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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump and Biden Face Off Tonight in Final Presidential Debate; Obama Returns to Campaign Trail with Blistering Rebuke of Trump; Feds: Russia, Iran Using U.S. Voter Info to Interfere in Election; Rays Even World Series with Win Over Dodgers. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 22, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:21]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is a debate day edition of EARLY START.
Good morning. I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Thursday, October 22nd, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.
Just 12 days until the election, and today is the deadline to request an absentee ballot if you are in Indiana. So, if either presidential candidate hopes to change the course of the 2020 race, well, tonight may be their last chance.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump gearing up for their final faceoff after their train wreck of a first debate. President Trump is now running behind Biden in national polls, but within striking range in several key battleground states.
The debate comes after national security officials revealed the most concrete details to date about interference in the upcoming election. We'll get more on that in a moment.
ROMANS: A big topic tonight will be the pandemic Trump failed to bring under control, and shows dangerous signs of spiraling. More than 1,100 American lives lost yesterday, the most since September 15th.
The incumbent president laying the role of underdog. His advisers hoping he'll show restraint.
Our coverage begins with CNN's Jim Acosta at the debate hall in Nashville.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, President Trump and Democrat Joe Biden will meet later on this evening for the final presidential debate. In the meantime, President Trump is back to his old tricks of manufacturing bright, shiny objects when he is in big political trouble. The president is on the attack against a slew of targets from the media to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
But the president is defending his record on the coronavirus saying there's, quote, not much he would change in terms of his handling of the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With COVID, is there anything you think you could do differently if you had a mulligan or a do-over on one aspect of the way you handled it, what would it be?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Not much. Look, it's all over the world. You have a lot of great leaders. There's a lot of smart people, it's all over the world. It came out of China. China should have stopped it.
ACOSTA: And Trump advisers are hopeful the president will do less interrupting than he did at the last presidential debate. That's because they think that the president turned off some voters out there as they watched that unfold. They are hopeful the president will allow Democrat Joe Biden to talk more in hopes that the former vice president will have some sort of gaffe that will shake up the race -- Christine and Laura.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Jim Acosta, thank you so much for that.
So, how does Joe Biden plan to counter the unpredictable president in their final debate?
CNN's Arlette Saenz is with the Biden campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Christine, the former vice president spent the past three days off the campaign trail, meeting with his advisers as he prepared for this final match up. Biden's advisers say he will focus on talking about COVID-19, and his plan to build back the economy. Once again stressing that Scranton versus Park Avenue messaging that Biden has tried to frame this campaign around in these closing weeks.
Now, Biden's advisers say the former vice president is preparing for President Trump to bully and deflect his way through this upcoming debate. They expect that the president will not just attack Joe Biden but also go after his family. And Biden's deputy campaign manager said that ultimately, these debates are a test of presidential temperament.
Biden has said that he plans on turning this debate back to the issues at hand. What matters most to voters in these final 12 days before the election, as voters will gauge whether they're going to vote for Biden or President Trump -- Laura and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Arlette, thank you so much for that. While Biden prepped for tonight's debate, his former boss and the
Democrat's top surrogate made his strongest argument yet that President Trump must go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLPI)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: I get that this president wants full credit for the economy that he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic that he ignored but you know what, the job doesn't work that way. Tweeting at the television doesn't fix things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Former President Barack Obama pulling no punches in his first in-person campaign event, in a state that would be crucial to a Joe Biden victory.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more for us this morning from Philadelphia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, without question it was one of the most blistering and mocking assessments former President Obama has ever delivered of his successor. In more than 30 minutes during a rally outdoors here in Philadelphia, he really ran through a litany of criticisms about President Trump, dwelling certainly on his handling of coronavirus.
OBAMA: And just yesterday when asked if he would do anything differently, Trump said not much. Really? Not much.
[05:05:00]
Nothing you can think of that could have helped some people keep their loved ones alive?
So, Joe is not going to screw up testing. He's not going to call scientists idiots. He's not going to host a super spreader event at the White House.
ZELENY: President Obama went well beyond that also talking about President Trump's view of the world and how the world, indeed, views him.
And beyond coronavirus, President Obama also talked about President Trump's behavior in office. He talked about the exhaustion factor that Americans have. He said that indeed this November election could bring America back to a calmer and simpler time.
OBAMA: With Joe and Kamala at the helm, you're not going to have to think about the crazy things they said every day. And that's worth a lot. You're not going to have to argue about them every day. It just won't be so exhausting.
ZELENY: But there was no question the overall message from the former president was to Democrats, delivering a bit of tough medicine to them as well saying that now is not the time for complacency. He talked four years ago about how the race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was tight as well.
This was the first of several appearances Obama was going to make to key battleground states. He's going to be visiting places where voting is already underway, like here in Pennsylvania, also he'll be targeting Florida and other states.
What the former president is trying to do is increase participation and enthusiasm among young black voters, Latino voters and younger voters overall -- Christine and Laura.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Jeff Zeleny in Philadelphia, thank you.
Breaking overnight, federal officials say Russia and Iran have obtained U.S. voter registration information in an effort to interfere in the upcoming election. They say as part of that campaign, Iran has been sending menacing e-mails to voters in several states, posing as the far right Proud Boys, the group that the president refused to condemn at the last debate.
Now, a source tells CNN that some of the data Iran obtained came from private vendor and state systems. This is the first time this election cycle a foreign adversary has been publicly accused of targeting specific voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN RATCLIFFE, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections and we will continue to work with our many partners to disrupt and to impose costs and consequences on any adversary that attempts to interfere in our democratic processes.
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: You should be confident that your vote counts. Early, unverified claims to the contrary should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It is not unreasonable to view some of this as a distraction. John Ratcliffe has been accused of politicizing a number of intel issues since becoming the director of national intelligence. Last night, he claimed the Iranian emails were intended to damage President Trump even though they said to vote for him or else.
After the announcement, Homeland Security Democrats urged people not to listen to Ratcliffe calling him a partisan hack, in a tweet that was later deleted.
JARRETT: A major change from the CDC this morning. The agency is updating how to find close contact with a COVID-19 patient. It used to be thought that you needed 15 continuous minutes of exposure to somebody. But now it turns out it could be a series of multiple brief exposures, and this is coming after a Vermont prison worker appears to have been infected that way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE: It's a reminder that we don't have a lot of tools to fight this virus until vaccines come along next year. It's just another reminder of how easy this virus is to transmit, and if you let your guard down, unfortunately, you can get caught and get COVID-19.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The U.S. suffered nearly 63,000 cases yesterday. The 7-day average is on the verge of surpassing 60,000 for the first time since August 3rd. More than 2,000 of those cases were in New York. The first time the state has gone over 2,000 since May.
Five New York City public schools added about 1,500 have been shut down for two weeks because of outbreaks. San Francisco public schools do not anticipate bringing students back into the classroom before the end of the year.
JARRETT: Well, still ahead, it's one of the biggest talking points you hear often from the GOP that Joe Biden will raise your taxes. We're going to separate fact from fiction, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:13:41]
ROMANS: Thirteen minutes past the hour.
On the campaign trail, President Trump has falsely claimed Joe Biden wants to quadruple your taxes and you may well hear similar claims at tonight's debate.
Let's look at the Biden tax plan. Yes, Biden wants to raise taxes on the rich. He wants to roll back 2017 tax cuts for business and reward companies that bring jobs and production back to the U.S.
Under a Biden plan, a top federal tax rate of 39.6 percent would mean higher taxes for people making more than $400,000 a year. And they would pay Social Security taxes on income above 400 grand.
Now, the corporate tax rate would rise to 28 percent from 21 percent. That's still below the 35 percent corporate tax rate before the 2017 tax reform.
For families, Biden wants to expand the child tax credit and restore the first time home buyers credit. He also vowed not to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000.
Now, conservative economists argue taxing the super wealthy and taxing companies could trickle down to the middle class, and its workers there, if companies eventually spend or hire less.
But most analysis shows the vast majority of the tax burden would fall on rich individuals and big companies.
JARRETT: Very different than the narrative we have been hearing, and certainly we'll hear more about that tonight, I predict.
[05:l5:02]
All right. Now, to an exclusive interview with CNN. The developer of Russia's much touted Sputnik vaccine reveals it has not undergone the same type of rigorous testing as other coronavirus trials.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Moscow.
Fred, nice to see you this morning. What more are you learning about this?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Laura.
Well, the vaccine certainly isn't as far along the as the Russians seem to have been saying the last couple of months. They approved the vaccine without going through the key phase three trials, and then they were saying they were making big headway very quickly with the phase three trial. Last week, they said they vaccinated 13,000 individuals. This week, they said it was already 17,000.
But in an exclusive interview with us, the head of the Gamaleya Institute responsible for this vaccine acknowledged that only about 6,000 of those participants have actually received both doses which are necessary to receive the immunization, and also to get any sort of data out of this, and that puts the Russians well behind most of the big western vaccine makers.
But let's listen in to some of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDER GINTSBURG, DIRECTOR, GAMALEYA RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND MICROBIOLOGY (through translator): About 17,000 subjects were vaccinated was the first component. About 6,000 people were vaccinated with the first and second components as of yesterday evening. It did not have time to go through trial for obvious reasons in the age group 60 plus and below 18. Just for a simple reason, the introduction of any mass used drug that interacts with the human immune system goes through stages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: And, Laura, you heard correctly there. He also said it did not have trial to go through phases of people who are 60-plus, and under 18. And the vaccine itself says it's only suited for age groups, between 18 and 60, and also, not for people with illnesses, which pretty much excludes most of the groups that are most vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19. However, the head of the institute telling us he believes that those age groups should still take the vaccine -- Laura.
JARRETT: Well, certainly some shortcomings there.
And, Fred, while we have you and since of course you are in Moscow, and you have reported extensively from Iran, both countries now accused overnight of trying to interfere in the upcoming U.S. election. They allegedly got their hands on some U.S. voter registration information. What are you hearing from the Kremlin, Tehran, anything to say?
PLEITGEN: You know what, yeah, we have been following that as well. Of course, it's something that the Russians have heard in the past, accused of interfering in U.S. politics and U.S. society in general. They have denied those allegations in the past.
The Kremlin this morning has not spoken yet. However, we are waiting for a conference call with the spokesperson for the Kremlin, certainly will update you guys once we get anything from the Russian side.
The Iranian side (AUDIO GAP) the spokesman for Iran's mission to the U.N. came out with a statement. I just want to paraphrase some of it.
He said, unlike the U.S., Iran does not interfere in other country's elections, denying the allegations, obviously. He then says the world has been witnessing the U.S.'s desperate own attempts to question the outcome of its own election at the highest level, possibly making a reference to some of the things that President Trump has said in the past.
Of course, one of the things we have to keep in mind, guys, it seems like ages ago but of course the relationship between the Trump administration and Iran have been rock bottom for a while. These two countries were at each other's throats and close to war -- guys.
JARRETT: Yeah, sure.
All right. Fred, thank you for all of that. Nice to see you.
ROMANS: Eighteen minutes past the hour.
The upstart Tampa Bay Rays showing signs of life in the World Series.
Andy Scholes is live in Arlington, Texas, with the "Bleacher Report". That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:05]
ROMANS: A northern California woman owes her life to the heroic actions of one police officer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: Ma'am, ma'am, come out this way. Come out this way. Come out. Hurry up. Get out right now, hurry. Get out.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Wow, Davis Police Corporal Fong Lee realized the only way to get a woman out of an overturned car quickly enough was to drag her by the hands. He told this woman, I was not going to fail this woman, I was going to get her out of the car no matter what.
Police say she's suspected of driving under the influence.
JARRETT: A scary scene there.
Well, the Tampa Bay Rays even up the World Series with the win against the Dodgers.
Andy Scholes has this morning's "Bleacher Report".
They're not giving up this fight.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: They are not, Laura. Good morning to you.
The Rays did not want to fall behind 0-2 in this first ever neutral site World Series, and second baseman Brandon Lowe coming up big for the team. He was in a terrible slump but finally busted out of it.
Lowe homering in the first inning to give the Rays the lead. Then in the 5th with a runner on, Lowe comes to the plate, homers again, he's the seventh second baseman to hit two homers in a World Series game.
Rays win it 6-4 to even the series at a game apiece.
Lowe crediting his teammates for never giving up on him when he was in that terrible slump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON LOWE, TAMPA BAY RAYS SECOND BASEMAN: Just pure joy. I'm going into that dugout after hitting that home run. Everyone was happy, jumping up and down. You know, it's not an individual thing out there. It's everyone with the team, and you know, whatever helps the team win.
KEVIN CASH, TAMPA BAY RAYS MANAGER: Man, it was exciting for the first home run, the second one, you know, really ignited. I mean, we've seen, look, you've seen it. You've covered him. He can go quiet for a little while but can get as hot as anybody in baseball.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right.
[05:25:00]
Game three of the World Series will be Friday night.
The Florida Gators football team meanwhile is shutting down its facilities through Monday amid a coronavirus outbreak. An athletic department spokesperson tells CNN that there have been 26 positive cases within the program since October 13th.
Head coach Dan Mullen who announced that he tested positive last week said everyone for the most part is doing fine. The outbreak prompted last week's game against LSU and this week's game against Missouri to be postponed.
All right. LSU is banning Odell Beckham Jr. from the school's facilities for two years, according to "Sports Illustrated". Beckham went to LSU, and was seen on video counting, then slapping cash into the hands of LSU players after they won the national championship in January. That's, of course, against the rules.
We reached out to Beckham about the ban through his agent, and the Browns, but haven't heard back. You know, Christine, the whole point of a $100 handshake is to be discrete, and that certainly was not discrete, counting it in front of all the cameras.
ROMANS: In front of the cameras, right.
SCHOLES: Yeah.
ROMANS: Generous and against the rules.
SCHOLES: Yes.
ROMANS: There you go. All right. Thanks so much, Andy.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump face off one last time, the must watch final presidential debate. Special live coverage starts tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.
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