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CNN This Morning

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Walker Make Final Push Ahead of Tomorrow's Runoff; Manhunt After North Carolina Power Grid Targeted in Gunfire Attack; Ukraine Bracing for Bleak Winter as Russians Attack Power Grid. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 05, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: CNN This morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RONNIE FIELDS, MOORE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: -- acknowledge or accept that everyone has had done it. So, yes, I call them cowards.

I can say this, this individual that done this, it was targeted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's tough to hear him. We're going to continue on and talk about that a little bit later. That was the sheriff of Moore County, North Carolina, after the power grid attack in what they believe was an act of sabotage. A certainly very strange and interesting story.

Good morning, Poppy Harlow.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good weekend?

LEMON: Good to see you. Yes, I had a great weekend. It's good to see you. Glad you could join us. Kaitlan, by the way, is on assignment.

I want to tell you about the FBI that has joined the investigation into those attacks in North Carolina. Thousands of people are waking up to another day in the dark.

HARLOW: On the eve of the runoff for the Senate in Georgia, Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker are once again making their last pitch to voters.

LEMON: A FedEx driver has been charged in the kidnapping and killing of a seven-year-old girl in Texas. A live report is just ahead.

HARLOW: It's tragic.

And this morning, there are signs that inflation is starting to ease but are you feeling that relief yet?

LEMON: But, first, as Poppy just mentioned, we're in the final countdown in Georgia's runoff election. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock will face off against Republican challenger Herschel Walker tomorrow in the only undecided Senate race of 2022. And the stakes are really, really high. Voters will decide whether the chamber remains a 50/50 split or if Democrats secure a true majority.

Let's bring in now CNN's Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten. Harry, good morning to you. So, let's first explaining to our audience what it means for Democrats getting 51.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, Don. So, I mean, look, either way, Democrats are going to have the majority. But why do they want 51 seats as opposed to 50? What are the advantages?

So, basically, I outlined three different reasons. Okay. Number one, it lessens the chance of a tie. Why is that important? Because, essentially, a in a committee requires a discharge vote for the full Senate. This slows down things. And, obviously, if you're trying to rush through a bunch of nominations, judicial nominations for the lower courts, you want to get as many of them through as possible, as fast of a manner as possible. So that's number one.

Let's talk about number two. Okay. It's easier to keep a coalition together, right? Right, now the wings of the party have a lot of power because if Democrats lose just one senator on a vote and Republicans all stay together, it means Democrats don't have a majority. So, essentially, if you have 51 seats, it means that the wings, either the moderates or left wing, have less power. And also you can lose a senator, say, a pet cause that they may have on some particular issue.

Number three, I think this one is rather important. Someone can actually miss a vote, right? At this particular point, if all the Republicans stick together, you basically have to rush in Kamala Harris, the vice president, in order to break that tie. If, in fact, you have 51, Harris doesn't always need to be on standby because you can get a majority with just your senators. And the other one is that, look, let's say, God forbid, a senator gets sick or is indisposed for some reason, you can still have a majority even if one senator has to miss a vote for any particular reason.

HARLOW: That's why President Obama was saying, stumping for Warnock, it means so much, just one extra seat.

We know like 1.89, is that right, million people have voted early in this runoff in Georgia, but still a lot yet to vote tomorrow. What's the state of the race one day before the primary?

ENTEN: Yes. So, look, at this particular point, you would rather be Warnock than Walker. Why? Okay. If you look at the general election result, even though Warnock did not, in fact, get a majority, he's still got more votes than Herschel Walker by about a percentage point. If you looked at our poll last week, what do we see? We saw that Warnock was plus four. So, it was a tight race but Warnock with an advantage.

And you were speaking about that early vote, right? It's down overall compared to the general election but it's less white, it's younger and those voters that have cast a ballot so far are more likely to have voted in Democratic primaries in the early vote period for the runoff than the general election. So, right now, you'd rather be Warnock than Walker, but still it's too close to call.

LEMON: True that. Thank you very much, Harry Enten, I appreciate that.

And make sure you stay tuned for CNN's special live coverage. It starts tomorrow at 4:00 P.M. Eastern.

HARLOW: Well, the manhunt is under way this morning over an attack on a power grid in North Carolina. The FBI is investigating this. It's a criminal investigation because this attack left more than 35,000 customers without power still since Saturday. Two energy substations were damaged by gun fire Saturday night in what is being described as an intentional and targeted attack. Some people there could be without power until Thursday. A state of emergency is in place and no suspects have been named, no motive announced. What is going on here?

[07:05:01]

Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller joins us now. I found this bizarre and troubling, and we can get into their questions about potential domestic terrorism. What is your assessment this morning?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, first of all, we've seen this before. The first time this came up was 2013 in the Metcalf Plant in Coyote, California. Pretty rural, targeted attack, over a hundred of rounds of sniper positions fired over a period of something like 40 minutes. It took out 17 transformers, did $15 million worth of damage. But, Poppy, in that one, they were able to kind of reroute power to other stations, not go through a big blackout but it took weeks to repair.

And because of that incident, we in the New York City Police Department, our partners at Con Ed, Congress, the Department of Energy, started looking at what is the security on the electrical grid, made a lot of changes and recommendations.

So, this is the second one of these we've seen. The real question here is motive. Was it to take out the power station? Was it to deny power to a theatre that was holding a controversial LGBTQ event that night in Moore County where the theatre was blacked out and they had to call off the show? We don't have that right now.

LEMON: Well, that was my question is why. Because the local sheriff deferred those questions that you're talking about, whether it was a domestic terrorism attack saying we have to figure this out. So, where is this investigation right now and how do you figure that out?

MILLER: So, I mean, the first thing you're looking for is a communique. If it has a political purpose, usually the person who is behind it wants to announce that and say it was us and it was for X, we haven't seen that yet.

LEMON: For the purpose of what? Why would someone do this, just for chaos? You know what I'm saying?

MILLER: Well, it's really interesting about the timing. On November 30th, DHS sent out a confidential advisory to law enforcement, so that's just a few days ago, saying we are in a heightened threat period for domestic violent extremists, A. B, targets will likely include LGBTQ events and targets critical infrastructure, government targets. So, this is already out there in the ether.

LEMON: John miller, thank you, you choked me up this morning, thank you.

HARLOW: He does it to all of us.

MILLER: Thanks, don.

HARLOW: Okay. This morning, viruses, your kids have probably had one or all of them so far this season, flu, RSV, there's still COVID leaving many kids sick across the United States, and parents, like me, are finding it hard to find medicine, painkillers like Tylenol, ibuprofen.

Why is this happening? A statement from Kroger Pharmacy to CNN says, at this time, our inventory of children's acetaminophen, that's Tylenol, and ibuprofen, that's Motrin, are constrained.

Joining us now, our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, spent an hour-and-a-half last Wednesday talking through Brooklyn trying to find it and finally a pharmacist found some children's Advil, which I've never seen before in a box in the back. How can that happen? My son had a pretty high fever and I was really worried.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, Poppy, I'm so sorry to hear that. Second of all, I hope you checked that expiration date from the box from the back because you'll never know.

HARLOW: I should have.

COHEN: But that is bad and that's what we're hearing these kinds of stories. We're hearing that kind of story from Kroger, as you just said. Seattle Children's Hospital says that they're having trouble getting liquid acetaminophen and liquid ibuprofen. And here's the graph that I think will answer this question. This is hospitalizations but, of course, it reflects sort of illnesses in general. You can kind of extrapolate.

So, the top red line, that's hospitalization rates for people over the age of 65 from flu. We kind of expect that, right. I mean, that's who flu affects mostly is elderly people. The yellow line is the little ones. The yellow lines is zero to four. And so those are some pretty high hospitalization rates, which means that there is quite a bit of flu out there for children.

Now, it's not horrific. There have been 14 pediatric deaths from flu so far this year. One is even too high but 14 is not an incredibly high number compared to other years. One message I would get out to parents is do not hoard children's Tylenol and Advil, a terrible idea. It will give you bad mommy and daddy karma for the rest of your life. Just get what you need. And most importantly get your child a flu shot.

HARLOW: That is good advice, do not hoard. But what was it? six months ago, we had the baby formula shortage. I understand there were supply chain issues during COVID, some lingering but, I mean, why is this happening and when and how will it be corrected?

[07:10:01]

COHEN: You know, it's not exactly clear exactly what's going on here, but, certainly, there are lingering supply chain issues from COVID. The FDA have come out and said, look, we can't tell a company to make more of a drug. We don't get to tell them what to do. And they said they're watching this. The Biden administration has said they're monitoring these critical drug supplies very closely. But as we saw with formula, there was kind of a limit to what the federal government could do. Hopefully, we won't get to that point with these drugs, Poppy.

HARLOW: Let's hope not. All right, Elizabeth Cohen, I will check the expiration date at 9:01 A.M. this morning after the show ends, and thank you very much for the update for all the parents out there.

LEMON: Hey, Poppy, I want to ask. Can you take adult and like break it in half?

HARLOW: I don't think so, but I had to buy -- it's kind of gross but suppositories, right, for the kids, like that's what we use when babies can't drink because that's all -- like I don't think you can break it in half. It's scary.

LEMON: All right, thank you.

And moving on now, this morning, People in Wise County, Texas, are being encouraged to wear pink to pay tribute to seven-year-old Athena Strand. It comes as a driver working for FedEx is being charged with killing Strand after kidnapping her from her driveway.

CNN's Ed Lavandera live for us in this Dallas this morning with more. Ed, Athena's mother is speaking out. What is she saying?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's just a horrible, senseless murder and the mother of this young girl, in a lengthy Facebook post, wrote about her daughter's dreams of wanting to become a Viking princess, the kind of details that really bring this tragic story to life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice over): A Texas community is left shattered. The city of Paradise, about 40 miles northwest of Forth Worth, is grappling with the tragic ending of their search for a missing seven-year-old girl. Last Wednesday, Athena Strand disappeared from the driveway of her family home, which prompted a massive hunt with nearly 200 volunteers alongside local law enforcement. Her body was found two days later after authorities received a tip. Investigators say a FedEx driver was making a delivery at the time of the seven-year-old's disappearance.

The suspect is 31-year-old FedEx contract driver Tanner Lynn Horner, now behind bars and charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping.

SHERIFF LANE AKIN, WISE COUNTY, TEXAS: We do have a confession.

It's one of the toughest investigations that I've been involved in because it's a child.

LAVANDERA: Akin did not investigate a possible motive and said Horner did not know the family or the child. In a statement, FedEx said, words cannot describe our shock and sorrow surrounding this tragic event. In a separate statement to the Forth Worth Star Telegram, Fedex ground said the company contracts with independent businesses to help its delivery services and the employees of those companies are subject to a criminal background check.

Athena's mother, Maitlyn Presley Gandy, issued a tribute to her daughter on Facebook, writing, my princess was taken from me by a sick, cruel monster for absolutely no reason. Athena is innocent, beautiful, kind, intelligent and just the brightest, happiest soul you could ever meet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (on camera): And, Don, the suspect is expected to make a court appearance later this morning in Wise County, it's a detention hearing. And those closest to the family say that Athena's favorite color was pink, and as you mentioned off the top, people across Wise County encouraged to wear pink today. In fact, almost two dozen school districts there in Wise County have recommended to students to wear pink in honor of Athena today, a horribly tragic and a horrifying story. Don?

LEMON: Yes, you're right about that. Thank you, Ed Lavandera. We appreciate it.

Now to a story first on CNN, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, will convene an anti-Semitism summit at the White House on Wednesday. It will bring together leaders of 13 different Jewish organizations. Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. White House aides say that the event takes on even more significance following a series of anti-Semitic comments from Kanye West, as well as the revelation that the former president, Donald Trump, hosted West along with white nationalist and holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago last month.

HARLOW: If you've been to the grocery store, filled up your gas tank recently, you've probably noticed the prices have dropped a little bit. The average certainly with gas, the average for a gallon of gas is now $3.41. That's down more than 30 percent from the high this summer. It's actually lower than when Russia invaded Ukraine. That is on top of falling prices for food and used cars and housing and slowing inflation, at least for now, is what we're seeing.

Let's bring in our Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans with more. Don was like it's your read, and I was reading this to bring to you.

[07:15:02]

LEMON: I was like, you're next, Poppy. You're next.

HARLOW: I was actually paying attention. The Washington Post, here's the first paragraph of their big above the fold story on inflation. The price of gas is dropping like a rock, chicken wings are suddenly a bargain and retailers are drowning in access inventory. My groceries still feel a lot more expensive.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's too soon to declare victory over inflation.

HARLOW: Okay.

ROMANS: And I think the takeaway here is inflation is moderating, and that is what we want to see. For example, gas prices, best place to see that in gas prices, it's down almost below where it was a year ago, and that's real relief for people.

You look at some of these other categories, chicken products, you are going to start to see promotions and discounts in chicken products because they've managed some of their supply problems in 2021 and their demand problems and they've got a hold of that imbalance there.

Retail goods, I think you're going to see a lot of discounts and clearances into the end of the year for these big retailers who have been struggling to understand what people want to buy. Apparel and furniture, this is the kind of stuff that you're going to get pretty cheap.

Used car prices are down. They're down sharply, 15 percent since January. New car prices still are a problem because there's such pent- up demand for these new cars, they didn't have enough chips. But used car prices are starting to see some relief.

And in housing and rent, it's going up but not going up as quickly. That's why I don't want to declare victory, especially on that part of the inflation story. It's still going up but not going up as quickly.

So, we saw last week the PCE, the Fed's favorite inflation gauge. If you look at a chart of that, it's clearly showing signs of peaking, those interest rates. Those are going up because the Fed is trying to take control of inflation. But when you look at the inflation chart, you can definitely see it's getting a little bit better, or not as bad. And that's really --

LEMON: That's still the right direction.

HARLOW: I have never bought a new car in my life. I was always taught they lose a lot of money -- you probably have. LEMON: No. I think I bought one new car, but otherwise, I don't.

HARLOW: All used because they lose so much value going off the lot. So --

ROMANS: It's true. And I actually bought my lease -- I had a lease from 2019. This math never, ever works for consumers, right?

LEMON: No.

ROMANS: I bought my lease. That car is worth more three years old, right, than was the contract that I signed for in 2019.

LEMON: Really? Wow.

ROMANS: It's one of the only few consumer money moves you can make over the last three years that was just a total slam dunk.

LEMON: I was shocked to have the price of cars increasing during the pandemic. But I have got to tell you about the chicken wings, as we were watching all the games this weekend, soccer, football, there was a lot of chicken wing demands because I watched in a chicken wing, buffalo wing bar.

ROMANS: I will tell you, I will pay anything for chicken wings. The price goes up and I still pay. It is like -- it is impervious to -- price-impervious for me.

LEMON: I'm with you there.

ROMANS: Plus more, I'll pay for it anyway. I love my chicken wings.

LEMON: I'm with you on that.

HARLOW: Thanks, Romans.

LEMON: Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

So, this morning, gay rights is once again taking center stage at the Supreme Court. We're live with a preview.

Plus, a CNN report from the war zone.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We had to move down here from our underground live position when the air raid sirens went off and we're now tracking reports of potentially dozens of Russian missiles headed this way.

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[07:20:00]

LEMON: U.S. intelligence experts say fighting in Ukraine is expected to slow in the next few months but not end, of course. Ukrainians are still bracing for new attacks on their energy grid as temperatures drop. Russian troops are focusing their strikes on the eastern Donetsk region.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine. Listen, they're confident about, at least the U.S., that the fighting will slow over the winter, but I understand you had to go to safety this morning?

RIPLEY: Yes, that's not necessarily the assessment here in Ukraine. And certainly what we are experiencing right now, we don't know what exactly is happening. So, let me just lay out what has been happening.

We have a live position up towards the top floor of this hotel looking outside. We heard the air raid sirens go off followed by reports of potential incoming Russian missiles. We're talking about potentially a large amount, dozens of missiles incoming headed in this direction.

And so we and all of our staff have moved down to the bomb shelter, several storeys under ground. We're basically adjacent to an underground parking lot. So, they basically converted this area but it's reinforced with concrete. It is safe for us to broadcast from here.

And now we wait for information of what exactly may be happening, because the last attack that happened 12 days ago, Russia launched more than 70 missiles and the Ukrainians shot down more than 50 of them. They had an incredibly high success rate, but still around 20 of those missiles hit their targets.

And those targets, unfortunately, the civilian power infrastructure, they've just been rebuilding, trying to get the lights back on, the heat back on for people across Ukraine if, indeed, we are on the front end of another attack or if that attack comes later. It's very much bad news for families that struggling with temperatures plunging here.

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RIPLEY (on camera): In Ukraine, winter is coming. In the capital, Kyiv, the foreign minister warns snow won't be the only thing falling from the skies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are anticipating another massive missile attack by Russia. And the goal of this attack is to bring total destruction to our energy system.

[07:25:01]

RIPLEY: Crews are racing to restore power. These tents set up by the government, a badly needed break from the bitter cold. At this fast food place, braving below zero temperatures at the outdoor grill keeps the doors open when the lights are off. Some customers said they only want to come when there's no power because the food tastes so much better. We're just Ukrainians, she says. That's our secret ingredient. Another secret for surviving dark times, candles, a good cry, and prayer.

When you come here, what do you pray for? We pray for peace, for the war to be over, she says, describing the hardship of life without electricity. But then I come here and remember how much time we spent hiding in basements, hiding from Russian soldiers who occupied and terrorized their town, Bucha, the site of what Ukraine calls unspeakable war crimes.

If you didn't know what happened here, this could be any church in any quiet Kyiv suburb until you look closer and notice the bullet holes. And this cross marking a mass grave for more than 100 men, women and two children.

Like five of Vira Goychuk's neighbors.

What it is --

VIRA GOYCHUK, BUCHA DISTRICT RESIDENT: It was cluster bomb.

RIPLEY: A cluster bomb?

GOYCHUK: A cluster bomb.

RIPLEY: Bullet holes in her children's bedroom windows. After living through the hell of the Russian occupation, she can handle living without power.

GOYCHUK: What is real problem is or is not electricity. We don't have any connection. So, I have kids, and if something wrong, I cannot even call to the hospital and call emergency.

RIPLEY: She tells me when the power goes out, she loses cell phone service and internet. But then --

GOYCHUK: Oh my God, it's a miracle.

RIPLEY: Is that the lights coming on now?

GOYCHUK: Yes.

RIPLEY: The first place she goes, the kitchen.

Coffee, that's your number one priority?

GOYCHUK: Yes, it's my number one.

RIPLEY: She's grateful for the little things in life.

GOYCHUK: It's a moment of happiness.

RIPLEY: Grateful just to be alive.

GOYCHUK: That's it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (on camera): And you can understand the sentiment when people are living for the last nine months under the constant threat of Russian missiles raining down on their homes. They hear air raid sirens, they go off so much, a lot of people are really immune to it. But this time, given all of the reports that are coming in about what may be happening here, a lot of people in Ukraine hiding in their basements wondering if the lights are going to be knocked out and when they're going to be able to do things that we take for granted, like having a hot cup of coffee at their house, in their kitchen.

LEMON: Will Ripley live in Kyiv for us this morning, thank you very much for that.

It is a debate across America, should black Americans receive reparations for the sins of the past. Some states and cities starting to make it a reality. The conversation is next.

HARLOW: Also, in a significant move, why Apple plans to shift some of its production out of China, and it's accelerating those plans.

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