president biden makes a promise on abortion rights, as well as another widely supported issue, if democrats can keep control of congress after the midterms. plus, we ll have the big moments from a fiery senate debate down in florida. as marco rubio and val demings go after each other s legislative records. also ahead, the latest from ukraine. the russian forces are now more focused on civilians than soldiers on the battlefield. good morning, and welcome to way too early. on this wednesday, october 19th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. it was a fiery debate for the u.s. senate in florida last night. between republican incumbent marco rubio and democratic congresswoman val demings. they clashed over inflation, abortion rights, immigration and guns. demings who has consistently trailed in the polls was on the attack for much of the night. so a senator who has never run anything at all but his mouth. the senator has obviously resorted to ly
at his disposal to defend the now annexed territories. president biden responding with a stern warning of his own. mr. putin, don t misunderstand what i m saying. ukraine s president zelenskyy is now pushing for accelerated admission into nato in the wake of putin s move today. rhetorical back and forth has ratcheted the threat of expansion of the war in ukraine to a new level. retired general jack keane with analysis of the situation. jacqui heinrich with the biden administration s response but we begin tonight with correspondent trey yingst from kyiv with vladimir putin s threats and allegations. good evening, trey. bret, good evening. the war entered a new dangerous chapter today as russian president putin annexed occupied ukrainian territory. under the guise of legitimacy and the kind of pageantry needed to convince people he is winning the war. vladimir putin signs decrees making four ukrainian regions part of russia. putin was joined by the four appointed leader
this investigation of the police force and their response, the school police force. they have been very unhappy, at times calling for him to resign, for his resignation, as well. finally now word coming that he does intend to start the process of his retirement there in uvalde. he has been someone who s been part of this community his whole life. he was fairly well liked before all this happened. he s been with the community, he s been with the school for 31 years. his father was the superintendent before that. so people thought there was unfair process in terms of how he got the job. but certainly he could never imagine, you know, what he s faced in the last several months. and just the handling of all of this, how poor the school district has handled this, how they ve disrespected these families. again, this is something families wanted. they were protesting outside that school all week. and now finally word comes that he is going to retire. it will be a process. it s not g
spinning toward the west coast of florida this morning. bringing with it life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding. we ll have a live report from tampa in just a moment. and also ahead, a former d.c. metro police officer does not hold back at a sentencing for a capitol rioter. plus, we ll dig into new data that suggests significant covid waves could be coming this fall and winter. good morning. and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, september 28th. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us and we re going to begin in florida where millions of residents are bracing for hurricane ian as the powerful storm barrels towards the state intensifying every hour. the storm is expected to make landfall on the southwest coast of florida, as early as this afternoon. just moments ago, it reached the status of category 4 hurricane. the center of the storm is then forecast to move over the central part of the state, with winds likely re
you are live in the cnn newsroom. 16 days until halloween. 24 days until the midterm elections. and candidates across the map are working hard to court voters. obviously, the balance of power in congress is up for grabs and there are a handful of states which could determine which party takes control. in arizona the race for u.s. senate is leaning towards the democratic. mark kelly over republican blake masters. in nevada, the contest for u.s. senate is a toss-up as it is in pennsylvania where we see the race between mehmet oz and lieutenant governor john fetterman. in georgia a high-stakes race for the u.s. senate could determine who controls congress. senator raphael warnock and former football star herschel walker faced off in their first and only debate last night. let s take you to georgia now and cnn national politics reporter eve a mccann, she covered the debate. she is in savannah. abortion was a major issue last night in light of some of the allegations these las