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Georgia's U.S. Senate Runoff; Ukraine Reports New Russian Strikes in the South; Dems Propose Major Changes to Primaries Calendar; Mauna Loa's Lava about 2.5 Miles from Major Highway; Hollywood's "Cocaine Bear". Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 04, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Laila Harrak.

Ahead this hour, Georgia on the mind in American politics, with Election Day for the Senate runoff just around the corner.

First blood drawn in the World Cup's knockout stage 14. The winners, the losers and today's matchups ahead.

Lava oozing from Hawaii's Mauna Loa, inches closer to a main highway. CNN has a team up close and personal to the volcano bringing you the report.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Laila Harrak.

HARRAK: We're just two days away from the final vote of the 2022 midterm elections on Tuesday. People here in Georgia will go to the polls in the state's U.S. Senate runoff election.

They'll choose between Democratic incumbent, senator Raphael Warnock, and Republican Herschel Walker. State data says nearly 2 million voters have already cast early ballots.

A Warnock victory would grant Democrats an outright majority in the U.S. Senate, providing a legislative boost and making confirmation of the president's judicial nominees easier. Dianne Gallagher has more on the final stretch.

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DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are approaching the end of overtime here in the Georgia Senate runoff election, as both candidates are making their final pitches to voters.

Senator Raphael Warnock with a busy Saturday, which is pretty much in line with the way his schedule has remained throughout this four-week runoff period. He spent the morning talking to unions. He did another rally in a different part of the state.

Then returned to Atlanta for an AAPI victory fund event, full of surrogates, politicians, entertainers and his fellow Georgia senator, Jon Ossoff, who he was elected originally back in January 2021 in yet another runoff race.

Now look, Warnock has a busy schedule on Sunday as well. His opponent, challenger Republican Herschel Walker, had a much more relaxed Saturday, which is also in line with his campaign strategy during the runoff period. He didn't hold any public events per se or anything open to the press.

But he did have a tailgate before the SEC championship game. Walker, of course, a star on the football field for the University of Georgia. He won the Heisman trophy and national championship back in the '80s.

He took plenty of selfies and shook hands with supporters there at that tailgate before the game. But he didn't talk to the media. And that's something that's pretty much been a trend for him throughout his campaign on this runoff period.

Again, much more relaxed schedule. He has one event scheduled on Sunday. Both candidates trying to reach those voters that did not cast some of the 1.85 million ballots during the early voting period. They note that there are still voters out there and they need to convince them to come out on Tuesday -- Dianne Gallagher, CNN. Back to you.

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HARRAK: Let's talk now about the state of the Georgia Senate runoff with Tia Mitchell, the Washington correspondent for "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," she joins me now from Atlanta where she is right now.

Thank you so much, Tia, for your time.

Where do things stand right now?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION": Well, right now, things stand -- it's crunch time, you know?

We're going into the final days of the campaign. And quite frankly, without, you know -- there's no early voting. So it's just about reaching as many voters as possible who haven't cast ballots yet, encouraging them to come up with a plan to do so on Tuesday.

We'll see a lot of door knocking, phone banking, texting and, of course, the candidates are also still holding public events and rallies to get people energized and enthusiastic about getting out the vote on Tuesday.

HARRAK: What is driving voters?

Is it political party or candidates?

MITCHELL: You know, I think it varies. For Herschel Walker in particular, there are some people who are motivated by him as a candidate.

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MITCHELL: You know, as that popular athlete that they grew up admiring. But you're also seeing, particularly on the Republican side, people saying, it's not about the candidate. I might even believe the candidate is flawed but I can still support him because I want a Republican in that seat.

Now in the case of Raphael Warnock, I think that Democrats in general are more enthusiastic about their candidate, you know. People who are voting for Warnock tend to say they really believe in him, they really think he's superior, he's better qualified, better prepared to go to the Senate.

So it's less of that mixed bag that we're seeing when it comes to Herschel Walker.

HARRAK: Now Mr. Walker is backed by former president Trump.

What is the -- Mr. Trump's role in this runoff?

MITCHELL: So Mr. Trump, former president Trump, has been kind of hands-off in this runoff. You know, of course he supports Herschel Walker. He said as much when he announced that he was running for president again.

He said, oh, by the way, don't forget, support Herschel Walker.

Even behind the scenes, I'm sure he's doing what he can. But he is not, for example, campaigning in person with Herschel Walker. He isn't campaigning in Georgia at all. So he is keeping some physical distance.

But you know, we can't ignore, can't hide the fact that he and Herschel Walker are friends, very politically aligned, very instrumental in Herschel Walker winning that primary.

HARRAK: So why not show up for Mr. Walker?

MITCHELL: Well, I think Herschel Walker's advisers and president Trump has agreed that it won't be helpful. And one thing that president Trump needs is he needs a win to hang his hat on in these midterms.

A lot of his other handpicked candidates were not successful. Herschel Walker would be the most high-profile Trump-endorsed candidate to win, if he were to be successful on Election Day.

So I think Trump has decided he wants a win more than he wants to kind of be on stage with the cheering crowd in Georgia. He's been willing to forego that because he has been told that that will help Herschel Walker win. He really wants this win in Georgia.

HARRAK: Why is Tuesday's runoff election such a big deal?

I mean, we know Republicans will control the House. Democrats are retaining the Senate.

Is there enough at stake to motivate voters to come out?

MITCHELL: Well, I think there's still much at stake. I think voters are getting that message.

You know, now it's all about, will Democrats get to 51?

And that will have big implications for Democrats if they do retain this seat. They get that clear majority on the committees. Right now, there are judicial appointments held up in committee because, right now, there's that even split, which means Republicans can just not show up and keep committees from getting the quorum they need.

Democrats can't just show up and say, we're the majority, we're going to push it through, the way they could if Warnock wins the seat. So you know, there are implications.

It might not be as easy or compelling as saying, control of the Senate. But we hear that on both sides. You hear Republicans saying, hey, we still need to win this seat to control how much power Democrats have.

You hear Democrats saying, we need this seat because it will give us that much more ability to do what we'd like to do in the Senate. So those stakes are out there. I think Georgia voters understand what's at stake.

So now it's just a question of how many of those voters believe that it's important enough for them to show up and cast a ballot?

HARRAK: All right. Tia Mitchell of "The Atlanta Journal- Constitution," thank you so much for joining us.

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HARRAK: Ukraine's power system is still getting back up and running after a string of Russian strikes. Now Ukraine's foreign minister says new attacks are just a matter of time and they could be even worse. (MUSIC PLAYING)

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HARRAK: We're receiving reports of new Russian airstrikes -- or strikes, rather -- in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say artillery and rocket fire hit two regions overnight, including Zaporizhzhya. Some homes and power lines were damaged but so far, we haven't heard reports of casualties.

Meanwhile, Russia says president Vladimir Putin will visit an occupied part of Ukraine but it's still an open question as to when. State media report the Kremlin saying he'll go to the Donbas region, quote, "in due course." Moscow declared that the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which make up the Donbas, were annexed in October.

But those annexations are illegal under international law. Meanwhile Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says world powers didn't go far enough with their new cap on the price of Russian oil.

The European Union, G7 and others set the cap at $60 a barrel to limit the cash flow to the Russian economy. But Mr. Zelenskyy said Russia can take that financial aid and he accused world powers of hesitating to make what he called a big decision.

While Ukraine has been bracing for the next wave of attacks, the country's foreign minister told CNN, the next time round, Russia will try to knock out the entire power grid. CNN's Will Ripley has more on the damage that's already been done.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Temperatures get colder here in Kyiv at night. That is certainly not a good situation for the millions of people in this country, who are living without electricity right now.

Here in the capital, the outages are fairly well organized and usually only last a few hours a day.

But if you get farther out, there are places in Ukraine where people maybe have electricity for two or three hours per day. The rest of the time they're in the dark. Whether that affects their heating system depends on the type of home that they live in.

Certainly being in the dark, combined with the drastically cold temperatures, temperatures that are only going to plummet even further in the weeks and months ahead, means this could be a very difficult and long winter for the people of Ukraine, especially given the concerns raised to CNN exclusively in an interview with the foreign minister on Friday, where essentially they said that they're bracing for a major Russian attack at some point in the coming days, presumably on their power grid.

They are saying that they believe that the goal of the Russians is to try to shut down electricity across as much of Ukraine as possible by launching a barrage of missiles in a very short period of time.

Last week they launched more than 70 missiles over a period of just a few hours, including dummies. These are 1980s-era nuclear-capable missiles that didn't have warheads in them but can still cause considerable damage if they hurtle into a target like a power plant or, in some cases, hitting apartment buildings, people's homes and businesses.

But what the Ukrainians believe is the reason why Russia is firing these is not necessarily that they're running low on missiles or don't have an adequate stockpile but that they're trying to exhaust the missile defense systems by firing a combination of rockets with warheads and dummy missiles.

The reason for that is that Ukrainians are remarkably adept at shooting these things down. Out of the more than 70 that Russia fired last week, the Ukrainians say they shot down more than 50. That leaves around 20 or so hitting their targets effectively.

And just as they've now started to rebuild and repair the power grid, if there is another major Russian attack, it would certainly be a devastating blow, which is why the Ukrainian foreign minister is calling on the United States to make a decision as soon as possible on getting Patriot missile defense systems into the country.

They're also asking other nations, including Germany, for missile defense systems to try to get those systems in place, not in a matter of months but in a matter of weeks at the latest so they can defend against these attacks and try to lower the cost, the tremendous cost, both in terms of suffering but also in terms of rebuilding infrastructure each time that Russia decides to attack in this manner -- Will Ripley, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

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HARRAK: Grain from Ukraine is making its way right now to some of the people who need it the most. The first cargo ship under a new Ukrainian program has docked in Djibouti with its cargo of 25,000 tons of food bound for its landlocked neighbor, Ethiopia.

The initiative has raised over $150 million to send Ukrainian grain to countries in Africa and the Middle East. Ukraine says about 60 more ships are expected to follow. According to President Zelenskyy, they'll help over 5 million people who are facing starvation.

In a few days, Georgia voters will determine who will fill the last remaining seat in the U.S. Senate.

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HARRAK: Even before that race is decided, Democrats are already looking to make major changes in the next election cycle. We'll have those details after a short break.

Plus the political scandal in South Africa ramps up, as the president refuses to step down. We report live from Johannesburg coming up.

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HARRAK: Welcome back.

This Tuesday will determine the final balance of power in the new U.S. Congress. With Georgia's Senate runoff between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

The last of the House races has now been called for Republican John Duarte in California. As it now stands, the GOP will hold a slim 222- seat House majority in January. Democrats are projected to have 213 seats.

Not surprisingly, both parties are already looking ahead to 2024. Now the Democrats are proposing major changes to their presidential nomination calendar. We get the details from CNN's Arlette Saenz at the White House.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden has proposed upending the calendar Democrats use to nominate their presidential candidates, removing Iowa from the top spot and replacing it with South Carolina.

The rules panel at the Democratic National Committee approved the president's proposal, which now needs to be voted on by the broader committee early next year. President Biden's argument for making these changes is he wants to see a more diverse slate of states have an early say in the nominating contest.

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SAENZ: Iowa and New Hampshire are the two that have typically gone first and they have more predominantly white populations. But now President Biden wants to see South Carolina move to the very start of the calendar.

It would then be followed by Nevada and New Hampshire on the same day and then add in Georgia, which has become a battleground state in recent years, followed by Michigan to represent the Midwest.

Now there are some steep challenges to actually getting these dates enacted. Each state sets their own primary dates and has their own process for doing so. Iowa and New Hampshire have it enshrined in their law that they go first in these nominating contests.

There's also a challenge in that Republicans plan on holding their contests in the same order. But President Biden is hoping the Democratic National Committee will be able to push through these changes heading into 2024 -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

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HARRAK: Incendiary statements from former U.S. President Donald Trump are nothing new. But on social media Saturday, he made an extraordinary declaration, calling for the termination of the U.S. Constitution.

He wrote in part, "A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution."

Mr. Trump's post came after the release of internal Twitter communications about a "New York Post" story in 2020 that the team suspected came from hacked material. CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig had this withering view of Trump's post.

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ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Virtually every word of that statement is wrong, crazy and dangerous. I mean, the only accurate thing Donald Trump says is that to do what he's recommending would require termination of the Constitution, which, of course, would leave us without a democracy.

I don't think DOJ is paying any attention to this. Sometimes you just have to sort of look past the hoopla and focus on the facts and the law that are relevant to a crime. I think DOJ prosecutors are looking at this statement, probably rolling their eyes or feeling some sense of disgust and just ignoring it.

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HARRAK: Now to South Africa, where, after days of speculation, the president's office says he will not resign. Cyril Ramaphosa has been under intense pressure to quit after an independent panel found he may have acted unconstitutionally.

The president's office says the report is, quote, "flawed." Let's get you more on this developing story. CNN's David McKenzie joins us live from Johannesburg.

David, can the president survive this scandal?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That remains to be seen. We'll get a clearer sense of that in the coming days, Laila.

But this scandal has riveted South Africans over the last few days. Basically it boils down to a robbery that happened some time ago at his private ranch, where the president says several hundred thousand dollars of cash, which they had put in a sofa, was stolen and blames it on a robbery after the sale of his buffalo. The president famously is a trader in wildlife. But it took several

years for this information to come out. And this report that was put through by parliament, by an independent panel, said that there could be enough evidence to move toward impeachment, both in terms of the allegations of a cover-up of this crime and other lack of information and forthrightness by the president.

This is critically important here in South Africa. Ramaphosa has been seen and has touted himself as an anti-corruption president. There have been moves in terms of prosecuting people in the very wide- ranging allegations of corruption of the last president's tenure.

But this will, of course, cast a shadow over that push. The president's spokesmen are telling me he will fight this, that they are going to put that report under review. The next step is both legal and political.

On the legal front, they will try and get this report thrown out. On the political side, it's clear that Ramaphosa is trying to get support within the ruling African National Congress today and into tomorrow to avoid actually moving toward impeachment in parliament.

This will all be focused -- the intense focus of South Africa and the fate of the president in the coming days.

HARRAK: CNN's David McKenzie, thank you so much for that update.

Still ahead, tourists throng Hawaii as the world's largest active volcano erupts for the first time in nearly four decades. But there are new concerns.

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HARRAK: In Hawaii, the lava continues to flow from the world's largest active volcano. The U.S. Geological Survey says molten rock from Mauna Loa has crept a bit more, two miles from a major highway.

Although the speed of the flow has slightly slowed down, the state's governor tells CNN, if the lava crosses the highway, it could be, quote, "a tremendous inconvenience." CNN's David Culver has more.

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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: About 2.5 miles from where we're standing, you can barely see, just under the cloud cover that's moved in, the edge of the lava flow. You'll see going up into the air those are some of the plumes, not of smoke but of acidic gases.

So that's part of the concern with this, is what's going into the air, what's called vog or volcanic smog. It can be very toxic. Officials have been advising folks, particularly those with respiratory issues, to be mindful of that.

Still, they want people to enjoy what is a spectacular sight, one that is rare. It's been 38 years since Mauna Loa erupted. For them to be able to come out to what is the largest volcano, the world's largest active one at that, and to take it in, it's spectacular.

But it's also one they want folks to keep a safe distance from. They're monitoring closely the flow of that lava because it's going now at a much slower pace than it was initially, about 25 feet per hour, according to the governor here.

It's making its way this direction. Here's another really concerning part and that is what's on the other side of this side street, a main highway that cuts from one end of the Big Island to the other.

You cut that off, transportation-wise you're going to have a lot of issues. So they don't want that logistical nightmare to fall into place. Until that point, they're saying, come on out.

They're letting people park along this side street here that's been turned into a one-way roadway so that people can safely pull over. You can see folks there parked just to take in the sights, some bringing offerings, especially locals, who see this as a very culturally significant and spiritual event.

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CULVER: They're bringing leis, flowers; one woman, rosemary. While some are taking pictures, especially in the middle of the night, where it is stunning and you have that glow into the sky, people are also just wanting to be here and listen to the stillness of it all.

There's a mutual respect you feel as well. People will say, do you mind turning off your car lights?

Take it in perhaps together in a more impactful way. And people are doing that collectively, enjoying it. Overall, it's still a potentially dangerous situation, potentially very destructive. They saw that here in 2018. So it's one that they're monitoring closely and updating daily -- David Culver, CNN, Hawaii.

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HARRAK: After years of fighting for equal World Cup pay, the U.S. women's team got it. And now they'll be getting quite a payout from the men's tournament, more than they earned from their own championships. We'll break it down.

Plus bears and honey seem like a natural combination but bears and a powdery illegal drug, it's not only based on real life, it's a new movie. It's a story you won't want to miss.

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HARRAK: The next time you grab a baguette, you'll be enjoying an official piece of French cultural heritage. This week, UNESCO added the long, crusty loaf to its list of items that should be safeguarded and passed onto future generations -- and for good reason.

The French buy 6 billion baguettes every year. France is good to receive this designation, including over 200 endorsements, letters from bakers and children's drawings. Sadly, some French bakeries making baguettes are disappearing.

If you combine the drug-soaked movie, "Scarface," with the ursine attack scenes in the film, "The Revenant," it just might resemble the new flick, "Cocaine Bear." CNN's Jeanne Moos sniffs out the truth behind the film and the trailer that has Hollywood buzzing.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the name of a movie is "Cocaine Bear" --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bear did cocaine.

MOOS: You can expect critics to snort. But the bonkers trailer has moviegoers salivating to see the film featuring a bear high on coke embarked on a murderous rampage. "Sharknado," but for bears but on cocaine.

And then there's the tease, "Inspired by true events." This much at least is true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions of worth of cocaine fell from the sky this morning in Knoxville, Tennessee.

MOOS: That did happen in 1985 when a drug smuggler named Andrew Thornton died in someone's backyard when he jumped from a small plane with bricks of cocaine in a duffel bag attached to it.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman jumped out of an airplane with a parachute that was too small for his load.

MOOS: Before he jumped he apparently dumped other cocaine-filled bags and a 170-pound bear was found dead among the drugs on a Georgia hillside. Officials said he OD'd. The movie shows the bear dining on coke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. don't eat that, don't eat that. MOOS: The real bear died from the drugs and there was no killing spree. It's believed the stuffed bear eventually ended up in a place called the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall, where you can buy cocaine bear earrings and even what they call a blow globe: does not contain cocaine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What the (INAUDIBLE) is wrong with that bear?

MOOS: The poor guy is being compared to "Scarface." Some are calling him Pablo Escobear, a nickname even a coked up bear might not take lying down -- Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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HARRAK: Before we go, we want to wish happy birthday to the world's oldest land animal, Jonathan. He's a Seychelles giant tortoise celebrating his 190th birthday. While there's no real record of his birth, the reptile is believed to have been born around 1832. Island officials say he could be as old as 200.

If you do the math, Jonathan was born when Elizabeth's ancestor, Queen Victoria, was a teenager. Officials have made a series of commemorative stamps to mark the tortoise's long life.

Happy birthday, Jonathan.

That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Laila Harrak. Kim Brunhuber picks up our coverage after a quick break. I'll see you tomorrow.