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Trump And Biden Campaigns Swarm States In Final Stretch; Former FDA Commissioner Says, U.S. On Cusp Of Exponential Spread; Trump Speaks To Reporters Ahead Of Michigan Rally. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 27, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: All right. Ben I need to end it there for today. We will continue this conversation as the challenges perk up. I appreciate it.

And thanks to you for spending time with us today as well. Stay with us. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a great day.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome our views here in the United States and around the world.

We are seven days out from a presidential election for a nation in crisis. And where President Trump and Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden spend these last few days says a lot about the state of the race.

This is an all out run on the battleground states for both campaigns. And there are also some surprising pit stops. Biden is speaking this hour in Georgia, a state that hasn't gone blue since the '90s. That race is in a dead heat. And President Trump is putting all his focus on the Midwest with three stops today in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

And it is the Midwest where the coronavirus is seeing the highest positivity rate. The average number of new daily cases nationwide is ballooning, it's roughly 70,000 at this point, and that means more hospitalizations. 11 states are reporting record numbers of patients admitted for coronavirus that's putting ICUs under a lot of pressure. Americans will soon decide who they think is best to handle this crisis.

And according to a new Axios/Ipsos poll, more than 60 percent believe the federal government is making the pandemic recovery worse. That is not good news for President Trump, who is trying to change the subject to the Supreme Court and to mail-in voting.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to take the stage any moment now in Warm Springs, Georgia, and we're going to take you there live when he does.

And as Biden hits Georgia, his former boss, Barack Obama, is stumping in Florida, the former president making Joe Biden's case during a stop in Orlando but also attacking President Trump for his handling of the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: What's his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID. He said this at one of his rallies. COVID, COVID, COVID, he is complaining. He is jealous of COVID media coverage.

Listen, you get a president now, wants full credit for an economy that he inherited, he wants zero blame for the pandemic he ignored. But you know what? The job doesn't work that way. You've got to be responsible 24/7. You've got to pay attention 24/7. Tweeting at the T.V. doesn't fix things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN Political Correspondent M.J. Lee is with us now. And the former vice president is in Warm Springs, Georgia, M.J. This is the site of FDR's little White House. What's his strategy in that state?

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we are exactly one week out from Election Day. So it is fascinating that Joe Biden is choosing to spend his day in Georgia, a state that, as you mentioned, a Democratic presidential candidate hasn't won since the 1990s. This was Bill Clinton in 1992.

And Biden explained the strategy this way to reporters. He said, look, I feel good about winning some of these key Midwestern states, like Michigan, like Pennsylvania, like Wisconsin. And with states like Iowa, Georgia, he feels like he actually has a chance. And that's why we are seeing him in Georgia today, why we are going to see him campaigning in Iowa on Friday in addition to Wisconsin.

And in just in few minutes, we are going to see the former vice president give a speech in Warm Springs, Georgia. This is where the campaign says he is going to be talking about the issue of national unity.

We have, of course, seen him do this over and over again. The campaign believing that they can make an appeal to voters who believe that the country is too divided right now. And then later in the day, he will make his way over to Atlanta, Georgia, where he is going to be talking about the importance of getting out and voting, and the importance of early voting as well at a moment when, of course, we have seen record levels of early voting already.

And then I think what we saw from former President Barack Obama just now in Orlando, that was fascinating. Because, remember, the former president was in Florida over the weekend campaigning in Miami. It just goes to show how important the state is with so many electoral votes up for grabs.

And we really saw him doing his sort of surrogate thing and showing why he is such a compelling surrogate for the former vice president. He said that he could attest to his character, his experience because he has worked with him in the White House for eight years and just unleashing a set of blistering attacks against the president on everything from COVID to health care, his personal conduct even mentioning his tweeting habits.

But overall, he had this overarching plea to voters. He said, you have to turn out like ever before, the party was complacent back in 2016 and Obama basically saying, I don't want to see us make the same mistake of last time. Brianna?

[13:05:00]

KEILAR: All right. We'll see how that impacts voters with his final push for Joe Biden. M.J., thank you so much for that report.

President Trump has another three-stop day on his campaign agenda today. Soon, we're going to hear him speak at a rally in Michigan before he heads to a stop in Wisconsin, and then it's onto Nebraska. Those three states have a combined 31 electoral votes up for grabs. They are also three states that President Trump won in 2020.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Lansing, Michigan, ahead of the president's top there.

And, Jeremy, President Trump has to hope that the blue wall isn't rebuilt along the great lakes. Is that behind his travel plans today?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's no question, Brianna. First of all, excuse the volume levels here. We've got (INAUDIBLE) on guitar at the back here playing the rendition of the national anthem.

But as for the president's campaign schedule, he will be travelling to three states. He is beginning (ph) in Michigan first, and then he heads over to Wisconsin, another key state and that blue wall that you were talking about that the president narrowly won the last time around. And then he'll be going to Omaha, Nebraska, which (INAUDIBLE) 20 electoral vote in Nebraska (INAUDIBLE) as well as also in (INAUDIBLE) Iowa, which is (INAUDIBLE).

Now, (INAUDIBLE) right here in Michigan, this is a state that the president won by just fewer than 11,000 votes last time around. And (INAUDIBLE) to see if he can capture a magic in a bottle twice now.

But the polls are not indicating that that is about to happen. The president is down nine points on average in the most recent polls. But the president is hoping that he can at least win one of these three states in terms of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the president was campaigning yesterday. He really needs to win at least one of those states in order to get to that path to 270 Electoral College votes. And that's why you're seeing the president campaigning so strongly here in these Midwestern states.

Now, one thing that we do have to talk about, Brianna, is the fact that the president was continuing to do this, deny reality of the surge of coronavirus cases, holding rallies like this one, where already you have a couple thousand people behind me. And you can see people on the stage behind the president, they are wearing masks, the campaign actually requires them to do so in order to stand behind the president. But the majority of the crowd is not wearing masks and that is the picture that we are seeing across the country as the president continues crisscross this country, in particular the Midwest, where you are seeing a surge in coronavirus cases and also hospitalizations and increased deaths. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, that's very interesting. He has the folks behind him wearing masks. They're going to be caught on the head on shots, where it might appear that a lot of people are wearing masks but really, they aren't. Jeremy Diamond, thank you, live for us from Michigan.

And the Supreme Court has just ruled on another battle over mail-in voting in a key swing state. The justices decided that Wisconsin absentee ballots will only be counted if they are received by Election Day. All of the court's Republican appointees voted to reject that six-day extension that a lower court issued in Wisconsin last month.

I want to bring in CNN's Bill Weir, who is reporting for us from Milwaukee. And, Bill, this comes at a time the post office has been under a lot of pressure, not to mention a pandemic prompting more people to vote absentee. So, how are voters reacting to this ruling?

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it sort of pushes the urgency to today, Brianna. This is the day when you absolutely have to get that absentee ballot in the mail to make sure it gets counted by Election Day. You can still deliver them by hand right up to 8:00 P.M. on Election Day.

But it is telling about pent-up urgency, the lesson of President Obama, as you pointed out earlier there, urging, especially communities of color, black people in Milwaukee who didn't show up four years ago. But it is telling that, of all of the absentee ballots that have been sent out already, 85 percent of them in Madison have been returned. 77 percent in Milwaukee already returned with a week to go.

The state is so evenly divided. 47.9 percent Democrat, 47.8 Republican. The last four elections going back have been decided less than one percentage point. After Florida in 2000, the hanging chads, we saw Wisconsin was the next closest state.

So, the Democrats are saying, get out it there, get your ballot out today. They're getting volunteers to try to motivate people via phones. We've heard stories of Republican campaigners still canvassing door-to-door, not as worried about COVID-19 even as the state spikes. But whether that will play itself out in the end, Brianna, may come down to the count on Election Day.

And you can look at the counties, their political makeup and see while all of these huge numbers from Milwaukee, we know that that's going to bode well for Vice President Biden. But up Marinette County, up north, all of those deep red counties, those folks may wait until Election Day and show up in person. [13:10:08]

So it will come certainly down to the wire.

But the head of the Wisconsin Democratic Party told me last night that in the course of human history, just by fluke of Electoral College, few people have more influence over the future humanity than a single voter in the state of Wisconsin. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Bill Weir, thank you so much, and beautiful sound behind you there in Milwaukee as well.

As coronavirus is exploding in the U.S., a new study is showing that antibodies fade over time. This is a nightmare scenario for health experts.

Plus, another study shows 80 percent of COVID patients have too little of a certain vitamin.

And moments from now, Joe Biden will speak live, and then president just spoke with reporters. Stand by for those things.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:00]

KEILAR: Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has a dire prediction about the state of the pandemic in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: If we took some aggressive, targeted steps right now, we could potentially forestall the worst of it, but we're not going to do that. I understand why. There's a lot of fatigue set in and a lot of policy resistance to taking strong action ahead of the spread. And so we're likely to see a very dense epidemic.

I think we're right now at the cusp of what's going to be exponential spread in parts of the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So just look at the numbers here. 37 states are moving in the wrong direction. That is more than half the country. The seven-day average of new cases is at the highest level since the pandemic began, more than 69,000 new cases a day. Number of hospitalizations is at its highest number since August.

Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with us now to talk about what we're seeing.

And, Elizabeth, researchers are learning more about the virus every day. This includes a possible role that vitamin D could play in a patient's outcome. Tell us about this. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. This is a very interesting study, Brianna, out of Spain. It was published in a Medical Journal. And they looked at patients who had COVID and found that they were often deficient in vitamin D.

So let's take a look at the actual findings. They looked at nearly 200 COVID-19 patients and found 82 percent of them had a vitamin D deficiency. Now, that happens sometimes. But when they compared to people who did not have COVID, only 47 percent of those had a deficiency.

Now, we know that vitamin D deficiency may impair the immune system. So what this researcher says is, you know what, vitamin D supplements might be helpful for some

populations. For example, should people in nursing homes who are often vitamin D deficient and who are at high risk for COVID, should those folks be taking supplements.

So this is not a recommendation for everyone to take supplements but certainly interesting research. And I think there will be more work on this.

KEILAR: And there is new evidence, right, that coronavirus antibodies may not last long. That's not good news. So what did the study find exactly?

COHEN: It's not. It's not good news at all. I know a lot of people who've had COVID think, oh, good, now I'm immune. Well, maybe not. So this was a study out of the U.K., a large study. Let's take a look at what they found.

So when they looked at more than 17,000 people with COVID-19 antibodies, when they tracked them over three months, more than 26 percent decline in those antibodies in just three months.

Now, we don't know what this means. We don't know if it means that they lost immunity, that they didn't lose their immunity, that they lost their immunity to some extent. But, Brianna, people can tell -- scientists have been telling us for months now, look, this is a coronavirus. And one of the things we know about coronavirus is that immunity often wanes.

So if you've had COVID-19, don't think, okay, I sort of have this Teflon shield around me, it doesn't appear that that is the case. Brianna?

KEILAR: Elizabeth, thank you so much for that.

The president making more false claims around -- about the U.S. rounding the turn on the virus. We're going to show you the evidence that it is actually doing the opposite.

Plus, more on former President Obama's blistering attack against the president's behavior, including why he says Americans would never tolerate Trump in a workplace.

And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's long journey from Trump critic to begging for cash. We'll roll the tape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- making three big stops, rally stops. I understand they have been camped out for a couple of days already. And we have a lot of people, thousands and thousands.

I want to just tell you how happy everybody is, including me, with Justice Barrett. She's going to be a great justice for many, many years. I am very proud of the way she went through the process. It was an incredible process. It was a tough process. But she got through it very easily and we're very proud of the fact that she is now a justice of the Supreme Court.

REPORTER: You are aware to watch President Obama (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: I only saw he was on Fox. And Fox puts him on all the time, and they put Sleepy Joe on all the time.

And what they should do, they should show the picture of Sleepy Joe yesterday when he rushed to Pennsylvania, because he saw that I had 25,000 people at each event. When he rushed to Pennsylvania and did a statement and he got lost in a fog. They should show that. Or they should show the picture where he called me George. He thought I was George. I guess he is talking about George Bush. He thought I was George and they should show that.

No, Fox is very disappointing, but Fox puts on this -- this would not have happened with Roger Ailes, I can tell you that. Go ahead.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: I'll always talk about it, because people should get it. Yes, our people should get it, the stimulus. but Nancy Pelosi is only interested in bailing out badly-run crime ridden Democrat cities and states. That's all she's interested in. She is not interested in helping the people.

Well, after the election, we'll get the best stimulus package you've ever seen, because I think we're going to take back the House because of her. I think you have a lot of congressmen and women, Republicans that are going to get elected. We'll take back the House, we'll hold the Senate, we'll hold the White House.

If you look at the polls that came out today and yesterday, and I guess a lot had to do with the debate or a lot had to do with the rallies, I don't know, but take a look at the polls, look how we're doing in Wisconsin, look how we're doing in Iowa, look how we're doing in Ohio, look how we're doing in Florida, look how we're doing everywhere, practically.

So I think we're doing very well. We're going to have an exciting night. It would be very, very proper and nice if a winner would be declared November 3rd instead of counting ballots two weeks, which is totally inappropriate and I don't believe that that's by our laws. I don't believe that. So we'll see what happens.

REPORTER: Mr. President, shouldn't the voters judge you on COVID? And did you --

TRUMP: Voters are judging me on a lot of things. And one of the things we've done a really good job on is COVID. We would have millions of people, millions right now, we would have millions of people dead. Two million people, they were projecting 2.2 if we didn't do what we did. We did the ventilators, and now we're doing all of the equipment. Now we're doing vaccines. We're doing therapeutics, and we've done a great job. And people are starting to see.

Now, Biden had the swine flu, he did the worst job that anybody has ever seen. He had no idea what he was doing. And his chief of staff said he had no idea what he was doing.

I'll see you in Michigan. We're going to have some fun. Thank you.

KEILAR: All right. I want to bring in Gloria Borger, our Chief Political Analyst, to talk about this. A couple things to fact check. The president touting a wonderful COVID response, it is not. The numbers are clear from experts who are looking at data analysis that this government's terrible response to this pandemic has cost American lives and it's cost a lot of lives.

He also talked about Joe Biden. He said that he mistook basically George Bush for him or that he was saying George.

[13:25:02]

He is talking about a video clip of former Vice President Biden, who was talking really sort of before a concert where George Lopez was the host and he was answering a question from George Lopez. So no, he didn't.

But, Gloria, what did you think about what the president said there and he kept it pretty short?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He did keep it pretty short. I think the one actual interesting thing to me aside from all of the lies was what he said about getting a decision the night of the election. He said it would be proper and nice to get a decision on November 3rd. He said, if we didn't, it would be inappropriate and he believes it's against the laws. But he wasn't, you know, the way he has been, which is we can't certify this election, I can't guarantee a peaceful transfer of power.

He kind of dialed that back just a touch to me saying it would be proper to get the result. Because he understands, I think, that it is state by state and a lot of states are allowing counting to go on and this may go to the courts, it may not, but I think he kind of understands that now.

Another thing to me which was bizarre which is that he seemed to hold up Roger Ailes as a paragon of virtue, none of this that is showing the Democratic candidate or the former president speaking would ever happen under Roger Ailes and he says that that is the right thing for a news station to do.

Now, we understand that Fox is the mouthpiece for the president, but at least it has to keep up, you know, a pretense of showing the news during the day, which is what it does. And he said well, that would never happen.

KEILAR: I also wonder, one of the groups he's really trying to win back is suburban women. And here he is talking about Roger Ailes who built Fox News as this hero of the golden age. Roger Ailes was a predator. He was ousted after multiple disturbing allegations of sexual harassment.

BORGER: That's right. That's right. And the president is still defending him because when Roger Ailes was alive, as we now all know, that he was in the president's pocket, not just in the evenings but all day long. And, of course, the president doesn't like the fact that they're even showing Barack Obama on television or showing Joe Biden on T.V. He doesn't like that. And that's why he was late. He was watching Barack Obama speak on television.

I would add that one thing that he seemed to tweet about was that Barack Obama got it wrong on his taxes, that, in fact, as he keeps saying he has spent millions in taxes, which we know maybe state taxes but not federal taxes. So, you know, it is the same old same old.

KEILAR: And to other countries, and taxes to other countries, not to the federal government of the United States of America that he's president of.

He also said, Gloria, that there would be stimulus talks, quote, after the election. And stimulus talks hit an impasse, as millions of people have suffered. They got this first kind of infusion of help and then they have just been hanging in there, right, barely. Some of them not at all, they have not been hanging in there.

BORGER: That's right. Look, the Democrats have passed a stimulus package. They are trying to negotiate for the largest package they can. But, remember, the president pulled the plug on stimulus. What was it, earlier this month? I can't even remember any more. And then he decided, no, no, no, no, no, I can't pull the plug on stimulus because my Republicans are mad at me. So, yes, I want a stimulus package.

And not only do I want a stimulus package but I want a bigger stimulus package than anybody has proposed. Then his Republicans came back to him and said, we can't vote for that. So the Republicans cannot agree on a stimulus package. The Democrats are just fine with what they have. So, he is saying, well, elect me and you're going to get a bigger and a better stimulus package.

Well, which Donald Trump is anyone supposed to believe, the one who wanted to pull the plug or the one who wants a bigger and better one and can't get his Republicans to go along with him? KEILAR: Yes, we'll see what voters think, right?

BORGER: Exactly.

KEILAR: Gloria, stand by for me for just a moment. We're going to have Joe Biden speaking in moments, and I'm going to want to talk to you about that.

Plus, another rise in the number of children being infected with the coronavirus.

Also, task force member Dr. Deborah Birx says North Dakota has the least mask use that she has seen in the U.S. Hear the reasoning behind why folks there are behaving this way.

And chaos erupting in Philadelphia after the death of a black man shot by police.

This is CNN special live coverage.

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