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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Pence Objects to Plexiglas Barrier at Debate; Early Voting Continues; Joe Biden Delivers Message on Unity. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired October 06, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:00]

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we don't know at this point, Jake, if it's going to have any impact on whether or not this debate is going to take place. There are ongoing levels of communication between the campaigns and the Commission on Presidential debates, which runs the debate.

I know that the campaigns are right now doing a walk-through on the stage behind me. We were just inside the building and saw that taking place. So, still a lot of back and forth taking place here.

But the sense we're getting right now, Jake, is that this isn't necessarily a direct deal-breaker for the Harris campaign.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Just to be clear, Ryan, it's the vice president who, according to health experts, including one I just interviewed a few minutes ago, who say that Vice President Pence should be quarantined right now because he was in direct contact with so many people who have tested positive.

He's the one who probably should be making all these offers, as opposed to slapping them down. But, in fact, a spokesperson for the vice president actually even mocked Senator Harris for wanting a Plexiglas guard.

NOBLES: Yes, that's exactly right, Jake.

Katie Miller, who is the vice president's communications director, told CNN that, if Senator Harris -- she said -- quote -- "If Senator Harris wants to have a Plexiglas fortress around her herself, have at it. She wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it."

And you're right, Jake, the tone is a mocking one, when there is so much evidence to the fact that this White House has had just a careless disregard for the spread of the coronavirus. And that extends to the vice president himself.

Even though he has tested negative for the last number of days since the president's diagnosis came through, there is still that lingering risk. He was among that group of people at the event where Amy Coney Barrett was officially nominated by President Trump. And he was not wearing a mask.

And, for the most part, he continues to not wear a mask -- Jake. TAPPER: It's recklessness and unbelievable hubris at the same time. It's rather staggering.

Ryan Nobles, thanks so much.

And joining us now to discuss, emergency medicine physician Dr. Dara Kass.

Dr. Kass, do you think it's safe for Senator Kamala Harris to be on the same stage with Vice President Pence, who has obviously been exposed to many people who have since tested positive for coronavirus and has not quarantined himself?

DR. DARA KASS, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: So, let's be honest.

This is not only about Senator Harris. What she's doing is advocating the appropriate behavior from the vice president for everybody at the venue, remembering that, when he enters the facility, will he be wearing a mask, when he gets on stage?

What happens to the housekeeping staff, the A.V. staff, all the people in the audience, the moderator? The only Plexiglas barrier that should be mandatory at this vice presidential debate should be around Vice President Pence.

And let's be honest. If he's saying, I don't care enough about those at the facility, not just about Senator Harris, then he's really exemplifying what it means to be the leader of the COVID Task Force.

TAPPER: And what did you make when his spokeswoman, Katie Miller, mocked Senator Harris for wanting a Plexiglas container, saying, if she wants a fortress, have at it, or something like that? What did you make of that tone, as a physician and as somebody who, I should point out, has had coronavirus?

KASS: Yes, I mean, look, I walk out of the house with a mask on every day, even having antibodies, knowing that I'm unlikely to carry this virus to anybody else.

When I go to the store, there's a Plexiglas barrier between me and the person working in the grocery store to protect them from everybody.

So, what do I think? I think it's embarrassing for them.

TAPPER: Yes.

KASS: And I think that it shows the same tone that they appreciate everything else with.

TAPPER: Dr. Kass, thank you so much.

I'm sorry. I have to cut you short, because Vice President Biden is about to speak. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: America woke to the remains of perhaps the most consequential battle on American soil.

It took place here on this ground in Gettysburg, three days of violence, three days of carnage, 50,000 casualties wounded, captured, missing or dead over three days of fighting.

When the sun rose on that Independence Day, Lee would retreat. The war would go on for nearly two more years. But the back of the Confederacy had been broken. The Union would be saved. Slavery would be abolished. Government by -- of, by and for the people would not perish from the earth. And freedom would be born anew in our land.

There is no more fitting place than here today in Gettysburg to talk about the cost of division, about how much it has cost America in the past, about how much it is costing us now, and about why I believe, in this moment, we must come together as a nation.

[16:35:00]

For President Lincoln, the Civil War was about the greatest of causes, the end of slavery, widening equality, pursuit of justice, the creation of opportunity, and the sanctity of freedom.

His words would live ever after. We hear them in our heads. We know them in our hearts. We draw on them when we see hope in hours of darkness.

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought fourth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all man are created equal.

Here, on this sacred ground, Abraham Lincoln reimagined America itself. Here, a president of the United States spoke of the price of division and the meaning of sacrifice. He believed in the rescue, redemption, and rededication of the Union, all this in a time not just of ferocious division, but of widespread death, structural inequity, and fear of the future.

And he taught us this. A house divided could not stand. That is a great and timeless truth.

Today, once again, we are a house divided. But that, my friends, can no longer be. We are facing too many crises. We have too much work to do. We have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shoals of anger and hate and division.

As we stand here today, a century-and-a-half later after Gettysburg, we should consider again what can happen whether equal justice is denied, when anger and violence and division are left unchecked.

As I look across America today, I'm concerned. The country is in a dangerous place. Our trust in each other is ebbing. Hope seems elusive. Too many Americans see our public life not as an arena for mediation of our differences, but, rather, they see it as an occasion for total, unrelenting partisan warfare.

Instead of treating each other's party as the opposition, we treat them as the enemy.

This must end. We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in this country, a spirit to being able to work with one another.

When I say that -- and I have been saying it for two years now -- I'm accused of being naive. I'm told maybe that is the way things used to work, Joe, but they can't work that way anymore.

Well, I'm here to tell you, they can, and they must, if we are going to get anything done.

I'm running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president. I will work with Democrats and Republicans. I will work as hard for those who don't support me as those who do.

That is the job of a president, the duty to care for everyone.

The refusal of Democrats and Republicans to cooperate with one another is not due to some mysterious force beyond our control. It's a decision. It's a choice we make. And if we can decide not to cooperate, we can decide to cooperate as well.

That is the choice I will make as president.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: But there is something bigger going on in this nation than just our broken politics, something darker, something more dangerous.

And I'm not talking about ordinary differences of opinion. Competing viewpoints give life and vibrancy to our democracy.

No, I'm talking about something different, something deeper. Too many Americans seek not to overcome our divisions, but to deepen them. We must seek not to build walls, but bridges. We must seek not to have our fists clenched, but our arms open.

We have to seek not to tear each other apart, but seek to come together. You don't have to agree with me on everything or even on most things to see that -- we are experiencing today is neither good nor normal.

[16:40:08]

I made the decision to run for president after Charlottesville.

Close your eyes and remember what you saw, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the KKK coming out of the fields with torches lighted, veins bulging, chanting the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the '30s.

It was hate on the march, in the open, in America. Hate never goes away. It only hides. And when it's given oxygen, when it's given an opportunity to spread, when it's treated as normal and acceptable behavior, we have opened a door in this country that we must move quickly to close. As president, that is just what I will do. I will send a clear,

unequivocal message to the entire nation. There is no place for hate in America. I will be given -- it will be given no license. It will be given no oxygen. It will be given no safe harbor.

In recent weeks and months, the country has been riled by instances of excessive police force, heart-wrenching cases of racial injustice and lives needlessly and senselessly lost, by peaceful protesters giving voice to the calls for justice, by examples of violence and looting and burning that cannot be tolerated.

I believe in law and order. I have never supported defunding the police, but I also believe injustice is real. It's a product of a history that goes back 400 years, the moment when black, men, women, and children first were brought here in chains.

I do not believe we have to choose between law and order and racial justice in America. We can't have both. This is a nation strong enough to both honestly face systemic racism and strong enough to provide safe streets for our families and small businesses that too often bear the brunt of this looting and burning.

We have no need for armed militias roaming America's streets. And we should have no tolerance for extremist white supremacy groups menacing our communities.

If you say we should trust America's law enforcement authorities to do the job, as I do, then let them do their job, without extremist groups acting as vigilantes.

If you say we have no need to face racial injustice in the country, you haven't opened your eyes to the truth in America. There have been powerful voices for justice in recent weeks and months, George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter who I met with, who looked at me and said, in her small child's voice, "Daddy changed the world."

Also, Jacob Blake's mother was another, when she said, violence didn't reflect her son, and this nation needed healing.

And Doc Rivers, the basketball coach, choking back tears when he said: "We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot. We have been hung. It's amazing why we keep loving this country, and this country does not love us back."

I think about that. I think about what it takes for a black person to love America. That is a deep love for this country that has for far too long never been recognized.

What we need in America is leadership that seeks to de-escalate tensions, to open the lines of communications, to bring us together, to heal, to hope.

As president, that is precisely what I will do. We have paid a high price for allowing the deep divisions of this country to impact on how we deal with the coronavirus, 210,000 Americans dead, and the number is climbing. It's estimated that nearly another 210,000 Americans could lose their lives by the end of the year.

Enough. No more. Let's just set partisanship aside. Let's end the politics and follow the science.

Wearing a mask, wearing a mask is not a political statement. It's a scientific recommendation. Social distancing isn't a political statement. It's a scientific recommendation.

[16:45:05]

Testing, tracing, the development and ultimate approval and distribution of a vaccine isn't a political statement. It is a science-based decision.

We can't undo what has been done. We can't go back. But we can do so much better. We can do better starting today. We can have a national strategy that puts politics aside and saves lives. We can have a national strategy that will make it possible for our schools and businesses to open safely. We can have a national strategy that reflects the true values of this nation.

This pandemic is not a red state or a blue state issue. This virus doesn't care whether you live or where you live or what political party you belong to. It infects us all. It will take anyone's life. It's a virus. It is not a political weapon.

There is another enduring division in America that we must end, the division in our economic life that gives opportunity only to the privileged few. America has to be about mobility. It has to be the kind of country where, in Abraham Lincoln, a child of the distant frontier, can rise to the highest office in the land.

America has to be about possibilities, the possibility of prosperity, not just for the privileged few, but for the many, for all of us. Working people and their kids deserve an opportunity. Lincoln knew this. He said that a country had to give people -- and I quote -- "an open field and a fair chance."

An open field and a fair chance. That is what we are going to do in the America we are going to build together.

We fought a Civil War that would secure a Union, that would seek to fulfill the promise of equality for all. And, by fits and starts, our better angels have prevailed against, just enough, just enough, against our worst impulses to make a new and better nation.

And those better angels can prevail again now. They must prevail again now.

A hundred years after Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, the vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, also came here. And here is what he said. He said, our nation found its soul and honor in these fields of Gettysburg. We must not lose that soul and dishonor now on the fields of hate.

Today, we're engaged once again in a battle for the soul of the nation. The forces of darkness, the forces of division, the forces of yesterday are pulling us apart, holding us down and holding us back. We must free ourselves of all of them.

As president, I will embrace hope, not fear, peace, not violence, generosity, not greed, and light, not darkness. I will be a president who appeals to the best of us, not the worst. I will be a president who pushes toward the future, not one who clings to the past.

I'm ready to fight for you and for our nation every day, without exception, without reservation, and with a full and devoted heart. We cannot and will not allow extremists and white supremacists to overturn the America of Lincoln and Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, to overturn the America that has welcomed immigrants from distant shores, to overturn the America that has been a haven and a home for everyone, no matter their background.

From Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall, we are at our best when the promise of America is available to all. We cannot and we will not allow violence in the street to threaten the people of this nation. We cannot and will not walk away from our obligation to, at long last, face the reckoning on race and racial justice in this country.

We cannot and will not continue to be stuck in the partisan politics that lets us -- this virus thrive, while the public health of this nation suffers. We cannot and will not accept an economic equation that only favors those who have already got it made. Everybody deserves a shot at prosperity.

[16:50:03]

BIDEN: Folks.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Duty and history call presidents to provide for the common good. And I will.

It won't be easy. It won't be easy. Our divisions today are longstanding. Economic and racial inequities have shaped us for generations.

But I give you my word, I give you my word, if I'm elected president, I will marshal the ingenuity and goodwill of this nation to turn division into unity and bring us together, because I think people are looking for that.

We can disagree about how we move forward, but we must take the first steps. And it starts with how we treat one another, how we talk to one another, how we respect one another.

In his second inaugural, Lincoln said, with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us drive on to finish the work we're in to build up the nation's wounds -- bind up the nation's wounds.

Now we have our work to reunite America, to bind up the nation's wounds, to move past shadow and suspicion. And so we, you and I, together, we press on even now.

After hearing the second inaugural address, Frederick Douglass told President Lincoln: "Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort."

We have to be dedicated to our own sacred effort. The promise of Gettysburg, that a new birth of freedom was at hand, I think it's at risk.

Every generation that has followed Gettysburg has been faced with a moment when it must answer this question, whether it will allow the sacrifices made here to be in vain or be fulfilled.

This is our moment to answer this essential American question for ourselves and for our time. And my answer is this.

It cannot be that, after all this country has been through, after all that America has accomplished, after all the years we have stood as a beacon of light to the world, it cannot be that, here and now, in 2020, we will allow the government of the people, by the people and for the people to perish on this earth.

No, it cannot, and it must not. We have in our hands the ultimate power, the power to vote. It's the noblest instrument ever devised to register our will in a peaceable and productive fashion.

And so we must. We must vote. We will vote, no matter how many obstacles are thrown in our way, because, once America votes, America will be heard.

Lincoln said, the nation is worth fighting for. So it was, and so it is. Together, as one nation under God, indivisible, let us join forces to fight the common foe of injustice and inequality, hate and fear.

Let's conduct ourselves as Americans who love each other, who love our country, who will not destroy, but will build. We owe it to the dead who are buried here at Gettysburg. We owe that to the living and the future generations yet to be born.

You and I are part of a covenant, a common story of divisions overcome and hope renewed.

If we do our part, if we stand together, if we keep faith with the past and with each other, then the divisions our time will give way to the dreams of a brighter, better future.

This is our work. This is our pledge. This is our mission. We can end this era of division. We can end the hate and the fear. We can be what we are at our best, the United States of America.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.

(APPLAUSE) BIDEN: Thank you.

We can do this.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TAPPER: You have been listening to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaking in Gettysburg in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, making a pitch for bipartisanship in the wake of multiple crises.

CNN's Jessica Dean is in Gettysburg.

[16:55:01]

And, Jessica, this is what Biden has been selling to voters now since he announced, basically normalcy, getting back to a sense of normalcy. And there was no policy proposal in that speech, just an idea of, like, everybody just calm down, let's get back to normal.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

Jake, it was really a call to arms to return to normalcy. And, as you point out, that has been the messaging from Joe Biden since he kicked off his campaign in April of 2019, when he called this a battle for the soul of the nation.

So, to see him return to that messaging today, it's something we have heard again and again over the many months that we have been covering Joe Biden.

It was also very much who he is. Remember, Joe Biden spent decades and decades in the U.S. Senate, where he prided himself on his bipartisan outreach, his friendships with people across the aisle. He believes in that.

It is how he believes he can be effective. It is how he believes America can move forward. And you notice we are here in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, near the battlefields from the Civil War, where Abraham Lincoln gave that speech.

And, Jake, I thought it was interesting. He said: "Once again, we find ourselves a house divided, and that cannot be. We simply are facing too many crises," making the argument that democracy is on the line in this election -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Jessica Dean in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a big battleground state.

Biden also talking about the importance of voting, which is already happening right now. A time-lapse gives a glimpse into turnout in Ohio, as that state started early voting today.

The line took over a shopping center in Franklin County, in the area of Columbus. In Florida, the state is now extending voter registration after a

system crashed last evening. In many cases, states are making concerted efforts to try to meet voter demand. In others, there appear to be efforts to create burdens for voters.

CNN's Pamela Brown is looking at that in the latest piece in a series about election integrity issues that we're calling "Making It Count."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Ohio, the line of voters stretched around entire city blocks, as early voting gets under way today in more states.

ERIC PARADIES, OHIO VOTER: I think it's rekindled, like, a spirit of democracy in a lot of people. It has in me, because I have missed folks. But I'm not missing today.

BROWN: This comes as Ohio's secretary of state issued a directive limiting drop boxes to one location, county board of elections offices, even though a court said he could expand it further.

FRANK LAROSE (R), OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: To expand it beyond that, when it's not specifically called for in the law, it would be irresponsible at this point and would really cause confusion.

BROWN: In Indiana, early voting is also under way, as anxious voters, many wearing masks, braved long lines amid a deadly pandemic. And in Florida, the voter registration system went down Monday amid a flood of applications ahead of the state's deadline.

That prompted the secretary of state to reopen the system for a few more hours today.

A federal judge in Arizona extended the deadline there by two weeks, citing the impact of coronavirus on voter registration efforts, but a victory for Republicans in South Carolina after the Supreme Court reinstated the state's witness signature requirement on absentee ballots.

In many of these states, voters say they're not taking any chances with their ballot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that, instead of three hours today, it might be seven or eight on November 3, so I wanted to get it done in the most convenient way possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I dropped off my ballot. I put it in the voter box, because I didn't trust the U.S. mail.

BROWN: Election officials and both parties are pushing back on USPS postcard sent to all households saying voters should -- quote -- "request your mail-in ballot at least 15 days before Election Day," which is inaccurate for many states. The office of Utah's Republican lieutenant governor is urging

residents to ignore the USPS voting instructions. Missouri's secretary of state is saying similar in a tweet. Today, lawmakers say they are increasingly concerned about Americans' confidence and the U.S. voting system.

REP. MARCIA FUDGE (D-OH): Americans need accurate information about how to cast their ballot. But misinformation being spread in the lead- up to this year's election is a disservice to voters and a danger to our democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And, in Texas, in response to the Texas governor's ordered for there to only be one ballot box per county, a group started by LeBron James is now teaming up with Lyft to offer free rides to registered voters up to $15 to the one ballot box in Harris County, that big county in Texas with millions of voters -- Jake.

TAPPER: Thank you so much, Pamela Brown. Really appreciate it.

That's "Making It Count."

We're going to keep an eye on election integrity issues up until the election.

Be sure to tune in to the only vice presidential debate of 2020. CNN's special coverage of that debate begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night. That's Wednesday night.

Until then, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @JakeTapper. You can tweet the show @THELEADCNN.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now. I will see you tomorrow.