camerota and john berman. good morning, everybody. welcome to your "new day." here we go again, the state that brought us the hanging chad of the 2000 presidential election is raising the bar or lowering it when it comes to election y chaos. three races in florida appear to be headed to a recount. republican rick scott is clinging to a shrinking lead of 15,000 votes. that's well within the margin of an automatic recount. scott is alleging rampant fraud in broward and palm beach and without any proof he is trying to say the democrats are trying to steal the races. >> the florida governor's race could also be headed to a recount. republican, ron desantis, has a .4% lead over gillum. it's under .5 there so it would

trigger an automatic recount. the ballot in broward county is coming under intense scrutiny this morning. some believe the layout caused some to miss the governor's race. there were 23,000 fewer votes casts in the senate race in broward, a heavily democratic county than in the governor's race, and many say that does not make any sense. president trump is accusing democrats of corruption and election fraud while proclaiming governor scott the winner of the senate battle. there's breaking news in california. wildfires raging out of control. look at these pictures. homes have been burning, thousands forced to evacuate. we will have a live report. we will have a live report in just minutes. we want to begin with rosa

flores on what looks like a recount battle there. >> reporter: good morning. as you know florida is known for its elections with razor thin margins, and as the recount looms emotions flare in the sunshine state. governor rick scott alleging fraud in broward and palm beach counties, and accusing the democrats of trying to steal the election, and not providing proof but instead saying this. >> here we go again. i will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of florida. >> reporter: scott filing two lawsuits against those two counties alleging irregularities and a lack of transparency and calling for the florida department of law enforcement investigation. there could be questions about a

potential conflict of interest given the fact he is the chief executive of the state and while he appoints the commissioner of the agency, now democrat bill nelson fighting back saying that all of this is politically motivated as those margins narrow and the margins are narrowing. if you look at the governor's race, the margin is .44% or 36 thundershower votes. the senate race is .18%, and the magic number for an automatic recount is .5%, and john, you listen to those margins and they are razor thin so one very important point i should leave you with, it's only the secretary of state that can order an actual recount. >> rosa flores in florida, i expect we will see a lot of you in the next coming days and

weeks. attorney general and the dean of the belmont university college of law joins us. mr. gonzalez, my memory is you may have been the one republican lawyer in america that was not part of the recount in florida. am i right? >> your memory is correct, john, as always. >> as you look at what is happening in florida what are your concerns? do you think there is something fishy going on, or is this just counting the votes that can sometimes be complicated? >> it's hard to tell. i operate under two rules. one is nobody should engage in voter fraud, and secondly, every vote should be counted. i have no problem with trying to count all the votes. we encourage people to come out and vote and so all the votes should be counted. >> sounds like a reasonable position. we will leave that discussion where it is and let them try to work it out in florida, albeit,

i don't have high hopes they will come to a reasonable conclusion anytime soon. let me ask you about what is going on in the justice department. the president essentially fired jeff sessions and replaced him with acting attorney general matt whitaker. do you see any legal issues with that appointment? >> when i first heard the news i was surprised. the fact that mr. whitaker is not a senate confirmed position for the attorney general of the united states, to me it seemed rather strange. i have talked to various legal experts around the country and they share the same concern. but even if technically there's nothing legally wrong with this, from my perspective the optics are not very good for the department of justice. this is a very important department cabinet agency. i believe the men and women of that agency deserve somebody at the top who has been vetted by the senate, and somebody who is

senate confirmed. again, putting aside the question as to whether or not legally mr. whitaker can occupy the position, i think the optics are not very good for a department from which my perspective has been under siege for almost two years with all the constant criticism of jeff sessions, with the constant criticism and questioning of the mueller investigation. to me, you know, i think the last thing the department needs is more controversy about things that are happening within the department and controversy over the leadership of the department. >> so there are issues with the oversight now of the mueller investigation, and matt whitaker tweeted saying it was a witch hunt and said right here on this network and said maybe somebody should go in and choke off the funding. >> i could see a scenario where jeff sessions is replaced with a recess appointment and that attorney general doesn't fire robert mueller but just reduces

the budget so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt. >> do you have concerns with somebody who has expressed his displeasure with the entire idea of the special investigation and now overseeing it? >> i do have concerns. i will say when mr. whitaker made those comments he did not have access to the information he will now have access to. now having access to that information he may have a different view. i have been on record saying the mueller investigation should be allowed to be completed and i am hopeful nothing will impede mr. mueller doing this work on behalf of the american people. >> career ethics lawyers inside the justice department may or may not make a recommendation as to whitaker saying you should recuse yourself because you ran a campaign for sam clovis who has been a witness in the mueller investigation.

our reporting is that whitaker doesn't seem like he's about to recuse himself. do you feel if it's recommended by the career ethics lawyers to recuse that he should? >> absolutely. that's a role of the career ethics lawyers, they have the experience. you obtain credibility, and i think mr. whitaker comes into the position with limited credibility and to ignore the advise of the career lawyers, and that diminishes his ability to lead the department as long as the president wants him in that position. i think he needs to listen to the ethics individuals, and from my perspective, again, i think there's serious questions as to whether or not he should be involved in making decisions in the robert mueller investigation. >> it seems like it's complicated for you when you are

looking for something and it's hard to come down on one side. this seems easy. you seem to have reached this conclusion fairly easy on the whitaker appointment? >> from my perspective, again, i think anybody in this position should take into account the department of justice, what is right. we all as lawyers and prosecutors want to be involved in the high profile investigations and above that is to protect the department of justice and it seems to me that a dedicated public servant will place the department of justice's interests first. >> does it look to you like the president is trying to obstruct this investigation or cover his bases here? >> the removal of jeff sessions something many people anticipated. that's a core constitutional authority the president has to remove a cabinet official. the appointment of mr. whitaker seems rather strange and one

would have to ask why this individual -- i have great confidence in rod rosenstein. i have great confidence in -- >> all right. we seemed to have lost the former attorney general. he missed the 2000 recount and maybe he should head to florida. let's turn to cnn political analyst and correspondent for "the new york times," maggie haberman. is it your understanding the white house has been caught by surprised by the outcry that whitaker may not be qualified for this? >> two things surprised the white house. some in the white house knew the president wanted to do this, and the plan had been to do this on friday and the president could not be held back from doing this is what has been described to me. a lot of people did not realize

the extent of the comments whitaker made. these are routine things. whitaker had become a frequent presence in the white house as the chief of staff to jeff sessions who was seen as the eyes and ears for the west wing. this is how it was described by john kelly to a number of people because jeff sessions' relationship with the president was so poor and the president was openly critical of jeff sessions, whitaker had a foot in each camp and he was the bridge between the department of justice and the west wing and so many people were so focused on when is the jeff sessions situation going to end and they didn't look past what that means after that. now we are in this uncharted territory where we have somebody in that position who depending on who you ask may not be constitutionally able to be in it. i think it could get complicated

given his previous statements. >> it was interesting how alberto gonzalez was able to reach that decision. and also, sam clovis recommended him. whitaker came here and he was a terrific guest but he was a guest that came on our shows to argue against the mueller investigation. that's what he did and who he was, and i presume how he ended up in the justice department. >> it's a big part, but i don't think it's the only part, but it's a big part of it. whitaker is a partisan player, as are many people in previous administrations as well, but he has been extremely vocal and generally speaking to the point made before, you would try to look at the optics of this and not have somebody who had been such a critic. whitaker described on the clip you showed about essentially starving the investigation of oxygen, and it's what some trump advisers think he might do.

i don't think he can impact the funding, but you could make decisions about the scope of whether the report becomes public, and how many people the mueller report goes to, and that's the open question between now and when the new congress gets sworn in. >> do we know how long he can stay in the post without a confirmation? >> i think it's under the vacancies act, 270 days. >> that's long enough. that's long enough. >> sure. we don't know whether rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, when he was overseeing this, but he is not now, whether he had given mueller a timeframe in which he had to have the report in, and the white house has the impression that the report will come before the end of the year, and so there were already existing parameters, we think, and whitaker could certainly install new ones. this is not going to inspire

confidence. this is a president who we have seen over and over and has been looking for somebody at doj to protect him. >> the timing is fascinating, too. also the next 60 days until the democrats take over the house might be the most critical for the president. for the next 60 days there is no check on the president, because democrats will not have taken over the house yet and he's got somebody overseeing the mueller investigation who may say you can't indict anybody, you can't release this report, and congress for the next 60 days can't do anything about it. >> right. we are in a holding pattern essentially and have no idea where it's going to go. >> one person troubled by it is kellyanne conway's husband who is a lawyer. he said after forcing the resignation of jeff sessions, it's unconstitutional and illegal and means anything mr.

whitaker does or tries to do in that position is invalid. that's interesting. >> the argument that has been made is you can't put somebody in that job that is not senate confirmed and now you have somebody that just skirted around the process. this is a role that points directly to the president which is why it's supposed to be senate confirmed. if he makes matt whitaker the permanent, he will face a hearing. the affect of this could be if he does choose somebody else to be his permanent choice, let's say chris christie, it might be that chris christie's confirmation hearings are less aggressive and nasty than he might been otherwise because he has a long resume of qualifications of this. >> the time is 210 days and he cannot be the nominee, he cannot be made permanent under the legal rational the white house is using to put him in there on

a temporary basis. >> i don't think he needs anymore than 210 days. >> that's the point. >> it's all about mueller, and i am not sure he needs more time than that. if that's not what it's about, we shall see. >> can i ask you one last question, the president tweeted on it, and this is already within ten minutes of this being an issue it's way different. >> there's a couple things going on here, and this week has seen such a devolution of norms and blowing past guardrails, and president trump helped to encourage faith in institutions that was already eroding. he thinks it gets things away with his issue with the department of justice. >> thank you for being with us.

we have breaking news to tell you about. several wildfires raging out of control in southern california, and hundreds of homes being burned down and thousands evacuating. scott, look at the pictures. they are stunning. >> reporter: absolutely, john. there are thousands of people who are probably pulling all nighters tonight. this fire went from zero to out of control in what seems like the blink of an eye, a little more than 12 hours this thing has been burning and there are some 30,000 homes in the way. you can see why there's that many threatened. we are in an area of oak park and you can see there's a hose there. that's not a firefighter. that's actually somebody that lives in the home and he is putting out the brushfire on the hill with literally a garden hose, and that's all these people have to defend their homes with and on the right the fire continues to eat through the brush. fire moves slower downhill than

going uphill, and the wind direction is going away from the homes and they are hoping this will burn itself out but there are no guarantees. the problem is the winds, you can see it there. the winds pick up and the gusts comes through and this fire flares up and it moves. we are talking gusts, 50 to 75 miles per hour. the other big problem, john, is these winds are not expected to die down until tomorrow morning, so it's going to be a long night for people that live here and a longer night for firefighters as well. alisyn? >> this is terrible. the people in california can't get a break and the firefighters cannot get a break. it feels as though the wildfires -- just when one gets contained a new crop crops up. >> i want to point out on the screen where this picture is coming from, ventura county, california. if there is one place on earth that doesn't need another tragedy, it is ventura. >> we covered the mass shooting

yesterday, and we talked to cody kaufman's father on the phone when he was looking for cody, and so a friend of cody's was in the bar with him and she says he saved her life. we will talk to that friend, next. the sun comes up. the sun goes down. you did a million things for your family today. but speaking to pnc to help handle all your investments was a very important million and one. pnc. make today the day.

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the victims of the mats -- mass shooting in thousand oaks, california. cnn's nick watt is live with the latest. >> reporter: well we are hearing the names of some of the victims. among them a marine corps veteran, and also a sheriff's deputy who was with the department for 29 years and planning to retire in the next year or two and a number of young students just in their early 20s. we are also learning about just how this country music night turned to carnage in just a few terrifying minutes. chilling video capturing the horror inside the borderline bar and grill, the gunshots. [ sound of gunshots ] then silence. those who could quickly escaping. >> he's coming out this door! >> reporter: chaos and confusion unfolding at a college country night at the bar. >> we have multiple people down and we need a lot of ambulances. >> reporter: people say 12 people killed at the hands of a lone gunman. >> we have no idea what the motive was at this point. >> reporter: law enforcement source tells cnn the 28-year-old gunman is believed to have written this facebook post around the time of the shooting.

i hope people call me insane. wouldn't that just be a big bowl of irony. yeah, i'm insane but the only thing you people do after these shootings are hopes and prayers or keep you in my thoughts, every time, and wonder why these keep happening. authorities say long used a legally purchased handgun with an illegal high capacity magazine. ♪ ♪ amazing grace ♪ >> reporter: overnight hundreds coming together in the thousand oaks community honoring the 12 lives lost. among the victims, ventura county sergeant, ron helus, the first officer to rush into the bar with the gunman on the killing spree. >> sergeant helus saved peoples' lives. he engaged. that saved others. >> residents lining the streets thursday as a hurst took the

slain officer to a funeral home. and a student was also killed, and her family described her as having so much life. and noel sparks was an active volunteer at her church, and a friend says she was genuinely caring and loved serving people. and justin meek was planning to join the u.s. coast guard. friends say he died protecting others. >> he used his body as a shield and he gave his life so others could live. >> 22-year-old cody coffman also credited with helping to save lives. >> i fell to the floor and i hid behind him and i just tucked myself in his back.

honestly he is such a hero. >> cody coffman's dad talked to cnn tracking his phone. >> his phone is at the club and it's not moving. >> reporter: after that interview he learned cody was among the victims. >> only him i know how much i love and how much i miss him. oh, god -- oh, son, i love you so much. oh, heavenly father, just please be with him. >> reporter: the fbi has been searching the shooter's vehicle and his home and trying to find a motive. motive or not, the bear facts on the ground remain the same, alisyn. 12 people dead. back to you. >> nick, it's such searing pain to watch the father be so grief stricken there.

thank you very much for telling us more about the victims. sarah duh shawn was inside the borderline bar with her friend, cody coffman, when the gunman opened fire. >> i talked to him last night before he headed out the door. first thing i said was please don't drink and drive, and last thing i said was, son, i love you. that was the last thing i said. >> and sarah joins us now. sarah, we are so so sorry for your loss and so sorry you had to endure this nightmare. >> yeah, it's pretty traumatizing but i'm praying for the victims and for everybody to heal. >> yeah. >> especially families and friends and everybody who was

involved. it's awful. >> it is awful. so tell us what -- tell us what you and cody were doing inside the bar when the gunman came in. >> well, this is like my third time at borderline where i was with cody or had met up with cody. we were just messing around, like, playful, like fighting each other. i kind of turned to him and poked him, and kind of hit him to get his attention. we were just doing that all night. as soon as i turned to him and did that, that's when something happened and we both looked towards the door, because we were kind of facing towards the door and we looked and that's

when the gunshots started happening, and he said to drop down so i fell to the ground with him. >> cody told you to get down. then what happened? >> i was -- i was behind him and i tucked myself into his back. kind of -- i don't know, just laying there. in a ball. then i just remember i looked behind me and there was a smoke bomb going off and i think it was cody who told me, like, it's a smoke bomb. that's when i was -- i saw him get up and apparently when he got up i knew i needed to go, and i guess he got up and stood up and said get out and that's

one of the reasons my friend, cheyenne, was able to get out because she knew when cody stood up and said, like, you should, like -- when he said something, that's when she was able to, like, escape. the same for me, when i knew he was up i was following what he was doing. i was so like, shocked, but i had no clue how to react, and i just did what he did. when he said leave and when he got up, i left, and i saw one opening and i ran for it. unfortunately he was not behind me. >> when did you realize after getting out that cody was not out, that cody was not with you? >> well, i ran as fast as i

could. when i got to the cars and stuff, i had gotten into multiple, like, a car that i didn't know the people, and then two friends' cars that we had the keys to. we were sitting there, and that's when it hit me, i was -- i was kind of like, i was with one of my friends, cheyenne, and she was telling me, like, you need to -- i was having like a little panic attack, and she said you need to calm down and we need to find our friends. after i called 911 and it was busy, i was, like, okay, they have it. i heard sirens and i was, like, they have it, and now all i can do is hope that my friends are safe and it's like at that moment you don't know if you should call them. i am glad i didn't call right away. it's just -- it's just -- it's

scary because you don't know what to do in the moments like that. you want to call and make sure they are okay, but you can't really do much. >> yeah, sarah, i mean, there's no handbook for something this traumatizing to happen to teenagers who are just going to a bar on a college country music night who are dancing and horsing around with each other. this is obviously not supposed to happen. how did you get the news that cody was still in there and was killed? >> all night i texted him and when i finally was, like, okay, we can call him, i called him and it was, like, nothing. i was worried and we had our friends around and they just kept asking, like, you have heard from cody? has anybody found cody?

where's cody? and when i finally got to my friend's house about 7:00 in the morning, that's when her mom was on the phone and she confirmed to us that he had passed away and it was -- it was absolutely heartbreaking. >> yep. we had a really heartbreaking conversation with his dad yesterday, just really minutes before his dad got the confirmation. his dad was holding out hope, just like you were. his dad fikind of knew what cod would have been doing in that bar that night. let me just play this moment for you. >> i'm afraid that cody ran to the gunman instead of ran away

from the gunman. that's the kind of boy that cody was or is. i'm sure he was there helping shielding anything or anybody that he could. i know he went there with a few of his girlfriends, so i am hoping that he is okay. >> sarah, it sounds like that is what was happening, he was shielding you. >> yeah. cody was an amazing man and selfless in the way that -- i know he was put here to protect people. he was a very -- that's why i keep calling him my hero, because he was here for a reason

to protect people, which i knew at one point he wanted to join the navy or something like that. i know that's what his calling was, to make sure people were safe. when he -- what he did last night, he made sure people were safe. now we all have a beautiful guardian angel watching over us, and that's all we can do is pray and hope for peace. >> yeah. sarah, thank you for sharing your beautiful thoughts about your friend, cody, and about your story. we are praying for you and it's going to be a long road, so take care of yourself. >> thank you. >> we want to remember those

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what did it mean to your mid-term 2018 elections? quite a lot. john avalon has your reality check. >> elections are won by swing counties, and there are 206 pivot counties that voted for obama twice and donald trump in 2016.

many of the districts are clustered in the upper midwest as well as ohio and pennsylvania. these states carried trump to victory, but how did they vote in this year's midterms and what might that mean for 2020? and so republicans held on to ohio and iowa. on the 78 pivot counties in these states, republicans carried 55 for governors and democrats carried 23. compared to the governor's races in the last mid-term elections in 2014 democrats gained ground in many of the counties, meaning their share of the vote increased. while ohio county stark county voted republican, democrats increased their percentage of the vote, and democrats succeeded in pushing back the

trump tide. across the board this year's mid-term elections saw the best turnout in decades, so much the democratic governor wolf got more votes than donald trump did the year before. democrats are still fighting an uphill battle to reclaim the counties obama won and trump swung in 2016. they are making gains and counties outside the base, and these pivot counties will be among the most crucial counties going forward. democrats running for the house carried urban areas by a greater margin than they did in 2016. republicans running for the house carried the suburbs handily. one more thing, president trump took unprecedented shots at some

of his fellow republicans who lost their seats this tuesday. he singled out barbara calm stock and others. here's one example. >> mia love gave me no love and she lost. too bad. sorry about that, mia. >> i could really feel that one. it turns out that mia's love race is still too close to call officially. we looked back at each of these members of congress and they did much better in their districts before trump was on the ballot. in 2016, the margins were mostly tighter with trump on the ticket and in the 2018 midterms, which was a referendum on the president they lost their seats.

that's your reality check. >> thank you, john. attorney general jeff sessions is gone, he has been fired. his temporary rereplacement a vocal critic of the mueller investigation. so what might this mean? what checks remain in place and what is the president trying to do here? we'll discuss. your insurance rates skyrocket after a scratch so small you could fix it with a pen. how about using that pen to sign up for new insurance instead? for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise their rates because of their first accident. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto insurance. call for a free quote today. liberty mutual insurance. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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call, click or visit a store today. president trump wasted no time after midterms firing attorney general jeff sessions and naming whittaker. on his first day on the job, whittaker announced a new rule that will give president trump new power to deny asylums to migrants who are fleeing central america. joining us now to talk about all of this, former director of the cia and nsa. he served in republican and democratic administrations. general, we have a lot of national security questions for you. for more than a month now, we have been debating with people from the white house, with president trump's surrogates about this group of migrants who

are still some 800 miles from the southern border, making their way here. they have tried to say that they are not entitled to come into the united states and that that is illegal. we have pointed out that it is perfectly legal to come and seek asylum in the united states and there is a process for doing that. well, as of today, that process is changing and president trump is going to deny asylum for asylum seekers. he's making it much, much more restrictive. do you think this group of migrants are a national security issue? does the president need to go to these lengths to change asylum laws? >> no, i don't. and i called the deployment of our forces to the border several weeks ago security theater, rather than any response to a real, bona fide threat to the united states. if you read the background briefing given by the department of defense discussing the deployment there, you look at

the intelligence, it is inconsistent from what we're hearing from the president. this is about last tuesday, not what's going to happen in the next three or four weeks along our southern border. and then with the president changing my executive fiat, the processes for asylum here in the united states, that will be hit with a court challenge very quickly, and we'll see if the president indeed has that authority. >> one thing that is a national security crisis is gun violence in america. the number of mass shootings has increased and the number, if i can just pull up for everybody. this is, i believe, since 2007. you can see these mass shootings that are ten people or above as we have seen again yesterday and, i mean, the numbers are so hideous general, the pulse nightclub 49 people killed.

virginia tech, sandy hook. all of these have been sered into our national consciousness. in the past year alone, i believe, there have been four or five. so president trump has not made us safer in terms of these mass shootings. what is the solution? >> well, it's a long term solution. let me just say i am a strong supporter of the second amendment. i believe that, as a country, we are badly overarmed. i don't think those are inconsistent statements at all. when events like this happen, we have folks pointing out that these are likely inevitable and we're saying that in the only country in the world in which these kinds of events routinely happen. i'm part of a group that's lobbying for better gun laws, and the core of my belief here is that there are certain

weapons that no one should have and there are some people out there who should not be allowed to have any weapons. and we can do that and still remain true to the second amendment. >> i mean, that's just such a tough one because this person was a vet. he, i believe, had a gun legally, but then he came back and had mental health issues. the question is what do you do with that situation? >> again, we're very sensitive to our liberties. the constitution is fairly explicit. we push back stronger than even our western european or canadian friends with regard to government intervention in these kinds of matters. but as you point out, the statistics speak for themselves. we're not doing this right. and we need to have an honest discussion without this reflective emotionalism that we get when anyone brings up the question about limiting what kinds of weapons people should get or who should get weapons.

>> we appreciate that. we appreciate you being part of that discussion. >> matthew whittaker, were you surprised that jeff sessions was fired within minutes of president trump determining that the gop had held on to the senate and that matthew whittaker was named acting attorney general? >> well, i was a little bit surprised with regard to the speed. a little bit surprised that attorney general sessions wasn't allowed to stay until the end of the week, which apparently he had requested. and, frankly, mr. whittaker's credentials for the job are simply his personal and political loyalty to president trump. so i can only imagine how this is playing out with the workforce in the department of justice and the fbi. and i don't think it's positive. >> one of his credentials appears to also be disdain for the mueller probe. so he has expressed on television and in op-eds he

thinks the scope is too broad. this smacks of a conflict of interest, and some people, including george conway have gone so far to call it unkobs constitutional and illegal. >> you have two questions here about the lawfulness of the appointment. legal scholars are pointing out that may indeed be unlawful, illegal and illegitimate and his actions that he takes will not have a force of law. then you have the wisdom of this person who has, as i said, this body of work in opposition to the mueller probe. now, whittaker has been quiet for the last 72 hours. i think that's a good idea. but i think we can all agree that rod rosenstein was a fire wall for the mueller investigation. that fire wall is now removed. and so the odds that we're going to end up in a political or perhaps even constitutional crisis have been increased with the appointment of mr.

whittaker. >> all right. general, thank you very much. great to talk to you. all right. is it deja vu of 2000 in florida all over again? a recount battle looms over the sunshine state. we have the latest vote totals for you next. cal: we saved our money and now, we get to spend it - our way.

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valerie: her experience and training gave us the courage to go for it. it's our "confident forever plan"... cal: ...and it's all possible with a cfp® professional. find your certified financial planner™ professional at letsmakeaplan.org. i will not sit by as liberals try to win this election. >> that's not an indication of fraud. >> this is a pattern of incompeten incompetence, and it's embarrassing for the sate. >> i ran for my life. >> i talked to him before he headed out the door. last thing i said was, son, i love you. >> this is america. this doesn't happen anywhere else on the planet. >> we are a hurting city, but the dawn will break. we are thousand oaks strong. >> this is "new day" with alisyn

camerota and john berman. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to your "new day." it is friday, november 9th, 8:00 in the east. this morning florida is florida, except more so. this is the headline in the miami herald. the state that brought you the 2000 presidential recount will try to out-do itself in 2018. three head races including high profile races. this could be election months there or month at least and it could make the memory of hanging chads sound quaint. in the senate race, the republican nominee, rick scott, is clinging to a tiny and shrinking lead. but scott, who is the current governor from the governor's mansion alleges rampid fraud in