Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump, Biden Deliver Final Pitch With 73 Million Ballots Already Cast; White House Touts Ending Pandemic As Cases, Hospitalizations Soar; 2020 Early Vote Now Half Of Total 2016 Turnout. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 28, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:00]

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

Six days to go and history is unfolding across the nation. More than 73 million Americans have already cast their ballots. That's more than half of all the ballots cast in 2016. And for those who have not voted yet, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are in an all out sprint to win you over. Trump will hold a rally in the battleground state of Arizona here in just a few hours. Biden is in his home state of Delaware keeping the focus on the pandemic and saying that he'd do things differently.

As the deadly virus continues to define this election with a death toll sitting now above 226,000 and cases spiking today in 40 states, the White House is claiming victory over the pandemic despite it being at its worst place ever. They are citing, quote, ending COVID-19 pandemic as a key accomplishment of the administration. They are touting their ongoing engagement with scientists and health professionals. Not only does not square with this White House's action and the soaring numbers but it runs counter to what Dr. Anthony Fauci said just today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If we get a vaccination campaign and by the second or third quarter of 2021, we have vaccinated a substantial portion of the people, I think it will be easily by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Bullhead City, Arizona. This is where the president's rally will be taking place. And, Jeremy, the president is trailing in Arizona, so what are we expecting his closing message is going to be when he takes the stage?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He's trailing here in Arizona, and he's also in neighboring Nevada. That's one of the things that's interesting about this venue that the president picked, is that we are right on the Nevada/Arizona border, only about an hour- and-a-half away from Las Vegas. So the president is kind of hitting two birds with one stone with this rally here.

And it is notable that the president is trailing in Arizona. Not only because this is a state that the president won by four points back in 2016 but also because, as much as we like to talk about the polls having been wrong in 2016, they were right here in the state of Arizona. The president was leading by four to five points just before Election Day back in 2016, and now, Joe Biden is up by that same margin in the polls here in this battleground state of Arizona.

Now, of course, Brianna what we have to talk about every time we cover one of these rallies is what we are seeing behind me, which is several hundred people at this point, will probably grow to the thousands by the time the president gets here in a couple of hours. Very few masks being worn, no social distancing, and that's especially notable because Arizona is a state that has experienced one of the -- that did experience one of those big surges.

Cases are a lot lower now but they have begun to already creep up. And there is no question, whether you ask any public health expert, including the White House's task force that events like this one, these are the kinds of events that will lead to more cases, that will lead to more deaths, more hospitalizations. And we already know, in fact, Brianna, from several of the previous rallies that the president has held, there have been coronavirus cases linked back to those. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Arizona with the Trump campaign, thank you so much.

And now to the Biden camp where the former vice president just outlined his plan again to defeat this pandemic and get Americans back to work. CNN's M.J. Lee is following this for us. Tell us what is Biden's the plan, M.J.?

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, Joe Biden is hunkered down in Wilmington, Delaware today, but a big focus of his day, of course, is the coronavirus pandemic. We just saw him wrap up a meeting with public health officials. And some of them told Biden that we are currently in the middle of another wave, that things are worsening as far as the virus is concerned almost all across the country.

And when Biden spoke, he said all of this latest data is extremely concerning, and he said all of this has been made worse by the administration declaring surrender. And he also said that the country simply cannot afford four more years of President Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We've lost more than 230,000 lives to this virus already and this administration has giving up. Over the weekend, the White House chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, went on television and admitted that they have waved the white flag and declared surrender. He said, quote, we're not going to control the pandemic, end of quote.

The American people deserve so much better than this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And, interestingly, Brianna, Biden did say that even if he were to win next week, it is going to be very difficult for him to turn things around.

[13:05:05]

He said it is not going to be like just turning off a switch.

You can't stress enough how different all of this is from the way that President Trump has been talking about the virus, as Jeremy just laid out. And just to give you a look ahead at what Biden is up to, he did say that he is going to be headed to vote later today. So we'll see if he ends up taking any questions from reporters when he does that.

And as far as the rest of the week is concerned, tomorrow, we are going to see him return to Florida. On Friday, he heads to Iowa and Wisconsin. On Saturday, he is in Michigan. And at some point over the weekend, we are told that former President Barack Obama will be joining Biden on the campaign trail. We just don't know whether that's going to be in Michigan or a different kind of battleground state. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. We'll be looking for that. M.J. Lee, in Wilmington, Delaware, thank you so much.

Now, the president has a clear pandemic problem on the campaign trail, whether he'll admit it or not. And now it's seems the White House has gone from, quote, rounding the turn on the coronavirus to it's already defeated.

In a news release touting the administration's accomplishments, they listed one highlight as, quote, ending the COVID-19 pandemic. And then they go on, quote, from the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the administration has taken decisive actions to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry and government to understand, treat and defeat the disease.

Now, remember, they haven't even defeated it in the White House. Vice President Mike Pence is violating CDC guidelines by campaigning right now because of his exposure to the virus when five staffers, including his chief of staff and his body man, recently tested positive.

That declaration of triumph has been met with anger from some people who know the real deal, the members of the White House coronavirus task force who tell The Daily Beast they are personally offended by the statement. Joining me now is Rick Bright, he was one of the government's top vaccine experts until he was sidelined after raising concerns over the Trump administration's pandemic response.

And, Rick, thanks for being with us. The administration, you hear what they are doing here. They're saying they defeated the coronavirus. What is your response to that?

DR. RICK BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, HHS BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: Brianna, thanks for having me on today. That could not be farther away from the truth of anything I've heard today come out of this administration today. It is an example of another White House office that has been completely politicized and making statements that are subservient to the president's false narrative that this coronavirus is a hoax and that it's under control.

I'm a scientist, I'm not a politician, and I've spent my entire career studying pandemics. I can tell you the truth is that we are entering a phase of this pandemic that is worse than any other phase that we've seen to date.

We anticipate a lot more hospitalizations and you're seeing that. We anticipate a lot more deaths and you're starting to see that. You're starting to see hospitals being overwhelmed, ambulances turned away from those hospitals, refrigerator trucks pulling up to the back of those hospitals. None of those are signs this pandemic has been ended or that it's under control.

We're hearing the White House make proclamations from the White House chief of staff that the Trump administration has determined that this is too hard for them, that they have thrown in the towel, they are surrendering and they're giving in.

And I can tell you that America and Americans are not quitters. And we need a leader who won't quit. We need to take matters into our own hands and make sure that we're following public health guidelines. We need to wash our hands. We need to wear our mask. And we need to keep social distance, avoid crowds. We can turn this around. I have confidence in Americans that we can do this.

KEILAR: It's clear at least -- and, look, like you said, you're a scientist, you are not a politician, but I wonder how one affects the other. It is clear the politics of this for the president is to deny reality because it is so bad right now, that if it is broadly accepted by people who support him or are considering supporting him in this election, that's not going to work very well for him politically.

But I wonder what the effect is of lying about where we are in this fight, considering we're at the worst part. What's the effect on the health of people who support Donald Trump and then people who are just trying to make sense of where the country is in this pandemic?

BRIGHT: Unfortunately, the consequence of not being truthful and telling Americans the truth and telling his followers the truth is you're seeing these rallies. You're seeing super-spreader events. You're seeing these, in some ways, what end up being death rallies, because the followers are coming to the meetings and they are not following social public health guidelines.

[13:10:05]

The president is not emphasizing public health guidelines from the podium. So his followers at the rallies are not wearing masks and they're not keeping a safe distance.

In the wake of these super-spreader events, we're seeing increased hospitalizations across rural parts of the country and wherever he's had these rallies. The consequence of him not being truthful is we're going to see more deaths from this pandemic.

And it makes it very difficult and confusing for Americans to understand what is true when you have the president of the United States in complete denial and telling people something that's not true. And scientists, on the other hand, are trying to sound the alarms.

People we trust, your doctors, your nurses, listen to those experts on T.V. Ask them yourself if they are concern. I can promise you they are going to all tell you they are concerned. They are exhausted and many are getting infected and dying. We're going to have a shortage of our health care workers. That's the truth.

KEILAR: Yes, it's devastating for them as they shoulder this burden disproportionately. Dr. Anthony Fauci said today that getting back to, quote, normal will take longer than most people anticipate. He says this could be the end of 2021. He said this might even be 2022 before that happens. What is your assessment of when life will start to feel normal for most Americans?

BRIGHT: It's actually going to take a little while, as Dr. Fauci described. It doesn't have to be painful. It doesn't have to be overly restrictive. It will include some minor inconveniences that we're getting more accustomed to now, and that is wearing your face mask when you go outside, that is keeping a distance from others and being conscious of those around you if you're out eating or in a family gathering or in a large group. It does mean thinking about your environment and the things you're doing, maybe washing your hands more frequently all throughout that time.

Even after we see a safe and effective vaccine be available, it's going to take a while before we can vaccinate everyone. And even then the vaccine may not be completely protective, it could save a lot of people from getting really sick. We're going to make sure that people are fully protected by layering on a number of public health practices, and that is still wearing your mask, still keeping your distance, even after you've been vaccinated to make sure --

KEILAR: I'm so sorry to interrupt you, Rick. I want to go to Delaware right now, where Joe Biden has just voted.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- as we are.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE). BIDEN: What I say is that there is no excuse whatsoever for the looting and the violence, none whatsoever. I think to be able to protest is totally legitimate, totally reasonable, but I think that the looting is -- as the victim's father said, do not do this. It's not what my son -- you're not helping, you're hurting. You're not helping my son.

And there are certain things we're going to do as we move along. And I think I know the local folks (INAUDIBLE) are thinking about it as well, and that is how we deal with, how you diminish the prospect of lethal shooting in circumstances like the one we saw. That's going to be part of the commission I set up to determine how we deal with these changes. But there's no excuse for the looting.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

BIDEN: Yes, on both counts. Yes, I have a bill ready, number one. Number two, yes, I will work with Republicans. And, yes, I do have a proposal that relates to how we can improve the Affordable Care Act beyond what it was before, which Barack and I wanted to do at the time to add a public option, allowing people to keep their private insurance, if that's what they choose, then they will have to do, making it more affordable to get a better plan, in terms of a gold plan, all the different plans, you make it more affordable, subsidizing it more, and fundamentally changing the way in which the cost of medication is. We're going to lower it by a significant amount, and I believe we can get help from Republicans as well.

REPORTER: Why?

BIDEN: Well, why, because I think they are seeing the reaction of the American people. Overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, the American people think drug prices are too high. Even the president, he continues to lie about it, even the president acknowledged early on that he thought Medicare should be able negotiate drug prices, lower prices overall.

[13:15:06]

He hasn't done it, he didn't mean. But there's a lot of Republicans that do mean it. So I'm confident we can get it done. Now, thank you all very, very much.

KEILAR: All right, Joe Biden just voting there in Wilmington, Delaware, where he is today. I want to bring in Dana Bash to talk about what we just saw there.

Brief comments, brief questions that he answered from reporters. But one of the questions was about the violence we have seen in Philadelphia, where there has been looting. And this has followed, of course, the shooting death at the hands of police of a black man who did have a knife in his possession. What did you think about what you heard from the former vice president?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, this is an issue on so many levels. First and foremost, just on the notion of racial justice and of the police in so many cases doing --going way overboard in a dangerous and sometimes like in this potentially murderous way. And that is why we saw all of the activism all summer long about this issue.

And it is one of the issues that President Trump tried to turn around on Joe Biden and on the Democrats. He doesn't look like he really succeeded for lots of reasons, primarily, the fact that the coronavirus is the omnipresent issue in this race.

Having said that, let's just get practical here for a second, Bri. Philadelphia is in lockdown or people feel that they can't move around, it might be harder to vote. And Philadelphia is really critical to Joe Biden in pumping up his vote share in one of the most, if not the most important battleground state this election year.

KEILAR: And, I mean, we don't really know what it's going to look like, as we have all of this record early voting. We're in a pandemic. You see what's happening certainly in Philadelphia. All of these things change the calculus of turnout, when people are voting, how much they are voting, how do we make sense of this. So we're seeing these records.

It's important to remind people that we may not have a winner on election night. How does that play out?

BASH: Boy, that's the $64,000 question, how it plays out. We don't know the answer to that. What we know right now is that it is unprecedented the early voting that we are seeing. I mean, right now, it's north of 70 million people who have voted. That's about half of the total electorate in 2016, if you think about that. That's pretty remarkable.

Now, I've been talking to Republicans this morning who admit that, traditionally, when you see early voting and turnout in particular is higher, that's good and that's beneficial to the Democrat, in this case, Joe Biden and all the Democratic down ballot candidates.

Republicans are banking on the fact that they can turn out the way they have historically on Election Day. They like to say, I'm sure you hear this too, Bri, that Republicans like to put on their Sunday best and make it an event, which is understandable.

The big question at this point, despite every closing argument that we're hearing from the president and from his challenger, Joe Biden, is turnout. It's about as cliche as it comes in covering politics but it's cliche because it's true. And we don't know if it's anything like 2018, it's great for Joe Biden.

KEILAR: All right. We will be watching. Here we are just days away. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

And as these records continue being smashed, we're going to take you to three battleground states.

Plus CNN obtains tapes of Bob Woodward's interview with the president's son-in-law. What Jared Kushner said about doctors and scientists in the early days of the pandemic. And why congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Republicans don't believe Democrats have the, quote, stones to play hardball.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:00]

KEILAR: Early voting across the country continues to break records. The numbers less than a week out are skyrocketing. Early votes cast thus far already exceed half of the total of votes cast in the 2016 election. Whether it's been by mail or in person, more than 73 million Americans have voted. Just compare that to 2016 when nearly 137 million ballots were cast in total.

CNN is tracking early voting across several battleground states and we begin in Florida's capital with CNN Investigative Reporter Drew Griffin. Drew?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: And, Brianna, those mail-in ballots are now being asked as of this morning to be dropped off and not mailed, to make sure they are in by election night in Florida. That is the rule. 6.9 million Floridians have cast votes, millions and millions. In fact, that's just about half of all registered voters.

This is a state with 29 electoral votes. The polls are neck and neck, which is why you're going to see both Donald Trump and Joe Biden not only in Florida tomorrow but in the same town of Tampa vying for votes that I guess some people have just not decided to vote yet because you can vote anywhere you want in Florida. The lines, as you can see behind me, not really that long.

[13:25:00]

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Detroit, where officials here in Michigan say they expect around 5 million Michiganders to cast their vote in this election. They also say that, by Election Day, about two-thirds of those votes will already in in the widespread mail-in ballots program they have here.

They also say that if you want -- like Florida, if you want your vote to count and make sure that it counts, you should not stick it in the mail right now. You should drop it off at a drop box around the state or go to a clerk's office and drop it there, or you can always vote on Election Day.

Remember, Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016, both sides now fighting for this state. The president was here last night. He'll be, again, here on Friday. Joe Biden will be here on Saturday. Jill Biden will be here. The vice president will also be here, both sides fighting for every vote in the state of Michigan.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Sara Murray in Philadelphia. It is crunch time for Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes. Ivanka Trump is here today campaigning for her father. And yesterday was the deadline if you wanted to apply for a mail-in ballot. More than 3 million Pennsylvanians have applied to do that, to vote by mail. The secretary of state is telling people do not wait to turn those ballots in, get it down now.

She and other officials in the state are also warning it is going to be a long election night in Pennsylvania. We are probably not going to know unless there's some kind of wild blowout who won the state of Pennsylvania on election night. It could take until the next morning. It could take a couple of days to count those ballots. And she and other officials in the state are saying that is okay. They will keep counting until we know for certain who won this big battleground state.

Back to you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Sara, thank you. Thank you to all of my colleagues for that tour of states around the country.

The Dow falling hard as uncertainty and fear over coronavirus spooks investors.

Plus, lawmakers grilling big tech CEOs as they face heat for their role in politics and disinformation. See what happened.

And I'll speak with the doctor on the front lines in Utah as they now consider rationing care because the COVID situation has gotten so bad.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]