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Democratic U.S. Senator Warnock wins Georgia runoff; House January 6th Committee to Make Criminal Referrals; Georgia's Swing State Status; Moscow Accuses Ukraine of Drone Attacks Inside Russia. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired December 07, 2022 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:36]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Kasie Hunt live in Washington. U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock says the people have spoken after his second hard fought run off in two years. CNN projects he will win reelection and serve a full term as Senator. The Georgia Democrat defeats Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

So fitting in to a very disappointing midterm election cycle for the GOP at least if you're a Democrat, the GOP only had modest gains in the House. Democrats are actually in better shape than they were before in the Senate. They now hold the chamber 51 to 49. It was previously 50-50 that will give them majorities in every committee. Why is that important? It lets them process legislation and especially nominations much more quickly.

Senator Warnock thank supporters at his campaign headquarters in Atlanta nearly two hours ago, the incumbent Democrat pledged to walk with the people of his state and represent all Georgians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRAT: After a hard fought campaign or should I say campaigns? It is my honor. To utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy.

The people have spoken.

Georgia, I don't want you to miss what you've done in a moment in which there were folk trying to divide our country and those forces are very much at work right now. Georgia did an amazing thing. In 2021, it sent its first African American senator and his first Jewish Senator to the United States Senate in one fell swoop.

And you have done it again, thank you, Georgia.

Now there are those who will look at the outcome of this race. And say that, yes, you're right, we won, but there are those who would look at the outcome of this race and saying that there's no voter suppression in Georgia.

Let me be clear. Just because people endured long lines, that wrapped around buildings, some blocks long just because they endured the rain, and the coal and all kinds of tricks in order to vote doesn't mean that voter suppression does not exist. It simply means that you live people have decided that your voices will not be silenced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And former President Barack Obama tweeted just a little while ago, he wrote once again, Georgians have proven that when it comes time to vote, they'll show up and vote for a leader who will fight for them. Congratulations, Reverend Warnock.

Let's turn to the magic wall and our CNN political director, David Chalian, who is back with us tonight. David, Barack Obama obviously was involved in this race. We saw him go down there for Herschel Walker campaign for him pretty hard. Even Michelle Obama actually cut a robo call for Raphael Warnock. They obviously were trying to get Democratic voters excited.

What role do you think that played and what else would you underscore tonight in terms of why Warnock was able to bring this home?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, Obama was down there before the general in four weeks ago and he went back in for the runoff. That's something that Joe Biden was not invited to do in those the closing days of the campaign there.

[01:05:03]

So clearly, the Warnock team thought that Obama could be helpful in getting some of that Democratic base vote out.

Take a look at where we are Kasie here, we've got 99 percent of the vote and votes are still going to be trickling in until we get a full count. But Warnock is 89,712 votes ahead of Herschel Walker 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent. How did he do it? I want you to take a look at the four largest counties in Georgia up here in the Atlanta area. Let's start with Fulton County, home to Atlanta.

Look at Raphael Warnock number, I just want you to look that's today in the runoff 76.5 percent of the vote. Look what it was on November 8. He was at 73.5 percent. He over performed here. OK. Take a look next door in Cobb County, back in November in the general, he had 56.8 percent of the vote there. Today in Cobb County, he overperformed his general election performance 59.3 percent. We can go over to Gwinnett County. Today, he had 62.1 percent, back in November 8, Warnock was at 58.9 percent.

So you see, he overperformed where the voters are, and in three of those four largest counties, Herschel Walker underperformed what he did, just four weeks ago. This was a battle for suburban independent voters in this critical area in Georgia, in the Atlanta area of this critical suburban population here. And Warnock showed that he had the ability to actually increase his performance precisely where Walker needed to do it.

Remember, Brian Kemp got some 200,000 more votes just four weeks ago than Walker, his critical mission was to find some of those votes in this area and bring them on board. He failed to do so, Kasie.

HUNT: I mean, when you look at this, and you've been thinking about and studying these questions for a really long time. I mean, why is it do you think voters were willing to say I'll vote for Brian Kemp and I will also vote for Raphael Warnock especially in a world where we thought Paul Begala was talking about this earlier, we thought basically ticket splitters were dead.

CHALIAN: Yes, we do live in an era of very polarized politics. There's no doubt about that. And we have seen a decrease in ticket splitting. But the reality is, Brian Kemp was presenting to voters, a different kind of Republican than Herschel Walker was. Herschel Walker was tied to Donald Trump. Georgia rejected Donald Trump just two years ago in the presidential race and those two Senate races, and Herschel Walker was going down that path where Brian Kemp, I mean, Donald Trump perhaps his battle with him helped him become an appeal to maybe some independent voters that he was the antithesis of Trump inside the Republican Party context, a Republican that was beholden to Trump, no doubt that have a lot to do with that 200,000 Vote differential.

HUNT: And now of course, all right, David Chalian, thank you very much.

CHALIAN: Thank you.

HUNT: Great to have you here. And here to discuss the Senate runoff is our panel of esteemed guests. Paul Begala, Democratic strategist, CNN political commentator, Alice Stewart, Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, Laura Barron-Lopez is a White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour as well as the CNN political analyst, and April Ryan, who's a White House correspondent for The Grio, also a CNN political analyst. Great to have you all back at the table tonight.

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: And we've been morning this morning. I don't I've lost track of time. We'll see how we're doing it. Right now it's one in the morning Eastern time here in the United States. We've got a lot of viewers joining us from overseas tonight as well.

But Alice, I mean, we were -- we've been talking about and I kind of want to focus in on the state of Georgia and the landscape and how it's changing or not, because it's shaping up to be a critical state in the 2024 presidential race. And if you pick up on what David Chalian was pointing out, I mean, this is still a state that will vote for a Republican, pretty much for any office, if in fact they present in a certain way. I mean, what does that that mean, as Republicans look ahead?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: One thing to follow up on David's numbers, I think it was fascinating what we saw in where Herschel Walker underperformed in many areas in the state. I attribute that to one thing and one thing solely is the fact that the control of the Senate was not at stake. I've spoken with Republicans ever since the midterm elections. They were ready to go all in on a runoff in Georgia, if controlled, the Senate was at stake, big fundraisers, people doing bus tours across the state that were ready to get out the vote for whoever this might be the Republican candidate, but when that wasn't an option, enthusiasm just went up through the floor and it was just not there.

But if you step back and look at the landscape and the color of Georgia, it is still a conservative state. It's in the Bible Belt. There's -- it's a very conservative state. We have constitutional offices from Georgia to Governor, lieutenant governor, Attorney General Secretary of State, all Republican, the state legislature, the House and Senate Republican.

[01:10:03]

The only time it is leaning to the blue and Democrat is when Donald Trump's involved and he lost the state when we had the runoff with Perdue and Loeffler, we lost those races. We lost this one because Donald Trump does not work in Georgia. Trumpism is dead in Georgia, conservative republicanism -- Republicanism is still alive and well.

RYAN: It depends on what part of Georgia Trumpism is dead. That's a whole different thing. Look at Dalton, Georgia, straight up.

HUNT: I think we can say the suburbs of the Atlanta metro area where many Republican voters live. They're not down with Donald Trump, rural Georgia may be a different story. But when you think about the state in general, I mean, is this a place where Democrats could have been performing more strongly earlier than they have? I mean, what do you attribute this to?

RYAN: So a lot of what Alice said is correct, but Georgia is purple. Let's just say it. I believe looking back at these last presidential elections, especially when Hillary Clinton ran for president against Donald Trump, if she kept going into Georgia like she did, she could have possibly won Georgia. She had stopped talking about guns, so she could get more of the Southern vote.

But I believe that Hillary Clinton's run set up the situation for Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock to not all of those -- a lot of those barriers down to change that red state blue. OK. And now we're in a purple moment. And I think it's kind of synonymous with what's going on in the Republican Party. Georgia is trying to find itself, just like the Republican Party is trying to sift out and figure out who it is, in this moment.

HUNT: Laura, April mentions Hillary Clinton. But I also want to ask about Stacey Abrams, because I have had democratic sources who, while they may have questions about her own personal political campaigns, they're very impressed with the organization she has built there. And they give her a lot of credit for how Democrats have done. I mean, what's your reporting? LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Yes, that was something that I was actually going to bring up, which was the entire ground game that has changed for Democrats in the state of Georgia really, like starting a lot of people say from 2016 on so many of the groups that are based there formed after 2016 in response to Donald Trump, but they -- they're black led groups, they're groups that are led by young voters and young people.

And I think that they're really trying to mobilize this changing Georgia, these changing demographics in Georgia, whether it's mobilizing the young vote, which went I think, about 60% or so or more for Warnock in the general. And then also black voters and Asian American voters. We've seen them grow as a bigger block that have appeared to go more democratic than Republican so far in the past few election cycles.

And so that's what these groups have really harnessed. They knocked on someone I was there, they said that they were nearing, you know, potentially more than 3 million doors that they had knocked on across the state and repeatedly engaging voters in any way they could possibly find in order to try to tell them that they needed to go out and vote in the runoff election.

The other thing is that again, in the early vote, Democrats have focused heavily on that really vote -- focused heavily on mail voting in a way that Republicans have not partially because former President Donald Trump has attacked mail voting has said that he thinks Republicans should vote on election day when he is voted by --

HUNT: And want to get Paul in here.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Georgia is changing. OK, I worked for Zell Miller back in the day, he was a matter of fact --

HUNT: Of course you did.

BEGALA: In fact, he's the guy who introduced me to Bill Clinton, which kind of created my whole career. I love Zell, but go in a more recent history. A decade ago, I'm working for Barack Obama super PAC. He lost Gwinnett County, one of those counties, those giant suburban counties that challengers showed us, he lost Gwinnett by 10. Barack Obama, pretty talented politician. Reverend Warnock won by 24.

HUNT: Wow.

BEGALA: We were talking earlier April about Forsyth County.

HUNT: Yes.

BEGALA: Which is all white now. It's about 4 percent black, but it was 0 percent black when President Obama was running in 2012 He got 17 percent. That's it. 17 percent. Reverend Warnock tonight got 34.

HUNT: Even though it's only a change in black --

BEGALA: It's 4 percent black. So the state is changing and the candidates are changing, right? I mean, I thought, of course I loved Obama. I remarket a terrific job of reaching out suburbanites and exurbanites and adding to that, or beginning with that base of young people, African Americans, it's a very hard thing to do.

RYAN: And that's a --

BEGALA: Because it's a large diverse party, but the state is changing.

HUNT: April we're about to wrap. Yes. Let's put a pin in this for right now. Because we're going to come back from the break and we're going to keep talking about all this. It's obviously we have a ton to say about this critical race. Our panel is going to stand by and we will be right back.

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[01:18:50]

HUNT: U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock is celebrating tonight a major win in the final race of the 2022 midterm elections. CNN projects he will defeat Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a very close runoff election although not necessarily that close by modern American political standards.

His victory gives Democrats a 51 to 49 seat majority in the Senate, that is a pickup of one seat for President Biden's Democratic Party. President Biden did tweet a short time ago he says, just called Senator Warnock to congratulate him on his win. Tonight, Georgia voters stood up for our democracy, rejected Ultra MAGAism, and most importantly sent a good man back to the Senate. Here's to six more years.

We are back now with our panel who was all scrambling to get in there as we went to break. So let's try to pick up where we left off. April, we were -- Paul was talking a little bit about Forsyth County. You guys had been talking about how that had changed. And whether or not the state it -- how deeply it may or may not be changing in Democrats favor?

[01:20:00]

RYAN: So one thing we have to remember, and you guys brought it up on the other side of the table earlier, people need to feel seen and hurt. And one part of the problem is, as in you brought this up, Alice a minute ago, you said, being in the center, sometimes at center leaves all the other sides out. And people that's some of the reason why we are finding such extreme behavior in politics now, because people are feeling like, I'm not seeing I'm not heard. You're not talking to me.

Now, what Raphael Warnock did one of the things that he did to his credit for his win is he not only focused in on his home base of Atlanta, where the church where he pastors is centered. He went into rural Georgia. He talked to white rural Georgians, who may have had some neighbors who might not have wanted to talk to him, you know, because of his race.

But he went into territories in Georgia that Herschel Walker was walking, and let's talk about this two character. The character issue. We didn't even bring that up. I was in Atlanta twice over the last month and a half with my book tour. And I couldn't even leave the room for watching those nasty attack ads. And those Georgians who voted were very repulsed by the ads that they were seeing. So it's several issues, I think that are colliding character. I feel seen and character again.

HUNT: You know, one of the things was so interesting, April, and you know, Alice would be interested in your take on this too, since your name was invoked, but Warnock is not the only candidate, the only Democratic candidate this cycle to do this. I mean, he was much more than Herschel Walker the way that he framed his arguments was more inclusive, was more focused in, I don't even want to say a bipartisan way, he spent more time talking to and framing it as I am talking to all people.

The other candidate that comes to mind, for me, I'm from Pennsylvania is John Fetterman, who spent a lot of time in places where Donald Trump won over white, in a fair, it's a lot of union voters. And he talked about the fact that, you know, just because we don't think that these people are going to vote for us, that doesn't mean that we can't go talk to them and make them feel included in the process. And I just -- I don't see Republicans doing that the way that some of these Democrats who were successful were able to this year.

STEWART: Raphael Warnock is a tremendous candidate, and he also benefited from the power of incumbency. Being a sitting senator, he had more of a pulpit than so to speak that Herschel Walker --

HUNT: (INAUDIBLE) authority from his actual pulpit.

STEWART: Yes, exactly. And he was able to convey and demonstrate a message of working across the aisle, building a bridge, as he talked about this evening. And let me just say this that I wanted to point out while I had the opportunity, hats off to my dear friend, Latasha Brown and Black Voters Matter for working so hard and tirelessly to get out the vote for him. And as long as she's on board in Georgia, the Democratic Party is in good shape.

RYAN: She was singing while she was getting people to the polls.

STEWART: Yes, she was. And it's -- hats off to her. I'm really excited for her. But here's the thing. While Raphael Warnock was out there talking about building bridges, you also had Governor Kemp out there reminding voters have across Georgia that Raphael Warnock is a rubber stamp for Biden's policies. And that didn't work for many people in Georgia, when we have the economy the way it is, crime on the rise, parents concerned about their children's education. Those are policies that did not work for a lot of people in Georgia.

HUNT: Sure, and he won.

STEWART: Exactly. HUNT: Yes.

STEWART: But the point being while he's talking about building bridges, we had Republicans on the other side, trying to remind voters that his policies are not working. Clearly, his message of unity and working across the aisle resonated with more Georgians than --

HUNT: Yes.

BARRON-LOPEZ: I think it didn't work simply because even though Kemp, he was only out there during the runoff for Walker. He was not out there or really tying himself to Walker during the general election.

HUNT: I mean, he didn't want to be tied to race (ph).

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right. He actively want to avoid it.

RYAN: And then reasons why.

BARRON-LOPEZ: It may have run on the economy and all those policy issues that you just talked, Alice, but Walker watching his stump speech multiple times. He did not talk about the economy in any real consistent way. He talked about making America energy independent a few times, but he really, really focused on transgender athletes. He really talked a lot about like, I don't know what a pronoun is. And he repeated over and over again.

HUNT: He want some Trumpian, right?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, it was very Trumpian.

RYAN: Very Trumpian.

BARRON-LOPEZ: He said, Do you want someone like me who's going to play sports against your daughter, I would be able to play sports against your daughter. He also talked about, you know, heaven and hell a lot and basically equating voting for Democrats going to hell. So I think that all of that, he did not talk about any type of policies that he would vote for, or the economy at all.

HUNT: Right, right. Right. So to that point, so Walker loses saying all those things, Kemp wins and Paul Begala, I got to ask you because you're the Democrats sitting at the table.

[01:25:04]

I mean, how do you think President Biden played into this or not? I mean, he was not. They didn't really want to have him down there. It wasn't -- there was a lot of animosity, but they were kind of like, keep your distance. And he did. He potentially is the one on the ticket, most likely on the ticket for Democrats in 2024.

BEGALA: And he won Georgia in 2020. And I think he's well positioned to win it in 2024. It is wise not to go in there. He's not popular right now. So yes, I mean, it's pretty simple. And Barack Obama is. The Democrats have a large arsenal. We don't just have Mr. Trump, right, the Republicans --

HUNT: So how do you fix that between now and '24?

BEGALA: Well, you do a good job, but more importantly, it push off against their extremism. Voters don't want extremism. Did you know this is my favorite piece of political trivia? This is the first time since citizens began electing senators in 1914, 108 years, that every single incumbent senator of each party who sought reelection won. It's never ever happened to me.

Why it's such a volatile time --

HUNT: Yes, surely --

BEGALA: -- you think for all the bugs out. It's because Ron Johnson, one, I think unfairly, I'm a Democrat by characterizing the Democrat as too extreme. He wanted Wisconsin.

HUNT: That is true. Yes.

BEGALA: He said Mandela Barnes was too extreme. Fetterman, Oz, the -- now tonight Reverend Warnock, they characterize the Republicans as too extreme. This is what Mark Kelly did in Arizona. This is what Catherine Cortez-Masto did in Nevada. Voters don't want extremism.

HUNT: Yes.

BEGALA: By the way the Democrats need to learn that too.

HUNT: Yes.

BEGALA: My party needs to understand they didn't marry the Democrats. They just dumped the Republicans.

RYAN: You're absolutely right. But I think --

HUNT: Final word. Final word.

RYAN: Yes. There's so many layers in this moment. It's not just about what you just said. But let's talk about the issue. Voters don't want people telling them what they cannot do. Let's talk about how you go to the polls or when you can go to the polls. I can't stand in line and have someone give me food or I'll go to jail. People don't want that.

And also right now, the stakes are so high. I had a bunch of people send me pictures of the long lines that they had stood in for hours in early voting because they were rebelling against what was told that they could not do.

HUNT: Yes.

RYAN: So it's the spirit of -- the human spirit came out I believe in this moment in Georgia as well.

HUNT: All right, Paul Begala, Alice Stewart, Laura Barron-Lopez, April Ryan, everyone is going to stick around into the early morning hours here on the East Coast of the United States and still to come. The House committee investigating the Capitol riot plans to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. What the chairman of that committee says about who could be on the list.

Plus, a jury finds the Trump Organization guilty of tax fraud. Could the ruling hurt Donald Trump's chances of getting back to the White House? It's an eternal question and we will discuss it up next.

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[01:32:03]

HUNT: The final race of the midterm election finally over. And against the odds it seems Democrats have boosted their hold on the U.S. Senate. That is after incumbent Raphael Warnock hung on to win reelection in the Georgia Senate runoff. He defeated former President Donald Trump's handpicked candidate, Herschel Walker, who conceded with grace.

A New York jury, meanwhile, has found two Trump Organization companies guilty of multiple counts of tax fraud. The case was over a 15 year scheme, carried out by top executives who kept lavish perks and bonuses off the books.

A high-ranking executive pleaded guilty to 15 different felony charges. Admitting, he failed to pay taxes on nearly $2 million worth of income. It comes as Donald Trump is pursuing the Republican nomination for president yet again.

And while he and his family were not charged in the case, the verdict could of course have further impact on their businesses. Attorneys for the Trump Organization say that they will appeal.

And we are tracking major developments in the investigation into the U.S. Capitol riot. The January 6th House Select Committee plans to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

CNN's Sara Murray has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol will move forward with criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

That's what chairman, Bennie Thompson had to say about where the committee's work stand. Now, they wouldn't say who they are planning to refer to the Department of Justice, but sources are telling CNN that the committee is weighing criminal referrals for President Donald Trump, as well as for a number of his allies. Their focus, we are told, on the main organizers and leaders of the attack.

Now, the criminal referral is not binding when it goes to the Justice Department. It is up to the DOJ, up to Merrick Garland to decide how they want to proceed. And they've already been proceeding with their own criminal investigation.

But it is a significant culmination of the committee's work. It's an indication that they believe they have gathered enough evidence to conclude that crimes have been committed.

Of course, we're waiting to have for more details from the committee, a full list of folks they may refer for criminal prosecution for the Justice Department. As well as what these (INAUDIBLE) acts that they are referring for potential prosecution.

Sara Murray, CNN -- on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNT: And our thanks to Sara Murray for that report.

Joining us now from Allentown, Pennsylvania is CNN political commentator and former U.S. House Republican Charlie Dent; and Democratic strategist Caroline Heldman joins us from Los Angeles. Thank you both for being here.

And Charlie, let me start with you since this is your political party. I'm not sure necessarily if I want to call him the leading figure. He's, I guess, the only declared Republican presidential candidate in 2024. So we will go with that.

[01:34:57]

HUNT: What is your take on how this pair of development will or will not impact the president's political plans and aspirations?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, clearly, Kasie, there is no good news for President Trump out of tonight. You know the two Trump Organizations, you know, were found guilty of criminal tax fraud while the top president, the former president himself doesn't seem to be in immediate legal jeopardy over this matter.

This is a really bad political headline. Your company has been convicted of criminal tax fraud and he's going to say what, he didn't know about it? Ok. Well good luck with that one.

That, at least from a political standpoint, this is extremely unhelpful. And, of course, the January 6th Committee is issuing a report, they're making this criminal referral, which of course, you know, the DOJ is going around the investigation as was stated by Sara Murray.

But bottom line is, you know, that this is just a big red bow that the January 6th Committee is wrapping around the report. You know, here, read page 10, line 6 and telling them that certain people, they believe through their investigation that committed criminal acts.

So, again DOJ may not need this referral but again if you are Donald Trump this is not helpful. And I was (INAUDIBLE) that Donald Trump or many of his candidates did defy political gravity. Look at what just happened tonight in Georgia, very winnable race thrown away because a candidate -- he's got all kinds of problems here.

His announcement was anemic at best. I think Donald Trump has got some real issues. He actually has many Republican now speaking up form forcefully against him.

You know, Chris Christie and others are sleeping out forcefully against them. So he's not going to get -- I hope he can get such an easy pass this time around from his challenges.

HUNT: So Caroline, let me -- let me get you to weigh in on this because you're a Democratic strategist who also study these things. The reality was that Donald, Trump for a long, long time defied everything we thought we knew about the loss of political gravity and the way things -- the way voters are going to react to certain things.

But it does seem perhaps that's all catching up with him. How do you see these developments in the context of what is to happen in the 2024 race?

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That's a great question. And I think for a while, he's actually been pretty toxic for the Republican Party electorally. You know if you look at 2018, he lost 40 seats; 2020, he loses the election and harms candidates down the ballot; 2022, he handpicked a number of candidates, Mitch McConnell the Senate minority leader gets really mad at him because he knows he's a weak candidate. And this is the last of the weak candidates and once again, Trump hand picked and he lost.

And so I imagine that heading into 2024 that with Warnock there, something really interesting is going to happen on the Democratic side that I haven't seen a lot of folks talking about. And this is the fact that it relieves pressure off of Joe Manchin to take more Democratic or liberal positions. He can take more conservative positions now. He can take the hit, if you will, in order to get reelected the next time around.

So actually, this election happening right now with Warnock going into the Senate helps the Democrats in a couple of years, hold on to seat. It also, of course, gives them control over the committees instead of sharing it with Republicans.

So Donald Trump, I mean the Republican Party is certainly starting to recognize that he is not helping the party electorally.

HUNT: Yes, I'm glad you actually mentioned that about Joe Manchin. Because I do think it is important. He can literally vote no on everything Joe Biden ever wanted and Democrats can still pass things and nominate people if that's what they want to do.

Charlie Dent, let me also ask you about Georgia specifically tonight because Herschel Walker made some pretty noteworthy comments in what my colleague Jeff Zeleny says seems to be an ad-libbed concession speech.

He said there was no visible teleprompter being used or anything like that but the reality was he still said what he said. Let me show you the piece of the Herschel Walker speech that stood out to me and then we'll talk about it. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERSCHEL WALKER (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: One of the things that I want to tell all of you is you never stop dreaming. I don't want any of you to stop dreaming. I don't want any of you to stop believing in America.

I want you to believe in America and continue to believe in the constitution and believe in our elected officials most of all. Continue to pray for them because all of the prayers you have given me, I felt those prayers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Believe in the constitution. This is something that Donald Trump, of course, said that none of us should do. He said we should terminate the constitution, more recently.

[01:39:50]

HUNT: What do you make of Walker's remarks and the bigger picture that he graciously conceded this race on election night which is not something that, you know, was a guarantee from a lot of Republican candidates going into this midterm?

DENT: Well, I do believe that, you know, Herschel Walker's concession speech is about the best thing he did during this campaign. He was gracious and he was articulate and coherent which he wasn't during the campaign.

Let's be honest, he was a terrible candidate. I mean he had issues of domestic abuse allegations against him, abortion hypocrisy, not taking care of his children, per his son who went very public about that, you know, ignoring his children. Residency issues general incoherence on a number of policy issues.

And, of course, then there was the werewolf-vampire debate. I mean there was just so many things. And you know, I'm glad he gave the speech he gave tonight. I think that's helpful.

But, you know, this can't get back to this issue how Republicans are losing winnable seats. Not just here but in Pennsylvania, in Arizona, in New Hampshire. I mean it's not just the bad candidates that Trump selected, the weak or weakest candidate. This being the worst-case.

It is the candidates who chose not to run in Arizona like Governor Ducey who was very popular or maybe the governors -- in New Hampshire. This is what Donald Trump has done to the party. He has made -- when does losing become ok?

As Caroline pointed out, 2018 was a disaster, 2020 (INAUDIBLE), 2022, here we go. A dramatic underperformance largely because of Donald Trump's unhelpful intervention.

So the party needs to get its head straight about winning. The parties are there, designed for one reason, to win elections. And until the Republican National Committee and the state committees and others determine that their role is to elect better candidates and not just be loyal to a deeply flawed individual whose company was just, you know, convicted today for criminal tax fraud.

Until they realize their job is to nominee really good quality candidates, and not pledged the allegiance to this flawed man, we're going to continue down this road.

So when does winning becomes the primary consideration for the party, they have to get back to that. They are not there. They lost their way and they are talked about --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: Yes, it is a very good point and it's something that Mitch McConnell saw on the wall -- with the writing on the wall a long time ago. I think your point about the fact that better people didn't run because of Donald Trump is a very important one. And also the fact that he's got the loser label now, I think matters a lot for the 2024 race upcoming.

Charlie Dent, Caroline Heldman -- thank you both very much for being up late with us tonight, we really appreciate your time.

DENT: Thank you.

HUNT: And still to come here, is Georgia now a true purple battleground state, a closer look at the political fault lines.

[01:42:46]

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HUNT: Welcome back.

Democrats will have more leverage in the U.S. Senate next year now that Raphael Warnock has won reelection in the tight Georgia runoff. During his victory speech, Warnock spoke about his Georgia roots, voting rights and bipartisanship, adding that for those who don't always agree with him, that is fine. Our tent is big.

Let us bring in political analyst and author Michael Genovese. He joins me live from Los Angeles. Michael, thank you so much. I'm glad it's not quite so later there on the left coast of America. We really appreciate you being with us tonight.

You study this stuff for a living. You watch how these things evolve. We've been debating at this table, why it is Georgia has been moving the way that it has. What does the outcome say to you?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I don't think we should read too much into the Georgian outcome. Look two years back in 2020, Donald Trump gave the Democrats a victory in Georgia by saying, you know, don't vote in the early voting. Don't, it's a fraud, everything is a mess. And so he just depressed the Republican vote in 2020. Did the same

thing in 2022 in a different way by endorsing and pushing for Herschel Walker -- a deeply, deeply flawed candidate. I mean he was -- to say that Herschel Walker was a flawed candidate is like saying that the Atlantic Ocean is moist.

And so, Donald Trump gave Georgia to the Democrats. So I don't think we should read a lot into it. The two parties are so close numerically, so divided ideologically. I don't see anything that's going to break that log jam in the next two years.

HUNT: What is your -- I absolutely take your point and if you look at -- we were talking about this too that people didn't throw very many incumbents out. The numbers in the Senate and the in house are incredibly close. Yes, the House changed hands but it's by basically the same margin from Democrats to Republican and a very small one at that.

But this election did seem to underscore, and I've talked to a lot of sources who run campaigns who said you know what, we thought the median voter, the voter that is kind of in the middle, does not exist, or doesn't matter and that that actually is not true based on what we saw in these midterm elections. That the candidates who did not embrace the extremes, but who tried to embrace Independents, swing voters, talked to a more broad constituency were the ones who won.

Do you agree with that? I mean how do you square the polarization and the ideology that is being demonstrated on the one hand with the fact that these voters are still the ones that seem to be deciding our elections?

GENOVESE: You are right. Electoral success means getting those people in the middle on your side. Many of them are Independents, soft Democrat, soft Republicans. And that has been the case for decades. It's not going to change very much.

As the parties have split more and more, you've got more Democrats who are rigidly voting for Democrats, more Republicans rigidly voting for Republicans but that leaves a chunk of voters in the middle.

[01:49:49]

GENOVESE: And the contests in many, many states, I think nationally in the 2024 race, is going to be who wins over those people who are not strongly committed ideologically, not strongly partisan. There are a chunk of voters and since parties are so evenly divided, they will make the difference.

HUNT: All right. Michael Genovese, thank you very much for being with us tonight. We really appreciate you bringing your insights to us.

GENOVESE: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. I will be back with much more on the Georgia's Senate runoff at the top of the hour.

But first, John Vause picks up our top international headlines right after the break.

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. Well, I'm John Vause. Our coverage of the Georgia Senate runoff election continues in a moment.

But first, the latest on the war in Ukraine. Just as Ukraine appears to have developed a long-range attack drone, it seems Russia has exhausted its supply of Iranian-made combat drones.

In the early morning hours Tuesday, thick black smoke could be seen above a Russian airfield about 60 miles from the Ukrainian border. Russian officials say a drone strike set fuel storage tanks (AUDIO GAP).

There's no comment from Ukraine but this would appear to be the third attack in two days on military bases inside Russia. These drone strikes on Russian soil come amid a month's long Russian air offensive on Ukraine's power grid which has caused widespread blackouts.

[01:54:54]

VAUSE: During a press briefing Tuesday, the U.S. Secretary of State was asked if the Ukrainian strikes were morally justified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia. But the important thing is to understand what Ukrainians are living through every day with the ongoing Russian aggression against their country. And our determination to make sure that they have in their hands, along with many other partners around the world, the equipment that they need to defend themselves, to defend their territory, to defend their freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And what appears to be yet another setback for Moscow, western officials say Russia has exhausted its supply of Iranian-made attack drones. Officials in Washington and Kyiv have noted the Shahi (ph) 136 in particular has not been used by the Russians for the past two weeks.

Argentina's vice president has been sentenced to six years in prison on corruption charges. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was found guilty of fraudulent administration after awarding a public roadwork contract to a family friend for personal benefit.

Along with jail time, the vice president has been disqualified from holding public office again. Fernandez lashed out at the verdict calling it judicial Mafia.

I'm John Vause at the CNN Center.

We'll be back with more of our special election coverage right after this.

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