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NYT: COVID-19 Dragging Trump Down In Key Battleground Polls; Trump, Biden Head To Minnesota Today As State Begins Early Voting; Firefighter Dies While Battling El Dorado Fire In California. Aired 12:30-1pm ET

Aired September 18, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All of those numbers worrying which is why the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned just yesterday that if this trend continues, and the new cases don't come down, he may have to tighten the restrictions on this lockdown, some health experts warning that this second general lockdown has essentially enough holes and enough loopholes that it won't be able to contain the coronavirus numbers.

So this may be a very long and drawn out process to try to get Israel's numbers to where they were back in late April when it was 20 new cases a day now it's not uncommon to see more than 5,000 new cases a day.

In Jerusalem, Oren Liebermann, CNN.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Up next for us, new numbers, new evidence, President Trump's handling of the coronavirus not only hurting him also were hurting Republicans in the Senate.

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[12:35:08]

KING: The coronavirus pandemic is issue number one and the presidential campaign and an issue that came up a lot as both candidates this week staged town halls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're doing great. We're doing great with the vaccines and therapeutics, Remdesivir, all sorts of other things that are bringing the rates down like at numbers that nobody can believe.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We talk about 200 almost 200,000 deaths and it's almost like background noise. But it means a lot of empty chairs. It means a lot of children without their mothers or fathers. What President's say matter. People listen. I will make it clear what is needed to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: New polling for three key battleground states show that at the moment, Joe Biden is winning this argument. President Trump is struggling on the coronavirus, those that bringing his numbers down and bringing down the numbers of some Senate Republican candidates.

Let's bring in Mike Burns for "The New York Times" has a story, "The New York Times" say you see the headline right there, virus pulls down Trump, GOP senators suffer with him. Alex, let's go through some of these numbers and let's just start. We know this nationally and when you see it in such stark detail in the battleground states, it tells you a lot about where we are a little more than six weeks to go.

Choice for President likely voters in Maine, Arizona, and North Carolina, Biden wins. Biden wins big in Maine, ahead and Arizona and narrowly is essentially a statistical tie when you get to North Carolina. Now move over to these numbers here, best to handle the coronavirus. This is why, right, this is off the charts, 60 percent of voters in Maine say Biden's better, 55 percent in Arizona, 52 percent in North Carolina. To the Senate races in a moment, but let's stay on the presidential for a second. If Joe Biden can win Arizona and North Carolina, we're done. There's just no way. Those states are critical to Donald Trump's path.

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. And when you put together the numbers that you just read out with the polling that "The Times" has conducted earlier this month, you have seven swing states that the President has not led any of them. And particularly, that Arizona number is really stark because a nine point lead at this stage in the race for any candidate, but particularly a Democrat in a state that has not voted for a Democrat this century is just an enormous red, blinking warning sign for the President's campaign.

I don't think that we can overstate the importance of those coronavirus numbers in shaping this outcome in a state like North Carolina when you look under the hood of those numbers a little bit, voters see the President as just fine on the economy. They rank him essentially at parity with Joe Biden on an issue like national security where Biden is traditionally seen as a strong candidate. But when you shift over to who would you rather have handling the coronavirus pandemic. Biden wins that issue by 11 percentage points.

KING: Eleven percentage points, it's issue number one. And the troubling side if you're on the President's team is that the case number starting to trickle back up a little bit if that trend continues, and it's even more on voters' minds. And so, I'm old enough to remember when there was a thing called ticket splitting in the United States of America meaning a lot of people would vote one party for President and vote a different party for Senate.

I want to look at the polling. You have in these three key Senate races in Maine, in Arizona, and in North Carolina. You have the Democrats leading in all of them in Maine, Susan Collins, she's always fashioned herself as, you know, I'm the independent. I'm a maverick. She's losing right now to Sara Gideon 49-44, that's close. But it's still advantage Democrats. The Arizona numbers are striking. You just mentioned the presidential numbers there. The former astronaut Mark Kelly, 50 percent to the incumbent, Martha McSally is 42 percent and the incumbent in North Carolina, Thom Tillis only at 37 percent, Cal Cunningham only at 42, so closer. But there's just no doubt about this. The President's handling of the coronavirus is dragging down candidates of his party, especially in these races that are absolutely critical to which party controls the Senate come January.

BURNS: That's right. I think the main numbers are particularly striking because Susan Collins is really the one Republican on the ballot this fall who has taken substantial steps at times to separate herself from President Trump. We in our poll, half of voters in Maine, so substantially more voters that are currently supporting her said that they approved of her vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act back in the early years of the Trump presidency. That's clear separation between her and the President.

But when the Democratic candidate for president is carrying your state by 17 points, whatever ticket splitting Susan Collins is managing to pull off and she is far outperforming the President with women, with independent voters. It's just not enough to overcome that kind of deficit. And John, I think two numbers is really one number twice in the main poll that is particularly striking, 55 percent of Maine voters said they disapproved of Susan Collins's vote to confirm Justice Cavanaugh and 55 percent also said they disapproved of her vote against impeaching President Trump.

To the extent that that race is just a straight up or down vote on do you approve of the President, do you approve of the major policy accomplishments of the National Republican Party that is an awfully steep hill for her to climb.

[12:40:03]

KING: This is fascinating - they're fascinating important numbers. It's going to be interesting to watch in the final six weeks, do those candidates try to separate themselves to the President, but they know the risk because you know the risk. They separate themselves to the President. They lose the Trump vote, which they absolutely need. The question is can they thread that needle. Alex Burns, that's great reporting. I really appreciate your sharing with us.

Up next for us, Joe Biden, President Trump both heading to another battleground state, Minnesota as early voting begins in that state.

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[12:45:07]

KING: Six weeks from next Tuesday we start to fill this in. We start counting the votes of the 2020 election, both candidates today heading off to battleground Minnesota. What's important about Minnesota, what was really close last time and early voting early in person voting begins in Minnesota today.

Let's use 2016 to map out why these matters. Number one look how close it was. You think of Minnesota as a blue state, but Hillary Clinton just won 45,000 votes, a little shy of that to win the state last time. Donald Trump thinks I may lose some of the places I just one in 2016. So let me compete in some of the places I just lost in 2016. That's why he's going to try in Minnesota.

Former Vice President Joe Biden will be here in Duluth in St. Louis County, northeastern corner of the state. If you look back, you say, oh, well, Hillary Clinton won that pretty comfortably, right, 10 points. That was not good for her. That's why the state was so close. Go back in time. Let's roll this up a little bit. Look at St. Louis County in 2012. Barack Obama gets nearly 64 percent of the vote, Hillary Clinton getting only 52 percent of the vote.

So Joe Biden here, trying to talk to white hands on blue collar worker saying please come back to me. Let's have a bigger Democratic victory here in 2016. Now let's move over. This is where the President's going to be in Beltrami County, it is smaller, it's much more rural. Look, he won it by 10 points, not a lot of votes, right. Look, I just hit the wall, sometimes that happens. Let me move back over. Here we go.

He won it but he won it with shy of 11,000 votes, pretty small, right? But he's talking -- this is to communicate with all of these people out here in rural areas. Now, why is this county so important? This is one of what we call the pivot counties, meaning counties that voted twice for Barack Obama in 2012 and in 2008. counties Obama carry twice that somehow in 2016 to the Democrats dismay, went for Donald Trump, which is why the state was so close.

In the competition for Minnesota, the Biden campaign says right now we're leading. Trump says I think I can get it both campaigns, spending money on T.V.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump is making its stop, making crucial federal resources available to protect Minnesota's families, communities, not criminals, jobs, not mobs.

BIDEN: We can't deal with an economic crisis until you beat the pandemic. You can't have an economic comeback when almost 1,000 Americans die each day from COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: CNN correspondent Jessica Dean on the ground for us in Duluth, Minnesota. It is a rare day both candidates out on the trail and in the same state.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. John, it really feels like we're getting ever closer to Election Day here in Minnesota. As you mentioned in person early voting starting today, I am in Duluth where Vice President Joe Biden will be about 150 miles down the road. That's where President Trump will hold his rally later this evening.

I want to talk a little bit about Joe Biden being here in Minnesota as we really start to see him going after white working-class voters. These are some of the voters that went for Donald Trump in the last cycle in 2016. That is, you mentioned the Biden campaign, really hoping that they can get back.

And to point, we saw Joe Biden last night during our CNN town hall really framed this race as Scranton, his hometown, versus Park Avenue really trying to say that President Trump is not for the people, not for white working class voters that he is more elite. And it's Joe Biden, with his working-class roots in Scranton that can really understand what these working class voters need and what how he can get the economy going again.

To that end, take a look at where Joe Biden has been traveling lately. He's been in Michigan, with car manufacturers and union workers there. He's been in Scranton, and now he's here in Duluth, just near the Iron Range here in the state of Minnesota, John, so we'll see if we hear more of that messaging from him today. We certainly expect to.

KING: Jessica Dean for us live in Duluth. It's been a while since I've gotten a visit. It's a beautiful little city. I'm jealous today. Count me as jealous, you're out on the trail. Jessica, thank you so much.

[12:49:04]

Coming up for us, the death toll rising as wildfires continue to burn in the western United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A sad and deadly reminder now of how dangerous it is battling wildfires. California fire officials say one firefighter was killed Thursday in the El Dorado fire that's just one of the dozens of uncontrolled fires across the west that have scorched around 6 million acres. That's an area larger than the entire state of New Jersey. CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Juniper Hills, California that's northeast of Los Angeles just outside Angeles National Forest. Paul, what you're seeing?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're seeing an active flank of flame here right now, John, we're also getting from firefighters in the area, there's great, great dejection, overhearing that firefighter who was missing was found dead. You might recall the El Dorado fire is the one that began with a pyrotechnic display for a gender reveal.

Now back here on this bobcat fire in Los Angeles County, as we said, we've got an act of like a flame here, 60,000 acres burned, it's now 15 percent contained. And these western fires are strapping resources. We have 30,000 firefighters throughout the west fighting these blazes. One of the tough spots Oregon, more than 1 million acres burned, 2,000 structures burned. And we saw some firefighters though after a long grueling day offer us up a moment of levity when they broke into song.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:55:13] VERCAMMEN: And they said the word sawyers, that means those firefighters who grabbed the saw and cut fireline, back to you now, John.

KING: Paul Vercammen, it's good to see them keeping their spirits up, especially on a sad day when they know one of their brothers has fallen in the battle. Paul, thank you so much.

I want to show you some dramatic images now. Take a look. Satellite images taken by NASA show a long-distance global impact from these fires. You see, right there that is smoke from the fires traveling essentially around the world. With me to discuss is Doug Morton. He's chief of Biospheric Sciences Laboratory, NASA's Goddard Flight Center. Doug, thanks for being with us. There are skeptics out there who say why are we talking about climate change in the context of these fires? Let me give you a chance right off the top to explain to people why climate change without a doubt is making a bad situation worse?

DOUGLAS MORTON, CHIEF OF BIOSPHERIC SCIENCES LABORATORY, NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER: Climate change is one critical ingredient why fire emergencies have become more regular, more long lasting, and more severe. You see warming temperatures, longer dry seasons, and extreme events like heat waves that synchronize the risk of fire across enormous landscapes, like we see right now in the western United States what we've seen in Siberia and Australia, Brazil, and many other landscapes.

KING: And when you look down and you see the tracking of the smoke, smoke leaving the west coast that you now can find on the east coast and even in Europe. In terms of the impact on people, you could say, well, I live in, you know, I live in Europe or I live in New York City. That's terrible, those wildfires out on the west coast, but they don't impact me, not necessarily true, right?

MORTON: So wildfires have an enormous impact on the local communities and the ecosystems where they're burning. But unlike other disasters, they send their smoke high into the atmosphere and send it far downwind. And that means that fires, like we're seeing in the western United States have an impact on a planetary scale. So changing the atmosphere and its chemistry, depositing ash on snow and ice and increasing their weight, melt glaciers and ice sheets, and changing and harming air quality for people who might live thousands of miles away from a fire.

KING: To somebody like me, I look at these satellite images from space, which are always cool, in this case, they're also sad to see the impact of the devastation, the impact of the smoke, the path that takes. But when you look at them, and scientists look at them, you're trying to do a number of things, number one, determine what is the long term impact of these events but number two, also to try to study them in the here and now to have learned clues that can help in the present, right?

MORTON: As a scientist at NASA, one of my job's is to use our more than 20 satellites on orbit to sort of build the puzzle about how and where and why fires burn, we can better understand these new extreme fire events, we'll be better able to predict and prepare for that next round of conditions that could lead to large and catastrophic wildfires.

So you're absolutely correct. The images we're taking today of the actively burning fires that are sent directly to fire managers and first responders are also part of the science data we collect over decades to better understand how fires are changing as our planet warms.

KING: And I was looking into some of the research and some of the conversations you have with people before you talk about, a new reality of wildfire exposure across the world due to climate change. What do you mean by that?

MORTON: So we're seeing a new type of fire burning in landscapes that are more fire prone. So as climate change has warmed and dried landscapes where there's enough fuel to burn, we're not only seeing these fires start earlier, last longer and therefore be able to burn more land than we've seen in previous years. We're also seeing that those fires when they do start are having unprecedented impacts on those ecosystems.

So, the job for scientists like me is to better understand whether those changes will ultimately shift some of these landscapes from forests into other ecosystem types as a result of both the severe damages of the fire, and having recovered vegetation in a warmer world.

KING: And you also talk about their more extreme both in size and the speed at which they travel.

MORTON: So every year from space, we met more than a million large wildfires. And it's true that the records we've seen for the longest, the largest, and the fastest fires fall every year, as we watch new and unprecedented burning happening in places like the western United States or Australia. But of course, as we understand fires, we want to look not only at those extreme events, but at the way in which landscapes are more vulnerable now to fires both small and large.

[13:00:00]

KING: Douglas Morton grateful for your insights and grateful for your work, Sir. Thank you so much hope to see you Sunday morning 8:00 a.m. for Inside Politics. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good afternoon.