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El-Sayed-Stevens Showdown in Michigan Senate Primaries Now a Tight Contest in Terms of Ongoing Results; Miller Refuses to Drop Out Race, Denies Allegations on His Family. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 05, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hi everybody, welcome to CNN's special election coverage. I'm Polo Sandoval, live in New York where it is 3 a.m. and it is the morning after election night in America. And some candidates still haven't been able to go to sleep as votes do continue coming in.

Primaries across five states will eventually determine who will face off in the November midterm elections. And with the chance to possibly flip control of the Congress, you see where the stakes are high. Voters going to the polls -- went to the polls in Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, and Washington State.

But right now, much of the focus is on the battleground state of Michigan in Detroit. Currently 3 a.m. and about 90 percent of the votes are in for the state's Democratic Senate primary. It is a close race between Progressive Abdul El-Sayed and House Democrat Haley Stevens, who have both touted a new path forward for Democrats in their state.

Both candidates spoke to their supporters earlier as votes continue to trickle in. Here's what they each said about their hope for the road ahead for Democrats in Michigan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY STEVENS (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: We've had a long, hard-fought primary and we'll know soon who our nominee is going to be. And whoever wins is going to go and take on Mike Rogers.

Republicans are going to do everything they can to throw all the dirt, all the mud, the kitchen sink at us, because they want to keep the U.S. Senate red. So Mike Rogers can keep rubber stamping Donald Trump's ridiculous agenda.

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Let's come together to build a movement that's even bigger, that's even stronger, that's even more powerful, that reaches into the very depths of this state, that reminds us the best of who we are and who we can be. That is the commitment I want all of us to be making as we leave here tonight. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: All right, let's begin our coverage now and head over live to Lily Guiney, a staff reporter with the Gongwer News Service in Lansing, Michigan. It is wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for staying up late for us.

LILY GUINEY, STAFF REPORTER, GONGWER NEWS SERVICE: Oh, thanks for having me, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Of course. Let's get started with what you can tell us about the votes that are left to count right now and what both campaigns are looking at in terms of where those outstanding votes are actually coming from.

GUINEY: Yes, so we're looking at less than 100,000 votes left out of Detroit, and we've been at that number for a little while now.

Wayne County is historically a tough call to make earlier in the night. We've waited until 4 or 5 A.M. in the past for votes from there, and those last Detroit area votes, as well as some of our college towns, we were waiting on some Ingham County numbers that had just now come in. We saw Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum just a few moments ago tweet that her county was accounted for.

So we're kind of seeing the last trickles from around the state, and these are all areas where, you know, Abdul El-Sayed could pick up a few votes, Haley Stevens could pick up a few votes. This isn't technically over, but we are really reaching that finish line.

SANDOVAL: And Lily, as you know, polls were showing, what appeared to be some polls, were showing a nearly double-digit victory for El- Sayed, but as you just mentioned right now and as we just showed viewers in some of the latest returns right now, those margins are much narrower than expected. I'm curious, just based on your reporting, what does that tell us about the progressive movement in the crucial state of Michigan?

GUINEY: Well, I think what it tells anyone who's been really watching this race from inside the state the last few months is, you know, this is what we expected. We expected a close race. We expected that, I think there was, after the last few months, we expected to see El- Sayed pull off a victory tonight, but what we're seeing is a victory for El-Sayed and for progressives that looks a lot more like the Michigan electorate.

You know, it's complicated. It's not as maybe cut-and-dry as it is in other parts of the country. We saw him do very well in the Upper Peninsula, which that's historically not a place that you would expect a progressive to perform.

[03:05:03]

And then we saw, you know, lower turnout in the southern border states, or border counties, and that's, you know, kind of an interesting shakeup on the map county-wise, but it doesn't necessarily bode terribly for progressives come general election time.

SANDOVAL: Well, Lily, let's expand on the complicated nature of just what was heavy on the minds of voters. You, without a doubt, were speaking to some of those voters, so just give our viewers around the world a sense of what the average Democratic voter in Michigan was looking for in their candidate, and what was the driving issue for so many of them this year?

GUINEY: Yes, I mean, I'll say, I won't say there was a driving issue, but there was a driving message, I think, and maybe that message more so than it has been in the past was, is the person on the ballot, is the person who I send to the general election going to be someone who reflects how just angry most Democrats in our state are right now?

We saw people who, you know, traditionally you would fit them into, sort of slot them into the demographics that might have gone for Haley Stevens in prior elections, come out and say, I'm all in for Abdul El- Sayed, because he feels like a change agent, he feels like someone who is not the status quo. People are, frankly, just ticked off.

And I think we're seeing those results come out, you know, maybe not to the degree some people expected, but there were a lot of people who maybe were voting more on vibes or feelings than they were on policy, especially in this primary, because they're just at the end of their rope.

SANDOVAL: Yes, and those vibes are dramatically different. Just help us also preview what would, like, be a possible face-off of November, regardless of what candidate goes on to those primary elections. What is Mike Rogers, the Republican who would face off with the Democrat that moves forward, how are they strategizing? I mean, what's their campaign saying?

GUINEY: Yes, I mean, if you're Mike Rogers, you're going to be putting out a statement tonight and if the Democratic nominee is Abdul El- Sayed, crowing about how this was the candidate you wanted to run against, right?

We've seen Republicans sort of propping up these progressive candidates as the easier option to run against. But I think beneath that, there is an acknowledgment from a lot of folks, at least in the Michigan Republican Party, that they are going to be facing down, you know, the quote-unquote "blue wave" that comes with a midterm in the second Trump presidency.

And I think there is an acknowledgment from within the party here that there's going to be an uphill climb. It's not automatic for anyone. It's going to be maybe as close a general election as it is a primary election right now.

And Mike Rogers has certainly changed in the past couple years. He's changed since he was in Congress. He used to sort of be this more moderate voice that differentiated himself from President Trump, and that was what he hung his hat on. And now we see him, you know, on the quote-unquote "Trump train," because that was what he needed to get through a couple primaries in the past few years. And I'm not sure that he'll be able to, you know, wield that same sort of independent, thematic influence over the general election that maybe he has in the past. And that could be very interesting against a candidate like Abdul El-Sayed, who is kind of trying to paint himself as, you know, not just the DSA progressive but the independent progressive.

SANDOVAL: All right. I thought one of the other elements that makes this race, especially this election, so fascinating were just the voter turnout. I mean, it was nothing short of impressive.

Once all the results are in, those numbers could potentially surpass those records that were set during the election in 2020, 1.5 million votes. Obviously, it may not necessarily, to your earlier point, doesn't really speak a whole lot in terms of how Democrats will perform in a few months.

But what do you think is the main takeaway from that, Lily? Does it really speak to the energized -- the re-energized base for some Democrats in that state?

GUINEY: You know what? I actually will say it does, because we can look at the gubernatorial primary turnout we saw for Jocelyn Benson, who was virtually unopposed. Chris Swanson was pulling, I think, near 6 percent to her 80-something percent a couple weeks ago.

So, like, this was really, truly not a race where maybe you would think that Democrats would have turned out in the way they did, but they had almost 500,000 more people go to vote in that Democratic gubernatorial primary than Republicans did in their primary, which was technically the more competitive primary. And I think we can take that, you know, and say maybe that people were energized to go fill out the whole ballot because they were going out to vote in the U.S. Senate race, because that certainly was a driving factor for a lot of Michiganders.

But I also think that, you know, is a good sign for Democrats going into this general election to say, look, we had half a million more people come out to vote in what was basically an uncontested gubernatorial primary.

[03:10:04]

That has to mean that people are, you know, they're motivated, they're feeling, again, a lot of feelings, and, you know, if they can carry that momentum through the next few months into November, I think it could be very interesting to see what we end up with come general election day.

SANDOVAL: Without a doubt. It is also a very long day and a busy one, Lily Guiney, so we are tremendously grateful that you could set aside some time to bring us up to speed on those numbers that continue to come in.

Do come back any time as we continue to monitor those returns out of the great state of Michigan.

GUINEY: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Thank you. And we will certainly keep you up to speed, again, for all of our viewers on those numbers as they continue to come in.

Meanwhile, let's get you up to speed on some of our other headlines.

President Trump claiming that the Strait of Hormuz will be reopened soon, or that he could potentially, that he would launch new strikes on Iran. And this comes as Qatar says that efforts to end the conflict between the U.S. and Iran are in very progressive stages, he said. Mediators are currently focused on finding a short-term resolution that would bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table.

In the meantime, sources are telling us that the U.S. military has used up nearly 80 percent of its interceptors for a key missile defense system. And all of this as senior military commanders are warning of a dangerously low munition stockpile. Gulf allies are also sounding the alarm about how a shortage of air defense systems could possibly impact their ability to intercept potential Iranian strikes if President Trump decides to escalate the war.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is in Las Vegas with more on President Trump's remarks about Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump is voicing confidence that a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could happen in the next 48 hours or so. That's what he told reporters as he was heading here to Las Vegas, where he has an event on Wednesday.

The President saying that the discussions that are underway with Iran now are going well, but also warning in a Fox News interview that he taped earlier in the day that if Iran does not agree to this deal, and if they walk away from the talks again, that a major escalation is still possible.

Now, there's still a degree of discrepancy between what Iran says is happening and what President Trump says is underway. Iran says that it is not discussing anything directly with the United States at the moment. What they do say they're doing is holding conversations with Oman, which is on the other coast of the Strait of Hormuz, about reopening that waterway.

What we have understood from our sources is that those discussions are progressing and that they could have a deal sometime this week, potentially, in the next day or so. And that's exactly the time frame that President Trump was laying out on Tuesday evening as well.

Now, in terms of what he said about if that does not come to pass, he suggested that he would hit Iran even harder than he had previously, saying that this escalation in the conflict that he had been threatening last week but held off on was still a possibility if this diplomatic route didn't end up panning out.

And now what the President is describing here is essentially two phases, one reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Now, what exactly that looks like at this point, we don't know.

For example, would Iran be able to charge fees on vessels passing through the Strait? President has said that that would be a nonstarter, but it's something that is still under discussion.

And another question is whether Iran would agree to hold off on closing the Strait in the future, essentially giving up its control over this channel through which so much of the world's oil supply flows.

So the President's saying that that will be the first phase of this discussion. The second phase will be talking about Iran's nuclear program. Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because it's exactly what was prescribed in the memorandum of understanding that the president signed in June and then he said was dead two weeks later because he claimed that the Iranians were negotiating in bad faith.

Now, the President doesn't sound any more faithful in the Iranians now. He keeps saying that they are being duplicitous, saying things like that there are no talks when in fact there are talks. But still, the President seems intent on trying to find a diplomatic solution to this month's lockdown.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, Las Vegas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Russian forces are targeting Kyiv with waves of ballistic missiles. Ukraine's president says that 17 people were killed early Wednesday and more than 50 others wounded. Fires broke out across the Ukrainian capital, with missiles destroying buildings as people slept inside.

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Ukrainian officials warning that the threat of more strikes remains. Right now, search and rescue teams are looking for anyone who may be trapped beneath the rubble.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is speaking out for the first time since the U.S. said that it reached a disarmament agreement with Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): President Trump and his team believe they can bring about Hamas' disarmament and the demilitarization of Gaza. We are examining that. They have sent us a draft, we did not agree to it.

It is not our draft, we sent them our comments. In fact, we sent our comments before the media campaign on this issue began. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: That video from the Prime Minister's official social media account. Prime Minister Netanyahu is seeking to reassure Israeli voters that President Trump's latest push in Gaza is far from final. However, Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure from the White House to fully end the fighting in Gaza and support Hamas' commitment to disarmament.

Nearly three years after an Israeli attack on a residential block in Gaza City, more than 100 Palestinians killed in that strike were laid to rest in a mass funeral. Gaza's civil defense began shifting through the rubble last month to recover their remains, but dozens of victims still have not been found.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond with this report.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Draped in Palestinian flags, the remains of 112 people are carried through the war-torn streets of Gaza City.

This funeral procession is nearly three years overdue. The 112 men, women and children being buried today were killed in November 2023, when Israeli bombs struck a residential block in this same city. Search and rescue teams were only able to begin recovering bodies from the rubble last month.

Nearly three weeks later, Gaza's civil defense spokesman says they've recovered the remains of 112 people. Dozens more could not be found.

MAHMOUD BASAL, GAZA CIVIL DEFENSE SPOKESPERSON (translated): Those we didn't manage to recover, we couldn't find any signs of them. Where did their bodies disappear to? Where did their bodies go? Were they eaten by stray dogs? Did they disappear? Were they torn apart?

DIAMOND (voice-over): Praying over his cousin's bodies, Issam Abu Shariaa has a different question. Who will he play with?

Hundreds have come to bid farewell. Nearly every person killed in that November 2023 attack hailed from two large Palestinian families, one of which is tied to the Mujahideen Brigades, a Palestinian militant group.

The Israeli military has not publicly identified any militants killed in that strike. Many more bodies are still trapped beneath the rubble, some 8000 according to Gaza's civil defense.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Our dear Jeremy Diamond reporting there.

And on the way here on "CNN Newsroom," charges have now been filed for the man accused of one of the three devastating wildfires that continues burning in Spokane, Washington. We'll have that latest on the investigation and also the damage done so far.

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," where we continue to monitor the election results coming out of that crucial state of Michigan as we wait to learn what Democratic candidates will move on to face as Republican opponents or their Republican opponent come November.

You see there with only, with that now 91 percent of the vote counted, you see El Sayed there with 48.8 percent of the votes holding onto a comfortable lead there, Abdul El Sayed ahead of Haley Stevens with 47.2 percent. Again, that's with 91 percent of the vote counted so far. We'll check back on that count.

Meanwhile, embattled Republican Congressman Max Miller speaking out in an interview with CNN, refusing to drop his re-election bid as he faces abuse allegations from his ex-wife Emily Moreno. Allegations that he denies Moreno has accused Miller of multiple instances of domestic abuse including an incident in which she says that he held a gun to her. Those allegations were revealed during police interviews as detectives looked into how the couple's young daughter broke her collarbone.

When her charges were filed in connection to their daughter's injuries, separately Miller's attorney is now apologizing for releasing a sensitive image of the congressman's little girl in documents shared online.

Now all of this is happening as he faces re-election in Ohio's 7th congressional district, a GOP stronghold. Meanwhile, his ex-father-in- law, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, is calling on Miller to not just pull back from the race, but to leave Congress.

Miller has also denied allegations that he abused his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Grisham, a former White House communications director. Earlier, CNN's Jake Tapper asked Miller about these allegations. Here's his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: There are now three women, who have accused you of violent behavior. Politico published a report in 2021 that says when you were in high school you, quote, "pushed a girl out of the dorm of his room and she fell down some stairs after he became enraged when she resisted his attempts to touch her, according to three people who were there and many more who heard about the incident in the aftermath."

Now, you deny that, but the woman in question told Mother Jones reporter Abby Vassilis just days ago that it happened and was, quote, "one of the more traumatic nights of her life."

Now, that's -- Hold on.

REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): I would love for that individual to go on the record, because that I was --

TAPPER: Okay. Hold on, because I'm not done with the list of women that have accused you of violence.

Then there was a former White House press secretary. Okay, you were young.

Then there's a former White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, who was your ex-girlfriend. She accused you of being abusive and having a violent streak.

She wrote in her book, quote, "I could do nothing right by him. I would wake up every morning shaking with anxiety about his mood that day. I had seen his temper before, and it had scared me," unquote.

She has recently filed a temporary restraining order against you in a defamation case.

[03:25:08]

And now there are these claims from your ex-wife, Emily Moreno. And I guess the question is, are all three of these women who don't know each other, are all three of them lying?

MILLER: Yes, it's very easy, and I can tell you why. Every single time, and people have asked me, you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to drop out of this race? Are you going to resign? You know, are you going to get out before the deadline?

And my answer to you, Jake, is no. And I can tell you why.

In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day, and people in the media, very much like yourself and others, said that he would have no shot at winning, that he should not be the President of the United States. But guess what?

He stayed in, and he was resilient. And what the American people can see is that they can see that somebody is fighting who is resilient, and that is a quality that the American people cherish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: NASA has been watching closely for the impact of part of a SpaceX rocket crashing into the moon. It was projected to collide with the lunar surface last hour. The Falcon 9 rocket carried two robotic commercial lunar landers into space.

Its first stage returned safely to Earth, but instead of burning up in Earth's atmosphere, the upper stage was pulled onto the collision course with the moon, and that was due in part to solar activity and gravitational forces. Scientists are hoping to study the incident to learn a little bit more about the moon, and also how to better shield their astronauts for future NASA missions to the lunar surface.

We're also following the latest developments on the Washington State wildfires. 37-year-old Aaron Ferenacci, a convicted felon, now charged with first-degree arson in connection with one of those three major wildfires that are burning in Spokane County, his arraignment is set for Thursday. He was arrested on Monday after investigators said that he was spotted kneeling in the grass where the fire started over the weekend.

Well, they say that he had waterproof matches and a lighter on him. The Spokane fires have now burned more than 10,000 acres since they broke out on Saturday. Some say the scene looks pretty much like a war zone, and hundreds of homes and other structures have been destroyed so far, and authorities say that thousands more are still at risk days later.

About 65,000 residents were evacuated, and officials say that 14 people who initially couldn't be reached have now been contacted. Unfortunately, no injuries or deaths have been reported here.

Let's take you to Greece now, where firefighters are racing to strengthen containment lines just west of Athens, as more heat and high winds are expected in the coming days. Officials there say that several fires were brought under control in mountain and coastal areas just outside of the Greek capital, where the winds did stay relatively calm.

Let's go now to journalist Elinda Labropolou, who joins me live from Parga, Greece. So what is the latest?

ELINDA LABROPOLOU, JOURNALIST: Well, there's a better picture today, certainly, in terms of the fire fronts. There are no live fronts at the moment.

There have been flare-ups throughout the night, so firefighters have been working tirelessly on the ground after it took them five days to contain this mega fire burning close to the Greek capital, Athens, just 40 miles out of Athens. But of course, this means that now residents are returning, assessments are beginning, and the image that we see as the smoke lifts is absolutely grim.

We have some first figures from the observatory in Athens, according to which over 42 percent of forested areas around the Greek capital have burned in the last nine years. You can understand the scale of destruction in that. There have been 15 big fires in Athens in the last 10 years -- greater Athens in the last 10 years, and this has been the cost.

And of course, in just this last fire alone, we've had the cost of two human lives. Let's not forget two firefighters that died when two firefighting helicopters collided. So now the time comes for the assessment, as there is a race against time, because the country remains on red alert today, as we expect more fires are coming our way, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Yes, just seeing some of those aerial images, they're absolutely heartbreaking, and what is usually, it looks like winter in what is usually a lush landscape with all those leaves gone. Elinda Labropolou, thank you so much for the update.

And up next, an update on our top story, the vote counts. In Michigan's hotly contested Democratic Senate primary. Stay with us, you're watching "CNN Newsroom" and our election coverage.

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SANDOVAL: And welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York, and these are today's top stories.

Qatar says that efforts to end the conflict between the U.S. and Iran are in very progressive stages. The top Qatari official also revealed that drafts of a potential agreement are being circulated, but that there are no direct talks between the two sides. Mediators are currently focused on finding a short-term resolution, they said, that would bring Washington and Tehran back to the negotiating table.

President Trump's pick for Attorney General has cleared a Senate Judiciary Committee, Todd Blanche now needs a majority vote in the full Senate, where his confirmation could be decided by a razor-thin margin. Maine Senator Susan Collins says that she opposes Blanche's nomination, meaning that he can afford to lose only one more Republican vote. That final vote, by the way, is expected later this week.

And it's still too early to call the winner of Michigan's Democratic Senate primary. With just over 90 percent of the votes counted, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed holding on to his narrow lead over House Democrat Haley Stevens. The winner is expected to face former House Republican Mike Rogers in the November midterm.

Earlier we heard from both candidates as they highlighted what's at stake in the midterm elections. This is what they each told their supporters a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EL-SAYED: They want to tell us that here in Michigan we're a purple state. That somehow everybody walks around wondering, I wonder where I stand on a left-right spectrum. When really, up and down the state, what you hear is, I wonder how I can afford my rent.

I wonder how I can afford my groceries. I don't know what will happen if I get sick because I can't afford my deductible. We are not a purple state.

[03:35:08]

We are a state in need of a movement. STEVENS: They want to keep the Senate red so Mike Rogers can go to

Washington again and sell us out to the highest bidder and make himself even wealthier. They want to keep the Senate red so Mike Rogers can ban abortion, gut health care, and roll back workers' rights and voting rights. Friends, we are not going to let that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Joining me live from Oxford, England, is Richard Johnson, senior lecturer in U.S. politics at Queen Mary University in London. It's always great to see you, Richard. Thanks for joining us.

RICHARD JOHNSON, SENIOR LECTURER IN U.S. POLITICS, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Good to be with you.

SANDOVAL: I'm wondering if I could get your initial take as you watch it from England, just the crucial nature of this midterm election, and then also, what candidate do you think that Republican Mike Rogers would prefer to face off with come the general election?

JOHNSON: Well, you know, the Michigan Senate race, in many ways, is a microcosm of a battle which has been ongoing in the Democratic Party, I would say, since 2016 when Bernie Sanders faced off against Hillary Clinton and really has been unresolved ever since.

I think it's also a bit of a preview for what we can expect in the presidential primaries for 2028. And that's the conflict between what we might kind of call left-wing ideological consistency or having an uncompromising left-wing agenda versus electability. And that's really what these two candidates put forward between the election.

Abdul El-Sayed was saying that he was someone who wouldn't compromise on his beliefs, that he had this set of views. He didn't call himself a socialist, but he was certainly seen as on the left of the party.

And then Haley Stevens said, look, what we need to focus on is winning in a purple state. It's interesting, El-Sayed rejected that characterization of Michigan, but it is a purple state. And she said, look, we need to win back the Senate.

And it's going to be a steep climb for the Democrats to win back the Senate. They need to hold all of their currently held seats, and Michigan is one of the ones they have to hold, this is an open seat for a retiring Democrat. And then they have to gain four more seats, at least three of which will have to be in red states.

States that went for Trump pretty handsomely the last election. So that's the dilemma, that's the conflict going on in the Democratic Party at the moment. And it's going to be unresolved with this Senate race, which is itself on a knife edge at the moment.

SANDOVAL: Richard, what's your assessment also of the ability for Michigan Democrats after we find out who's moving ahead to coalesce and to bring that party together? And is there perhaps one candidate that could make that a little easier than the other? JOHNSON: Well, you know, I thought it was really interesting listening

to Abdul El-Sayed's remarks, I guess earlier tonight, when he came out and said that the result has not been decided. But he says, whatever the result may be, we need to come together, that what unites us as Democrats is more important than what divides us.

And you might listen to that and think, wow, that's a very gracious set of comments that he's making. In one sense, it is.

But also, I think El-Sayed was saying it because I think he expects to win. And I think it'll be very close, but he is ahead. And now we're getting to more than 90 percent of precincts reporting, and he's still got a nearly two percentage point lead.

So I think he may win this, but we can't call it at this stage for sure. And there's still a chance he might not.

But I think he was saying that because he wants to, he wants to sound the bigger person so that if he does win, that he can say to Hayley Stevens, look, I called for unity regardless of who wins, and I want to have your strong backing. And to be honest, I think Hayley Stevens, given what she's been saying about the importance of winning back the Senate, should feel equally strongly about getting behind the Democratic nominee. I do think it's all hands on deck here.

And I think in a way, it sort of undercuts the electability argument, because if partisanship is so strong in America now, that basically whoever the parties nominate, all of the party identifiers will roll in behind them, then does it really matter if you choose a more moderate candidate or not? I mean, I think at this stage now, partisanship is so strong that the idea that some moderate Democrats might vote Republican seems really quite unlikely in this day and age.

[03:40:03]

SANDOVAL: And just as you were speaking, we actually saw that number go up to 93 percent now. And just to show our viewers, we can bring those numbers back up again, of just how narrow a margin, with Abdul El-Sayed now only about 20,600 votes. So certainly the numbers that we initially had expected, as you know, Richard, was for El-Sayed to lead, potentially by double digits.

So perhaps close with the message for Democrats at this point, but certainly with a reminder of what you just said, that anything could potentially happen.

JOHNSON: Yes, and you know, the big question mark for me in this race was, what's going to happen in Detroit? And from what I've seen, it looks like Haley Stevens is winning Detroit. She's slightly overperforming, I think, where we expected to, with where her numbers might have been in Detroit.

The late votes that are being counted are expected to tilt a bit more in her way, because these are mail-in ballots, where she had been leading, and mail-in ballots that had already been counted. So, you know, the race could continue to tighten. I don't want to deny that at all.

And really, Detroit, of course Detroit's a very diverse place. There are parts of Detroit where El-Sayed did very well. But the African- American community was the big question mark in this campaign.

And I think Haley Stevens, she hugged very close to her past association with the Obama administration. She was part of the task force that the President put together, former President Obama put together, on the auto industry back during the Great Recession. And she ran ads with comments that Obama had said that were very favorable about her and her role with her.

And I think, you know, that association with Obama still is very important in some segments of the Democratic Party more generally, but especially in the African-American electorate. And I think that that's been helpful for her in this race.

SANDOVAL: It certainly was, especially after being endorsed by much of the established Democrats, including the governor of the state of Michigan. Richard Johnson, we are so glad that you could join us to help us cover this well into the night, where again, that number still going up, the number of returns, a reminder that the counting continues in the crucial state of Michigan in this contest.

Thank you so much, Richard. You have a good rest of your day.

JOHNSON: Pleasure. Take care.

SANDOVAL: Let's take a quick moment now to talk about Texas.

With three months to go before the midterm elections, something very unusual is happening in that state. A Democrat leading the race for the U.S. Senate. It's a phenomenon that hasn't happened in a generation.

CNN senior data analyst Harry Enten explains what's behind this.

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HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: It looks like we're heading towards a Texas showdown, and James Talarico could make history, could be the first Democrat elected to the United States Senate from the Lone Star State since 1988. Oh, my goodness gracious.

What are we talking about? Well, I just want to note how unusual it is.

Well, James Talarico, on an average of the last two polls, well, he's up by three points. Compare this to where Democrat Beto O'Rourke was at this point in the 2018 campaign during Trump's first term.

Ted Cruz, the Republican -- the incumbent Republican, was leading by six points. Indeed, James Talarico's lead at this point is the first time a Democrat, a candidate for United States Senate from Texas, has been leading at this point of race since 1988. He is fueled by independents, whom Talarico leads by 40 points among. Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke were actually tied among independents, but it's more than that. It's about how unpopular the Republican candidate, Ken Paxton, is compared to what we would normally see from a Republican in Texas.

GOP nominees, net favorability, Texas Republicans. Ted Cruz, he was above water right there, plus eight points.

Look at Ken Paxton, way down there. Look at that minus 12 points that's favorable, minus unfavorable, again being fueled by independents.

He is, get this, 47 points underwater down there in the Rio Grande Valley. My goodness gracious, minus 47.

But it is also about President Trump, who, remember, he won in Texas, but now he is well underwater in Texas. His net popularity rating, minus 10 points, even worse than he was in term number one. Cruz, very different from Paxton, and Trump, very different from Trump in term number one.

But you, my friend, are always the same. Absolutely fantastic. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Thank you so much, Harry Enten.

And still ahead here on "CNN Newsroom." Some of the top A.I. companies met with the White House to discuss safety rules and regulations for this thriving industry. What we know about the talks in a moment.

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[03:45:00]

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

Crude oil prices have dropped to their lowest level in nearly a month. The drop comes after the U.S. Treasury Secretary said that he thinks that a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz could happen today, President Trump doubling down on that claim, telling Fox that the vital waterway will reopen soon, or he will launch new strikes against Iran.

A federal judge has set a March 2027 trial date for Paramount's bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN. Paramount had hoped to finish the deal by this summer, but a group of state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, they both filed lawsuits last month seeking to stop the merger, citing antitrust grounds.

In its first earnings report as a publicly traded company, SpaceX says its revenue jumped 92 percent from last year, but the company remains unprofitable. The CEO, Elon Musk's push to spend heavily on A.I. has spooked investors, sending shares lower in late trading.

And the White House reportedly told top artificial intelligence companies that it will not safety test some advanced A.I. models, Reuters citing multiple sources saying that the Trump administration discussed testing rules and regulations with tech leaders on Tuesday.

CNN tech editor Lisa Eadicicco reports.

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LISA EADICICCO, CNN TECH EDITOR: Top A.I. companies, including OpenAI, Google, Meta and Anthropic are meeting with the White House to discuss a framework that would allow the government to review advanced A.I. models before they're released publicly. This is part of an executive order that the President signed in June, but the discussions come after OpenAI and Anthropic have said they found instances of their models breaching other companies' systems.

And this has heightened cybersecurity concerns and also raised more calls for there to be more control around the advancement of A.I. The framework will be voluntary and the details of it will not be made public.

[03:50:08]

And a lot of questions still remain about the execution of this framework, including who in the administration will be steering this initiative and how the government will decide what is considered a frontier A.I. model.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Well, in a surprising example of artificial intelligence going rogue, the most advanced A.I. models from Anthropic and OpenAI, they went to new lengths to deceive real people during testing by Britain's A.I. Security Institute.

The testing was done in a lab environment with relaxed security protections. Researchers say that the models created multiple fake identities and repeatedly contacted real people, trying to persuade them to insert malicious code into an online file transfer service. Both Anthropic and OpenAI say that they are investigating these incidents.

Well, this year's World Cup boosted Cape Verde's goalkeeper into the spotlight. Coming up, the very latest on his decision to join up with Chile's largest soccer club.

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[03:55:00]

SANDOVAL: After a thrilling World Cup run, Cape Verde's team captain and veteran goalkeeper, Vozinha, is tight. He's taking his talents to Chile now. The 40-year-old has signed a six-month contract with Chilean soccer club Colo Colo.

CNN's Cristopher Ulloa with more.

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CRISTOPHER ULLOA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Vozinha frenzy continues. The four-year-old goalkeeper from Cape Verde, Josimar Jose Evora Dias, has finally been presented by the Colo Colo team as his newest member. After finishing his training session with his teammates at the Estadio Monumental, Josimar Jose Evora Dias said that his decision to join Colo Colo was never in doubt, despite several days of uncertainty caused by the delay in his arrival.

The global football sensation also expressed his happiness with the moment and also said that he will bring his mother and his friends to Chile once he's settled and has a home ready for them. What else did Vozinha have to say? Let's take a listen.

JOSIMAR JOSE EVORA DIAS "VOZINHA", GOALKEEPER, COLO COLO (through translator): In soccer, I know there are many people behind you and the fans always want the best. I think all players also work day by day to be well prepared.

Playing in the World Cup was great pressure for me, I played against the best national teams in the world and I'm focused on working and helping the club achieve its goals.

ULLOA: A final welcome event is going to take place at the Estadio Monumental this Wednesday, where thousands of fans are expected to gather around to give Vozinha a final welcome to Colo Colo.

For CNN, Cristopher Ulloa, Santiago, Chile.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Thank you so much for watching. I'll join you again in a few moments where we check back on our top story out of Michigan and our election results for this primary election.

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