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CNN This Morning
Georgia's Race Could Provide Blueprint; Why People Fear Change; Taylor Swift Claims Top 10 Spots on Billboard. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired November 01, 2022 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:33:26]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp is leading his bid for re-election against Democrat Stacey Abrams. Kemp famously did not have the support of former President Trump in his primary. Trump predicted he would go down in flames at the ballot box. Today he will be campaigning with former Vice President Mike Pence, however.
I sat down with Kemp to talk about this all-important midterm election, how he sees Trump's role in all of this, and the impact of the other Republican in his state, Herschel Walker, on the ticket.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You come to vote with us this afternoon?
COLLINS (voice over): With one week to go before the midterm elections, more than 1.6 million voters in Georgia have already cast their ballots.
COLLINS (on camera): It's surpassed the level of 2018. It's almost at a presidential election level.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): It's incredible.
COLLINS (voice over): Georgia residents turning out in droves in the first election since Governor Brian Kemp signed a new voting bill into law adding restrictions to absentee voting while expanding early voting in most counties.
KEMP: For them to call it suppressive, the numbers just don't - don't play that fact out.
STACEY ABRAMS (D), GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We have an opportunity --
COLLINS: The bill earned him fierce criticism from Democrats in Georgia.
ABRAMS: The voter suppression is alive and well in Georgia.
COLLINS: And inside the White House.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This makes Jim Crow looks like Jim Eagle.
KEMP: We had a record vote in the primary and we're seeing it right now in the general election.
COLLINS: But as Kemp makes his final campaign stops, the election drama in his state has centered around the other Republican on the ticket. Kemp is voting for Herschel Walker but has said little else about the allegations that the GOP Senate candidate has paid for abortions despite publicly opposing the procedure.
[06:35:03]
Allegations that Walker has denied.
KEMP: I think people are going to make that clear choice as to who they're going to vote for, not just in the U.S. Senate race, but all the way up and down the ballot.
COLLINS: Pressed on whether he views Walker's stance as hypocritical, Kemp sidestepped the matter.
KEMP: I would just tell you to talk to Herschel Walker about his policies on abortion. I am saying focused on my race and what I can control in trying to help them fight through Joe Biden's inflation.
COLLINS: The Republican governor has instead centered his race on the number one issue he hears from voters, inflation.
KEMPS: Eggs up 30 percent. Milk, chicken up 15 percent, 17 percent. Gas prices, because of bad domestic energy policy, that's the number one issue. Sixty percent of Americans right now are living paycheck to paycheck.
COLLINS: As Kemp crisscrosses the state with an economic-driven message, there is a noticeable absence on the campaign trail.
COLLINS (on camera): The former president has not been in Georgia in a few months. Why do you think that is?
KEMP: I don't know. You'd have to ask him that question.
Look, I'm focused on getting our vote out.
COLLINS (voice over): Despite former President Trump's best efforts, Kemp prevailed in the primary earlier this year and easily defeated his Trump-backed opponent.
KEMP: And I'm not campaigning on what his record was. You know, I'm campaigning on what I've done in this state.
COLLINS: Kemp's victory revealing the limits of Trump's grip on the party and his efforts to unseated those who refuse to join his fight to overturn the 2020 election. KEMP: I don't think in 2020 we did a good job in some of our races of
letting people know what we're for, what our record is. Even when you disagree with people, if you stand for something, they have great appreciation for that.
COLLINS: Kemp unsuccessfully fought a subpoena to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta investigating Trump's attempts to undermine the election and now must testify once his election is over.
KEMP: I'll tell them the truth and I'll tell them that I followed the laws and the constitution of this state.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
COLLINS: Of course, he and Abrams met again on Sunday night in a debate. They were talking about these early record turnout numbers that they're seeing in Georgia. She said that she believes that people are voting in spite of that election bill that he signed into law, not because of it.
And I think one part that's notable is, Gabriel Sterling -
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
COLLINS: Who, of course, is a top official in the secretary of state's office, who became so notable during Trump's efforts to undermine and overturn the results -
HARLOW: Right.
COLLINS: He said it was - on CNN the other day - voter suppression is just as much a lie as voter fraud. So you're seeing this split between the Republicans and Democrats (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: Yes, you are. And, I mean, Gabe Sterling, as we were talking about in the break, is someone who came out and warned against what all of this violent rhetoric and election denial would do. It would mean people would die, right?
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: And so he said this years ago.
The question now is, when you look at all the heat that Kemp and the rest took from SB-202, that bill, what's missed a lot in the conversation is that it -- there are restrictions but it did expand -- extend early voting by weeks. And that's what we're seeing play out right now, isn't it?
COLLINS: Yes.
LEMON: I think it's hard to say that there isn't an effort for voter suppression, especially when you look at people who have traditionally been sort of pushed out of the - of the process. HARLOW: But who is voting?
LEMON: Who -- and the access that they have and people trying to cut out on, you know, souls to the polls and all those kinds of things. So I think it's really tough. You - it depends on what you're looking at, what data you're looking at and -- look, I think it - I think rather than trying to restrict people here and there, I think we should be opening up the voting process as -- it should be as easy to vote as possible.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: As it is to get a cup of coffee.
HARLOW: There you go.
LEMON: People should be allowed to vote.
HARLOW: And to Don's point, I mean, isn't this what Stacey Abrams is saying, Kaitlan, that you don't know who is polling, who is getting access, right?
COLLINS: You can't always tell when there's voter suppression.
LEMON: Yes. Yes.
COLLINS: That's been her argument that she's making. Obviously that was a point of contention between of two of them.
I will say one thing, and it's sad that this stands out, but it did stand out in the debate as I watched on Sunday. When both candidates were asked if they would accept the results of the election, no matter what they are, they both said yes that they would.
HARLOW: Well, amen. I can't believe we have to celebrate that, but, amen.
COLLINS: Yes.
HARLOW: Right?
LEMON: That's interesting because a lot of his things were like, well, you have to ask the other guy. He's - he is on message, but a lot of it is a dodge.
COLLINS: The Trump stuff.
LEMON: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes.
Obviously, don't forget, one week from tonight CNN's special coverage of the midterm elections will be underway. We begin at 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon, but Don, Poppy, and I will be going all night long to bring you the results.
LEMON: No pressure. No pressure.
HARLOW: This is our new life, folks, buckle up.
COLLINS: This is our (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: No question.
COLLINS: Did you like sleep, because you're not going to get any more of it.
LEMON: Two hours last night, maybe three.
Straight ahead, four Michigan State football players now suspended -- look at this video -- for starting a brawl after losing. Why one coach says their punishment won't stop there.
HARLOW: What did happen to them?
LEMON: Plus, the new record shattered by Taylor Swift.
COLLINS: With my help.
HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE).
COLLINS: You should really stay on top of this (ph).
HARLOW: I just want to talk about football, guys
LEMON: Yes.
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[06:44:00]
COLLINS: I know. It's going to be so good.
LEMON: We're on TV. We have to remember that.
HARLOW: Thanks for saving me.
COLLINS: (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: I forgot to read my line about Taylor Swift. Thanks for saving me, buddy.
As you can tell, it is a big day here at CNN. We've got a new show. We've got a new set. We've got a new, amazing team. You can't see them, but these folks have been working for weeks, weekends, everything. So, thank you to the team.
LEMON: What? We put all this together ourselves.
HARLOW: Don. No. Stop.
LEMON: Oh.
COLLINS: It's been Don (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no.
For some of you used to watching at this time, you've got many new faces, but change is hard, and it doesn't seem like it should be that difficult for us to wake up at 2:00 a.m. Yes, it does.
LEMON: 2:00 a.m.? (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: I have been doing this for decades. Not 2:00 a.m., just at a different time, and yet it is a challenge. So we're going to talk about change and helping us understand why it is so hard for our brains.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with a - did you -
LEMON: With his own brain!
HARLOW: But did you steal this? I heard you (INAUDIBLE) this.
COLLINS: He brings his own (INAUDIBLE).
[06:45:00]
LEMON: Can I touch a brain? Is that, no? Is that forboden (ph)?
COLLINS: Is that a carry-on do you have to check that in your luggage?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I carried it on, actually. I get some strange looks, yes.
HARLOW: Where did you get the - can you tell the viewers where you actually got the brain?
GUPTA: I got this brain from the medical school.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: It is used to teach medical students. But now it's going to teach you.
COLLINS: (INAUDIBLE).
GUPTA: But -
LEMON: So you say we're hard wired to resist change?
GUPTA: Yes, this is - this is interesting. We like to think of ourselves as these nimble, flexible creatures. But, in fact, we really don't like change.
And you can take it a step further. We often see change as a threat. At least that's the way the brain sort of perceives change, as a threat. The emotional centers of our brain tend to get activated. So - so let me just show you here, if we can see this. The brain,
these are the frontal lobes here. This is where all your judgment stuff happens. But back here is the emotional center of your brain. And that is typically where new change is first processed.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: And it's not comfortable when you have change. It leads to all sorts of things. You feel a loss of control, Uncertainty is the big one.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: If you don't feel certainty about things, it changes.
LEMON: OK, so, listen, I'm going to be - I'm weird, as you know.
GUPTA: (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: You've known me for a long time.
COLLINS: Awe.
GUPTA: Look inside your brain.
LEMON: I like change. I -
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: Actually, I'm excited about this. You know, it's a little off- putting. I've got two hours' sleep or whatever. But I kind of like change.
GUPTA: Some people are certainly better at it than others.
LEMON: Is that weird?
GUPTA: No, I think that you can -- you can practice becoming better at change. And there's - and there's formulas and strategies to do that. So, as a - as a sort of inherent thing, even kids when - you know, kids like change. Kids are always experiencing new things. But adults often don't experience new things. When's the last time you experienced something for the first time? Doesn't happen very often.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: For you guys, it did, because of the show.
HARLOW: Well, this morning.
GUPTA: Yes, exactly.
HARLOW: This morning aside, but, yes.
LEMON: Yes.
COLLINS: But it' funny because it is something we've all gone through. I mean two of us have moved. We've all started new jobs.
GUPTA: Yes.
COLLINS: Don has completely flipped his schedule. One thing I do wonder if, when you were looking at this, how does age play a factor in whether or not you're --
GUPTA: Why are you asking that, Kaitlan?
COLLINS: You're better at change?
HARLOW: Are we -- are we calling Don "older"?
LEMON: Wait, wait, what? Was it -- leave me out this.
GUPTA: I can't believe that you said that you were in eighth grade when he started at CNN.
HARLOW: It's true.
GUPTA: And they put that in the ad. They put that in the promo (ph).
HARLOW: When we started at CNN, she was in eighth grade.
COLLINS: We were literally just doing the math in our head as we were sitting there having coffee.
LEMON: Yes. Well, gosh.
GUPTA: Well, interesting you asked that question -
LEMON: Journalist doing math, but, go on. Sorry.
GUPTA: Because, yes, younger people do tend to be better at accepting change, except for Don. Don, who's older and still does change well.
HARLOW: Yes.
GUPTA: But there's a part of your brain, again I'll just show you this quickly, a little bit in front of the emotional center of the brain which tends to deteriorate or slowly wither away over time. That's a part of the brain that's actually better as accepting change. Sort of incorporating changes into your life. We become more fixed in our ways as we get older.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: Hey, real quickly, though, we can - what can we do? Like, are there things that we can do that will help us do - do change better? I know that's not great grammar.
COLLINS: Yes, asking for a friend.
GUPTA: Yes. Part of it is - is - is really understanding that you - you want to do this and actually incorporating new things into your life. That's - that's one of the big things. There's a famous formula by this guy, Glisher (ph), it comes from the
'60s. And I wrote it down for you guys. You can take a look. But basically trying to figure out what's - that's not exactly what I thought it was going to be but the -
HARLOW: That looks simple.
GUPTA: The - but basically it's the idea of what -
COLLINS: It's 6:00 in the morning.
GUPTA: It's too early in the morning for that (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: Gosh. What the hell is that?
GUPTA: This -- how dissatisfied you are with the current situation, what your vision is for how that situation could be different, and what are the steps of action to make that change happen? That's what you really got to sort of figure out.
But it can be simple.
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: Yes.
GUPTA: I'll give you a quick example. Instead - if you're right- handed, all day today, try drinking your coffee with your left hand. Do something different.
HARLOW: So - so my -- my daughter, as we all know, I missed rehearsal last week because my daughter broke her right arm and she's a righty. So, I didn't bug you about this one. Sanjay gets all my other child health questions. But -- so she's doing everything with her left hand now, including trick-or-treating.
LEMON: (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: And one of our friends said, she's so resilient. And I was like, I need to be more like my six-year-old, right?
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: And it - well, I Hope she does fine.
HARLOW: She'll be fine.
GUPTA: But if we can incorporate some change into our lives on a regular basis.
HARLOW: Yes.
GUPTA: Get out of your set patterns. Whatever it may be. Take up a hobby. Do something that's different. That's how you get your brain to - to accept change.
LEMON: And alcohol helps.
HARLOW: Oh, my gosh.
Thanks, Doc.
LEMON: (INAUDIBLE). That's the easy thing, have a couple drinks and you'll -- you're good. Ah, who cares?
COLLINS: Not like you're getting up as early as we are. Some day -
GUPTA: What's your excuse?
COLLINS: We're going to need that advice more than ever, so -
GUPTA: I'm going to leave this right here, guys.
LEMON: Good to see you, Sanjay.
COLLINS: Please leave the brain with us.
HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: Thank you very much.
COLLINS: Thanks for visiting us on set on our first day.
GUPTA: We'll see you guys.
Of course.
COLLINS: All right, we're also going to talk up next about federal agents firing pepper balls at Venezuelan migrants, trying to push them away from that border with El Paso, Texas, and back into Mexico. Stay right here with us, and we'll show you exactly what went down.
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[06:53:22]
LEMON: Wait, who is that again?
HARLOW: Come on.
LEMON: I'm kidding. That is Taylor Swift, shatters records with her latest album "Midnight." You just heard "Anti-hero" topping last week's billboard hot 100 chart. But it's not her only accomplishment with this album.
Data's here, you know who Data is, right, our senior data reporter Harry Enten has all the details.
Good morning.
And he cleaned up. You got a haircut.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Look at - look at - look. LEMON: You shaved. You got some spiffy clothes on.
HARLOW: He got a sweater.
ENTEN: I got a sweater on.
HARLOW: Sweater weather.
ENTEN: I'm taking after you, Don.
LEMON: Sweater weather.
COLLINS: Sweater weather.
ENTEN: That's what I'm doing.
LEMON: Yes.
So, what's the deal with this?
ENTEN: What's the deal with it? I should be clear, I don't think I've ever listened to any of these songs.
HARLOW: Right (ph).
ENTEN: And if it weren't for this morning show, I'd have no idea who Taylor Swift would actually be.
HARLOW: Come on.
LEMON: Join the club.
ENTEN: No, I'm kidding a little bit.
But, all right, let's talk - let's walk over here and let's get an idea of why the heck we're doing this Taylor Swift segment. And I think this first slide will give you an indication.
So, on the billboard top 10 on the hot 100 list, this is the first time - the first time one artist has every single song. Drake actually had nine of the ten once before, but this is the first time one artist had every single song.
But that is not the only record that this -- that we've seen this time around. Taylor Swift, look at this, billboard top 10 on the hot 100. The first time women are all ten top slots.
LEMON: Harry.
ENTEN: Yes.
LEMON: Harry.
ENTEN: Yes.
LEMON: I'm going to let you finish. ENTEN: You're going to let me finish?
LEMON: I'm joking.
ENTEN: I know it.
LEMON: Everybody knows. Does anybody know that reference? You don't remember that? I'm just kidding.
ENTEN: I'm going to let you finish. I'm going to let you finish.
COLLINS: Everyone knows the reference.
LEMON: Everyone knows it. Go on, Harry. I'm just having a little fun with you.
ENTEN: I don't - I don't think he's - he's allowed to be spoken about anymore. But, OK, and giving you an idea of these hot 100 songs, look at this, this just sort of gives you an idea, you know, if I was actually interested, then maybe I'd be interested in "Anti-hero," because I like to think of myself as an anti-hero.
[06:55:07]
But, Don, I've just got to say, you're on your own, kid, when it comes to the rest of this show. You won't be getting my help for the rest of the time.
HARLOW: Enten.
ENTEN: Yes.
HARLOW: Enten, or data, as - as Don -
LEMON: Data.
HARLOW: Data, as Don has named you. Our buddy is in Taylor's video "Anti-hero." Our buddy comedian Mike Berbiglia (ph). And he was shocked when he saw her talking about why on the "Late Show."
ENTEN: Really? Well -
HARLOW: Really. Do you not know this?
ENTEN: No, I -- look, I hang out with Mike down at the comedy show (ph).
HARLOW: It's a night show, yes.
ENTEN: Yes, "The Tonight Show." Whatever show it was. I'm not surprised that Mike was in this because if there's one thing that I know will interrupt Don - that would wrap us in a conversation it would be somebody else who he wants to talk to instead of me, especially from (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: See, I'll let you finish. I let you finish. HARLOW: Let Kaitlan in.
COLLINS: He also talked about, though, how when he - when Taylor Swift texted him he thought maybe he was being catfished. He didn't know that she was actually texting him.
HARLOW: That's exactly right.
COLLINS: He thought it was someone messing with him.
HARLOW: They're playing music to get us to commercial.
LEMON: Yes.
Harry Enten, thank you, sir.
HARLOW: Thank you.
LEMON: Appreciate it.
ENTEN: See you guys later.
COLLINS: Thanks, Harry. You look great.
ENTEN: Thank you.
LEMON: We'll see you. Have a great day, Harry.
HARLOW: Thanks, Data -- Data.
LEMON: Harry got all cleaned up. Wow.
So, listen, I've got to - you've got to look at this. Look at your screens right now. We are watching live pictures out of the Kennedy Space Center. That's where NASA is about to launch the world's largest rocket in a classified mission.
COLLINS: Not so classified, I guess.
LEMON: Right.
COLLINS: Not so classified.
HARLOW: Not - not so classified.
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[07:00:00]
