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Democrats Keep Control Of The Senate, Control Of House Still Up For Grabs; Interview With Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) About The Midterms; Biden Celebrates Democratic Victories Amid Overseas Trip; Arizona Governor's Race Remains Too Early To Call; Two World War II-Era Planes Collided At Dallas Airshow; Billionaire Jeff Bezos Honors Dolly Parton With $100 Million Award. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired November 13, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:27]

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

Tonight one chamber of Congress remains undecided. Votes are still being counted as control of the House of Representatives remains up for grabs. Republicans only have to get seven of those remaining uncalled seats to take the majority in the House but Democrats are taking a big victory lap tonight after keeping control of the Senate with a late-night win in the crucial Nevada race. And Democrats are enjoying that feat that seemed very unlikely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This is a very happy day. We had great candidates. They had flawed candidates. Our candidates were talking about the issues. They cared about people. The incumbents have gotten a lot done. Their candidates were off talking about lack of democracy and all -- spreading the big lie and all kinds of other things.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): This is so -- such a cause for a celebration. Chuck Schumer was so correct when he said it was a victory for the people and for the country. I personally know that it is a joy to Harry Reid in heaven as he is that his state came through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And CNN's John Berman is at the magic wall with the latest vote counts -- John.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So this is currently the makeup of the U.S. Senate. The Democrats have 50 seats. The Republicans have 49. There is still a run-off in Georgia, which takes place on December 6th. But no matter what happens there, the Democrats will maintain control of the Senate. If the Republicans manage to win that run-off in Georgia it will be a 50-50 split, the Vice President Kamala Harris would break the tie. But if the incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock does win in this run-off

in December the Democrats would have a 51-49 advantage, an outright majority, which, believe me, they would enjoy. It would mean the committee assignments don't have to be even. It would mean they could lose at least one Democratic vote in key moments in the Senate. So this is what it could look like going forward.

How did we get to this point? The last Senate seat to be called was in Nevada. It was Catherine Cortez Masto over Adam Laxalt. Some of the mail vote that came in over the last several days helped her make up the deficit. She had been trailing by more than 22,000 votes just a few days ago, now leading by several thousand. So the Senate has been decided. That leaves the U.S. House of Representatives.

This is something. Not many people would have thought that the Senate would be called for the Democrats before the House would be called for Republicans, but we just can't yet. There are too many outstanding races. Right now the Republicans control 211 seats. We projected they will win at least 211 seats. The Democrats 204. You need 218 seats in the House of Representatives to have a majority. 218, which means the Republicans need seven more, the Democrats would need 14 more.

There are currently 20 seats that have not been called. 20 races that have yet to be called in these races right now. The Republicans lead in 10. They only need seven. They lead in 10. The Democrats lead in 10. They need 14. So you can see it's an uphill battle. The Democrats on this map right now would need to hold every district that is currently blue and then pick up four of the uncalled races that are still in red.

Some of them are quite close. Let me just show you. In California, California's 13th Congressional District for instance right now, there is just a margin of 84 votes with 46 percent reporting, so the Democrats could potentially, potentially pick up a few of these seats. This district right here you can see Riverside County, that's just a county there, but you can see in this district right now California's 41st, the Republican leads by 2100 votes with just 53 remaining.

So again, if the Democrats were to hold every blue district, every blue congressional district on this map, and pick up four of these red Republican ones, they would maintain control of the House. It's an uphill battle, but at this point not impossible.

John Berman, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And with me now is Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey.

Senator Casey, thanks for being with us. As the sun is setting on the Capitol, as John just showed us, John Berman just showed us, we still don't who will control the House.

[18:05:01]

We do know that your party will control the Senate side of Capitol Hill. One of the key races that helped Democrats maintain control of the Senate is from your state. John Fetterman beating Mehmet Oz. Let's listen to Fetterman and why he thinks he defeated Mehmet Oz. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN FETTERMAN (D), PENNSYLVANIA SENATOR ELECT: I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do, and we had that conversation across every one of those counties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: It got close there at the end, Senator, as to whether or not John Fetterman was going to be able to beat Mehmet Oz and flip that seat, but he did it. Why do you think that happened in Pennsylvania? What does it tell us about the rest of the country? What happened with these midterms?

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): Well, Jim, I think what John Fetterman did in our state is a strong template for Democrats across the country heading into yet another election cycle. And I think it has national implications as well, which means that, number one, you have to perform well in the base of our party, in urban and suburban communities, and John did that where he was running even better in suburban and urban communities than President Biden.

And as you remember, President Biden won our state by one. John is ahead by a little more than four now. But he also was able to reduce some of the margins of defeat in rural counties. We have mostly rural counties in Pennsylvania. So John did both. And I think that's a strong template. I think the foundation of it, though, wasn't simply his campaign. It's who he is. People knew John as lieutenant governor.

They know he's been to every -- as he said, every county, every vote. And that connection he had to voters proved to be enduring despite an avalanche of negative advertising against him.

ACOSTA: And let's note something that occurred in Pennsylvania, which is that his opponent, John Fetterman's opponent, Mehmet Oz, called and conceded the race. We're seeing other concessions from other Trump backed candidates across the country. How important is that for our democracy? I mean, I suppose it has to be reassuring to see, yes, even some of these candidates who may have been questioning the election process, might have been election deniers, that sort of thing, coming around and conceding races.

CASEY: Yes, Jim, it's critical. And it used to be -- we used to have races conceded without even a second thought. Now we have to urge people to do that. We shouldn't have to urge Republican candidates to do that. But it is encouraging that more and more are coming out and conceding races. Of course, it happens on both sides where Democrats had to concede some races. But it's part of the foundation of our democracy that we move forward after an election.

And part of that is conceding defeat. But I'm happy that's happened in a number of races. But we have a long way to go, though, I think, to fortify our democracy. Part of that, I think, in the Senate, is continuing our fight to pass the Voting Rights Bill which will knock down some of the barriers to the right to vote that are being erected in some states. But it is good that some Republicans are starting to break from the lie, the big lie the former president has been perpetrating.

ACOSTA: And President Biden, you know, he was outspoken about the threats to democracy that some of these candidates were posing. You know, I've been asking around, asking some Democrats, you know, they're all, oh, of course, that was the best strategy, that was the best approach. We hundred percent agreed with that. But, you know, I think privately a lot of Democrats were scratching their heads and wondering whether or not that was the best strategy and that maybe focusing on more bread and butter issues, the economy, and that sort of thing was the way to go.

What did you think when the president did that? Did you think that was the right strategy? And do you think that paid dividends?

CASEY: Well, certainly the threat to democracy is real. And I think people understand it and I think people are still shaken by and disturbed by what happened on January 6th and what's happened, what happened before that and even the continuing threat to our democracy today. You can make a strong argument that even with the selection that threat is as strong as it was on January 6th. So the president was right to make that case.

But I do think that voters can hold a couple of priorities in mind when they go to vote. They can focus on the threats to our democracy while also being concerned about their own economic security. And voters are very smart. They sift through a lot of information, a lot of charges and countercharges. But I think in Pennsylvania it was clear to me by the end of this race that people were going to vote for candidates that were speaking to the issues that meant the most to their lives.

[18:10:10]

And that's I think why John Fetterman won and why Josh Shapiro won an overwhelming victory for governor.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you about the agenda moving forward. How crucial is it for Democrats now to be able to continue to put President Biden's judicial appointments on the bench? I suppose there's always the prospect of a vacancy on the Supreme Court now to keep in mind over the next couple of years. How important is all of that?

CASEY: Well, Jim, it's critical. When you think of the, not just the Supreme Court but the appellate courts, the circuit courts of appeal as well as district courts, and as it stands now, and I don't have the exact number, but when you add up all of the district court appointments, trial court appointments by President Biden and the appeals court appointments, he's running ahead of where the last two presidents were. But if we had lost the Senate that would come to an end. And we still

have some judges to confirm by the end of this year but it is critically important because on a lot of days the final word on what the law is isn't even the Supreme Court because a lot of cases don't get there. The final word on what the law is can often be at the appellate level. So it's critically important that we continue to confirm judges.

And President Biden and Senate Democrats have confirmed a more diverse group of judges than any president or Senate in history. And we're very proud of that.

ACOSTA: And on that note, should Democrats continue to be aggressive when it comes to filling judicial openings in that branch of government? And one thing I want to ask you in particular is, I mean, obviously the Dobbs decision was crucial for a lot of voters during this midterm cycle. And should an opening come up in 2024, we heard Mitch McConnell say with Merrick Garland, that's not going to move forward in the Senate because it's an election year and so on.

And then of course 2020 rolls around, Amy Coney Barrett gets on the Supreme Court. Everybody on the Democratic side cries foul. If in 2024 a similar situation were to arise do you think Democrats should go ahead and just fill the seat no matter when that opening emerges during that election year?

CASEY: Yes, I think you have to fill it because it's clear to me that Republicans in the Senate have shown over and over again that they weren't willing to act with moderation when it came to those Supreme Court vacancies or appointments. And that is why you had such a jarring decision for the American people like the Dobbs case. And I think voters reacted to that in this election. I could see it in Pennsylvania in terms of the vote that we saw in this election.

So there's no question that if a vacancy occurs we've got to get it filled. But even if that doesn't happen, it's critically important that we fill appointments to the district courts as well as the appellate courts.

ACOSTA: And with this Georgia run-off that's coming up, I suppose you still view that as critical to your party's agenda, as we know, it's heading to a run-off on December 6th. Better to have 51 votes than 50 votes for a whole host of reasons I imagine.

Do you think Democrats may move forward and try if they get that extra seat, that 51st seat, try to go ahead and look at the filibuster, potentially try to codify Roe vs. Wade or look at other agenda items for the Democrats?

CASEY: I hope we can move forward with what we've tried to do in the recent past. I think that rules change is something that a lot of Americans better understand now and want to see progress made on. I can't say if we had 51 votes whether that would be -- 51 senators, I should say, that would be enough to change the rules because we've been two short, two votes short. But I think we should keep trying because that 60 vote rule is an impediment to progress. And, look. I'm hoping that Raphael Warnock, Senator Warnock wins in

Georgia not only because he is an extra vote but mostly because of who he is. His character, his commitment to public service, his commitment to the people of Georgia. And I think they deserve someone in the Senate who not only has proven in his short time in the Senate that he represents Georgia with distinction,

But he'll fight the battles that they hope that a senator working on their behalf would fight. So I think it's mostly about him and his service and service to the people of Georgia but it certainly helps to have another vote in the Senate.

ACOSTA: Certainly does. I'm sure it does indeed. All right. Senator Bob Casey, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

CASEY: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: And coming up next President Biden is overseas preparing for a high stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

[18:15:05]

We'll take you inside the strategy from the Biden administration next. You're live in the CNN newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: President Biden is in Indonesia ahead of the G20 summit in a high stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Biden's trip is turning into a victory lap as his party defies history back home with a better than expected midterm performance, Democrats clinching the Senate last night and still in the fight for control of the House.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us live from Indonesia. The sun is coming up there in Bali, which is good, Phil, I guess. How is -- sun feels like it's coming up I suppose for the Democrats, too, and for the political prospects of the president these days. How are they feeling?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I don't think there is any question about that. Look, you heard from the president in the lead up to the election and he is obviously an optimist. His aides would acknowledge that he is generally more optimistic than they are on most things including election results.

[18:20:02]

But things largely landed where he thought they were going to in terms of maintaining control of the Senate, in terms of being in a very real battle for control of the House. And while officials don't believe that the House is necessarily going to land in their favor the fact that they've bucked both the historical trends and the very real economic headwinds they believe had put the president in a very different place for the next two years, and on a very different place on this trip, this three-stop foreign trip, which if you think about it, Jim, could have been in a very different kind of mode of things had things gone very poorly from the election side of things. But once the president clinched that Senate majority he was very quick to come talk to reporters. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I tell you what. Congratulations to Senator Schumer. He got a majority again. And we're focusing now on Georgia. We feel good about where we are. And I know I'm cockeyed optimist. I understand that. And I am not surprised by the turnout. I am incredibly pleased. And I think it's a reflection of the quality of our candidates and they're all running on the same program.

There wasn't anybody who wasn't running on what we did. They're all staying -- sticking with it. So I feel good, and I'm looking forward to the next couple of years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: You know, Jim, I think in the near term it's easy to look at this through the lens of political vindication to some degree, validation from the agenda perspective that the president pursued in his first two years, but I think more broadly, I think the key point here is just how different the next two years are going to look from what they may have heading into the election. Right now with that Senate majority in particular the president feels like while he's not going to get dramatic agenda items through he will certainly be able to make some progress that he wouldn't have been able to make otherwise.

ACOSTA: Right. And you're so right about these domestic issues sometimes traveling with the president overseas. I saw that happened with Trump and Obama. When it's not going well it can just put a cloud over everything the president does. And Biden finding himself in a completely different situation because things going well politically in terms of these midterms.

Phil, on the president's meeting with Xi Jinping, how critical is that? Is the White House trying to downplay expectations? Sometimes that occurs. They don't want people to think that there's going to be a whole lot that's going to come out of this. What are you hearing?

MATTINGLY: You know, I think they're very clearly downplaying the expectations that some dramatic shift or change in a very, very, I think, tense moment in the relationship is going to come out of this sit down but they are also very clear of just how consequential this sit-down is. These two countries, these two leaders have really been circling each other over the course of President Biden's first two years in office.

The competition that always feels right now on the precipice of tipping into conflict I think has become palpable to some degree when you talk to U.S. officials and that more than anything else is the driving force behind this sit-down. They've spoken by phone and by video conference five times up to this point.

But, Jim, as you know well, the president very much prefers face-to- face interaction with foreign leaders. And the goal here when you talk to White House officials is basically just better understanding, understanding red lines, really sharpening the perspective on priorities for each side. Areas where each side could potentially work together. More than anything else trying to find some type of pathway to set this relationship, which has been in a very low place into a better place.

There is an understanding that the consequences of things continuing down the path they've been on the last two years are horrifying to some degree, probably not just for the bilateral relationship but for the entire world. There is a necessity to shift that. Whether they're able to in the meeting in a couple of hours I think is the big question for President Biden here in Bali.

ACOSTA: All right. And the president always likes to put this in terms of democracy versus autocracy on the world stage. And I'm sure the president will once again hit that note on this trip.

Phil Mattingly, thank you very much for that report. We appreciate it.

CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger joins us now to talk about this.

David, this meeting of the president and Xi Jinping comes at a time when relations between the U.S. and China are pretty darned frosty. Should we expect anything to come out of this meeting? I suppose it's just -- it's good to get them both together, I guess, but is much going to come out of it?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Jim, it's beyond frosty. I would say that the relationship between Beijing and Washington is probably at its lowest point it's been since Nixon's opening to China 50 years ago. So that's saying a lot.

ACOSTA: Yes.

SANGER: And while President Biden comes to this in a much stronger position than he expected and would be pretty tough to go in to see the leader of the world's second largest economy and a rising power if he had truly lost the Senate and House, and of course he's done much better in the House. Xi Jinping comes in looking pretty strong, too. He actually engineered a rewriting of the Chinese constitution a few years ago and emerged a few weeks ago with an unprecedented third term that essentially gives him the presidency for as long as he wants it for China.

[18:25:07]

So he is in a different position. And I think the trick here as you heard the president talk about red lines is to try to understand what it is that could tip this from competition into true confrontation. And of course, the first one is Taiwan where you're going to hear President Xi talk about the importance that Taiwan never declare itself independent and that he is probably going to keep moving in the direction he was this summer when he took those operations around Taiwan in response to Nancy Pelosi's visit. ACOSTA: And David, the U.S. National Security adviser Jake Sullivan

says that the Biden-Xi meeting will be focused on, quote, "sharpening understanding of each nation's priorities." I mean, is there any way to find any kind of common ground with the Chinese these days? And I guess one of the other questions that I have in the back of my mind, just based on what we've seen take place in these midterms, and I was just talking about this a few moments ago with Phil Mattingly, is that typically presidents are meeting with Xi Jinping with a lot of domestic, political baggage on their back.

President Biden is not going into this meeting in that kind of situation at all. And if anything, his positioning of things, his democracy versus autocracy on the world stage, that's been strengthened, hasn't it?

SANGER: That definitely has been strengthened. I mean, you know, a few months ago, certainly a year ago, no one would want to have replicated the American style of democracy. The Chinese themselves played video of the January 6th rioting, and said, you want democracy? This is what it looks like.

But your question, Jim, which is I think just the right one is, what areas of common ground could you have? We heard one a week ago when Chancellor Scholz of Germany was visiting in China and we heard the Chinese leader issue a call that no country should threaten or use nuclear weapons to resolve a dispute. Well, that was a pretty clear message to Vladimir Putin.

At the same time, what's hanging over this entire meeting is a growing sense of an alliance that is emerging between Russia and China. That's exactly what Nixon was trying to avoid when he opened up the relationship with them. I reported with one of my colleagues from Asia in this weekend's "Times" that there is a division of opinion inside the administration about how big that alliance is.

We've heard from the Pentagon that they believe it is being nurtured and it's real. It's a real anti-American alliance despite the long, historic tensions between China and Russia. And yet when I asked President Biden about that at his press conference on Wednesday, he sort of dismissed it and said I don't think the Chinese have a lot of respect for Putin.

ACOSTA: And that brings me to my next point, which is, can't the president go to Xi Jinping and say, well, you certainly don't want to end up in the situation that Vladimir Putin finds himself in right now? What about that?

SANGER: Well, he certainly doesn't. But just as it was a big mistake for us to conclude that Russia would take over Ukraine in three or four days, or three or four weeks, as we did back in February, which obviously was wrong, I think it would be a big mistake to draw a straight line between the training and equipment of the Russian military and the training and equipment of the Chinese military.

We don't know if they are ready yet to go take on Taiwan. We think they probably are. I'm sure that Xi looked at what happened to Putin and said, could this happen to me? And it might give him pause. But the Chinese military is a technologically much deeper force, and probably a much better trained force than what the Russians had. And I think that just as there was risk in overestimating the Russians, there is risk in underestimating the Chinese.

ACOSTA: Interesting. All right. David Sanger, we know you'll be watching. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

SANGER: Thank you. Always great to be with you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Great to be with you. And coming up, you're looking live at Capitol Hill right now where the balance of power in Congress remains undecided over in the House of Representatives. It's been decided in the Senate. In the House it's a different story.

We're also keeping a close eye on Arizona where votes are still being counted in the very tight governor's race there. Might we get some kind of call tonight? Wouldn't that be something?

[18:30:02]

We'll have a live report next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Here we are the Sunday after election day. The governor's race in Arizona remains too early to call. The race remains tight with a little more than 36,000 votes separating Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake, one of the most prominent election deniers on the ballot this year.

CNN's Kyung Lah joins us now. Kyung, do election officials have any idea? And I feel like -- I feel so bad for repeatedly asking the same question but we're so impatient. When we might get some more answers tonight? We're dying to know.

[18:35:00]

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That makes you and the entire state of Arizona.

ACOSTA: Yes.

LAH: So you are absolutely forgiven about that, Jim. We did just get an update from election officials here in Maricopa County. And they say in about 90 minutes, about 90 minutes from now they're going to open up a window of when they anticipate they'll be releasing some more election information, some more ballots, how those ballots went. About 90,000 of them. That is an approximate number.

ACOSTA: Wow.

LAH: We're between 85 to 100 we're told but really it's about 90,000. So that is going to be the largest drop of information we've gotten since election night, since the big numbers of election night. So this is something that we are absolutely anticipating could give us a bit more indication of where this very close governor's race is heading.

So this isn't all the ballots. There's still another night ahead of counting. The tabulation here is still going on. But all of those mail-in ballots that were dropped off on election day they have indeed been processed. Election officials say despite all the rhetoric you're hearing from the campaigns, they say things here are going quite well. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN GILBERTSON, COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR, MARICOPA COUNTY ELECTIONS DEPARTMENT: We have some of the most dedicated election officials here. And we are so proud of them. They are putting in hours away from their families to be able to get these results out as quickly as possible. And what I will tell you is this is fast for Maricopa County. It usually takes us anywhere between 10 and 12 days to complete the count. And we think we're going to be done by the end of this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Now when she says the end of this week she's talking about a more difficult process called the curing process. Those are ballots where the signatures on the outside, the signature on the envelope, that they could not be immediately verified. So what workers are doing right now and what we were given a picture of inside is the curing process where they actually individually try to reach every single voter that they could not immediately signature verify and make sure they are a real person.

So really a contact sport here at the end, Jim, but the bulk of the count they anticipate will be done by tomorrow -- Jim.

ACOSTA: That's fascinating. And forgive me for asking a question that you don't have all the information for, but is it quite possible that in this big dump of votes that we're going to seem drop of votes that we're going to see later on this evening, that the race could tighten so much that it may not be possible to make a call? And we will have to rely on the next round of election information to come out of Arizona?

LAH: It's really hard to tell at this point. It is math. It is science. I was exceptionally poor at those subjects in school.

ACOSTA: Me, too.

LAH: We have some very smart statisticians trying to figure out if it will be enough. But what we can tell you is the Lake campaign sees these remaining ballots, those mail-in ballots dropped off on election day, that this is their path. So if this is not, if the math doesn't work in their favor tonight that path becomes exceedingly narrow, so that is really what we will know. We won't know if that path is closed.

At least I couldn't tell you that. Other people may. But what we do know is that if it does not close tonight that path could potentially narrow.

ACOSTA: All right. Very interesting. Kyung Lah, thanks for breaking it down for us. We appreciate it. Hope I didn't put you on the spot there. Thanks a lot. All right.

All right. Still ahead, everybody, we're learning new details about a midair crash at a Dallas airshow and the victims. This happened yesterday. The video is just very shocking to take a look at. We'll have all of that for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:59]

ACOSTA: Federal investigators are looking into a deadly midair collision at a Dallas airshow over the weekend. We have video of the moments before the collision and we want to warn you, it is disturbing.

Six people were killed when the two World War II-era planes collided and then crashed to the ground. Air officials say the aircraft were doing routine maneuvers.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has more.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Jim, the hard work of investigating what went wrong here is only just beginning. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are now on the scene at the Dallas Executive Airport documenting the wreckage of not one but two airplanes involved in this midair collision. Both part of volunteer organizations that keep World War II planes flying.

The larger airplane, a B-17 Flying Fortress, you've seen it in the movies, famous for the daylight bombing raids over Europe in World War II. The other airplane an extremely rare P-63 King Cobra, a single seat fighter plane. In both cases only a handful of examples flying worldwide.

Airplanes like this do not have a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder so investigators say they'll listen to the recordings of radio traffic. They are also asking for witnesses to come forward with photos and video, more examples of the horrific scene keep getting posted online by spectators.

Nobody in the crowd was hurt. In fact airshows in the U.S. a spectator has not been killed in more than 50 years. Airshows are heavily regulated, highly planned, very choreographed. And the pilots must have special qualifications. They accept the most risk here in the name of keeping history alive -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Pete Muntean, thanks very much.

In just a little over an hour from now we're expecting new votes to come in from Arizona. More on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:49:15]

ACOSTA: The U.S. is condemning a deadly explosion in a busy part of Central Istanbul that killed at least six people and wounded dozens. It happened in a popular pedestrian area that is filled with tourists and shoppers. Turkey's justice minister says security footage shows a woman sitting on a bench at the scene for more than 40 minutes and then getting up shortly before the blast leaving a bag behind. Turkish President Erdogan says the bombing, quote, "smells of terrorism."

And this just in to CNN, Doug Mastriano has conceded in the Pennsylvania governor's race. The Republican Mastriano lost that race to Democrat Josh Shapiro. In a statement, Mastriano who has been an election denier, and much more in the Trumpist part of the Republican Party, wrote in part, "Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do.

[18:50:06]

And I look at the challenges ahead. Josh Shapiro will be our next governor and I ask everyone to give him the opportunity to lead and pray that he leads well."

Doug Mastriano doing what other Trump-backed candidates have done in recent days and that is actually concede their races that they've lost. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:55:02]

ACOSTA: The Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2022 have been announced. One of whom will be named the CNN Hero of the Year by you, our viewers. So we're reintroducing each of our top 10 as you vote for your favorites in the next few weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Art is so emotional and vulnerable. It's what allows you to understand that it's OK to not be OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My art work is a presentation of some of the guys that we lost when we were deployed. I built a complete mock-up of a casket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, Josh?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of the veterans have never really told their story to anybody before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will shoulder the burden as they already have done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I try to explain to them in the beginning it's going to be easier to tell your story once you create your art piece because you're not going to be talking about you. You're going to be talking about your art piece and focus on it.

I want them to know that art's an option for healing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And go to CNNheroes.com right now to vote for any of your favorite Top 10 heroes.

And this just in to CNN, in a new interview with ABC News former Vice President Mike Pence is calling out former President Donald Trump for his tweet on the day of the Capitol insurrection. Here's Mike Pence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: But I turned to my daughter who was standing nearby. And I said it doesn't take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law. The president's words were reckless. It's clear he decided to be part of the problem.

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ACOSTA: Pence also went on to say that Trump's words endangered both he and his family, and everyone at the Capitol building that day. Of course we'll remind our viewers what took place on January 6th. The vice president was up on Capitol Hill at that time to preside over the counting of those electoral votes, putting President Biden over the top to become the next president of the United States.

There were rioters and insurrectionists up on Capitol Hill chanting "hang Mike Pence" at that time. But now nearly two years after all of that occurred Mike Pence saying in this interview with ABC News that Donald Trump's words on the day of the Capitol Hill insurrection were, quote, "reckless." All of this comes after Trump and many of his followers suffered heavy losses during the midterm cycle. And Mike Pence obviously putting some distance between himself and the former president as he considers whether to run for president in 2024.

Now to an update on the midterm elections. These are -- there are votes still being counted we should note at this hour, as the House of Representatives remains up for grabs. 20 House races remained uncalled and right now Republicans have won 211 seats, Democrats have 204. 218 -- 218 is the magic number needed to control the House meaning Republicans only need seven of the remaining seats to retake that chamber.

But Democrats are taking a big victory lap tonight. Of course it was a feat that seemed very unlikely just days ago that they would hold control of the Senate for at least the next two years. But they've done exactly that. A late-night call that Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto will keep her seat, will keep her seat in Nevada pushing Democrats over the number to keep control of the Senate.

More votes are coming in throughout the night. We are expecting a new vote count. Our Kyung Lah was just talking about that a few moments ago. A new vote count from Arizona. That could be coming in in just one hour. Those numbers as they come in could decide the governor's race in that state, that very closely watched, highly contested race between Katie Hobbs and Kari Lake.

CNN is watching all of these very closely and we'll continue to keep you updated throughout the evening on all the latest developments. So stay tuned with CNN for all of that.

In the meantime, Dolly Parton is being honored and it's not for her many musical talents. The country music legend and longtime philanthropist is the latest recipient of the Jeff Bezos Courage and Civility Award. It comes with $100 million with no strings attached, if you can believe that. Parton has donated to various causes for decades. And Jeff Bezos spoke with our very own Chloe Melas about this decision.

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CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Talk to me about choosing Dolly Parton.

JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER, AMAZON: Well, look at what she's done and how she's led her life and the way she's done it, these bold things always with civility and kindness. She's a unifier. You know, we have big problems in the world. And the way you get big problems done is you have to work together. We have too many examples in the world of conflict and people using ad hominin attacks on social media, and so on and so on. She won't find Dolly Parton doing that.

LAUREN SANCHEZ, JEFF BEZOS' PARTNER: And when you think of Dolly, look, everyone smiles. Right? And all she wants to do is bring light into other people's world. That's all. And so we couldn't have thought of someone better than to give this award than Dolly.

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ACOSTA: Everybody loves Dolly.