; Georgia Senate Race Headed To A December 6th Runoff Election; Interview With Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA); Trump Sues January 6th Committee Probing Capitol Attack; Trump To Make "Special Announcement" Tuesday Night; Ukrainians Euphoric As Kherson Liberated From Russian Troops. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired November 12, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. That was our Mike Valerio reporting.

All right, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Don't miss a special live Saturday edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer tonight at 7:00 Eastern Time. But first CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

One more seat. That is all Democrats still need to maintain control of the Senate. And today it's all eyes on Nevada in a nail-biter of a race where every last vote will matter. And more results are coming in today. Look at this. Fewer than 900 votes now separate the incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and the Trump-backed Republican challenger Adam Laxalt.

Democrats are getting a boost last night after the Arizona Senate race was called for Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly over another pro-Trump candidate Blake Masters. Masters we should note has not called Kelly to concede.

Here's a look at the balance of power in the Senate, though. Democrats and Republicans with 49 seats each. They are so close. But Democrats, if they get one more, it's Vice President Kamala Harris who would be the tie-breaking vote.

Over on the House side, Republicans look better positioned to take control. But that, too, is still being decided, vote by vote, race by race, as we're coming to you right now.

Let's begin with Arizona, and CNN's Kyung Lah. Kyung Lah is with us.

Kyung, you've seen some protesters start to gather outside where the ballots are still being counted. I know there's some figures on the right there in Arizona who are sort of whipping up some of this stuff. What's going on? What can you tell us?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with where the actual work of democracy is going on. These are people we've seen, Jim, work 14, 18 hours a day diligently counting through here behind me. But what is happening outside is what has been described as a vigil. From what I can tell from what we see outside, it's, you know, a few dozen people.

And I've been very glad that I don't think that the people who are actually counting the votes, who are really being very careful in following state law can hear what is being said outside, which is conspiratorial lies and tether to reality. So what we are hearing outside is vitriol. What is happening in here is the actual work of democracy. That is still continuing as Maricopa County goes through the vote count.

We are expecting more of that vote count later this evening. Approximately 75,000 to 80,000 votes will be released tonight. Giving us a little bit more clarity about the still contested governor's race. But as far as the U.S. Senate race, you have, as we indicated, that has been called by CNN. We project that Senator Mark Kelly will hold on to that Democratic seat and he did this morning go and speak to supporters and he thanked them for that support. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): After a long election, it can be tempting to focus on the things that divide us. But we've seen the consequences that come when leaders refuse to accept the truth and focus more on conspiracies of the past than solving the challenges that we face today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: And certainly, that sentiment you can see from what's happening outside this elections office. As far as Blake Masters, you did mention, Jim, that he has not yet conceded. But he did tweet this statement. And the statement says, 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 will congratulate him on a hard-fought victory."

If that does happen, hopefully that will turn down some of the conspiratorial anger that at least just for the moment we are seeing brewing outside this elections office -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And of course, they're used to dealing with these kinds of conditions. Hopefully it doesn't escalate any further than where things stand right now.

Kyung Lah, thank you very much.

Now to Nevada where thousands of ballots are still being counted. CNN's Rosa Flores joins us from North Las Vegas.

Rosa, we're now hearing the mood inside Adam Laxalt's campaign is, quote, "awful." What more can you tell us?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, you're exactly right. That's according to a Nevada Republican strategist telling our colleague Dan Merica that the mood has changed inside the campaign and that several factions, different factions of the Republican Party are now pointing the finger and saying that Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto could take the lead.

Now the latest here from Clark County where I am is a press conference just wrapped up with Clark County officials.

[15:05:04]

And they say that they plan to stay here tonight until all 22,000 or estimated 22,000 ballots are counted that are remaining. Now, of those 22,000, those include both election day drop-off votes and also mail- in ballots. Now I mentioned that specifically because we all know that election day ballots usually favor Republicans and the mail-ins usually favor the Democrats. We don't know the percentage. But we do know, according to Clark County officials, that they will stay here tonight until the job is done. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE GLORIA, CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA REGISTRAR OF VOTERS: Everything that we've gotten, my vaults are empty. We've got all of the ballots that had been received here by whatever means, drop-off box, U.S. mail, they're all in the process to be counted. Today is the final day for those ballots. The only thing after today will be the cures that the voters call in and take care of and the provisional ballots. That's all that's left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, depending on just how razor thin the margins are, after those 22,000 results are posted, then we might care about those ballots remaining to cure and those provisional ballots. Let me break it down for you. There are, according to the registrar, 7,139 ballots that remain to cure and there are an additional 5,555 ballots eligible, provisional ballots that are eligible to be counted. The deadline for that is not until Wednesday. So we might be here for another few days.

And, Jim, back to your question about Adam Laxalt. You know, we've been monitoring the margin here and he's been ahead since election day. But his advantage has been shrinking. It started off with 22,000 votes the day after the election. Then we saw it go down to 15,000 and then 8900. Right now he's ahead by 862 votes.

ACOSTA: Wow.

FLORES: It's a razor-thin margin of .1 percent, Jim. Imagine that, .1 percent.

Jim, back to you. ACOSTA: All right, Rosa Florida. For anybody who says your vote

doesn't matter, that has been blown to bits. That line of pessimism has just been blown to bits these last couple of days.

All right, Rosa, thank you very much.

Let's get back to the action in Arizona right now. Joining us now is Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

And Bill and your team, they've just been working diligently hours and hours on end, days and days on end, trying to get these votes tabulated. First of all, thank you very much for all the work that you and your team are doing. The American people appreciate it, the people of Arizona appreciate it, I'm sure.

BILL GATES (R), CHAIR, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: Thank you.

ACOSTA: But I know you came out strongly against allegations of misconduct or fraud with the count. And we'll talk to you about that in a moment. First, let's just get into the nuts and bolts of this. Give us a breakdown of what will be released tonight, how many total, what percentage will be mail ballots, dropped off on election day, versus any other type of ballot. And do you think you'll have any kind of clarity or are you steeling yourselves and your team for the possibility this may go on for a few more days?

GATES: Yes. So this evening we anticipate a vote drop of a similar, you know, number as we've had the last few evenings. Like I said, it will be in the evenings. And now what we've reached, we've reached the point where the lion's share of the votes that will be reported this evening are going to be late early so those are mail-in ballots that were dropped off on election day at one of our 223 vote centers.

As far as what these latest numbers might indicate to us, that's not something that I do. I'm not a prognosticator. Our job here is to continue counting the votes and to get closer to having that completed. And thanks for your kind words for our folks who are working here. They are working over Veterans Day Weekend, including many veterans that we have here. But you know what, everyone's spirits are up and they're just continuing forward.

ACOSTA: And how are folks doing? I mean, is your team aware of these protests that may be materializing outside? I suppose precautions have been taken. What can you tell us about that?

GATES: Yes. So the folks here in the building, they're aware of what's going on outside. There is a crowd that is peaceful out there right now. We have every reason to believe that they'll continue to be peaceful. And look, the people who are here, who are counting the votes, they believe in democracy, they believe in the First Amendment and they acknowledge the right of those people to be out there. But again I trust that it will remain peaceful.

[15:10:04] And I think it is very important to continue to talk to our workers here so that they don't get discouraged in any way by what some people might be saying out there in the community. But I'll tell you what, the people in Maricopa County overwhelmingly appreciate the work that's being done by these folks, the long hours that they're working. But people are excited to get the results and I completely understand that. We just ask for their patience.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And everybody across the country is anxious. And there are some claims that last night's dump was mainly from -- or drop was mainly from Democratic areas. Is that true? What can you say in response to that?

GATES: So, you know, when we release the numbers each evening, I'm not focused on which vote centers they come from. And this is why. The way the vote center model works is that these folks could be anywhere, from anywhere in Maricopa County, and they're dropping off at the vote centers. I have seen some things on Twitter and from some who have done an analysis. Maybe there were a fair number of vote centers from the South Phoenix area.

But again I'm not a prognosticator. I don't get into where the trends are going or what that says about which candidates are going to win. We're focused on keeping everybody's eye on the prize, which is getting through the count and doing it in an accurate way.

ACOSTA: And do you think you'll still be done sometime on Monday? Do you have any kind of updated timeframe on that?

GATES: Based upon the way that the numbers are going, I would say early next week. I feel really confident about Tuesday at this point.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you this. CNN was able to project that Mark Kelly was the winner of the Arizona Senate race. We did that projection last night. Now his opponent, the Republican Blake Masters who has not called him to concede, is suggesting that something was going on. It was taking too long to count. Maybe you should just start over. What did you think when you heard that? I guess you're aware of those comments?

GATES: Well, again, these allegations that are being made by some of the candidates and other political activists that this count is taking too long is simply -- those folks are not paying attention to the history of how we have counted votes here in Arizona for decades now. The average time over the last couple of decades to get through our count is 10 to 12 days. Right now we are five days into this, including election day.

So we're not even close to the historic time that we would be reaching that end, you know, reaching 99 percent of the votes. So it's really, really unfortunate that some candidates, some activists are deciding to spread this misinformation. We have spent weeks at Maricopa County getting that word out that people should not anticipate results on election night, or even the next day that it does take this long.

But that is because we're doing the important work of making sure that only those eligible voters' votes are counted. I would think that everyone out there would want that to be the case and wouldn't want us to just bring every one of these 290,000 mail-in ballots that were dropped off on election day and just run them through the tabulator. We have signature verification where we compare the signature on the outside of the ballot envelope with the signature in voter registration.

That's what we must do. One of the many things that we do to maintain the integrity of this election. And that's what we're all focused on here.

ACOSTA: Now let me ask you this. The other big race of course that hasn't been called in Arizona is the governor's race between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake. This week, some of Lake's supporters started sharing an image from a video feed of a woman walking through a tabulation room in Maricopa claiming that that was Lake's opponent, Katie Hobbs. They were crying fraud. And leading the county, the county tweeted this, "Not every woman with glasses is Katie Hobbs. We can confirm this was a party observer. Please refrain from making assumptions about workers who happen to wear glasses."

How frustrating has that been for all of you, not just that but also Kari Lake's claims that you're intentionally delaying the count? I guess it's almost like you're playing whack-a-mole right now. You've got to go after one piece of disinformation after another in all of this.

GATES: The thing I would say about that after having to deal with misinformation, we've been doing it for two years. We've been doing it ever since the end of the 2020 election. We did it with the so-called Cyber Ninja audit. And we continue to do it today.

[15:15:02]

The first thing I would say about the image of the woman with glasses, I'm happy you mentioned that because it gives me an opportunity to remind everyone that the activities here are live streamed. We believe in transparency. If people have concerns, if people think that fraud is going on, one, the political parties have their own observers in here. Two, we've got other workers who are Republicans and Democrats. We've got those eyeballs on it. And then anyone who wants to watch that live stream can do it. But for folks to put that sort of information out there that that woman was Katie Hobbs is just a real head scratcher for me.

ACOSTA: Yes.

GATES: And what it says to me is that these people think that -- the people of Maricopa County are pretty gullible and quite frankly the people of this country. So, again, we're going to stay focused on this. We're going to continue to bat down the misinformation and while we continue to complete this count.

ACOSTA: And you mentioned that you've been live streaming the room there and that there are party observers on hand. How those party observers have been getting along with one another? Have they been raising objections with one another and getting into it or has it been pretty run of the mill?

GATES: So these observers that work together in what we call boards or their teams that are doing adjudication or they're working in other places within the facility, it's pretty wonderful. So you've got a Republican and a Democrat, and they're not getting into fights. They're not debating the latest hot political issues. They're talking about their families. They're talking about the weather which, by the way, is beautiful right now in Maricopa County.

And so it really gives me a lot of faith in the future of this country, the future of this democratic republic. And I am just thrilled to be a part of this and to have all this good energy that's around. And I just want more people to know that this is what's going on. You may see things on Twitter about people fighting, allegations of fraud, and it's sad that people think that that's what they need to do. But when you come down here your faith is restored in this country.

ACOSTA: That's great news to hear. Bill Gates, thanks very much. Once again, thanks for all the work that your team is doing. We really appreciate your time.

GATES: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Thanks.

Two years after a determined control of the Senate, Georgia is preparing for another runoff election, this time between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. New reporting about the Republican strategy and the person not named Trump who they want to bring in to help Walker's campaign. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:53]

ACOSTA: One of the most closely watched races in the midterms is headed for a runoff on December 6th. I'm talking about Georgia's Senate race where incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock is facing off against Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Whoever wins could mean the difference for control of the Senate. And CNN's Nadia Romero is in Atlanta for us.

Nadia, what can we expect over the next four weeks for this runoff on December 6th? I assume much of what we saw before this midterm election last Tuesday.

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. It really feels like deja vu when I speak with a lot of the voters here in Georgia like we're doing this again because, remember, we did this back in 2020. Both of the Senate seats in Georgia were up for grabs, and then both of them went into runoff elections. For someone like Raphael Warnock and his campaign, it really is deja vu because another time now he has to go to a runoff election, and try to fight for that Senate seat. Many people were hoping to get rid of all the political ads. But we do

expect to have those ads just come back pouring in, all of those dollars coming in. The Georgia Senate race was number two on the list for most expensive Senate race history in the midterms. About $271 million spent in the state of Georgia. Now more money coming because we just have four weeks until the runoff election.

Four weeks for Raphael Warnock and for Herschel Walker to rally their supporters and tell them, hey, I need you to come out and vote for me again by election day, by December 6th. And then they have to try to convince that 2.1 percent of folks who voted for the third-party candidates, Chase Oliver, to maybe come to their side as well. So you have this fatigue that everyone is feeling in the state of Georgia. They've got to make sure that people are energized just enough to do it just one more time.

ACOSTA: Yes. We are all fatigued. But we can get through this.

And Nadia, there is a new law that impacts how runoff elections are run in Georgia. What can you tell us about that?

ROMERO: Yes, Jim, this all started after the 2020 election and all those conspiracy theories about fraud and voter integrity being in question. And so the Republican-led legislature here in Georgia passed a new bill and it changed a lot of the ways that we do elections here in the state. One of the ways that it will change this runoff election is we used to have nine weeks to rally that vote, to get out your message, for people to request absentee ballots and get it mailed back in.

You had more time. Now you only have four weeks to do everything. It's a much more condensed schedule. And largely those early voters favored Democrats. And so that's why there's been criticism about the changes -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Nadia Romero, thank you very much. As always, appreciate it.

Kevin McCarthy's quest to become the next speaker of the House may be in peril thanks to members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. CNN has learned hard liners in that caucus have been emboldened by the likelihood of a narrow GOP majority in the House. They are threatening to withhold their support if McCarthy does not agree to a wide array of investigations into the Biden administration.

They are also pushing to make it easier for lawmakers to oust a sitting speaker, something that was wielded over former speaker John Boehner before he eventually resigned.

Joining me now to talk about this and more is a Republican member of the House, Congressman Austin Scott of Georgia.

[15:25:05]

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us and congratulations on your reelection. You just got re-elected. REP. AUSTIN SCOTT (R-GA): Yes. Thank you.

ACOSTA: Yes. Let me start with this. CNN has learned McCarthy is calling GOP members one by one trying to get their votes. Do you think he will be the next speaker of the House? What's your sense of it?

SCOTT: I do. And he didn't have to call me. I called him and said, hey, you know, if you need me to make calls on your behalf, I'd be glad to. He's earned the right to be the Republican leader. I do think Republicans will have the majority when all of the votes are counted. It will be more narrow than we had hoped for. But he's earned the right to be the speaker of the House. And so I support Kevin McCarthy. I think given the chance to be speaker, he'll do a good job.

And, you know, what we as the Republican conference have got to do is to stand by our leadership that won. We had hoped for a bigger margin but we won. And so let's take that margin, let's go do the things that we said we were going to do, and govern instead of picking fights among ourselves.

ACOSTA: And I know you're favored at this point to take the majority. I guess we should note to our viewers and remind them we're still in the process of counting all the votes. And so we're not quite there yet. But let me ask you this because you indicated this just a few moments ago, there had been all of these predictions of a big Republican red wave. It didn't happen.

What is your sense of it? Why do you think that is?

SCOTT: Well, my sense of it is all politics is local, Jim. And so when you have great candidates at the top of the ticket for governor and for Senate, then that typically pulls people in and you get the Republican vote to go all the way down and helps you with the House races. But people don't come to the poll simply to vote for a member of the House of Representatives for the most part. So I think you get into these areas where they had better candidates at the top of the ticket if you will than we did. And so we didn't have some of the seats that we had hoped to pick up.

But there are also a lot of seats, Jim, that you look at where there are some pretty close margins in there, in seats that the Democrats should have won pretty handily. So it's still a win for Republicans. When the votes are all counted, I think we'll have the House of Representatives. I think Kevin McCarthy earned the right to be speaker and given the chance he'll be a good speaker.

ACOSTA: Do you think it helped that Trump came out at the end and was doing those campaign rallies in certain states, you know, sort of putting his face out there, and in some cases, you know, talking about himself than the other candidates who were actually running?

SCOTT: Yes, well, look, I mean, he was a great president. He did a lot of good things. I think sometimes the tweets, if you will, hurt him. But there are a lot of people out there including myself that appreciate what President Trump did from a policy standpoint as president. And, you know, he was the Republican president. We'd be in a lot better shape right now economically. Russia would not be inside Ukraine as far as they are if President Trump were president.

And so I wish he were still my president. Now certainly there are areas where, you know, people dislike him as much as some of us like him, but I -- I mean, he was a good president. Gas would be $2 a gallon right now if he were still president and Russia would not be all over the Ukraine like they are. And candidly Afghanistan would not have collapsed so a lot of bad things that happened would not have happened if Donald Trump were president right now.

ACOSTA: Well, I know if we had a Democratic member of Congress on with us right now, they would challenge some of those assertions that you made. But let me ask you, let me press you on that point just a little bit further. It sounds as though you're saying that he has been a polarizing presence and that perhaps that polarizing presence maybe didn't help in all cases.

SCOTT: I would agree with you in the assessment that he is polarizing. But I would also tell you that when it came to making sure that we had a strong military and making sure that our international policy was consistent with not just what was right for America, but what was best for the world, I think Donald Trump did a much better job with that than Joe Biden has done.

And when it came to our domestic energy policy, Donald Trump understood that you could have domestic energy production while at the same time supporting alternative sources with continued investments and research, so that we can have clean energy when clean energy was actually mature enough to come into the market.

ACOSTA: But given all of that, and again I'm sure if there is a Democratic member on, they'd challenge you on some of those assertions there. But given all of that, do you think he should come in and campaign for Herschel Walker?

SCOTT: I absolutely hope that Donald Trump is making robocalls to all of his supporters asking Herschel Walker -- asking them to go support Herschel Walker. Now let's be honest about what happened in Georgia. You know, the Democratic Party spent a couple of hundred million dollars talking about Herschel Walker and Herschel's experiences in life.

[15:30:00]

Now Herschel has been totally transparent about those experiences. He's used those experiences from decades ago to try to help other people who have struggled. And many people who are as famous as Herschel Walker have had those same struggles.

While at the same time, there's been very little said about Senator Warnock, whose divorce records and child-custody records are still sealed, is my understanding.

And so the Democrats were effective in making it about the person instead of the policy. And so -- so --

(CROSSTALK) ACOSTA: We don't want to get into a situation where you're insinuating things about Raphael Warnock.

Do you --

SCOTT: Well, they're insinuating things about Herschel Walker as well. I mean, Hershel was totally transparent and honest --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: But he's had his own family -- he's had his own family members come out and speak out against him.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: Herschel Walker is actually in the interview -- Herschel Walker is actually in the interview with his former wife. And that screen was actually clipped to make it look like something that it wasn't in the interview.

And then the Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars about that.

This race needs to be about the issues, not about the men.

I mean, Herschel Walker understands that we need energy independence. Herschel Walker understands that we need some bipartisanship in Washington, D.C.

Joe Biden has done nothing in a bipartisan manner. And Raphael Warnock has voted with them virtually 100 percent of the time.

Now, Jim, I've been in Congress 12 years now.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: -- on infrastructure, isn't that right, Congressman? I mean, he did reach out in some areas and ask for Republican support and got it in some cases.

SCOTT: I have been in Congress 12 years and I have never met Joe Biden.

So for people who think he operates in a bipartisan manner, I'm on the Armed Services Committee, we've had some defense authorization activity on that committee. I'm on the Ag Committee. I'm on two very bipartisan committees, I never met Joe Biden. He is not a bipartisan president.

The only way to bring some balance to this is for us to elect Herschel Walker. The balance of the Senate I believe will rest with Georgia.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Congressman, let me --

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: -- in the Senate to support energy independence.

ACOSTA: Yes, let me jump in, though, because the president has said, in the aftermath of the election, he would like to have Republicans to come in and work with him on certain issues.

Let's play a little bit of that, and then I'll get your response on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me say this. Regardless, regardless of what the final tally in these elections show -- and there's still counting going on -- I'm prepared to work with my Republican colleagues.

The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What do you think of that?

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Do you want to give him a chance?

SCOTT: I mean, Jim, we'll give him a chance. And if he calls and he wants to meet, we will meet with him.

But this idea that we are going to bend over backwards to follow his agenda when we think his agenda is bad for America, that's not where we can go.

But I'll go back a few years, Jim. I was elected president of the freshman class in 2010, when we come in 2011. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, six years.

I was president of the class. Never met Joe Biden. I met Barack Obama one time. It was at a Christmas party where he took a picture with my wife and I, or we took a picture with him.

We offered then to meet. We told them, we promised them we would keep it on the issues and not personalities. And what did they do? They continued to brand us the way they wanted to. The press followed along with them. They never met with us.

I haven't met Joe Biden in my 12 years serving in Congress. And if you look at my record --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: I mean, Donald Trump wasn't exactly --

(CROSSTALK) ACOSTA: -- Mr. Bipartisanship himself.

I mean, you are talking about Trumps -- gas prices and Trump's foreign policy.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: I mean, Democrats would obviously disagree with all of those things. They would say that gas prices are down during a pandemic. You know, President Trump, when he was in office, was cozying up to Vladimir Putin.

I mean, they would -- they would -- these are the things they would say to you in response to some of these assertions you're making.

But on top of all that, Donald Trump routinely demonized Democrats. He would hold rallies where he would talk Democratic members of Congress and say, send them back, and say all sorts of terrible things.

I mean, he wasn't exactly the picture of --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: -- bipartisanship.

Isn't that why your own governor, Governor Kemp, held Trump at arm's length, did not really want him in the state? Probably doesn't want him in the state very much now.

SCOTT: Jim, if you look at the votes, there are four major votes after COVID hit. Four. They dealt with budget-related issues, PPP.

Everything after COVID in that 24-month period, there were four major votes. All of them were done in very much a bipartisan manner. President Trump negotiated with the Democrats on those issues.

If you go back and you look at the Senate votes and the House votes, you'll see the majority voted with President Trump on those issues. And that is because he actually sat down and negotiated with them and discussed things with them.

[15:35:08]

So what President Trump did on -- with his tweets and Twitter and all of that stuff, I didn't like that as well.

But there was the negotiations and the actually votes that occurred in Washington, D.C., Jim. And if you'll go and look I wish I had those --

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: -- the votes, you see that they were very much bipartisan because Donald Trump very much negotiated with Democrats.

ACOSTA: Well, Congressman, we've run out of time. We'd would love to have you back another time. We can talk about all of these things. (CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: I mean, I was covering the White House. I remember when Donald Trump, you know, was willing to shoulder the blame for shutting down the government.

I mean, I did not see a whole lot of bipartisanship demonstrated by the former president during that time, all the way up to the runup to January 6th and what took place that day and ever since.

But, Congressman Scott, thank you very much for your time.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: We'll go back and look at it.

SCOTT: Thank you.

ACOSTA: We'll have you on another time and we'll talk about it.

Thanks so much. Appreciate it, Congressman.

SCOTT: Glad to be here.

ACOSTA: Thanks for your time.

All right, coming up, former President Trump sues the January 6th committee. But will it be enough to help him avoid a subpoena? CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, helps to break it all down, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:37]

ACOSTA: Former President Trump is now suing the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. The panel subpoenaed Trump for documents and his testimony concerning his actions in the weeks leading up to January 6th.

Trump's lawsuit challenges the legitimacy of the committee, which multiple courts have upheld, It also claims he should be immune from testimony about the time he was president.

CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig, joins us now.

Elie, this latest legal challenge brings us to question whether the committee will receive any information from Trump before it dissolves at the end of the year.

How do you think this is going to play out?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Jim, the key number to keep in mind here is 52. That's the number of days between now and January 3rd when a new Congress takes over. If that is a Republican-controlled House, the committee has clearly

done its work. Even if Democrats hold onto control of the House, they've made clear they expect the committee to be done by then.

So here we are at the district court, at the trial court level. The case needs to be briefed, argued, decided. And it will go to the court of appeals. Needs to be briefed, argued, decided.

And whoever loses will try to get it to the Supreme Court. The chances of all of that getting done within 52 days are slim to none.

And it's worth asking, Jim, why the January 6th committee waited until October of 2022 to issue the subpoena. It's not a surprise Donald Trump is playing the delay game and they have made it easy for him to do it successfully.

ACOSTA: And, Elie, on Tuesday, former President Trump will hold a special announcement, as it's being described, at Mar-a-Lago. CNN previously reported Trump and his team were eyeing the third week of November as a window for a potential 2024 presidential announcement.

If Trump announces his candidacy, how would that impact these ongoing criminal investigations?

HONIG: Technically and legally, not at all. There's no protection against indictment or investigation for somebody who is a candidate for office, including the presidency.

But, as a practical matter, you know that this will fuel Donald Trump's claim that this is political. He will say, well, I announce my candidacy and then if there's an indictment, and he'll say, and then they indicted me later.

And as a practical matter, Jim, you have to think how a potential jury trial might play out. It's never easy in any case to get 12 jurors unanimously, beyond a reasonable doubt, to convict.

It's going to be harder when you are talking about a former president. And I think it gets even more complicated if you are talking about somebody who is in the midst of running for the next presidential election.

So legally, no effect. But as a practical matter, this will complicate matters.

ACOSTA: All right, Elie Honig, thank you very much. We appreciate it as always.

HONIG: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: And let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:09] ACOSTA: They have no water, no Internet and limited electricity. But after eight months of occupation, the people of Kherson are rejoicing after Ukrainian forces liberated the city from Russian troops.

International affairs editor, Nic Robertson, found himself in the middle of the celebration.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Absolute euphoria here at the moment. I'm using the phone and we're communicating by the camera and by satellite. It's a bit of a chaotic message.

No phone signals here. The Russians have taken all that down, destroyed the electricity, the water, the gas. Everything here is in a bad situation.

But everyone here is out celebrating in the square here. People are wearing the Ukrainian flag. They're hugging the soldiers. They've come out to see how it is to have freedom.

And I'm joined here by Julia and Olga. We're going to have a quick conversation about how it's been.

Tell us about the last eight months, Julia, under occupation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a really hard time for everyone. Every Ukrainian family waited for our soldiers, for our army.

ROBERTSON: So how does it feel now to see them?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing. Wonderful. Thank you very much for supporting us. We feel every day your support.

Thank you so much. Can I hug you?

ROBERTSON: Sure.

(LAUGHTER)

ROBERTSON: Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

ROBERTSON: Olga, can we talk?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sure.

ROBERTSON: Can you tell us about your experiences over the last eight months?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were waiting so long. But we were sure that this day will come. And we will celebrate together with your people here and he everywhere in the world. Thanks for all work that supported us, that help us. And this day we are so happy to be here. We are so happy with our people to celebrate this day. This is something amazing. But it was hard. But we always knew that this day will come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Our thanks to Nic Robertson for that report.

For more information about how you can help the people of Ukraine, go to CNN.com/impact.

[15:49:20]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: The top-10 CNN Heroes of 2022 have been announced, one of whom will be named he CNN Hero of the Year by you, our viewers.

One is them, Nelly Cheboi, is helping the village where she grew up in extreme poverty.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELLY CHEBOI, CNN HERO: Once these computers were ending up in landfills.

Well, we have kids here, myself included. Back in the day, who didn't know what a computer is.

We refurbish them. We install our custom operating system that is geared to us, teaching our kids things such as troubleshooting and Internet skills.

We're working with institutions, colleges, companies, even individuals, and then, we bring it to the schools.

All of you are going to be graphic designers today.

They can go from doing remote classes to video production, coding, personal branding and so on.

The thing that was frustrating for me growing up, not seeing change, not seeing hope, not seeing progress.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CHEBOI: I feel like, with these kids, I can see a path. I can see a way where they can make a living online. And that is really, like, why we're doing this work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:55:05] ACOSTA: Go to CNNheroes.com right now to vote for any of them of your favorite top-10 heroes. Remember, you vote for any or all of them up to 10 times a day every day.

Coming up, you're looking live at Maricopa County, Arizona, where the vote count is still underway and more results are expected tonight. We'll give you a live update just moments from now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:05]

ACOSTA: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.