Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Race to Finish Line as Campaigns Fight for Last-Minute Holdouts; New COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Soar as Pandemic Worsens in Midwestern States; Trump, Biden Race to the Finish Line As Campaigns Fight for Last-Minute Holdouts; Futures Down Sharply As Pandemic Worsens. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired October 28, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And nearly 72 Americans, imagine that, have already cast their ballots. That is more than half of all ballots cast by election day in 2016. The pace here well ahead of 2016 turnout but this year's election coming at a time like no other, as the nation battles a growing pandemic. Forty states now are seeing a rise in new coronavirus infections, 29 reporting their highest day of new infections just this month. They're setting records, folks. And more than 226,000 Americans have now died.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Those are the facts, but despite those facts the White House is now listing, quote, "ending the COVID-19 pandemic" as one of its accomplishments and claiming on their official government Web site the testing is the reason for rising cases.
You've heard that over and over again, right? But this morning the nation's testing czar, Admiral Giroir just said unequivocally that is not true. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. BRETT GIROIR MD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: So we do assess that the cases are actually going up, they're real, because hospitalizations and deaths are starting to go up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That's really important. He is in charge of testing and he says this is not just because of more testing. Also the president is still holding rallies in several states getting hit the hardest right now from COVID.
We're following both candidates and their campaigns today. Our teams are across the battleground states. Let's begin in Michigan, our colleague Miguel Marquez joins us there this morning.
Good morning, Miguel.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there. So, look, 10,704 votes, that's what Donald Trump won Michigan by in 2016. Both sides now fighting for the state very, very hard. The president will be in the state twice this week, Joe Biden will be in the state, the vice president will be in the state, Jill Biden will be in the state.
The secretary of state here expects about five million voters to come out in this election. They believe that about two-thirds of that vote will already be in by election day. They don't do early voting here but they do mail-in balloting and people have been mailing those votes in. They are now suggesting that if you want to get your vote in and make sure it counts that you don't mail it in but take it to your clerk's office or drop box somewhere and drop it off somewhere across Michigan right now.
There was a setback for Democrats. The secretary of state tried to ban guns in the state at polling places but a judge reversed that after Republicans sued saying that it aggregated their Second Amendment rights, but it doesn't keep guns out of places like churches and schools where they were already banned. So it's a bit of a half- decision really.
The bigger concern for many Democrats here are some of those paramilitary groups that may gather at certain polling places with long guns, with sort of the larger guns and the Trump flags. 100 feet from polling areas. That would be voter intimidation in some cases. There are laws against voter intimidation. There are laws against threatening with a gun. So all that is going to be playing into things here in Michigan as we move toward election day.
Back to you.
SCIUTTO: Why do you need to bring a gun to go vote? Why? Miguel Marquez, thanks very much.
To Wisconsin now, CNN's Bill Weir is there.
Bill, Vice President Pence is making a stop there. Two big indicators, you have new polling there showing Biden's lead widening but also crucially just the caseload there, the number of new infections in Wisconsin going up sharply as well.
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Wisconsin is setting the best kind of records when it comes to democracy and voter engagement, the worst most tragic kind of records when it comes to COVID-19. 5262 new cases yesterday, 64 deaths. Those are both records by a wide margin. The emergency field hospital that's been set up at Wisconsin State Fair Park right outside of Milwaukee is ready because 84 percent of the state's 11,000 beds are full, 87 percent of the state's ICU units are full.
Meanwhile, as you say, Vice President Pence coming today. Yesterday President Trump was in Lacrosse. A big rally, very few masks, encouraging the governor, Democratic governor, Tony Evers, to open the state even as he warns that this is going to get worse in coming days.
Meanwhile, on the election side of things they're seeing a turnout unprecedented in history. Double the number of absentee ballots in 2016 total already cast, six days to go. Of course, the Supreme Court ruling controversial, very controversial. Democrats wanted a few extra days to count mail-in ballots given the pandemic. That's shot down by the conservatives on the Supreme Court.
And this is a bit of trivia, I never thought I would learn, never thought we would need to know, but here it is. Wisconsin says they will not count early ballots if the voter dies of COVID-19 before election day -- Jim, Poppy.
HARLOW: Bill Weir, thank you so much for that.
Just days ahead of official election day let's go to our Drew Griffin in Florida.
[09:05:05]
Good morning, Drew. The president will go there tomorrow, right?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The former president came here yesterday, Barack Obama, in that ever important I-4 corridor where Democrats really, really need to turn out the -- specifically the Puerto Rican vote.
Listen, I think that the story here in Florida this morning is this cautious optimism that the voting is really going great. 6.9 million Floridians have already cast their ballots. We've been talking to supervisors of elections who are right now in the process of tabulating all of those mail-in ballots. And by election night very soon after the polls close, Poppy, all of those early votes may be counted, which means we could have very much of the vote count almost instantly on election night in Florida, but as we all know in Florida the problem is -- it's not the problem, but the case is that the voting is so tight always.
Listen, 1 percent either way is considered a blowout. We're going to watch this state very closely. A lot of people trying to read the tea leaves between who's mailing in more, who's voting in person more, but right now the good news is Floridians are just taking their masks and going to vote -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, we should note, around the country, right? 72 million people, six days before the election.
Drew Griffin, thanks very much.
Listen to this, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Republican Governor Greg Abbott who limited ballot drop boxes to one site per county. A decision that has major impact on urban and Democratic-leaning counties in the state.
Poppy, the math here is incredible. Harris County has five million people. They have one drop box.
HARLOW: Yes.
SCIUTTO: So just to give you an example. Here in D.C. there are as many as nine drop boxes in one ward in D.C.
HARLOW: Wow.
SCIUTTO: You've got dozens here. There's one in a county of five million people. Why is that?
HARLOW: And I remember Ed Lavandera's piece a few weeks ago, driving an hour plus to get to that one drop off. I think it was only open like 9:00 to 5:00 or something like that. All right, so opponents had argued that the governor's order exceeded his authority, that he created an unfair burden on voters in larger counties, but the court rules the order doesn't, quote, "disenfranchise anyone." This ruling comes as Texas is seeing a surge in early voters with thousands of voters waiting in line for hours to vote.
Now to the growing pandemic, 40 states headed in the wrong direction.
SCIUTTO: CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is outside a field hospital, that's right, a field hospital in West Allis, Wisconsin.
Adrienne, you know, these are things we saw at the worst moments of the pandemic, say, in New York when it was an epicenter in the world. Now we're seeing it in a number of Midwestern states. What do you see and are these field hospitals already becoming crowded with patients?
ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim and Poppy, we're seeing it is getting worse. We heard Bill just moments ago talking about the horrible numbers here in Wisconsin, as well as the great voter turnout.
Listen, we know milestones mark the beginning of something new and this is a chapter Wisconsin did not want to enter. More than 200,000 coronavirus cases. Hospitalizations across the state are up. ICUs stretched thin. Some seeing a capacity of 87 percent or higher and that's a big reason why that field hospital you guys just referenced is opened here at the state fairgrounds.
When you think about the State Fair, many think about creating wonderful memories with their friends and family and people they love, and Governor Evers says if you want to get back to creating those memorable moments with your friends and family, stay home now. Staying home now guarantees, he says, a future with the people you love most.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TONY EVERS (D), WISCONSIN: There's no way to sugar coat it. We are facing an urgent crisis and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors and the people you care about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROADDUS: And the governor is living a nightmare. A reality. Think about it, we all have had bad dreams but we wake up, often our heart pounding, we look around the room and realized it was just a bad dream, but that's not the case with COVID-19. There's no cure. But we do know a vaccine is on the way -- Jim and Poppy.
HARLOW: Yes, hopefully soon and broadly taken. Adrienne, thanks a lot for the reporting from Wisconsin.
Let's talk to infectious disease physician, Dr. Nasia Safdar. She is also the medical director of the Infection Control at the University of Wisconsin Health.
Good morning. It's good to have you and I am so sorry that it's on a morning when your state is struggling so much.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DR. NASIA SAFDAR, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN: Good morning.
[09:10:02]
HARLOW: We heard from one of your fellow health professionals this morning on "NEW DAY" from UW Health saying that they're at the point where they are having to prioritize care and may be soon at the point where they have to choose who gets care and who gets a hospital bed. Is that a choice that you feel like you are going to have to make soon?
SAFDAR: I think it's highly likely that we will also have to make some difficult decisions. I think, you know, this is Wisconsin's first real true brush with this pandemic and we are finding that cases can go from very few to very large numbers in a matter of days. We've seen a doubling of cases over the last several days, and I think that the big issue is there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. So if the trajectory continues the way it is now it's almost certain that we will find ourselves in a place where we will have to decide who gets the care when we would really like to be able to provide the best possible care to everyone that needs it.
SCIUTTO: All right. The data shows us that outbreaks have now been traced to several Trump campaign events in the states of Oklahoma, here in Washington, D.C., Minnesota as well, multiple events there. You have the vice president going to Wisconsin today in the midst of all this.
Just for a moment speak to him, his team, to the administration about what the public health impact of public events like this often with not much social distancing or mask wearing. What is the public health impact?
SAFDAR: You know, I think from the public health perspective we know how this virus is transmitted. We know that it goes from person to person. So if there is a place that we can arrive at where people are not gathering together, are not in close quarters together, then we know that that's an effective way to interrupt transmission. It is social gatherings of all types where people are close together for crowded quarters for prolonged periods of time that really exponentially increase the number of cases we're seeing. And given the surge that we're already witnessing, it seems like now would be the time to really hunker down and limit all nonessential activities outside the home.
HARLOW: OK. Well, the White House defended their rally, the president's rally in Wisconsin today on this network earlier saying, look, we do temperature checks for people walking in, we hand out masks. But what would you say if you were with the president right now? What does he need to say at the podium to everyone? Because even if you give masks, most people in the audience are not wearing them.
SAFDAR: Well, I think that we have to deploy the entire suite of solutions that we have at our disposal. You know, masks are not a substitute for gathering. We need to limit gatherings and promote masking. I think there is a reason to require masks as well. And I think you can say that because you're doing one thing you don't have to do the other. The response really needs to be proportionate to the crisis everywhere that it's happening.
SCIUTTO: No question. Well, thanks for speaking straight about the science and the medicine, Dr. Safdar. You are always welcome here.
So we all know this pandemic isn't over, that's what the facts say. So why is the administration claiming it is? Is that a political strategy that works in the campaign's final stretch? We will ask the question.
Plus the president also downplaying the terrorist plot, that's what it was, terrorist plot to kidnap the sitting governor of Michigan. What does that rhetoric mean? How dangerous is it? Why is it allowed in this country?
HARLOW: And as cases are rising as we just told you here in the United States they're also seeing another spike in the U.K. We're going to take you inside of a British intensive care unit. Could what they are seeing now be a sign of things to come here?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:00]
HARLOW: It is the final sprint to election day, but a lot of you have already voted, by the way, but we're officially six days away.
SCIUTTO: Yes, 72 million, these numbers are off the charts. It wasn't long ago --
HARLOW: Yes --
SCIUTTO: Folks were talking about really low turnout in this country for presidential elections. Not happening this time. Let's get closing arguments now with David Gergen; former presidential adviser to four sitting presidents of both parties. And Errol Louis; political anchor for "Spectrum News" and host of the "You Decide Podcast". Gentlemen, great to have you on today. Your wisdom here. David, question for you.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. SCIUTTO: The GOP hope right now, and frankly, Democratic nervousness,
anxiety, is built on the premise, the idea, the fear that there are hidden Trump voters that the polls just aren't measuring. In your view, are there?
GERGEN: Sure. Absolutely. But we don't know how many, Jim, but there are lots. I've talked to people who are Trump voters that I hadn't -- I would never have imagined that. But first of all, I do think we ought to celebrate what's going on, and that is this avalanche of voters.
We've been -- for years, we've been complaining about not enough people get out, and this year, we not only see this avalanche, but lots and lots of young people. So I think that the big stories about how much enthusiasm there is, how people are standing in lines is encouraging the Republicans to get a lot more of their people out. To get those hidden Trump voters out.
HARLOW: Errol Louis, Senator Harris, the running mate for Joe Biden, she has four stops in Arizona today, the president has two. But I keep thinking about 2016 and Hillary Clinton going to Arizona and the disaster that ensued, and the -- you know, I guess autopsy of the final days --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
HARLOW: Of the campaign and what that meant. So with Senator Harris in Arizona today, Joe Biden sort of following in FDR's trail in Georgia yesterday, is it -- is it prudent or is it too risky?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen, I'm not a political strategist, but I see your point. And certainly, if things don't work out for them and people are kicking themselves on the morning of November 4th, that would be one of the reasons.
[09:20:00]
Look, if it were up to me, if I were a strategist, I'd say, look, take every last dollar that you have, put it in those Midwestern states and dump the rest in Florida, and don't necessarily try to redraw the political map of the United States right now. There will be time to do that maybe in the midterm.
But, well, clearly, they've got internal polling, they've got reasons to believe that they could possibly do something. There's also the idea, Poppy, the possibility that they're trying to -- well, burn off some of the resources of their Republican opponents, in order words, make a kind of a thrust into Arizona to try and draw more Republican resources to that state when, in fact, the main blow that the Democrats want to strike is going to be elsewhere on the map.
So, there's always that possibility, a lot of different things that are going on. And also Arizona could -- an insurance policy in case one of those Midwestern states does fall as we heard from Harry Enten not long ago. If Arizona goes Democratic for the first time since Bill Clinton, that could in fact pull out a victory for Joe Biden even if something goes wrong in Wisconsin or in Pennsylvania.
SCIUTTO: David, I like to draw on your historical knowledge and experience here. You hear a lot of folks say, this election, the most crucial in American history, one of the most crucial, you know, the republic at risk here, you know, the nature of the way we do government, America's position in the globe, right on the world stage. I just wonder, do you feel that, that description, that kind of rhetoric is overblown or accurate?
GERGEN: No, I think it's absolutely accurate. And it's scary in some ways. Listen, Jim, I think this is the most consequential election in our lifetime, and that's mostly because we have this very widely divergent path we have to choose between two paths. Do we want to go forward with Trump in which case we'll have an extension of a lot of this authoritarian tendencies, and I think we're going to be paying a real price around the world in all sorts of ways, reputational and otherwise --
(COUGHING)
Or do we try to want to get back to more normal times. And I think that is a big choice because our democracy is threatened. Democracy is not something that's guaranteed, you have to earn it generation by generation. And we see in our western friends, other countries where democracy has disappeared and authoritarians have stepped forward.
So, I think that this is an election in which you have to say democracy is at stake, vote as if democracy is at stake because it is. Can I just make one other point? Listen, to go back to this question of Arizona, I think it is a great insurance policy, but alternatively, if Joe Biden can win those big, you know, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, he's in.
What he really needs to do then is roll up the score. The bigger the gap, if he gets a really big number, he's going to bring in the Senate. And if he doesn't, he potentially could lose the Senate. If he brings in a higher margin, he also can get the state legislatures where the redistricting is going to occur, he will then be in a stronger position to govern when this -- when this is over. So there are all sorts of reasons for him --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
GERGEN: To get these other states.
HARLOW: That's a really good point. So, Errol, here is the president's latest tactic for trying to get suburban women to vote for him, but it's kind of out of 1950. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I love women and I can't help that they're the greatest. I love them much more than the men.
(CHEERS) Much more than the men. So I'm saving suburbia, I'm getting your kids
back to school, I'm also getting your husbands -- they want to get back to work, right? They want to get back to work. We're getting your husbands back to work and everybody wants it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: How about getting them back to work considering that in August and September, 80 percent of the million people who left the workforce were women? Does he not know that --
LOUIS: Yes --
HARLOW: Or I don't know --
LOUIS: Well, I mean, listen, most of what he's talked about as far as, quote/unquote, "saving" the suburbs has been a barely disguised kind of racial appeal in which his main selling point is that he's trying to stop the incursion of low income housing and has essentially crippled, hobbled or halted the use of the fair housing laws in order to allow for low income housing to be built outside of inner cities.
So, when that didn't work, he's kind of shifted and it's gotten more jokey and more about jobs and how much he loves women. On the other hand, as you say, there are real serious structural employment and economic problems in those suburbs, those don't just go away because the president says he's going to magically appeal to some of these folks on a cultural level.
There are real serious problems, and many of all of the polls actually suggest that women are on to this. They understand that unless there is a response to COVID, unless there is an economic revival, unless there's a different kind of a cultural conversation about where the boundaries of cities are and who lives in cities and in suburbs, they're not going to get those jobs back, and that is going to be a major factor going into the final days of the election, Poppy?
[09:25:00]
HARLOW: Yes --
SCIUTTO: Barely disguised as you said there, Errol Louis, you're friendly in your language. Errol, David Gergen, thanks --
HARLOW: Thank you --
SCIUTTO: To both of you.
GERGEN: Thanks guys, take care.
SCIUTTO: Well, please do join us election night in America. Our special coverage begins Tuesday, 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time only here on CNN. And still ahead this hour, CNN takes you inside a U.K. hospital in a coronavirus hot spot. Doctors there not only facing an overwhelming loss of life, but also abuse from community members who think the virus is a hoax. Incredible. Hear their stories -- HARLOW: Yes, their stories are ahead. Also, we're keeping a very
close eye on the market this morning, just minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stock futures are sharply lower for the third straight day as COVID cases continue to surge, a lockdown in parts of Europe for shattering potential business shutdowns and restrictions here. Once again, and this time there is no stimulus deal on the horizon. We'll keep a close eye on this when it opens.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
