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New Day

New 2020 Presidential Polls; Biden Draws Contrast from Trump; Trump Returns to the White House; SCOTUS Sides with GOP. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 06, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:41]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking moments ago, CNN just released a brand-new national poll that shows Joe Biden with a big lead in this race with just four weeks ago.

Let's bring in CNN political director David Chalian to take a closer look at these numbers.

David.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning, John. It is a big lead. It's a 16-point lead. Take a look at that top line horse race number, Joe Biden at 57 percent, Donald Trump at 41 percent. By far Joe Biden's biggest lead in our polling throughout this presidential election. And, obviously, this was taken, you know, during what was a very bad week politically for the president.

I want to break down some key demographic groups for you just to see what's driving Joe Biden's lead. Take a look at gender. Look at this gender divide. Among women, Biden gets 66 percent, Trump, 32. That's a -- that's a 34-point lead among women. Far beyond what Hillary Clinton had. Among men, they're basically tied. Trump at 49, Biden at 47 percent. Also not only is he blowing him out of -- blowing him out with women, but he's narrowed the gap with an advantage that has normally been Trump's, which his men.

Take a look at the people of color versus white voters, Biden, 72 percent to 25 percent among people of color. Again, a huge blowout. But look at whites. Biden's actually edging ahead of Trump by four points among whites.

And then when you look at whites by education, this is so critical, women -- white women with a college degree, Biden wins them big. Men with a college degree, Biden wins them big. Women with no college degree, Biden is winning them by eight points. It is the men, white men with no college degree that Donald Trump still wins by 33 points. That is his base.

And then age is critical as well. Senior citizens, go to that bottom line, 65 plus, Biden at 60 percent, Donald Trump at 39. A 21-point advantage for Biden with a group that Donald Trump won by some seven points or so back in 2016. It's just astounding, John, when you look at the demographics.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, David, how about on the issues, when you ask voters about key issues?

CHALIAN: Alisyn, I think this is so interesting because I think this is sort of a men are from Mars women are from Venus moment, like the country's just living in two planets. So first we asked, what issue is most important you to? Look how that answer splits between Biden voters and Trump voters, OK? Look at Biden voters, coronavirus, 66 percent, extremely important, health care, 58 percent, race relations, 63 percent, OK. Look at those numbers for Trump voters, coronavirus, only 21 percent say extremely important, health care, only 25 percent, race relations, only 16 percent. No, where Trump voters say are most important, crime and safety at 51 percent, the economy, 48 percent call it extremely important, and both parties agree that the Supreme Court nominations are rather important to their vote. But you're just living in alternate universes in terms of the issues that are important.

And then look at how the candidates actually split for the vote on these issues. So who do you trust to handle the issue more we asked. And, again, you just see Biden's advantage in this poll, racial equality, big advantage, coronavirus, a 21-point advantage, health care, 20 points, Supreme Court, crime and safety, only the economy, 50 to 48 percent, Biden edging him there by two points, but basically a tie is where Trump is competitive.

[06:35:07]

Every other issue you see Joe Biden winning.

BERMAN: Personal qualities, what do voters see there?

CHALIAN: You know how important this is, John, to the way people sort of assess their vote. This is sort of that gut check, beer test, many times, who would you like to hang with?

Take a look here at some of the qualities. Who's going to unite the country? Joe Biden. Six -- that number's reversed.

BERMAN: Yes.

CHALIAN: Joe Biden, 61 percent, Donald Trump, 33 percent. In fact, all of these number's --

BERMAN: All -- these are all wrong.

CHALIAN: They're all reversed. So you've just got to switch that Biden and Trump number there.

But I just want you to know, cares about people like you, Joe Biden wins 58 percent of them, Donald Trump 38 percent. And after you saw what you saw last night at the White House, I can't believe if this poll was taken last night if there's anybody who would think that Donald Trump cares about people like them.

And we asked, of course, about the white supremacy moment from the debate, did Donald Trump do enough, has he done enough to denounce? Nearly two-thirds of Americans in this poll, guys, say, no, Donald Trump has not done enough to denounce white supremacists. That's two- thirds of Americans talking about the president of the United States not doing enough to denounce white supremacists.

CAMEROTA: How about that debate, David? Did that move the needle? Do we have any data on that?

CHALIAN: Oh, my. Alisyn, I mean that is why we're seeing this huge Biden advantage overall. The debate was a disaster for Donald Trump.

Take a look. Among debate watchers we asked in this poll -- so if you watched the debate -- 57 percent said Biden won, 26 percent said Trump won. So, overall, with debate watchers, Biden wins.

But take a look when you split this out by Biden supporters and Trump supporters. This is so interesting to me. Ninety-one percent of Biden supporters said Biden won the debate. You'd expect that. But look at the fact that only 59 percent, yes, a majority, but only 59 percent of Trump voters thought that Trump won that debate. Usually you see his supporters far more enthusiastic for anything related to asking about how Donald Trump handled something. But he did not even score bonkers high with his own supporters in that debate.

BERMAN: David Chalian, don't go far. We're going to need you back to talk much more about this. The top line is going to get a lot of focus. But, look, there are four weeks to go. What I think matters today is how the American people are responding to what they see right now. And I think that is so revealing too. So a lot more to discuss.

CHALIAN: And just remember, John, this is a national poll. We all know elections are won state by state in that battle for the Electoral College.

BERMAN: True. But 16 points is going to pull the Electoral College, if that were today.

CHALIAN: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: Thank you, David.

CHALIAN: Sure.

BERMAN: Joe Biden responding to President Trump and what he's done over the last few hours, and he's laying out exactly what he would do to fight the pandemic if he wins. A live report, next.

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[06:41:41]

CAMEROTA: Developing overnight, Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden drawing a sharp contrast with President Trump during a town hall with voters and tweeting this split screen video encouraging Americans to wear a mask.

CNN's MJ Lee joins us now.

Hi, MJ.

MJ LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Alisyn.

While for a few days Joe Biden largely declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding Donald Trump contracting Covid-19, but last night he made clear that he and Trump have fundamentally different attitudes when it comes to the coronavirus and also suggesting that it was Trump's carelessness that might have led to him getting the virus.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying masks don't matter, social distancing doesn't matter, I think is -- is -- is responsible for what happens to them.

I view wearing this mask, not so much protecting me, but as a patriotic responsibility. And all the tough guys say, I'm not wearing a mask, I'm not afraid. Well, be afraid for your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter, your neighbor, your co-worker. That's who you're protecting having this mask on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Now, President Trump not only left Walter Reed and returned to the White House last night, but his campaign now says that he fully intends to debate Joe Biden on October 15th. And Joe Biden is saying the same thing, that he also intends to debate President Trump if experts say that it is safe to do so. Of course, questions about how do you safely debate someone who has been recently diagnosed with Covid-19?

Now, as for tomorrow night, the vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, it is going to look very different, Alisyn, from the first presidential debate. And I just want to paint a quick visual of what that debate stage is going to look like. This is going to be a seated debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. But instead of there being seven feet as originally planned between the two candidates, it is now going to be 12 feet of space between them. They are also now putting in place Plexiglas between the two candidates and they also said that there aren't going to be handshakes or any kind of physical greeting. That is not surprising. And also audience members in the debate hall have to be wearing masks. They are going to be escorted out if they are not. And also both candidates are going to be tested beforehand. Obviously, this is a very important point. I should also finally note that vice president mike pence have tested negative several times since President Trump's diagnosis.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, that's good to know, MJ, since the Trump camp can't tell the American people or the other candidate when the president was last tested. And I don't think the honor system was working at the last debate. So it's good to know that they're putting these protections in place.

LEE: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

President Trump out of the hospital, but his doctor says he's not out of the woods. What we know about the president's health this morning, next.

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[06:48:38]

BERMAN: President Trump is waking up in the White House this morning, but there's still major questions about his health.

Joining us now is Dr. James Hamblin. He's a board certified physician specializing in public health, also a staff writer for "The Atlantic."

Dr. Hamblin, thanks to much for being with you. Want to go through a few issues here.

Number one, the White House doctors won't tell us the results of the president's lung scans. They will not tell us if he has pneumonia. What's the significance there?

DR. JAMES HAMBLIN, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": It's -- it's probably, you know, it's impossible to say, honestly. It is strange that it is not shared. It seems part of an overall attempt to sort of downplay any negative findings and reassure the public that the president is going to be OK. So it would be better if I think there was absolute transparency. Right now, especially at this point in the disease, you know, it's very possible for doctors to share a data point like that to describe what you're seeing on an x-ray or a CT scan and then also to say, but he's breathing fine and he, you know, doesn't clinically have pneumonia. So it just makes everything much weirder not to simply share the findings and therefore, you know, I can't speculate as to what might be there.

BERMAN: Right. Right. I mean they won't tell us. And I find that to be the significant factor here.

[06:50:03]

I've had pneumonia twice, once really bad where I had trouble breathing or at least I was breathless at times for six months, another time where I didn't feel a thing for -- you know, within two days after. But it's a thing.

HAMBLIN: Right. When you're talking about, you know, diagnosing pneumonia, there are -- there are times when a person has some sort of opacities or findings on a chest radiograph. But what really matters is that -- if they're breathing fine, they feel fine, their oxygen saturation is fine, as we're told is the case with the president. You know, that's what really matters.

So, you know, it seems odd not to tell people, but it also seems unlikely that there would be any sort of important finding that it's being covered up if, indeed, the president is feeling and oxygenating his blood just fine.

BERMAN: Right. He's on dexamethasone, which is a steroid. What impact might that have on whether or not he has a fever and on his claim that he feels better than he has in 20 years?

HAMBLIN: Well, people who start steroids, you know, dexamethasone is similar to prednisone, which a lot of people have taken and may be familiar with the idea, you know, that it does give you a boost of energy. It's expected that he would be feeling better.

The questions about dexamethasone and steroid use, you know, they're used to sort of suppress the -- the surge in immune molecules that can cause people to go into a second phase of this disease where they become critically ill. So he's in that window right now where the hope is that doctors are effectively suppressing that possibility with the dexamethasone, he's feeling good and there are still a lot of potential outcomes.

You know, you're trying to balance suppressing the virus and suppressing the immune response to the virus and thread that needle. And so you'll be watching just to see if, you know, the dexamethasone is, indeed, effectively doing that or if there is any complication of suppressing the immune system. You know that's why the drug doesn't seem to be recommended in people with mild cases who are not requiring oxygen and it's shown no benefit. So that's, again, where there's some questions about why -- why he was prescribed it.

BERMAN: Overnight Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN that he suspects the monoclonal (ph) antibody cocktail that the president took, the experimental cocktail, may have helped him. Dr. Fauci says he suspects that that may be something that helped the president move on.

Does -- he doesn't see -- he's not treating him, so he has no direct evidence, but he suspects it and there have been other people who were optimistic about it.

What do you see there, and, in general, what open questions do you have?

HAMBLIN: I'm surprised -- you know I don't think there's -- it's not possible to say whether that cocktail helped or not. The best evidence we have comes from a trial that was done by the drug company Regeneron. It seems to show that the cocktail can decrease the rate of growth of a virus within a person, but it didn't show clinically significant benefit in terms of symptoms or outcomes yet. So when you have single cases like that, especially, you know, this disease can go a lot of different ways. It affects people very differently. The President was receiving several different therapies. So, of course, respect, you know, Dr. Fauci's opinion, but I don't know how it's possible to attribute his outcome to any single thing that was done for him. BERMAN: All right, Dr. James Hamblin, we appreciate your time this

morning. Always a pleasure to see you. Thanks so much for coming on.

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HAMBLIN: Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: All right, the Supreme Court, overnight, siding with Republicans in South Carolina. A decision on mail-in balloting that could affect thousands of people. That's next.

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[06:58:05]

CAMEROTA: Developing overnight, the Supreme Court reinstating a South Carolina law requiring absentee ballots to have a witness's signature. A new CNN survey finds more than 3 million ballots have already been cast nationwide, and CNN's Kristen Holmes is live in Washington with the latest.

So tell us about this decision.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this is a clear loss for the Democratic National Committee here. It was a request that was brought by South Carolina Republicans to reinstate a law that says that anyone voting mail-in absentee has to have someone there as they sign their ballot, and that person also has to sign that ballot.

Now, Democrats had said that this was a health risk during a pandemic, that it ultimately would burden the right to vote because people couldn't do it because, again, coronavirus, a pandemic.

Now, the Supreme Court largely ruling against the Democrats. The one kind of caveat there was they said that anyone who cast their ballot before the ruling and any ballot that was received within two days of the ruling, that vote would still count, but saying largely that this would stay in place.

Now, election experts I talked to say this is a big indication that the Supreme Court is not going to want to get involved in any of these cases this close to the election, so something we're going to be watching very closely because we know that the legal side of this has been a big part of the strategy really for both parties.

CAMEROTA: Kristen, thank you very much for that update on what has broken overnight. We really appreciate it.

And NEW DAY continues right now.

It really does.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president pulls a bunch of stunts, which minimize again the Covid-19 pandemic. This tone deafness is so upsetting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is trying to convey strength.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The White House is in disarray and the president is desperate and he's listening to nobody but himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've worked with our infectious disease experts to make some recommendations for how to keep everything safe down at the White House.

[07:00:04]

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I view wearing this mask, not so much protecting me, but as a patriotic duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Case counts.