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CNN Live Event/Special

Democrats and Republicans Battle for Black and Latino Voters; Americans Head to Polls in Consequential Midterm Elections; Civility in Politics After Attack on Pelosi's Husband. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 08, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:03]

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But we have to remember that was 7 percent turnout. So, that wasn't because Latinos were leaving the Democratic Party in droves, it is that they didn't turn out.

So, what I'm looking for tonight is will Latinos turn out, and I think that they will. They will turn out for Democrats in a two-to-one margin.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: LaTosha, how about you? Why do you think we're seeing Republicans in a trend among greater support among black and Latino voters?

LATOSHA BROWN, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK VOTES MATTER FUND: I mean, agree with that analysis. I think right after the 2020 election and what we saw happen in 2021, there was a recognition that voters of color are the future of American politics. They reshape the political landscape.

We also know that there are over 80 black candidates that are running on the Republican ticket across the country. I think there has been a concerted effort to recruit black candidates to run for office, just like we see in Georgia and the U.S. Senate race. To support an agenda that many feel is still a racist agenda but actually put a face of color to that particular gender, what we're seeing is a run across the country, we're seeing that.

I also think that there is a concerted effort by both parties to appeal to those voters and we haven't seen that in recent years. I think it's interesting, I think the GOP has been going at it, and an appeal of literally trying to tap into this discontent that may be in the African-American community about wanting to have more happen.

And I think that what we're also seeing is we're seeing Democrats really speak to if we're -- if the Democrats have power, we can actually do more. And so it is very interesting to see the distinction and the appeals that I think to African-American voters and other voters.

COOPER: Xochitl, do you think Democratic candidate did enough this election cycle to try to appeal to voters of color on issues that matter most? HINOJOSA: I think that they can always do more to appeal to voters of color. I think when it comes to the Latino community in particular, there is more that could have been done in order to mobilize and turn them out. I'm worried the way that the trends in Texas show that we have not nearly invested enough to turn out our voters, but I do think in places like Nevada and Arizona, the hope is that Democrats invested number to turn them out. But time will tell.

I mean, Latino voters will decide elections in Nevada and Arizona. And if we don't win those states, I think the party needs to take a hard look at what the strategy was and how we need to invest more in order to turn Latinos out.

COOPER: LaTosha, Axios is reporting that Republicans are, in their words, growing bullish that they'll make what Axios calls significant inroads with working class Hispanic voters. If that proves true, what do you think the lesson that Democrats should walk away with is?

BROWN: I think that the Democrats should walk away with a lesson of literally that the work is done on the ground, that, fundamentally, this is not an air war. You can't take millions of millions of dollars and just throw them in television ads and that's going to get a victory, that there are people that are feeling that they're not being touched, that their issues are not being addressed to, and I think that those are voters that actually would be in alignment with a Democratic agenda, the Democratic Party agenda, but you have got to reach them.

And so I think that the lesson is, if you want the votes, you have got to get the votes. And the way that you get the votes, you literally have to make sure that you're doing work that we're seeing, that isn't just an air war but this is also a ground war. And we've got to put more investments on the ground to make sure that we're reaching those voters, those voters that are on the margins, those voters who have not seen themselves as part of the process.

COOPER: LaTosha Brown and Xochitl Hinojosa, thanks so much, I appreciate it.

A handful of races could decide who controls the U.S. Senate. We'll look at what to watch, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

COOPER: Welcome back. As you know, the battle for the party -- which party is going to control the U.S. Senate could hinge on five races. I'm with our Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten to take a look at those races. Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. So, when we look at these five, keep in mind that Democrats likely need to win four of the five in order to maintain control.

Let's start out west in Arizona. We'll go in alphabetical order here. So, we got Senator Mark Kelly, of course, won a special election back in 2020, was leading for most of the campaign, but Republican Blake Masters has come on strong. He is a big fan of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a big fan of him, an election denier. It is going to be an interesting race because the ballots could take a long time to count in the state. Really, at this point, it is a tossup.

COOPER: Democrats had been confident about Kelly for a long time, but Blake Masters, it's a tight race.

ENTEN: It is absolutely a tight a race, all the races on the screen. They may have been wide at one point but they've become much closer and closer as we get to --

COOPER: What about Georgia?

ENTEN: So, let's go to Georgia. And here in Georgia, you'll notice we have three names on the screen instead of two, which is quite unusual, because we have a libertarian, Chase Oliver. The reason the libertarian is on the screen is because Georgia is unique, and this is something we're going to emphasize over and over again on our air. It is unique because the leader on Election Day or for the election in November has to receive a majority of the vote in order to win. If, let's say, the leader gets 49.99 percent, that is not a majority, then there would be runoff between either Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker come December, and that could, in fact, be that the battle for the United States Senate takes all the way until December to know who actually controls it.

COOPER: They've spent so much money on this race already. The idea that there could be a runoff is exhausting.

ENTEN: The truth is I'm exhausted already and we're just going to continue to be exhausted. We need more coffee as we continue.

COOPER: All right. Nevada?

ENTEN: Let's go to Nevada. Let's go back out west. Here, we have Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, arguably the most in danger Democratic incumbent, taking on Adam Laxalt, the Republican, who is the former attorney general.

[10:40:04]

The Laxalt name, of course, in Nevada, a very big name. It used to be a United States senator named Paul Laxalt.

Catherine Cortez Masto has basically seen her lead shrink in the polls. Laxalt has come in very, very strong. As I said, this may be the race that is most endangered Democratic incumbent. Yes, the Democrats have won the presidential race in Nevada in every race since 2008 but Donald Trump improved Mitt Romney's performance in 2016 and then improved upon his own performance in 2020. So, Nevada, a very tight race in a very purple state.

COOPER: The New Hampshire Senate race is interesting as well. ENTEN: New Hampshire is also interesting because I don't think this was on a lot of people's radar, Senator Maggie Hassan taking on Don Bolduc, who was actually propped up by a lot of outside spending from Democratic-affiliated groups during the primary. I think a lot of people left this kind of on the sidelines, but this race is close considerably in the final days.

Remember, even though Joe Biden won the state comfortably, Hillary Clinton won it by a very small margin in 2016. So, this is a state in New England that could be very interesting.

One last race I'll point out, obviously, the Pennsylvania Senate race. We all know about this, John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz. This is a real interesting race because the two candidates in there, not necessarily beloved by the voters.

COOPER: Harry Enten, I appreciate it, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

COOPER: Let's go to Alisyn Camerota. Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Okay, Anderson, thank you.

Let's bring back our CNN political commentators. We have Abdul El- Sayed, S.E. Cupp, former Pennsylvania Congressman Charlie Dent and Karen Finney.

So, of course, we're all praying for a peaceful election week, but last night at a rally in Ohio, former President Donald Trump continued his incendiary rhetoric against Speaker Nancy Pelosi even after the violent attack on her husband, Paul, which Speaker Pelosi talked about exclusively to Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Nancy Pelosi sid, please don't call them animals, they're human beings. I said, no, they're animals. Of course, I think she's an animal too, you want to know the truth.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): For me, this is really the hard part because Paul was not the target and he's the one who is paying the price. I mean, we all are. But he's the one that is really paying the price. But it really -- it is really sad because it is a flame that was fueled by misinformation and all of the rest of that, which is most unfortunate. It has no place in our democracy.

Our democracy is one party that is doubting the outcome of the election, feeding that flame and mocking any violence that happens. That has to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: S.E., Donald Trump dehumanizes people he doesn't like. And I guess at this point, we have to assume he doesn't care that it leads to violence. S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, and he does it especially with women. There is a trigger for him. Women who don't like him or disagree with him, he really gets vicious about their looks or their humanity or their dignity.

I think the rhetoric is partly to blame. But to me, the most dangerous part, Nancy Pelosi alluded to it just there, are these conspiracy theories. They're garbage and they are a mind-altering drug. And they have infiltrated politics. QAnon is in Congress. Anti-Semitism is in Congress because Republicans didn't have the courage to disavow these voters. They didn't have the courage to say, we don't want you, QAnon. If you believe there is a pedophile ring in the Democratic Party, we don't want you. They were happy to take them.

And so, yes, Trump's rhetoric and other Republicans' rhetoric is a problem. The conspiracy theories that leads people like Pelosi's attacker, to act on these crazed ideas, I think are the deeper issue.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And I think you could draw a straight line from Charlottesville to January 6, to the attack on Paul Pelosi in that political violence, there was not good people on both sides.

CUPP: No.

FINNEY: The violence has been normalized, mainstreamed, and to what you were saying, S.E., sort of it is okay, it is okay if we laugh and we call her an animal. And that is -- I agree with you. The Republican Party and he's largely to blame for not standing up to it sooner, but I also think we all have to acknowledge something.

We always like to say, well, this isn't who we are. It is. That is who we are. And we have to decide that we don't want to be that and then make it change. But it is got to be the Republican Party doing it with us.

CAMEROTA: And, by the way, when you light that spark, you don't know who is listening. So, in other words, the Republicans, it is demonstrable, have list that spark more often with their incendiary rhetoric. However, then last night, Ted Cruz was at a Houston Astros victory parade and someone threw a beer can at him. So, here is that moment. Because, you know, once you dehumanize people, you don't know what's going to happen.

So, we should also mention that the person who did that has now been charged with aggravated assault.

[10:45:02]

Charlie?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think Republicans need to get back to small C conservatism, incrementalism, measured statements, discipline, order, stability. These are good traits and characters --

CAMEROTA: They are so far from that right now.

DENT: And the conspiracy theories and all this hateful rhetoric, I mean, this is not what they should be about. And they have to really cleanse themselves and start exacting discipline on some people who are out of control. When I was in, we spent a lot of time getting members to leave Congress who became distractions or embarrassments. We didn't embrace them.

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I want you to ask you, one of the things that I find really frustrating is we had a moment in our politics where we could disagree or we could disagree somewhat agreeably. And I don't mean to call the civility point out. But the question I often have for a lot of friends of mine who continue to vote for this form of politics, and they can put aside the dehumanization, they can put aside the attacks, but, implicitly, when you are going into the ballot box and you're pushing on a name that you know is doing that, you are choosing that kind of politics for America.

And I guess my question is, why is it that otherwise good people are willing to disregard this kind of thing even as we're watching the temperature and real people getting injured and hurt by it?

CUPP: I mean, I spoke to some Republican voters, they're not MAGA Republicans, they're New England Republicans, a couple of weekends ago, and I said exactly that. Why do you want more of this, the election denialism, anti-democracy, violent rhetoric, and they said that is all bad. That's all bad but so are gas prices, so are grocery prices.

That is not illegitimate to me. Obviously, I made a different calculation and I will continue to. Those aren't illegitimate reasons to vote for someone but they are able to compartmentalize that.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And I also think that we are so tribal, it's your team. You're on your team regardless of if your team misbehaves. And I just want to -- before I get to you, I play want more example of this last night, Kari Lake, who, of course, is running in Arizona, she also engaged in nasty name calling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE KARI LAKE (R-AZ): And these bastards back there don't want us talking about stolen elections. Well, it doesn't matter what they attempt tomorrow because we're going to show up like our lives depend on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I mean, just awful, obviously, calling the press a profanity there. I don't want to talk about stolen elections. No, we just want to present the facts.

FINNEY: That's right. Look, it is shameful and she's frightening in many ways because she is a version of Trump. But she says it a little more nicely so it doesn't sound quite as harsh. We're talking about teams. I've thinking a lot about how -- think about the fact that a young man is suspended from the NBA for anti- Semitism. But you can be in Congress and be an anti-Semite. You can be in Congress and be QAnon. You can be in Congress and call for political violence. When do we say it makes you unqualified to serve our country and our Constitution if that is what you engage in? That is really the standard that I think we have to re-set. There has to be some level of qualification that says, no, if you're going to incite violence, you can't serve in Congress.

CUPP: But character went out the window, I mean, in 2016. It was not on the ballot in 2016.

DENT: To be fair, in Pennsylvania, we have Doug Mastriano running as a Republican nominee for governor, and there are a lot of Republicans, including myself, who say, we're not going near that. And, no, he's going to get beaten because there are enough of us, and not just people like me who were elected officials but plenty of other regular Republicans who said, no, and they're going to elect a Democrat over Mastriano. This is a form discipline.

CAMEROTA: It is. But, I mean, that's voting. I mean, I think that Karen is also saying when will colleagues, when somebody has already been elected, say, you're now disqualified because it is so incendiary. But we'll talk more about that. Friends, thank you all very much.

All right, so after an hours' long delay for the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, the numbers are in, but do we have a winner? We tell you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The winning Powerball numbers just announced in that record jackpot of now more than $2 billion. So, did someone win?

CNN's Martin Savidge joins me now. Martin, is there a winner.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Gosh, I'd sure hope so, because we have been through so much suspense. I mean, this has gone on now for roughly ten hours. It was supposed to be drawing last night, 10:59, it occurred at 11:57. In case you don't know, the numbers are 10, 33, 41, 47, 56 and the Powerball is 10. So, hopefully, those are your numbers. However, with the odds being 292 million to 1, there is a reality here that it is possible nobody has won.

The reason for this delay was security protocols. We haven't gotten any more clearer explanation on that. There are 48 members that all play this game, and that means the Powerball, and that is 45 states, the district of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Somebody, we don't know who, some one of those members had a problem when it came to tabulating their sales and player data.

[10:55:05]

And all that has to be straight before they actually pull the numbers or draw those ping pong balls that we all see.

So, the jackpot actually went to $2.04 billion, largest ever in history. And we are anxiously waiting to see if somebody won it and we'll let you know. Usually, it takes a couple of hours and, quite frankly, most of this happens overnight while we're sleeping. And so that is why it seems like why don't we know, but we will.

CAMEROTA: And also, Martin, I mean, this has rolled over dozens of times, this jackpot. So, it is possible that there is no winner. And it feels like Lucy and the Football actually now.

SAVIDGE: Yes. 41 times we've had drawings without a winner. Will it go to 42? Like I said, I don't think I could take it anymore. But, hopefully, we'll hear soon.

CAMEROTA: I rarely see you crack, but this is actually breaking you. Okay. Martin, thank you. We'll check back with you.

And CNN's election coverage continues after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]