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Democratic Warnock Wins Georgia Senate Seat, Growing Party's Majority; Sources: Trump, Allies May Be Focus of Criminal Referrals. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired December 07, 2022 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:31]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): The people have spoken.

(CHEERS)

HERSCHEL WALKER (R), FORMER GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: There's 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)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The people have spoken -- those are four very, very powerful words, everyone.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

LEMON: It is the day after election day. Good morning. Wednesday, December 7th.

So much needed breathing room for Democrats. Incumbent Raphael Walker defeating Trump-backed Herschel Walker in Georgia Senate runoff. Closing out a bruising midterm cycle for Republicans and the former president.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kaitlan Collins, live in Atlanta this morning. History was made here overnight as Warnock became the first full term Black senator from the state of Georgia, it may just be one more Senate seat, but it was all the stretch for Democrats. The key number: 51 to 49, not giving them a real working majority after two years of that difficult 50/50 split.

HARLOW: That's right. And, Donald Trump costing the GOP another big and very winnable race on the same day, two of his family members businesses -- rather, were convicted of tax fraud, not to mention the January 6th Committee making criminal referral to the Department of Justice that could involve him.

LEMON: So, let's get to what happened last night. This morning, the 2022 midterms are finally behind us. Finally, Democrats are defying the odds by actually gaining a seat in the Senate. Mr. John Berman is here at the magic wall this morning.

So, John, I'm happy to see you. Take it away. What happened?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I got to magic for you. The margin, here first of all Raphael Warnock the margin is 95,000 votes in this runoff election. One month ago, Warnock led, but it was only by 37,000 votes. So, he's expended that margin and notice that was a libertarian candidate one month ago, this time it was a single runoff. A 95,000 vote margin.

What happened? Well, there were two counties out of the 159 counties in Georgia that flipped. That voted for Herschel Walker last time and Raphael Warnock this time. They are not giant counties, Washington County here, you can see that Raphael Warnock won by 100 votes this time and one month ago it was Herschel Walker by roughly the same margin.

The same story right here in Baldwin County. These are small counties, you could see Warnock up by 150 and one month ago, it was Walker who had the edge there.

The bigger story is in, I think, the more populous areas. One thing we can do here is that we can look at where Raphael Warnock overperformed versus one month ago. That is him over performing, it's almost everywhere. He did better than almost everywhere from one month ago.

Now, look at Herschel Walker, outperforming what he did one month ago and he may look at this and say, hey, wait a minute. He outperformed his results from one month ago and a lot of places. He did.

But remember, two things, number one, there was a libertarian candidate, those votes run away and got absorbed in other places. Number two, the places where Walker overperformed in rural areas with small populations where he underperformed, look at this, the population areas, Columbus, Augusta and Savannah were huge numbers of votes there and all we have to do is push into some of these counties.

And, Don, you know this from living there, Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia. You could see Raphael Warnock here overnight with the margin of, what is that, 52,000? Let's go d+ 53. There and you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of votes and one month ago the margin was what? 49. So 53 and 49 is a 4 percent difference. It might not seem like much but when you're talking about hundreds of thousands of votes, Don, it adds up.

LEMON: I know you have the magic here. But how does this compare with other runoffs? I mean, there was a huge effort to get out the vote in Georgia.

BERMAN: Well, you want to know how this compares to the runoff? Look at all of these counties right now that we're won. The exact same counties won by Raphael Warnock two years ago.

And, look at the margin, 93, 000, the margin this time, 95,000. Almost exactly the same. And, actually, you'll notice the turnout is down a little bit from two years ago. You could see Raphael Warnock with 1.8 million votes and two years ago he won with 2.2 million.

The reason for that, Don, it was a presidential election year.

[05:05:01]

The turnout always hired a presidential election even with the runoff that it is in the midterm election.

LEMON: Yes, but even, I mean, this time around, it's not a presidential election so that was hug turnout for them.

BERMAN: They have very big turnout for this runoff particularly in the areas where Raphael Warnock worked to get that turnout.

And again, it is these areas right here around Atlanta with the population has just boomed over the last several years.

LEMON: This is the magic of John Berman. This is why it's so important to have you doing this.

I understand. Thank you, John Berman. I appreciate.

Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Well, as John was saying, one of those expensive and thought races of the Senate midterm elections.

So let's bring in CNN chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, and CNN national politics reporter, Eva McKend.

Both of you are at these watch parties last night. You were at Warnock's. You were with Walker's.

Warnock came out. We saw his messages as he spoke to voters. What we are maintaining a ways to use you are speaking to his campaigns about how they got this over the finish line?

EVA MCKEND, C NN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, something that stuck out to me about their strategy is this relentless message about bipartisanship. I think it's kind of risky in the stage when we are in such a polarizing times and where base supporters are not really trying to hear that.

But he made that central to his reelection argument. That is going to work across the aisle. You know, it was sort of a funny moment when he talked about Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Cruz came to Georgia to stump for his opponent.

And, but really, I think that the campaign feels vindicated by this argument that they need. And not only playing to the base, but appealing to moderates and independents.

COLLINS: Because they had a pretty positive closing message. I know Republicans will say obviously there's so much money that they spent here in this race, there was a ton of catch, but Warnock was closing up with a surprisingly positive message when he had a lot of ways that he could go after Walker in this race.

MCKEND: Right, he had the money to effectively characterize himself as a bridge filter despite the very progressive voting record. Take a listen to how he spoke about this last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARNOCK: Whether you voted for me or not, that every single day I am going to keep working for you. I'm part of the bipartisan work I've done I intend to do more because I actually believe that, at the end of the day, we are all Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So that was the message that we heard time and time again throughout the campaign. I will say that he is frustratingly disappointed. As a report on the trail trying to get him to make news, it seldom happens because this was an argument that he consistently revisited.

COLLINS: And, Jeff, what about the Walker campaign? You were there last night and it was this amazing setting at the college hall of fame but it was a very quiet watch party at the end.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It was in the end, but there was some drama throughout the evening and they were not connect and sort of going back and forth. But the election day turnout, that was something very strong for Herschel Walker, without question. He won on election day. But he had already lost the race by then because of the early vote.

And, throughout the night, we're hearing from Republicans, yes, there was optimism in the room but Walker strategist really knew from the get-go that they were in some trouble because of the votes that John Berman, which we were just talking about here in Metro Atlanta, they were just blown out in a lot of these counties. So, he did not improve his performance for November in these areas. He didn't several areas.

But the bigger takeaway, I think is four months, Mitch McConnell on the Senate Republican leaders have been talking about the quality of candidates, the need of the quality of candidates here. And, when this race was not going to be the determination of Senate control, Republicans no longer in the Senate, Republicans basically stopped sending money, and they stopped sending a lot of reinforcements here.

So, he was of left on his. On so many cases some Republicans are happy that he was just in the race at the end, that this wasn't a blowout. But by and large, the quality of candidates really matter here. And Herschel Walker was, in many ways, a good candidate.

COLLINS: And he did concede what, we should note.

About the Kemp factor of all of? This that is something that they were counting on to help him, because Kemp came out for Walker in a way that these last four weeks that he did not previously. ZELENY: Absolutely, and you, know I interviewed. Him that was

probably the big difference of raw between November and yesterday, it's Brian Kemp's operation kept him in the game. I was talking to a top Warnock advisor and they said two things actually kept us in the game. Brian Kemp, and the operation and Joe Biden. Herschel Walker said this is a vote against Joe Biden to check on his policy.

So those two things actually elevated Walker against his other shortcomings.

COLILNS: Yeah. Jeff, Eva, we're going to stay with you both to talk about this race as we're breaking down the key moments with their votes Georgia just change the power dynamic in Washington.

[05:10:05]

We'll tell you what Democrats cannot. Do with this slim but incredibly significant Senate majority.

HARLOW: And it is the last of a long list of midterm losses for Trump backed candidates. What's a lesson from both parties with 2024 fast approaching?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARNOCK: I want to say thank you to my mother who is here tonight.

[05:15:00]

You'll see her in a little.

But she grew up in 1950s, in Waycross, Georgia, picking somebody else's cotton and somebody else's tobacco. But, tonight, she helped pick her youngest son to be United States senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Do not make me cry this early in the morning.

HARLOW: Right, right?

LEMON: I mean, we love our moms and I ain't mad at him. Amen to his mama.

HARLOW: A very powerful statement from Democrat Raphael Warnock after last night Senate runoff win in Georgia.

Let's bring in CNN political analyst, Natasha Alford. She is VP of digital content and senior correspondent at "TheGrio", and CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.

Thank you both for being here.

Natasha, let me begin with. You so, because there is that couple who has history made. The first ever full term elected Black senator from the state of Georgia in the United States where, the more of 2,000 people have served in the U.S. Senate, only 11 have been Black.

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's saying something. Raphael Warnock did it twice.

HARLOW: Yeah.

ALFORD: Right. So, this is not a fluke. It indicates that there's a shift.

LEMON: If you look at it more than twice.

(CROSSTALK)

ALFORD: You look at those watch parties, what a stark difference. The racial diversity, you saw diversity and age, at Warnock's party where they were celebrating, even a little cupid shuffle, and that Herschel Walker's, party was representing the past. He did not see the racial diversity, just by first clouds.

LEMON: I think he got the 3 percent of the Black vote in Georgia. This is a Black man.

ALFORD: Yeah.

LEMON: Who was a superstar in the state of Georgia. A clear indication that he did not represent the people of Georgia, his own people in Georgia and they actively --

HARLOW: You're talking about Walker.

ALFORD: You cannot fool the Black electorate. Herschel Walker's candidacy was insulting to so many African Americans, particularly Black men, you have to confront all of these stereotypes.

And, so they came out and strong numbers. And they, said you may pick this candidate saying that he's for us. But we know who is for us. We know who is not for us.

HARLOW: That's the question this morning, right? With the voting for the majority for Warnock or against Walker? Because one thing that makes Warnock winning even more remarkable is the fact that in November, in the general election, Republicans won every statewide office, other than --

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Except the Senate, yeah.

HARLOW: Except the Senate, but like seven points.

AVLON: And that just goes to speak to you, Raphael Warnock's achievement. Herschel Walker's the worst general elections candidates stay what I have ever seen in terms of state, particularly swing state, in terms of character, judgment and qualifications.

And, still, he came pretty close. And that speaks to the drug of hyper partisanship, people would vote for and just put the right letter after the name and they'll pull the lever for him. But when it came to the runoff, people had a hard time rallying around Herschel Walker, and a better candidate, or qualified candidate, had quite a bit of different outcome.

Instead, Democrats are going to have a majority in the Senate, and the election cycle that typically, the in-party loses.

LEMON: Natasha, I've been saying this for while. This was -- you think about the history that this surrounding. Us and the past of Dr. Martin Luther King's church in Georgia, there were two Black men who are on the ticket.

Dr. King always said, you know, the content of the character not the color of their skin. You had two Black men around the ticket. And, this election was decided on the content. People were choosing the content, each of these candidates character.

And, they will tap into be the same race. You cannot -- I mean, in a state, Dr. King's home state --

ALFORD: A lot of people woke up with a renewed sense of, home along with a little bit of relief. But, Raphael Warnock talked about the blood soaked ballot. He grounded us in the fact that in American history, people paid the price first of this moment, a Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner, the civil rights voting rights activists were murdered by the KKK --

LEMON: Say that again? Chaney, Goodman and Schwe -- diversity.

ALFORD: Yes, Jewish and an African American. So I'm grounding that in a second point to the coalition that you need to keep building this momentum in Georgia.

LEMON: So, I'm wondering what this means for us, for this takes us. Because everyone has been, I feel like we over-indexed the MAGA folks. We have been overindexing the MAGA folks. And everyone keeps, well, what about -- we need to hear from these guys. Give them room, or let them talk, do this. Nobody really wants to hear from that.

Because, if you look at all of the election, there was someone. But for the most part, people don't want to hear about them.

[05:20:01]

They're voting in people who are actually getting the work done.

AVLON: Swing voters in swing states, independent voters, the people who ultimately make decisions.

But, here's the real deal, Donald Trump's 0-3 in Georgia Senate runoff.

LEMON: Right.

AVLON: Right? I mean, that is a decisive rebuke of Donald Trump and the election enablers and the candidates that he's put forward in Georgia, which is now trending purple.

LEMON: Election deniers. You said election enablers.

AVLON: But, also don't forget Herschel Walker won his former, right? But almost 70 percent. It wasn't just Donald Trump hoisting account today. There was Herschel Walker -- and this is the problem with the politics. The park in the primary goes to the extreme. This is a problem that Republicans like enough to confront because he may be kryptonite at a general election, but he's still catnip at the primary, and that's a problem in our politics we got to deal with.

HARLOW: What does it mean for 2024?

AVLON: It's not too early.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Probably with a boom.

AVLON: Officially, check your watches.

HARLOW: Bakari on later who says, like, today, you know, begins 2024.

AVLON: Yes, it does. Look, Donald Trump is an enormously weakened candidate. He has probably had one of the worst rollout I've ever seen, let alone from a former president. But, in a Republican primary, if six people are running and he has hard-core 30, 35 percent, he's going to take out the vote.

So, Republicans need to deal with some reelection reform. They're going to deal with some reality.

ALFORD: But reform, I'm thinking about voter suppression. That moment last night when Raphael Warnock said, in the midst of the solution, do no take the fact that they were longs, our that there was some, lines in some sort of indicated that it was a success. Activists get the flower to the activists and organizers who got people out with a shortened window for early voting and all of these ridiculous rules that really didn't represent democracy. They represented roadblocks.

LEMON: That's what I said I'm sorry, go.

HARLOW: No, go.

LEMON: It's what I said yesterday that Georgia is a red state but Democrats, they have fingered kind of had to overcome even the suppression or whatever it is they are facing.

AVLON: I think Georgia is not a red state.

LEMON: Oh, yeah, it's a red state.

AVLON: Rural Georgia sure as hell is. But this is what -- the real story of American politics is urban versus rural, and suburban being the swing. But we see what candidates like Raphael Warnock is they can win the cities, they can win the suburbs, and it's the increasing diversity of the country.

But, that urban world the fathers of the political division, and particularly the deep south, of course, don't underestimate that.

HARLOW: Just going to say the work of Stacey Abrams.

ALFORD: Oh, yeah.

HARLOW: But it didn't work out for her in the race for governor. But the look at the ground it led.

LEMON: It's early in the morning, and there's the vote empowerment movement.

ALFORD: Black Voters Matter is another one.

LEMON: We're going tough to run a little bit later because it's a little bit early in the state of watch the results. But a lot -- let's get black women there.

ALFORD: The sacrifices they make whether they directly benefit or not speaks to -- again, that's what democracy is about and they represent the best of democracy. That coalition, though, that represents America.

LEMON: Latosha Brown, I was going to say. That's who we're going to have because we have Natasha and like --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Natasha, thank you. Avlon, thank you very much.

AVLON: Good to see you, guys.

HARLOW: All right. The January 6 committee has decided to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. Will that include Donald Trump?

LEMON: Should state legislatures have absolute power over election in America? That crucial question goes before the Supreme Court just hours from now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:28:08]

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone, to CNN THIS MORNING. It is early.

But we've got a lot coming up for you. The January 6th committee deciding to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and Donald Trump's name could be on the list.

Plus, two of the former president's companies convicted of criminal tax fraud. A company being convicted of that, we'll explain what that means -- the impact on Trump's businesses and his 2024 campaign, that's straight ahead. And Prince Harry and Meghan honored in New York city lost the royal

family races for the release of a potentially explosive documentary.

Poppy, I actually saw them in person.

HARLOW: I know you did. You always see the most important people the most important moments. We can't wait to see. We'll talk about that more tomorrow.

But, first now, a huge development in the January 6 investigation could signal more bad news for former President Trump and potentially his allies. Here's what the chairman of the House Select Committee told the reporter yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): We have not made a decision as to who, but we have made a decision that criminal referral will happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That is significant. Let's bring in our colleague, CNN's Jessica Schneider for more in Washington. That, I mean, that is news. , but don't make the referral and the big lingering question is, will the former president be included in that referral to justice?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: And that's the question that remains unanswered this morning, because, of course, Poppy, the committee has been meeting for weeks. This has been the big topic of discussion. Will they make criminal referrals as they prepared to release this final report?

There's been the subcommittee meeting to evaluate whether to make referrals, and included Vice Chair Liz Cheney, you, constitutional lawyer Jamie Raskin. So, Bennie Thompson that they have come to a conclusion to make those criminal referrals, but they are not saying who just yet.

Our team is told that they are considering whether or not to make that criminal referral about the former President Donald Trump. But, notably here, guys, this criminal referral does not carry any legal weight.

[05:30:00]