Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

More Than 83,000 COVID-19 Cases Recorded Friday, Single Highest Day Since Outbreak Of Virus; President Trump: We're Rounding The Corner Beautifully; Georgia Voters Line Up To Cast Early Ballots; Sudan, Israel Work To Normalize Relations; Coronavirus Pandemic: Adjusting To Our New Reality. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 24, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The next hour of NEW DAY starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(voice-over): We have some breaking news; U.S. reporting more than 80,000 COVID-19 new cases.

We are now in the full surge.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It's going away.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: The truth of the matter is that we're turning the corner into a tsunami.

JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As president, I'll mandate mask wearing in all federal buildings and all interstate transportation because masks save lives, period.

ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, DIRECTOR: We really need to double-down on the kind of public health measures that we've been talking about so long.

BIDEN: We don't have to be held prisoner by this administration's failures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: Good morning to you I'm Christi Paul on this Saturday morning and look who's here?

SANCHEZ: Always a pleasure to be with you, Christi. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: Absolutely. Good to have you as always. So listen, Americans, all of you, we have ten more days to decide who you want to lead the country out of this worsening Coronavirus crisis that we're watching. The president insists that we're, "Rounding the final turn of this pandemic" but the reality, it looks more like a u-turn, because cases are surging yet again. SANCHEZ: Yes, the U.S. now reporting its highest number of new Coronavirus infections in one day, since the pandemic started again, the highest number of new infections in a single day. More than 83,000 new cases added just yesterday.

PAUL: And I want to get these numbers right. Make sure that they're really sinking in here. Look at the hospitalizations. They've increased by 33 percent this month. Right now, there are 41,000 people in the hospital who are fighting this virus.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This D.C. art display is a visual representation of the lives taken by a virus that seems to be surging again over 223,000 dead and counting. Eight months into the COVID crisis, hospitalizations and infections are at an all-time high in many states across the country. This week marked the first time since late July that the number of daily new cases exceeded 71,000.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you look at the numbers of the daily infections, the upticks on the map of more than 30 states, that are having upticks, it's not going to spontaneously turn around, unless we do something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: As the president claims that we are rounding the turn on the pandemic, his opponent and many medical experts are warning we're only heading toward a dark winter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICCAL MEDICINE: Reality is that the worst could be yet to come and that the beginning has been more or less the warm up act for what's about to hit. We're already seen that across the northern states if you look at our COVID-19 heat map. The whole northern part is lit up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: With hope hanging on a safe COVID-19 vaccine, drug maker AstraZeneca said Friday that it has a green light from the Food and Drug Administration to resume its vaccine trial in the U.S. that had been on pause since September after a volunteer in Britain developed a neurological condition.

The Head of National Institutes of Health is growing increasingly worried that even after a safe vaccine is approved, a growing number of Americans may not be willing to take it. A recent CNN poll found 45 percent would not try to get a vaccine even if one was widely available possibly allowing the virus to stick around for years says Dr. Francis Collins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUES OF HEALTH: I've been talking so optimistically about how we're likely to have a vaccine by the end of the year but if only 50 percent of Americans are interested in taking it, we're never going to get to that point of immunity across the population where this COVID-19 goes away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: This week, an updated model published in the journal nature forecasted some possible grim scenarios suggesting that we could see up to million COVID deaths in the U.S. by the end of February if social distancing mandates are eased and only about half the population wears masks in public. Anthony Fauci the nation's top infectious disease expert tells CNN he thinks the U.S. should just mandate mask use.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. FAUCI: I get the argument, say, well, if you mandate a mask, then you're going to have to enforce it and that will create more of a problem. Well, if people are not wearing masks, then maybe we should be mandating it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: This weekend, "Big Ten Football" is back prompting some of the Mayors in college towns involved to ask the conference for help fighting the spread of the virus. The Mayors wrote that football games, "Generate a lot of activity, social gatherings and the consumption of alcohol". These activities within our communities have also been associated with an increased spread of COVID-19.

Any way you look at it, that 83,000 numbers is certainly high, when you hear from experts, Boris and Christi, it certainly does not look good either. In fact, one expert from the Centers for Infectious Disease Research and Policy who spoke last night says that we may easily begin to see three-figure daily numbers very soon. Especially as we go through the fall and obviously going into the winter as well Boris and Christi.

PAUL: That's frightening. I don't know if anybody even suspected we'd get to as high as we are right now. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

[08:05:00]

SANCHEZ: Yes, startling numbers. And the approach to the coronavirus pandemic is really at the crux of this election. Today, both the Trump and Biden Campaigns are busy in the battleground states President Trump heading to North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin Vice President Mike Pence hitting two stops in Florida.

PAUL: Now, Joe Biden has two events in Pennsylvania. His running mate Senator Kamala Harris of course is going to be next door in Ohio. And Former President Barack Obama is stumping for Biden in South Florida today. SANCHEZ: Yes. The pandemic ultimately will be a major challenge for whoever wins this election. And a record number of Americans are handing down their verdict early. More than 52 million ballots have already been cast in this election.

That's according to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edison Research, and Catalyst, a data company that provides data, analytics and services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit advocacy organizations.

PAUL: So I want to go back to that figure, 52 plus million votes already cast that figure eclipses 2016's pre-election total in 38 states where data were reported at that time, and it's more than 38 percent of the 136 million total ballots cast in 2016.

We've got our reporters on the trail this morning. CNN's M.J. Lee is following the Biden Campaign in Philadelphia. CNN's Sarah Westwood is with the president in West Palm Beach.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Sarah, we want to get you first the president starting his day in Florida. He has big rallies planned in three COVID hotspots but he's ticking off an important item of his agenda to start, he is casting his ballot this morning, right?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Boris. It's a very busy day for President Trump today waking up in his Mar-A-Lago club here in West Palm Beach for the first time since early March obviously a lot has changed since the last time we were all here.

But the first thing on his agenda today is voting presumably for himself at his early polling location here in Florida. He's still a registered Florida voter. And he has encouraged his supporters to do the same, to vote in person, rather than casting their ballots by mail.

He's frequently been undermining the vote by mail system so perhaps this is as much as anything a symbol so that the president can be seen casting his ballot in person. Now speaking yesterday at the villages, the president said essentially he prefers to stand in line, he likes to vote what he described as the old-fashioned way. He urged voters to do the same.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm voting early tomorrow in Florida. Do you believe it, I'm coming to vote. I came down here to vote. I actually came down here to see the villages. And tomorrow morning, I'm voting here, as opposed to sending it in you know that mail-ins. I like being able to vote. I'm old-fashioned, I guess.

I like to get in on line I'll have to stand there for two hours may be they'll move you up a little bit, but I like to vote. So I'm coming to vote. I'm going to be voting here tomorrow. I urge every one of you to go and vote. I don't think I have to urge too many. How many people here have already voted? That's incredible. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now, with just ten days to go before Election Day, the president is continuing his blitz of battleground states with a trio of rallies today in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. Those are three states that he carried in 2016. But right now, he's either trailing Joe Biden in the polls there or his margin is very, very thin.

So it's crucial from the president's perspective that he shore up support in those battleground states and that's where he'll be going today. Now yesterday at campaign events we heard the president promote a level of optimism about the end of the pandemic that's simply not supported by the data as we're seeing Coronavirus cases spike across the country. Let's take a listen to what the president said in Pensacola.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A safe vaccine that quickly ends this horrible pandemic, and we're rounding the turn, with or without the vaccine. We have the vaccines. They're going to be great. But with or without it, we're rounding the turn normal life. That's all we want fully resuming. We want normal life to fully resume. And that's happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Again, the facts just don't support this notion that the country is rounding the turn when it up comes to Coronavirus. At the president's rallies we have seen images of people not necessarily always wearing their masks. Not necessarily always social distancing.

Yesterday on the campaign trail, we also heard from the president some ambivalence about hearing about to those social distancing guidance from his own administration. But it seems the president's closing argument here is betting that people are more concerned about returning to normal life than they are about the virus.

That's a gamble from the president but it seems to be his closing argument as he keeps up this aggressive schedule of campaign events on this sprint to Election Day Boris and Christi.

[08:10:00]

PAUL: All right, Sarah Westwood it's quite a wrap up thank you so much. So we want to go to M.J. Lee she is in Philadelphia right now. We know that Pennsylvania is a pivotal battleground state here.

President Trump won it in 2016, though, as I remember, it was somewhat narrow. And I wanted to touch on the fact that somebody tweeted me already, a viewer tweeted me and said did I hear you say Jon Bon Jovi was going to be campaigning. So let's go through all the people that are kind of campaigning and really the significance of Pennsylvania today, M.J.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right that this is an incredibly critical state and the Joe Biden Campaign knows it. He's going to be starting out today by campaigning here in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As you said, this is a state that Donald Trump did win in 2016. But it was a narrow victory.

And the Biden Campaign is clearly looking at this state and hoping that this could be in the win category for them. Remember a CNN Poll out of the state this week showed that Biden had a ten-point lead in the state. So, clearly, they're trying to capture this very important state.

And as far as his closing message is concerned, guys, it is abundantly clear that it is going to have everything to do with COVID-19. We heard the former vice president make a speech yesterday in Wilmington, Delaware, where he sort of pulled on all of the different threat that he had been talking about over the last couple weeks.

He first laid out what his own plan and vision is for trying to contain the virus if he were to win in November. And he said that he wanted to make sure that he can enforce mask wearing across the country. He also talked about how envisions distributing important things like PPE and a free vaccine.

And he also of course, went after the president for what he said he saw as his failure in trying to contain this virus. And even used some very critical and sharp language saying that he believes the president had simply quit on the American people.

And one thing I found pretty interesting yesterday was that in his remarks, Joe Biden said that he wanted American people to try to envision a better future under a Biden Presidency. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We don't have to be held prisoner by this administration's failures. We can choose a different path. Imagine a day in the not too distant future when you can enjoy dinner with your friends and your family. Maybe even go out to a movie when you can celebrate your birthday, weddings, graduations surrounded by your nearest and dearest friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And a clear sign that we are just days away from Election Day. We have some of Joe Biden's biggest surrogates and even celebrities who are going to be hitting the trail for him this weekend. Former President Barack Obama as you mentioned is going to be campaigning today in Miami.

Obviously, the Biden Campaign believes there is not really anybody else who is better at making a compelling case for a Biden Presidency. You're also going to be seeing his running mate, Kamala Harris in Ohio, Bernie Sanders in Western Pennsylvania. And Christi, you heard right, Jon Bon Jovi is going to be joining Joe and Jill Biden in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, later today.

PAUL: All right, we'll now get viewer knows, I told him, yes, that's what she said though we just needed confirmation. Thank you so much. SANCHEZ: We also can't forget Cher in Las Vegas.

LEE: That's right.

SANCHEZ: Really important name here. M.J. Lee, thank you so much. It is a race like no other. And it all ends here. Join us for special live coverage only the way CNN can bring it to you. Election night in America our special coverage starts Tuesday, November 3rd at 4:00 pm eastern right here on CNN.

PAUL: Also a state to watch this election by the way is Georgia it's a Democratic Presidential Candidate he has not won in Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.

SANCHEZ: Yes, CNN Correspondent Natasha Chen is in Atlanta where voting has just started. It is unexpectedly going to be a close this time around, Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and here at this mobile voting site, polls have just opened so we're starting to see a little bit of a line with people coming in. This type of mobile unit is really to supplement the polling locations where you've been seeing some very long lines.

Coming up, we're going to talk to the voter who was very first in line to cast her ballot about why it was important for her to get out here?

PAUL: All right. We'll talk about that more. Thank you so much Natasha. Also, the crisis across America with the country reporting its highest number of Coronavirus infections in one day since the start of the pandemic, that's happening now. Utah hit particularly hard. We're talking to a Chief Nursing Officer at a Utah Hospital about what she's seeing firsthand.

[08:15:00]

SANCHEZ: Plus, the U.S. election may be only ten days away, but you shouldn't necessarily expect clarity on the outcome immediately. Coming up, we speak to Lawyer Benjamin Ginsburg about why he doesn't see the election being called before December?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The U.S. recorded its highest single day number of COVID-19 infections Friday at more than 83,000. That is 6,000 higher than the country's previous record set in July. Ohio health officials reported a record high of new cases for the third day in a row.

In Oklahoma, officials reported more than 1,000 new infections for the fourth consecutive day. And Utah's Governor says the state is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the country, as hospitalizations hit an all-time high last week and ICU beds remain on short supply.

[08:20:00] PAUL: So let's talk to the Chief Nursing Officer at the University of Utah Health. Tracey Nixon is her name. Tracy, we're so grateful to have you with us this morning. I know that it's early out there. But I also know that this outbreak in Utah is very serious. Help us understand the status of the hospital where you work right now. Are you close to capacity?

TRACEY NIXON, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH: Yes, we are. And we have been for several weeks. Last week, certainly being one of our worst points. But our ICUs are incredibly full. Our regular ICU beds are incredibly full and we're into our surge ICU beds for COVID care.

PAUL: I know you had said earlier this week that you have patients who essentially are dying alone. That is something is that we heard when this whole thing started. I think it's hard for people to wrap their heads around the fact that this is still happening.

How are the doctors and nurses and medical teams there dealing with all of this? Because I know it's a physical - it's hard physically. But it's also hard emotionally and mentally.

NIXON: Yes, absolutely it is, right. Our COVID positive patients who are hospitalized are isolated. We can't allow visitors in with them, due to the risk of spreading infection and conserving PPE and those efforts.

But the care teams, and our ICU in particular where the length of stay for these COVID patients is a week and more, the care teams become very close to those patients. They are - you know, we've become part of their family in the course of their stay with us.

And so, to watch those patients in the critical care units, in particular, suffer and be alone without the support of their families is, I think, gut-wrenching for our health care teams. And then when you look at their doing this for multiple patients across multiple days.

The burden and the strain to our teams are beyond anything you could imagine. They cannot continue to do this for some extended unknown period of time. They've been - they've already been doing it for months.

And to continue to watch this influx and flood of patients come in who are suffering and in pain and by themselves. And trying to care for them and care for their families over a phone is just immeasurable.

PAUL: So to wrap things before I let you go, one, what is your most urgent need right now in that field? And, two, what do you want to say to the public this morning?

NIXON: I think the most urgent need isn't one we can actually fix, necessarily. But people - I think people need to understand that really our most limited resource right now in health care is our health care personnel. And we have had the luxury of planning for the surge. And we've created capacity where we can, but it is the staff. It's the medical providers. It's our physicians, our respiratory therapists, our nurses. That is a limited resource. And they can't continue right to work the way we're working them for an extended period of time.

So it is our personnel, it's the people at the bedside delivering the care, that's where I have the most concern as we continue to move forward with this. And I think if there's anything I would want to say to the public it would be that this pandemic is very real.

I think there is disconnect sometimes between what our communities think are happening and what we see in health care happening. And I just - I want to assure everybody it is incredibly real. People are suffering, both young and old.

It is not just a selected age group that is suffering through this. But we all are suffering. And we have the power, as individuals, to change this and to help turn this, by wearing masks by social distancing by hand washing. It's hard. It's hard as we go into the holiday season.

But it is harder to lose people like we will be if we don't make a change and start to follow the recommendations.

PAUL: No truer statement than you could make right there. Tracey Nixon, we appreciate everything do you. Please tell your teams that we're praying for them. We really are. Take good care of yourself.

NIXON: Thank you very much.

PAUL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, a younger more diverse electorate is coming out in droves in Georgia. So, could we see the state turn blue this election? We'll take you live to a polling station in Atlanta, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:00]

PAUL: So, you know people are voting early, already in Georgia specifically even this morning. A Democratic Presidential Candidate hasn't won in Georgia, by the way, since Bill Clinton back in 1992.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And the electorate has changed a lot since then. A new, younger, more diverse electorate has emerged in the peach state. The big question, of course is could that be enough to turn Georgia blue and change the dynamics of this race.

PAUL: CNN Correspondent Natasha Chen is at a polling station in Atlanta. It's a mobile polling station. And this is actually the kind that I vote in, where I voted, Natasha, and it's helpful.

CHEN: Yes, Christi, we're being told that Fulton County really brought two of these in at a cost of $750,000 to supplement these polling locations where they know that there could be extremely long lines like we've seen all around Georgia.

What we're seeing this morning, polls just opened at 8:00, is a little bit of a line. You can see young families coming in. They're bringing their children to vote with them. We've got with us here the woman who was very first in line. Sheila King, tell me how early you got here to do this.

[08:30:00]

SHEILA KING, GEORGIA VOTER: I got here at 10 to 7:00.

CHEN: OK, so more than an hour before?

KING: Absolutely.

CHEN: And that's because you saw long lines and were concerned about that.

KING: That is correct, that is correct. I work and I normally get off at 5:36 and I just didn't think that during the evenings, it was going to work for me. So, I went online last night and I found this location which isn't very far from my house. I thought, I'm going to be there and I'm going to be the first to vote. And I was.

CHEN: That is called making a plan, as they say. So, this was a pretty easy process for you. I hear there are nine machines in there.

KING: Correct.

CHEN: And you pit in your vote and then you scan it in a different machine?

KING: Yes. You put in your election in one machine. Take your card and your pen to where they accept the ballot. Put that into the ballot, and it registers to the right when it's been accepted and you'll get to go.

CHEN: And you told me you just wanted to see that in front of you.

KING: Yes.

CHEN: To see it's been accepted no questions.

KING: Absolutely.

CHEN: Tell me about why it was really important for you to come out here early and to make sure you vote would cast this time around?

KING: Well for one, I didn't want to wait in long lines. So I wanted to be relatively if not the first very close to it. Secondly, I wanted to do it because I'm a factual person. And I like to see how things, you know, experience. So it's the experience for me and how you feel.

I'm 60 years old. My forefathers thought for us to vote. So, I always want to make my voice be known. I'm the one that's going to go stand in the line, no matter how long it takes to make sure that it's heard. CHEN: And real quickly, just that you were talking to me about the most important issue that brought you here.

KING: Right. The most important issue was change. I want to see a change in the United States. So we have to be about the change that you want to see. We can talk about it all day, until you are about it, when you exercise your right, that's when it makes a difference.

CHEN: Sheila, thank you so much.

KING: You're welcome.

CHEN: And that she is among the 2.5 million Georgians who have already cast their ballots and as of 8:00 pm last night, that turnout, when you combine both early in-person voting as well as absentee ballots, it's 114 percent over this time during the 2016 election so that just goes to show the enthusiasm that we're seeing out here.

SANCHEZ: Yes, enthusiasm, first chance she got, she made a plan, she went and she voted. Ad s she said, you can talk about it all day, she put her money where her mouth was and cast her ballot. Natasha Chen reporting from Atlanta, thank you so much.

Many states have implemented additional security measures this year due to increase in voting by mail but some skeptics have questioned the reasons behind the additional restrictions. Our next guest writes "Legions of Republican lawyers have searched in vain over four decades for fraudulent double voting. At long last they have a blatted example of a major politician urging his supporters to illegally twice; the only hitch is that the candidate is President Trump".

Joining me now is Benjamin Ginsberg, a Republican Election Lawyer and Chair of the Center Advanced Governmental Studies Mr. Ginsberg thank you so much for taking time out of your weekend to offer your perspective.

I want you to talk about the comment that President Trump made in North Carolina about having his supporters vote twice. It played it off as being sarcastic. It's not just that, though there are a lot of others things that Trump his surrogates and the campaign are doing that are questionable at least.

I want to talk about Pennsylvania and the Trump Campaign filming voters as they dropped off their ballots. Officials in Pennsylvania were concerned that this might be some form of voter intimidation and accusation that the Trump Campaign calls categorically false. What do you make of that situation?

BENJAMIN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION LAWYER: Well, the Pennsylvania situation, it's not clear that the voters knew they were being filmed. So I'm not sure it could be voter intimidation if the voters didn't know. But the incident itself speaks to a much broader problem.

And that is, for the first time, we have a President of the United States saying our elections are fraudulent and the results rigged. And that casts doubt on one of the basic tenets of the democracy. The problem is that there's no proof of widespread fraud.

So what the Philadelphia example and why it should set off alarm bells is that when the president to take his broad rhetoric about the election being fraudulent and actually also dust off and cast doubt on election results, they have to have proof of many incidents.

It isn't clear what the activity of the Trump Campaign and the polling place will be, whether they'll challenge voters. Whether they'll try and contest ballots that are cast.

[08:35:00]

GINSBERG: This Philadelphia activity could be the tip of the spear on a broad effort to try and delay, disrupt the voting process itself.

SANCHEZ: I'm curious about your assessment as to why the president is doing this? He's been doing it for a long time, going back to 2016, when he incorrectly made the statement that there was some 3 million undocumented immigrants who voted illegally. Zero proof of that. Why do you think he keeps suggesting that voting is rigged in this country?

GINSBERG: Well, I'm just a humble lawyer and not a psychologist. So, I'm not sure I know the answer to that. But I think what his reasons are not as important as the fact that he is the first president to cast such doubt on our elections and their being fair.

And that causes people in the country, according to the polls, to have some doubts about the accuracy of the elections. And that's a bad place to be. And there is a requirement, you would think, on the President of the United States going to make that statement, to have some proof of it. All right and that's not there.

SANCHEZ: Right. There was this commission set up by the White House that Vice President Pence was overseeing to come up with all of these illegal votes. That commission came and went with nothing. Nothing came of that investigation.

I want to make sure our viewers understand you have a long resume of dealing with contested elections, notably, in Florida, in 2000, something that wasn't decided for several weeks. You have said that you believe we may not know the outcome of this election until December. Why is that?

GINSBERG: Well, there are a number of reasons. There are far more absentee ballots being cast. And they take longer to process. I do think that since I made that statement, a number of states have either improved the machines that they're going to use to count absentee votes or moved up their deadlines.

So, I think that actually the way this will work, we've got a pretty good indication, not a final call, but an indication on election night. Election officials will not call their state officially. And I think the networks will responsibly not call the states officially until many, many votes are counted and few are left. That will take a little longer. It always does, before results are certified. You want to be right as opposed to fast. Which is not to say there are not a number of states that will vote, officially get their votes in early on election night that will be a pretty good leading indicator of whether one candidate has won or lost or whether it's going to be very tight and headed for a Florida situation.

SANCHEZ: And, sir, I did want to ask you about the news this week that both Russia and Iran - more so Russia than Iran, but nevertheless, had plans to obtain voter information. And were able to successfully, in some cases, for the average American voter, what would you say to them to instill confidence in them in the process, despite attempts at foreign meddling.

GINSBERG: Well, the fact that the press conference took place would indicate that our officials who are charged with stopping Russians and Iranians are on top of the situation. And there's obviously a very diligent effort to be sure that our ballot places are not being hampered.

You know, this went to voter registration lists. And voter registration lists are actually public records. You can go to your Secretary of State's office and gets the names of people on a voter registration list. So what is unclear and why the scale of the damage of this may not be so great is you don't know what lists they were.

SANCHEZ: Right. Benjamin Ginsberg, I'm sure we'll be talking again probably multiple times after Election Day. Let's hope that process runs smoothly, though, Ben Ginsberg, thank you.

GINSBERG: I hope it's quick. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

PAUL: I think everybody is hoping for that. So still ahead, there's a deal that could be historic for two countries involved. We're talking about Sudan and Israel taking a major step towards normalizing relations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:00]

PAUL: 44 minutes past the hour. And President Trump is claiming a foreign policy victory. He's announcing that Sudan and Israel have agreed to start normalizing relations thanks to a U.S. brokered deal.

SANCHEZ: And as Oren Liebermann explains this is just the start of the process.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Surrounded by the White House Peace Team in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump claimed another foreign policy victory in the Middle East, a peace agreement between Israel and Sudan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: They essentially have been in war with Israel for a long time. I don't know if it was fighting, I don't know that but probably there has been a little bit but certainly it's been for many years you've been officially at war with Sudan and now it's not only the deal was signed but it's peace. So that's official. And that's nice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:45:00]

LIEBERMANN: The White House was eager to build on a momentum of other peace deals it pushed forward. Israel normalized relations with first United Arab Emirates and then Bahrain it is part of the White House led Abraham Accords. Sudan is now the third Arab state in three months to make peace with Israel, unlike the other two, Sudan has been in a state of war with Israel in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: In Khartoum, the Capital of Sudan, they put forward in 1967 the three no's of the Arab League, no to peace with Israel, no to recognition with Israel and no to recognition with Israel and today, Khartoum says yes to peace with Israel, yes to recognition with Israel and yes to normalization with Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Trump turned the announcement into election politics leading to this awkward exchange with speaker phone exchange with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Do you think sleepy Joe would have made this deal baby? Sleepy Joe, do you think he would have made this deal? Somehow I don't think so.

NETANYAHU: Well, Mr. President, one thing I can tell you is, we appreciate the hope for peace from anyone in the America, and we appreciate what you've done enormously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Sudan in recent months urging normalization with Israel in exchange for removing Sudan from the state sponsors of terror list. Sudan agreed to pay $335 million in restitution for terror attacks in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the U.S. will now deliver hundreds of millions in humanitarian aid and forgive $3 billion in debt two senior Sudanese sources told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDALLA HAMDOK, SUDANESE PRIME MINISTER: This decision qualifies Sudan to get relief from debt. We are today more than $60 billion in debt. With this decision, doors open that allow for the release of Sudan's debt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: But if Trump wanted another White House signing ceremony in the future. Sudan's Foreign Minister part of a fragile transitional three-year government poured cold water on that idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR GAMARELDIN, SUDANESE ACTING FOREIGN MINISTER: This is an agreement to normalize. It's not yet normalization. We must wait for Sudan's Democratic Constitutions to be functional including in the Legislative Council.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Palestinian leaders called the agreement a serious of stab in the back as they found themselves once again on the outside looking in. President Trump saying there are more Arab and Muslin countries who will soon make peace with Israel even perhaps one day, Iran, he claimed as he looked to turn a foreign policy victory into a domestic election win. Oren Liebermann, CNN, Jerusalem.

PAUL: Still ahead, in a year that may at times felt like a nightmare, obviously, how did we find the courage to dream big? We're speaking to the man who literally wrote the book on it as part of our series "The Reset".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00]

PAUL: I know we're all trying to learn to reset in this COVID era. I talked to "The New York Times" best-selling Author Bob Goff. His new book is called "Dream Big" and since March, a lot of us have re- evaluated what those dreams are, right? May be we're not sure what to do next?

But we've always thought that we have to consistently push and strive to make things happen. But Bob says this, he says any person I've ever known who has chased and accomplished an ambition knew that some days were about gathering strength instead of exerting it. So I asked him what he says to people who forget that achievement also comes with introspection and slowing down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB GOFF, NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR AND SPEAKER: Yes, sometimes, it's figuring out what you're running from and what you're running to? To realize to slow down the cadence and then to do a little bit of work and to say, hey, what happened when I was young?

Maybe if a viewer was listening and they had - their parents maybe had split up when they were young. And they didn't understand what happened. So they made up a story. And the story was eventually if I love people, they'll leave me. It wasn't true, of course but for that 8-year-old, that's how you're figuring out life. And then they made up the rules to support the story. And the rule was I'll never love deeply. I'm never going to go deep, because the story was eventually, everybody is going to leave.

So, what a great time, during this, to slow down, kind of be where you're feet are. Like you guys say in the south. And then say, like, what were some of the rules that I made up and maybe those are supporting stories that aren't true anymore.

My story is that my value was being like on the move, like go, go, go and go. And what I'm realizing by slowing it down is I'm actually here. And I got to see my grandson take his first step. And one of the things that was so neat, I didn't say, well, like, I've never seen better of course not.

It's like, oh, my gosh, you took a step and what if heaven was thinking that about us, that we would take the next courageous step. And sometimes, the most courageous step you can take is just go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Isn't he amazing? Bob says we have to learn to be present to win. And that includes looking across the street sometimes at who around us might really need us. Now, he took it to this extreme.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOFF: What I wanted to do early on, I decided I was going to be Uber- available. That was even before there was Uber. I just decided I was going to be available.

[08:55:00]

GOFF: So I write books every once in a while. I put my cell phone number in the back of 2.5 million books, isn't that awesome? I get 100 calls a day. I can't get a thing done, it's terrific! But there's something beautiful in just availability. If you really want to make a difference during this time that you feel like you're at home, just don't send anybody to voice mail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: I love this man. Tell me what your recess is? I would love to hear from you. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram what you think really matters? And I'm hoping for a really good reset for you. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you to Bob Goff. I'll have more online later but do stay with us; we're coming up again in another hour.

SANCHEZ: I'm definitely going to make sure to add you on social media and tell you all about my day, Christi.

PAUL: Do it yes.

SANCHEZ: I will. Thank you so much. "SMERCONISH" is up next. We'll see you again in just one hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)