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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Supreme Court Will Not Extend Wisconsin Ballot Deadline; Pennsylvania GOP Asks Supreme Court to Reconsider Mail-In Voting Decision; More Than Half of All States Report Record Cases of COVID This Month; Trump Touts U.S. Brokered Deal with Israel and 3 Arab Nations. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 27, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And just correct me if I'm wrong but I believe what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled was that if ballots are postmarked by November 3rd or before and arrive in the three days after, or if they have no postmark at all which sometimes happens as well, that they should count if they're received in three days after. Is that correct, do I have that right?

KATHY BOOCKVAR (D) SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA: That's correct. Yes, so they need to be cast by November 3rd, and the presumption is -- you know, of course, you don't want a voter to be disenfranchised for something that's no fault of their own. So every once in a while, the Post Office fails to have a postmark on there or if something is smudged, you don't want the voter to be penalized for that.

So the voter needs to cast their ballot by November 3rd, received by 5:00 p.m. on November 6th, and that's under the circumstances, that was how we found the balance to make sure we were both acknowledging that there were mail delays but also allowing that effective administration of elections to make sure we would get those results as soon as possible.

TAPPER: So, madam secretary, just for people who are watching who are from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, you would rather they go and take their ballot to a drop box as opposed to a mailbox, is that right?

BOOCKVAR: I would rather them deliver it in person, whether that's to a county election office, an authorized drop off location or a drop box which are all secure in Pennsylvania, they follow strict chain of custody procedures. Absolutely.

At this point, we're a week out, right? We've all heard of stories of ballots being delayed in the mail. I don't want anybody to lose their opportunity to vote, so I want every voter who has the ability to drop it off in person -- and now we have more options than ever before on how to do that. People can go to votespa.com, look at all drop off locations, find one near you and do it that way.

TAPPER: Votepa.com. Republicans in Pennsylvania think that they're going to have a better chance at getting the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in their favor now that Justice Amy Coney Barrett has been sworn in.

For those who are not familiar what happened last time, is the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled what we just said. And then it went up to -- it was appealed, went to the U.S. Supreme Court. There was a 4-4 split, and because there was a tie, because there was still that empty seat. It just reverted back to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision.

But if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear it again with nine justices and Justice Barrett on the Court, they could very well rule against you.

BOOCKVAR: There's all kinds of scenarios and I'm sure you saw, you know, Chief Justice Roberts in his opinion specifically talked about why the Wisconsin case was different from than the Pennsylvania case. I think that those are reasons why also the 4-4 split happened that might not have happened, that didn't happen in the case that came out of Wisconsin, right. That was a 5-3 decision.

So I think they're not apples to apples. I'm going to keep my hopes up that the Supreme Court will continue to allow the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's interpretation of our Pennsylvania state constitution to apply. It's the right thing to do here. But in the meantime, I want every voter to ignore the noise and just get their ballots in today.

TAPPER: Votepa.com. The Luzerne County Board of Elections has asked Justice Barrett to recuse herself. Do you think she should recuse herself?

BOOCKVAR: I think there is certainly good argument for her to recuse herself.

TAPPER: And what is that?

BOOCKVAR: Well, look, I mean, I think -- I'm going to let the lawyers make the arguments here, but I think -- look, my hope is that no matter who's sitting on the court, I don't care what their background is, I don't care who they were appointed by, I want them to look at the facts and circumstances and law of this case.

Again, it's a different case than Wisconsin, different set of circumstances, different set of law, and I'm confident that the United States Supreme Court is going to do the right thing here and uphold the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision.

TAPPER: President Trump continues to claim that there are big problems and discrepancies with mail-in ballots. There are, of course, some problems as there are with every kind of ballot every election, but there's no evidence of big problems and major problems.

The President says he wants a final total, vote total, on November 3rd. When do you expect Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to be able to call a winner? Will you know on election night?

BOOCKVAR: You never know on election night. In fact, certified results are not due in Pennsylvania until 20 days after election day, and that's similar time frames in every state. So that's never the case, and that's just completely inaccurate. So generally, what happens every year is that the closer the race, the longer it takes until you can actually see who the winner is going to be.

[15:35:00]

You know, as you know, under Act 12 of 2020, counties in Pennsylvania are allowed to start pre-canvasing ballots at 7:00 a.m. on election day. I was hoping that the Pennsylvania legislature would pass a law allowing them to start earlier, but they did not do that. So counties are ready to go. They've staffed up, they've bought equipment, they have best practices in place, they have timelines and these public servants amazingly dedicated are planning to canvas 24/7 until they get it

done.

So I think we're talking about a matter of days till the overwhelming majority of ballots are counted.

TAPPER: Yes.

BOOCKVAR: And, you know, again, if it's not a close race, we'll have a very good sense of who the winner is. If it's a very close race, it will take a little longer.

TAPPER: There's a big difference between the media making a projection, which the people are used to, and a state or a commonwealth declaring an actual winner. They're very different things. People have gotten used to the first one. That is not the same thing as the second one.

Secretary Kathy Boockvar, thank you so much. Say hi to everybody in Pennsylvania for me. I appreciate it.

BOOCKVAR: Thanks very much.

TAPPER: Coming up, a nightmare scenario hospital in one state is so overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, they say they're days away from having to make decisions as to who will get care and who will not.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:00]

TAPPER: By the way, just a point of clarification for our friends in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the website that the secretary is pointing is votes, plural, votespa.com. sorry about that if I got it wrong.

In our HEALTH LEAD today, coronavirus cases continue to surge across country. Every region of the United States reporting a significant spike in cases. 37 states are trending in the wrong direction, and in the past month, more than half of all states have reported their highest number of new COVID cases in a single day.

Joining me now, CNN medical analyst and chief of infectious diseases, at Mass General, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Dr. Walensky good to see you again. Sorry it's under these conditions.

The surge not just limited to one region of the country, it's everywhere. Some people, when you put out the information about like the rates going up so high, they say, well, it's just cases. It doesn't necessarily mean anything negative necessarily. Explain why that's wrong.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good afternoon, Jake. You know, these cases lead to hospitalizations, they lead to sick people, they lead to death. So yes, I think we're detecting more than we did in March. We have more tests, that's for sure.

And certainly there are some people who have asymptomatic disease or mildly symptomatic disease. But then there's a large proportion of those people who require high level medical care, they require ICU level stays, they require ventilation. And the more cases we have, the more of those we have, and I think that's the biggest concern.

TAPPER: And more than 60 percent of the American people think the government is making the country's recovery from the coronavirus worse, and nearly half of Americans think the response is actually getting worse, according to a new poll from Axios/Ipsos. Do you agree, is the response getting worse?

WALENSKY: Well, you know, I think we have some indications that we're not controlling this, right? Our cases are up 50 percent from where they were two weeks ago. I think the Coronavirus Task Force out of the White House has demonstrated not only can they not keep their own, the President safe, but they can't keep them safe twice.

They were not able to do it, even after having the Rose Garden event, they were not able to keep the Vice President's staff safe. So I think that sort of says that whatever it is that they're doing, it's not enough to keep their own safe, and that's very worrisome if they're, in fact, leading our public response.

You layer that on top of the fact that there are more and more cases, there are at least ten states now that have over 1,000 people hospitalized, and I just don't think that all of those numbers convey public confidence.

TAPPER: So, I want you to take a listen to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows explaining to me Sunday about the Trump administration's approach to the pandemic. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We're not going to control the pandemic, we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation --

TAPPER: Why aren't we going to get control the pandemic?

MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Admiral Giroir, The White House Coronavirus Task Force, he's in charge of testing is saying now that that's not what Meadow's meant, he said, well, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL BRETT P. GIROIR, MD, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: I'm not inside Chief Meadows' head, but I did read all the quotes and I think he's being misconstrued. We are not going to completely defeat the virus until we get a vaccine and that vaccine is distributed to the American people and we build up herd immunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: That's a nice attempt by Admiral Giroir, but the quote that Meadows said to me was, we are not going to control the pandemic. What was your reaction when heard that he said that?

WALENSKY: I think similar to yours, I was astonished. I think there are two ways you can interpret that. One is, we're not going to try, we have a fatalistic attitude, good luck to you, cases are going to soar and you're on your own. I'd like to think it wasn't that.

The other is, we're going to sort of move forward with the Scott Atlas approach of herd immunity. We're not trying to control the pandemic, because we believe that the more people who are able to get infected can do so safely, and therefore we'll get herd immunity through a pathway of infection.

In my mind that's a pathway that leads to a massive amount of death. It didn't work for Sweden. We have no mechanism by which we could protect the vulnerable, which would be a cornerstone of that path.

[15:45:00]

So regardless of how he intended that, I can't fathom that the pathway that would get us there would lead to a massive amount of disease, we're seeing it already, and a massive amount of death.

TAPPER: All right, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you so much for your time and expertise, as always.

Coming up, Russia, China, North Korea, a look at where President Trump and Joe Biden each stand on some of the most pressing global issues the United States.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:50:00]

TAPPER: Every day this week, we're taking a look at how the presidential candidates differ on major issues and that brings us today to our WORLD LEAD.

What is the next president going to do on national security and foreign policy? About China where the coronavirus started, Russia and it's continued election interference or U.S. troops in the Middle East?

CNN's senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt explains where Trump and Biden stand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America, first.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It's a rallying cry from President Trump that fires up his base and has transformed the way that the United States is seen and treated by the rest of the world.

JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: America first has made America alone.

MARQUARDT: While Joe Biden is now largely hoping to pick up where President Obama left off. But the world has changed and has left the two candidates on opposite ends of most major issues.

On North Korea, Trump has repeatedly boasted about his beautiful letters and friendship with Dictator Kim Jong-un.

TRUMP: We have a very good relationship and there's no war.

MARQUARDT: But North Korea's nuclear program continues. Biden says Trump gave Kim exactly what he wanted, an in-person meeting with a U.S. president.

BIDEN: What in God's name was that all about? He gave him legitimacy.

MARQUARDT: Trump has improved the relationship with Israeli which was deeply strained in the Obama/Biden administration. He moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem which Obama wouldn't. And coordinated normalization agreements between Israeli and three Arab countries.

It's the rivalry with China that will define much of U.S. foreign policy for decades to come. Trump started a fierce trade war repeatedly blasted China for the coronavirus, painting himself as the one to confront them.

TRUMP: We had a horrible plague that came from China and we are not going to forget that it came from China.

MARQUARDT: Biden has called Trump's approach erratic and promised more consistency with other allies. Alliances themselves are in the balance.

TRUMP: In NATO, I said you got to pay. We got $130 billion a year more from me. They didn't do it for 15 years it went down.

MARQUARDT: Trump routinely goes after NATO and its members and succeeded in getting them to increase their defense spending. Biden believes alliances are a pillar of the global order.

BIDEN: We find ourselves in the position where we're more isolated in the world than we ever have been.

MARQUARDT: The Paris Climate Accord is one of the international agreements that Biden wants to get back into which was tossed out by Trump.

TRUMP: Look. You know about Paris. The Paris Climate Accord, one of the great disasters of all time. Just call up prince. How's Paris doing?

MARQUARDT: One Trump relationship that Biden is hoping to up-end is with Vladimir Putin. The President claims no one's been tougher on Russia and sanctions have been severe. But the President has never publicly criticized Putin for putting bounties on the heads of U.S. troops.

TRUMP: If it were true, I'd be very angry about it.

MARQUARDT: Or for attacking both the last and the current U.S. elections.

BIDEN: I made it clear that any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in American elections will pay a price. They will pay a price.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Another critical question, Jake, is U.S. troops overseas in Afghanistan. The former Vice President says that he wants to bring the vast majority home but he doesn't say how many or by when.

While the President says he wants to lower those troop numbers in Afghanistan to 2,500 by next year. In Iraq and Syria both candidates are much more vague, both men are saying they want to end these so- called "forever wars" but, of course, that is far easier said than done -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Alex Marquardt, thank you so much, appreciate it.

Coming up, President Trump's niece Mary Trump will join me live. What is she saying about her uncle a week out from the election day?

Plus, President Trump and Joe Biden making the most of this seven day stretch to election day, so with millions of votes already cast, who's left to recruit?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:55:00]

TAPPER: Welcome to the second hour of THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin this hour with 2020 LEAD.

We have one week left until election day. President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are in the final sprint.

Right now President Trump is holding the first of three rallies in states that he won in 2016. Despite the worsening pandemic spread of the virus, rallies that are potential super-spreader events we need to note, no masks required, no distancing, tightly packed crowds. Everything health officials say we should not be doing.

Meantime, Biden is looking to expand the map from states he absolutely needs to win to states he would like to win. Today making two stops in Georgia. A state the President Trump won by five percentage points in 2016 but it's also a state that Biden wants to turn blue in 2020.

For a majority of states, today is the last day that the U.S. Postal Service recommends sending in a mail-in ballot.