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Voting Underway in Key Governor Races in Virginia, New Jersey; Manchin Torpedoes Democrats' Effort to Pass 2 Bills This Week; Another Plane Diverted Over Unruly Passenger on Delta Flight; FBI Forced to Improvise Plan to Take Back Capitol Amid January 6th Riot. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman alongside Brianna Keilar. On this NEW DAY, election day in America. What to watch, where to watch, and why voters may be setting the tone for President Biden and the midterms.

[05:59:57]

Plus, Senator Joe Manchin flexing his muscle as he threatens to blow up the Democrats' plan to pass two of the president's agenda items this week.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And the unfriendly skies, they just keep getting unfriendlier. What happened this time on a Delta flight, and why it was diverted.

And the red flags were everywhere. What a new investigation reveals about what happened days after the January 6th attack.

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Tuesday, November 2, election day in America.

This morning, the focus is on two high-stakes races for governor of Virginia and New Jersey. Polls just opened in both states. The outcomes will have enormous implications, not just for the candidates and their constituents, but for President Biden and Donald Trump, as well.

In the next 24 hours, we could get a feel for what next year's midterms will look like and maybe even beyond that.

In Virginia, which is a state that Joe Biden carried by ten points, the race is neck-and-neck. So will voters in the commonwealth respond to Terry McAuliffe's attempt to link the Republican, Glenn Youngkin, to Donald Trump, or will Youngkin's position on a parent's role in a child's education rule the day?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY MCAULIFFE (D), VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I am running against, I like to say, Donald Trump in khakis or a sweater vest. What is he going to do with all those sweater vests at the end of this campaign? Donald Trump issued two statements attacking me and endorsing Glenn

Youngkin today, two. What does that tell you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're scared!

MCAULIFFE: Little MAGA people a little -- not as excited as you thought?

GLENN YOUNGKIN (R), VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: So on day one, I will ban critical race theory from being in our schools.

Terry McAuliffe versus Virginia, Virginia wins every day of the week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy will try to become the first Democratic governor to win reelection in the state in 44 years. He is facing a serious challenge from Republican Jack Ciattarrelli, who is a former state assemblyman who is hoping to pull off an upset.

This face also features a Democrat trying to link his Republican opponent to Donald Trump.

First, though, let's go to Sunlen Serfaty. She is tracking the gubernatorial race in Virginia. She's in Arlington outside of a polling station. Big day today, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Brianna. And the polls are now open here in Virginia. We saw the very first voter go in and cast their ballot here in Arlington, Virginia, which is a suburb just outside of Washington, D.C.

This is an extremely, extremely tight race, so every single vote today is going to have a real impact on the outcome. The candidates, the campaigns each know that, and that is why we have seen this frantic, last-minute dash, both candidates on the hunt for votes, trying to motivate people to come out today and cast their ballot in person.

And that went late into the evening last night for both candidates. Now, we did see Democrat Terry McAuliffe, last night in his closing pitch, not deviate whatsoever from the central part of his campaign strategy, which is to tie Republican Glenn Youngkin to the former president. And he argued, falsely, claimed last night in his campaign event, he said that Glenn Youngkin was doing an event with the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCAULIFFE: Guess how Glenn Youngkin is finishing his campaign? He is doing an event with Donald Trump here in Virginia.

I'm here with you, and they've got Trump over there.

Glenn Youngkin is closing his event with Donald Trump here in Virginia, where he brought the hatred, the divisiveness that Donald Trump brought to this country. We're going to put an end to Donald Trump's future plans right here in

Virginia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now, notably, Terry McAuliffe was wrong with his claims there. The former president did call into this tele-rally in support of Youngkin, but that was a call that Youngkin himself did not participate in. The campaign confirmed to CNN last night.

The Republican candidate, instead, was out on the campaign trail, continuing to try to focus on local issues like education. And he appeared at a rally last night with former Republican governors from Virginia, certainly to try to have a show of force, to remind Virginia voters about Republican successes in this state.

Now, certainly, today is a huge day for both candidates. But this has national implications, Brianna, going forward. A huge day for both parties going into next year's midterm elections.

[06:05:00}

KEILAR: Yes. This stretches so much farther than Virginia. Sunlen, thank you so much. You have a busy day ahead of you. Thanks for the report.

Let's go now to our maestro of the Magic Wall, John Berman. OK, so tell us which counties in Virginia are the ones that we really need to be watching tonight.

BERMAN: Yes. This has to do, I think, largely with how Virginia has changed over the last ten years or so.

I want to remind people, as we have all morning long, that Joe Biden won Virginia by ten points just one year ago. How did he do it? Well, let's look at the population growth in Virginia over the last ten years.

If you look at this map right here, you can see where the growth has largely been. In the counties here that are more yellow, you can see the population has grown. That's largely around Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Where it's yellow, the population has grown.

Where it's green or blue, it's actually shrunk. Those are in those more rural counties.

What did that mean, then, largely for Joe Biden? Look at all the blue votes that he was able to grab just one year ago. In all these counties that had grown substantially.

So look at some of the counties in more depth. Loudoun County, this is one of the suburbs of Washington, D.C., a key county. Joe Biden won Loudoun County by 25 points. That's a huge margin, and it's a vast difference from past Virginia elections. What do I mean? Let's look at 2013, which is an election where Terry

McAuliffe won the governor's mansion for the first time. He was governor once before.

If you look at Loudoun County in 2013, Terry McAuliffe won, but it was just by four points. Compare that to what Joe Biden did, who won it by 25 points.

Let's look at another county here. Chesterfield County, which is often seen as a swing county in the state of Virginia. Terry McAuliffe lost Chesterfield County to Ken Cuccinelli.

What did Joe Biden do there in the presidential race just one year ago? Joe Biden won Chesterfield County.

What does this mean in the race this time around? Well, if Glenn Youngkin, the Republican, is able to chip away at some of these blue bastions -- he doesn't have to win them. He just has to cut into the margins there, that he might make it a much closer race.

Why? Because look at some of these red counties. I'm just going to click around. Donald Trump won 65 percent there, 73 percent there, 71 percent there. Running up huge margins in the rest of the state.

You can see, if Glenn Youngkin can hold onto the Republican votes and make inroads in these suburban areas, he might be well on his way to winning. It might be why he's focusing on education so much. Because he thinks education is an issue that appeals to the suburban voters, again, around Washington, D.C., around Richmond, around Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. So these are the counties, Brianna, we'll be watching tonight.

KEILAR: Yes. Chipping away, that's all he has to do. Berman, thank you for that.

It is a crucial week ahead, as well, for President Biden's economic agenda. Once again, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin raising doubts about Biden's $1.75 trillion social safety net bill and whether it can pass the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): For the sake of the country, I urge the House to vote and pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill. I, for one, won't support a multi-trillion-dollar bill without greater clarity about why Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects of inflation and debt that have on our economy and existing government programs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, clearly, Joe Manchin is waiting for a price tag here. Of course, at this point, the House has not voted on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and Manchin, as well, wants the House to move ahead with that, as well. Let's talk about this now with CNN White House correspondent John

Harwood, as well as Democratic strategist Michael Starr Hopkins, who is with us.

And it's -- these were some interesting dramatics yesterday. It felt like Joe Manchin was kind of throwing some firecrackers at the feet of progressive Democrats, and largely, they didn't really jump, and they said, "Let's stay calm." Fair.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was interesting. It was a very self-indulgent performance by Joe Manchin. Because first of all, his principle goal seemed to be to say, nobody is going to pressure me into doing something that I don't want to do, and I'm not going to be blackmailed into voting for this reconciliation package.

But the objective, he claimed, was, I want to pass that infrastructure bill.

Well, the House was on track to pass the infrastructure bill. In fact, they still are. So that's going to happen. And the only thing he did by that press conference was make that more difficult.

It looks like the progressives are going to stick together and pass it, but he complicated his own objective.

He also really stuck it to Joe Biden while Joe Biden was over in Glasgow talking about climate change; raising the question of whether he'd support this reconciliation effort that's got $500 billion for climate change programs.

[06:10:00]

Now, both the White House and Democratic leaders are betting that this was mostly theatrics, and he's going to end up supporting the bill. He says, "I want greater clarity. I want to know what it costs." Well, everybody is waiting for the CBO score, and so that was going to happen anyway. The bill isn't passing the Senate until around Thanksgiving

I want greater clarity. I want greater clarity. I want to know what it costs." everybody is waiting for the CBO score, so that was going to happen anyway. The bill isn't passing the Senate until around Thanksgiving or maybe even later.

But Joe Manchin seemed to decide that his own needs of showing his independence were more important than those of the rest of the party and the president.

BERMAN: If he's sticking it to Joe Biden, he might have to get in line. Because -- because the progressives did that last week. The progressives wouldn't get on board for a vote before Biden left for Europe.

But now, now, five days later, Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the House Democratic Progressive Caucus, is saying, No, actually, we support both bills. We're going to be a yes on both bills. And she's saying that after Joe Manchin sort of kicked them all in the teeth.

I'm trying to figure out what's going on here, Michael. Help me -- help me understand why they were a no last week before Joe Manchin got nasty, but now they're a yes.

MICHAEL STARR HOPKINS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: What's up is down, and what's down is up. I mean, progressives have sided with the president in a way that I don't think many of us actually expected.

I think, really, the primary reason is, when you look at Senator Manchin, he represents one of the poorest states in the country, but yet, he wants to talk about fiscal responsibility without doing any types of taxes that would actually tax the rich, that would help his state, that would help fund things like paid family leave or expanded Medicaid, Medicare, and it makes no sense. Because inside of his state, so many people would benefit from that.

So I think what progressives have done is really back him into a corner and say, are you really going to abandon a bill that your state overwhelmingly supports?

HARWOOD: Guys, I just want to take issue for one second, though, with that frame. I do not think progressives were sticking it to Joe Biden last week. Progressives are trying to pass Joe Biden's agenda. Joe Biden's agenda is both of those bills.

He, himself, this summer, explicitly linked them and said, I need both of those bills, not just one. They are trying to vindicate that strategy. And Manchin's performance yesterday illustrated why they were reluctant. Because they want to know that he's going to be there.

Now, they've decided, after the framework was released and everybody had private conversations, that they were good, that Biden was -- that Manchin was going to be there. But Manchin continues to try to give them reasons to distrust that prospect.

KEILAR: Pramila Jayapal, who is going to be on the show later, said, I trust the president.

So it's on the president to bring Joe Manchin along. And I think people who have been watching, and so sorry for what they've been watching with this bill, right? Who have been actually watching this with interest, wondering if it's going to pass, that's what they want to know. Is this going to pass, this larger social safety net bill? Do you have any doubt about whether or not this is going to go forward?

HOPKINS: I think some version of it has to go forward if Democrats want to have any chance of winning any seats in the midterms.

But at the end of the day, I think Joe Manchin has to decide, does he want to be a lobbyist or does he want to be a senator? Because he seems to just be lobbying for industry at this point and not really representing his constituents.

So if Democrats want to have any chance, then Joe Manchin is the key, and he's got to step up. BERMAN: Can I talk about BATNA? Can I talk about that?

KEILAR: Yes. So essential to understand.

BERMAN: It's with John Harwood, who was with "The Wall Street Journal." He understands business school speak.

BATNA is "best alternative to a negotiated agreement," which means your fallback plan, which means what you're willing to live with. I've always felt that Joe Manchin was entering all this as he really would like the infrastructure bill. He would like the roads and bridges. He's happy with nothing.

HARWOOD: That is true. He doesn't need it. He wants the infrastructure bill more than the reconciliation bill, but he doesn't have to have it.

At the end of the day, though, he is part of the Democratic Party for a reason, we presume. We don't think he's likely to switch parties. And you've got colleagues, and it's a team sport.

I do think on your question, Brianna, one of our colleagues, Steve Dennis, who you know from "The Hill," sent a tweet saying, here's the legislative bargaining process. And he typed the world "No" a hundred times, and then he typed "Yes" at the end. It looks like that may be the phase.

This is a grinding process. It doesn't match the rhythms of cable TV. We have shows every hour: do they have it? Do they have it? Do they have it? Do they have it? No, they don't have it. And then, I think the White House is betting, ultimately, they will have it by the end of the year.

KEILAR: It ain't pretty.

HARWOOD: That's right.

KEILAR: It ain't pretty. Mm-hmm.

BERMAN: All right. John Harwood, Michael Starr Hopkins, thank you both so very much.

HOPKINS: You bet.

BERMAN: So a Delta flight diverted after an on-board disturbance with a passenger. What happened this time during a ride in the unfriendly skies?

We also have new details of what happened in the moments after the Capitol insurrection.

KEILAR: And, "Oh, my God, I drink wine." Not my words, although they might as well be. Let's be honest. Those are Adele's words. What we know about her new album.

BERMAN: Is that meant -- does she mean that to be ironic? KEILAR: She speaks to me. I don't know. Seems right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:19:18]

BERMAN: A new incident of an unruly passenger diverting a plane. Delta says a flight leaving Atlanta for Los Angeles on Monday was forced to divert to Dallas after an on-board customer disturbance.

CNN's Pete Muntean, the world's most interesting man, joins us now. So Pete, what went on here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Delta says this kind of thing is rare, but the serious side of this is that this keeps happening over and over again: 4,941 reports reported by flight crews to the FAA of unruly passengers just this year alone.

Notably, last week, when an American Airlines flight attendant was punched in the face by a passenger. And now there's this.

Here is the photo from on board this Delta flight that diverted to Dallas last night. On board, the poster says that police came on board and removed this passenger.

[06:20:02]

Delta has issued a statement in which it says, "Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior at our airports and on board our aircraft. We applaud the flight crew's quick decision to divert and address the situation as expeditiously as possible, so the remainder of our customers could resume their travel."

The truth is here that airline unions have been pushing the Department of Justice to get tough on this issue. In fact, there have been new indictments about this. So we may be seeing a shift in the tide here.

Just yesterday, a federal court indicted a man on board a different Delta flight, back on Christmas Eve, when he tried to enter the cockpit. Now he could face up to 20 years in jail.

BERMAN: So legal action is starting to come in a lot of these cases. I understand there's going to be charges, or are charges in an alleged assault on a flight attendant?

MUNTEAN: That was just last Wednesday on an American Airlines flight. The CEO of American called it one of the worst incidents of unruly passengers in the airline history.

The indictment just came down yesterday. Twenty-year-old Brian Hsu of Irvine, California. And in those court documents, we've been getting new details about this, in which this flight attendant says she was trying to keep this man from the bathroom when he punched her in the face.

Just want you to look at some of the witness accounts here in these court documents. One witness says that they remembered the victim jumping in front of the lavatory door, and Hsu striking her with his fist in what appeared to be a way that was practiced or trained.

The third witness recalled the victim stating, "I have suffered a fractured nose" after the strike.

The fourth witness described a scramble between the victim and Hsu and Hsu striking the victim with a full swing.

Now, in the remainder of these court documents, it became clear that this flight attendant did not ultimately get her nose broken, although she did suffer a concussion when this punch forced her against the lavatory door.

BERMAN: That's horrible.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

BERMAN: It's just horrible.

MUNTEAN: It happens all of the time. You know, the airlines try and say that these are rare, and the vast majority of flights are peaceful. But 4,941 incidents, we're talking a lot of incidents per day when you count that over the year. So this is happening a lot and way more than it has in the past. It seems like people are really deranged when they get on airplanes these days.

BERMAN: Pete Muntean, I've been a big fan from afar. I think this is the first time we've been in the same room.

MUNTEAN: I think so, too. Great to meet you. Good to see you.

BERMAN: You're even more interesting in person.

MUNTEAN: Thanks.

BERMAN: Great to see you. Thank you so much.

So the red flags were everywhere. What a new investigation reveals about what happened days after the January 6th attack.

KEILAR: Plus, new this morning, Mike Pence asked about who told him to ignore Donald Trump's plea to overturn the election. Hear his answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[0626:46] BERMAN: So red flags everywhere. That's how "The Washington Post" details how law enforcement overlooked and misunderstood the gravity of what was happening in the weeks before the Capitol riot.

There was confusion. Agencies failed to heed mounting warnings about violence, and the FBI was forced to improvise a plan to help take back control of the Capitol.

Joining us now is one of the authors of "The Washington Post's" -- well, the author of "The Washington Post," the early 2002 -- 20 -- sorry -- the early 202 newsletter.

KEILAR: That's our area code. Yes.

BERMAN: Oh, I get it.

KEILAR: We're 202.

BERMAN: I'm the 617 in Boston. Jackie Alemany. She is also one of the reporters credited on this piece.

I was most excited that you were on this piece, this three-part series, which is really fascinating. Not that I don't read the 202 thing every day. Every day. But talk to us about some of the warning signs that were missed.

JACKIE ALEMANY, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes. There were -- there was a plethora of warning signs here, which is why I think it was so shocking as this team of 75 different reporters at "The Washington post" dived into this and were able to collect a number of them.

But from the FBI to, you know, the National Guard to basically every single law enforcement agency, there were warnings that were starting in November that peaked or really spiked on December 19, when President Trump tweeted out -- former President Trump, President Trump at the time, tweeted out, "Come to D.C. The Stop the Steal rally on January 6th is going to be wild."

And from there, that was when, I think, the red flags were -- became nearly impossible to -- to miss. And it was a combination of, you know, a surge of online warnings, on a lot of social media networks that are used by hate groups and conservatives. Places like Telegram, Reddit. People actively, publicly planning out how they were going to actually follow through on Trump's directives to storm the Capitol. And then from there, a lot of the planning that took place in plain view.

There was a number of reasons that contributed to why the FBI and the CIA and, again, all of our law enforcement agencies missed a lot of these warning signs, but a lot of them had to do with the president himself. He had sort of weakened and scared a lot of these apparatuses that would normally be able to snap into action.

But you had someone like Christopher Wray, who was scared to make a public statement condemning and trying to scare away some of these protesters and, you know, I don't think they necessarily thought they were potential rioters at the time. But didn't want to put out a public statement because he was worried that it would incur the wrath of Trump and aggravate him even more and cause him to make a public statement that would exacerbate the situation already.

But there's so many different warnings. I recommend you spend, you know, viewers, 30 minutes of your time to go into this and really dig deep in it.

KEILAR: Yes. It's not just a piece. This is a very cool kind of interactive experience. And you focus on the before, the during, and then you focus on the after. What do people need to know about after January 6th?

ALEMANY: Yes. You know, I actually -- I think the during is probably the most riveting read, but I think the after is probably the most important read.

Because the repercussions and the spirit of January 6th and the riot, and the insurrection on the Capitol that we saw, it lives on and well --