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Biden and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping Hold High-Stakes Meeting This Hour; U.S. House Control Undecided 6 Days After Election Day; Nevada Win Give Democrats 50 Seats to Control Senate; Republicans Face Moment of Reckoning Over Trump's Influence; 6 Confirmed Dead in Dallas Air Show Crash; Suspect Arrested in Istanbul Blast that Killed Six, Injured Dozens. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 14, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: It was for the people and for the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We showed up. We treated people with respect.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Stop spending your time denying the election, and work to get something done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This consequential sit down between President Biden and President Xi Jinping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ensuring that it can't deteriorate any further, Chinese diplomats, Chinese state media have acknowledged how bad the relationship is with Washington right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: It is November 14, 9:00 a.m. here in London. It's 5:00 p.m. in Bali, in Indonesia where world leaders are meeting for a G20 summit. In this hour U.S. President Biden is expected to meet with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a high stakes meeting.

NOBILO: And it will be their first face to face meeting since Mr. Biden took office. And comes at a time when U.S./China relations are at the lowest point in decades, with tensions flaring over trade, technology and Taiwan. But China's foreign minister says that Beijing hopes the U.S. will put bilateral relations back in the right track.

FOSTER: CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us live from Bali, in Indonesia. We have to talk about Taiwan as a first point on this, because that's where the most tensions appear to be. But we're not expecting anything substantive to come out of the meeting.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, not likely. And American officials have been fairly frank that they don't see any, quote unquote, deliverables coming out of these talks. They don't expect a joint statement that you sometimes see that would list areas of cooperation. But they do see they are expecting to go in this meeting for these two leaders to sit down, look at each other in the face, sort of define the parameters of this relationship. Define some of the red lines they each have going forward. And of course, Taiwan is the overriding issue that has caused so much tensions over the last several months.

Now these two leaders both decided they wanted to talk to each other face to face back in July. And it was only a month after that the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan that caused furor in Beijing. China cut off channels of communication with the United States. But officials were still able to talk to set up this meeting. And this morning American officials describe those conversations as serious, constructive, they occurred over the ensuing two months or so, even up until last night when officials were still going over the agenda, talking about what President Biden wanted to emphasize, wanted to de-emphasize. And so, that will be sort of the setting in which these two leaders talked.

Now remember, President Biden has said four times that the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily if China were to make a move on it. That has obviously caused intense anger in Beijing. President Xi has responded with a metaphor. He likes to use this metaphor. Basically, if you play with fire, you will get burned. And so, when you look at that rhetoric heading into this meeting, it really does show you how far relations have fallen.

And it is telling that this meeting is taking place here in Bali, here at a neutral site. It wasn't that long ago that it was fairly common for a American president to visit Beijing, for a Chinese president come to the White House. I covered several of those meetings. Now it's almost unthinkable that that would be something that would happen as this relationship sours. And so, what White House officials say they want to do is, quote unquote, build a floor for this relationship. Essentially, ensure that it doesn't fall any further. And that will be President Biden's objective when he sits down with Xi later today.

FOSTER: OK, we'll be following very closely. Kevin in Bali, thank you.

NOBILO: Back in the U.S., all eyes are on the balance of power in Congress, which remains uncertain nearly a week after election day. Control of the House is still up for grabs.

FOSTER: 19 uncalled races remain, ten of them in California.

[04:05:00] The Republicans are just six seats away from the magic number needed for majority, which is 218.

NOBILO: Thanks to Saturday's victory in Nevada, Democrats will keep their narrow Senate majority for another two years. They may expand it depending on the results of Georgia's runoff next month.

FOSTER: Despite the uncertainty, Democratic leaders from both chambers took a victory lap on Sunday, celebrating their party's better than expected showing against long odds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: So much for predictions of a red wave. CNN's Harry Enten takes a look at how the Democratic Party defied history and expectations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: 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 may in fact gain one -- and a net loss it looks like right now of less than House seat. 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 polls show 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 polls showed 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 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 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 are running in either swing states or in blue states currently with GOP governors are either trailing or lost. The only one 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: So, Democrats have already secured control of the Senate, but the Georgia Senate seat is still up for grabs. Democratic incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock will face off against Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a runoff on December 6th. After neither candidate garnered the 50 percent of the vote that's needed for an outright win.

FOSTER: On Sunday, they were out on the campaign trail making their case to voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERSCHEL WALKER, GEORGIA REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Where maybe Senator Warnock until now, need to be a former senator pronoun. That's what he will be. Former Senator and leave the people House because we are sick and tired of him going to Washington representing everybody else except us. He's not representing us. He been representing himself. Do you all know as we have gotten poor, he's gotten richer. His income has gone up. How in the world did his income go up. He's supposed to be the captain of the ship. Don't he supposed to go down with the ship. But no, no, no he pushing us down.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): People of Georgia need a champion. And a champion for working people. That's the work I've done my entire life. It's the work I've been doing in the Senate. It's work I'm actually able to do. Herschel Walker is not. He's not able to do this work. He's demonstrated that he has neither the competence nor the character.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Now, if Warnock wins reelection, Democrats would hold a definite majority. If Walker takes the seat President Biden may have a harder time passing legislation.

NOBILO: Another critical race that we're watching is Arizona.

[04:10:00]

While the state's Senate race is being called for Democrat Mark Kelly, it's still too early to call the governor's race there.

FOSTER: Yes, right now, Democrat Katie Hobbs has a slight lead over Trump supporter Kari Lake. But the counting isn't done yet. Kyung Lah is in Arizona with the very latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 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.

Now, this 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)

NOBILO: As the ballot count continues in Arizona, Kari Lake is slamming the state's election procedure which is she says are making Arizona a laughing stock. But one Arizona Congressman says the delay is of her own making.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Arizona elections are very well run. In Maricopa County they're run by Republicans. The reason we have so many people dropping ballots, because everyone is excited about the race and the Kari Lake people told their voters do not mail your ballot in. Either walk it in or turn it in and vote in person. So, this whole backup is of their own doing.

And in the last two years instead of trying to actually upgrade -- update our systems, Republicans leaders in the legislature are actually trying to take away people's rights to vote even by mail. So, there was no serious effort to make this better. But to give credit, it's going to get done and they're going to be professional like they've always done and I really believe in the professional people that work for the Maricopa County department.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Let's look at some other key races that we watched closely around the country. Republican Doug Mastriano has finally conceded in the Pennsylvania governor's election. CNN called the contest for Democrat Josh Shapiro nearly a week ago now. However, Mastriano who was a leading proponent of falsehoods about the 2020 election refused to admit defeat for days. But on Sunday, he changed course and publicly accepted his loss.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOUG MASTRIANO, REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR: As difficult as it is to accept the results, there is no other course but to concede. Which I do. And I look to the challenges ahead. Josh Shapiro will be our next governor. And I ask everyone to give him the opportunity and to pray that he makes decisions that are beneficial for the state and not necessarily for his party. And that he leads well because it affects all our lives.

JOSH SHAPIRO, PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: We showed up. And we treated people with respect. And we spoke to them about practical things that would make their lives better. We ignored the noise coming out of Washington D.C. and instead focused on the good people of Washington County, Pennsylvania. I think it's just a matter of showing up, treating people with respect and showing them that you're going to make their lives better. Helping them understand how you can actually build a bridge between the parties to kind of take down the temperature and get real things done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Meantime, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is speaking out about her win against Republican challenger Tudor Dixon. She says that her team's focus on kitchen table issues helped to secure a win, a message that she believes resonates nationwide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRETCHEN WHITMER (D) MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: We stayed focused on the fundamentals, right, whether it's fixing the dam roads or making sure our kids are getting back on track after an incredible disruption in their learning or just simply solving problems and being honest with the people.

You know, a governor can't fix global inflation, but what we can do is take actions to keep more money in people's pockets. Protect our own right to make our own decisions about our bodies and this was squarely front for a lot of Michigan voters and I suspect that's probably true for voters across the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Now, list of Republicans who don't want to see Donald Trump run for president again in 2024 is only growing after the party's disappointing results in the midterms. An adviser to Trump says he'll announce his third presidential bid on Tuesday from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Larry Hogan, the outgoing Republican Governor of Maryland is among the latest to pin his party's midterm losses on the former president's influence and says it's time for the GOP to change course.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:15:00]

LARRY HOGAN (R) MARYLAND GOVERNOR: 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 for 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)

FOSTER: Well, as the backlash grows, Trump has reminded those around him that many Republicans turned their backs on him in 2016 and he still won.

NOBILO: Still, U.S. voters said no thank you to Trump-endorsed candidates in key Senate races and Republicans who pushed conspiracy theories and election lies were rejected in swing states, too. Now, some Republicans say that the party faces a moment of reckoning over the influence of the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I do think the Republican Party again, they're going to have to do some soul searching on a state level and a national level. You know, what happens if Kari loses, I will be very, very happy. I believe in my state of Arizona. I've said that for months now. I have openly endorsed and been happy for Katie Hobbs. I've been texting with her and cheering her on. So, I really hope Katie Hobbs wins. Because again, it will be the voters speaking about, you know, no more chaos, no more election denials, no more lies, just govern. Just do what's best for the state.

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER ADVISER TO VP MIKE PENCE: Americans came out and they voted for Democrats. You know, Republicans don't want to say that out loud. And they're kind of sitting there looking at each other thinking what happened. Oh, are we a bad messaging. No, you ran terrible candidates and we told you that you would lose and we told you that this would destroy the party if you went down that route and you still did it.

And so, I think that Democrats had better candidates this time around. And I think the GOP will continue to see losses again in the future if they continue to allow these sort of narratives to take hold in the party. And look, I also think they need to stop with this anti- immigrant stuff. You know, I know everyone is glorifying DeSantis's win in Florida. Well, I don't know. I don't know if the rest of the country stands for, you know, bussing people out of the -- across the country like cattle and having immigrants shipped around like that. I mean, if you're actually going to talk about immigration and border secure, I need to see real policies here I don't see that coming out of these people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Exit polls confirm a GOP candidate problem in the Senate in every tossup Senate race except Georgia. Most voters said the Republican candidate's views were too extreme.

NOBILO: Still ahead, we'll have the latest on the deadly air show crash in Texas. Six are dead and investigators are asking for the public's help.

FOSTER: Also, airport security agents in the U.S. are being retrained after a man brought two box cutters on to a commercial flight. We'll look at the mistakes that were made.

NOBILO: Plus, CNN is keeping a close eye on the highly anticipated meeting between U.S. President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. We'll have live reports on the latest development on that meeting.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back. Six people have now been confirmed dead after two World War II era military planes collided during a Dallas air show.

All people killed were on board those two planes. There were no fatalities on the ground thankfully. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has the latest details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 of the Dallas Executive Airport documenting the wreckage of not one but two planes involved in this midair collision.

Both part of volunteer organizations that keep World War II planes flying. The larger airplane B-17 Flying Fortress. You've seen it in the movies, famous for the daylight bombing raids over Europe. The other airplane, and extremely rare P-63 King Cobra, a single seat fighter plane. And 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.

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 are the ones who accept the most risk in the name of keeping history alive. Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Now the U.S. Transportation Security Administration is admitting to multiple failures after a man with two box cutters was aloud on to a commercial light over the weekend.

NOBILO: He allegedly threatened passengers midflight as they were headed from Kentucky to Tampa, Florida. And the plane had to be diverted to Atlanta where the man was then taken into custody. The TSA says that agents did not fully use the screening technology at their disposal and also returned visible blades to the passenger even after the inspection.

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

NOBILO: I should hope so.

A suspect is now in custody in connection with the blast in Istanbul. Which Turkish officials are calling a terror attack. Turkey's interior minister has blamed Kurdish separatists for carrying out Sunday's attack.

FOSTER: At least six people were killed, more than 18 wounded in the explosion which happened on a busy street, as you can see, the heart of Turkey's largest city.

NOBILO: Now for the latest on this story, we're joined by CNN's Scott McLean. And Scott, you've been following developments this morning which have been coming pretty fast. What did we learn from Turkish authorities.

[04:25:00]

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so I'll walk you through the time line so far. So, the justice minister yesterday outlined what happened in the really the hour before that blast actually took place. So, he said that there was a woman who had a bag with her. She set the bag down, sits on a bench. She sits there for more than 40 minutes. Then one or two minutes after she gets up and leaves, the bomb goes off. We all know what happens after that.

Police are saying just this morning that that woman then fled the scene taking a taxi to another part of town. Obviously, there was a huge man hunt to try to figure out who this woman was and what her involvement actually may have been. And what her motivation may have been.

So, overnight, police were led to an address. In fact, they searched 21 addresses associated with this woman. But one in particular in the western part of the city. Police released a video actually. We're not showing it at the moment yet, though, of them going up the stairs into this apartment arresting this woman at gunpoint. Searching the apartment from what you can see in the video, there's cash, there's jewelry and what appears to be a gun, a clip and some ammunition as well.

So, they describe this woman as a Syrian national. And the interior minister says that they're pointing the finger at the PKK, the militant separatist Kurdish group. They also say, police say, of those 21 addresses searched, 46 people were detained. These are people that police say had been in contact with this woman recently. And police also claiming that they now have a confession that they've managed to attain from this woman.

NOBILO: What are we learned about the victims of this attack?

MCLEAN: Yes, I mean this is horrific. An eyewitness who was nearby described the horror of the scene in the moments after. He was in a store maybe 10, 15, meters away. He said that he saw people with missing legs, someone bleeding out of their ear and just chaos, screaming everywhere. It's actually remarkable that the numbers are not higher.

As of this point right now, six people have been killed more than 80 wounded. Of those six, we know there was a married couple. There was a mother out with her 15-year-old daughter. There was a 9-year-old boy who was out with a male relative as well. All of them killed. The vast majority of the more than 80 people who were hospitalized have been released. There are still five, though, in intensive care right now.

NOBILO: Scott McLean, thank you for joining us. We know you're continue to give us the latest developments. No one's yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

As Congressional Republicans head back to Washington today to discuss their electoral losses and debate who should lead their party.

FOSTER: Plus, the high-stakes meeting between President Biden and his Chinese counterpart is set to begin this hour. We are live in Bali next.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Max. President Joe Biden and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping are about to meet here on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali. The White House says it wants to establish guidelines to prevent U.S./Chinese competition from escalating into conflict. I'll have more on this story after the break.

[04:30:00]