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Trump and Biden in the Final Sprint; Ruling on Minnesota Ballots; Hurricane Disrupts Voting. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 30, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Matter. And Vice President Biden is saying, Donald Trump is saying the pandemic doesn't matter. So they're basically making the same case.

What are you seeing?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, it really is an extraordinary set of forces in this campaign. Where I have -- I don't think I've ever covered a campaign where one candidate's message is simply repeating the other candidate's message back to him, right? And that is what we have seen so often from Joe Biden with the messaging on COVID coming out of the White House and coming out of the Trump campaign.

And, look, I think it is especially difficult for the president to make that case in the Midwest right now. It's something we've seen over the last few months. You talk to Republican pollsters and they say, look, it's never been great for the president in many or most of these states, but it's especially bad when the -- when the pandemic is spiking locally. And so his numbers were the worst in a place like Florida or a place like Arizona or earlier in the summer when those states were in an atmosphere of total crisis over the pandemic.

You know they are have -- they're still not in great shape, but they're in better shape today than they were in July. That's not necessarily the case for a state like Wisconsin or a state like Michigan. And these are places where the president is not going and saying, here's my plan for getting things under control locally. He's going in and saying, you know, this pandemic that you're experiencing, every day in your daily lives, actually, that's not really serious, it's not really happening in the way that the media tells you that it is. And by all the evidence and all the data that we can collect on this campaign, voters just aren't buying it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Abby, can we talk about Florida and what's going on there and if this message is working or not working in Florida? Congresswoman Frederica Wilson is trying to, she says, sound the alarm to the Biden campaign that they're not getting their message out and that they're not somehow activating and energizing Democrats. In fact, for early voting, people -- in-person, Republicans have had far greater turnout than Democrats. And so she's quoted here in "Politico" saying, I screamed, hollered, I called, I lobbied from the top to the bottom. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson said of her effort to get turnout operations started in the community, including sending written proposals to Biden campaigns and having virtual zoom meetings with his advisers.

So that doesn't sound good for Democrats there.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Florida is one of those states where I look at the polls and I say, throw them in the trash can, because I think that they're -- if there's any poll that shows, like some kind of massive lead for either candidate, it's probably not the case because Florida tends to be a very close state. And I also believe -- know that -- I know that the Biden campaign, yes, they want to be competitive in Florida, but they understand that that state is not a reliably blue state and that they don't have to win it in order to get to 270.

It would be great if they did, because it would deny President Trump the most surefire way, the easiest way, for him to get to 270. And, in fact, in -- you -- some political scientists would say perhaps the only way for the president to get to 270. But the Biden campaign doesn't believe that Florida is at the heart of their strategy.

At the same time, what you're seeing in Florida is the Republicans are going to have some strength in early voting. That's definitely going to be the case. They are also going to have some strength in mail-in voting because this is a state that actually has a fairly long history of mail-in voting, and it's favored by older voters who are -- who tend to lean Republican. So all of these do not go in Biden's favor going into Florida, in addition to his weakness with Hispanic voters. So if he's going to counteract that, it's going to have to be with younger voters and it's going to have to be with that gap in -- with seniors that is starting to appear.

But, honestly, I think the Biden campaign knows this. They understand this. And they're competing, but they also know they don't have to win there in order to get to 270 by, you know, maybe a couple of different scenarios.

BERMAN: Right.

PHILLIP: More than -- more than two or three scenarios.

BERMAN: Just one quick point, Frederica Wilson was talking about Miami-Dade County.

CAMEROTA: Oh, yes.

PHILLIP: Yes.

BERMAN: She's talking about one county.

PHILLIP: One specific county.

BERMAN: And Joe Biden is actually over performing with white voters presumably in some of the other counties. I know they'd rather be doing -- they'd like to be doing better in Miami-Dade than they are, but it -- but it's a localized thing in that county.

Alex, another interesting stat out of Florida came out of the Quinnipiac poll just yesterday where only 17 percent of voters say they will vote in person on November 3rd, which means that more than 80 percent, if you believe this poll, of people who have already cast their ballots by November 3rd. That's staggering. And I still don't know how to wrap my head around what that means.

What do you think?

BURNS: You know, I don't -- I don't know, to be perfectly honest, that anybody knows fully how to wrap our heads around what that means because when you look at the early vote and the mail-in vote, you could draw some pretty dramatic conclusions about the direction this election is heading in.

[06:35:01]

But much as we have never had early voting the way we do, we may have Election Day voting on a different scale or with at least a different turnout than we have had in the past. And so I think we all have to have some humility about sort of, you know, reading the tea leaves up- front.

I do think, John, you made a really important point about Biden trying to over perform with white voters in a state like Florida where part of what we may see, that may be a little bit misleading in the early and absentee vote data, in some of these redder states -- I'm not talking about a place, necessarily, like a Wisconsin or a Michigan. But in a Florida or a Georgia, Arizona, certainly a Texas, Joe Biden's campaign is trying to win, at least in part, with Republican votes. So that's a risky strategy, but if it works out, that's not necessarily inconsistent with a small lead here and there with registered Republicans out voting registered Democrats. You're simply never going to win a state like Georgia or a state like Texas as a Democrat who looks and sounds like Joe Biden unless your moderate message is getting some people who are wearing the other team's jersey to cast a ballot for a Democrat.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting insights. Alex, Abby, thank you both very much.

And be sure to join CNN's special coverage of "Election Night in America" Tuesday starting at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right, a new federal ruling on mail-in ballots could affect how votes are counted in a key Midwest battleground states. We will explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:01]

BERMAN: So developing this morning, a federal appeals court has ruled that mail-in ballots in Minnesota must be received no later than November 3rd to guarantee they will be counted. That is a major, major reversal there. Voters up until last night thought they had a week if they mailed their ballots by November 3rd to have them counted.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins us now to explain.

Kristen.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, the bottom line is, if you live in Minnesota and you are sit on an absentee ballot you planned on mailing in, if you can, do not put it in the mail. Drop it off at some designated drop-off location. You have until November 3rd at 3:00 p.m. to do so. If not, your vote might not be counted.

So here's what the ruling said. An appeals court ruled that this week- long extension that was put in place to allow for late-arriving absentee ballots, still postmarked on or before Election Day, to be counted, went against state law. They said this. They -- in the opinion, they wrote, however well-intentioned and appropriate from a policy perspective in the context of a pandemic during a presidential election, it is not the province of a state executive official to rewrite the state's election code. There is no pandemic exception to the constitution.

Now, part of that ruling said that any ballots that arrived after 8:00 p.m. on Election Day needed to be segregated, which might sound familiar as we talked about this in Pennsylvania. That means, there could be future litigation. That also means there could be two separate vote counts in Minnesota.

And one thing you might not have heard me say is whether or not these ballots will actually be counted if they arrive afterwards. And that's because the court didn't make that decision. They sent it back down to the district court with still just days before the election to make that final decision.

So this could affect roughly 400,000 ballots. According to the secretary of state, that's the number of ballots that has been requested, but not yet received by the state. So, again, if you live in the state and you are able to, don't put it in the mail, drop it off.

BERMAN: Drop it off. No question about it at this point. Don't take the chance.

Kristen, thank you very much.

BERMAN: So, thousands of Pennsylvania voters say that mail-in ballots they requested weeks ago never arrived. Where are they and what can these voters do now? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:13]

CAMEROTA: This morning, confusion over mail-in ballots in the battleground state of Minnesota. Overnight, a federal appeals court ruling that Minnesota mail-in ballots that are received after 8:00 p.m. on Election Day must be segregated. Why? Joining us now, CNN contributor Ben Ginsberg. He's a Republican

election lawyer.

Ben, great to see you.

Let me read to you what the federal appeals court said in their decision. They said, "however well-intentioned and appropriate from a policy perspective in the context of a pandemic during a presidential election, it is not the province of a state executive official to rewrite the state's election code. There is no pandemic exception to the constitution."

So explain what you see happening here.

BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, what I -- what I see is a federal court intervening in a state policy proceeding. And if you go by the U.S. Supreme Court's recent rulings in North Carolina and Wisconsin, this Minnesota ruling by a federal court is likely to be reversed or stayed so that the state's deadline stays in effect, if, in fact, Minnesota decides to go up to the Supreme Court.

BERMAN: Hey, Ben, insofar as you can, explain it in layman's terms, for those of us who do not have law degrees, what the Purcell principle is and why it exists and how, in theory, this decision in Minnesota, in the federal appeals court, violates the Purcell principle.

GINSBERG: The Purcell principle stands for the proposition that if you get close to an election, there should not be changes that will confuse the voter. So the Supreme Court has used that to defer deciding a number of cases.

I think in this instance of Minnesota, with the court, a federal court, reversing a state decision as it has so close to an election, the court is likely to go back to giving voters an extended period of time to get their ballots in.

BERMAN: Because, in this case, in all -- in all seriousness, this decision was made on Thursday. It's quite possible that there were thousands of Minnesota voters who were holding ballots in their hands who thought they could mail it on Friday, but perhaps if they mailed it on Friday, it wouldn't get there by Tuesday and it would be invalidated. That would seem to be a gross violation of the Purcell principle, because it's so close to Election Day.

GINSBERG: Yes. That's exactly right. I mean the Purcell principle really goes to the court in being able to defer action. In fact, this ruling seems out of whack, as you point out, so the court may still feel it needs to jump in despite the closeness to the election.

CAMEROTA: But, Ben, what's the upshot here?

[06:50:00]

OK, so if the Supreme Court doesn't do anything before Election Day, the idea that these ballots that arrive after 8:00 p.m. on Election Day have to be segregated. What does that mean for those voters?

GINSBERG: Well, that means their ballots will all be collected by the counties where they come in. They'll be held aside. The votes will not count unless somebody goes to court and gets an order that said those late arriving ballots do need to be counted.

So the voters will kind of be held in abeyance, not knowing whether their votes count or not.

BERMAN: Yes, that's one hell of a lawsuit if it turns out that the number of votes could swing the election in Minnesota after November 3rd. That's what could be coming. It could be coming in Pennsylvania also as votes will be set aside and reserved there.

One other thing that happened in Pennsylvania, Ben, we want your take on is Butler County, which is a county that happened to vote for Donald Trump in 2016. There are thousands of people saying that they requested mail-in ballots that have not arrived. Part of the issue -- no one knows for sure what it is, but part of the issue is they were due to be mailed out around Columbus Day, maybe the holiday got in the way of it. They haven't received their mail-in ballots yet. How do you see this playing out, the significance?

GINSBERG: It depends on how many there are and whether this is a county election official problem or a post office problem. If it's a county election official, what I suspect they'll do is figure out how to get them door-to-door to people, to drop them off, to be able to submit. Again, postmarked by Election Day, but received within three days.

These things do happen in every election. And local election officials have proven quite resilient in terms of fixing the problems.

CAMEROTA: But I'm not sure they know where the problem lies right now. There's 20,000 of these ballots that people say they asked for and didn't receive. The mail -- the Postal Service says they don't know anything about this.

So who's going to fix this?

GINSBERG: Well, the responsibility falls on the county election officials and perhaps the Pennsylvania secretary of state's office to get in to be sure those people can cast their ballots.

BERMAN: Counselor, it is always a pleasure and an education to have you on. Thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it, Ben.

GINSBERG: Good to see you.

CAMEROTA: You too.

So, in-person, early voting ends today in Georgia with parts of the state still reeling from Hurricane Zeta. We have a live report on what this means, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:15]

BERMAN: In-person, early voting ends today in seven states, including Georgia. This morning, some nearly half a million customers in Georgia are still without power from Hurricane Zeta. So how will that affect the vote?

CNN's Nick Valencia live in Atlanta.

I'm sure, Nick, you haven't had power at home. Probably haven't showered in days. We appreciate you being with us this morning. What do you have?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, pardon how I look here. I was just able to shower in the last 24 hours, John. But the storm has affected more than a million people across the state of Georgia. At one point, a million people were without power across the state as of Thursday night, 400,000 people still without power. Some of them couldn't get it back -- or will not be able to get it back, I should say, until Sunday.

You may be wondering how that's affecting polling sites? As of yesterday, there were up to five polling sites in this county here in Cobb that were closed, five of the 11. They were able to get many of them back online. But in a neighboring county, in Douglas County, all six of their polling sites were closed as a result of Hurricane Zeta.

The secretary of state's office addressed the issue, saying that any county that wants an extension is going to have to take that up with the court. And there's a lot on the line. Not just a presidential election, Joe Biden, trying to become the first Democratic presidential nominee to be elected in the state in decades. This is a state, of course, that President Trump won by five percentage points.

But there's also two Senate seats that are on the line. If you remember, Senator Kelly Loeffler was temporarily appointed by Governor Brian Kemp to fill the seat of retired Senator Jonny Isaacson. She's facing off against Raphael Warnock and Doug Collins. And also in a Senate -- another Senate race, Jon Ossoff is challenging incumbent senator David Perdue. Those two were participated to have a debate before the Election Day. However, it was on Thursday that Senator Perdue pulled out of that race, saying that he would rather attend a rally -- a get-out-the-vote rally with President Trump.

Getting back here to early voting, John, you see the huge lines behind me. People started lining up about 6:00 a.m. this morning. Secretary of state's office saying already 3.6 million people have cast their ballots. That's roughly 86 percent of all those that cast their ballots in all of 2016.

John.

BERMAN: Oh, wow, that is just amazing.

VALENCIA: Staggering. BERMAN: All right, Nick Valencia, we're glad you had a chance to shower. To be clear, you smell very nice to us, always. Thanks so much.

VALENCIA: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New cases are averaging 74,000 per day.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: If they continue on the course we're on, there's going to be a whole lot of pain in this country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a direct result of two horribly fatal errors, our failure to mask up and to get enough testing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've seen voters moving from Trump citing concerns about the pandemic.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We know the disease, we social distance, we do all of the things that you have to do.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald trump just had a super spreader event here again. They're spreading more than just coronavirus, he's spreading division and discord.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

Just five days left to vote as coronavirus cases in this country are rising to new highs never seen in this pandemic. Nearly 90,000 cases were reported yesterday. That's a new record. Single-day case records were set in nine states. Record hospitalizations set in 17 states. Three states also hit their highs for fatalities. The former FDA commissioner predicts the U.S. might cross the 100,000 mark for daily cases very soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: This is really sort of the last stage of the acute phase of this. 2021 is going to start to look a lot better.

[07:00:01]

I think we'll be celebrating together in 2021, Thanksgiving 2021. We need to get through the next couple of months. This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now.