Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Key Primaries In Six States; Polls Close In Alabama And Connecticut; President Trump's Three-Plane Monte; Former Classmates Describe A Pattern Of Volatile Behavior By Rep. Max Miller; CNN Projects Darline Graham Advances To SC GOP Senate Runoff; CNN Projects Rep. Ralph Norman Will Advance To SC GOP Senate Runoff; Man, Baby Pulled From Rubble As Colombia Earthquake Toll Rises. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 11, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): At least they heard her voice three hours earlier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

CULVER (on camera): He's again, he's asking they need the machinery to be able to move this. They just don't have sufficient equipment to do it.

But until then, this city known for how friendly it's people are, are using their bare hands to clear the paths of destruction as time and heat is working against them. Hope, that's really, is what motivates them to push forward -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: David, thank you very much, at we all hope for more miracles there. Thanks to all of you for being with U.S. AC360 starts now.

[20:00:47]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": And good evening, it is primary night in America. Once again, the Democratic Party's Progressive Wing could score significant gains.

Polls have just closed in Alabama and Connecticut. They closed an hour ago in Vermont and South Carolina, where the late Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline, appears headed toward a runoff in her ten- way race for a chance to succeed him.

As for Minnesota and Wisconsin, respectively, polls are still open. Vote counting starts an hour from now.

In Minnesota, the more progressive Lieutenant Governor, Peggy Flanagan, is facing more moderate Congresswoman Angie Craig in the Democratic race for senator.

Over on the Republican side, 2020 election denier and "MyPillow" guy Mike Lindell is running for governor with the Presidents endorsement against two others, one of whom is endorsed by the state's GOP. So, it could be a test of the President's clout with Republican voters. The winner of that race is expected to face outgoing Senator Amy Klobuchar, who's the favorite to win the Democratic nomination tonight.

In Wisconsin's Democratic Governor's Primary, 37-year-old Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong is the clear frontrunner. The state's democratic establishment, though, including outgoing Governor Tony Evers, is backing the more moderate Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

And if Hong succeeds tonight, it would be one more demonstration going back to the election of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and continuing through Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate Primary win, that the Democratic Party's left liberal insurgency is a growing force which could have big implications in November.

So, could this, what the President said today when a conservative radio talk show host asked him about declaring a national emergency to implement voting restrictions this fall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WAYNE ALLYN ROOT, HOST, " THE ROOT REACTION": If they never get the save America Act done. You have the right to declare a National Security emergency for elections. They can't challenge it. It can only be overturned by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress.

So, if you do this in the next month, we will get photo I.D., proof of citizenship and a limit to mail-in ballots and you don't even need the --.

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay, I'll leave it at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, he left it at that and did not rule it out, more on that shortly. First, let's check in with CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who is at a polling place in Madison, Wisconsin. Obviously, a lot of attention on the governor's race. What are you hearing from voters?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, there is one more hour left, and we are at this polling place here in Madison. People are still coming in but after the work hour, there were considerable number of voters on both sides. But supporters of Francesca Hong are really animated, they tell me, about anger at the Trump administration, yes, but also at their own party, at their party leaders, party establishment. They say that they've been inspired by many of these other Democratic progressive wins that they've been seeing elsewhere in the country and want to replicate that here.

Well, the other establishment voters and just some, a middle of the road voters and others are worried about that. They believe that Wisconsin, of course, the mother of all battleground states, is not a place for a Democratic Socialists. We will see this play out. But I talked to one voter who sticks with me, Anderson. She said, "Look, I'm as liberal as they come, but I do not believe that this is the moment for Francesca Hong. I don't believe that this is the moment for Democratic Socialism." So, should she win tonight, Anderson, it will be a fascinating experiment for the next three months here in Wisconsin. If this is something that really plays to the masses.

COOPER: Yes. Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much. Tonight, being what it is. CNN's John King is in the perfect place at the magic wall for us. So, what are you learning from the numbers, John?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: First, we'll start with South Carolina, Anderson. Then ill spoke with Jeff as quickly. We don't have any votes there yet.

In South Carolina, as you mentioned at the top, it does appear like the appointed Senator Darline Graham, the sister, of course, of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, does appear that she's headed for a runoff. You need 50 percent plus one. So, this is a special election that's going to then have a special runoff. It appears, as we count the votes.

What else are we seeing so far? She's running against a crowded field, but the main contenders are Congressman Russell Fry, Congressman Ralph Norman and former Congressman and former Governor Mark Sanford. And this is literally, Anderson the all politics is local cliche, especially as we see it right now.

You see the dark red, that's, Russell Fry. That's roughly his congressional district where he is leading. You see the yellow over here? That's Ralph Norman. That is his congressional district where he is leading. And you see down here in Charleston, that's where former governor, Former Congressman Sanford lives. And that was his congressional district when he was in Congress back in the day.

[20:05:08]

Darline Graham is winning everywhere, just about where the congressman or former congressman is not also on the ballot. So just an interesting reflection of the candidates winning where they are well known, where they have represented people either now or in the past. But Darline Graham is at the top of the pack, about 32 percent if you round that up. We're almost to 30 percent of the vote.

So, it's a pretty safe bet that were headed for a runoff here. And then the question is, obviously, she has Trump and Trump's endorsement, who will that other candidate be? And how will that play out in what is a fractured South Carolina Republican Party Because of the sad death, the untimely death of Senator Graham, but then the President deciding to endorse his sister in that race?

Theres some grumbling on the ground there. Well watch this play out.

COOPER: All right, John King, we'll check in with you later. Joining us for primary night, former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, former senior adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod. Journalist and "Lift Our Voices" co-founder Gretchen Carlson and Also with us, the former George W Bush White House spokesman Pete Seat.

David, let's start off with you. What do you think the stakes are tonight?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, look on the Republican side, it's always about is Trump dominant or not Trump dominant, so it's easy to analyze.

This narrative of progressive versus the establishment candidate has become the thing, particularly in the last few weeks. But I think, Hong example is particularly trying for the Democratic Party because she's not -- she identifies herself as a Democratic socialist. That wasn't true of Abdul El-Sayed and some of the other candidates. And she's had some, I would call exotic positions, you know, eliminating Thanksgiving, for example, that make it hard.

COOPER: Plays very well nationally.

AXELROD: This should be, Democrats have been ascendant in Wisconsin. They've been winning consistently in Wisconsin the last couple of years. This should be a Democratic win, particularly given the headwinds that Republicans are facing this year.

If she wins tonight, I think it's going to be a contest there against a guy who is maybe the most conservative member of the entire U.S. Congress and an election denier.

So, the stakes there are large and then you have another race in Minnesota where I think a Progressive candidate. The Lieutenant Governor, is likely to win as well.

COOPER: Congressman, I want to, we'll get back to the elections in a moment. But the prospect the President declaring a National Emergency over the over the midterms, how likely do you think that is?

ADAM KINZINGER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I've been holding that. it's not super likely but we need to be ready for it because again, I think it's something, it's to me, it's impossible to imagine how you can say it is a National Security emergency, election security, particularly when every attempt to say that the election was stolen has been rejected in courts.

COOPER: There's nothing stopping him from saying it other than --

KINZINGER: There really isn't and you'd have to take it to the Supreme Court. I mean, like I said, I haven't been worried, but of late, I would say I'm becoming increasingly a little more worried. But at the end of the day, if he does declare it, what is it that he can implement? Can he implement things like, you know, Voter I.D. or no mail-in ballots for every state across the union? Probably not, and so, is it going to be deployment of ICE, deployment of Homeland Security? I think we need to be cautious of it.

But the point is, even talking about it damages people's faith in our elections. And when you damage faith in elections, that's how Democracies are ultimately destroyed is when people don't believe their voice counts.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST AND FOUNDER OF "LIFT OUR VOICES": I think the big problem here is that you need to believe it when Trump says it.

KINZINGER: Yes.

CARLSON: Unfortunately, in a case like this. He said it in that interview that you just played. He could hardly wait to say what he thought about that, which was, hey...

COOPER: Or he just wanted the guy to stop giving a long question.

CARLSON: Well, maybe, but he also could hardly wait to get in that stranger things have happened before. We have a plan for that. I mean, I think we should -- look, he said he was going to come after all of his enemies when he was running for office again, and he's done exactly that. We should believe what he says, even when it's troubling.

I would also just mention that why has he not been that concerned about his own polling numbers? Why has he not been that concerned about Republicans potentially tanking? Is that because they have this master plan? I mean, I don't want to be a conspiratorial theorist out there, but keep in mind also, Adam, he gave that speech a couple of weeks ago about China. And was that a setup to be able to make it a National Security concern?

AXELROD: Listen, I sold my -- oh, he wouldn't do that stock a long time ago, but if you look at this election, if you look at the atmospherics of this election, you would say, based on the President's very low approval rating, people's attitudes about the economy, his mishandling of the war in Iran, which doesn't seem to be coming to an end, and all of the resultant impacts of that, you'd say this is going to be a big year. Democrats will almost certainly history as well speaks to this, take the House, and I think more likely than not take the Senate.

So, the only thing that can stop the natural forces there would be money, which they have a lot of, and interfering in the process in any way they can. And we already saw one mutation in this redistricting, so.

[20:10:20]

COOPER: Pete, would you say there is no chance the President would do that?

PETE SEAT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I don't think there is no chance. I think -- I don't believe it was orchestrated. I think he was just responding to what this host was putting on the table.

But I think -- I could see him utilizing this now as a stick to try and get the Senate to eliminate the filibuster, to pass the SAVE AMERICA Act, to say, hey, if you don't want to pass this Act, I am going to do something much worse, which is declare a National Security emergency for our elections.

To be very clear, there is no National Security emergency. But also, to be clear, there are electoral fraud issues in this country. And I know my friends on the Democrat side of the aisle claim there is no such thing. My compatriots on the Republican side claim its everywhere. Neither is true. It is in the middle.

This happens. We have to take it seriously and we need to prevent it before it occurs, not find out years after the fact.

KINZINGER: Anderson, can I say, I think one of the most important disinfectants or ways to stop any interference from the President is a massive win by one party or the other. In this case, it looks like it is going to be the Democrats.

You look at Peter Magyar in Hungary, everybody believed that Viktor Orban would try to claim that election was stolen. But Magyar won so big that basically that night, Orban had to say, yes, I lost. And so that if it is a big, big election night for Democrats, I think it will be hard to say that there is a national emergency around the edge.

CARLSON: But what might he do before that?

KINZINGER: That's right.

CARLSON: I mean, he could stop the mail-in balloting and Democrats, as Axe knows better than anyone, typically vote at a much higher rate with mail-in ballots. I mean, Trump voted by mail-in ballot, but he still says its fraudulent.

But I am very concerned about that because that could have an impact long before election night, big or small.

AXELROD: Yes. No, there are lots of ways, large and small, in which he could not just leading up to the election, but after the election in terms of seizing ballots and so on. I mean, this this is a concern because this President does not believe in rules and laws and norms and institutions.

KINZINGER: Like a President should not be saying it, even flirting with it.

AXELROD: Pete, I listen to you and you said, it is somewhere in the middle. The truth is that our elections have been the envy of the world. Yes, of course there is fraud everywhere. But the idea that it was in some way determinative or massive, the President has been trying literally for ten years after he didn't win the Popular Vote in 2016, he empaneled the Vice President to lead a commission to find the three million votes that he said were missing, that were his votes, and they had to disband after a year because they couldn't find it.

In Arizona, he hired the ninjas, what were they called?

KINZINGER: Yes.

COOPER: The Cyber Ninjas. AXELROD: Cyber ninjas.

SEAT: I will give you an example of where it has been determinative. And that is in my home state of Indiana, Saint Joseph County.

The gentleman you previously worked for, David Axelrod, Barack Obama got on the ballot because Democrats in that county submitted fraudulent ballot petition signatures. People, including the Democrat County Chair, went to jail over that.

Barack Obama should not have been on the primary ballot in the state of Indiana.

KINZINGER: But that's not a voting -- that's not a voting issue.

SEAT: Like that's something -- it is a voting issue because he was on the ballot and people could vote for.

KINZINGER: That issue, though that's not a -- you know, they are stealing elections. Illegals are voting. That's an Indiana issue because Indiana is the one that determines who is on their ballot.

AXELROD: How did how did that get determined?

SEAT: How did how did that get determined? It was finally exposed two years later. It went through the courts and several people found themselves in jail.

But that's the problem. It didn't happen -- they didn't find it before he was on the ballot, but years after.

COOPER: Do you believe the President's allegations? I mean, do you believe that Joe Biden won fair and square in 2020?

SEAT: Yes, absolutely. You know, 2020 is very clear. Joe Biden won.

COOPER: We are going to continue to follow primary results throughout the hour. Next, though, the latest on President Trump's airplane switch up in the face of Iranian threats. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio's reaction today, or lack of it, when asked about all the other people left on board the old Air Force One and as decoys once the President was in the catering truck.

Later, Ohio Republican Congressman Max Miller, who is already accused of acts of violence against his ex-wife. What CNN has learned about another earlier accusation of problematic behavior, including allegedly pushing a young woman down a flight of stairs at a party. We will talk to a former high school classmate who talked to the accuser.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:19:08]

COOPER: Even as we are learning more about the President's deadly serious game three-plane monte on the way back from the NATO Summit in Turkey, some things that were mysterious at the time are making more sense in retrospect.

Now, all of it, in the wake of the story which broke in "The Washington Post" last night that the President's first leg of the trip home was not, in fact, on the older blue Air Force One that he boarded in Ankara instead of his new red one from Qatar. Instead, as a U.S. official tells us, Secret Service agents took him hiding in a catering truck onto a third, smaller plane that became Air Force One for the first leg to England.

Meaning the journalists who boarded the plane he just left who thought they were traveling with the President up front, were not. They were essentially decoys.

Also meaning the President misled them when asked on the way back to the U.S. if something had been up earlier. In a moment, that takes on some new meaning, now that we know what we know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: You're saying there wasn't a security concern?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No, no. Why would there be?

REPORTER: Do you know why they had us close our window blinds? That was not usual.

TRUMP: Yes, because you're probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags that we have to deal with.

REPORTER: They think that Iran was possibly thinking of --

TRUMP: Well, I mean, if they asked you to close your windows, probably they feel that way.

They didn't ask me to close mine, but if they did, I would have done it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:20:25]

COOPER: When asked whether he was aware of any credible threat against Air Force One, the President said there's always a threat and, "if I go, you go." Secretary of State Rubio was asked today about the people, not all of whom were reporters, who were on what was, by all appearances, to anyone with bad intentions in the presidential plane, minus the President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Mr. Secretary, did you put Americans at risk by having them fly in Air Force One when it was under threat? How persistent is that to the President?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It is kind of a definition of a non-answer.

CNN chief White House correspondent and anchor of "The Source," Kaitlan Collins, joins us now with more. So what have you learned in the last 24 hours since we first found out about this ruse?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it is been pretty remarkable, Anderson, to hear not only, you know, what the response to this has been from the reporters who were on that plane today, but also Democratic lawmakers who are asking for briefings to Congress, given obviously, this signifies how severe the threat that The White House, the Secret Service believed was posed to the President truly was.

But also just in terms of even White House officials who learned about this for the first time while reading that "Washington Post" report last night. That was subsequently confirmed by CNN, "The New York Times" and other outlets in terms of just the lengths that The White House went to, to get the President off of the plane that they made everyone believe that he had boarded, that he actually did board, that made everyone believe he was going to be flying on in order to get him on that secret plane.

Now, obviously, senior staff was aware of what was going on with the President. "The Wall Street Journal" says that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was actually someone who was left on the plane that effectively served as a decoy. That also included members of The White House press corps, members of the Secret Service, members of the U.S. military and White House staff on board that plane.

And so there have been a lot of questions for The White House today about the protocols that went into place here, why they chose to make this decision, why they did not make this information public once the threat had passed and the President was safely back in Washington.

I think it is notable that so far, the President himself has not taken questions from reporters. He has been in front of them today. He flew to Ohio and is actually on his way back to Washington right now. The last that we've heard, he has not yet spoken with reporters on board Air Force One, though I will note, Anderson, that the reporters traveling with him, the press pool has noted both going to Ohio and coming back, that they were not catering trucks parked outside Air Force One. Obviously, given that was what they used when he was in Turkey to shield him from the reporters view of getting on that catering truck, to then subsequently go and get on that secret plane to fly to the United Kingdom.

COOPER: Kaitlan Collins, thanks very much.

We will see you at the top of the next hour for "The Source."

Before talking more about this, we've got a primary projection quickly we want to make.

CNN can now project that Darline Graham will advance to a runoff for the Republican South Carolina senate nomination. She is running to replace her late brother, Lindsey, who died last month.

Back now to the Air Force One story, we are joined again by our panel and former Secret Service agent, Jonathan Wackrow.

So, Jonathan, I mean, no one obviously is arguing that the President should be secure at all times. I guess the question was, was it necessary to deceive all the people on board, by extension, the public?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. I mean, I think what we are looking at here, Anderson, is, you know, protection at its most critical level. You have to think about all of the things that were going on at this time.

We had the backdrop of these Iranian threats that were clearly escalating to necessitate changing of assets and then formulating this plan to move the president not only to the older Air Force One, but then to a third plane. All of that is being done in a foreign country. It is also being done at an airport that we don't control.

So the level of complexity to execute this plan was so significant, it almost left zero room for failure. That's not the way the Secret Service likes to run its protective operations. They like to have a lot of planning, a lot of attention put into every single movement.

So with this plan and its complexity just actually speaks to the threat environment and this sort of rapid deterioration that necessitated moving the President of the United States and creating this operational diversion that was necessary for the continuity of the United States, the protection of the office of the presidency, and President Trump at the time.

COOPER: David, I mean, there wasn't much transparency -- there wasn't any transparency after the fact, I guess that's --

AXELROD: No, that's what I wonder about. And Jonathan and I were talking about this in the greenroom.

[20:25:05]

It is one thing for all the reasons he said that they had to -- they felt they had to be stealthy about what they were doing. And I very much appreciate what the Secret Service does and particularly in situations like that, I traveled with the President into war zones and, you know, I know how hard the job is, but the fact that he then when he was out of harm's way, lied about the circumstances that Americans did not know that the President was under threat is bewildering to me. I don't know why that was necessary.

And Jonathan explained it, but you did have a plane full of people who were decoys and had that plane become a target, I think there would have been a lot of recriminations about that. And the last thing I would say is one of the reasons there is a pool is not just to write down what the President says, but to observe what the President is doing, where he is, what his state of health is, what -- you know, if he is going someplace that is unexpected, and so on, you have no idea with no press on board, you have no idea where the President has been, his condition and so on. So those are -- there are a lot of concerns about that.

COOPER: Pete, I mean, you worked for George W. bush. He snuck into Baghdad, if my memory serves me correctly, from his Texas Ranch, the press pool was sworn to secrecy. Do you think swearing them to secrecy would have been the better way to do it this time?

PETE SEAT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I don't have a problem with telling the media what was happening. I think they would have maintained discretion. They're all professionals. They know how to do their jobs, but at the same time, you know, when you fly aboard Air Force One, as I did with President Bush on occasion, there is a level of risk that you accept.

The President is a target no matter where they go and you know that. You also know the job of the Secret Service and the military is to protect him, not necessarily to protect you. And these tactics of deception have been used repeatedly. It was used with Bill Clinton in Pakistan. I was in Bogota, Colombia with President Bush when a decoy motorcade was used.

We were not allowed to spend the night. We were there, I think, for seven or eight hours, because the situation was so unstable in that country.

So to pretend that this is completely unprecedented, I think is missing the mark. There are better ways it could have been handled. But let's be honest, they did this incredibly well. It is very impressive and I can't wait for the President to talk about it and tell us what it was like to be in that catering truck.

CARLSON: But from a journalist's point of view, I don't believe that any of those other decoy motor vehicles had journalists inside of them. I mean, had these journalists been told behind-the-scenes that there was a legitimate threat against the President's life, would they have boarded that plane? Would his staff have boarded that plane?

I mean, to me, journalists know that they're going into harm's way, but they know what they're doing, and they have a chance to make a choice about that. In this case, they had no choice about being a decoy.

It would also just say that The White House press corps, the President has put out a statement now today. And I think this is very, very important. She had a meeting with top people in in the administration, because what this means is, if the press does not have eyes on the President or knows where he is, and with this administration, what other conspiracies could they come up with about where he is? Or will he always be with them, or could he end up blaming the press eventually for something that he claims is not factual now? This raises a ton of other questions about whether or not something like this will continue to happen.

KINZINGER: And I think my biggest issue is -- I think I mean, it is fine what they did. I mean, you have to save the President, right? You have to protect him. It is just the lies that are always around this thing. Remember initially he said, I am actually taking the old Air Force One because I want the troops --

COOPER: It is going to go to the British Air Base.

KINZINGER: Yes!

COOPER: They can't wait to see it.

KINZINGER: I just want the troops to see the new one and it is just -- is everything is a lie that we don't even talk about anymore. I mean, the lies are expected now.

And the other thing is, remember, they pulled from the former Air Force Secretary his security clearance, even though they've done this for 8,000 of us, including me and they did it to me twice. They've pulled the security clearance because supposedly he revealed stuff that everybody knew about the "Air Force One." And then they're also investigating journalists. They sent the FBI to journalists' house, and it turns out maybe they weren't telling the exact truth because they didn't know that he wasn't even on the plane to begin with.

But that's the thing to mask up and to cover up his lies, they go after other people. Look at the Reflective Pool situation.

[20:30:00]

They want to file charges again against the guy because the President doesn't want to be embarrassed and say that it was a contractor that he picked.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, let me pile on one other fact, which is they've also removed security --

COOPER: I was going to call the show pile on.

AXELROD: They've removed -- well it's just the facts of the facts.

KINZINGER: Yes.

AXELROD: They removed security from former officials who are targets of the Iranians and who -- but who displeased the President. So, you know, they took extraordinary steps to protect him. They should, but they shouldn't put other people in jeopardy for doing their job and becoming targets of the Iranian.

COOPER: Yes. We're going to take a quick break.

Coming up next, Congressman Max Miller, and what CNN has learned about other past allegations of violence dating back years before the current allegations that he hurt his ex-wife. We'll be joined by a high school classmate who consoled one of Miller's alleged victims back then after classmates say a teenage Miller pushed her down a flight of stairs after she rebuffed his advances. We'll have more on that.

Also ahead, John King with more late results coming in tonight and what they could mean when control of Congress goes up for grabs less than three months from now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:35:17]

COOPER: Tonight as voters head to the polls in several states, attention remains focused on a seat in Ohio that should have been safe for a Republican. CNN has new reporting about Max Miller, the congressman fighting to represent Ohio's 7th district. Court filings by Congressman Miller's ex-wife, the daughter of the Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, allege a pattern of violence and unsettling behavior, including throwing hot water on her in one incident, pointing a gun at her in another. Miller has denied all of these allegations as politically motivated.

Now, CNN has new reporting on earlier incidents where he was accused of violent or problematic behavior. We're joined now by Allison Gordon with the CNN investigative team. Allison?

ALLISON GORDON, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: I obtained police reports, went through court records and spoke to more than half dozen people who knew Max Miller when he was younger. And nearly all of them, Anderson described him in a similar way -- aggressive, hotheaded, quick to start fights, with outbursts that made others feel uncomfortable. And people say all of this became worse when he drank.

Now, Miller also had several criminal charges during this period. He had at least four run-ins with the police between 2007 and 2011, with charges like disorderly conduct, intoxication, criminal mischief for punching through a window after a night out, and crashing a Jeep into a light pole on a college campus. The police report said MDMA and other prescription drugs were later found in his bloodstream.

Now, that crash seemed like a turning point for Miller. I spoke with three people from the time who told me that Miller tried to get sober in this period and make amends. One is a man who used to play baseball with Miller in high school. And he said that later on, Miller made it a point to apologize to him for his past bad behavior.

Former classmates also told me he had a reputation for being misogynistic. One woman told me he was, quote, "not someone you wanted to be close with as a female." Former friends said he would brag about his sexual exploits and make degrading comments about girls, specifically about their weight.

COOPER: There's one allegation from his teenage years that he pushed a girl who then fell down some stairs during a party at his house. I understand you spoke with a classmate who arrived just after the incident is said to have occurred. He's joining us shortly. Can you just briefly outline what the accusation was at the time? GORDON: Of course, Anderson. So according to my sources, Miller threw a party at his parents' house. And that same night, he allegedly pushed a female classmate down the stairs after she rejected advances from him. So that party happened around 2006. And I should note that Miller has repeatedly denied that he pushed her.

But ultimately, Anderson, these decades-old claims are coming within the context of a broader pattern of alleged behavior from the congressman. And that's why there's heightened scrutiny right now.

COOPER: I mentioned the allegations from Miller's ex-wife. She is not the only woman who's accused him of abusive behavior. What else can you tell us?

GORDON: That's right. So in 2021, Miller was accused of physical abuse while in a relationship with former Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham. He has denied ever abusing her and sued her for defamation shortly after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post. So I reached out to Miller, and he did not respond to my request for comment on this story.

COOPER: All right. Allison Gordon, thanks very much.

As Allison said, CNN reached -- also reached out to Congressman Miller for comment, did not receive a reply. But he's consistently denied allegations of abuse by the women who've accused him. When contacted by the Washington Post in 2018 about some of the charges Allison spoke of related to drinking and disorderly conduct when he was younger, Miller told the Post, quote, "Growing up, everyone makes mistakes. Who I was in the past is not who I am now," end quote.

We're joined by River McWilliams, a former classmate of Congressman Miller's at Shaker Heights High School, who arrived at that 2006 party shortly after the alleged incident occurred or is said to have occurred. Mr. McWilliams, I appreciate you being here. I understand you say you did not personally witness this alleged incident. When did you arrive at the party, what did you see?

RIVER MCWILLIAMS, FORMER CLASSMATE OF REP. MAX MILLER: So, you know, this is an incident that happened 20 years ago, but I have very vivid memories because it was just such a dynamic part of, you know, high school. But I showed up shortly after walking in to the house and finding, you know, shouting chaos and that kind of stuff and finding the girl in question, you know, kind of traumatized, crying and just trying to figure out what had happened.

You know, my decision at that point was, hey, the best thing is to get her out of the house, walk her down the street, make sure that she's OK, remove her from the situation. So that's as far as my involvement goes. Like, I got her out of the house and I walked her away just to make sure that she was OK and nothing escalated further.

COOPER: And Congressman Miller has denied the incident ever took place. What did the -- did the -- I'm not sure how old she was. Did the young woman, the teenage girl, did she -- what did she say?

[20:40:10]

MCWILLIAMS: Well, I honestly -- there's little bits and parts that I remember vividly, little bits and parts that I'm not entirely sure of, but I know that she was just very, very shaken up. I don't remember if she said anything specific about, you know, the incident that happened beforehand, but it was very clear that she was, you know, not in the right headspace to be in that area anymore, right. So I just want to make sure I did my part, make sure that I got her out of the situation, made sure that she was OK and just lend her support in any way that I could.

COOPER: And it's important to note, Congressman Miller has denied this incident ever took place. Have you ever spoken with anyone in your hometown who's corroborated his denial?

MCWILLIAMS: There was never any hint of this didn't happen like we all thought it did. Our -- in our social circles, it was pretty much a story that was shared and known to be true, right. We talked about that crazy night. We knew that those social circles were not going to be able to interact with each other for a while.

This was more treated as fact and something that was happened on a crazy night rather than, you know, hey, did you hear the other side of the story? There's -- there was no talk of anything that this did not happen the way that we all kind of heard and remembered it, and so.

COOPER: So you're saying other people in your school and for -- after this event talked about somebody had been pushed down the stairs?

MCWILLIAMS: Yes, it was not a secret among our social circles, right. I did not pursue any further. We didn't know what the involvement of was of any outside police or anything because, you know, that's, you know, not not really our business, right. We just wanted to make sure that we knew that, that, you know, she was OK. And it was, you know, like it was a common fact known talked about that crazy night where that happened. Never contradicted in any way by anyone that was close to Max or Max himself.

COOPER: Well, and as we said, Congressman Miller denies any accusations and says they're politically motivated. When you heard his denial, when you heard what he said, what went through your mind?

MCWILLIAMS: That's really what has kind of stuck with me is, you know, I feel very strongly that something that happened 20 years ago when you're in high school doesn't necessarily need to define you, but to blanketly deny something and call somebody a liar when I know it to be true and I know that, you know, the experiences that I live through, that's what really got to me.

You know, I'm a father of three daughters and I would hope that if any of my daughters went through something like this and anybody was around them, that they would also have, you know, the courage to stand up and not, you know, force somebody to try to relive, you know, something that could be very traumatic.

I just feel like Max is hiding behind, you know, the fact that the woman in question is not comfortable coming forward to use that as an excuse to call it as a lie and blatantly false. And, you know, I just kind of wanted to lend my voice to contradict his statement.

COOPER: River McWilliams, I appreciate you being with us. Thank you.

Up next, an update on the primaries. We are watching in six states several critical races setting the stage for midterms. We'll check back in with John King who has the latest in the Magic Wall.

Plus, a dramatic rescue in Columbia a day after a powerful earthquake. How this baby was found alive in the rubble of an apartment building. More on what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:47:57]

COOPER: With primary results in six days either coming in or about to at the top of the hour, there are lots to talk about. The latest being Senator Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline, projected to advance to a Republican runoff in South Carolina.

I'm going to go back to John King at the Magic Wall. So what are you seeing with the numbers coming out right now?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Waiting now, Anderson, to see who the other Republican will be in that runoff. Ralph Norman running second place, starting to build a little bit of a lead there right now. We have not projected this just yet. About 71 percent of the vote in.

If you look at the outstanding votes in this race, you see the circles. You'll see the larger the circles, the more outstanding votes. So there's still a lot of votes still coming. This is Norman's congressional district up here where he's running the strongest. A little bit over here for the candidate to bring this back out to where we are.

So you're essentially trying to find out who in two weeks will run against the appointed Senator Darline Graham, the sister, of course, of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. She is in the runoff. We know that. We're waiting to see who is in second.

I would give Norman the edge right now, Anderson, but we have a ways to go. This is the one race where we pretty much counted some votes. I just want to show you one other quick thing. We're waiting at the top of the hour. Obviously, both Minnesota and Wisconsin have races that involve what we've called the Democratic insurgency versus the establishment throughout all this.

I just want to show you one other race that's happening right now in the state of Connecticut. This is John Larson is the incumbent here. It's only 16 percent of the vote in. So we've been talking all year. Some of this is the Democratic Socialist versus the establishment.

Some of this is like El Sayed in Michigan. He doesn't identify as a Democratic Socialist, but he's certainly an insurgent against the establishment. Some of this in the Democratic Party is generational. Younger candidates saying it's time for the old guard to get out of the way.

John Larson is in his 14th term. He's at getting 35 percent. The former Hartford mayor right now getting 54 percent. We have a lot of votes to count on that, but it's just another race we're watching.

This is the last big primary night of the midterm cycle, Anderson. And as we've been talking about since the very beginning, the Democrats have their wind at the back. They think they're going to have a good midterm year, but there's a lot of anti-incumbency, anti- establishment, just anger and frustration across the electorate on a bipartisan basis. You may be seeing a little taste of it right there in Connecticut.

COOPER: Yes. What else could it mean for the November elections?

KING: That's the fascinating question. So, you know, let's -- and let's go back to these other states, as you mentioned that. Let's come back here as we wait now to see what happens in this governor. That's the Republican side.

[20:50:01]

Let's come down a little bit to the governor (ph). This one here. You know, again, Abdul El-Sayed, Medicare for All, tax the billionaires, cut off USA to Israel, runs on the Bernie Sanders agenda, more or less, does not identify as a Democratic socialist. That's Michigan.

This is Wisconsin. Just like Michigan, these 50-50 purple states, Trump won, then Trump lost, then Trump won again, right. That's how competitive they are. The question is, if Francesca Hong, the Democratic socialist, can win the primary here, you had your panel on earlier, a lot of the people who spent a lot of time in Washington, who look back in the rearview mirror, say, no way, can't win in a purple state.

My question is, what's the moment, right? Everyone said in 2007 and 2008, America wasn't ready for a black president. Everybody said Donald Trump could not win the Republican primary in 2016. Everybody said there was no way Donald Trump was coming back to the White House after January 6th.

So if in the rearview mirror, can a Democratic socialist win a 50-50 battleground state, whether that's Wisconsin or a candidate running on that agenda in Michigan? Rearview mirror, your answer is probably not. The question is, what is this moment? That's what we're going to find out in November. First, we have to get through the primaries.

COOPER: All right. John King, thanks.

Back with the panel. What is this moment, if it locks around?

AXELROD: Well, look, I think the interesting thing is, what do each of these factions take away? To those who call themselves establishment Democrats, who have been dubbed the establishment Democrats, 70 percent of the people in this country say the system is corrupt and rigged against them.

Just as a branding matter, I'm not sure being the establishment candidate at a time when the establishment is so out of favor is necessarily very good. On the other hand, you've got the progressive wing of the party, and they offer themselves as the champions of the working class. But it's not the working class vote that's propelling them forward. It's younger voters, it's liberal and more prosperous suburban voters.

And if you want to lead the working class in a working class kind of insurgency, you better bring the working class with you. And they're going to have to do it if they're going to win in November.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, JOURNALIST: I think it's really interesting that, you know, there aren't a tremendous amount of voters in the primaries, and yet they're dictating sort of the whole national dialogue. And that speaks to enthusiasm on the progressive side of things. But I think back to what you were talking about at the top of the show, David, what will happen in Wisconsin if you have Hahn (ph) versus the Republican candidate?

It's like you have the two most far-right, far-left factions. And it's sort of like a test experiment for America that we've all been waiting to see. How would that swing? You have 43 percent of all Americans who identify as independents, then you have a lot of Republicans who are disenfranchised from Trump. How will they go?

AXELROD: Yes.

CARLSON: You know that, I mean, that will be a national test in my mind. And everyone said, oh, that'll never happen. You won't have MAGA versus socialist. Well, look, it might happen in Wisconsin.

AXELROD: One of the things that I would say is that midterm elections are always at the end of the day, a referendum on the person in the White House. There's only been two elections since the -- since World War II, where the incumbent party actually gained seats. This President is as unpopular as almost any president we've seen during that period of time.

That is a lot of headwind for Republican candidates. Now, Republicans are going to try and make the race about other things. And so, if you have a candidate who calls themselves a Democratic socialist and who has taken positions like, let's do away with Thanksgiving -- by the way, there are a lot of turkeys in Wisconsin who are watching these results with a lot of interest tonight.

But if you have -- if you offer them that opportunity, they're going to seize it. I will tell you this that in Wisconsin, the only big advertiser in that race was the Republican Governors Association --

CARLSON: Yes.

AXELROD: -- and they ran ads that castigated Hong for being liberal and for trying to -- for saying she wants to return the -- restore the liberal tradition of Wisconsin and for, you know, and for taking a position against ICE and all the things that would energize her base. They tried to get her as the candidate. Now we'll see if they can beat her with a guy who is very much part of the House Freedom Caucus and on the right of the Republican Party.

COOPER: Congressman, what do you --

KINZINGER: Yes, the thing that I'm interested in is I have this working theory that I'm hope I'm wrong about it, honestly, is that the Democrats are where the Republicans were in 2015.

CARLSON: Yes.

KINZINGER: In 2015, we had just come off some establishment wins. And then we had this insurgency that overwhelmed the party. And I think Democrats doesn't mean they're going to go down this blueprint. But I think they have a decision to make. And this is part of that decision.

I also want to make an interesting point, which is Mark Sanford in South Carolina is getting 15 percent, which is not nothing. This is the anti-Trump guy. He's run as basically like an old school Republican. And to get 15 percent in a primary, at least what I've seen so far, is not too bad.

COOPER: Pete?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WH SPOKESMAN, GEORGE W. BUSH ADMIN.: Yes, I agree. I think obviously we're all paying attention to see who comes in second or is the second person to be in this runoff in South Carolina.

[20:55:08]

And largely, I'm watching because whomever is second fiddle tonight could end up being first in class in the runoff. We saw that happen in the gubernatorial primary. The lieutenant governor who Donald Trump endorsed came in first in the first round. Come the runoff, it was the attorney general who was second that ended up getting the nomination. So --

CARLSON: But Trump endorsed both of them,

SEAT: And he endorsed both.

COOPER: Yes.

SEAT: That's right.

CARLSON: Yes, which will happen in South Carolina.

COOPER: Let me just point out, CNN can now project that South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman will advance the GOP Senate runoff to face Darline Graham in that race.

SEAT: Well, there's the answer.

COOPER: There it is.

CARLSON: Yes.

AXELROD: Yes. I would just say on this progressive insurgency, this is a country where economics is very much on people's minds. One of the reasons Trump is in such trouble is because he seems oblivious to the pressures that people are feeling. And so when candidates --

KINZINGER: Because he's rich now.

AXELROD: -- when candidates come -- when candidates say everyone should have the ability to get health care, people ought to be paid. You know, the minimum wage should be raised that we, you know, a series of things like that. And the power of concentrated wealth is a danger to the country because of the influence that those people have over the policies that are being made that tilt against everyday people.

There is a big audience for that. And in Wisconsin, the whole A.I. issue and data centers --

CARLSON: Data centers.

AXELROD: -- is really what propelled Hong there. So there are real things going on out there.

COOPER: Yes.

AXELROD: And there is this progressive thing is not about Thanksgiving.

COOPER: Yes. Everyone, thanks.

Up next, search and rescue teams in Colombia racing to find survivors after Monday's powerful earthquake. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bravo!

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Round of applause today after first responders freed a woman who was trapped in the rubble of her apartment building for almost 30 hours. Authorities say she is in stable condition. Just some of what rescuers in Colombia are encountering, not all of it so hopeful as they dig through the rubble a day after a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake.

From the same city, that take a look, a baby being carefully lifted from the remains of a collapsed apartment building in Cali on Monday. Incredible images. Crews zeroed in on the pile of debris that baby was in after hearing a man say he was buried with the baby. No word yet on his or the child's condition at this hour.

As of now, 224 people are known to have died across Colombia.

That's it for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.