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CNN Covers Georgia Senate Runoff; ; Trump Organization Guilty of Tax Crimes in New York; New Russian Air Strikes in Zaporizhzhia; Russia Accusing Ukraine of Drone Attacks; China Eases COVID Restrictions. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 07, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hello and welcome to our viewers here 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 runoff in two years. CNN projects he will win reelection to a full term. The Georgia Democrat won a special election runoff in 2021. Now, he is going to be in the Senate for about full six years.

Warnock ran up the margins in the metro Atlanta area after failing to get 50% of the vote in November's general election. He defeats Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a first-time candidate for public office who was backed by former President Donald Trump.

It is in many ways, if you're a Democrat, a fitting end to a disappointing midterm election cycle for the GOP. They only had modest gains in the House. Warnock's victory means Democrats will add to their Senate majority, 51-49, and solidify Georgia as potentially decisive 2024 presidential battleground state.

Senator Warnock thanked his supporters at campaign headquarters in Atlanta late Tuesday. The incumbent Democrat pledged to walk with the people of his state and represent all Georgians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): Georgia, I don't want you to miss what you've done. In a moment in which there were folks 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 its first Jewish senator --

(APPLAUSE)

WARNOCK: -- to the United States Senate in one fell swoop. And you have done it again. Thank you, Georgia!

(APPLAUSE)

WARNOCK: Now, there are those who will look at the outcome of this race and say that, yes, you're right, we won.

(APPLAUSE)

WARNOCK: But there are those who would look at the outcome of this race and say 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 cold and all kinds of tricks in order to vote, it doesn't mean that voter suppression does not exist, it simply means that you, the people, have decided that your voices will not be silenced.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Herschel Walker conceded defeat in a short speech at his campaign headquarters Tuesday night. He thanked his supporters and pledged that he would continue to work for the voters of Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERSCHEL WALKER, GEORGIA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: One of the things 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 our Constitution and believe in our elected officials, most of all. Continue to pray for them because all the prayers you have given to me, I felt those prayers.

I want to thank all my team as well, team Herschel, because they put up with a lot. I want to thank team Herschel, thank all my donors as well because you, guys, without you, I couldn't have done what I've done. So, I want to thank all of you as well because there are no excuses in life, and I'm not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, let's bring in CNN's John Berman who is at the magic wall in New York to walk us through Senator Warnock's path to victory. John, lovely to see you again. What do you want to underscore here that all of our viewers should understand about why this played out the way it did?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, first of all, I'll point out right now that Raphael Warnock, the margin is 95,000 votes. That has a quelled (ph) a little bit since we spoke one hour ago as more votes are tallied.

[03:05:00] BERMAN: Of course, in the general election, one month ago, Warnock led by 37,000 votes. In the runoff, it's 95,000. We have projected he is the winner.

There are two counties I want to show you that actually flipped that voted for Herschel Walker one month ago and Raphael Warnock this time. They are tiny, not much of a population. Washington County, Raphael Warnock won by about 100 votes this time. And then one month ago, Herschel Walker won by about 100 votes. The same goes for next-door Baldwin County here. Warnock won by a little more than a hundred. And one month ago, it was Walker by a little more than 100. So, small margins right there.

But there is a bigger story here that I want to tell you about that I think really illustrates what we saw last night and into this morning. I'm going to show you the counties where Herschel Walker overperformed what he did one month ago. You're going to look at this map and say hey, that's a lot of territory, Walker did really well, and still lost. Not necessarily. First of all, these are all rural counties mostly, small rural counties with not much of a population. So yes, Herschel Walker did a little bit better, but not enough to make that much of a difference.

Also, there was a libertarian candidate one month ago. Two percent of the vote got spread around. But look at where he did not overperform. Around Atlanta, around Columbus, around Augusta, around Savannah. What do all those areas have in common? Let me show you the population centers in Georgia. The bigger the circle, the greater the population. Almost all the big circles are right in these areas where Herschel Walker underperformed, where Raphael Warnock did very well. And that's where the votes are.

There is one more thing I want to show you, one more way to look at this just in a historical perspective of what we're beginning to see in Georgia, and a little bit around the country in some of these more suburban counties. Look at Henry County. Henry County is the Atlanta area, but really the southern suburbs of Atlanta. You can see Raphael Warnock in the election overnight, a 33-point margin. That's big, right? Thirty-three points.

Two years ago, he led by about 25 points in the presidential election a little more than two years ago. It was Joe Biden, but Biden led by 20. You're seeing a trend here, 33, 25, 20. Hillary Clinton, she won, but by about four points. And you go back to 2012, Henry County, the southern suburbs of Atlanta, Mitt Romney, the Republican, called minus 5 for the Democrats there.

So again, you can see these trends in these suburban counties in Georgia. It's a little bit of the story nationwide. And this is an area where republican leadership has now identified a weakness they want to address, Kasie.

HUNT: Yeah, they sure have. Mitch McConnell and company have been pretty obsessed with this for a while. John Berman, thank you very much, my friend. It is very good to see you. We appreciate that. Here to talk more about the Georgia Senate runoff is our distinguished esteemed panel of guests, Paul Begala, Democratic strategist, Alice Stewart, a Republican, both CNN political commentators, Laura Barron- Lopez, a White House correspondent for the PBS News Hour, and April Ryan, White House correspondent for "The Grio." They are both CNN political analysts.

Thank you all for being here. This is our, I think, fourth hour. Fourth hour? I'm losing count. It is wonderful to be here. But Paul Begala, I want to start with something that you said you're interested in talking about because I don't think we've really dug into it enough. Yes, Democrats are celebrating tonight. But there are still lessons to learn and potentially things that they should make sure not to forget. What is your view of what your party should take from this?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Every Democrat should listen to what Reverend Warnock said tonight. You know victory night speech is like blah blah, thanks my mom. He wants to say something to his country and his party and his state. And I think it's this. This is what I take from it.

There is great power in healing and in humility. That's not weakness. That's strength. And, you know, the natural inclination is, if you think the other guy is a bully, you want to be a bully. If you think the other guy is extreme, you want to be extreme. Reciprocity is deep in the human soul.

Reverend Warnock is calling on his party, my party, to do better than that. I love hearing that because I think that reaching out to the other party, governing for people's lives rather than some ideological quest, being moderate, being a centrist, being bipartisan, I think that therein lies the path to victory as well, and it certainly was the case for Reverent Warnock.

Denzel Washington said, be careful when you win, because that's when the devil comes for you. Victory is always self-justifying. I don't want Democrats to think that this is somehow a mandate to do extreme things on their side of the aisle.

[03:09:55]

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SENATOR TED CRUZ: The problem with that is we heard similar speeches from President Biden, when he came into office talking about lowering the temperature, bringing the soul of the country together, working across the aisle and bipartisanship. We haven't had bipartisanship out of this administration and Democrats. Look, I will take --

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR PBS NEWSHOUR: -- bills that were passed bipartisan.

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE GRIO: He's tried (ph).

BEGALA: Yeah. STEWART: I will take a victory over a loss any day. I'd rather be in the Democrats' spot right now rather than the Republicans. But the key here is, is that a big factor here, Herschel Walker was a very flawed candidate. The candidate quality was not strong in this race. And the fact that he was tied to Donald Trump was another big factor and why Democrats should have done so much better.

The fact it was this close is a big, I think, mirror on the fact that Republicans in Georgia and voters in Georgia are looking at kitchen table issues, the economy. They're also looking at crime. And if Democrats cannot go into Washington and do something to address the economy, work on crime in this country, when they have a better candidate next time in 2024, they're going to be in serious trouble.

HUNT: So, a couple things here. First of all, I think both of the point that Laura and April are making, there has been and there is a bipartisan infrastructure package off Capitol Hill, there have been several other examples where the president has worked with Republicans.

I do -- there have also been instances where I think Republicans have felt alienated like when he gave the speech in Philadelphia that seemed very combative and seemed off-putting to many Republicans who did not feel as though he was using that kind of a moment to reach out to them.

But I'm interested to kind of dig into what Paul was saying, too, Laura, because -- excuse me, Alice is also saying that this is all because he was tied to Trump. Yes. But the reality is the Republican Party embraced Trump and the politics of Trump and the way he does business as a bully, as someone who is stoking grievance, as someone who is doing all of these things that Paul says Reverend Warnock is trying not to be.

I'm not going to lie. Isn't it a little refreshing? We've talked a little bit about character tonight to see -- I do not think character is a partisan attribute. I think people can believe different things, belong to different parties, and still be people of character. But the reality is Donald Trump has not set an example of character and there have been so many Republicans who have been willing to swallow what they previously would publicly say was their set of beliefs here.

And it is interesting to me that Warnock is taking this different path and it isn't necessarily the same path that every Democrat in Washington is taking.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah. Look, to distill it down just to these were Trump-endorsed candidates and that's why they lost, I think, is an oversimplification because to your point, Kasie, a lot of these candidates that lost, whether we're talking about Kari Lake in Arizona, Walker in Georgia, Blake Masters in Arizona, Tudor Dixon in Michigan even, even though you could maybe argument was a little tiny bit more moderate than the others I listed out.

HUNT: Maybe. BARRON-LOPEZ: She is still -- they all still ran Trumpian campaigns.

They all embraced the vast majority of his talking points. They all cast doubt on the 2020 election. And they ran full-on towards Trump. And they weren't the only ones that did it. So, they had, you know, agency there, they decided to do that, and then they lost their races for it.

I think that when Paul was talking about what Democrats can learn from Warnock, to me, it just sounded a lot like President Biden simply because it wasn't just what he talked about in the 2020 campaign trail, but at the first year of his presidency, reporters were incredibly skeptical that he was going to be able to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill or anything in a bipartisan manner with Republicans because they did not appear to want to work with him either and he was having a hard time finding 10 republican votes.

And he and the White House kept pushing for it and pushing for it, and they eventually got the infrastructure bill. They got gun safety, the first big gun safety bill in decades.

HUNT: That's a good point.

BARRON-LOPEZ: They also passed, you know, the CHIPS and China competitiveness bill with Republicans. And most recently, I think, you know, they're moving forward with the same-sex marriage bill, which was passed in a bipartisan way through the Senate.

So, there are a lot of bills that he has passed in a bipartisan way. And one thing that a lot of Democrats take away from Georgia as well is that they think that Warnock ran a lot on what Biden passed. He did talk about the things that Democrats were able to passed in the Senate.

HUNT: Yeah, April, it strikes me, I mean, one of the themes that we're talking about, I remember this coming up over the summer in particular, like how the White House was looking at some progressive priorities and also things like the student loan extension, et cetera, that there were a lot of Black voters who were actually pretty unhappy with the Biden administration for a while. They were disappointed in what they viewed as his failure to deliver for them.

[03:15:00]

HUNT: Do you think that they've turned that around? What do you think the Black voter turnout for Warnock -- I mean, how does that all interact?

RYAN: So, you saw this last go-around, the president did not stand next to Warnock in Georgia, but there was a winning picture tonight. After the win, Biden did call Warnock. And you saw a picture of that. The unity between those two. And that's important.

But for Warnock, he is playing off of the wins of Democrats. Right now, you got to see, you know, we have a current president whose poll numbers are rising, but they're still low. And you've got a former president who a lot of Republicans are denouncing and don't want to stand next to. But as far as this Democratic president, Raphael Warnock is standing with him. He is aligned with the party.

But at the end of the day, it's about a win for him and the party. He had to do what he had to do to stand away from the current president. But he is aligned with the party. Talking points, principles, policies, et cetera.

BARRON-LOPEZ: And I think a lot of Black voters also saw that speech that you mentioned in Philadelphia from President Biden, and they finally felt as though he was talking about an issue that they wanted him to talk about, which was threats to democracy, because a lot of voters that I talked to, whether it was in Michigan or Georgia or even Pennsylvania, there were two things heading into the general election in November that they talked about a lot, the Democratic voter, those base voters which we say are what the midterm elections are all about. They were talking about abortion and they were talking about democracy, which I know Paul has talked a lot about as under this umbrella of extremism.

RYAN: Before we go back to Paul, really quick, Black voters are still very upset with an issue that he brought up, voting rights. The face of the fight for voting rights happens to be Black people. But all people benefit. And also, policing, something the president is still working on. And actually, he has -- within the next 10 days, the Department of Justice is going to talk about a policing registry on the police reform executive order issue.

So, those are two issues Black voters are upset with. But Black voters understand there is a choice, a Herschel Walker, Donald Trump kind of mentality, versus a party that is working for them, they believe.

HUNT: All right. Let's press pause on this conversation for a minute. But we've got a lot more time to talk. We got a lot of thoughts from our panel here. The runoff has, of course, put Georgia at the epicenter of American politics. That state now a battleground. We'll continue to talk about how that's impacting both parties and the future of politics in America.

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[03:20:00]

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HUNT: Welcome back, and we're going to continue with our esteemed panel as we continue to break down the election results from the Georgia runoff election.

And Paul Begala, we were just continuing to talk about what Democrats can or can't learn from how things unfolded in Georgia, and talking a little bit about character and the way Warnock has presented himself in a specific way.

I mean, the reality is I don't think all Democrats are necessarily following in his -- kind of the way he presents to the country. There are others who would argue that actually -- and many won't say this in public, but they'll say it in private, that they need to act more like Republicans and Trump, be more cynical, be more combative. That was not the message that Warnock brought to the table.

BEGALA: That's correct. And that's not the message that won the White House for Joe Biden. I won't say who, but one of his many opponents in the beginning of the race in 2020 called me up, I went to see them. What do you think the Democrats want? They said, somebody who will fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. And I said, really? Because I think we got that now. I think they want the remedy, not the replica.

If you noticed, the president tonight, he not only congratulated Warnock, said he was good man, he singled out what he called ultra MAGA-ism. He is not denigrating all Republicans, certainly not all conservatives, but a tiny slice.

And it's a very smart political strategy because Warnock got a whole lot of people who voted for Brian Kemp to vote for him. Others stayed home rather than vote for Herschel. The Democrats need to understand that you fight fire with water actually, not with fire, and they need to be the opposite of what they hate about Mr. Trump. And that's what Reverend Warnock did, and he won in a very tough state.

STEWART: I think part of another message that he sent tonight was talking about building a bridge and bringing people together and working together. We heard similar building a bridge to the future from Bill Clinton back in those years. And I think that is excellent messaging on a victory night and on an election night.

I'm anxious to see following through with that once they get into office, once they get into governing, once they get into actually working together in Washington, D.C., because, as you know, making laws and passing laws, it's hard.

And it's easy to say right now we're going to work together, work across the aisle, but it's a two-way street. It takes them doing so and it takes Republicans.

And I'm going give President Biden credit for bringing Republicans and Democrats to the White House and starting these conversations. I'm just optimistic -- hopefully optimistic that that continues.

HUNT: Yeah, well, I mean, look, we haven't talked about this much tonight, but it occurs to me and we're going to be heading into the '24 cycle, this is not going to be easy for Republicans in a divided Washington where the House Republicans are in large part -- if Kevin McCarthy is able to secure the speaker's gavel in the first place, where he is then controlled by -- I mean, we would really call them ultra MAGA members of the House.

[03:25:03;

HUNT: We used to call them the Freedom Caucus, but that doesn't quite work anymore. At every turn, doing things like potentially holding the debt ceiling hostage and causing an economic crisis, I mean, potentially shutting the government down, I mean, it is going to be more than likely a very chaotic season in Washington, and that is going to impact everything that we've been talking about tonight. BARRON-LOPEZ: It's going to be really acrimonious. I think that's why

we're seeing President Biden as well as a number of senators trying to get things out the door in what is -- we call the lame duck session before the new Congress takes over because of the fact that House Republicans have made very clear, again, we talked about earlier, whether or not they're going to distance themselves from Trump or Trumpism and this animosity and grievance that Trump brings, but House Republicans have made very clear and Kevin McCarthy has made very clear that they're going to launch a number of investigations, not just -- and potentially try to impeach a number of Biden's cabinet officials and also launch investigations into Hunter Biden, the president's son.

And that is being pushed by, as you noted, that MAGA wing that has grown in and has gained more power, and that is partially because of the narrow majority that they won in the House and also because they feel emboldened by former President Trump.

HUNT: Yep. It's all very remarkable stew. Herschel Walker's projected loss, though, is not the only setback for team Trump and Republicans there. Coming up, new developments from the January 6th Committee and the guilty verdict for the Trump Organization. Our panel will discuss when we come back.

[03:30:00]

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HUNT: U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock remains undefeated after winning the close Georgia runoff on Tuesday, giving Democrats a critical edge in the United States Senate. And the White House is thankful, posting this photo of President Joe Biden calling Warnock to congratulate him. The caption quote, "Tonight, Georgia voters stood up for our democracy, rejected ultra-MAGAism and most importantly sent a good man back to the Senate."

A short time ago, former U.S. President Barack Obama tweeted, "Georgians have proven that when it comes time to vote, they will show up and vote for a leader who will fight for them." No reaction yet from former President Donald Trump who handpicked Herschel Walker and a slew of other controversial midterm candidates who lost their elections.

Those losses do reflect on Trump who has already launched his 2024 presidential bid. We are also tracking other major developments related to the former president current presidential candidate including as regards the investigations the U.S. Capitol riot. The January 6th House Select Committee plans to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

The committee chairman says the panel has not yet narrowed down everyone who would be referred or what charges they might recommend. But those decisions are going to have to come soon. The committee is set to wrap up its probe and publish a final report by the end of the year. And time is running out. Republicans are set to take control of the

House and expected to disband the panel. The panel lacks the power to prosecute itself, but the Justice Department has launched its own probe into the attack.

Last month, former President Donald Trump sued the panel claiming he should be immune from testimony related to the time that he was president. Meanwhile, a New York jury 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 that he failed to pay taxes on nearly $2 million of income. It comes as Trump is pursuing the Republican nomination for president once again. And while he and his family were not charged in the case, the verdict could have further impact on their businesses. Attorneys for the Trump Organization say they plan to appeal.

Joining me now, political commentator Mo'Kelly live from Los Angeles and Mike Madrid, our Republican consultant in Sacramento. Thank you both for being with us. I know it's a little bit earlier out on the West Coast than it is here, but we appreciate you being up late with us regardless.

Mo, let me start with you. What is your view on, I mean, this has been a pretty rough 24, 48 hours for Donald Trump. Between the stories we just ran through, whether it's criminal referrals on January 6th, the conviction for his company on tax fraud, or the election in Georgia, where his handpicked candidate lost.

MO' KELLY, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I would say it's a bad night, an extension of a bad week and a bad month. That saying nothing of what happened last week with the whole Kanye West drama. If anything, we are seeing the loosening of the grip of Donald Trump on the Republican party. There are more Republican members of this Congress who are willing to criticize him maybe not by name but we heard what Liz -- excuse me -- Mitch McConnell has said and Mike Pence has said.

If anything, it says that Donald Trump is in trouble in the sense of within his own party and his presidential prospect. And also, life after politics, what he'll do in business, if anything.

HUNT: So, Mike Madrid, I mean, what's your view on this? I mean, you've worked against Donald Trump for many years. But the reality is he has defied political gravity at every turn.

[03:35:01]

We've now got a lot of Republicans, including many we've spoken to tonight, saying you know what, this is enough, we're not willing to say it in public. But still, it's not clear voters have abandoned him. It's not clear that many of the Republican leaders including people like Kevin McCarthy are willing to actually do what it would take to cut him out. What do you think all of this means for him as he continues to again run for president. MIKE MADRID, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Well, you characterized it

perfectly. Anybody who's counting out Donald Trump was making a very serious political miscalculation. Donald Trump still enjoys probably the most intense support base in the Republican Party that I've seen over the course of the past three decades, probably going back into the Reagan years and I would even suggest beyond that.

And we have to remember, the Republican Party, state primaries, a winner take-all primaries, the bigger the field gets for Donald Trump, the better it is for him. That's how he won in 2016, which I would remind viewers, was the exact same scenario that we're seeing today where people were actually vocally being critical of him.

He needs that oxygen. He needs that attack. He needs to run against the establishment. Without that, Donald Trump starts to flail. I think that all of these developments do suggest that he will begin to start coalescing at least a plurality of the Republican base.

I don't think it will be unanimous the way that it was during his reelection effort when we beat him in 2020. But to count him out I think is, again, a very serious political miscalculation.

HUNT: So, Mo, just to kind of flip this on its head for a second. We've also been talking a little bit here about what all this means for Democrats as we head toward 2024. Obviously, there have been some questions about President Biden and whether he is going to run. But it does seem like he is on track to launch a bid there. What should the takeaway be for Democrats from what's unfolded in Georgia? O

MO'KELLY: I would say the Democrats should celebrate. It is a win. It is a positive move for the Democratic Party, but they should be very sober. Let's be honest. Herschel Walker was a bad candidate. Not a good candidate. Not even a decent candidate. But he still managed to push this race to a runoff.

And in the runoff, he got 48.6 percent of the vote, which means that there is a very slim margin for this Democratic coalition, which performed very well in Georgia, and I would say that Georgia is a purple state. Now, that is a positive, but I don't think that they should celebrate too much with this win in Georgia, and think that it is going to carry over into 2024. They beat a bad candidate, but it's not anything to celebrate big picture.

HUNT: All right. Mo'Kelly, Mike Madrid, thank you both for staying up with us and joining us tonight. We really appreciate your insights.

And Democrats now celebrating their true majority in the U.S. Senate now that Georgia has delivered that 51st seat. I'll be back with our panel right after a quick break.

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[03:40:00]

HUNT: And we're back with our coverage of the Georgia runoff election. We're going to continue our conversation with our great guest who have spent the last four or so hours hanging out with us. And you know, look, we've covered a lot of ground tonight. We've learned a lot of things about Georgia and one particular race, we've learned some things about the state the country, what may happen next. But I'm interested in kind of your final big picture takeaways or things you think we should underscore as the night wraps up, April.

RYAN: Something that I have not really completely talked about tonight, but a large swath of black Georgians, particularly black Americans felt that Herschel Walker was just completely unqualified.

And in Georgia tonight or a couple of hours ago, you had two black men face off against one another. And looking at the construct of where everything laid for these candidates, you have Atlanta and then the rest of Georgia. And I think about places like Forsyth County that we talked about earlier.

You know, in the 1980s, Forsyth County had no blacks there. They voted for Herschel Walker. Glenn County that we just heard about with Ahmaud Arbery and the trial there after the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery, they voted for Herschel Walker. What does this say? Georgia and this nation still have to come to grips with matters of race. And the Republican Party put a black man in a space to bring black males to the party, but was he the right candidate? Black America said no.

HUNT: Very interesting. Laura, final thought.

BARRON-LOPEZ: When we look at Georgia plus the way a lot of the other swing states went this cycle, there was a lot of questions about whether or not Democrats final message around democracy and voting rights and abortion was actually going to be helpful for them, especially in these competitive statewide races.

And I think that it proved that those two things were things that voters talked about repeatedly and things that works for Democrats. I mean, Warnock, I just can't stress it enough, repeatedly was constantly talking about the fact that Republicans in the state of Georgia were trying to make it so voters could not cast a vote on Saturday, on the weekend, and saying they were trying to take that ability away from you and that they were trying to restrict the vote in other ways. And it seems to have definitely helped him tonight.

[03:45:01]

HUNT: Yeah. No, I think it's a really good point. Final thoughts, Alice?

STEWART: I think there's no more appropriate place than the state of Georgia for people to recognize the fact that Trump-ism has gone with the wind. General election voters are tired of conspiracy theorists, of election deniers, people that are more focused on past grievances than their -- personal future of the voters.

And what we are going to see, if Trump's base and the people that really support Trump really want to exert their influence and show their strength and protect his legacy, they will rally together, lineup behind another candidate that is going to focus on the policies that help the future of this country as opposed to someone's personal past grievances.

HUNT: We'll see if that happens. Very interesting point. I like -- you're very sharp would gone with the wind at 3:45 a.m. (inaudible). Paul Begala, final thoughts?

BEGALA: I want to pick up on the thread that Lauren mentioned about abortion. The Dobbs case, we have not -- I don't think I've talked about it enough. It was catalyzing. When Democrats, President Biden, Reverend Warnock, they talk about extremism. You know, we've tried that in the past and sometimes voters go, nah, you're hyping. Dobbs made it real. And this is not an opinion that will age well with voters because it's going to continue to affect people in their lives every single day.

And so, for my great admiration for Reverend Warnock, we've discussed Mr. Walker's shortcomings and Mr. Trump. Democrats should send a fruit basket to Sam Alito because that associate justice in his opinion probably delivered the Senate and probably saved a dozen or two dozen House members. And it won't stop. This is not an opinion that will age well.

When Democrats say Republicans are extreme, now they have living proof. Look at Justice Alito's opinion in the Dobbs case. Look at what your sisters and sons and daughters and friends are going through. By the way, this is delivering young men as well as women to the Democratic Party.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, the way that opinion was written was basically the most extreme version of what it could have been. And I think there was a significant reaction. The one thing I will say as we wrap up, and we've touched on this a couple of times tonight, but I hope that one of the things that many of the people I've covered for many years here in Washington take away from this race is that character still matters in politics.

It should have always mattered, and anyone that makes excuses for people who show us who they are repeatedly, we fail to believe them and we send them into public life anyway. I think voters have shown us tonight that, you know what, we should be paying closer attention to making sure that the people that we bring here to make decisions on behalf of all of us are the most upstanding and best among us, not the worst.

Paul Begala, Alice Stewart, Laura Barron-Lopez, April Ryan, thank you all for hanging out with us for so many hours tonight. And most of, all thanks to all of you for joining us for this special coverage of the Georgia runoff election. I am Kasie Hunt in Washington. I'll be signing off for the night, but don't go anywhere. Stay with CNN. You'll have your top international headlines ahead, and much more coverage of the Georgia runoff after the break.

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello everyone. I'm Rosemary Church with your top international headlines. Ukrainian officials say Russian missile and drone attacks hit villages in southern Ukraine today wounding three people. The regional governor of Zaporizhzhia says one of those hurt is a 15-year-old girl. And the attack destroyed or damaged about 20 homes across two villages.

Meanwhile, the U.S. says it has neither encouraged nor enabled Ukraine to strike inside of Russia. This, after a series of blasts hit Russian military bases far from Ukraine's borders this week. And for more on this, Scott McLean joins me live from London. Good morning to you, Scott. So, what are you learning about these strikes on air bases deep inside Russia?

SCOTTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and they are deeper inside Russian territory that we have seen before and far beyond the capability, at least Ukraine publicly stated capability of its own arsenal of weapons. And so, logically questions are being asked now to the United States, Ukraine's largest supplier of weapons.

Officially, its policy is not to supply the kind of long-range weaponry that could reach inside of Russia because it's concerned that Moscow will view these strikes on Russian soil as an escalation of the conflict. So, yesterday, the State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, was asked whether the U.S. has provided these kinds of weapons to Ukraine, and he very plainly said no.

Another State Department official, Victoria Nuland, was asked whether the policy on providing them at all has changed. And she also said no. So, perhaps the U.S. though is enabling, or even merely encouraging Ukraine to do this on their own or to do these strikes on their own. But the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, also very plainly denied that that was the case.

But what we do know, Rosemary, is that there is a Ukrainian government-owned arms manufacturing company that says that it does have the capability, it has developed drones to reach deep into Russia. And so, yesterday, the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked the next logical question. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Is the U.S. working to prevent Ukraine from developing its own long range strike capability? The short answer is no. We are absolutely not doing that.

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MCLEAN: So, not encouraging, but not preventing either.

[03:54:54]

One other thing to mention, and that's Victoria Nuland said that the targets that were hit inside of Russia were precisely the targets that the bombers that have been wreaking havoc on Ukrainian infrastructure. So, she didn't directly point the finger at Ukraine, but well, read between the lines, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Indeed. Scott McLean, joining us live from London. Many thanks.

Well, China says it's easing more of its COVID-19 restrictions. Authorities have announced a sweeping set of new guidelines. They largely scrap the controversial health code system and allow people to quarantine at home. They also rollback testing requirement in some areas. These reported changes come after a wave of protests against the country's controversial zero COVID policy.

And thank you so much for watching. Our coverage of the Georgia runoff election continues with Bianna Golodryga next. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a great day.

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