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Texas County Breaks Voting Record; Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) is Interviewed about a Second Wave; Earthquake Rattles Turkey and Greece; State of the Race before Election Day. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 30, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JUDGE LINA HIDALGO, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: We got the news last night around 10:00, 11:00 at night and that's because yesterday was a very -- very first day of 24-hour voting in Harris County. And so what we're seeing is what happens when you invest in lowering the barriers to safe and secure voting as opposed to investing time and effort in building obstacles. We've had drive-through voting. We've had -- tripled the number of early vote locations, raised the salaries for the staff, all of these options. And, of course, people are energized. So it's all coming together. And we still have a million voters in Harris County who have yet to turn out. So it's a very, very exciting time for the largest county in Texas, our county, and for the state as a whole and I think for the nation.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: To be clear, the early polls are open until what time tonight? It's 36 hours straight until when?

HIDALGO: Until 7:00 tonight, but they opened yesterday at 7:00 in the morning. And so it will be 36 hours straight. This is the first time we've done it. And, you know, we're talking about COVID. We've got these medical workers who have really -- we've always known they're heroes, but this year them, the front-line workers, it's incredible what they've done for our community. And we don't do a whole lot to make things easier for them. So we've tried to say, look, this is one area where you're not going to have to sacrifice your job to be able to do your patriotic duty.

I was yesterday at a voting location, 24-hour voting location that we had in the middle of the Texas Medical Center, the hospital complex here, and it was just beautiful. You know, a nurse crying as I'm told because she couldn't believe that something was being made easier for her.

BERMAN: If you have a mail-in ballot still, and I know that Harris County only has one, it's a huge county, it's got one drop box, can you drop it off in that drop box through Tuesday?

HIDALGO: Yes. We have the one drop box after Governor Abbott closed 11 of our 12 drop boxes and it's right in the center of town at the Energy Stadium. And, yes, we are welcoming and inviting folks to physically drop off their mail ballot.

Now, we still have 122 early vote locations, drive-through voting, so it's truly about making sure that it's easier for folks to vote. For me it's a win as long as people participate. As a county executive, that's what we need to do.

BERMAN: And, again, you're speaking as a county executive, but also, I should note, as a Democrat who has already cast your vote for Joe Biden and one of the eternal questions is, can Democrats turn Texas blue? You are one who has said yes and you are one who has also said you wished Joe Biden would come and campaign personally. I don't think that's going to happen. The schedule is filling out between now and Tuesday. It doesn't look like a Joe Biden visit is likely, but Senator Harris, yes.

HIDALGO: That's right. We'll be having Senator Harris here later today. I -- nobody can say for sure what's going to happen on Election Day, but I will say, don't sleep on Texas. We are in the hunt and people are energized like never before. We always say, you know, Texas is going to turn blue, but this year it's true. We are so proud to be the biggest battleground state in the nation. And it's not just a saying, you know, it's something that the polls are showing. It's not because of demographics only, it's because people are tired of a Republican government that suppresses the vote, that doesn't protect the environment, that doesn't expand health care. And I'm -- I'm so heartened to see the turnout because it's good for democracy, but I also know that a lot of Democrats are turning out.

BERMAN: Very quickly, I know Texas is huge, in El Paso, frankly, not that close to Houston, but El Paso is going through hell right now and the person who holds your job there, the judge, has tried to institute some stay-at-home orders there. It's going to be held up right now for a bit of time to see who has the authority to do it, but how's your situation? What are your concerns with the pandemic?

HIDALGO: Look, what I've been seeing ever since April when the governor stripped my authority to control the virus is a cycle of unsustainable reopenings and wishful thinking. And what that's getting us is these types of situations. We are in crisis here in Harris County in June, July, our numbers are ticking back up. El Paso, I am thinking of them. I've spoken to the judge over there. We've got to break out of that.

And so that's why, you know, we are concerned for what we're seeing here. We're concerned for what we're seeing there. And, more broadly, we need either a state who does this or we need the ability to do this as local electeds again to be able to enact measures that actually bring the virus under control as opposed to half-baked measures that extend the economic pain and extend the impact of the virus, to have a sustainable reopening. But that's an ongoing issue that we've had with the state and that's why we're seeing the numbers we're seeing.

BERMAN: Judge Lina Hidalgo, we appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much for your time.

[08:35:02]

HIDALGO: Thank you. BERMAN: So one of the earliest coronavirus hot spots in the country is trying to beat back a second wave right now. The governor of New Jersey joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: New Jersey's governor is warning that the second wave of coronavirus in his state is hitting right now. New cases have topped 1,000 for 12 days in a row and yesterday they had 1,400. Hospitalizations surging to more than 1,000. Eight people died of coronavirus there yesterday.

[08:40:00]

So joining us now is New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.

Good morning, Governor.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): Hey, good morning, Alisyn. Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you.

So you had a nice respite over the summer where you flattened the curve and people were able to basically go about their lives. And so what has happened that is causing cases there to spike now?

MURPHY: Yes, we were -- you're absolutely right, we came a long way. New Jersians did a great job. A combination of things, Alisyn. It's cold, so folks are doing more of their lives inside and we know the virus is much more deadly inside. It's fatigue, honestly. It's folks, who could blame them, but they're getting sick and tired of having to deal with this and we are preaching -- in a lot of -- by the way, therefore, a lot of the cases are coming from private homes, private gatherings. So we're leaning in on our bullhorn and -- as we're -- as we're surging testing and tracing and enforcement, we're just as importantly telling people, listen, you can't let your hair down. This is still with us. We still don't have a therapeutic. We still don't have a vaccine. Hopefully we'll have some of that soon. But in the meantime, you've got to do the basic stuff and you can't let the fatigue get to you.

CAMEROTA: And what does enforcement look like in private home gatherings?

MURPHY: Hard. That's the problem. So it's -- in private homes it's really the bullhorn, it's appealing -- it's appealing to people's responsibility.

And, again, it's understandable. Eight months of this and, again, New Jersey's done a good -- as good a job dealing with this as any state in terms of the man on the street. But at a certain point, and you've -- and if that weren't enough, you've got holidays coming up, Halloween tomorrow, Thanksgiving in a few weeks, Christmas, Hanukkah thereafter. We've just got to -- we've got to plead with folks, this is not a normal time, you can't -- you can't do the normal things, unfortunately.

CAMEROTA: So scale of one to ten today, ten being the highest, where is your anxiety level?

MURPHY: It's high. I mean it's not March, April, May, which was probably a 12 out of 10, but it's probably seven, eight. And everything's on the table. We continue to hope, Alisyn, that we can use a scalpel. We had an outbreak in Lakewood a couple of weeks ago. We used testing, tracing, enforcement. We worked with the community. Lots of public service announcements. And that seems to have worked. That's what we're still doing. We're doing that in Newark right now. But very concerned, without question.

CAMEROTA: I mean Newark is using more than a scalpel, right? They're not just taking a surgical approach. The mayor there just shut it -- shut the -- that's the biggest city in New Jersey and they shut it down.

MURPHY: Yes, they didn't shut it completely down but he put a curfew in place, that's correct. But don't underestimate as well that he's doing a great job. But surging testing capacity, one of the -- one of the silver linings in New Jersey, we test per capita as much as any American state, so we have the ability to surge testing, surge contact tracers. As I said, surge enforcement if it's in the public square and appeal to people, including in Newark's case, in its east ward, one of the great Portuguese-American communities anywhere, to appeal to them not just in English, but in Portuguese. That combination is the playbook we've used and God-willing it will work there and elsewhere.

CAMEROTA: Would you consider a state-wide curfew?

MURPHY: If we had to. I just hope we don't have to, Alisyn. We shut as aggressively as any American state in March. We've done it before. If we had to, we'd do it again. But, please, God, I hope we don't have to get to that.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about Tuesday. Obviously the enthusiasm from what we're seeing in the early vote for this election is very high. How can you assure New Jersey residents that they will be safe if they have to wait in hours' long lines?

MURPHY: Yes. So one of the things we did, we mailed everybody a ballot in New Jersey and they've been coming in, in record numbers. So our entire voter turnout in 2016 was 3.9 million. We already, as of yesterday afternoon, have over 3 million ballots already returned. So we've given folks a whole range of options. They could mail it in, drop it in secure boxes, we've got almost 300 of them around the state, they can hand it to their county clerk, they can hand it to a poll worker on Tuesday or they can vote in person. And that was initially with a mind to balance public health and the sacred right to vote, which is at the core of democracy.

We believe, Alisyn, among other things, because so many ballots have already and will be returned, we'll have lesser turnout on Election Day itself, and that allows us, obviously, we're increasing manpower around the state. [08:45:06]

That allows us, just by simple math, to be able to deal with the capacity much better than we would otherwise.

CAMEROTA: Governor Phil Murphy, we really appreciate your time. Obviously we're watching very closely what happens in New Jersey.

MURPHY: Thanks for having me, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: We'll talk to you soon.

We have some breaking news right now. A powerful earthquake just rocked Turkey and Greece. We have the first pictures and we are seeing extensive damage. So we'll show you where this hit. We have details in that live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: We do have breaking news.

A powerful earthquake has just rattled western Turkey and parts of Greece. The 7.0 magnitude quake hit in the Aegean Sea about 11 miles off the coast. It was felt as far away as Athens.

CNN's Arwa Damon live in Istanbul with the breaking details.

Arwa, what have you learned?

[08:50:00]

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Terrifying as you can imagine for people that were close by, who really felt the shock waves from this earthquake shaking entire buildings. There are at least 20 buildings that have been damaged. This is according to the mayor of Izmir, where it seems as if two main neighborhoods were the ones that sustained the most damage. You see in some of the images that are coming out on Turkish media channels entire buildings that have been completely flattened. We're also hearing that emergency response teams are already on the ground. No reports of casualties just yet, but it is still very early. It's only been about an hour at this stage.

If there is any sort of a silver lining to this, that is that Turkish emergency response teams are very well-equipped at handling these types of disasters. They are very well-equipped at responding to earthquakes.

But just about anyone down there completely and utterly shocked. People running into the streets, screaming, shouting, pure total terror.

You know, I spoke to my parents who actually don't live far away from there about a half hour drive away from where it was felt in Izmir and they said that, you know, their area was shaking as well there. They're completely fine.

But the tremors from this really reverberating throughout a significant chunk of this part of Turkey and also felt in Greece as well.

But as is often the case with these types of natural disasters, it's only as the hours begin to wear on that we really get even more details about who may have ended up trapped inside some of these collapsed buildings, just how intense these rescue efforts are going to have to be. But, again, the Turkish emergency services are very adept at responding to these types of disasters. They quite often have teams stationed throughout the entire country. Turkey, of course, no stranger to earthquakes and natural disasters. So they do have teams at the ready and those teams have responded to the sites.

BERMAN: Arwa Damon, we're glad your parents are doing well. Obviously this is developing. Please keep us posted. I imagine we'll get more information shortly.

Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, back here, there are just five days left to vote in the 2020 race. So where do both campaigns stand heading into this final weekend?

Joining us now is CNN's senior political writer and analyst Harry Enten.

OK, Harry, give us the status report of where the race is right now, particularly in these states that were closest in 2016.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Right, you know, these are the contests I've been focusing on over and over and over again, the closest contest that Donald Trump won in 2016. And what you see in those seven closest contests is that Joe Biden is maintaining a lead. Now, some of those leads are smaller, right? Florida, North Carolina, probably you could say they're too close to call. But Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nebraska's second congressional district, Biden has leads of six or more. And those combined with the Clinton states gets Biden over 270 electoral votes.

BERMAN: So, Harry, everyone likes to run around with their hair on fire saying, but 2016, but 2016. And sometimes incorrectly saying that the polls were off. The polls weren't perfect. There were some problems. If they are off by as much as last time, what happens?

ENTEN: Yes, this, to me, is a very important map. And my buddy, Nate Cohn (ph) at "The Times" has been really harking on this, and I agree with him. If the polling averages are as wrong as they were in 2016, what is the result in the states? You still get Joe Biden at 335 electoral votes.

So if Donald Trump is going to win this time and say the polling averages look the same on Tuesday morning, which they probably will be pretty close to it, then Donald Trump will need a larger polling miss to go in his direction in order to win this time. A repeat of 2016 is, simply put, not good enough for him.

CAMEROTA: OK, coronavirus is obviously on the minds of everybody. So how is that looking in all of these states?

ENTEN: Yes, look, it's surging everywhere in the nation, right? There are only a few states where it's not climbing. In all the 10 closest battlegrounds states that Trump won in 2016, those include some that we just mentioned and a few extra ones, the cases are climbing, Alisyn. They're -- they're -- they're climbing, particularly in a state like Wisconsin, where Joe Biden is running well ahead at this particular point.

BERMAN: And there's reason to believe it matters that the pandemic is having a political impact, yes?

ENTEN: Yes, absolutely. I mean you can look at the polling and you can see it. And, you know, if you look right now who would benefit from that in the polls, it's Joe Biden, right? Who would better handle the COVID-19 response as president in our last CNN poll, 57 percent said Joe Biden, just 39 percent said Donald Trump. And that lead for Biden on this issue has been very, very consistent, John.

CAMEROTA: OK. And give us the historical context of, has a president, in the past, a candidate in the past won when so many people in polls suggest he's not handling the number one issue well?

ENTEN: Yes, look, Gallup has been asking, you know, what's the most important problem in the country and who -- which party do you think is best able to handle that problem?

[08:55:02]

When the party who say they -- they say that party handles the most important problem best. They have won the presidency pretty much every single time since 1948. The only exception was '48 and 1980, which was a tie. And, obviously, the coronavirus is considered the nation's most important problem in Gallup's polling, at least in October of 2020.

BERMAN: All right, Harry, obviously counting the ballots is a major issue and the election is not over. We will not declare a winner until the votes are counted.

What's the reality? How often are votes counted after the polls close on Tuesday night?

ENTEN: Pretty much every single year. And if you look at the closest swing states back in 2016 that Trump won, what did you see? You saw that all of them had votes counted after Wednesday morning.

BERMAN: And did the country explode or come to an end? Was the winner somehow invalidated?

ENTEN: The winner was the winner. The country did not explode. We were fine. We carried on. We got to this point with you two lovely people this morning.

CAMEROTA: On that note, I think we should wrap.

BERMAN: Fantastic.

CAMEROTA: OK.

Harry, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Happy Halloween. Have a great weekend.

ENTEN: You, too.

CAMEROTA: OK.

CNN's coverage continues, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: It's the Friday before Election Day. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

It's Friday, but still some news coming up in the next few days.

[09:00:00]