eye on america. cbs carter evans looks at the life-and-death consequences of the nation s e.m.t. staffing shortages. and, the ultimate pep talk. we re all rooting for you, man. garrett: college athletes lifting the spirits of kids in the hospital. this is the cbs evening news with norah o donnell, reporting from the nation s capital. ing from the nation s capital. garrett: good evening to our viewers in the west. thank you for joining us. i m major garrett, in for norah. after a surprise trip to washington, ukraine s president zelenskyy is back home tonight, hoping more u.s. military aid will soon follow. .plus, f.t.x. founder sam bankman-fried is under house arrest tonight as he awaits trial after his first court appearance in new york. but, first, the biggest prechristmas storm in decades consumes much of the country. winter storm warnings, blizzard conditions, and dangerous cold forecast now in more than 40 states, from the pacific northwest to new england
it is election day in america. hello everyone i m anderson cooper welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. you are looking at live pictures of voters lining up to cast their ballots. polls are open in a majority of states. at this hour six more states are opening their doors to voters. the big question who will control congress. dozens of house races are considered toss ups, republicans need to win 30 competitive seats to win the majority. in the senate the race is likely to determine control are very tight. republicans need a net gain of one seat to clinch the majority from democrats. more than 40 million americans have cast their ballots in early voting ahead of today. it all comes down to turnout today and the issues. the only certainty is that voters will decide who they elect and who controls congress. we have this consequential midterm election covered for you from coast to coast. i want to begin with our coverage with cnn s jason carroll li
nevada, you have up and down the ballot some election deniers there, same goes for arizona. a lot at stake out west and across the country. nobody s going to sleep on the west coast tonight, back east, because, man, some of the most important races taking place. control of congress is up for grabs. republicans are favored to win the house, where they need a net gain of five seats. the smallest number of seats the out of power party has needed to flip the house since 1932. michael, let s put perspective on this again for our friends joining us on the west coast right now. in 2010, how many seats we picked up 63 house seats, which was the most the party picked up since 1928. and that was after barack obama had a massive landslide victory. right. bill clinton won in 92. 73 republicans get elected that year. and in 2018, you actually had, when donald trump was president, democrats didn t do quite as well, but they had 40 seats. so it s going to be really interest
democracy, will all be decided today. the candidates have made their final closing arguments to rally an american public that is at once anxious, angry, and exhausted. are you ready to win this election? i m sick of talking about american decline. i think it s time we started to do something about it. please send me to washington, d.c. we re winning this. we ain t talking about no runoff. we re winning this. i believe in democracy. i certainly believe in a free and fair election. this is a transformative election. it s going to send a loud message to washington. we ve always done democracy better than anywhere else. and we are not going to stop now. y all ready to close this thing out? today we stand united as one voice. and i feel thean a massive vict shocks the world. i m ready for it. are you? well, now it s up to the voters. with millions heading out to cast their ballots today, we re keeping an extraordinarily close eye on the voting process nationwid
19 hours, 59 minutes, and 41 seconds in counting until the first poll closing on election night. we are picking up our countdown to election night right where we left off last friday night, and where we will be every friday night between now and the midterms. that is after tonight, only one more friday night between now and the midterms. it is getting really close, we are inside of two weeks right now to go, and not only is it getting closer on the calendar, but voting is underway in all sorts of states, early voting nearly 20 million, they have already been cast in this midterm election, in the 2018 midterm election, all sorts of records were shattered when it came to turnout. about 116 million votes were cast in that midterm election when all was said and done. we may be over 120 million when this one is over. numbers that would have been unthinkable years ago, that is of course where politics are right now. so, the biggest campaign news tonight, the democrats, they are bri