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CNN Tonight

Katie Hobbs Wins Arizona Race; Character Matters To Voters; Wes Moore Promise To Serve Maryland Constituents; Jay Leno Brought To Hospital; Three Young Students Killed In Charlottesville. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired November 14, 2022 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Good evening, everyone. I'm Laura Coates, and this is CNN TONIGHT.

Our breaking news, CNN projecting Democrat Katie Hobbs will win Arizona's governor's race defeating Republican Kari Lake, one of the most prominent defenders of former President Trump's lies about the 2020 election.

Now, Lake, as you recall, repeatedly claimed the election was rigged, said she would not have certified Joe Biden's win in Arizona back in 2020. Hobbs, the Arizona Secretary of State, rejected Republican lies about the election.

Let's go right to CNN's Kyung Lah live for us in Phoenix tonight. Kyung, you've been there all this time waiting for the results to come in. And of course, we doubt -- we now know that CNN projects that Katie Hobbs will be the next governor of Arizona. What is the very latest?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just a quick reminder that a Democrat winning in this state, which is considered at his core, you know, you talk to people, it is a center right state that has been the fabric of Arizona. And this is the first time in more than a decade that a Democrat has won the state of Arizona as governor.

So, we are seeing a political shift in this state and what we are hearing from tonight now that this -- these projections are out, Republicans in this state are really responding, especially the ones who led that charge against Kari Lake because it is independents and moderate Republicans who have soundly rejected her.

I want to show you this quote from one of those Republicans, John Graham, who is a Republican who fundraised for Katie Hobbs, a lifelong Republican who said he simply couldn't stomach her indecency tells CNN, quote, "civility has won here in Arizona and across the country."

I also heard from a number of other Republican strategists, these are people who actually work on campaigns, who strategize, who communicate for Republicans in the state. And one told me on background, because he is actively working on campaigns here at Arizona, he said, quote, "Kari told a legion of John McCain supporters across Arizona that they could go to hell. Tonight, they returned the favor."

And what he's talking about there, Laura, is a moment where Kari Lake at CPAC said that her primary victory told, and she expresses to the entire crowd. She said that her campaign drove a stake in the heart of the McCain machine. This was the McCain machine striking back. Laura?

COATES: Well, Kyung, powerful words, and apparently, as you say, the returning of the favor.

Here to discuss all of this right now chief political analyst here at CNN, Gloria Borger, CNN, political commentators, Charlie Dent and Ashley Allison.

I mean, first of all, when we think about where we are right now, I mean, we are at the Monday after the midterm elections. We are still waiting to see who finally will actually be the majority party in the House. And now we know in McCain country we know who the next governor will be.

I mean, just think about this. Today, Liz Cheney tweeting out, you're welcome, Kari Lake. I mean, this is something, this was a lot of energy. What's your reaction?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, my reaction is that somebody who liked to call her opponents, cheaters and crooks who told John McCain's supporters to leave and walk out the door after John McCain's more than three decades of devotion to public service, who campaigned as a Donald Trump mini me was sent walking.

Because that was not what Arizona moderates, Arizona independents, or Arizona Republicans wanted. And I think she made a really bad bet in the state of Arizona, and I think Republicans are going to be looking at this in the state as Kyung was just saying and saying, what did we do wrong? How did we nominate this person? And how do we fix the Republican Party?

COATES: Well, the course correction issue, and I want to point out, I mean, as you point out the idea here, we're talking about election denialism on the one hand, but also the overall alignment with Trump does include, Charlie, in some respects. The idea that you were against John McCain.

[22:04:58]

I mean, we remember what happened for the funeral of the late senator. We remember the conversations the way there was this acrimonious nature of the relationship as well, and the backlash has been swift.

But having said that, it's not as if Katie Hobbs had a runaway election. You know, Kari Lake was still very much in the game, is why we're at the nail-biting hours here.

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Arizona is a state that leans right, but what we've seen with Kari Lake, so you cannot practice the politics of exclusion, division, and subtraction. Telling John McCain supporters to go to hell telling, calling people, rhinos, people who don't agree with you.

Well, you know what? Maybe they're not going to support you. I mean, I don't know how people think they're going to win elections by appealing to the most narrow segments of their base. You know, having come from a swing state and a swing district, you know, I understood math. I had to win 90 percent of the Republicans, over half the independents, and nearly 30 percent of the Democrats to win.

You don't win by saying these idiotic things that she was saying. I mean, I, they just, it's as if they want to lose, and we have their own version of Kari Lake in Pennsylvania. He's called Doug Mastriano who's --

COATES: He lost handily.,

DENT: Big.

COATES: Right.

DENT: I mean, he just turned off independents. A lot of Republicans and certainly Democrats, but these people don't understand that they need to -- they want to win converts, they want to excommunicate everybody who doesn't seem to agree with.

COATES: Well, Ashley, on this point though, I mean, part of the concern is why would they think it would work? I mean, she --

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

COATES: That -- that's where the crux of the issue, right?

ALLISON: Well, to Gloria's point, she tried to be Trump 2.0. Kari Lake is probably one of the most well-known gubernatorial candidates across the country right now. But she lost, and I bet you Katie Hobbs is not. Katie Hobbs stayed in Arizona. She focused on her race. She wouldn't debate -- she wouldn't take the bait and debate whether you agree with it or not.

Kari Lake, she wasn't going to feed the beast like so many did with Donald Trump. And I think that that played out. She became a national star, but a loser at the end of the day and it didn't work. And I think the reason why it's so close is we can't forget she was a TV personality in the state of Arizona.

So, if you weren't paying close attention to the race, maybe you went in and you saw a familiar name and you voted for her. I'm not undermining the fact that, you know, there are still a lot of people in our country who are election deniers, but it didn't work. She tried to do Donald Trump 2.0 and I think this country is just over it.

COATES: It speaks a lot about that idea, but I want to come back. This one, we've got more breaking news actually in Arizona as well.

CNN projects, Republican David Schweikert, has been reelected in a district that Joe Biden narrowly carried in 2020. Schweikert was first elected in the Tea Party wave back in 2010. But wait, there's more. We also have their projection right now. We have the Republican businessman Brandon Williams, having won an open seat in Central New York.

By the way, Biden won that district by seven points as well, so we've got a lot to unpack. You stick around, everyone right now. We've got more to come on all of our breaking news in the moment. But I want to get to you guys and talk more about this because here's the thing.

As we're talking about all these races, as we're trying to unpack and figure out what it all means in the long run, it -- election denialism was on the ballot. It really was. The idea of the president of the United States talking about democracy even on the world stage, having a little bit of a spring in its step and how we're viewed internationally on these issues.

But I would repeat, these are not races that were decided on election night. For many of these races, the ones we're talking about oftentimes, some of them were of course, Pennsylvania, et cetera. But why is it that they were this close?

BORGER: It's a divided country. Period. It's polarized, it's divided. the Democrats had the Dobbs decision, the abortion decision going for them. I think the question we ought to be asking is, this issue set was a very Republican issue set.

When you talk about immigration, when you talk about crime, when you talk about inflation, why didn't Republicans win by larger margins? You had an unpopular president. All of that put together. People were saying before the election, even some poll showed this was going to be a perfect storm for Republicans. They were, it was going to be this big red wave. Why did that not happen?

And I think one of the reasons is the candidates mattered in this selection. I mean, Mitch McConnell is now famous for saying candidate quality matters. Well, it did matter. People paid attention to their candidates.

COATES: But he'll be attacked undoubtedly. Right? We already know sort of the --

BORGER: Yes.

COATES: -- what's on the horizon, Senator Mitch McConnell will be viewed as one of the people to actually who you're going to point the fingers at. Senator Josh Hawley also weighed in on this and you're already smiling going, what did he have to say about these issues? But here he is. Here his is his comment for the Republican out of Missouri.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): I think that this election was the funeral for the Republican parties. We know it. The Republican Party is, as we have known it, is dead. And voters have made that clear. [22:09:58]

We need to be thinking about what the future here is. I like a lot of what President Trump did as president. I think we've got a lot to talk about there, but we need to have a conversation about our core convictions as a party, and clearly, this party is going to have to actually, it's going to have to be different, or we're not going to be a majority party in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Now just think about what that means, right? The Republican Party is dead. If election deniers lose, I mean, is that the context we're supposed to view this in? Because I thought that wasn't who the Republican Party said they were.

DENT: If look, if the party is dead, it's because of guys like him who are fist bumping the 1/6 rioters. That's a big part of the problem. The party needs to get back to a center right movement. It needs to moderate on some issues like abortion. Can we say that? I've told them that for years. Taking these positions, these absolutist positions that are alienating large swaths of the country as well as large swaths of the Republican Party.

Yes, so he maybe, maybe the party is dead, but not for the reasons he thinks. Again, he's frankly part of the problem. This very rigid intolerant wing of the party. We have to become much more socially sensible and tolerant if we hope to grow free market oriented, reasonable regulation, constructive on the international stage. Not this nativism, this ugly populism, this isolation, and this protectionism. That's a losing agenda.

COATES: Well, the things you describe, go ahead.

ALLISON: I also want to say though, is there's a whole new part of the electorate that have -- has been like engaged in a way that we haven't seen before. Young people are voting at historical numbers. My generation, millennials are voting at higher numbers. People of color are voting at greater numbers.

And so, I think it's a good thing for our democracy, but the reality is, is that it seems like one party is speaking to them more than another party. I also think what happened this cycle is that we kept getting polls that said folks felt like the country was going in the wrong direction, but I think we were talking about two different directions.

Some people overread that as that the country was going in the wrong direction economically. I always read it that people, I -- I'm so sick of the last two years of hate and insurrection.

BORGER: Right.

ALLISON: And polarization, and you don't even want to have a conversation with somebody for being afraid that you're going to get in an argument with them -- argument with them. People were tired of that. You know, school board meetings, people being violent because they want to ban books.

I think that that was the piece that folks missed in this election, that we are taking some of the bait and going a bit too far. And that was the wrong one.

BORGER: We are going to be watching the Republican Party and politicians like Josh Hawley reinvent themselves.

ALLISON: Yes.

BORGER: And it's going to be a process that is going to be very interesting to watch. Because these are people who, at some of whom after January 6th, were very critical of Donald Trump. Then they went back in the fold because they thought Donald Trump was really powerful and they couldn't live without him.

Now they're trying to find out if they can even live with him any way, shape, or form, and they're going to be reinventing themselves and it's going to be very obvious.

COATES: Interesting about the American public though. I wonder -- I have one more projection here too, but the idea, will the American people remember the last iteration? I mean, that's part of it. In order to reinvent oneself, one has to count on a kind of electoral amnesia, and I'm just not convinced that it is even there at this point.

But I want to come back to you in a moment. But before we go to break here, we have these two new projections coming just moments ago here to CNN. We can project that in Arizona, Republican David Schweikert has been reelected in a district that Joe Biden narrowly carried in 2020. He is now the first elected in the Tea Party wave. He was elected in the party wave back in 2010.

We also have another projection from CNN where businessman Brandon Williams has won an open seat in Central New York. Biden won that district by seven. We'll be right back.

[22:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Well, here we are, Democrats defying the odds to now hold onto the Senate and with votes still being counted, it looks like the GOP will win only a very slim majority in the House if the projections hold. So, what does this all mean for President Biden as he navigates the next well, two years of his presidency. And what's next for the GOP after what can only be prescribed as a poor showing.

Back with me now, Gloria Borger, Ashley Allison, and Charlie Dent.

OK, look, we can all confirm that the red wave did not materialize. Red ripple did not. I mean, I don't know what red really truly materialized here because by all accounts from Senator Ted Cruz to Josh Hawley and beyond that a lot went very wrong for the Republicans here. But I want to just be clear about how election denialism really played

in. Look at this graphic here about how the key election deniers actually fared in these elections. Just simply put paint a picture of what's going on. I mean, all across the board.

Secretary of states to governor. You can add Kari Lake who's there now as well to the Senate. I mean, the blame game is now here, but that graphic really shows you where things are. The question really is, why, and who was listening the most? Was it the Democrat voters who were coming back all of a sudden younger? You talked about, Ashley Allison. Is it the independent voters who came in, who were the really big players here? What do you guys think?

DENT: Independent voters.

ALLISON: Independents,

DENT: Independent.

COATES: Collective. And I have a graphic for it because you all, I mean, you would say it. I knew you would. I knew you all would say it. Look at this here about the independents and the margins by which they were able to be successful. The beauty of television, people, look at that.

I mean, this is the margin with independent voters according to the exit polls. That's a very strong showing in terms of how to make the party tense a little bit bigger. Now I set you up. I'll let you knock it down. Go ahead and speed.

DENT: Well, no, it is the independents. I mean, in 2010 and 2014 when Republicans had wave years elections, they won the independents by very significant margins, and this time it appears that they lost. Well, those are the big numbers, but they lost by a few points.

So, in a year like this, they should have been winning the independents by a significant margin. They didn't. And at the end of the day, this is an election where a lot of voters went into the booth and said one party is too far left. And the other is too far out, and more of them went a little more far left than far out.

[22:20:05]

That's what happened. Especially with the independents. They just couldn't stomach some of these candidates who were just so far out of the mainstream.

COATES: So, independents are the new moderates, is that what you're saying? Really?

BORGER: Well, and they may be moderate. Yes. I mean, at this, this time, they were. But I think that look, independent voters took a look at the people they were, they were presented with and they thought, you know what, I can't do that. And what we saw this time which was different was ticket splitting.

ALLISON: Yes.

BORGER: People were differentiating and saying, you know what, I may like Josh Shapiro, for example, but you know, I didn't like, you know, Oz or people -- look at New Hampshire. New Hampshire was a big one. So, I think that voters were saying to themselves, look, I'm going to -- I'm going to just vote for these candidates and I'm going to split my ticket when I need to do that.

And we don't see that a lot in this country because some of these candidates didn't have the qualities, to go back to Mitch McConnell, didn't have the qualities that they thought they should have.

COATES: What you described too, Ashley, you and I talked about this in the past as well, about Georgia, for example. What happen in the --

ALLISON: Yes.

COATES: -- in the new election coming up in December. Because I don't, I mean, look at the stretch. The idea of the numbers of people who turned out and voted for Kemp compared to Walker. I mean, clearly there was not a pure alignment of interest there. Now with him not being on the ballot come December. That ticket splitting phenomenon you speak of will make a difference.

I know Georgia is not, is no longer sort of the favored child here in terms of the attention because of Nevada, because of Arizona, but it really does highlight the independent notion.

ALLISON: Yes. I mean, I agree that independents were important, but I'm going to go back to young people did something this election cycle that was unexpected and that was turnout. And with both of those you just get over the finish line. And I think if young people don't show up in some of these races, maybe it doesn't pan out to be where, especially like in a Nevada where Cortez Masto pull, pulls it out.

So, I do think it's a, and not a or, I'm in the business of coalition building. And so, I think about it in like how you build the puzzle. In terms of Georgia, no, it might not be the thing that is going to decide the Senate. But if you're thinking of the long game, you want to put a lot of investment if you're the Dems into Georgia, because you don't want to forget about it in 2024.

It's really hard to totally deplete your infrastructure and then think you can start from scratch and build it back up. You have to turn out independents. You have to turn out young people, black voters for sure. Latino and AAPI. That was actually what sealed the deal in 2020.

But I do think Kemp not being at the top of the ticket does hurt.

COATES: Yes.

ALLISON: Herschel Walker for sure.

DENT: But where does that, but if you're -- if you're Herschel Walker now, who do you embrace? Kemp or Trump, you know, he should be embracing Kemp. ALLISON: Kemp.

DENT: But he --

BORGER: And Kemp will embrace him.

DENT: Yes. That's -- he needs to be align there. Is Trump going to actually show up in Georgia again?

ALLISON: Yes.

DENT: And cause problems. Yes. But that's -- but this -- but Kemp and Trump are like oil and water, but I would choose the winner, Kemp, not the loser Trump.

BORGER: You may not have a choice though, because nobody is going to stop Donald Trump if he wants to --

DENT: Yes.

BORGER: -- if he wants to go into Georgia. I mean, should I just get back to tickets splitting? The best example is Sununu in New Hampshire who won by what?

DENT: Lots.

BORGER: Twenty-point, I mean lots. And then Maggie Hassan won for the Senate against Don Bolduc. And you know, I think there were a lot of polls that showed that it was going to be really close because Sununu was at the top of the ticket and he was just going to bring Bolduc along. That didn't happen.

COATES: Well, that's so interesting to me because you think about we hear a lot about divisive politics in a divided country, but it seems like the ticket splitting and the idea of saying, well, maybe the idea that people are not going to always have the assumption come true that here's who I am, here's how I'll always vote. That might be a good thing for democracy in the long run.

BORGER: Totally right.

COATES: But we'll -- we'll soon see. And did you know, by the way, there's only actually been two black American governor speaking about the different, demographic groups that are coming out and turning out for elections. Only been two African American governors in United States history, I think with Maryland's governor elect, who is about to be the third. His name is Wes Moore and he's up next.

Also later, Michelle Obama speaking out about how deeply hurt she felt when Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016. This from her new book, The Light We Carry.

(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: It shook me profoundly to hear the man who'd replaced my husband as president openly and unapologetically using ethnic slurs, making selfishness and hate somehow acceptable, refusing to condemn white supremacists or to support people demonstrating for racial justice.

(END VOICE CLIP)

[22:25:06]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: The midterms are making history. Governor-elect Wes Moore defeating Republican election denier Dan Cox to become the first black governor of the state of Maryland and just the third black American to be elected governor in the entire history of our country.

Maryland Governor-elect Wes Moore joins me now.

Welcome to the program, Governor-elect Wes Moore. One day we can call you just Governor Moore. But how are you feeling? It's been a whirlwind.

[22:30:00]

WES MOORE (D-MD), GOVERNOR-ELECT: It's been a whirlwind, but we're feeling so good. You know, the people, they gave us a very clear mandate. You know, we ended up winning with the largest margins in Maryland governor's history in the past 40 years.

COATES: Wow.

MOORE: And that was because we won Democrats, we won independents, we won a good chunk of Republicans. And so, there's a -- there's a mandate and there's a unified vision that I think the folks in Maryland have right now that we're ready to be bold, we're ready to go fast, but we're ready to get it done together and that's what's really exciting.

COATES: You know, your predecessor, Larry Hogan, was speaking about that victory and the idea of just the amount of the margin and how, you know, Maryland is a state they've had Republican governors, Democratic governors as well.

Listen to what he said. I want you to react on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): This should have been a huge red wave. It should have been one of the biggest red waves we've ever had because, you know, President Biden's approval rating was so low, one of the lowest historically, more than 70 percent of the people thought the country was going in the wrong direction, and yet we still didn't perform.

And I think common sense conservatives that focused on talking about issues, people cared about, like the economy and crime and education, they did win. But people who tried to re-litigate the 2020 election and focused on conspiracy theories and you know, talked about things the voters didn't care about, they were almost universally rejected.

And I think it's basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race. And it's like, you know, three strikes, you're out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: So, I mean, could a, should a, would a as it comes through red wave. You actually did, But I want to reflect on this because a lot of people are going to focus on the race as if Trump's name was on the ballot, or as if it was the idea of Republicans that you -- that they just underperformed as opposed to giving you the full due credit that maybe you were very appealing to voters for a variety of reasons.

Why do you think your message was so resonant with the communities?

MOORE: I think that that candidates do matter in this. And I think we were unafraid to go all over the state. And when people were saying, you know, you guys are -- you guys are everywhere going in a lot of areas and people say you're going in a lot of places that there's not a lot of Democrats.

My answer was, yes, but there's a lot of Marylanders. And I plan on being their governor too. And we, when we talk about a leave no one behind agenda, which is what we had, a leave no one behind agenda, which means we're going to focus on creating pathways for work and wages and wealth, making sure that we can have an education system that's teaching our children how not just to be employees, but how to be employers.

Making sure we can focus on job reskilling and job retraining. That people should get paid a fair wage for the work that they're doing. So, you don't have people who are working jobs, in some cases, multiple jobs and still living below a poverty line. Focusing on wealth so people have something to pass on to their children besides debt.

Those weren't democratic issues. Those weren't Republican issues. These were issues that Marylanders continue to tell us were important. And I say, you know, politics is like an open book test. The voters are going to give you the answers, but you have to listen and you have to go and understand what they're trying to tell you, and then put together platforms in order to address the issues that they facing.

COATES: Speaking of tests, I mean, it seems that you've passed so many, your very impressive resume. People are singing your praises, they're already bypassing the gubernatorial race, and thinking about the future. You've been very focused on the here and now, and so oftentimes governors in particular as that's been traditional path to the presidency, we sort of think of it as a notch on the belt, so to speak, to say, you know what, here, this is a stop -- a stopover, a layover.

You've been very intentional about saying, this is what you wanted to do. This is where you want to be, and it's a -- it's a climate frankly where we're coming off of election denialism, we're coming off of a lot of divisive rhetoric. There's the narratives that are being, you know, retold across the variety of key figures.

Why is -- why did you want to enter politics at the time you are right now? Many could say, you know what? I'm better someplace else. You wanted to serve? Why?

MOORE: Yes. Well, because I've been a public servant for my whole life. I just haven't been a politician. But I've been working on these issues. These issues of early childhood supports, mental health, criminal justice reform, ed -- and economic vitality.

And I remember, you know, I ran one of the largest poverty fighting organizations in the country before I decided to run for governor.

COATES: Robinhood.

MOORE: Robinhood. That's exactly right. And we were working on the issue of the child tax credit and adjustments because we knew that adjustments to the child tax credit could literally cut the child poverty rate in this country by half.

And I remember working on these issues and not getting the state to make an adjustment that I was hoping that they would make. And I was speaking with one of my colleagues and because we were trying to get an adjustment to the state of the state's speech. And he said, he's like, you know, you know we work for six months to try to get them to add a line in the speech, but what if you could write the whole speech?

[22:34:53]

That's the point. Everything in our life is a policy decision. The air we breathe. The water we drink, the way you're policed, the transportation assets you have or don't have, the homes you live in, the schools your children attend. They're policy decisions.

And so, in this moment, in order for this to be Maryland's decade, and I'm convinced this is going to be Maryland's decade. It means we've got to take our policies seriously, and it means we need to make sure that we have policies that are meeting people where they are, and know that we have a government that's going to support individuals and give them the chance to grow and thrive.

COATES: You know what? The real work is ahead of you, as you well know, going to be the governor, I know you're a governor-elect. It's not an easy hill to climb by any stretch of the imagination, and you're doing it with an historical marker.

I mean, you are the first black governor in the state of Maryland. You are joining a very exclusive club even of black men and women. I mean, just the idea of thinking about in the leadership position in general, but the idea of making history as opposed to putting in the rear-view mirror, things that you want to see in the past, which do you think will be your guiding light?

MOORE: You know, I think about for the state of Maryland that we're, we're the state of Harriet Tubman, and Thurgood Marshall and Frederick Douglass. And I know that when I take that oath, and become not just the 63rd governor of the state, but the first black governor, I know the shoulders that I'm standing on and how hard people had to work.

To include people in my own family where, you know, my grandfather was the first one on my mom's side of family born inside this country. And when he was just a toddler, the Ku Klux Klan ran my family out of this country and they went to Jamaica. And most of my family always pledged that they would never come back to this country. And most did not, but my grandfather did.

And eventually he went to an HBCU. He became a minister like his -- like his father. And this was a man who passed away when he was 87 years old, with a deep Jamaican accent and was maybe the most patriotic American I've ever met. And I would always talk to him about being the first, because he was the first black minister in the history of the Dutch form church.

And he always would tell me, he's like, you know, I'm humbled by the fact that I'm the first, but that wasn't the assignment. And that's the approach I very much take to this moment where I'm humbled by the fact that, that the state of Maryland has given me the honor of being the first black governor in the history of our state. But I also know that's not the assignment.

COATES: Bre (Ph), I'm married to a Jamaican man. I hope you understand the assignment is nice to see. Very wonderful to see you represent the way you I know will for a variety of people. And of course, for all those in power and all those who are powerless. Good luck to you. Thank you so much.

MOORE: Thanks so much. Thank you. Great to be with you.

COATES: Well, coming up next, shocking news, Jay Leno has been seriously burned in a gasoline fire. What happened and how he's recovering when we come back.

[22:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: Jay Leno is in the hospital tonight being treated for serious burns to his face and his hands. The comedian, who's an avid car collector was in his garage on Saturday when he was injured in a gasoline accident.

I want to bring in now CNN media analyst, Sara Fischer, and director of the John's Hopkins Burn Center, Dr. Mark Fisher.

I mean, this is horrible news to hear about what's gone on and to think about him, his being injured. What are you hearing, Sara, tonight?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: I'm hearing that he's OK. He said that in a statement to Variety, he expects to be up on his feet in one to two weeks, so that's a good sign. But these are serious injuries to his face and to his hands. The incident occurred in his own garage working on cars, and we know Jay Leno loves his cars. He has a show with CNBC where he talks about it with celebrities.

COATES: I mean, just thinking about the idea of only a week on your feet. I mean, burns can, I mean, not only excruciating be very serious. We don't have all the information now how extensive it might be.

But we do know that he was staying overnight in the hospital. Is there anything you can tell us about the way in which things are usually treated? Is it an indication that it's very serious or is it routine to stay overnight?

MARK FISHER, DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS BURN CENTER: Not always coming to stay overnight. It depends on how deep the injury is. And we just have to hope for him that these are superficial and are going to heal quickly. When they are superficial, then they tend to heal within a couple of weeks with hardly any, or perhaps even no scarring, but if it's deeper, then can be much more serious requiring surgery.

COATES: I mean, gasoline as the, you know, the incendiary notion here, that could be a very serious and deep wound, could it not?

FISHER: It really could. You know, we take care of lots of patients just like that at Hopkins, and sometimes you have to replace tissue. Sometimes you can lose considerable portions of the face.

COATES: That's the skin grafting as well could come into that.

FISHER: It can be skin grafting, but sometimes you can lose so much of the face that you really have to do things more creative and extensive to try to replace the tissue itself.

COATES: Do we know if that is, if it's a very extensive injury any way, I mean, or his eyes, for example, OK?

FISCHER: We don't have any information right now as to which parts of his face or which parts of his hand. But the fact that he's able to provide a statement, I think would tell you that he's in pretty good shape. I don't expect him to be in the hospital for a long time. He's in the Grossman Burn Center. A burn center very similar to Dr. Fisher over here in California.

COATES: I mean, just thinking about that, the idea of the road ahead for recovery possibly, and he says a week or so in monist feet, but how common are injuries like this? I mean, He is known as you've mentioned, Sara, for his extensive car collection. He is an aficionado, to say the least. But the idea of some of the older cars he's working with, the injuries that may have come from a gasoline fire. I mean, how common is something like this to happen?

FISHER: They're remarkably common.

COATES: Really?

FISHER: Actually, we have about a thousand missions a year in Maryland, you know, for the state that. And so, I find myself working on patients like this every. [22:44:58]

COATES: Now what? Now what's common? The idea of people having the injuries to the face and hands or to the body. Is it kept having it at gas stations or inside, I mean, where is this happening normally?

FISHER: Well, some of the more common things, you know, it can be working on cars, but also just setting leaves on fire. We see that pretty, pretty often. And then, you know, sadly, tougher circumstances at home with working, with stoves and the like, can have explosions. It's remarkably common.

COATES: It's really unfortunate. We're hearing though from the Variety statement that he made and beyond that he might be OK and we'll look forward to hearing more.

Thank you to both of you for joining us this evening.

Shocking to think of how common it really is. Also shocking how common even gun violence can be in this country. And tonight, three people are dead. Three students, three young men, and yet another shooting on a college campus. The suspect. Also, a student at the university, and he is now in custody. So just what happened at the University of Virginia, next.

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COATES: The community of Charlottesville is in mourning tonight. People are gathering on the University of Virginia's campus after a shooting there claim the lives of three students and wounded two others. The victims, Lavel Davis, Jr., Devin Chandler, and D'Sean Perry.

They were all current -- they were all current members of the university's football team, and they were on a bus returning from a class trip to right here in Washington, D.C. when the attack took place.

Just look at these three young men. It's just devastating to think about, and this one on the screen is the suspect, Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr. who is in police custody tonight. He's a current student and an ex-UVA football player. He now faces three charges, a second- degree murder, and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony.

Joining me now is CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller.

John, I mean, just looking at the picture of those three young men who have been killed. It's just so unbelievably tragic and sad. It just really is to think about and as a mother to think what you send your kids to school, they're going on a bus to a field trip, I think to see a play here in Washington, D.C. and the next phone call the parents receive is that their children having been killed by another student. John, tell me when you heard about this and been following this case all along, what has surprised you about this? Tell me your insight.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I think, you know, when I was with the FBI, the Virginia Tech shooting happened. That was 33 people killed. Numerous others shot and injured. That was 2007.

And you know, Mary Ellen O'Toole, one of our top FBI profilers and a team from the Secret Service got together and they looked at school shootings, and what they came up with was in 85 to 90, 95 percent of these cases, Laura, there's what they call leakage.

The person is giving hints, he's telling others that something is about to happen. So, one of the first things you know, you look for in a case like this is that, and it was very interesting in the police press conference that they actually came forward without being asked and volunteered that this person had been on their threat assessment radar at the school prior to the shooting.

So, there's going to be a lot of questions to back over about how that was done and what was done --

COATES: Yes.

MILLER: -- and what the limits are.

COATES: And thinking about that, just what would that entail? I mean, if somebody had been -- there's been obviously you mentioned the evolution of how these cases are handled, how threat assessments might be weighed and considered on, say a school campus. What would that look like?

MILLER: So, really interesting question, Laura, because what that would look like is an amalgam between Chief Longo, who is the head of that infrastructure, Tim Longo is the chief of police at the university, Ed Markowski who actually runs the threat assessment team. But there's a medical component and there's a dean of students component and they assess the cases.

Here's the problems about the threat assessment business and the limits of it, which is, he allegedly told the student he had a gun. That student passed it on to the school. The school passed it on to the threat assessment team. The threat assessment team interviewed the person who reported who said, well, he mentioned he had a gun, but he didn't say he was going to do anything with it, so there was no threat attached to it.

They interviewed his roommate who said, I've been, you know, in the same room with him here at the school, never saw a gun. He hasn't shown me a gun or brandished a gun. And presumably, and we don't know this, Laura, and we will, you wouldn't close a case like that out in a proper way without interviewing the subject.

COATES: Right. MILLER: You know, Mr. Jones, about did you have a gun, did you make a statement? So, we still have to go back through that. But the point is there's not much you could do on that, which is it doesn't come attached to a threat.

Even if you look at the Buffalo shooting in the supermarket by a racist white supremacist, barely more than a teenager. He made threatening statements. He was put into 72 hours observation, given a prescription and sent home because he said, well, I wasn't going to do anything. I made it up, which turned out obviously not to be true. This is a difficult field.

COATES: I mean, just as you describe it, thinking about the hook, right? What needs to happen in order to move it along? We hear so often talking about mass shootings, talking about school shootings, talking about what were the red flags? What were the signs? What could have been done differently to prevent.

But it goes back to when you and I both know this, in law enforcement in prosecution, what you would need in order to do something more, which is not a satisfying response by any stretch of the imagination tonight for these families who are undoubtedly grieving in an entire campus as well.

[22:55:04]

But you are right to point out the initial transparency that came from this press conference. I do wonder, John Miller, if it will continue.

Thank you so much for joining us this evening.

MILLER: Thanks, Laura.

COATES: Again, just thinking about those three young men, it's just heartbreaking.

Well, not good for the party says one Republican. Still, asks another, not entitled to it says one more. And those are just some of the comments from Republicans on Capitol Hill about an impending Trump 2024 announcement. Stay with us.

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COATES: Well look, Election night is carrying on with CNN calling two more House races in just the past hour. These wins bring the GOP to 214 seats at just four away from getting control of the House at 218.

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