Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

New Vote Count In Arizona Governor's Race; Kevin McCarthy Faces Challenges To Speakership From Hardliners; Control Of House Still Up For Grabs With 20 Uncalled Races; Georgia Runoff Election For Senate Seat To Be Held On December 6th; Biden In Indonesia Ahead Of G20 Summit, Meeting With Chinese President Xi; Trump To Make Special Announcement At Mar-a-Lago. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired November 13, 2022 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: You can catch my full interview with Michelle as well as more of our sit-downs with AOC and Harry Winkler anytime you want on HBO Max.

Thank you for watching and please join us here on CNN every Sunday night to find out WHO'S TALKING next.

PAULA REID, CNN HOST: I'm Paula Reid in Washington. It's ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA CONTINUED.

Five days after the nation went to the polls the biggest remaining question is, who will control the House? With votes still being counted in 20 races Republicans are in the lead with 211 seats. The GOP needs seven more to win the majority.

Now Democrats have achieved what seemed almost inconceivable just a few days ago. CNN projects they will retain control of the Senate. Now at any moment in Arizona we're expecting a huge new batch of voting numbers from Maricopa County. The new tally could have a huge impact on one of the most watched governor's races in the country. Trump firebrand Kari Lake trails Katie Hobbs.

So let's begin this hour in Arizona. CNN's Kyung Lah, she has been reporting in Arizona for years. She is one of the best people to help us explain what is going on there right now.

Kyung, what's the latest?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll give it a go at least. We are expecting in this hour some time that there is going to be a release of votes, about 90,000 or so. That is going to be the largest category of votes number-wise since election night, since the big first results came out. So this will really give us some sense of where this race is heading.

It is still too early to call this race between the Republican Kari Lake and the Democrat Katie Hobbs. Democrat Katie Hobbs has been leading just by inches, and so this may be -- this is what it may be coming down to, Paula. So some time in this hour, perhaps in the next 30 minutes or so, we are anticipating that this clarifies it just a little bit.

And the reason why we are paying such close attention to this particular batch of votes is because this is where the Lake campaign says they have their path. This is it, the mail ballots that were returned on election day, it is anticipated, according to the campaign, to lean their way. If it does not, it is going to give us an indication of how the rest of this could potentially go. So we are anxiously awaiting this.

The tabulation is still continuing for all of these ballots. The curing process of just a very small number of votes, just about 10,000 or so, Paula, that is continuing as well. And that's simply trying to track down some of those signature verified -- the ballots that they were not able to signature verify and make sure that those ballots are connected to real people. So stay tuned. In the next 30 minutes to an hour we're going to certainly have a better picture of this very, very tight race -- Paula.

REID: All right, Kyung Lah, we look forward to talking to you again later in the hour.

Now if Republicans win the House get ready for a battle within the party because members of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus are openly challenging Leader Kevin McCarthy's bid to become speaker.

Now CNN's Jeff Zeleny is here with more.

Now, Jeff, even if you have the majority does it matter if there's so much fighting within the party? How messy could this get?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, it could get very messy and we're about to find out this week. I mean, A, we aren't going to know the answer to the question if Republicans actually are going to be in control of the House for possibly a few more days. But the House Republicans are going to be holding leadership elections on Tuesday, and there's no doubt there is a serious challenge to Kevin McCarthy's leadership.

At this point no one has emerged as necessarily one rival. But as we have seen in speaker elections and leadership elections in years past, this can move very, very quickly. So Kevin McCarthy I'm told has been working the phones throughout the weekend, trying to shore up support, and he has considerable support of course from some hard liners like Jim Jordan, obviously his longtime colleague Steve Scalise as well.

But there certainly is a question of how much support he has out there and what he will have to do in order to assure the votes, what concessions he'll have to make even to get the job. But of course as most things still do in the Republican Party things revolve around the former president, Donald Trump. And of course he has a big announcement on Tuesday.

I'm told that Kevin McCarthy still speaks very regularly to the former president. He has been over the weekend as well. So we will see if there's any signals from that coming. But this is certainly a tense moment for Kevin McCarthy. [20:05:01]

He did not expect the majority, if they get one, would be this small. So this is something he's been waiting for and wanting for a long time. He had a narrow shot at the speakership several years ago, did not get that. So certainly on the House and Senate side this week big election, leadership elections, so we do not know, of course, how this is going to play. But he's just trying to keep his base happy and, you know, all these questions at bay.

REID: Well, one of the things these hard liners want is the right to depose their speaker, vote him out.

ZELENY: Right.

REID: Of course, McCarthy doesn't want to hand them that power, but does he have any choice?

ZELENY: We'll see. I mean, that's one of the concessions that he would have to make potentially. And that is one of the things or two to vote to vacate the speakership, basically, to vote out the speaker if there's a controversy. He may have to make that concession, and of course that could come back to haunt him later on.

So never mind how difficult this job is going to be with this narrow of a majority, he simply has to make many concessions to get the job in the first place. But, again, all this is presumed on the basis that Republicans will control the House. And there is still a mathematical possibility for Democrats to win control. Very, very narrow but certainly this week is going to be fascinating in terms of House elections and the actual elections still via a handful of races that are still yet to be called.

REID: Fascinating indeed. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

ZELENY: Sure.

REID: Right now, we are watching some very tight House races. 218. That's the magic number needed, and so far Democrats have 204 seats while Republicans have 211. Now senior data reporter Harry Enten is here to break down where these races stand.

All right. Harry, we see you everywhere. You're one of the hardest working people at CNN. Help us break this down. Where does the House stand if everything continues to trend in the same direction it is right now? Where does that leave us?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: It leaves you with a very narrow Republican majority. So right now if you basically say, OK, you take the leaders in all the races where do you stand? You stand Republicans at 221 to Democrats 214. But that is well within any margin of error, right, because there are a bunch of races that we haven't called yet. And I'll be honest with you, a week ago at this time the fact that we would still be talking about who would control the House and not know it as a mathematical certainty is something I truly did not envision and is truly one of the more shocking things I've seen in all of my years following politics.

REID: Well, you're right. Many people are surprised because this is not what was expected. But here we are. From the data, where are some places that potentially Democrats could make up some ground?

ENTEN: Yes. California is I think the real slice of pie that Democrats are going to be looking at. So you can take a look at the 13th Congressional District. Look how close this race is. It's 84 votes with less than 50 percent of the estimated vote counted. You know, I've been following this race, and when I looked at it at the end of last week what you essentially had was I believe a two-point race.

So you've seen this more and more mail-in ballots have come in the 13th District. You've seen the Democrat Adam Gray closing, closing, closing. There's also the 22nd District which I think kind of gets at how this path is for Democrats. And what you see in the 22nd District is you see right now Rudy Salas down by five points. But again, look, well, less than 50 percent of the estimated vote in. David Valadao was up by eight points when I was covering this race at the end of last week.

And keep in mind, the 22nd District or at least what now is the 22nd District back in 2018. David Valadao led for about a month after election day because giving up that lead. So that's low we can potentially be in this, I'm not saying we're going for a moment. But I'm just saying hold on, folks, it may take a while.

REID: A very long time but we know it could potentially take that long, but there are also places where Democrats are ahead but they could lose ground. Break that down for us.

ENTEN: Sure. So, you know, part of the problem if you're looking for Democrats to somehow get to 218 is it's not just they have to win seats that Republicans currently lead and they have to hold on to their narrow advantages. So take a look here in Arizona where obviously Kyung Lah is, and you can see that right now you have the Democrat up by a little less than a point. But David Schweikert, the incumbent, has been closing, closing, closing.

So basically what Democrats have to do is they have to win those seats where they're trailing and then they have to hold on to seats like this. That's not the easiest thing. It's possible, that's why we're still here talking about it but I think if you're a Democrat you have to get used to the idea that it's more likely you'll have a Speaker Kevin McCarthy than a speaker who's a Democrat.

REID: All right. Harry Enten, thank you so much. We'll talk to you again next hour.

ENTEN: Thank you.

REID: Now one Senate race that won't be decided for a few more weeks is of course Georgia. Georgia will hold a runoff election between Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Raphael Warnock. So now both men are racing to finish with dueling campaign events.

CNN's Nadia Romero has more.

[20:10:02]

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, it is back on the campaign trail for both Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. Let's start with the incumbent. Raphael Warnock was here on the campus in Morehouse College, a historically black college in the city of Atlanta, and this is where he was able to do so well, when you look at exit polls from the last election.

Let's take a look at the numbers. The voters of color overwhelmingly voted for Raphael Warnock, 81 percent. He also did very well with that younger vote, the 18 to 29-year-olds. And then look, 68 percent of urban voters supported Raphael Warnock.

I want you to hear from Raphael Warnock and hear from his Republican challenger Herschel Walker as they got out this weekend to try to rally the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm reaching out to the folks who didn't vote for me the last time. Maybe they voted for the libertarian candidate. Maybe they voted for Herschel Walker. And I want you to ask yourself a serious question, who do you think is really ready and who do you think is fit?

HERSCHEL WALKER (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: You voted the last time, go vote for me again. Or tell the people that didn't vote for me they need to vote for me. Because if they didn't vote for me they're going to have the government running their life. And I'll tell you what the government can't even run its own life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: And when you take a look at Herschel Walker's voters, what a difference from what we saw from the people who voted for Raphael Warnock. 70 percent of white voters they voted for Herschel Walker. 58 percent were 65 and older. Remember Warnock did really well with that younger voting bloc. 63 percent of rural voters voted for Herschel Walker.

So that would make sense for him to be in Peachtree City, which is south of Atlanta, an area that's going to be much more rural than a more urban city like Atlanta, and you're going to have a lot more white voters where Herschel Walker polled well and did well in the exit poll as well.

Both candidates know that it's crunch time, less than a month before the runoff elections on December 6th -- Paula.

REID: Thank you, Nadia.

There is something about Georgia as it's gearing up for yet another runoff election to decide the last Senate seat still up for grabs. So what should we expect? Well, top Georgia election official Gabe Sterling joins me next as ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA CONTINUED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:15:44]

REID: Just 23 days until Georgians go to the polls and decide the last Senate race in these midterms. Our next guest is a top voting official in Georgia and will oversee that runoff election. Gabe Sterling is the chief operating officer for Georgia's Secretary of State.

All right, Gabe, two years ago Georgia voters tipped the Senate to Democrats. Now with control of the Senate no longer a factor, will that hurt turnout that there's not as much at stake?

GABE STERLING, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE OFFICE: I think in all likelihood it will probably affect turnout and drive a little bit lower. But for those of us on the ground here I don't think we'll have a measurable difference in the number of TV ads, text messages and e-mails that we get regardless of whether or not controls is on the line or not.

REID: That's a very good point. Expect everyone there to be inundated. Now, last year Georgia passed a law that cut the length of the time for these runoffs from nine weeks to four. So is that enough time for you to ensure that election workers and officials can run a smooth runoff?

STERLING: Well, it's a cruel mischaracterization to call it a new law. What the law has always been has been four weeks. In 2013 a federal judge extended it because of having to deal with military and overseas voters, extended it to nine weeks. What we did as we had an instant runoff so we go back to what had traditionally been the runoff which had been four week.

Paul Carbondale was elected in a runoff in 1992, that was four weeks. Saxby Chamblis won a runoff. All these pieces and parts can all move together. Now this is the first time we're going to do a runoff with this many paper ballots which will make it a little bit different. But our county is going to be up for the challenge.

REID: And when can voters actually get their ballots?

STERLING: They can request them now. We're in the middle of sending out the ballot proofs. We've been doing them over the weekend. Our team and center for elections working all day on their holiday on Friday. And everybody should have all their proofs from the counties tomorrow, November 14th. Sign off on them. You can make your request now if you want to do an absentee ballot. If you're over 65 or disabled and you made the request to get them throughout the cycle you don't have to request them again.

So the one thing that's really up in the air right now is how we deal with early voting because we haven't even certified the election. We have to do a risk limiting audit, which will begin this Thursday and should be completed by Monday, and we -- actually by Friday and we anticipate certifying on Monday, and then early voting can open on Tuesday and Wednesday. But by state law we cannot have it on Thursday, Thanksgiving, Friday is a state holiday and Saturday is following a Thursday holiday so you can't have any voting then under state law.

So you can pick it back up again on Sunday. There's mandatory early voting from Monday, the 28th, to Friday, December 2nd. I hope that was confusing enough for your audience.

REID: Well, one quirk of this reduced tightened timeframe is that the deadline for new voter registration has already passed. I mean is that a feature whereas if you didn't participate in the original election you should be able to participate in the runoff, or is that a bug? Is that really a flaw in the system here?

STERLING: I wouldn't say it's either thing. Historically the state constitution of Georgia lays out that the runoff is supposed to be a continuation of the original election. So for years in Georgia it was always the cut off for the registration for the runoff would have been the same cut off for this. Federal law is slightly different. It gives a little bit of a quirk. So for those 30 days from the original cut off for the November election, anybody who registered like anybody who moved to the state who got their driver's license they're automatically registering, they're allowed to vote in the runoffs.

So there really is 30 additional days of registration beyond what was there, but there has to be a cut off in the way our system is built. So it's a little bit quirky, but, again, there's a whole 30 days people who register from there -- when the rules are the rules and the laws are laws everybody knows that. Somebody complained what if you're 18? In Georgia you can start this process if you're 17 1/2, and if you did you're registered. So there's some responsibility on the voters in this thing.

But the reality is if you're a registered voter in this state, and we have 7.9 million of them, you're able to vote in this state whether you vote in the general election or not.

REID: The state of Georgia really is fascinating right now, though, politically. You flipped the Senate Democrats two years ago and Democrat Raphael Warnock received 35,000 more votes than Herschel Walker in the midterms.

[20:20:00]

So what have you seen there on the ground about how this reliably red state has turned purple in some respects?

STERLING: Well, Paula, I have gray hair and I've been in the state for a long time. And what people don't realize is we're not exactly the most reliably red state. We didn't -- Georgia was the last state in the union to elect a Republican governor. It was in 2002. So some historical perspective on this, I came up politically in the '80s and '90s, we had our teeth kicked in by Democrats constantly.

So this is kind of going back to a competitive state which is not an unhealthy thing in some ways. But it is surprising to people from the outside looking in. But it shouldn't be surprising that, you know, President Biden won the state by 11,779 votes. Stacey Abrams has lost the state to Governor Kemp by 55,000 votes four years ago. But this time Governor Kemp won by 300,000 votes.

And my boss, Secretary Raffensperger won by 368,000 votes. I think voters are discerning, and you saw that in the difference -- in about 200,000 vote difference between what Governor Kemp got and what Herschel Walker got. And it's interesting because I think Stacey Abrams was a drag on the Democrat ticket and Governor Kemp was a pull up on the Republican ticket. So watch what happens when these two men stand alone. It will be interesting to watch.

REID: All right. Gabe Sterling, we will be watching indeed. Thank you very much.

STERLING: Thank you, Paula. Have a great night.

REID: All right. We have breaking news. A new vote count in the Arizona governor's race. CNN's Kyung Lah is at the Maricopa County election center in Phoenix -- Kyung.

LAH: Well, we just got these just a short time ago, Paula, just seconds ago. The Maricopa County vote drop, it is about 98,000 ballots. It's the largest one. What we can tell you is that Katie Hobbs still maintains her lead over Kari Lake. She is maintaining a lead of about 48,000 votes. Now that margin is tighter. It is smaller than it was here in Maricopa County versus the last report. The last report had that margin at about 57,000. Now it's 48,000.

So Lake does advance, makes that margin a little bit tighter, but Hobbs maintains her lead. What we are now told by Maricopa County, and we're doing some loose math here, is that they have just under 100,000 ballots left. So not that many ballots left, 100,000. They are moving very, very rapidly here now that the processing has been done. They simply have to tabulate that. They anticipate that they will get through the large bulk of these ballots by tomorrow night.

So tomorrow night they are going to have another vote release, but right now I can tell you, Paula, that we are seeing this race tightening. The margin is a little smaller, but Katie Hobbs maintains her lead. She is a Democrat running for governor, still over the Republican who's running for governor, Kari Lake.

And what is particularly interesting about this, Paula, is that in talking to the Lake campaign they are putting their eggs into this basket. They anticipated a huge swing. They were very -- there's a lot of bravado on social media saying that tonight was a night that they were going to take the lead. That did not happen here in Maricopa County.

The bulk of the votes, the largest vote bulk is here in this county. It is the most populous county here in the state of Arizona, and what the Lake campaign had been anticipating simply did not happen, though she did advance. Still 100,000 votes left to count, and we just have to see how that goes -- Paula.

REID: All right, Kyung Lah. Thank you so much. Just want to note that the graphic on the screen those are of course the statewide totals but Kyung Lah is in Maricopa County. She is keeping an eye on that critical district for us, and we'll talk much more about these vote totals with our panel next. It's ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA CONTINUED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:27:42]

REID: And moments ago we got new vote totals in the Arizona governor's race. Our political panel joins us to discuss.

All right, Mark Preston, what stands out to you?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple of things. One is, I mean, if we think overall, and we look at this election, the election deniers seem -- by and large seemed to have lost. And those who have lost their races have conceded, so that's why we're all looking at Arizona right now because the biggest election denier, one of the loudest voices about it of course is Kari Lake, and she's Republican nominee, you know, for governor in Arizona.

Here's the situation, though. While she did gain some ground right there, we think that she's expected to get much more ground gained, and now the pie is starting to shrink right now. And for her path to win is getting smaller. I don't think we're going to call this race tonight. There's still 100,000 votes out in Maricopa County. We saw 93,000 just dropped right now. I know we have to cure as well.

As the election officials say, Paula, let's just all take a deep breath and let the officials do their work.

REID: Well said. Well said.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: But it seems like she -- I mean, even as these officials are doing their work, she has been sowing doubt. And you have had officials in Arizona, Democrats and Republicans, complimenting each other about the important work that they're doing and the fair work that they're doing. So you are seeing this kind of pushback in real time to the disinformation that she and her campaign are trying to spread even as the votes aren't even counted yet.

PRESTON: Right.

REID: It's interesting to see all those people come together against this common enemy, disinformation, false claims.

KUCINICH: Well, they've been through this rodeo before particularly in Maricopa County. I mean, they were kind of ground zero, one of the several ground zeros, I guess, in the last election. So I think there's an acknowledgement of how fast and how united that they have to be to push back on this as it's coming in.

REID: Absolutely. Now, if Republicans take the House, I mean how much will their internal squabbling, their infighting matter in terms of actually getting anything done? Does it matter if you have the majority if you're fighting amongst yourselves?

KUCINICH: I think we all are watching this in real time. Kevin McCarthy sounds like the Freedom Caucus is going to make his life hard from go. I mean, look at John Boehner, former Speaker John Boehner, what he had to deal with.

[20:30:05]

Less so with Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan had to deal with it a little bit. But it seems like as the margin shrinks the more you have to pay attention to every section of your conference. I mean I know, you know, Laura's covered this as well. It's been -- we're already seeing these challenges form, and they're not going to make his life any easier. That's for sure. And they have no incentive to.

REID: No incentive at all. And Laura, clearly control of the Senate is very important. And going into these races, though, a lot of people thought that President Biden was really a liability for the candidates, but how much credit does he deserve for the Senate control?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a lot of Democrats are giving him credit including Senator Elizabeth Warren I think today was out there saying that Democrats should credit him because of the fact that he was really crystallizing they think the argument heading into the final stretch. A lot of people did doubt what he was focusing on, and Biden was focusing on what he and his administration had been doing they think to help America's pocketbooks but also abortion access and threats to democracy.

Those were two of the biggest arguments from the president and from a number of other Democrats. And there was a question about whether or not those two focuses would actually help vulnerable Democrats. Now I -- although some of the polls didn't always show that that was top of mind for voters. When I was traveling in Michigan and when I was talking to some voters in Pennsylvania, it was very clear that abortion access was front and center for a lot of those voters.

In Michigan there was a ballot measure, an abortion ballot measure in that state along with four other states, but in Pennsylvania some of the voters that I was talking to in the lead up were saying that they were squarely focused on abortion, it was motivating Democrats. And they also brought up democracy a lot and their fear about all of these election lies that was a common theme as Mark mentioned across states.

It wasn't just in Arizona. There were election deniers up and down the ballot in Michigan. There were some in Pennsylvania, and across the board they appear to have lost. I don't think that that means, though, that election lies are going to go away at all because we see that the former president is continuing to spread those lies.

KUCINICH: It does speak to candidate quality, right? It's one of the reasons that these people couldn't go the distance. And in some cases you had national Republicans pull their money not to support them, but in other cases they were all in just to grow their numbers. And I'll just say one more thing about Kevin McCarthy. He did bring this on himself.

When you had all of the fringe members of the conference doing things that were sort of out of the norm to say the least throughout the last conference, instead of, you know, taking them in and saying this is inappropriate, we shouldn't be, you know, doing this, he brought them into the fold.

And he -- you know, by allowing that to happen, by not having any sort of discipline -- I know it sounds like something out of school or something. But by not having any sort of structure like that, he empowered them and that's where he's at.

REID: That's really interesting. Now, let's look ahead to Georgia. You have been on the ground reporting in that state. You would know better than anybody what does it mean if Raphael Warnock takes this seat? What does that one extra Senate seat mean for the Biden administration and its agenda?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I think it's pivotal. I think, you know, some are trying to sort of downplay its significance because Georgia is not again going to be in the position to determine the Senate majority, but it's still huge. We have seen that there are at least two senators who are not -- Democratic senators who are not reliable Democratic votes, right, Senator Manchin, Senator Sinema.

It leads to less pressure on Senator Schumer to have to persuade them if you have Senator Warnock who has proved to be a much more reliable Democratic vote, and then also when you're thinking about confirmation of judges, President Biden being able to move his appointees through, that helps as well. But also I think it's important for the state of Georgia.

You know, Senator Warnock and Herschel Walker have been running their campaigns very differently. They're very different candidates. And really key to Senator Warnock's re-election argument is that he is willing to work with Republicans, right? We are living in a very polarizing time, and we don't hear that a lot. We don't hear candidates center as core to their re-election argument that they want to work with the other party.

And so does this work? Is he successful? Is he able to peel off independents and moderates with this election argument? I think that is a big test.

PRESTON: Well, I know what's interesting, too, if you really want to get great insight into Joe Biden, what does Joe Biden think, who is Joe Biden, he was asked this question yesterday when he's overseas in an extremely important trip. And they said, what does this mean, this Georgia seat, and he said, it means more committee assignments.

And what that means is actually more power within the United States Senate for Democrats as a whole. But it just goes to show you that Joe Biden, president, and vice president, he's really an institutionalist. He really is a senator more than anything.

[20:35:03]

So, as we're trying to move forward, as Republicans are trying to, you know, get their act together on the hill, can Joe Biden go in and cut deals, you know, with Mitch McConnell, other Republicans in this final two years because that's the only way he's going to get anything done is his ability to try to come to the center.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And on that committee power that you're talking about it also means subpoena power, right, which Democrats don't have right now in that 50-50 Senate. It would be -- if there's a House Republican and then House Republicans in power and dueling with Senate Democrats in terms of investigations, that's another thing that we could see if Georgia goes to Democrats.

REID: That is a great point. All right, everyone stay with us. We have new vote totals coming in tonight at the Arizona governor's race. Stay with us for instant updates.

It's ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA CONTINUED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REID: CNN's special election coverage will continue in a minute, but first President Biden is in Indonesia ahead of the G20 summit and a high stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping just hours from now. It'll be the first face-to-face talks between the two leaders since Biden took office. And it's a marquee event for Biden on this overseas trip. On the agenda North Korea and its escalating series of missile tests, Taiwan, China's ambitions there, and tensions over trade relations between Washington and Beijing.

[20:40:01]

And joining us now is CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser.

All right, Susan, let's start with this Biden-Xi meeting. What can Biden realistically accomplish here?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, let's just say that the president's advisers are trying to set expectations low. How low? Well, the other day they gave a briefing in which they suggested that the goal here of this face-to-face meeting was to, quote, "establish the floor in the relationship." So obviously they're not looking at any kind of major agreements coming out of this conversation.

It's really a chance for two very wary global powers coming out of this pandemic, isolation that Xi has maintained much longer than other leaders to actually assess each other face-to-face, something that President Biden, of course, you know, values very much. He's still a believer in personal diplomacy.

REID: The floor that's about as low as it gets in terms of setting expectations, but back home it's been a successful midterm for Democrats now that they're projected to hold the Senate. Does that matter abroad? Does this help bolster Biden's standing on the world stage? GLASSER: Well, I think it does to a certain extent. First of all of

course it increases Biden's own confidence headed into the G20 meeting. That is undoubtedly the case. It's also the case that the world has been undergoing I would say a big case of, you know, super power shock the last few years as it's become clear that the extent of America's internal political problems are also affecting its ability to lead on the world stage.

And I think, you know, for many people one of the big questions when you meet with President Biden is well, you know, what's the point of making an agreement with Biden if in two years or four years you're simply going to see a new government, a new administration come in like that of Donald Trump that's going to throw out agreements that the United States had made? And so I think one of those questions that world leaders have is America -- you know, does it have a national foreign policy or just a partisan foreign policy? So that helps.

I also think the other issue that's on the agenda here is Ukraine, and I think that's something that I think President Biden is going to bring up with Xi if only to point out that the U.S. sticks by its friends and that, you know, Russia has not done very well with its territorial war of aggression.

REID: Well, speaking of Russia, one world leader who won't be at the G20 Summit is of course Vladimir Putin. And earlier this week Biden spoke about negotiating Brittney Griner's release with the Russian leader. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My guess is, my hope is that now that the election is over, that Mr. Putin will be able to discuss with us and be willing to talk more seriously about prisoner exchange. That is my intention. My intention is to get her home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Do you really think there's any chance that Putin would be willing to play ball this time?

GLASSER: Well, what I learned from that comment is that the Russians haven't been serious up until now in their conversations with the administration to the extent they've been occurring at all about Brittney Griner. Unfortunately, as I have, you know, said from the beginning of this, she's a hostage. She's a hostage of the Putin government because she's the most high-profile one they have, not one to be let go of lightly.

And I think the fact that they just transferred her to Russian penal colony this week is obviously grim news and it doesn't suggest that any kind of release is going to be happening anytime soon.

REID: Agreed. Susan Glasser, thank you so much for joining us.

GLASSER: Thank you. REID: The wave turned into a trickle, but former President Trump still

has a special announcement scheduled for Tuesday. A look ahead next as ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:47:47]

REID: ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA continues. Former president Donald Trump is expected to announce another run for the White House this Tuesday, according to his adviser Jason Miller. While speaking on Steve Bannon's podcast Friday, Miller confirmed the run adding that Trump's announcement from Mar-a-Lago would be, quote, "very professional, very buttoned up."

Now CNN contributor and Trump biographer and author of "The Truth about Trump," Michael D'Antonio, joins us now.

All right, Michael, are you surprised that the former president will be making this announcement this week?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Not at all. I think that Donald Trump really only has one or two gears, and they both are forward. He doesn't have any reverse. So he's got to move forward. He's going to declare for the presidency I think in part because he foreshadowed a couple of weeks ago when he gave a speech. And if you watch what happened actually to Jason Miller a few days before he said he was sure Trump would announce, the same fellow was saying he shouldn't, he should delay.

And I think that what Miller decided was that the old Trump method isn't going away so you're either with him or against him. And if you're against him, he's going to run over you. So this is the same Donald Trump we've always known.

REID: Well, it is a little bit different. And let's talk about what does a White House run look like for the former president now. I mean, we all saw what happened in 2016. The world was watching. 2020 was a little different because of COVID. But now he's walking into potentially a third time running but many of his candidates have lost their midterm elections. He now has a record that can be assessed. So doesn't that make a difference this time around?

D'ANTONIO: Oh, I think you're correct. The context is completely different now, and he does have trouble adjusting to change. So, again, if the person that you're talking about only has this very small playbook with a very few good but limited plays, he may not have the capacity to adjust to a new environment.

[20:50:02]

I think that he's also already maneuvering to blame other people for what happened to his candidates in the midterms. There's a lot of talk coming out of his camp about how the Republican Party, the national party, didn't support his candidates the way they should, but the other side can push back and say, listen, we put $30 million into Dr. Oz, one of your celebrities. And it turned out he didn't win. And the other Trump candidates, most of them failed as well. So you're correct. This is a very different situation, a very different environment, but the same fellow.

REID: A lot -- more of that infighting that we were talking about earlier with our panel and how that impacts the Republican Party as a whole. Now the former president is of course facing state and criminal federal investigations. Do you think that is factoring into his decision to announce now?

D'ANTONIO: Oh, I certainly do. He's counting on this idea, and it's reflected in the Office of Legal Counsel decision related to prosecuting presidents, that a former president who's running for office or any major candidate for office should not be prosecuted during the campaign.

Now I don't think that this is necessarily going to hold in this case because the federal government has been investigating him for a couple of years. I think Merrick Garland, the attorney general, has delayed in order to get past the midterm. But he's not going to let evidence of a crime go unprosecuted.

So I think he's mistaken in that way. I also think he's planning on a huge uprising should he be prosecuted. And I'm not sure that's going happen either. There were all these suggestions that there was going to be protests and even the president, the former president, called for protests on the night of the election, and it never materialized.

REID: All right. Well, Michael D'Antonio, thank you so much.

D'ANTONIO: Thank you.

REID: I want to continue this conversation with our panel. All right.

Alice, this morning, Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, told CNN that he worries that Trump's special announcement and possible involvement in the Georgia Senate runoff could cost the GOP. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): But there's no question he's still the 800- pound gorilla. And it's still a battle. It's going to continue for the next two years. I would just say that we're two years out from the next election, and we're just trying to -- you know, the dust is settling from this one. I think it would be a mistake. As I mentioned, Trump's cost us the last three elections. And I don't want to see it happen a fourth time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: So, how worried should Republicans be about this special announcement on Tuesday?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think a lot of rational Republicans agree with Governor Hogan and "Wall Street Journal" as well in their opinion piece this week said that ever since Donald Trump won, he has a perfect record of electoral defeat. And what many are looking at, conservatives, commonsense conservatives, look at this election. The candidates that focused on immigration and crime and issues that are important to the American people, they fared well.

Those that were more extreme candidates, that looked at election denials and conspiracy theories and relitigating 2020, those are the candidates that did not do well. So many people are looking at Donald Trump, who in the Republican Party did have a purpose. When he ran in 2016, he wanted to give voice to many Americans who didn't feel their voice was being heard. But his brand of extremism has met its expiration date.

And a lot of Republicans are looking for him to move forward. They do not want him involved in the Georgia Senate race because he got involved in the runoff election two years ago and cost us two Senate seats that lost us the balance of power or the majority in the Senate. So they would prefer for him to stay on the sidelines and put all of the focus on Republicans uniting behind Herschel Walker in Georgia.

REID: Well, Paul, another Trump-backed candidate, one of the most high profile ones, is of course candidate for Governor in Arizona, Kari Lake. That race still undecided. But what will her win or loss mean for the former president's standing in the party?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it'll mean nothing because he'll take credit if she wins and he'll blame her or somebody else if she loses. You know, how he is. He's a heads I win, tails you lose type. I suspect right now, I've been in those campaign headquarters. Non quite maybe like Miss Lake, but there's a fight going on right now, I promise. There's a debate and it's between team math and team myth. Right?

[20:55:05]

The math suggests this is very difficult. Not impossible at all. I think we're wise not to call it. But I think she gained 9,000 votes out of the last 90,000. There's about 160 left. She needs 26. So, I think it's very, very tough for her. But math and in reality have never been Mr. Trump's long suits. And so, you know, I think he just rolls on. I think Alice made a really good point. We just saw Governor Hogan.

Trump cost them three seats in the Senate before the filing deadline. They could have gotten Larry Hogan, they should have, to run in Maryland. He's a beloved, very popular Republican governor in a Democratic state, he might have won. They could have gotten Chris Sununu in New Hampshire. He probably would have won. He wouldn't run. They could have kept Pat Toomey from retiring, he's younger than half the senators. He didn't.

I believe in part it's because those three Republicans, good people all, didn't want to live in Trump's party anymore and they didn't want to serve in Trump's version of the Senate.

REID: Well, Mia, right-wing media figures are also turning on Trump. How significant is it if he loses that echo chamber that he's really been dependent on for the past, you know, over six, seven years?

MIA LOVE (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: He'll do everything he possibly can to continue to seek it. Now not only is Trump a drag on the Republican Party, he also takes people completely off message and has them focus on things that have nothing to do with the American people and everything to do with Donald Trump. For instance, voters were wondering how they were going to make ends meet, rolling into winter with gas and grocery prices still beyond the reach of so many people.

And the biggest test for both Democrats and Republicans was if they had a plan to help with those very issues. Democrats talk about democracy. Abortion in a lot of states was on the -- was the top issue for Democrats. But Republicans failed to articulate a message of how they were going to fix the economy, what they were going to do to help people. They talked about the issues. They talked about the right issues.

But they failed to talk about or produce a plan that was going to make tomorrow better for Americans, give them a vision of something positive that they can look forward to that was worth voting at the booth for Republicans.

This was completely winnable. It should have been winnable. Both Houses should have been winnable for Republicans.

REID: All right, Maria, really quickly. 2024, in your opinion, would Democrats rather run against former President Trump or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well --

LOVE: I think they'd want to --

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: You know, I could sit here and say one side or the other, but I think the reality is that there's going to be a clash of the Titans within the Republican Party to figure out who's going to be their nominee. And, look, I appreciate my dear friend Alice and Mia talking about how they believe the Republican Party lost because of Trump. And I think it's true. And how the Republican Party needs to turn the page from Trump.

But that is never going to happen until the elected officials in Trump's own party get the backbone and get the cajones to say, Mr. Trump, your rule, your era, is over because right now you have Kevin McCarthy. He is still, you know, towing the line. You have Elise Stefanik, who wants to challenge McCarthy. She tweeted how she is already supporting Donald Trump for his 2024 run.

Jason Miller, you had this in the last interview, had said essentially, support Trump or else. And so, this is going to be a huge fight within the party that's going to continue to tear the party apart while Democrats are going to focus on the American people and what they need. REID: All right. Thank you very much. Everyone, stay with us. CNN has

a new projection. We'll have that for you and much more after the break, as ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)