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CNN Live Event/Special

Joe Biden Promising Americans To Return The U.S. To Its More Traditional Role; Top White House Officials Are Warning And Sounding Alarms About The Pandemic; Kamala Harris Traveling All Over The Country About Protocols When It Comes To COVID. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 03, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JOE JOHNS, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISOR: Coronavirus, and about the only thing we know about that is that people who are coming in are going to be tested. We don't know what kind of test they're going to get. By the way, this event was supposed to be held down at the Trump Hotel, which is just a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue, but they can't do that because the Mayor of Washington, D.C. still has restrictions in place about the number of people who can gather. The only other event on the schedule for the president today - very low key day for him - is the visit to the RNC Annex, that's the Republican National Committee Annex, which also houses some Trump staffers of the campaign. The president expected to spend about an hour over there. Running late on that. He was supposed to leave about 10 o'clock Eastern Time and now it's been pushed to 11 o'clock. So a couple opportunities I guess to see the president. Big question is whether there's going to be a victory party tonight, and that's anybody's guess. The president on Fox today was asked when he's going to declare victory. He said I think we'll have victory but only when there is victory. Anderson -

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joe Johns, appreciate it. Top White House Coronavirus Advisors sounding the alarm about the pandemic, pleading for more aggressive action even as President Trump continues to falsely claim that the U.S. is rounding the turn on the virus. In a November 2 internal report cited by The Washington Post, Dr. Deborah Birx is quote as saying, "We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic leading to increasing mortality. This is not about lockdowns. It hasn't been about lockdowns since March or April. It's about an aggressive, balanced approach that is not being implemented."

Our political analyst and White House Reporter for The Washington Post, Josh Dawsey, co-author of that article joins me now. So Josh, tell us more about this internal memo from Dr. Birx.

JOSH DAWSEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Right. So Dr. Birx has been sounding the alarm for several weeks at what she sees as a lack of action from the administration as cases are surging across the country, that they're entering orange and red zones in a lot of these states. She's predicting more than 100,000 cases a day beginning this week, and she's saying that the administration has to do more messaging, has to do more testing, has to do more to convince people to social distance to avoid big crowds or that the winner is going to be particularly grim. Dr. Anthony Fauci obviously did an interview with us on Friday where he shared the same sentiments, but there's a growing frustration among Birx and Fauci and some of the medical experts in the administration who feel like their concerns have been pushed aside amid the campaign for presidency.

COOPER: Just how bad does Dr. Birx think the current coronavirus situation is because, I mean, she has always been very measured in her public pronouncements to not critique the president, to not - to essentially, you know, went off and had the sense she wanted to stay in the room where things were being decided and therefore wasn't publicly, you know -

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DAWSEY: Right.

COOPER: -- contradicting the president. Clearly now she is.

DAWSEY: Well yes, and she's been frustrated, Anderson, with the rise of Scott Atlas, Stanford Hoover Center Advisor who the president brought in this summer who shares a lot of the president's opinions on the virus. Dr. Birx has not been regularly seeing the president in recent months. The vice president's been on the trail. She's told others that she feels like she's lost her influence to actually make policy at the White House, and she's been traveling the country. She's been about 40 states talking to state officials and encouraging people to wear masks, but what she says is that, you know, we have 230,000 deaths or so. We've had more than 9 million cases and that this winter is going to be the most concerning time and the most deadly time of the pandemic. In those - in these memos that she's sent around to others, Anderson, she says, you know, we need to avoid large crowds. We - it's not because of the rise in testing of why we have more cases. It's because of rapid community spread that the administration is not doing enough to take on the virus. In some ways many of her points are direct (inaudible) of what the president is saying about the virus right now.

COOPER: All right. Josh Dawsey, appreciate your reporting as always. Thanks so much. Many cities are shoring up security plans in case of possible unrest over the election. That includes parts of the nation's capital. As you probably know, fencing, barricades now surround the White House. Vivian Salama, CNN National Security Correspondent, is outside the White House. Show us the extent of these measures. Vivian -

VIVIAN SALAMA, CNN NATIONAL SECRITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson. That's right. Overnight D.C. has turned into a city of fences and plywood. I'm standing on the west side of the White House complex right now, about 100 yards from the actual White House, and you can see that these fences have gone up literally overnight. Crews worked around the clock to put these fences up in the event that unrest happens on election night. They wanted to be prepared, and these fences - D.C. residents are no strangers to these fences. We saw them go up in the wake of the George Floyd police brutality protests over the summer. They partially came down but then again went up overnight as authorities tried to anticipate them now (ph). Authorities are dubbing these non-scalable fences, and you can see my fingers can go through them. They're about eight feet high and about four feet wide.

[10:35:00]

Really difficult to -- to push them over, I kind of try to throw myself into them and they -- they don't really budge. They're also locked together, each panel, and so really difficult to do that.

Now, D.C. authorities, the Metro authorities as well as federal authorities say that they really don't have any credible threats being posed at the moment, but they do want to take precaution, saying that they're anticipating any worse case scenarios that may come about tonight and in the coming days.

Also, around the city you're going to also see, like in other cities, in New York and elsewhere, plywood boarding going up on retail shops and residences in the anticipation of unrest, businesses trying to take precautions.

Again, a lot of them experienced vandalism and theft over the summer following those George Floyd protests and so they're trying to get ahead of it this time and take any kind of precautions.

But of course these are what the officials are hoping will keep people away from the White House. And I want to show you a map really quickly, Anderson, to get a sense of how widespread this is, 52 acres surrounding the White House are fenced off from protests with these exact non-scalable fences.

Also Lafayette Park over to my right is also fenced off. A lot of protests took place there over the summer, and so authorities really trying to keep people as far away from the White House complex as possible.

You may remember that the president was ushered into a bunker over the summer because protests got a little bit too close to the White House, and so authorities saying that they are trying to take all precautions necessary and they're hoping that these fences do the trick tonight and in the coming days. Anderson.

COOPER: Vivian Salama, I don't think it's something we've ever seen before on an Election Day in the United States. I appreciate it, you being there.

Still ahead, President Trump won Ohio in 2016. Can he do it again? We're live with voters in the battleground state.

Plus the state's former governor broke ranks with Republicans, endorsed Joe Biden. Former Governor John Kasich joining me live ahead.

[10:37:00]

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[10:40:00]

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COOPER: Welcome back. Voting now well underway across the country this morning, coast to coast. That includes Ohio, the Buckeye State, could play another key role in tonight's outcome. Our Gary Tuchman is in Strongsville, Ohio just outside of Cleveland. Gary, how are things going there right now?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, this is a picturesque suburb and so far the voting has been picturesque, no problems whatsoever, smooth as silk. This precinct has been open for four hours now and it has been very steady. There have been at least 35 or 40 people in line the entire day since 6:30 this morning.

Right over here (ph) the mayor of the city just walked, Thomas Purciak. Mayor, any trouble - any trouble makers in town.

MAYOR THOMAS PURCIAK, (R), OHIO: No trouble makers in town whatsoever. As a matter of fact it's a beautiful day here in town and people have been very patient and really thrilled just to be voting.

TUCHMAN: Mayor, thank you, very much.

MAYOR PURCIAK: You're welcome.

TUCHMAN: It's nice to meet you. Nice to be in your city. You can see the line of people waiting to come in. They come to this table, they show their ID, they're then checked-in on an iPad to make sure they are who they say they are. And this is the voting area. I want to show you, Anderson, I'm not voting right now but it's not electronic here. You get a piece of paper, you get a pen, you vote for your candidate, you then take your ballot, like this gentleman right here. He has his ballot, comes up to the scanner where this gentleman is. And once you scan it in the machine, that you're about to see, voila. You have cast your vote.

And so far everything's going to good here in the State of Ohio as far as we know except for us getting in everyone's way. But we can tell you Ohio's an important state, Anderson, there's 18 electoral votes, that's the seventh most in the country of all the 50 states and the District of Columbia. And here's an interesting factoid. No republican has ever made it to the White House without winning the Buckeye State.

Anderson.

COOPER: And Gary obviously a lot of folks are watching what happens in Ohio to maybe see if there's any hints at what may happen in some parts in Pennsylvania, as well.

TUCHMAN: Well that's right. This could be a harbinger of what happens in Pennsylvania since it's in the same region. One important point about Ohio, Joe Biden does not have to win this state, Donald Trump does. And that's what makes it so interesting that yesterday Biden made a last minute visit to Ohio to Cleveland to campaign.

COOPER: Yes. The Trump administration felt pretty good. The Trump campaign felt pretty good about the president's chances in Ohio. Clearly the Biden campaign saw something in Cleveland hoping to mobilize perhaps African American voters there to see if that might tip the scales. Gary Tuchman, appreciate you being there. And Gary right now do you know how long wait times are at the polling station you're at?

TUCHMAN: Yes. So at this polling station people are waiting 20 to 25 minutes and moves pretty quickly. But I will tell you, Anderson, there are 3,000 people registered to vote. This is three precincts in one place. And so far in four hours we've had almost 400 people come. So you're talking about roughly, 12, 13, 14 percent. And it's hard to tell if that's a lot or that's a little because so many people have early voted in this state.

COOPER: You know, Gary, one of the things I just find so hardening (ph) and I'm like a broken record on this. But I just think it's so important given all the anxiety that's going on is just how normal this morning is. I mean in every polling place we've been to it is good citizens wanting to cast a ballot. And volunteer poll workers and who are there helping them. And it's just normal.

TUCHMAN: You heard what the mayor said. That it's peaceful first of all. That's a really important point to emphasize because so many people have been worried about going out and voting; here just like any other day. But what's really important to point out, Anderson, if I could just say this really quick, I covered the California primary at the beginning of March. I was at Sacramento at a polling place at the beginning of COVID.

And two people came in to vote that day wearing masks and we were like holly cow people are wearing masks what's going on here. Now all of us are wearing masks and it's inspirational because you see everyone here trying to protect other people standing by them. And these heroic people who are working in the precinct. It just makes you feel good to be an American.

COOPER: Yes. It really does. Gary, appreciate it. The election's already making history. Just look at this. Before the first polls even opened this morning more than 100 million Americans had already cast their ballot; shattering all early voting records.

Here with me now former governor of Ohio and 2016 Republican Presidential candidate, John Kasich.

[10:45:00]

COOPER: He's endorsed Joe Biden for president.

Governor 100 million votes cast before today, nearly three quarters of the entire votes counted in 2016. It's going to be really interesting to see what turnout is like today if -- to see if this is breaking all the records or if because so many people voted early it's actually a lower turnout today. JOHN KASICH, FORMER GOVERNOR OF OHIO: Well I mean we'll have to see Anderson but the intensity is very high and you know we always worry about how do we get more people to vote. Well people tend to vote when they have something they really care about, if there's not much they care about you know it's just casual you wont see big high voter turnout but in this case the intensity is so high on both sides. Those who really want to support Donald Trump are all geared up and those that are supporting Joe Biden. You know I saw a special over the weekend they asked on lady well was this -- was her vote for Biden or against Trump and she looked -- and she said could I have both? So there's a lot of intensity out there so that's why you're seeing a very big turnout.

COOPER: What do you make of the Biden campaign going to Cleveland with the candidate -- kind of a last minute stop in Cleveland?

KASICH: Well that's because they took a look at Ohio and thought It's so close that if they can produce a greater turnout in Cleveland and you nailed it Anderson when you talked about a higher African American turnout it's very possible that Biden could win the state. Now if you notice today Biden is back in Pennsylvania, he's over in Philadelphia because Philadelphia is so critical in terms of turnout and it can overwhelm the rest of the state if the turnout is large enough. So it's no surprise that he's over there and frankly I'm not surprised he went to Cleveland because they see this as a -- as a possibility.

COOPER: You know the issue of fracking is something that got a lot of attention I mean it always has but during the last debate obviously the President felt that Joe Biden had made a big mistake by talking about fracking though Vice President Biden actually supports fracking just not on federal land moving forward.

KASICH: Right.

COOPER: And gradually getting off of fossil fuels but I'm wondering do you think that hurt him in Ohio? Hurt him in parts of Pennsylvania?

KASICH: You know Anderson my gut tells me that's a small slice of people. I mean the people that are actually in the industry get very worked up about that. When I heard it in the debate I thought it would take a heavier toll on Biden than I think it has and that's probably because you know it's sort of a narrower slice. Now in Ohio, where I approve fracking by the way except in our public lands, it's -- I don't think the numbers are that giant so on -- you know on close contest it could make a difference but I have not seen the impact of that that I thought I might see.

COOPER: How quickly do you think we'll see results from Ohio?

KASICH: Well they're pretty good you know they start processing the ballots you know the -- the mail in and then you know their going to do their very best. We have up to ten days to count ballots that are post marked the day before election and this is something that's been traditional in the state, it's been this way for a long period of time. I can't tell you Anderson, I'd love to tell you I know exactly when we're going to know but I can't say that or I wouldn't be telling you the truth and so I'd rather not do that.

COOPER: So that's in tradition though in the state, ballots that are sent in can be counted as long as they're postmarked before the election -- before the election they'll be counted up to ten days.

KASICH: Yes. And they'll process them you know their processing them today and I don't know exactly when they'll begin counting them but people will keep an eye on that. We expect those early votes to favor Joe Biden but as we know come election day those votes are going to matter as well so you know do it right, take your time. I know in all the elections I ever had I just want to know what's the absentee vote, how we doing on that and traditionally it had been for republicans but it's -- it certainly has changed in this election cycle.

COOPER: Yes. Everything has changed it seems. Governor John Kasich. Exciting day, appreciate you being with us. Thanks very much. Coming up the world watching as Americans head to the polls. The U.S. allies and adversaries looking for -- for tonight we'll talk to Christiane Amanpour about that ahead.

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[10:50:00]

COOPER: As Americans cast their ballots in unprecedented numbers countries around the world are of course watching to see who the next president of the United States will be. Joe Biden is promising to return the U.S. to its more traditional role on the world stage after four years of the Trump administration.

Our Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour joins me now. So, what do you think U.S. allies are watching for tonight because clearly there's an intense interest around the world in this?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Intense is an under statement. Everybody's on the edge of their seats. This is really a matter of extreme importance for the rest of the world because it matters.

Here in Britain obviously the government of Prime Minister Johnson has hitched its star (ph) really to President Trump. Ideologically they're very similar and they believe that they could get a super duper free trade deal (ph) post-Brexit with a Trump United States.

But they're also obviously seeking to ingratiate themselves with the Biden camp depending on which way this goes. We have also heard that if Britain was to vote 75 percent of Britain the people would vote for Biden. The same in France where 80 percent of people who have been polled say they would prefer a Biden win.

We have heard from officials as well and we've been asking ambassadors and former cabinet ministers and they basically told us in France and also here in England former ministers that they can't really take another four years of unilateral and quote "hostile" U.S. disengagement from the European Alliance and from the multilateral world order. If that does happen, if there is another four years of President Trump then it really will alter the course of world history and world affairs, particularly amongst these particular allies of Europe.

[10:55:00]

Now if you go further south and you go to the Middle East, Israel has prepared two statements and we have been speaking to the U.N. Ambassador. He tells us that President Trump has really set the bar very high when it comes to U.S. foreign policy towards Israel.

They're very appreciative, as you can imagine, of the U.S. President moving the embassy to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Of the Kushner-Trump Peace Plan being very heavily weighted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that wind of Israeli politics.

Also, of these normalization agreements with the UAE, Bahrain and indeed Sudan, that's very important for them.

On they other hand they've also said that if there is a Biden win they go back to the many decades that Senator Biden, Vice President Biden has been engaged with Israel in, you know, supporting Israel and also the Peace Accords. Most hope that if Biden were to win he would reengage on the Palestinian, Israeli peace process. So, that's for -- that's for the allies.

We know that Turkey would like to see a -- a Trump win, because they believe it's been helpful to them, but Trump has pulled away from Turkey's historic enemies or those who Turkey sees as their enemies on parts of the Kurdish parts of that population.

South Korea also an ally, would like to see a Biden win, but does not want to see it return to the Obama policy of so-called strategic patience with North Korea, where they thought that the Obama Administration allowed North Korea to build up missiles and to test them and -- and -- and, you know, really bring that danger to a head there without standing in and confronting it.

COOPER: Also obviously, U.S. advisories are another matter.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

COOPER: Not just our -- our allies. We know Russia, China, Iran have attempted to sow discord in -- in the U.S.

AMANPOUR: Yes, well look, Iran is the big one and the prime -- the -- the prime sort of foreign policy objective of the Trump Administration in these first four years has been to collapse the Iranian regime or to completely squeeze it with a so-called maximum pressure policy of sanctions, so, as to really force it onto the back foot.

You know, that they've pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, obviously Europe allies hope that they'll -- Biden would go back into that and also back into climate change. But Iran has kept its power to dry, metaphorically, it has not come out to do any provocative things that it think may have received a negative response from -- from President Trump.

But they clearly, when pushed, would rather see a president who's going reengage with the Iran Nuclear Deal and so do the European allies, as I said.

We know that China, which has been heavily engaged with President Trump on the trade and tariffs and all the rest of it, Xi himself, President Xi said last week that neither egoism or unilateralism or threats and provocative measures are going to conducive to a relationship. So, I don't know whether that's a direct swipe at President Trump, but they also are not commenting publically.

And who else do we have? Russia, has stayed very much, you know, mum about who they would prefer. And some are saying it really doesn't matter who wins, what matters is the relationship between whatever country and the United States.

COOPER: Christiane, exciting day. Appreciate you being with us, thanks very much.

AMANPOUR: It is.

COOPER: Talk to you later. Breaking news, the Postal Service reporting another drop in the on-time movement of mail ballots, threatening Election Day delivery in battleground states. We'll have more on that, stand by.

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