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CNN Projects Democrats Will Keep the Senate; Kherson Residents Celebrate City's Liberation; Biden in Asia; Control of U.S. House of Representatives Still Undecided; Surge in Cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 13, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers watching across the United States and around the word. Live from Studio 7 at the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Michael Holmes.

CNN can report the Democrats will hold the United States Senate for another two years. The critical moment came hours ago when Nevada's Senate race was called for the Democratic incumbent, Catherine Cortez Masto. She had been closing the gap in recent days and the latest bunch of votes pushed her to the lead.

The projected win in Nevada mirrors the Senate win in Arizona. That is projected to go to Democrat incumbent Mark Kelly. His opponent, Republican Blake Masters, hasn't yet conceded.

Now by claiming 50 seats, Democrats will control the Senate, with the vice president casting any tiebreaking votes. A win next month in the Georgia runoff would give Democrats a clear standalone majority of 51. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer says the vote result should send a clear message to Republicans.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MAJORITY LEADER: The American people rejected soundly rejected the anti-Democratic, authoritarian, nasty and divisive direction the MAGA Republicans wanted to take our country in.

And I'm making a plea to my Republican colleagues; we can disagree on so many issues. That's fair.

But let's not have this kind of divisive negativity. Let's not have the condemnation of viciousness and even violence against poll workers against so many others. Let us try to come together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now still undecided, the Arizona governor's race, where election denier Kari Lake is trailing the Democrat Katie Hobbs by some 30,000 votes. Let's take you to Nevada, where CNN's Rosa Flores has the very latest from Las Vegas.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The stakes were high, the margins were razor thin but, in the end, the Democratic incumbent prevailed. Catherine Cortez Masto gets to stay as the senator from the state of Nevada.

And with that, the Democrats get to keep and maintain control of the U.S. Senate. Here's how it all went down.

The Republican, Adam Laxalt, was in the lead for days and then, on Saturday evening, Clark County released a batch of about 23,000 votes. And here is how those votes were divided.

Catherine Cortez Masto receiving about 14,000 of those votes or 60 percent of the vote. Laxalt received more than 8,000 votes or about 35 percent of that batch. Now that put Catherine Cortez Masto in the lead and CNN called the race at that point in time.

Her campaign taking to Twitter, saying, quote, "What did people get wrong about this race?

"The first Latina senator knows her community better than anonymous sources. The daughter of a Teamster knows how to fight for working families. And CCM's -- or Catherine Cortez Masto's -- a former AG and crime attacks couldn't stick."

Again, the Democrat here, Catherine Cortez Masto, keeps her seat and stays a senator of Nevada -- Rosa Flores, CNN, Las Vegas.

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HOLMES: Now with Arizona's governor's race still hanging in the balance, state election workers are processing hundreds of thousands of outstanding ballots. But some Republicans have complained the count is going too slow, falsely suggesting that's deliberate.

It's attracted small gatherings of protesters, as you see there. Adding to the mistrust, state Republicans sent out a tweet that also seemed to suggest the vote count in Maricopa County was not happening fast enough. But the county's top election official says those kinds of false claims are based on ignorance of Arizona law.

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BILL GATES (R-GA), CHAIR, MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: 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. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: CNN's senior political analyst David Gergen joins me live from Boston.

Thanks for making the time, David.

So what does it say about the electorate and predictions in this election, that Democrats end up holding the Senate, might yet gain another seat, and, Republicans, if they hold the House, majority will be by a handful of seats?

What does that say about the electorate?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: This has been a remarkably good election and I think the message is that Americans are exhausted with a lot of the polarization and the poison that's in our system.

And they understood that extremism was taking over our politics. And this was a response. This was a rejection of extremism. The voters said it loud and clear all across the country. And I think that's very good for democracy in America.

It's not very good for the Republican Party but maybe it will wake them up to the fact that they're going down the wrong lane. They've been rejected two elections in a row now, 2018, 2020 and now 2022; three elections, really -- that they've been shown, you know, you can't win with this Trumpian polarization. It's just not working.

People see through it. And that's -- you know, frankly, that's healthy.

HOLMES: To that point, I mean and it's an important point, before the midterms, the election was largely couched as a referendum on Joe Biden, the economy.

But as you point out, did it end up being a referendum on, yes, abortion rights in many cases but on Donald Trump, him personally but also Trumpism, denialism, the extreme positions of some candidates, which Trump fostered?

GERGEN: Oh, I think absolutely. And Donald Trump, you know, you can't say it any other way. He is, every time he gets out, he tells us how he's in charge, he's responsible, he's the guy choosing the candidates. And he chose some lousy candidates.

The Republicans should have done a lot better. They should, under normal circumstances, they would have gained 20, 25 seats. Joe Biden has had the best midterm, first term of his office, best midterms in over 20 years. You have to go back some.

So he -- Biden deserves a lot of credit for this. But there's no question that this was a bad night for Donald Trump. And I no longer think he's invincible within the Republican Party. Republicans may be crazy sometimes but they're not stupid. They don't --

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HOLMES: So you think this is, you know, the end or, at least, the beginning of the end for Donald Trump, given the midterm performance of Republicans and also combined with the bright spot, if you like, performance of Florida's Ron DeSantis?

GERGEN: Absolutely. Well, I do think that the DeSantis profile has just shot up. It's gone skyward. Here's a man who is very well educated. And he's been a very shrewd governor of Florida.

But for a Republican governor to win every single county in Florida, it's just absolutely remarkable. So he's very much in the hunt and that's going to set up a DeSantis versus Trump-- you know, there's going to be a showdown in the party.

There are going to be some showdowns in the Democratic side, between the progressives and the more traditional people there. A lot of the traditionalists feel, had Biden not gotten himself back to center left, instead of being further out, you know, he wouldn't have pulled this off.

HOLMES: Yes, that's a great point. Progressives did well on the Left, as well. So you have a strong performance by Democrats, a failure on the Republican side, in judging the electorate.

But it's true, is it not, that it doesn't matter how close it is, Biden won't get anything passed legislatively in the House if it's in Republican hands, right?

What does that mean for his agenda?

GERGEN: Yes, that's a very, very good question because even though -- the Democrats have done really well. Republicans have done lousy. But if you think of what's going to happen in the next two years, the truth is, these midterm elections will make it harder to govern, because it's going to be so close in each chamber.

It appears that the House will go to Republicans at this point. There are some 2 dozen seats that are still -- that haven't been called for the House of Representatives. And if they split evenly, Republicans would win the House and have maybe a tiny margin of three, four votes.

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GERGEN: So that's a big deal. But I want to go back to this question of governance. You know, we've seen in the U.K. now how, with the decline of democracy and the rise of polarization and poison, how ungovernable Britain has become here recently.

Well, America was heading in the same direction. This gives -- this midterm election provides a glimmer of hope. It does not solve problems. It does not solve the problem of governance. But it gives a glimmer of hope that we will pull back together and end the madness that has beset American politics.

HOLMES: Yes, absolutely. And I wish we had time to talk about Gen Z and Millennials, because they played a big role in this.

GERGEN: We had -- this was an election that was very much about generations, almost as if we had two different parties running, a younger generation that voted massively for the Democrats and an older generation that voted pretty massively for Republicans.

And we've never seen that kind of split before. And I do think it's extremely telling and it's going to be with us for some time to come. It's going to be helping to define our politics.

HOLMES: Under 30s turned out in this election. David Gergen, always good to see you, appreciate the analysis. Thank you so much.

GERGEN: Thank you, Michael, good to be with you again.

HOLMES: All right, joy and relief in a war-torn city. Ahead, Ukrainians in Kherson celebrate their liberation after Russian soldiers are forced out. Hear from the residents, who endured months of occupation.

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HOLMES: Two days after being liberated from Russian occupiers, the Ukrainian city of Kherson is celebrating its long awaited freedom.

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HOLMES (voice-over): On Saturday, hundreds of excited residents filled the streets, cheering, waving flags, jumping for joy. They gave a hero's welcome to Ukrainian troops as they entered the area to restore security.

This woman greeting the soldiers with flowers and hugs, thanking them for pushing the Russians out.

Now have a look at this. Just four days ago, Moscow's army still controlled Kherson and several areas in the west. But now, have a look. By Friday, Ukraine took back the city and has now liberated some 60 settlements nearby. Ukraine's president says it's just the beginning.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): And the world sees it now. It sees what it means when Ukrainians meet their own people. It sees what the unity of Ukrainians means. And it sees why we should liberate our entire land from the invaders.

We will see many more such greetings in those cities and villages that are still under occupation.

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HOLMES: As Ukraine's offensive continues, a Russian-occupied city in eastern Kherson region has announced it would start evacuating officials and civilians.

But in neighboring Zaporizhzhya, Russian-backed officials say they have no plans to leave, despite the retreats in Kherson. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Kherson and shows us the euphoria that now prevails in that city.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): This is what liberation looks like.

And this is what it feels like. For the people of Kherson, euphoria; eight dark months of oppressive occupation over, their troops greeted as conquering heroes.

Residents cut off from the world: no internet, no electricity, no water and no TV, gathering in the city's central square, coming over to hear our broadcast and tell us what the past eight months have been like.

ROBERTSON: I'm joined here by Yulia (ph) and Olga (ph) and we'll have a quick conversation about how it's been.

Tell us about the last eight months under occupation.

YULIA (PH), KHERSON RESIDENT: It was a really hard time for everyone. Every Ukrainian family waited for our soldiers, for our army.

ROBERTSON: How does it feel now today to see them?

YULIA (PH): It is amazing, wonderful. Thank you very much for supporting us. We feel every day your support. Thank you so much.

Can I huge you?

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ROBERTSON: Thank you very much.

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ROBERTSON: Olga (ph), can we talk?

OLGA (PH), KHERSON RESIDENT: Yes, sure.

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

OLGA (PH): We were waiting so long. But we were sure that this day will come. And we will celebrate together with our people here and everywhere in the world.

Thanks for all the world that supported us, that help us. And this day we're 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.

ROBERTSON: And I think what everyone wants to know now, who is outside of here, what is the situation here now?

Please tell us about that.

OLGA (PH): The situation is very terrible. No gas -- no, sorry; gas we had. Electricity, no; power, no. Connection, connection, this is very important for people. People are lost. We don't know that --

ROBERTSON: No internet connection?

YULIA (PH): No internet connection, right. No water. But it is OK. We can wait. We can wait but, more important, Ukraine back here. We can call to our families, to our relatives and friends, and we want to say we are together.

ROBERTSON: And I think a lot of people were worried and the government was worried about, if the Russian soldiers would stay behind, if there would be a battle here.

Do you feel the city is safe now?

YULIA (PH): Yes, the city is safe for us.

ROBERTSON: And tell us how it was, because, again, we haven't had good information here.

What was the situation like, living with Russian soldiers in control?

OLGA (PH): The people you can see here now, I think that many of them were hiding. They are hiding their Ukrainian flag somewhere in the corner. We were terrified by Russian army.

We were terrified by soldiers that could come any moment in our house, in our home, just open the door like they are living here and steal, kidnap, torture. And this was very, very terrible. I have goose bumps now when I'm talking but we did that. We wait and we celebrate it now.

ROBERTSON: This is what liberation looks like. This is what liberation feels like. The people of this city tried to resist the Russians. The Russians suppressed them.

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ROBERTSON: This is what Ukrainians are like when that suppression comes off -- Nic Robertson, CNN, liberated Kherson, Ukraine.

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HOLMES: Powerful images in that report from Nic. Well, U.S. President Joe Biden looking to shore up relations with

leaders at the summit of Southeast Asian nations, in advance of his in-person meeting with the Chinese president Xi Jinping. We'll have a live report from Cambodia. Our Will Ripley is standing by. That's when we come back.

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HOLMES: U.S. President Joe Biden highlighting America's commitment to Asia at a series of summits in the region. He met with the Cambodian prime minister and other Southeast Asian leaders at the ASEAN summit, as he looks to counter China's growing influence. Here's part of what he said about the details of a new strategic partnership.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, we take another critical step, beginning a new era in our cooperation with the launch of the U.S.-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership.

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BIDEN: Together we'll tackle the biggest issues of our time, from climate to health security, defend against the significant threats of rule based order and to threats to the rule of law.

And to build an Indo-Pacific that is free and open, stable and prosperous, resilient and secure.

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HOLMES: Now in the coming hours, the president meets with the leaders of Japan and South Korea at the East Asian summit, also held in Cambodia. Despite historic tensions, both countries now united in concerns over North Korea's missile tests.

On Monday, Mr. Biden heads to Bali for the Group of 20 summit. He is expected to hold his first in-person talks with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, since taking office. The meeting will include the issue of Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own territory.

Joining me now is CNN's senior international correspondent Will Ripley.

So give us a heads-up on what we can expect with this high stakes meeting between Biden and Xi. Relations with the two nations at their lowest ever in a long time.

What are expectations?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting, because the two of them have a professional working relationship that goes back decades. They have met many times for many hours, face-to-face, before Biden became the U.S. President in various capacities.

So earlier, in both of their political careers, before they both reached the leadership of their two -- of the world's two most powerful countries, they worked together at lower level political positions.

So when you hear President Biden talk about this, he does not reflect the kind of -- the sense of urgency that we might convey when we talk about this meeting, the high stakes, you know, the fact that the U.S. and China tensions are at arguably their lowest level in decades.

He speaks with relative confidence about what he plans to do going in, the kind of meeting that he thinks is his greatest strength. Listen.

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BIDEN: I know Xi Jinping. I spent more time with him than any other world leaders. I know him well, he knows me. There's no -- we have very little misunderstanding. We have just got to figure out where the red lines are and what we -- what are the most important things are to each of us going into the next two years.

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RIPLEY: Well, the most important things from the perspective of the U.S. are obviously maintaining stability across the Taiwan Strait, which is something that China at least publicly claims they want, as well, even though they're in the middle of one of the largest military buildups that the world has ever seen and now have the world's largest navy.

And U.S. military intelligence assesses that China might be preparing to have its military ready to potentially take Taiwan within the next few years. These are issues that need to be addressed.

And there's no more candid way to do it, than for the two to look each other in the eye. President Biden thinks he is able to do that. They have a lot of other things to talk about, as well, from North Korea's nuclear program, to the issues the world is facing, the grave issues the world is facing because of climate change. Michael.

HOLMES: Will Ripley, thank you so much.

Quick break here on the program. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM, as more election returns come in across the U.S., we'll take a look at where the balance of power stands in the U.S. Congress. That's when we come back.

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HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers across the United States and around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Let's return to our top story now, the results from Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, as the counting continues.

CNN can project Democrats will retain control of the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto will hold onto her Nevada Senate seat, defeating the Republican Adam Laxalt.

Now in the House of Representatives, control not yet decided, with Democrats holding 204 seats, Republicans 211; 218 is the magic number needed to control the lower house.

CNN's John Berman with more now on how the balance of power in the Senate shifted in favor of the Democrats and what could happen in the House of Representatives.

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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 runoff 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 runoff 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 runoff 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 a 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.

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BERMAN: 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's just a margin of 84 votes with 46 percent reporting. So the Democrats could potentially, potentially pick up a few of these seats.

This seat, 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 2,100 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.

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HOLMES: Let's talk more about all of this by bringing in Elizabeth Thompson, the editor in chief of "The Nevada Independent" and joins me now live from Las Vegas.

Finally, hopefully now, you'll get some sleep. This has been such a close race, right down to the wire.

What was your takeaway as to why so close, why Cortez Masto prevailed?

ELIZABETH THOMPSON, "THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT": Well, Nevada is a swing state, remains so, has been so for a long time. We started to look blue the last couple of cycles. That means Democratic-leaning. But we really are a swing state.

And we have a very large portion of nonpartisan voters here, as well. From cycle to cycle, it is sometimes anyone's guess how the nonpartisans will lean. This year, though, in Nevada, for a variety of interesting reasons, the Democrat was able to prevail. So I guess all eyes are on Georgia now.

HOLMES: You know, we saw, you know, elsewhere, right around the country, that despite Republican focus on the economy, abortion rights, democracy and so on played bigger roles in the minds of voters than many perhaps expected.

What were the issues in Nevada that impacted the election?

What did you take away from what you've seen in that context?

THOMPSON: Yes, so, you're absolutely right. I think the economy and inflation, those were the top issues on voters' minds in Nevada. Every survey repeatedly showed those issues being at the top of mind.

But it wasn't quite that simple here. We were devastated by the pandemic and so that caused a lot of strong feelings in every direction across the political spectrum. Our Democratic governor was defeated, that was decided yesterday.

But Catherine Cortez Masto, the Democrat, she has a reputation, number one, for working across the aisle; number two, she is a tough campaigner. She was out there, for example, in the rural counties, which tend to favor Republicans.

She did not shy away from showing up to talk to voters in the rurals, to make her case for why she should get another term. She talked a lot, yes, about abortion rights and preserving that in Nevada. Close to 60 percent of Nevadans do support a woman's right to an abortion.

She also disconnected from the Biden administration a couple of times on some key issues, including student loan forgiveness. And she broke with them, as well, on a key mining tax bill, also very important to the rurals here.

So Catherine Cortez Masto just understands her state, hard worker and managed to overcome what we thought was going to be a red wave.

HOLMES: And it was interesting, too, I was reading the culinary union ran a big ballot outreach effort, reaching thousands of voters.

How important was the union vote in Nevada?

THOMPSON: Well, they're always important, I mean, the culinary union has more members by far than any union in Nevada. They are great at rallying their volunteers. They have been knocking on doors. I believe they knocked on a million doors just over the past few weeks.

And they were shouting that from the mountain tops here. They were also very actively engaged in the get out the vote effort here in Nevada, encouraging people to vote, even at the last minute, get your ballot into that drop box.

And they were even assisting this week voters who needed a signature checked, culinary was coordinating between the state system, noting which signatures needed to be checked and the voters themselves, who needed to get involved in that process.

So I'm sure they had an effect. Of course, there's always many reasons why an election tips one way or another. But, certainly, they had an influence here.

HOLMES: Yes, and the other thing -- I was talking about with David Gergen earlier in the program. [00:40:00]

HOLMES: Gen Z, under 30s voted in great numbers. I saw a college campus polling place in Arizona. They had a big turnout; 96 percent voted Democrat.

Do you yet know the significance of voter turnout, of younger voters in Nevada?

It seems to have been a very encouraging thing around the country.

THOMPSON: I saw one exit poll that looks like we saw an uptick of maybe a percentage point over the prior cycle. I'll be interested in the coming days to look at additional exit polls and surveys, as we try to parse through who voted for whom, who turned out and why.

It will be very interesting, I think, in the weeks to come, for us to figure that out. I want to remind our viewers, as well, we have a very high Latino population here in Nevada. They usually don't turn out at quite the same percentage as other demographic groups.

But I wouldn't be surprised to find that, in this particular cycle, they did. And it seems likely that they did not go to the Republican side quite as much as was predicted prior to the election.

HOLMES: You have had a heck of a week, I hope you get some rest. Elizabeth Thompson, thank you for staying up for us.

THOMPSON: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right, Donald Trump wasting no time assigning the blame for his party's losses, as he is wont to do, taking aim at Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell. It comes as the Senate minority leader is facing dissent within the Republican Party.

Some members calling for a delay in congressional leadership elections next week. But even some conservatives say Trump himself is to blame for the lackluster GOP performance.

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PAUL RYAN, FORMER REPUBLICAN HOUSE SPEAKER: I think Trump's kind of a drag on our ticket. I think Donald Trump gives us problems politically. We lost the House, the Senate and the White House in two years when Trump was on the ballot or in office.

And I think we just have some Trump hangover. I think he's a drag on our offices, in our races.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now after the Republicans' much anticipated red wave turned out to be barely a ripple, many of them are trying to figure out just how it went wrong. Our panel of experts breaks down the results and what it means for the Republican Party.

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GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: This may be the moment that we discovered that Donald Trump is not a kingmaker any longer. This is it. His candidates did not do well.

His election denial was not a big issue in this campaign. And I think that Republicans are going to have to do an awful lot of soul searching about whether they actually ran on issues that were geared to them and how they could have lost the senate with an election that was about inflation that was about crime that was about immigration.

Yes, it was also about abortion rights. But I and democracy, but I think that the fact that the Republicans couldn't pull this off is going to force them to go to the couch and have a little bit of therapy and say, why did we do this? Were we following the wrong leaders? And how can we fix this?

One short term answer might be to tell your voters that they should vote by mail, because maybe it's easier and maybe more people do it. And, you know, if you don't want to show up on Election Day, as Donald Trump wants you to show up, just vote any way you want.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know, I think what's interesting, too, is we talk about the problems that Kevin McCarthy is going to have over in the House of Representatives regardless of what happens in Republicans. But look what's happening in the United States senate right now.

You have the Head of the of the campaign arm calling, questioning Mitch McConnell and in the future of the conference, you have Josh Hawley doing the same thing in Missouri Senator, you have Marco Rubio from Florida as well, somebody who you would think would be lining up behind Mitch McConnell.

Republicans are going to have their own issues in the senate right now, just trying to stay together and Mitch McConnell who has been bulletproof now for decades.

Because he has really done such a very good job of keeping the Republican conference and -- has done an amazing job getting judicial nominees through now, he's going to have a fight on his own hands.

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HOLMES: All right, at least two people were killed Saturday when a couple of World War II era planes collided in the air. The B-17 Flying Fortress and Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashed during the Wings over Dallas Air Show in Texas.

Authorities say casualties have not been confirmed but they are feared that the Allied Pilots Association says two former members were among those killed. No one of the ground was injured and an NTSB investigation is underway. Only about 45 B-17s remain in the world and just over a dozen P-63 fighters. A respiratory illness in children has not only parents but even the

police on edge.

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HOLMES: Next, how some officers raced to save one afflicted child and how families can protect their kids. We'll have that when we come back.

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HOLMES: A cruise ship carrying hundreds of passengers infected with COVID-19 has docked in Sydney, Australia. The Majestic Princess cruise ship, which sailed from New Zealand, had at least 800 positive cases on board, forcing officials to issue the country's highest COVID alert.

The cruise line says a large number of guests started testing positive halfway through the 12-day journey. They say the infected guests isolated in their staterooms until they were escorted off the ship from a separate exit.

Now the U.S. is seeing an uptick in RSV, a respiratory illness which affects children under 5 years old. A recently released police body cam video shows just how frightening the disease can be. Here it is, this is what happened when two Kansas City officers scrambled to help a 1-month old who stopped breathing. Have a listen.

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OFFICER RICHARD DUCHAINE, KANSAS CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: Come on. Come on.

OFFICER CHARLES OWEN, KANSAS CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: I can -- I can -- she's breathing now.

DUCHAINE: She is breathing.

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[00:50:00]

HOLMES: Well, thankfully, baby Kamiyah is doing well but she is just one of the many infants who have had scary runnings during what some health officials are calling an unprecedented surge of RSV over the last few weeks. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains the latest on this active respiratory season.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is really incredible video to watch that and to see that baby be revived like that. And thankfully, look, situations like that are going to be rare.

But there's no questions that we are seeing a lot of respiratory illness out there right now and sometimes it can be challenging for parents, especially of young babies, to know when a child is starting to develop some sort of respiratory distress.

The signals can be subtle. So here's a few of them. Keep in mind that you you're your child better than anyone. So if breathing is different, sounds different, looks different, pay attention to that.

The breathing is faster, shorter, quick breaths, that is of concern. If they are making unusual noises as you see there. Obviously if there is any signs of blue or purple around the lips, that means they are not getting enough oxygen. But again, it can be subtle.

Let me show you a couple of things here. And sometimes these videos are really instructive but not meant to frighten you at all but if you take a look at this baby here, breathing using abdominal muscles.

That's abdominal breathing. That is usually a sign the baby is starting to have difficulty breathing, actually using those accessory muscles.

Also here you see the head-bopping. That's of concern. It means that the baby may be having struggles. Looks very comfortable but starting to use additional muscles to actually be able to breathe. So these are the sorts of things.

Pay attention, especially during respiratory virus season. Again, you have RSV, flu, COVID-19, all these things sort of happening at the same time. We know in Boston, one of the children's hospitals, the situation there has been described as severe and escalating.

At the University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital, we know that the hospital is basically 100 percent full. So elective cases are getting canceled. It's tough to admit new patients for unrelated things.

So that's the situation. Flu, a big concern as well. About half the country now experiencing very high levels of flu. If you get a sense of how things are changing over the past few weeks, you look to the numbers here.

October 22nd week, you had close to 900,000 cases of flu; a week later, it almost doubled. Then this most recent week, about 1 million, more than 1 million new cases. So that's the real concern.

One thing to point out, when it comes to flu, trying to figure out who's most affected, take a look at this graph. Older people, people over the age of 65, that's the red line. The line just below that is young kids, 0-4.

Unlike with COVID, with flu you're going to affect the very old and the very young. We don't know how this is all going to play out, if there's going to be a significant number of cases over the next few weeks, then it comes down or what. But sometimes we look to the Southern Hemisphere to get some sort of

clue as to what's going on there. Their flu season is earlier than ours. It's typically April to October. Ours comes after that.

But take a look, we picked on Australia here and compared it to the last five years. The red line this year is Australia. You can see flu season happened at a higher peak and much earlier than in years past.

That could be a sign of what's going to be happening here as well. So as we get more of these numbers in, find out what's going on with children's hospitals around the country, we'll bring that information to you.

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HOLMES: All right, our thanks to Dr. Sanjay Gupta there.

(SPORTS)

[00:55:00]

HOLMES: Even before most Americans have finalized their Thanksgiving plans, the Viennese Dream Christmas market is open in Vienna, Austria. And there doesn't seem to be a mask in sight.

The market was closed during the 2020 season due to the pandemic. Last year, the market still had some COVID-19 restrictions but now vendors say the place is hopping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I can tell you we are open today for the first day and I've never seen such a strong customer frequency on the first day. It's fantastic. Everything is on the move. Everything is on its feet. The tourists from all over the world are here; the Austrians as well. It's great.

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HOLMES: The Vienna Christmas market runs until December 26.

Thank you for spending part of your day with me. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram. We will have another hour of news in just a moment.

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