High-stakes Georgia Runoff

Good evening. It was fast, but I could have to just call for help. It's been too long, Cowboy. Toy Story 5 is only in theaters.

So that's really bad. Are you from sort of old man, Todd? He thinks you're all because you're bald, Woody. From Disney and Pixar.

Toys are for play. Tech is for everything. It's toys versus tech. The screen just took over.

All the tapping. The tapping. On June 19. I want to talk to you, device alone, Todd.

Sorry, Todd. I have plastic fingers. Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5, only theaters June 19. Good evening.

By this time tomorrow night, I'll be counting the votes in Georgia Senate runoff. The polls close at seven. Seen in coverage begins at four. At stake, whether Democratic Senate Raphael Warnock holds off challenger Herschel Walker, giving Democrats a 51 to 49 majority in control of Senate committees next year.

Now, the race has already seen a record number of early ballots cast, massive campaigns spending, especially on the Democratic side. Negative ads from both sides and numerous allegations of personal misconduct by women against Walker. It has been quite a race. It was quite a final day of it.

Seen in chef's only tonight has details. One final day of overtime in Georgia. We are on purge of victory. But I don't want us to do the victory dance before we actually get into the end zone.

Senator Raphael Warnock exuding confidence. But warning Democrats against being complacent on the eve is runoff against Republican challenger Herschel Walker. You can know you got a champion in Herschel Walker. With control of the Senate set to stay in Democratic hands, Walker implored Republicans to send him to Washington as a check on President Biden and his policies.

Vote, vote, vote. If you hand vote, tell me to get out and vote. It's the final big act of the 2022 midterm election, with Georgia voters once again having a last word. More than 1.8 million have already cast ballots.

But both sides know the outcome depends on election day turnout on Tuesday. If there's anything I'm worried about, it's that people will think that we don't need their voice. We do. We need you to show up.

Walker faces deep challenges in money and math. I agree with this message. Democrats have more than double GOP ad spending over the last month alone, and astonishing $55 million to 26 million in TV spots that have flooded the Georgia airwaves to the total cost of nearly $81 million since November 9. The former football great is also scrambling to overcome an extraordinary 200,000 vote shortfall of underperforming Republican Governor Brian Kemp in November, a deficit complicating his path.

Walker supporters are keeping hope alive. You think more may come out to vote on Tuesday? I think it will be a lot of Republicans that vote. And I think a lot of them have already voted.

We voted early this time. How many people still voting? How many people still voting? So what about them?

It's voters like John and Marky Haynes who keep the outcome of the runoff hanging in suspense, since they are Republicans who have already voted a sign that not only Democrats are casting their ballots early. I think they're going to get this right. They know this race is about competence and character. And I remain hopeful that I'll be able to continue to do this work for the next six years.

The White House is also watching closely. A war not win would give Democrats a 51 to 49 majority in the Senate, not only breathing room, but protection for the president and his agenda from the Republican controlled house. Jeff Zellings joins us now from Georgia. From President Trump recruited Walker to run for Senate in Georgia.

What kind of role has he played in Walker's campaign particularly in this runoff period? Because he hasn't been visiting, obviously, during it. Well, I understand that's right. It has been largely an absent role.

In fact, diminished to calling in tonight to a teller rally. What that is, is just trying to fire up his base supporters, but he's not been seen in public, not even been heard from in public. The reality is it's been very much a double edged sword. Yes, a Herschel Walker needs the support of the Trump base, but it's also being used by Democrats to try and drive out their support.

In fact, Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, was calling Herschel Walker his opponent the hand-picked candidate of Donald Trump today. So trying to use him to fire him up. But on that phone call tonight with supporters of the former president said that Herschel Walker is the last line of defense against President Biden. So trying to cast this race, even though the control of the Senate does not depend on it as a check against the White House.

He said, if Herschel Walker is elected, it will make Chuck Schumer's life more miserable. But Anderson, that is a staker. They're not talking about control of the Senate, as they certainly hope they would be. Yeah, just telling you to appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. I'm from Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Jeff Duncan, a Republican who recently said on this program that he could not bring himself to vote for either Walker or Warnock. Lieutenant Governor, I appreciate you being with us.

How likely, how does President Trump, former President Trump, play in this? Do the rewards of a phone call to a tell a rally outweigh the use of that by Democrats against Walker? Yeah, I think the token rally is just that. It's a token rally, right?

I mean, he went from being a massive tailwind early in Herschel Walker's campaign. It's really the only reason why he became the nominee was because of Donald Trump early on. But fast forward 12 months in reality setting in. He's now probably the biggest headwind that Herschel Walker has.

In fact, he doesn't mention him anywhere he really goes. And if he could do it all over again, he probably would never mention his name on the campaign trail. In the interviews with Politico this weekend, Walker didn't seem to know, I mean, it wasn't clear he knew exactly which house he was running for. He seemed to indicate he was running for a house seat and talked about this breaking the balance of power.

Do at this point, is this a vote against Walker? Is it a vote for people who are coming out on the Democrat side or coming out to vote for Warnock? Is it purely about the candidates themselves supporting the Democrat or is it against Walker? Well, first of all, it's really hard for me to have to do this, right, to call balls and strikes on my own team.

But I think it's an important part of the process. It's not fun to go home at night and talk to your wife about how many folks have discussed this stuff on social media and trash to us and our family. But this is a necessary step in healing. And so for me to answer the question, this is a proxy on Joe Biden.

It's a proxy on Donald Trump. At the end of the day, you got to be competent on the subject. This is the Senator, a 100 people that represent the US Senate. You've got to be competent on the issues.

And whether you're a person who struggles with the fact that Herschel Walker may be from Texas, if you struggle with the fact that there's all these personal allegations and all these don't just call these women liars and not actually address or distinguish the rumors. If you're worried about any sort of policy positions, there's a lot there. And I'm one of those Republicans that think that conservative policies matter. Brian Kemp got reelected in Georgia because he ran on his record.

He ran on how he governed. And that's how we have statewide officers all across our state that are Republicans. But there's certainly a lot of people who will vote for Walker, maybe not because they think he's competent or the best person for the job, but because he will vote conservative, he will vote Republican, and that's what matters at the end of the day for now. Well, look, we're unfortunately not talking about the majority in the Senate from the Republican perspective.

We're talking about some nuance stuff around committees and judicial appointments. We're just trying to break this vicious cycle of addiction to Donald Trump as Republicans. And that's really what it is, right? That's what you're talking about when you say a healing nation.

Yeah, look, this is a vicious cycle of addiction that started when they told us to swallow it and take him as our nominee, then deal with his trashing everybody on Twitter and then dealing with the post-election fallout and the conspiracy theories and then Herschel Walker. And it's time to break this vicious cycle. It's time to heal up. So I'm going to go figure out who's the real leaders.

And everybody talks about Jeff, you need to be a team player. We need team leaders right now as Republicans. We just got trounced when it should have been one of the biggest, easiest layups we've made in years and decades, but unfortunately we put the wrong candidates in place all over the country. I'm sure the folks in Arizona wish they could have somebody other than Blake Masters and Kerry Lake.

I'm sure the folks in the Republicans in Pennsylvania wish they had somebody other than Dr. Oz hindsight's 2020. And I think unfortunately we're going to wake up on Wednesday and realize that we wish we had somebody other than Herschel Walker representing us. I want to bring in also a senior political commentator from South Carolina Democratic State Law and Democratic State Lawmaker, of course, Sellers also Georgia conservative radio host Martha Zollar who worked on the campaign for former Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue and current governor Brian Kemp.

McCarrie, I mean conventional wisdom is that Warnock has momentum on his side. Do you, are you optimistic? Is there anything that gives you pause about what may happen tomorrow? Let's go be very close.

And the thing that gives me pause is what everybody on this panel will tell you, which is that Republicans turn out on election day. They're going to show up in a lot of big numbers in a lot of small counties tomorrow on the day of the election. The question is, in these larger urban counties like the Cat County, Fulton County, in Savannah, in Augusta, will people will particularly black voters in those areas continue to come out tomorrow? And will we have a large enough early vote advantage?

I say the answer to that is yes, because you've seen a well oil machine on behalf of the Warnock campaign showing up early. Now, he will tell you, like anyone else will tell you, you cannot count your chickens before they hatch. As he says, you can't spike the ball before you actually swear the touchdown. And so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

We hope them were Democrats tomorrow, but our early vote advantage should give us the edge. Martha, I mean, you hear a Herschel Walker in those comments of Politico sounding like there's some confusion about his understanding of the workings of Congress. Do you think at this point that costume support at all? Because previously I know you said that you do see a path to victory for Mr.

Walker. Yeah, I mean, I don't think this costume this late in the game. And as I pointed out when we talked before, is that if you look at the counties basically a little bit of North Atlanta South, the deficit against Governor Kemp was about two points. It wasn't as much to overcome.

The problem, and the problem for Herschel Walker, is that the big differences, we're in counties like the county that Jeff lives in and I live in and Cherokee County and other ones. And so that's where the biggest ground to make up is. And so I like to look at the data. I think for most Republicans, they're going to vote for Herschel Walker because he is the Republican candidate and going to vote like a Republican.

But I'm really looking at the data county by county. And that's what I'm going to be looking at tomorrow night. Governor, I'm using Governor Kemp now going all in using his ground operation in support of Walker. Is that going to help make up that deficit?

I think it certainly helps. I don't know if it is able to close the gap. I mean, he starts out way behind just because of the 200,000 folks that split the ticket. Those folks that openly admitted that they held their nose and went in and voted.

So you minus all of those numbers. It's a tough hill to climb. And it will be a turnout game. And certainly it's Georgia.

And so anything can happen week up Wednesday morning and Herschel Walker went by landslide. I just don't see any data points that show that actually could happen. But the one thing that just shocks me is here we aren't the closing part. And the best asset that Republicans have is Joe Biden.

It's really the failed record and all those things out there that just are unanswerable. We're not talking about that. We're talking about Herschel Walker. We're talking about shortcomings.

We're talking about whether or not he lived in Texas or not. All these interviews he gave from Texas. I mean, those are the wrong things to be talking about. If you're a Republican, it certainly wasn't what Ryan Kemp was talking about when he ran away with the race over Stacey Abrams.

The most funded and highest name idea of any candidate, maybe in the history of the Democratic Party. Well, Corey, I mean, we saw a former president Obama fly to Georgia last week's campaign for one of the closest former president Trump has come into Walker campaign. And we're talking about this virtual event tonight online. Is the race going to prove out what works and what doesn't for each party going forward?

Is this a defining moment for the former president? No, because Republicans won't learn their lesson. I mean, the fact is, and I appreciate Lieutenant Governor Duncan simply saying this, but you can't nominate like masters. You can't nominate Mastering Honor.

You can't nominate Herschel Walker. You can't nominate these people and expect Georgians or Arizonans or Pennsylvanians to be that naive about the political process. I mean, people go up and they can see, they can hear. They can hear how inarticulate Herschel Walker is.

They know that he doesn't understand the fundamentals of what happens in the United States Congress. And what you're asking them to do is say, look, set aside your intellect, set aside your morals, set aside your ethics, set aside what you see with your own eyes. And go and vote for him anyway, so that we can have one more United States Senator. And I just feel like that's shallow reasoning.

And I think that when you have two candidates and you're able to draw those contrasts, there's been nothing dramatic that's happened. And I don't think that the Kemp Organization is a dramatic addition for Herschel Walker or a huge subtraction for Wafia Warnock. There's been nothing to change the game with the dynamics. Kemp is definitely a value addict.

I'm just not sure he's a value addict that can make up the ground that Herschel Walker needs to make up because of his own issues that he brings to the table. Martha? Anderson, the point there though is ground game. Okay, the big difference that the Kemp campaign brings is the ground game as well as Greater Georgia with Kelly Loeffler.

Republicans have not had a ground game like this in a very long time, if ever. You know, Jeff Duncan is a great Republican. I think he did a terrific job as Lieutenant Governor. I have been proud to work with him on a number of issues.

And we don't have any disagreements about these issues, but I'm just looking on the ground. And I think that we just don't know about a Georgia runoff. 10 years ago, they were three weeks. For the last several cycles, they've been nine weeks.

Now they're four weeks. It's very difficult to predict. And I think that it could go either way tomorrow. Coming up, I don't worry.

I think we've got our work cut out as Republicans all over the country. We are waiting for a leader to show up that cares as much about this country as I think our founding fathers did. We need a direction, I think, a conservative direction to get this country back on track. So Governor Duncan, I appreciate you being with us.

Of course, sellers, Martin Holler as well. Thanks so much. Coming up next, the former president's call to terminate parts of the Constitution, the US Constitution, is lie about what he said and the difficult many Republicans are still having calling him out on it. We're keeping him honest.

And later, the mystery is surrounding which being called a targeted attack on ports in North Carolina's power grid, people still in the dark tonight, literally and figuratively, and why the FBI is now part of the investigation. Keeping him honest tonight, the former president is once again asking who you're gonna believe me or your lying eyes. Once again, he is pretending he didn't say something absurd and absurdly dangerous for he once and possibly future presidents to say. And as you've likely heard early Saturday morning, he posted a rants of sorts on his social media site responding to the release of internal Twitter emails from 2020 about 100 Biden's laptop and a New York post story at the time.

The relevant part reads, a massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Now, a lot of reporters and commentators have substituted the verb suspend for terminate, but he didn't say suspend. He said quote, allows for the termination. What pieces of the Constitution he would actually terminate, again, the verb that he used, he did not say.

It is certainly startling, yes, to hear a former president and any former president or public official for that matter is humbling about terminating the Constitution, the document that our entire system is based on, the thing public officials, members of the military, swear to uphold and defend, and the document that people have died to protect. What's not startling is that today the former president is pretending he never said what he just said, and we all read. In another social media rant today, he wrote quote, the fake news is actually trying to convince the American people that I said I wanted to terminate the Constitution. This is simply more disinformation, lies just like the Russia, Russia, and all the other hoaxes and scams.

Keep it honest though, the old post is still up. You can check it out, it's not been deleted. It hasn't been changed. I'm quoting again because the words are exactly the same as they were on Saturday.

A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. So he's lying, of course, the lie is plain to see, of course. And of course, just like last week, when it was him dining with anti-Semites and a white nationalist, and any, though not all Republican lawmakers and party members, are finding it hard to simply condemn what he said straight up without all kinds of hemming and hawing. Alaska Senator Lisa McCauskey called it a betrayal of his oath to office and in front of the republic.

The former vice president, though, put his old boss said into a kind of a nameless, faceless, timeless vacuum. I must tell you that I think everyone that serves in public office, everyone that is fired is a server, again, should make it clear that we will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. OK, yeah, everyone should. But what about the actual guy who actually just broke that rule and then lied about it?

He doesn't say. Senator John Kennedy doesn't even go that far. To him, this is a matter of interpretation. I disagree with the president.

The Constitution can be amended. The Constitution can be interpreted. But the Constitution can't be suspended. Senator Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott said nothing when asked today about the former president's statements.

And then Roger Marshall tried a new verse of the old song and didn't see that tweet. I don't know what President Trump said about the Constitution. I just don't think that's the issue. I don't think that's what you all should be talking about.

Not what we should be talking about. When told about the comments by CNN, Senator Marshall still did not condemn them, saying, quote, I don't know if that's been taken out of context or what or where it came from. Again, just in case you didn't know, it came directly from the mind and social media count of the former president. Congressman Dave Joyce of Ohio tried a variation on the theme and then would not rule out voting for the former president in 2024.

Well, when President Trump was in office, I didn't make a habit of speaking out of his tweet to Juhara. I don't know what came out on this, whatever his new social platform is. In 2016, 2020, you voted for him in 2016. In 2020, now he's talking about suspending the Constitution.

Can you support a candidate in 2024 versus suspending the Constitution? Well, again, it's early. I think there's going to be a lot of people in the primary. I think at the end of the day, you will say, whether the Republican then to pick up all in behind, because that's even if it's Donald Trump as he's called for suspending the Constitution.

Well, again, I think it's going to be a big field. I don't think Donald Trump's going to clear out the field like he did at 6. That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking you, if he's the nominee, we support him.

I will support whoever the Republican nominee is. By the way, what's a pretty big field in 2016? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who's also not ruled out voting for the former president again, has yet to weigh in on this. The same for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

By the way, the same with Kevin McCarthy, who says he plans to have his members read the Constitution out loud when the new Congress convenes. Joining us now is seen in political commentator one-time campaign advisor to the former president David Urban, also seen in senior political commentator, former senior advisor to President Obama David Axelrod. David Urban, I mean, how can Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy square having Republicans read the Constitution from the House floor, it being that important, with the former president wanting to terminate the Constitution? I would say that's a bad timing, right?

It's an opportune timing on Kevin McCarthy's part in terms of making that announcement. I don't think he anticipated that the former president would call for spending the Constitution. Well, clearly it's outrageous, right? I mean, so many people, you've just articulated Anderson, you take it oath to uphold to defend the Constitution, put your hand in the Bible and say, I will fight to defend this document, these principles.

And for the former president to say he's gonna suspend it because of a personal grievance about the election, it's just outrageous. And so I think that it's not that hard to say that, but in fact, does it have an impact on the Trump voters in the 2024 primary? I think it's not gonna have an impact on the Trump 2024 primary voters. I think that there's those rioters, I've been saying 30% of the rioters are still with them.

They don't care what he says. And they just chalk it up to, oh, it's more hyperbole by the former president. David, what does it say that even among those Republicans, speaking out against the comments by the former president, few have said that they are disqualifying? Yes, well, listen, Anderson, first of all, I feel like you and I, and maybe Dave, have had this conversation many before.

It's hard to, I've even, I actually was thinking a lot about how to even describe this, because I don't wanna give in to sort of this, we daily, I don't wanna get it back into this daily outrage machine of like, this is what he does. I don't know why we're surprised by it. I mean, this has played out multiple times, but contained. And the man provoked an insurrection against the US government.

The man lied about an election, and sold that land continues to relentlessly. But the rumor is that he caught a movement and all the folks dressed up, like people from 1776, and they talk about the Constitution, and people on January 6, talking about the Constitution. Yes. Now he says we can terminate it.

Yeah, and you should go back and read some of the quotes of the founding fathers about the demagogues they feared, because they sound very much like Donald Trump. But Kevin McCarthy, what he ought to do is, rather than reading the Constitution on the floor of the House, he ought to go down to Mar-a-Lago and read it in the dining room, where he met with the President Trump a week after the insurrection. Because he's the person who really needs to hear what the Constitution says. But in terms of your question, it is very clear that Republicans still fear Donald Trump.

And what's remarkable about it is that we just went through a midterm election where people gave a resounding verdict on this whole election denial nonsense, this dangerous election denial stuff, and defeated candidates who were carrying the Trump banner and carrying the election denial banner. And yet here we are again, and still, the party leaders won't announce Trump, won't take him on friendly, because they fear the base, they fear primary voters. And in Kevin McCarthy's case, he's still trying to get the votes to become Speaker of the House. So Donald Trump has that party, he's holding that party hostage right now.

It is like having a drunk relative who yells out obscenities or incredibly inappropriate things, and you don't know what to do about him, and so everyone people just ignore him. I mean, as soon he'll be wandering around with an onion tied to his belt, talking about movies used to cost a nickel. Well, there's no question there. I just felt like you wanted to say that.

The current president did say turn on the victory roll at one point. Not too long ago. So we're not too far from him. Anderson, to David's point, when he raises, it's a good point, right?

And to your point about the outrage machine, we just got drugged as a Republican party. We just got drugged because independents told us they feared Trump and Trumpy, two Trumpy candidates. And as we look to 24, the Senate has a third of the Senate's up. So 33 senators are running.

Of those 33, 23 are Democrats, right? So, or Cox of the Democrats. So the Democrats have a very unfavorable map in coming up here in 2024. And I'm very fearful that if we don't try to turn the ship around the water, we're going to snatch a defeat for the jaws of victory once again.

But David, it is extraordinary. The former president, he announced he's running for president, I don't know what, three weeks ago? And how do you put the launches going? Right, I mean, since then he's dined with an anti-Semite and an actual neo-Nazi, or, yeah, I guess an actual neo-Nazi.

And now he's talked about terminating the Constitution, or at least parts of it. I mean, how is that campaign gone? As a former, as somebody knows about campaigning. Well, it's an unorthodox strategy.

I'll say that. Listen, I don't think he sort of blunderbusted into the election. He felt wounded by the results of the election. He didn't want to appear weak and defeated.

So he announced his candidacy right away. There was no plan. There was no thought. And basically, he is operating from his feral instincts here.

And he's repeating behavior that got him in trouble in the first place. So I think the reality remains what David Irvin said, which is he still has a grip on a third, or maybe a little more than a third of that Republican primary. And that gives him a lot of leverage. David, that's right.

David Irvin, I guess we'll leave it there. Thank you. Appreciate it. Coming up.

The FBI is now involved in what's been called a targeted attack on two county power substations in central North Carolina, tens of thousands without power. Many questions about who carried out the attack. We'll have a live report from North Carolina plus former senior official with Homeland Security will talk to us next. Now, what's being described as a targeted attack over the weekend, the damage to substations with gunfire, temperatures in more county, North Carolina expected to be in the mid 40s tonight.

As state and local officials desperately try to restore power to tens of thousands of residents. Outages expected to last until Wednesday or Thursday for most residents. No suspects, remotives announced the FBI is now involved in the investigation. Prior to the attack, it had warned of an increase in reported threats.

The nation's power grid from racially motivated violent extremists. Since Miguel Marquez has more on that. Attacks on two power substations in a central North Carolina county sending ripples of concern nationwide over the threat of domestic terrorism. The White House is monitoring has been monitoring the situation and is in contact with local officials and improving how government communicates and shares threat information with the private sector.

The attacks underscoring how fragile components of a nation's electric grid can be. Protecting critical infrastructure like our power system must be a top priority. This kind of attack raises a new level of threat. We will be evaluating ways to work with our utility providers and our state and federal officials to make sure that we harden our infrastructure where that's necessary and work to prevent future damage.

Officials in more counties say they don't know who attacked the substations or why, but their share says whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing. I'm not going to jeopardize anything that would might jeopardize the investigation, but it was multiple shots. The attacks follow recent Department of Homeland Security and FBI warnings of possible attacks on critical infrastructure and in 2020 far-right plots were disrupted in both Idaho and Las Vegas, both targeting the electric grid. Since 2020, we've seen a real uptick in chatter by accelerationist groups.

Those who want to topple the US government by eco-terrorist groups, but particularly by the right-wing neo-Nazi movement saying the power grid is the way to cause chaos. And their theory is that if you identify the key nodes and you knock out one and they divert power to the next one, and then you knock out the next one and the next one. Shown here, a how-to guide in a telegram channel by groups seeking to overthrow the US government, featuring instructions on low-tech attacks meant to bring chaos, including how to attack a power grid with guns. Rumors on social media blamed right-wing protesters supposedly trying to stop a drag show in the county from taking place Saturday, but the sheriff says there's no evidence so far to make that connection.

And the show's organizers told CNN they received no specific threats before the power station attacks. Nobody's group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that everyone's have done it. So, yeah, I call them powers. Residents and officials now struggling to cope with a lack of power cut off without warning.

Got no way to heat because we don't have a fireplace and then we don't have no gas grill or anything like that. So, we just stranded. There's so many people that are hurting. The revenue stream has been stopped.

You know, if you have health issues, it is critical. It is just a horrible, horrible terrorist, in my opinion, at Cowardly to do that. And the girl joins us now. Are authorities any closer identifying any suspects?

Yeah, well, I answer that. I want to show you sort of what the work going on behind us at one of these substations here. What is remarkable when you look at this thing and you show up here is just how big it is in a number of workers. It's an army of workers trying to get this thing back up and going.

On whether there is an arrest imminent or a suspect, there is another army of local, state and federal law enforcement that are looking into this. But keep in mind that 2013 attack in California that the FBI sort of said was mischief and not terrorism. There's never been an arrest in that here in North Carolina. They hope that they can figure out exactly who did this.

They believe that whoever knew exactly what they were doing. Anderson, come on guys. I appreciate it. I'm Chris Grebs, former senior official of the Homeland Security who oversaw security for both infrastructure and cyber security.

Chris, you heard the mayor of Southern Pines in McGill's piece. She believes this was a terrorist act. I mean, how vulnerable are these? Well, I think at this point the investigation as it plays out, it's too early to say definitively whether it's domestic terrorism or something along those lines.

But as you recounted over the last several years, there have been cases of extremist acceleration that have gone after the grid or planned to. So there's plenty of historical buildup to take a really hard look at what's happening here. Now the threat model, the electricity companies have historically been concerned about from a physical security threat is burglary. It's crime.

It's people getting into those facilities and stealing copper and other metals. I think when you want to protect against something like this, long-range rifle shots, building walls and putting additional security people in the facility, that's simply not the answer. So we're going to see a lot more probably coordination between the federal government law enforcement, the FBI, and in the private sector, in this case, Duke Energy. So you're saying building walls is not an answer?

I mean, it's not that simple. Well, no, absolutely right. When you look at this facility, this was probably a long-range fire of several hundred meters yards, whatever you want to use. And a wall would have to be pretty high.

And these substations are distributed throughout. These are down from the transmission to the distribution networks. They're everywhere. And it's just not feasible.

It's not practical to harden the individual sites. So now we have to get into a prevention situation and hopefully we can identify who did this and then arrest, convict, and then put them away. And that's a deterrents measuring of itself. The fact that the local sheriff says the person or people who damaged substations knew exactly what they were doing, what does that tell you about the perpetrator, the kind of knowledge they had in order to do this?

I mean, it seems like the information is pretty much out there. Well, I think three quick points first is that 2013 out in California, the Metcalf substation that was hit with hundreds of rounds, and they got in, the perpetrators got in and cut fiber optic cable to cut off communications in security. That was a very sophisticated attack. This attack was not as sophisticated in that it didn't necessarily have all the hallmarks of additional planning.

But the fact that they hit two separate substations shows they knew what they were doing. And my hope is that that gives the law enforcement investigators the opportunity to identify who these people are because they were probably scouting it out. They may have been seen. It's a small, it's 100,000 folks or so in more counties.

So it's not a large county. It's very rural. And if you see people that don't necessarily belong, those sorts of things kind of stick out for the investigators. As we heard in Miguel's report, the White House Press Secretary, Karina John PR said today that the White House has worked closely improving how the government communicates and shares threat information with the private sector.

What more needs to be done on that front? Well, I've got to say that the electricity sub-sector is probably one of the most robust public private partnerships in critical infrastructure security in the United States. It's the finance sector and the electricity sector. Absolutely top-notch.

You have Lynne Goode, who is the CO Duke Energy, who is a longtime player, heavily engaged and involved. Tom Fanning from Southern Company, just down the road in Atlanta, also very, very engaged and involved. We would have regular meetings with the private sector partners and law enforcement and the intelligence community. So there's no shortage of coordination and planning.

And in fact, my assessment is that they probably have local engagements and partnerships as well. So I think it's just we have to continue to double down. We have to update the threat models and accept the fact that, yeah, domestic extremism is on the rise. We have plenty of historical evidence for that and we need to take seriously and build it into our security plans.

Chris Krebs, it's good to talk to you again. Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. Just had a story that we want to warn you right now is disturbing, particularly for any parent, seven-year-old girl in Texas kidnapped and killed and arrest has been made while taking their next.

Students in more than 20 school districts across Texas today will ring pink in honor of a seven-year-old girl allegedly abducted and brutally murdered last Wednesday. The body of Athena Strand was found on Friday. Same day, an arrest was made of a FedEx driver who had made a delivery to the Strand home at the time of Athena's disappearance. Athena's mom says her daughter's favorite color was pink and said she one day hoped to grow up to be a Viking princess with tattoos just like her dad.

She said, 11-year-old is in Texas tonight with the latest. On this driveway, outside a town called Paradise, Texas, investigators say seven-year-old Athena Strand was abducted last Wednesday. Authorities say 31-year-old Tanner Lynn Horner, a FedEx delivery driver kidnapped her. She would never be seen alive again.

For two days, hundreds of community members like Mary Stapleton joined in the search for Athena in this area northwest of Fort Worth. We all searched every morning, every evening and between. We went and searched everything. We went and searched for the up and down this road, thinking that we were going to find a different outcome.

On Friday, investigators said they received a tip that led them to Tanner Horner. A witness captured video of police surrounding a FedEx truck Friday afternoon. Then just hours later, authorities announced the arrest of Tanner Horner. They were able to determine that the driver abducted Athena.

We do have a confession. Wise County Sheriff Lane Aiken says the suspect did not know Athena or her family and that the abduction was a crime of opportunity. The sheriff also said Horner told investigators where he had left the child's body. It's one of the toughest investigations that I've been involved in because it's a child.

And anytime there's a child that dies, it just hits you in your heart. Athena's mother described in a Facebook post that the seven-year-old loved animals and jewelry. She loved candy and sweets and diving boards and her baby sisters. Her mother also said Athena loved school and drawing and wanted hair as long as Rapunzels.

Athena's favorite color was pink and across Wise County, the color popped up everywhere. School districts urged students to wear pink in her honor, pink ribbons and balloons and teddy bears adorned the streets. Most likely residents like Bobbie Dean are struggling to understand how such evil can walk up your driveway. Out here you let your kids go outside, you actually encourage it.

You know, get off the TV, get off the devices and go out and play. But your worries are snakes and falling down or maybe flipping an ATV over. You never worry about something like this like a monster coming and taking somebody. Dean spent the day readjusting security cameras on his property.

The murder has left him rattled. We love Athena. We hate what's happened to her. But she's going to make a difference.

Her memory will live on. And Lebron Darrant joins us now. I understand you all have more information on some of the visuals planned to remember her. Yeah, the outpouring of grief is really dramatic.

I've seen there in Wise County tonight, a vigil in honor of Athena Strand where people are coming out to professing their love for this young child. A girl that the vast majority of these people had never met. And there will be another vigil planned for tomorrow night as well. All of this happening as the suspect remains in jail tonight on a $1.5 million bond and he's been charged with capital murder and aggravated kidnapping and could possibly face the death penalty.

Anderson, so lovely to see all those people coming out and supporting her family and remembering her. Our thoughts are with Athena's family. I'd love to thank you. We'll be right back tonight.

The National Guard is being activated as the fury of the Monoloa volcano continues. It's now the second week of erupting on the Big Island. David Culver tonight takes us on an aerial tour and shows us what a key highway is still in danger some Hawaiians have been down this road before. We are on the road before sunrise.

Quickly realizing we can already spot our destination some 30 miles out. There you see it. That red orange glow, Monoloa erupting. To give you a better view though, we go up in the morning dark.

Paradise helicopters, Darren Hamilton, our pilot and guide giving us rare access. Having flown in military hot zones, Darren even admits this is firepower like no other. It can also be challenging, especially with heavy fog or volcanic smog. Those acidic gases dangerous at the concentration levels are too high.

On the ground, officials closely watching the lava's potential impact on Saddle Road, the main highway that connects the east and west of the island. Erupting last Sunday for the first time in 38 years, Monoloa, the world's largest active volcano, is one of five that make up Hawaii's Big Island. And it's not the only one currently erupting. Neighboring Kilauea, also active, though no longer shooting lava to the surface like it did in 2018.

We're uncomcuingly street, which is where my house was at. And it's that way on the opposite side of the subdivision. Dorothy Thraw invited us to wear her home, now sits, buried under 60 feet of lava. You can see a metal streetlight fused into the rock.

Four years after Kilauea did this to her La Nina State's community, she still walks it as though she's on her old street with her old neighbors. When you have something like this, I assume you're all dispersed after that. Yeah, we lost that sense of community, because we lost in addition to homes. Nala was eruption, an emotional trigger for Dorothy and others, forcing the trauma from Kilauea back to the surface.

The 2018 lava flow wiped out more than 600 homes here. Some untouched, but left lava locked. And island? Within the island.

Dorothy showed us this video she captured a few weeks back, trekking over lava rock, helping friends gather the last of their belongings from their home. The reminders of devastation here are to miss. This was a home. They evacuated the second night and I believe it went under the third night.

And just took their home. And four years later, it's still standing. And how long will it seem like that? Probably 30 to 40 years.

How is it that you can still see beauty after so much loss? Because lava is beautiful. It's a great next-paintly creation. That's how the island was formed.

That's how the island was built. And appreciation shared by Native Hawaiians, leaving offerings on Monaloa. And thousands of tourists and locals arriving past sunset just to witness the lava glow. Nighttime traffic backs up for miles.

To avoid the congestion, let's get back to the skies. Which has already crossed one volcano road, power lines and all. A searing slice right through it. Darren estimates it's moving 30 to 40 miles per hour.

Incredible. So what's the difference with us now from Hawaii? So what working tells us about being in the sky, looking down on that, what's it like to be on the ground tonight now? First of all, that was exhilarating.

At one point you could probably see in a piece we had the doors open and it came over one of the flows Anderson. I looked over and had my hand out as well. It's like opening up fully preheated up and you feel that heat just hit you. And you also can smell and even at times taste the sulfur in the air, which on the ground were starting to smell as well.

So it's starting to spread around the island. And we're also starting to hear about reports of those strands of volcanic glass called paleaze hair going about 40 miles from the volcano. So they're already drifting pretty far. The concern is of course going to focus on that main roadway and it's inching closer.

It's slow at the bottom. It's going about 25 feet per hour, but it's about two miles away. And it's for that reason you've got the National Guard, 20 members on standby. For now they're going to focus on traffic control because it's a tourist trap, but if it gets more serious then they'll have to shut down that highway.

And this can be seen from space, right? Well, I mean that was a really unique thing. Even in the dark of the night you can see it from many miles away. And then we have this image.

This is provided from the International Space Station and it's from outer space looking down and you can see as it passed over the big island and the Hawaii Islands at that, there's the orange red glow. Wow. That is also seen from out of this world and it felt like something from out of this world. I really did.

It's incredible. They've called her appreciated Hawaii. Thank you. We've got some breaking news, sad news tonight.

Emi winning actress, Kirstie Alley, has died of cancer. She was best known for her work on the hit TV comedy Cheers. She also starred in the series, Ronna Cosclosid and appeared in the movie Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan. In later years, Alley played a version of herself in the TV comedy Fat Actress.

Her family just posted a statement on social media saying in part she was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead. It's iconic because she was on screen. She was an even more amazing mother and grandmother. This is Kirstie Alley was 71 years old.

Coming up, we're just hours from the polls opening and a run off election. Already breaking records. What will strong early voter turnout mean as Herschel Walker tries to seat US and Raphael Warnock in Georgia? And what seems like this come to an end in China.

Frisikaria joins us to discuss the steps being taken with the outrage over COVID restrictions. I'll go ahead. Another hour closer to polls opening tomorrow morning in Georgia for the final big event of the 2022 midterms. And as curtain closures go, this one has been pretty much a blockbuster with Mark Key names and Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr's Church, Republican challenger and sports hero Herschel Walker. Also massive, massive, bad spending, especially from the Democratic side this time around. High public interests reflected in early voting numbers that were record breaking. The race has also seen big-name surrogates campaigning for its candidate, though the former president who endorsed Walker early on has shied away from coming to Georgia in the closing hours in campaign in person for him.

We have reporters covering both candidates in these final hours and you and Ken in Atlanta with the Warnock campaign, Senator Jeff Zeleny in Kennesaw, Georgia with the Walker campaign and we'll start with Eva. How did Senator Warnock spend the final day on the trial? Well, Anderson, Senator, run out to get these crucial final hours. I would say showing up support with a court constituents, he's getting the corporate who's going to a black barber shop meeting with college students.

He has put tremendous amount of emphasis on the new folks in the closing days. And then ending the night in this big celebrity filled rally here in Atlanta. Amazing violinist on stage right behind me. But I think closing out in Atlanta really speaks to how Democrats are relying on these court groups to come out in a big way on election day in these regions and universities.

And Warnock is caution-supported about getting overconfident. Yes, he has time and time again. Clearly, Democrats are enjoying some momentum now. He speaks about how he was happy with how many folks came out during the early vote period.

We know a significant amount of black voters, which is such a core group for Democrats came out during that early vote period. But saying don't spike the football, don't get overconfident. And he acknowledged actually tonight at this rally that Republicans tend to come out on election day. So telling the supporters that it's still not worth left to do anything.

You can appreciate it. I want to go to the scene of Jeff Zeleny with Walker campaign and Candice Allgis, North West of Atlanta. What is Walker's closing argument? Well, Anderson, in a nutshell, it's a vote.

In fact, he said vote, vote, vote. Three times in a row. He said flood the polls, let's a vote. Turn out his key to Herschel Walker's campaign.

Of course, that is always true on election day. But tomorrow, it is even more important. And this is why, as Eva was just saying there, Democrats certainly have an advantage in edge going into election day because of early voting. In fact, there's some Republican hand-wringing and some angst that they did not do a better job.

And they fought themselves or other messengers in the Republican party for not encouraging more early voting. Now, of course, there were some Republicans who voted early, but election day turnout is absolutely essential for his campaign. But he was also sort of casting his candidacy as more than himself. He said a vote for Raphael Warnock is a vote for Joe Biden.

He's a vote for Chuck Schumer. He said a vote for Herschel Walker is a vote for Georgia values. So even though the control of the Senate is not hinging on this contest here in Georgia, of course, committee assignments are and it's going to give Democrats more breathing room if they would get it. But Republicans really are looking for the Herschel Walker campaign tomorrow to sort of end this midterm election a year on a high note, if you will.

There were certainly disappointments in the midterm elections. Yes, they won control the House narrowly, but they did not win control of the Senate. So that's what this race is about. And Herschel Walker was a head of a very short message here tonight as he ended a rally earlier this evening.

And he was in this exact same spot in Cobb County in Kennesaw one month ago, the night before the election evening. And there was an air of confidence that evening in his voice in talking to voters. Anderson, that was not as palpable here because they realized that they aren't as confident going into election day tomorrow, but they still were urging huge turnout. And again, he's been outspent tremendously.

They simply believe Republicans have not spent as much and sent as much aid in as they would if control the Senate would have hinged on the Senate. So I just want to go next to Democratic strategist James Carville. He's co-hosted the politics war room podcast also seen in political commentators got Jennings who served as special assistant to the president of the George W. Bush administration.

James, obviously we saw a lot of candidates like Herschel Walker supported by the former president hand picked in many cases by the former president lose their elections last month. What do you think is going to happen to George and Mom? Well, I don't know about Herschel Walker's run the most defining Senate campaign I've ever seen in America. The most like, but the fight.

The derivative of the word the fooling. Okay. And but the polling, the Democratic cap he talked worries me a little bit. The polling I've seen is it's tight.

I mean, one of us got a slight lead, but this is Georgia and anything can happen. And this happy talk, I hope no Democrats see this and decide to stay home because they're going to have to carry through election day. The early vote looks good, but they're going to take a shot. What's going to happen?

I think it's one of us to take a big lead and Walker's going to cut into it when these rural counties start reporting and then probably one of them will win with Fulton and when that. James, I got to ask what was particularly bufonic about Walker's campaign? I don't know. Good out for placing bad air in China.

Where will be vampires? I mean, what else can you do? I mean, that's ludicrous. And I can't think of another Senate campaign that has said as many ludicrous and silly things.

There's a war to sit. Scott, what do you think, you know, the is going to have an environment, the former president's host in this virtual rally for Walker tonight is after his comments over the weekend about terminating the Constitution, a week of bad press, or a week of white nationalists. I mean, does him getting involved in the Georgia runoff? Does that at this point really matter one way or another?

Does it infuse people who they need to get to the polls tomorrow? Might not otherwise have gone? And it's of no help whatsoever. Look, I usually don't bend on politicians.

The only horses I'm in Kentucky, horses are a lot more predictable than politicians. But I'm not optimistic. I mean, it's a good book, say, this hopes brings eternal. But I think Mr.

Carvel laid out a case for why Warnock has had a slight lead in this thing. He had Walker had a few votes on election day. And the challenge over this four-week period has been to keep those supporters energized and then to find a few more Republicans who didn't vote for you for some reason and bring them in. I think the best thing they did in the four-week period was get Brian Kemp engaged.

He's the most popular politician in the state. You'll notice that neither Biden nor Trump or anywhere near Georgia have both parties kept out the two biggest names in the parties away from the state. But I think it's a very popular down there. So getting Kemp engaged was good.

And strikes me based on the early votes. What I've heard is that the Republicans are going to have to have a huge turnout on election day. So maybe it's good if the Republicans or the Democrats rather think they've got it in the bag like James said, because maybe they'll stay home. But I got a lot of expectations, but it's a run off and anything could happen.

James Walker made some bizarre comments over the weekend. He appeared not to know if he was running for a seat in the Senate or the House of Representatives. You're a veteran political strategist. What does this mean going forward?

I mean, are there going to be more in terms of the candidates that are, I mean, are there anyone going to look to Donald Trump to be picking candidates? What happens the next round two years from now? Look, Scott is in Kentucky. And I don't miss McConnell, who's a pretty effective politician, said they have a candidate quality issue.

And I think that was a pretty candidate observation by Senator McConnell. But yes, I mean, this is not a high quality Senate candidate. We can all agree on that. I mean, the guy is just he was living in Texas.

He comes back to Georgia. This is all Senator Lindsey Graham's idea. It was a really dumb idea. But heaven said that.

But maybe it's 85, 15, but you have a toddler. If you took it to the pediatrician, it said we'll give it just 85% chance. It's going to be OK, but a 15% chance of a child will be paralyzed. You'll say, well, hell, what the hell we're not doing that?

I mean, 15% is not zero. It's not one. It's some chance given the tightness of this that it could go the other way. And too much having to talk can cause people to say home.

And Scott, that closeness, is that about love of Herschel Walker as people really want to see him in the Senate? Or is it they really want to see Republican in the Senate? And there are a lot of Republicans in Georgia. Well, look, I think the closeness is it's a purple state and there are a lot of Republicans.

And there's a lot of people in Georgia that don't think Joe Biden's doing a very good job. I mean, you look at the CNN exit polls from the general election. Biden was under water as policies are not all that popular. And so there's a lot of, I actually think everything we've learned from election day forward, there's a lot of flashing red lights for both parties.

I think the Republicans, you know, I was talking to somebody the other night who said something very simple, you need to nominate normal people of good character. And for the Democrats, I think there are still some warning signs about Biden and what he's doing. I know everybody's been celebrating the Democratic Party, but he's not all that popular. Otherwise, he'd be in Atlanta, Georgia tonight.

So look, I think it's close because Georgia is one of the newest swing states. It's going to be a swing state in 2024. Republicans, even if they lose tomorrow, they can still be competitive there. But there is something to this idea that people kind of want normal, boring, you know, good character and just in a race, it certainly hasn't made people in that front.

James, do you agree that there's warning signs for Democrats? What are they? Well, I mean, the warning signs for Democrats is we had lost the popular vote in the congressional election. We did much better than we thought we were going to do in terms of seats.

I think we had lower black turnout in the congressional elections and most people realized. I mean, the quants have to go through and mind through that doubt. But I essentially agree with Scott on this thing. I think one of the things, advantageous position, but not a certain position.

And I think the Republicans have nominated some really goofy on front of think of another adjective to what you would call some of these candidates that they've nominated. But going forward, we need to see because this and I think Scott will agree that the Senate map is not very good for Democrats in 2024. I'd like to have an extra seat in my back pocket going into that cycle. I guarantee.

James, Carlos, Scott Jennings, always a pleasure. I appreciate it guys. Thank you. I mean, up next to the live report from China on what life is like with government apparently, we need to relax certain zero-COVID restrictions in the wake of widespread protests, but where data exists and still obviously have like controlled.

Also, tonight, President Biden expected to possibly sign a new law protecting same-sex marriages this week. The matter also before the Supreme Court will get some perspective from married couple including one spouse who was the first to lawfully marry in this country. It is hard to imagine, but for the last year and a half or so, as much the world was grappling with how to contain COVID without locking society down completely, China was locking down completely. So much so that ordinary people began taking to the streets and the country were doing so comes at a very steep cost.

Now in response to some local authorities who appear to be using restrictions somewhat, seeing as Cecilia Wang reports now from Beijing. This is a kind of lying Beijing or stand-in outside in the cold to get their COVID tests. A 48-hour test is required to get into most places. But there aren't many places to go.

Much of Beijing is still closed down. This is one of the most popular tourist places in the city, but the restaurants are largely closed and the malls are pretty empty. So this McDonald's is still open but particularly only. But even to get take away, you've got to prove that you're clear of COVID.

Here's how I do it. I open up the health app on my smartphone. I scan the QR code. Hey, Mom.

How's that? So it says I've got a green code and I've got a recent COVID test, so I'm good to go. This code dictates all of her daily lives in China. Green means good to go.

Red means I may have to isolate at home or go to a mass quarantine facility. This allows China to track the movements of virtually all 1.4 billion people. I ran into a group of delivery people on the street. They've got to do COVID tests every single day to do their jobs.

This woman tells me the pandemic has been hard on her. I ask her why? She says it's because she's scared of the virus. Getting COVID in China is unlike anywhere else in the world.

You and your close contacts all get sent to a quarantine center. This is a convention center in Beijing that's been turned into a massive quarantine facility with thousands of beds. But some of these facilities in the country, they are in very rundown and unsanitary condition. And then your whole building or community could go into lockdown.

I spoke to a man who's been in and out of quarantine six times already just this year. He tells me his whole building of more than 200 families went to a quarantine facility last month because they were considered close contacts. He says he's not scared to get COVID because Omakron is less severe and his whole family has been vaccinated. I approached a few people just released from this mass quarantine center here.

I ask if they had tested positive for COVID. Yes, the man nods and says they have recovered. How many days did you spend in there? I asked seven days.

He said unprecedented protests recently erupted across China. They're chanting that they don't want COVID tests. They want freedom. The authorities swiftly crack down on the protesters.

But they are finally softening their stance on zero COVID. Some cities are lifting blockdowns, changing COVID testing requirements. Under some conditions, people can now quarantine at home if they have COVID, which is a huge deal. But this country has already built up a whole infrastructure around zero COVID, spending all of its resources on quarantine facilities and COVID testing.

So it's going to be a long and slow exit from zero COVID. Selena Wang joins us. Now if China is finally easing some COVID restrictions, does that mean that the protests worked? And is that a victory for demonstrators?

Yeah, Anderson, I think it's fair to call it this tentative partial victory because it is remarkable to see that in authoritarian China, protests appear to have forced the Communist Party to essentially change its tune on zero COVID. It's clear that it may the government realize zero COVID is not possible or sustainable and it's even a threat to social stability. It's now been more than a year since Omicron was first detected. But only now Anderson finally is state media citing months old research and publishing stories that Omicron is less deadly.