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Arizona Governor's Race Still Too Early to Call; Warnock, Walker Pushing Ahead to Georgia Senate Run-off; Biden & Chinese Leader Set for High-Stakes Meeting; Suspect Arrested in Blast That Killed 6 in Istanbul; Orphaned Boy Who Endured Mariupol Siege Finds New Family; Why Dems Did Better Than Expected in Midterms; Investigators Searching for Cause of Air Show Fatal Accident; Millions in U.S. Under Freeze Alerts, Winter Advisories. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 14, 2022 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers all across the United States and around the world. Live from Studio 7 of the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

[00:00:47]

And we begin this hour, all eyes on the balance of power in the U.S. Congress, still undecided, nearly a week after election day itself.

Now the big unanswered question right now is control of the House of Representatives. Still up for grabs, but Republicans closing in. With 218 seats needed for a majority, CNN projects that Republicans currently have 2012, Democrats 204. Nineteen races still to be called.

Democrats, of course, kept their narrow majority in the Senate, thanks to Catherine Cortez Masto's victory in Nevada. And depending on the results of Georgia's run-off next month, they might even expand on that.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that Republicans should reject gridlock and work with Democrats, adding that mid-term results are a wake-up call for the GOP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Maybe the Republican Party, which has been so negative on so many different issues, will realize that the election was a clarion call by the American people: stop all this negativity. Stop flirting with autocracy. Stop spending your time denying the election, and work to get something done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, another critical race we're watching is in Arizona. While the state's Senate race, of course, is being called for Democrat Mark Kelly, it is still too early to call the governor's race.

Right now, Democrat Katie Hobbs has a slight lead over Trump-supported Kari Lake, but the counting not yet done. Kyung Lah in Arizona with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Maricopa County out with their latest report. There are about 85 to 95,000 remaining ballots to be counted in the most populous county in the state of Arizona.

In the hotly-contested governor's race here in the state, Democrat Katie Hobbs maintains a very slim lead over Republican Kari Lake. This is a hotly-contested race, with accusations from Republican Lake, saying that there's something going wrong with the count taking place here in this county.

Election officials in Maricopa have pushed back strongly, saying if anything, they are moving at a faster rate than they have in other elections

What is so important about the information that we got, this latest election report from the county, is that the Lake campaign views this batch of votes as her path. It is a path that continues to narrow, especially with this latest report.

In addition to the 85 to 95,000 remaining ballots that need to be counted, there's also about 8,300 ballots that are still having to be cured.

So while the rhetoric continues, the count here in this county continues.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now even though House control remains undecided, both parties are now discussing leadership contests. Republicans will hold closed- door meetings this weekend. They're expected to be tense.

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy facing a challenge from far-right members that could derail his speakership ambitions. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi telling CNN she's been asked to consider another bid for House speakership.

But when asked to speculate on McCarthy's chances, she said she'd wait for the final results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Let's just get through the election, OK? They haven't won yet. They've been measuring for draperies. They've been putting forth an agenda. They haven't won it yet. Let's -- after we -- after the election is concluded, depending on who was in the majority, there will be judgments made within their own party, in our own parties, as to how we go forward. It's not up to me to make any evaluation of -- of what their possibilities are.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Now, in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to push forward with leadership elections on Wednesday, but some are saying he should wait. Some in his own party pointing to the party's disappointing election results and Georgia's upcoming runoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:05:02]

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): What is our plan? Why -- what are we running on? What do we stand for? What are we hellbent to get done? What -- we -- you know -- you know, there's no plan to do that. The leadership in the Republican Senate, says, no, you cannot have a plan. We're just going to run against how bad the Democrats are. And actually then, they cave into the Democrats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want the job?

SCOTT: Well, a lot of people, you know, have called me to see if I'll run. Here's my focus. We've still got to win Georgia. I'm not going to take anything off the table, but my job right now is to do everything I can help -- help Herschel with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Some of the pressure is off off Herschel Walker and incumbent opponent Raphael Warnock in Georgia's Senate race. Next month's runoff election between them, of course, will not now affect the balance of power in the Senate, although the extra seat would help Democrats enormously in procedural ways.

But that's not keeping the two men and the political parties behind them from pushing ahead full-steam with their efforts to win in December. Nadia Romero with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Back on the campaign trail for the Senate runoff election here in Georgia, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker both making different campaign stops all throughout the weekend.

We are here in Morehouse College. This is a historically back -- black college in the city of Atlanta, and this is where Raphael Warnock did really well during the last election.

And we also know that Herschel Walker is making his campaign stops, as well.

Let's take a look at the exit poll and some of the highlights from that exit poll, when it comes to Warnock's voters. He was able to really dominate voters of color: 81 percent voted for Warnock; 69 percent of those voters were 18 to 29 years old; and 68 percent were urban voters.

And that just shows, where his bread and butter is, and that's why Reverend Warnock was here outside of Morehouse College, went inside of an event with one of the biggest rappers in the world, trying to speak to the youth, trying to speak to people here to get back out and vote.

I want you to hear from Raphael Warnock and from Herschel Walker on what they're telling their supporters this weekend.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA), RUNNING FOR REELECTION: 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 to ask yourself a serious question, who do you think is really ready?

HERSCHEL WALKER (R), GEORGIA SENATORIAL NOMINEE: If you voted last time, go vote for me again, but tell the people that didn't vote for me they need to vote for me. Because if they don't vote for me, they're going to have the government running their lives.

ROMERO: Now, when you look at Herschel Walker's voters, very different than what we saw from Raphael Warnock's when you look at exit polls. Seventy percent of white voters voted for Herschel Walker; 58 percent were 65 and older. Remember, Warnock did well with the youth vote. And 63 percent were rural voters.

And that's why you saw Herschel Walker on Sunday in Peachtree City, an area that's going to be much more rural, and have more white voters than you would see, unlike the city of Atlanta.

Both of the candidates know they only have less than a month until the runoff election on December 6th.

Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Ron Brownstein is CNN's senior political analyst, and senior editor at "The Atlantic." He joins me now from Nashville, Tennessee, not on the West Coast tonight.

Good to see you, Ron.

The national Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, Rick Scott, he was saying in late October, he said, quote, "I think we can get 53, 54, 55 Senate seats. If the GOP wins the House, it will be with a handful of seats."

Where do these midterms leave the GOP as a party?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Michael, it's an astonishing result, because first of all, there have been very few first-term, midterm elections in which the party holding the White House has done as well as Democrats did this year. You know, potentially losing as few as seven or eight House seats, and gaining in the Senate, and gaining in the governorship.

So that is very rare to begin with. I think it is essentially unprecedented for the president's party to do that well while the president himself was facing majority disapproval from the country. The only examples we have of anything like this are years like 1934, with FDR; 1962 with JFK after the Cuban missile crisis; 1998 with Clinton, after impeachment; 2002 with Bush after 9/11. All those presidents were extremely popular at the time that their party defied the usual midterm trend.

That was not the case this year. And the only way to explain Democrats avoiding the kind of losses that have been typical when a president's approval rating is as low as Biden's is that voters, even voters disappointed in Biden, were simply reluctant to give power to the Republican Party.

It's an unequivocal message of resistance, I think, to the Republican Party, as it has now been redefined in the Trump era.

HOLMES: Yes. And -- and to that point, it has been argued that Trump destroyed what the Republican Party used to be. But do the conditions that led to his rise persist today?

[00:10:05]

I mean, does Trumpism survive Trump? Or -- or could we see the start of a new-built, user-friendly GOP? Or I guess there's a third option: too soon to say?

BROWNSTEIN: I think the dominant impulse in the Republican Party is toward Trumpism, with or without Trump. You know, other candidates don't have the unique personal vulnerabilities that Trump does, in the sense of suburban voters who see him as uniquely unethical, or now, post-January 6th, as dangerous, in terms of violence.

But you know, you look at someone like Ron DeSantis, who is the -- who is the leading alternative, and he is running on a very Trump-like agenda: on, you know, waging war against woke America, kind of leading with the cultural war.

And again, I mean, we're talking about, at a moment where 75 percent of the country say the economy is in bad shape, Republicans made only minimal gains in the House, lost ground in the Senate, did not win any of those blue-state governorships that they targeted -- they targeted.

And that, I think, is a very clear signal, that in those places, voters are resistant to this vision of what America is and should be. And I think that is a challenge for Republicans.

Now certainly, they consolidated their hold on red America in this election. I mean, all of those states that banned abortion, for example, Republican governors cruised to reelection.

But they -- the magnitude of the wall that they -- the solidity, maybe, of the wall that they ran into, even with his tailwind behind them of enormous dissatisfaction with the economy and the president s performance, you really can't avert your eyes from that, if you're going to seriously compete in 2024 as the Republican Party. HOLMES: Yes. It's going to be -- its going to be interesting to see

what -- how Ron DeSantis does, if he -- if he turns to the national stage. A lot of people say that he's Donald Trump without the crazy.

I did want to ask you this and see what you think of the importance of it. Given the abortion issue and the like, an interesting aspect of this election was the turnout of Gen Z. Young millennials under 30, who appeared to vote in great numbers.

I saw a college campus polling place, I think it was in Arizona. Ninety-six percent voted Democrat. What's the significance of that?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, it doesn't appear that young voters turned out quite as high as they did in 2018. But 2018 was the modern peak. And, you know, they turned out relatively higher, certainly, than they have in most midterms, and they voted nearly 2 to 1 for Democrats on the national basis, and at least that high in many of the key states.

Look, 2020 -- in 2020, for the first time ever, millennials and Generation Z, which now really extends young adults from about 18 to 40, exceeded the Baby Boomers and older, as a share of eligible voters.

In 2024 for the first time ever, Gen Z and millennials will exceed the Baby Boom and older, will exceed them as a share of actual voters.

And you can see the trend line that Republicans are dealing with there.

HOLMES: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: It's not that these voters necessarily love Democrats, and certainly Biden's approval rating has lagged among them, really, from the beginning, even into the Democratic primaries in 2020.

But they are the most diverse, the most secular, the best-educated generations in American history. And you can see them visibly recoiling from a Trump-style cultural agenda that, in many ways, is about restoring the America of the 1950s, before all of the rights revolutions that began in the 1960s.

That is a challenge. It will be more of a challenge in a presidential year than it was this year, because they will, and always are, a bigger share of the vote in the presidential year than they are in the midterm year, young voters.

HOLMES: Yes. Interesting trend line.

We're almost out of time, but I wanted to ask about the Georgia Senate runoff between Raphael Warnock and, of course, Trump-endorsed Herschel Walker.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

HOLMES: If Donald Trump does declare a presidential run next week, could that hurt Herschel Walker, because of course, a lot of people think it was the stain of Trump among Georgia voters that got Warnock over the line in 2020.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I think it hurts more than it helps. I mean, Trump obviously, his superpower is his ability to turn out less regular, non-urban and non-college white voters. And he can turn them out in massive numbers.

But what we saw in this election was that the Republican erosion in white-collar suburbs outside of the big metros, that really accelerated under Trump, has remained in place.

I mean, the Philadelphia suburbs were enormous for Fetterman. The Atlanta suburbs were enormous for Warnock. Maricopa County, no Democrat had won it between Harry Truman in 1948 and Joe Biden in 2020. And once again, it was big for Mark Kelly, and may elect Katie Hobbs as governor.

So I think there's no question that there is a clear price that Republicans face in these suburban areas, for the redefinition of the party that Trump has put forward.

[00:15:03]

And also, the bigger problem for Walker is there are a lot of Republicans in Georgia who held their nose and voted for him, even though they didn't think much of him, because they thought he be the 50th vote to give Republicans the majority.

Will those voters come out again, now that the majority has been settled?

HOLMES: Great analysis, as always. Good to see you, Ron Brownstein. Not used to you being on this side of the country.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

HOLMES: But still, good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HOLMES: Thank you.

All right. quick break here on the program. When we come back, President Biden will be meeting the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the G20 summit. We'll explain why this meeting is taking center stage, in just a few moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: U.S. President Joe Biden is in Bali, Indonesia, for the G20 summit. He met with the Indonesian president earlier, but his highly- anticipated meeting with the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, is the thing grabbing the headlines.

The U.S.-China relationship in its worst shape in decades, with tensions on a number of fronts, including, of course, Taiwan as the U.S. says it will defend that self-governing island from any Chinese invasion.

Washington has also spoken out against Chinese human rights violations against ethnic Uyghurs.

China, on its end, is concerned that Biden may change U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. The two sides could also potentially discuss Russia's war in Ukraine, North Korea's missile tests, and climate change.

[00:20:06]

CNN covering this story from all angles. We've got Kevin Liptak, live in Bali, Indonesia; Steven Jiang in Beijing.

Kevin, let's start with you. So the meeting's just a few hours away now. Give us -- given the state of U.S.-China relations, how low are expectations? What would a success look like?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, quite frankly, the expectations for this meeting, in a way, couldn't be lower. U.S. officials say there won't be a joint statement coming out of it. They don't really have any of deliverables, per se.

but they do have sort of this expectation that these two leaders, when they sit down, face to face, for the first time since Joe Biden became president, that they will be able to what they call build a floor, essentially try and define the terms of this relationship, set some red lines, so that there aren't miscommunications down the line. So they sort of see each other eye to eye and gain a better understanding of where each other stands.

And of course, this meeting comes as U.S.-China relations are at, perhaps, their lowest in decades. It all started when Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House speaker, went to Taiwan over the summer.

Beijing responded furiously. They cut off a lot of channels of communication. And sort of that is the context that U.S. and Chinese officials are working to arrange this meeting.

Now, they were able to talk quite effectively, to try and come up with the logistics, with the agenda for when these two men sit down. White House officials say that there were serious substantive discussions, that in fact, kept going until late last night here in Bali. The two sides still working to come up with items that they wanted to emphasize, including items they didn't want to emphasize in this meeting.

So President Biden is a -- is a person that has does place a lot of emphasis on these face-to-face encounters. He does know Xi pretty well. The two traveled many miles together in the U.S. and China, when they were both serving as vice president.

But of course, this is now a very different context, both because President Biden is now the U.S. president, but also because of this new tense relationship between the U.S. and China. And that is the setting that the president will walk into, later today.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes, indeed.

Steven Jiang, let's go to you now. The big aim, I think, for Biden on this trip, at least partially, has been to reassure nations in the region that the U.S. is there for them and to blunt China's growing influence.

So, what then, is President Xi's aim? What would he be wanting from the meeting?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Michael, I think Xi Jinping wants time. Time for China to become self-reliant in key technologies to upgrade its economy.

But probably more crucially, to upgrade its military to catch up with the U.S.

And so in recent days, that's why we've seen Xi Jinping offering a slightly more conciliatory tone by, for example, telling a U.S. business lobby group that he's willing to work with the U.S. to find ways to cooperate.

There have also been signs or hints of possible tweaks in China's stance on Ukraine, with Xi Jinping telling the visiting German chancellor, for example, that China opposes the threat and the use -- use of nuclear weapons, which is seen by many as a subtle rebuke to Mr. Putin, given the Russian leader's nuclear posturing.

So it's going to be very interesting to see what Mr. Xi does and doesn't say to Mr. Biden on this issue when they meet.

But overall, Chinese state media, as well as officials here, echoing American officials by portraying this meeting itself as a positive sign, stressing the importance of keeping lines of communication open, especially when tensions are running high.

But the problem here is the freefall in this relationship is not due to the lack of rapport. As Kevin mentioned, the two men have known each other for years.

It's really because of how each side uses own strengths and the other's intentions. And Washington increasingly vocal about China under Xi Jinping become -- becoming more authoritarian at home, and more aggressive abroad.

But from Chinese -- from China's perspective, you know, the U.S. government under Biden has been doubling down on its effort to build an anti-China coalition to contain its rise on the global stage.

So that's why, with all the rhetoric and the policy directions from Beijing, the stakes are so high in this meeting, despite the very low bar, as Kevin mentioned, set by both sides -- Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, and you make a good point. The meeting taking place at all is something.

Kevin, we touched on North Korea, which of course, has fired a massive number of missiles this year. Is -- is that, for the U.S., something that could be a common concern for Biden and Xi, to you know, rein in Kim Jong-un in the interest of regional stability?

LIPTAK: Yes, and President Biden very much expects to raise that issue when he sits down with President Xi today.

Of course, the U.S. wants Beijing to exert its influence in Pyongyang, really try and convince Kim Jong-un that this is not the path that he necessarily wants to go down.

They have had mixed success in the past with China, going back decades. There have been moments in history when China is -- does appear to be more cooperative on that front. There have been moments where they've appeared less cooperative.

[00:25:11]

And certainly, President Biden wants to make the point to President Xi that it in his own self-interest not a nuclear-armed state on his own border that could potentially destabilize the entire region.

How precisely President Biden goes about that remains to be seen, and U.S. officials were pretty clear ahead of this meeting that they didn't want to sort of lay out the talking points that President Biden would tell President Xi. They wanted President Xi Jinping to hear that directly from President Biden.

Of course, the other issue, other big sort of geopolitical issue that President Biden wants to talk about is the war in Ukraine. And he is still trying to kind of suss out where President Xi stands on this issue.

And it was really interesting. A U.S. official was briefing reporters earlier today, and he -- he said that the American assessment is, essentially, that President Xi is embarrassed by what's going on in Russia, because he's developed this close partnership with Vladimir Putin, because they have sort of made a point of aligning themselves against American interests.

That it is something of an embarrassment for him to see how Putin is suffering so -- so poorly on the ground there.

So that is the other main issue sort of in the global context, that the president will want to talk about later today.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks, Kevin Liptak. Also, Steven Jiang, appreciate it. Thanks.

All right. Now, a suspect is in custody in connection with a deadly blast in Istanbul, which Turkish officials are calling a terrorist attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Turkey's interior minister has blamed Kurdish separatists for carrying out Sunday's attack. At least six people were killed, more than 80 wounded in the explosion, which happened on a busy street in the heart of Turkey's largest city.

Turkey's health minister says about half of those wounded remain in hospitals.

We'll get more details now on the blast from CNN's Scott McLean.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It only took a split second for Istanbul's most vibrant street to turn into a war zone.

Istiklal Street is the beating heart of Istanbul. Its restaurants, bars, cafes are popular with tourists and locals. And on this Sunday afternoon, the weather was gorgeous.

A Lebanese freelance journalist, who was on vacation in the city, was inside of a store just meters away from where the blast went off, and he described to CNN what he saw when he came out.

TARIQ KEBLAOUI, FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND EYEWITNESS: There was a fire on the ground and scattered beside it were a few dead bodies missing ligaments, one man missing a leg. And it was a very gruesome sight, as everyone around me was totally scattered and panicked. And several people injured, bleeding from their ears, bleeding from their legs, and several people crying all around.

(EXPLOSION)

MCLEAN: Farther away from the blast site, the sound set off a stampede of people running for their lives.

The Turkish president vowed that those responsible would be identified and punished.

Later, the vice president said that authorities believe that this was an act of terror, because the attacker, whom they believe is a woman, detonated a bomb.

Later, the justice minister told local media that security footage shows a woman sitting on a bench for more than 40 minutes. One or two minutes after she gets up and leaves, the blast goes off.

Scott McLean, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Russia's war claimed the lives of his parents. Now, a six- year-old boy has found a new home in Ukraine. Ahead, the loving couple that took him in when all seemed lost.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:36]

HOLMES: Three days after their city was liberated from Russian invaders, Ukrainians in Kherson are now trying to piece their lives back together. But their task already full of certainty (ph).

Ukraine says that Russia employed scorched-earth tactics when it withdrew, destroying most of its critical infrastructure, and littering the area with mines. Access to electricity, bread, medicine, all limited.

And a basic need like water is even in short supply. So much so that officials are temporarily banning people from transporting it.

Now, on top of all that, Ukraine says Russia stole a large amount of grain from an agricultural base, and that it destroyed the largest poultry factory in Europe.

Russian forces are also being accused of committing war crimes before they retreated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Investigators have already documented more than 400 Russian war crimes. Bodies of both civilians and military are being found.

In the Kherson region, the Russian army left the same savagery behind as in other regions of our country where it managed to invade. We will find and bring to justice every murderer without any doubts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Russia is now boosting its defenses in the Eastern areas it still controls. It's carrying out more attacks, too, across the Donetsk region and claims to have captured a village in a series of offensive operations.

Now throughout the war, Moscow's attacks have, of course, shattered the lives of ordinary people. Among them, a 6-year-old boy in Mariupol, who lost both his parents to shelling in the first week of the invasion.

Thankfully, the boy eventually found a new home in the capital, Kyiv, with a loving couple that now plans to adopt him.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz with their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like any 6-year-old child, Ilya's energy is endless. He wants constant attention and entertainment and craves affection from the two people who care for him most. "Now, we have that love," they tell me. "That love that makes you a

family. We did not have this baby, but our love is real."

Maria and Vladimir are Ilya's legal guardians. They've been a little family for more than six months. And the couple plans to formally adopt him and become parents to a child orphaned by this war.

[00:35:06]

The pair was forced to flee their home in the East for Kyiv because of shelling but refused to give up on their dream of starting a family.

ABDELAZIZ: This was such a difficult decision, to adopt during a war. Did you hesitate? Did you think maybe this is not the right time?

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): "We have been planning to adopt for many years," he says. "The war pushed us to make it happen sooner. Now, we wonder, why did we ever wait?"

Ilya's mom was killed in Mariupol, his birthplace. She left home to find food and was struck down by shelling in the first week of war.

Unaware of his wife's fate, Ilya's father went looking for her the next day, only to lose his life, too.

Ilya was left with neighbors, where he sheltered with strangers for weeks in a cold, dark basement. When they ran out of food, Ilya says he started to eat his toys.

The newfound parents are trying to give Ilya a sense of security. But when we visit their home in Kyiv, we see why that's a challenge. Blackouts caused by Russia's strikes on the power grid leave the family without electricity for hours.

"Sometimes he gets scared," she says. "He's hysterical, and he'll tell me it's like being back in Mariupol, in the basement, in the darkness."

During the outages, the young family tries to make things normal, playing games, watching movies, anything to ease Ilya's worried mind.

ABDELAZIZ: Do you get afraid in the dark, Ilya?

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): "Not anymore," he says. "I know the lights will come back on. And they do."

During our interview, electricity is restored, and Ilya runs to switch on the light, ready to play again. But first, he wants to put on his Spider-Man costume. He says it makes them feel strong and brave.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Wonderful story. Well, still to come here on the program, King Charles III led the

U.K.'s annual Remembrance Day service for the first time as monarch. Details on the solemn ceremony when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:58]

HOLMES: King Charles III led Remembrance Day services in Britain for the first time as the country's monarch. A two-minute national silence marked with the tolling of Big Ben.

The king laid a wreath at London's War Memorial, honoring servicemen who have died in past conflicts. Camilla, the queen consort, the Duchess of Cambridge, and other members of the royal family, also present at the service.

We will take a quick break. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with more news in a moment. For our international viewers, WORLD SPORT coming your way next, and I'll see you in about 15 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:35]

HOLMES: And our top story this hour, fresh results from Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections.

In Oregon's 5th Congressional District, CNN projects Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer beat Democrat Jamie McLeod Skinner. This is a pickup for Republicans and a big victory for them.

But votes still being counted as control of the House remains up for grabs nearly a week after polls closed. Republicans need six of the remaining uncalled seats to take the majority in the House.

Meanwhile, Democrats celebrating a big victory, too, after retaining control of the Senate with a win in Nevada on Saturday. The Georgia runoff in December could give the Democrats an outright majority of 51. But even if they lose that seat, Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to cast tie-breaking votes.

And in Arizona, new vote totals were released a few hours ago in the closely-watched race for governor. Still too early to call, but at last check, Republican Kari Lake had cut into the lead held by the Democrat, Katie Hobbs.

While vote counting continues across the country for the last remaining offices, CNN's Harry Enten takes a look at why the Democratic Party has defied midterm history this year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Although votes are still being counted, the 2022 election will go down as historically good for the Democratic Party.

Normally in midterms, the president's party does poorly. But in this midterm, we saw the Democratic Party have a net gain of gubernatorial seats, not lose any Senate seats, and they may, in fact, gain one. And a net loss, it looks like, right now, of less than ten House seats.

The last time that happened in a midterm election, 1934.

So how did Democrats pull this off? Well, despite high inflation, the issue of abortion was also on the minds of voters. In fact, a look at our exit poll showed that about as many voters said that abortion was important to their vote as inflation. And those abortion first voters, they voted overwhelmingly Democratic.

And of course, Joe Biden's popularity had sunk considerably over the course of his presidency. And indeed, our exit poll showed that only about 41 percent of voters had a favorable view of Joe Biden.

But when you also ask them whether or not they had a favorable view of Donald Trump, Trump's favorable rating was right around the same level. Indeed, there was a solid portion, just a little bit less than 20 percent of the electorate, that did not have a favorable view of either Donald Trump or Joe Biden. And those voters, who you might have expected to go overwhelmingly for the Republicans because Joe Biden is the president of the United States, in fact, basically split their tickets fairly equally, only slightly going for Republican candidates.

Of course, it's not just about Biden and Trump. It's also the fact that there were a lot of candidates running for the United States Senate who, in the minds of the voters, were extreme. Indeed, in pretty much all of the key battleground Senate races, more voters said that the Republican candidate was too extreme than said that the Democratic candidate was too extreme.

Lastly, in the governor's races, there were a lot of Republicans running who denied that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, which of course he did. All of those candidates who were running in either swing states or in blue states, currently with GOP governors, are either trailing or lost.

The only one who's currently trailing who CNN has not been able to project as a loser yet is Kari Lake in the state of Arizona, who right now is trailing.

Back to you.

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HOLMES: Harry Enten now, thanks.

Six people have now been confirmed dead after two World War II-era military planes collided during an air show.

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(AIRPLANE SOUNDS) (CRASH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dios mio!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All of the people killed were aboard the planes. No fatalities on the ground. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean with the details.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: 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 planes involved in this mid-air 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. The other airplane, an extremely rare P-63 King Cobra, 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 now say they'll listen to the recordings of radio traffic that took place during the air show.

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They're also asking for witnesses to come forward with photos and video. More examples of that horrific scene keep getting posted online by spectators.

Thankfully, nobody in the crowd was hurt. In fact, in the U.S., an air show spectator has not been killed at an air show in more than 50 years.

Air shows like this are heavily regulated, highly-planned, very choreographed. And the pilots must have special qualifications. They yare the ones who accept the most risk in the name of keeping history alive.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

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HOLMES: The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is admitting to multiple failures after a man with two box cutters was allowed onto a commercial flight over the weekend.

He allegedly threatened passengers mid-flight as they were headed from Kentucky to Tampa in Florida, and the plane had to be diverted to Atlanta, where the man was taken into custody. The TSA says agents did not fully use the screening technology at

their disposal and also returned, quote, "visible blades" to the passenger, even after an inspection.

No one on the flight was injured. The agency says employees nationwide will be given reminders on the proper protocols in this type of situation.

We are still more than five weeks away from the official start of winter in the U.S., but for many, the frigid temperatures are already here.

About 28 million people are under freeze alerts, from Southeast in Atlanta up through the Northeast in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. And more than 3 million under winter weather advisories in parts of the Midwest and Southwest.

Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with the latest. Yes, I brought the big coat in tonight.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's incredible too, because this time last week, of course, we were talking about a hurricane making landfall across the Southern U.S., across parts of Florida. And now you're looking at these conditions that are incredibly cold for what time of year it is, of course.

And temps in some spots, especially around the South, about 15 or so degrees below average. But these are current observations. Not often across areas of the South in Montgomery and Atlanta in the month of November, you have colder temperatures than in Boston at this hour and New York City at this hour.

So it really speaks to how cold the reach here of the extreme temperatures is across parts of the Southern U.S.

Of course, where you expect it into the teens into the 20s, up around the Northern Plains, upper Midwest. That's in place, as well.

But notice, when you factor in the windchill, Atlanta feels like 29 degrees. That is comparable to what it feels like in places like Chicago or even Duluth, Minnesota.

So if you feel it's cold in the South, you're not mistaken. It is incredibly cold for the time of year it is. And it is going to remain cold for a few days.

In fact, in Atlanta, temps get even colder, from a 55 on Monday to a 50 for an afternoon high on Tuesday. Given 65 is average for this time of year, you can kind of see why this is a big deal -- a big deal for a lot of folks.

But Philly, as well, upper 40s, where upper 50s are what are considered normal temperatures this time of year.

Nashville, look at what happened here, Michael. This was Friday afternoon's high temperature. And again, really makes it feel considerably more brutal when you go from 73 down to 43 in a span of 24 hours. In Nashville, coldest temperature we'd seen since the 12th of March. Sixties, again, what is considered normal.

But notice, this is going to be a multi-day setup here, so potentially not just into this week but possibly the beginning of next week. We get multiple shots of Arctic air that line up, really, across the entirety of the lower 48, with the exception of far South Florida, which is expected to remain above average.

So that's what we're looking at. And a possibility of some wintry weather mixed in, as well, with this, Michael. So we'll follow this as it progresses.

HOLMES: All right. Pedram, thanks very much. Good to see you.

Now, in South Florida, a piece of Miami Beach history has been erased from the skyline. On Sunday, crews imploded the once-luxurious Deauville Beach Resort, which had fallen into disrepair after years of neglect.

In its heyday, though, the 17-story hotel hosted the Beatles and President John F. Kennedy. But it officially closed in 2017 after an electrical fire.

Not clear yet what will happen with the beachfront property. You can probably guess. They'll put a building on it.

Dolly Parton has been on a roll of late. Earlier this month, the country music legend was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. If you didn't think she had been already.

And on Friday, Parton was honored with the Jeff Bezos Courage and Civility Award for her philanthropy. The award comes with $100 million, no strings attached in how she decides to use it.

Parton has a long record of charitable giving. During the COVID pandemic, she donated $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center's vaccine research efforts. It was partly used to fund Moderna's vaccine.

She's also credited the Dolly Parton scholarship, which provides $15,000 to recipients towards a college education.

[00:55:03]

Bezos spoke with CNN's Chloe Melas about the decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

JEFF BEZOS, FOUNDER OF AMAZON: Well, look at what she's done and how she's led her life. And the way she's done it is bold things, always with civility and kindness. She's a unifier. You know, we have big problems in the world, and the way to get big

problems done is you have to work together. We have too many examples in the world of conflict and people using ad hominum attacks on social media and so on and so on. You won't find Dolly Parton doing that.

LAUREN SANCHEZ, JEFF BEZOS'S 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 to Dolly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, @HolmesCNN.

Stick around. I'll be back with more news in just a moment.

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