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Georgia Voters Head To Polls In Crucial Senate Runoff; DOJ Subpoena Officials In Wisconsin And Michigan About 2020 Election; Rep. Andy Biggs Joins Race For Speaker, Challenging McCarthy; McConnell Criticizes Trump's Comments On Constitution. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 06, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:41]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell and it is Election Day in Georgia for that high stakes Senate runoff. People are turning out to vote. This is their last chance.

As of one hour ago, more than 800,000 people have voted so far today. That's from the Secretary of State's office. Republican Herschel Walker is challenging incumbent Raphael Warnock. And Democrats are hoping that Warnock can hold on to the seat and give them a two-seat majority in the Senate.

CAMEROTA: Even one extra seat would give them significant governing advantages. It would also take away the leverage of moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in fights over legislation. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Fulton County, Georgia. So Diane, what are you hearing from voters today?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You talked about that 800,000 votes already on this Election Day. Secretary of State's office said that's probably a conservative estimate. And the good news has been this sort of smooth rollout of Election Day voting across most of the state here at this location in southwest Atlanta. We've seen people coming steady throughout the day, but their wait times are about one to two minutes and that is roughly the state average right now around two and a half minutes, according to the Secretary of State's office, no more than 20 minutes at this point, even in the worst parts of the state.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that people came out and did early voting, more than 1.85 million early votes cast already and when we talked to voters, they talked to us about why it was so important to come out yet again for an election in Georgia and why they decided to actually vote on Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER (off camera): What made you vote on Election Day this year instead of early voting?

COURTNIE OWENS, ATLANTA VOTER: The nostalgia of it all. I wouldn't want the other person to think that they were going to get it, so I just felt like today to be here to give Warnock this, to be a part of this. It meant a lot. It meant more - much more today than it has in any other previous runoff election.

CORNELIA MILLER, ATLANTA VOTER: I was going to vote rain or shine, sleet or snow today. My Pastor asked us Sunday, who did the early vote, and I was so embarrassed because I couldn't raise my hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLANGER: But she got her vote out today, made her voice heard known. Look, there were a couple issues across the state, which means the polls will be open even longer in two counties. In Walker County at a precinct, something the Secretary of State's office described as human error will mean that a poll will stay open until 7:30 today. And in Gwinnett County, there will be one that will stay open until 7 or 8 pm.

Again, a big reminder if you are in line at 7 pm when the polls close, you stay in line and you can vote.

BLACKWELL: So when the pastor asked who voted this upcoming Sunday, she can proudly raise her hand. Dianne Gallagher for us there in Atlanta, thank you so much.

CNN's John Berman is standing by at the magic wall. So where does each candidate need to perform well, maybe as good as they did in November or better?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Look, it's pretty obvious for Raphael Warnock where he needs to perform well. These are the results from one month ago. You can see the blue areas, the Atlanta metro area, around Savannah and around Columbus, the more urban areas or suburban in this case.

And just to give you a sense of the margins, right, you talk about Fulton County, which is the biggest county in the Atlanta area, you can see he won 73 percent to 24 percent, a 200,000 vote margin there.

In Gwinnett County nearby, 50,000 vote margin; DeKalb County right here, 210,000 vote margin, 84 percent to 14 percent. So that's where he needs to perform well.

For Herschel Walker, it's a little bit of a different situation. What he needs to do, I'll show you, he just trailed by 37,000 votes, it's not that much, 1.9 million votes for Herschel Walker. If you look over Brian Kemp through public and gubernatorial candidate did, he got 2.1 million votes. So he got 200,000 plus 200 - that's a bad plus sign - plus 200,000 more votes than Herschel Walker did. So for Walker, he's got to or, or try to do what Brian Kemp did.

[15:05:02] Where can he do that? Well in places like Cobb County which is right next to Fulton County. Now, Cobb County has voted Democratic last two elections, but it used to be a Republican area suburban Republican area. You can see Walker got 40 percent there, but Brian Kemp got 47 percent there.

So Herschel Walker needs to make those margins better and I put it out to you and I'll just show you again. I like this little fact, there are three counties that voted for Raphael Warnock, the Democrat for Senator and voted for Brian Kemp, the Republican for governor, it's Jefferson County, Sumter County and Clay County here.

These are not big counties. I will show you the margins here. You can see 572 votes to 528 votes, but something we can look at as a bellwether as this night progresses, guys.

CAMEROTA: Every vote counts, apparently. And John, very quickly, 800,000 people have already voted today in Georgia, so the day of voting and what's the context based upon November?

BERMAN: Yes. So I was just looking at that, so we have 800,000 in- person today, 800,000. In November, there were 1.6 million, okay? So it's hard to know, are we halfway done? Are there more than half the votes left? I will say the early vote this time is 1.8 million last time the early vote was 2.3 million.

So the issue is will that Election Day vote which tends to skew Republican these last few elections, will that get bigger? We just have to wait and see.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Berman, thank you very much. Let's discuss all this with Politics Reporter from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Shannon McCaffrey. Shannon, thanks so much for being here. Okay. What are the factors that you think are driving Georgians to the polls today?

SHANNON MCCAFFREY, POLITICAL REPORTER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Well, I think the factors are different for the different candidates. I think some of the folks that are coming out to support Herschel Walker are looking past some of his flaws and some of his gaffes and other issues because they simply want another Republican vote in the Senate.

So I think in some ways while some of them really, like Herschel Walker, I think there's a significant number who are holding their nose a little bit and just trying to give Mitch McConnell an extra vote. And I think it's similar with Raphael Warnock, people are looking - he's making the case that 51 is better than 50. But folks who are supporting Raphael Warnock tend to be talking a little bit more about his character, his personality, the lack of scandals surrounding him, compared to Herschel Walker, that he's just in their mind, a superior candidate when it comes to his - him as a person. He has also really been pushing many of the issues that Herschel Walker hasn't even talked about.

So it depends on the voter, but I think they're both turning out for various different reasons. BLACKWELL: So Shannon, which counties, which demographics will you be watching tonight to get a clearer picture of the political landscape across Georgia?

MCCAFFREY: Yes, that's a great question. I think it's a matter of what we'll be very curious to see how the black vote turns out. The black vote is critical to Democrats winning in Georgia. So if we have a high black turnout, that is really good news for Raphael Warnock.

And in terms of turnout, also, we'll be looking at Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett counties, those sort of metro area counties that have large, large numbers of people. It was interesting, because Herschel Walker spent a lot of his time yesterday, the day before the election up in the north Georgia Mountains.

Those are tiny counties. They don't have a huge amount of people. But he really needs those folks to turn out for him. And yesterday, he was also in Cobb County as, I think, John mentioned, which is interesting, because Brian Kemp did over perform him there. And I'm - I think he's really hoping that even if he doesn't win Cobb County, he could perform a little better than he did last time.

CAMEROTA: And Shannon, we also keep hearing about the youth vote, that Gen Z. So the new voters, people who haven't - who may have just turned 18 say that they're really activated this time.

MCCAFFREY: Yes. So the early voting actually showed that the largest group of voters were older, sort of 45 and up. Now, the youth voters did turn out in I think slightly better numbers during the general election. I can tell you that Raphael Warnock has really been making a play for those voters.

He appeared Sunday at the University of Georgia. He appeared yesterday at Georgia Tech, really trying to rev up those voters. They tend to be a little unreliable about turning out, but he has definitely been pushing that particular demographic.

Again, I think a turnout - a large turnout by youth voters would again I think, help Raphael Warnock.

BLACKWELL: Yes. A Stop by Killer Mike's (ph) barber shop there would be nice as well at the last day of campaigning. Let me ask you what John mentioned, this deficit of 200,000 votes between Walker and Kemp in the general.

[15:10:01]

Is there any indication as far, of course, we'll get the ultimate answer tonight about how much Kemp's ad, Kemp's campaigning with and for Walker has helped to try to close that gap.

MCCAFFREY: Boy, that's a really good question and one will be watching really closely. Kemp got about 200,000 more votes than Walker did. I think for us, the question will be whether those voters turn out, whether they'll turn out and vote for Warnock, whether they'll stay home or whether they'll switch their votes, it's hard to say right now which direction they're going to go.

I mean, anecdotally, I've talked to some people who voted for Brian Kemp and Raphael Warnock who intend to come back out and vote for Raphael Warnock. But those - that's anecdotal. Brian Kemp's ad is definitely helped Herschel Walker.

But I don't know if all of his support is just transferable to Herschel Walker. I think there are also some people in Georgia who are just tired of elections and may just be a little bit weary to come back out and vote. But certainly Brian Kemp support has helped, but I'd be very curious to see if Herschel Walker really can get some of those voters in his corner.

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll watch it together. Shannon McCaffrey, thank you.

And CNN special live coverage of the Georgia runoff starts at the top of the hour.

CAMEROTA: And we're all following new developments in the investigations into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The House committee investigating the insurrection says they will make criminal referrals to the Justice Department in the coming days.

BLACKWELL: And the Justice Department's newly appointed special counsel has subpoenaed local officials in Wisconsin and Michigan for communications with former President Donald Trump and members of his 2020 campaign.

CNN's Evan Perez joins us now. What more do we know about this?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Alisyn, this is an investigation that we know has been taken over by Jack Smith, the new special counsel. And as you know, it's looking into the efforts to impede the transfer of power after the 2020 election.

And so you have now these officials in Dane County and Wayne County in Michigan, in Wisconsin as well as in Milwaukee who have received these subpoenas from the Justice Department signed by Jack Smith in the last few days. And so what they're looking for is communications with a number of allies of the former president, people in his campaign and Donald Trump himself.

Now, we've seen his name and his campaign associated with a number of subpoenas in these so-called fake electors, right? These are people that Trump and some of his allies were trying to get to cast votes for him if he had been able to overturn the election and remain in power using these fake electors.

So the Justice Department we know has been looking at this and what this tells us, Victor and Alisyn, is that there's still a lot more work that these prosecutors feel they have to do in the coming weeks and months as they try to figure out whether the former president or people around him will get - will face charges as a result of this.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Evan, thank you for bringing us that development. PEREZ: Sure.

BLACKWELL: McCarthy wants to be the next Speaker of the House but his path is getting more complicated. His new opponent in the race next.

CAMEROTA: And a man known as the Time Square killer now confessing to five more murders. The shocking admission that solves decades-old cold cases ahead.

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[15:17:55]

BLACKWELL: Kevin McCarthy's quest to become the next house speaker got a little more complicated. Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs is challenging McCarthy for the speaker's gavel now.

CAMEROTA: CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is here. So Manu, does this complicate things for McCarthy?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it does. He has a math problem at the moment and Kevin McCarthy needs to figure out a way to deal with that problem, this in the aftermath of Andy Biggs, the conservative from Arizona, who tried to defeat him behind closed doors for the nomination to become speaker last month. But Biggs lost that race, but he was able to peel away 31 votes away from Kevin McCarthy.

In order for Kevin McCarthy to become elected speaker on January 3rd, he could only afford to lose four votes. So if those protests votes, the ones - and the ones who supported Andy Biggs continue to support Andy Biggs on the floor on January 3rd when they vote - elect the next House speaker, that means McCarthy has a serious math problem.

Now, behind closed doors, Republicans engaged in a tense debate about what to do. McCarthy allies called for some unity and some Republican detractors said there need to be some changes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): There's nothing new in our (inaudible) this is normal. We're having a debate just like the way the Democrats did last time. Remember, I mean, there was an enormous discussion heading into the speaker's race in the last Congress to ...

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): I think it's (inaudible) I think this is all theatrics. Imagine a place like this having theatrics right before a major vote, it's a done deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So it's not a done deal, but it could certainly be theatrics. The question will be whether or not Biggs maintains this challenge, his candidacy throughout until January 3rd or if they cut some sort of deal in order to allow McCarthy to ascend to the speakership on that day. At the moment, the two sides in a bit of a staring contest, as we head into January 3rd and McCarthy does not get the 218 votes to become speaker, it will go to a second ballot, maybe even a third ballot and that hasn't happened guys for about a century.

BLACKWELL: Manu, we've now heard from the Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell about Trump's call to terminate portions of the Constitution. What did McConnell say?

[15:20:01]

RAJU: Yes. McConnell has not yet addressed this subject, this - in the aftermath of Donald Trump's posts from over the weekend saying the Constitution should be terminated. There has been a growing chorus of Republican criticism as they've come back to town. They've been asked questions about this.

This is the second straight week in which Mitch McConnell has criticized Donald Trump first in the aftermath of Trump having dinner with anti-Semites at Mar-A-Lago and now in the aftermath of this post. And I asked him whether or not he could support Donald Trump, if he becomes the next Republican nominee in 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: This is the second straight week you've come out to begin your press conference criticizing Donald Trump. Can you say categorically that you would not support him if he were the Republican nominee?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): What I'm saying is it would be pretty hard to be sworn in to the presidency if you're not willing to uphold the Constitution. That's what I said and I just said it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So McConnell has not yet said he would not support Donald Trump if he were to emerge as the nominee. Last week, I asked him the same question in the aftermath of his criticism about that Mar-A-Lago dinner, also sidestepped the question there.

But there's significant amount of daylight between Senate Republicans in particular and Donald Trump in the aftermath of these issues. They hope another candidate emerges and defeat him. They may not be outwardly saying it, many of them do feel that way and also, one person who has not yet fully weighed in on all of this is Kevin McCarthy, who wants to become speaker, of course, with the support of Donald Trump.

He said he'd support the Constitution. That's what McCarthy said today. But he stopped short of criticizing Donald Trump and has not said much about his recent posts about terminating the Constitution at all, guys.

BLACKWELL: Manu Raju for us there on Capitol Hill, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Here with us now we have Ronald Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at The Atlantic, and Scott Jennings, CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush. Gentlemen, great to see you.

Scott, I want to start with you. You know Sen. Mitch McConnell so well, why such a mild response to wanting to get rid of all rules and regulations in the Constitution?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think that he was mild at all. In fact, he was saying what a lot of Republicans are talking about behind the scenes and that is when you become president, you have to take an oath and that oath requires you to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Donald Trump, I think, violated his oath of office on January 6th and now he's openly saying he's going to violate it again by wanting to throw out the Constitution.

So when McConnell says you can't be sworn in as president over these statements, he means it because he fully understands what the oath of office is. This is not a mild reaction nor was his reaction to Trump's dinner with the anti-Semites. Mitch McConnell's laid down some pretty strong markers, I think.

BLACKWELL: Hey, Ron, I just saw your eyebrows hit your hairline.

RONALD BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BLACKWELL: What do you think about what you heard?

BROWNSTEIN: The big takeaway from Mitch McConnell in all of these statements is that he does not rule out supporting Donald Trump if he's the nominee in 2024. That is the operative words. Those are the meaningful comments or lack of comment when Manu gave him a very clear, unequivocal opportunity to say that Donald Trump has rendered himself unfit to be president, because he is no longer committed to defending the Constitution and, in fact, is calling for subverting it.

Liz Cheney said very clearly that disqualify someone for being president, Mitch McConnell won't say that. And whatever other words he kind of embroidered (inaudible) at this point ...

JENNINGS: He really just did (inaudible) on these statements, he literally said that today, that's not true.

BROWNSTEIN: No, no, he is not saying that he cannot support him if he's the Republican presidential nominee and until - and anything else, I think, other than saying that is really just embroidery and trying to make yourself feel better, because that is the issue, would you - is this person someone who is still fit to be president that you would support as the Republican nominee in 2024.

CAMEROTA: Yes, (inaudible), Scott.

BROWNSTEIN: And by the way, that is the issue, Scott - I mean, that is the - to kind of tie everything together today, what's going to happen in Cobb and Gwinnett counties outside of Atlanta, places that used to be reliably Republican, like Joe Biden campaigning today in Maricopa, a county that Democrats have not won between 1948 and 2020.

In all of these places, we saw despite widespread economic discontent, a big movement among white collar suburbs away from the Trump era Republican Party, because they viewed it as a threat to their rights and to democracy itself. And until the party is willing to more unequivocally say this is beyond the pale. I think they are going to continue to see the kind of results that are likely tonight.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, Scott.

JENNINGS: I just disagree with Ron, I think he unequivocally stated that you cannot be sworn in as president, if you're out there saying that you will not preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. It was a very, very clear statement.

And by the way, I don't speak for him, I only speak for myself. I do agree with Ron on this issue. This midterm and everything has happened since should be a wakeup call to every Republican that nominating Donald Trump for a third time as a sure path to losing the presidency one more time.

[15:25:02]

So I agree with you on that. I don't agree with you on the McConnell piece. But you're right, these elections have been a real message to the Republican Party.

BROWNSTEIN: Real quick, there were five states that decided the 2020 election by switching from Trump in '16 to Biden in 2020. Those five states are likely to decide the election again in 2024. If Walker loses tonight, it would mean that every Trump endorsed candidate for governor and senator in those five decisive states lost: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.

And as Scott said, they really - you cannot ask for a more clear signal from the electorate that Trump style politics is unacceptable even at a moment when 75 percent of the country says the economy is in bad shape, that number is highly likely to be better in 2024.

And if Trump style candidates could not get over the hill in these pivotal, decisive states in this environment, I mean, what would lead Republicans to believe that Trump himself could do so in two years.

BLACKWELL: Scott, let's talk about this race for speaker. Andy Biggs is now in - is - you can't be somebody with nobody. They now have an alternative to McCarthy. Is he strong enough of a candidate that he can gain and hold at least five votes ballot after ballot?

JENNINGS: I mean, I don't know. I mean, maybe, but that's akin to just holding the rest of the Republican Conference hostage. Remember the Republican Conference met, they voted, Kevin McCarthy got 85 percent of the votes in the conference meeting to be the party leader and to be the candidate for speaker. So what you have now are a handful of people who are holding the vast majority of the Republican Conference hostage. They are strengthening the Democrat hand. They don't have a candidate that can actually get elected Speaker of the House.

And so when you have a very narrow majority, the only chance you have to affect meaningful change is to have party unity. That's what's made Pelosi really successful. She said party unity, even with a narrow majority these last two years. These saboteurs who are trying to sabotage Kevin McCarthy are already throwing in the question whether the Republicans can stick together enough to actually affect change that conservatives would like.

So I think this is a terrible move. It's a terrible look. I currently still believe some of it is theatrical and McCarthy will make it, but I think it sends a pretty bad message to the people who just voted for Republicans to control the House, that this party can get its act together and act cohesively to push for conservative policy changes.

CAMEROTA: Yep. Ron, Scott, thank you both.

BLACKWELL: Idaho Police say that they're working through thousands of leads and tips in the investigation into the murder of four University of Idaho students, the latest from Moscow next.

CAMEROTA: And could eating burgers, fries and other processed foods lead to a higher risk of dementia. The results of a new study, ahead.

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