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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Pandemic Worsening; Are Republicans Attempting to Suppress Voting?; Biden, Trump Campaign in Florida. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 29, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Five days until Election Day in the United States, and, right now, President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are both zeroing in on the critical state of Florida and its massive war chest of 29 electoral votes.

In fact, today, both will be in the same city just hours apart, Tampa, on the critical I-4 Corridor. It's a state also seeing a recent surge in coronavirus cases. Florida has just reported 4,000 new cases for the third day in a row, the difference in the campaign events reflecting the deep divide over coronavirus and whether or not to heed the advice of health professionals.

Biden, who does, is holding drive-in events. And Trump, who ignores what his own experts say is prudent and safe, holds packed rallies with no masks required and no distancing.

Our correspondents are in Florida covering the candidates.

Let's start with CNN's Ryan Nobles, who's in Tampa, where President Trump is holding a rally right now.

Ryan, President Trump won Florida in 2016. It's his new home state. And it's critical, critical to his path to victory in 2020.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about that, Jake.

You would be hard-pressed to find a path to victory for President Trump that doesn't include the 29 electoral votes here in Florida. And the president and his campaign recognize that the race here is extraordinarily tight. And in the past, when the race has been tight, it's tended to lean Republican. And they're hoping that it does so again in 2020.

And, as a result, the president spending a lot of time here, spending a lot of money, and spending a lot of energy in getting the vote out here to Florida. And he's doing it in part by continuing to hold these massive rallies, and continuing to hold these rallies, Jake, despite the fact that the coronavirus continues to be a bigger and bigger problem here in the Sunshine State, 4,000 cases, new cases, announced for the third day in a row in this state; 79 people died because of the coronavirus.

Yet the president continues to hold these rallies with folks packed in, shoulder to shoulder, and hardly any masks. Yet, the president in this -- his message to this crowd here today is that we're rounding the corner, that the coronavirus is under control and it's not something you have to worry about.

And what had been the most startling thing the president said here today, Jake, he looked out at this crowd, where everyone is packed in, almost no one is wearing masks, and he actually said to the crowd, if you get a little close to someone, put on a mask, obviously ignoring the fact that there are thousands of people here who are not doing that.

Still, the president and his campaign believe Florida is a state they can win. And that's why they're focusing so much energy here in the closing days of this campaign -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Ryan, thank you so much.

Moments ago, Joe Biden wrapped up a drive-in rally and Coconut Creek, Florida, in Broward County, focused on his closing message, finding a way to unite the country and to control the pandemic that the president denies is in the state it is in.

Biden also telling the crowd that, if he can turn Florida blue next week, he will win the election.

CNN's Jessica Dean is live for us in Coconut Creek with the Biden campaign.

Jessica, obviously, this is a radically different type of campaign rally than that we just saw from President Trump, but a very consistent closing message.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

We have heard this message again and again, Biden being very disciplined with his closing message, Jake. And, to your point, you look at these two events side by side. The cars are now coming out from the event that just wrapped up, but they were all in their cars, socially distanced, the Biden campaign going to great lengths to make sure that everybody is safe and following those safety guidelines.

And the response to the coronavirus pandemic playing into this closing argument. It is all about COVID, about the economy, about health care. And we're hearing that again and again from Biden, this event really targeting early voters.

While the Trump campaign really is going to rely on people showing up and voting on Election Day, the Biden campaign really wants their voters going early, getting it done, and they were encouraging everyone, if they haven't voted yet, once they leave here, to immediately go and vote.

We are in Broward County. Jake, as you know, it is a Democratic stronghold here in the state of Florida. They really want to run up the score in a place like Broward County to try to give them an edge in what, as Ryan said, is a very tight race here.

TAPPER: And, Jessica, as part of a targeted new ad airing in states like Florida, where there is a large Latino population, Biden is addressing how he would try to work on reuniting these 545 children who were forcibly separated from their parents at the border by the Trump administration who have not yet been returned to their parents.

DEAN: Right. He has called that criminal. It is something that advisers say has really affected the vice president.

And we saw today, when he rolled out some new ads in battleground states, this promise that, if elected, he will issue an executive order forming a task force whose sole responsibility it would be to is to reunite these 545 children with their families. These are children that were forcibly separated from their families at the border and who the government has said they cannot find their families now.

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So, the Biden campaign zeroing in on that and zeroing in on the Hispanic vote across the country as well. As I mentioned, they're releasing new ads in a number of battleground states. They also hosted a call today explaining more of their strategy in these closing days, Jake.

They're doing a lot of targeted things, like holding bilingual phone banks and texting banks, really trying to make sure that their outreach is effective, the Latino vote a big part of the coalition they're trying to build.

TAPPER: Right, but Biden has been running behind Hillary Clinton in Florida among Hispanics, according to polls.

DEAN: That's right.

TAPPER: Jessica Dean, thank you so much.

Both campaigns clearly still see Florida as a place they can win. Since 1928, only two candidates for president have won the White House without winning Florida.

CNN's resident forecaster, Harry Enten, joins me now live.

And, Harry, what's the state of the race in Florida right now?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, I mean, look, if you pull up our Race to 270 map, you will see that Florida is in a nice yellow. That indicates that it's a very, very close race, unlike perhaps some of those Midwestern battlegrounds.

And if you take a look at the polling average, what do you see? You see former Vice President Joe Biden with perhaps the slightest of edges. He's at 49 percent to Trump's 46 percent. But that is a race that at this point, perhaps, is too close to call. TAPPER: And, Harry, the Biden campaign says that they're still --

quote -- "aggressively courting" Latino voters. But let's just say it as it is. This is an area where Biden really struggles in Florida. The question is, of course, whether or not the Puerto Rican voters who favor Biden in Central Florida will be able to make up for Trump's strength with the Cuban Americans and other Latinos in Southern Florida.

What do you think's going to happen?

ENTEN: Yes, I mean, if you look at the polling average among Hispanic voters, and you compare it to four years ago, you see it pretty clearly. Biden is still up with them, but his lead is only 12 points vs. Hillary Clinton. The final pre-election polls then was 21 points.

And it's exactly -- you pointed out, it's that Cuban vote in the southeast part of the state that Donald Trump is doing significantly better in than then he was four years ago. Will it ultimately be enough for Trump? I'm not quite sure.

One other little nugget there is, of course, among senior citizens, what you're seeing is Biden doing better than Hillary Clinton did. And it's basically a tie now. Perhaps that could help compensate for Biden's worse performance with Hispanics.

TAPPER: Florida's already started counting their early and absentee votes. So, are we likely to know who won Florida on election night?

ENTEN: Yes, a much better chance than, say, in the Midwest, right? Because all those ballots pretty much have to be in. They're already starting to process those ballots.

And what I should note is, unlike those Midwestern battleground states, what you're going to see in the state of Florida is, Joe Biden's actually going to probably jump out to an early lead, because we know from the polling data that Joe Biden is winning amongst those voters who have already cast a ballot, according to a Monmouth poll that came out earlier today, while those who have yet to vote, that's where Trump's vote really is.

He's going to try and run up the score on Election Day. Will it ultimately be enough? We will have to wait and see.

TAPPER: That's interesting. That's something of a blue mirage, then, we expect to see--

ENTEN: Exactly.

TAPPER: -- in Florida, as opposed to a red massage -- red mirage that we expect to see in states, commonwealths like Pennsylvania.

Walk us through how each of the candidates could win the White House if they don't win Florida?

ENTEN: Yes, I mean, it's significantly easier for Joe Biden. You can basically just see this in a map in which you say, OK, we're going to give Trump the state of Florida. We will even give him North Carolina and Arizona.

All Joe Biden has to do is win in Pennsylvania, where he holds a polling lead, win in Michigan, win in Wisconsin, and then when the Hillary Clinton states. That gets him to 278 electoral votes.

For Donald Trump, the math is much more difficult. Yes, it is possible, right? If he loses in the state of Florida, if he wins the rest of those six closest swing states that he won in 2016, he would be able to basically do it.

But here's the key, Jake. If you just look at the numbers, and you run them over and over again, even if Joe Biden loses in the state of Florida, he still has about a 65 percent chance of winning. If Donald Trump loses in the state of Florida, I estimate that his chance of winning is less than 5 percent.

TAPPER: Interesting.

All right, Harry Enten, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Growing concern in two battleground states about counting mail-in ballots, after the Supreme Court has weighed in. That story is next.

Plus: Dr. Anthony Fauci says two, yes, two companies are practically tied in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. What that means for potential timing of a vaccine.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

In our health led today: Dr. Anthony Fauci is predicting -- quote -- "a whole lot of pain" in the United States, as the nation sees a surge in new COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths; 41 states are trending upward. Many in the Midwest are seeing record hospitalizations, and 994 deaths were reported in the United States yesterday due to COVID, a situation we have not seen in months.

Since the pandemic, began four of the top five worst days yet for new cases have been this week. And now experts say we could hit 100,000 cases a day in the coming weeks, or maybe even the coming days. That will put us on pace to hit nine million total cases by Saturday.

I want to bring in Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Offit, thanks for joining.

The former commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, says that we're at the hardest point in the pandemic right now. Take a listen.

(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. I think we will be celebrating together in 2021 Thanksgiving of 2021.

We need to get through the next couple of months. This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now, the next two months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you agree, this is the hardest point, the next two months?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Yes, I think a lot of things are converging.

One, we're still not great at wearing masks. Two, we're entering the winter months, when a virus like this, which is spread by the respiratory -- by small droplets, typically rages in the winter. It was surprising that it actually continued in the summer. But we can certainly expect it'll rage in the winter.

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And it'll probably be concomitant with the typical influenza epidemic that we see every year. So, yes, I think it's going to be a rough couple months.

TAPPER: As a health official, as a doctor, are you surprised that all of this is happening, and there is no leader, no -- the president, the vice president, nobody in the White House saying, OK, obviously, things are not working, and we need to do X, we need to do Y, we need to do Z?

I mean, does that surprise you?

OFFIT: Well, it's continued to surprise me.

I mean, if you look at other countries, especially South Korea, which is a model here for how to get control of this particular pandemic, but even our neighbor to the north, Canada, has done a much better job, because they have much stronger federal leadership and local leadership.

I mean, the -- not just the federal leadership, but also the governors could be -- could have been much better at doing the most powerful thing we have, which is hygienic measures, masking, social distancing. That's the most powerful tool we have. And yet we choose to set it aside and certainly don't have any leadership at the federal level that mimics good behavior.

TAPPER: The White House Task Force said in one of its weekly state reports -- quote -- "We continue to see unrelenting, broad community spread in the Midwest, Upper Midwest and the West. This will require aggressive mitigation to control both the silent asymptomatic spread and symptomatic spread."

South Dakota has a 46 percent positivity rate. North Dakota has the most new cases per population this week.

How did things get so bad in those regions?

OFFIT: Well, this is -- in defense of the administration at some level, I mean, also, things are raging in Germany. Things are raging again in France. This is hard.

What makes it hard is that it's so much asymptomatic spread, that most of the people you come in contact with who you're going to catch this virus from have no symptoms or are presymptomatic. That's what makes this so heinous.

So, therefore, what you should do is assume that everybody you come in contact with is asymptomatically infected with this virus. So, you wear a mask and social distance.

It's just been hard in this country to get people to do that. Maybe it's because we were founded on the basis of individual rights and freedoms, and, somehow, people interpret that to mean freedom not to wear a mask, or, said another way, freedom to catch and transmit a potentially fatal disease.

It's just been hard to get ahold of this. Dr. Fauci has proposed thinking -- at least thinking about a national masking strategy. I think it's a great idea.

TAPPER: Dr. Fauci said that Moderna and Pfizer are -- quote -- "neck and neck" and in the race for a vaccine.

You're a member of the FDA's Advisory Committee on Vaccine Approval. What do you think?

OFFIT: Hard to know. Still reading the tea leaves this point.

I mean, the only people that really know the answer to that question are a group of people called the Data Safety Monitoring Board. They're the ones who are looking at real time at who's gotten the vaccine, who hasn't, who's gotten sick and who hasn't. Even the companies don't really know exactly what the story is with that, because the Data Safety Monitoring Board is really a firewall between the company and the trial.

As soon as the Data Safety Monitoring Board says, look, I think we have met an efficacy standard here. I think this works, then they call the company. Then the company submits their -- for approval through the so-called emergency use authorization to the FDA, and then we will hear about it.

Right now, it's hard to know.

TAPPER: We have learned that Dr. Scott Atlas pushed to slow testing down when he joined the White House Task Force this summer.

Obviously, Atlas is a neuroradiologist. He's not an expert on infectious diseases. But he has this view of the virus that the president likes. He shared the view with Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. Around that time, there was a dramatic drop in testing in Florida.

We know that Trump has been pushing for less testing well before this too. How concerning is this to you?

OFFIT: You have seen companies. You have -- companies -- I'm sorry.

You have seen countries using testing to get their way out of this. And that's what essentially South Korea did. It certainly would help to do more testing. It is hard to test your way out of this pandemic. It is, unless you're a country like South Korea, which has very strong federal leadership and a populace that's willing to do what the federal authorities are asking them to do.

We don't have that country in both ways, I think both in terms of blacking federal leadership here and a populace that just sees themselves as having freedoms that they shouldn't see themselves as having.

I think the problem with individual rights is the individual, as my brother often says. And I think that that's what's happening.

If you look at that event in Sturgis, South Dakota, to me, that was -- that was what's wrong at some level with this country, is a group of bikers who go there maskless, and they're just proud of the fact that they have sort of flaunted their independence, and they became then a super-spreader event.

TAPPER: All right, Dr. Paul Offit, good to see you again. Thanks so much for joining me.

Why counting mail-in ballots in one battleground state just got a lot more complicated.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:37]

TAPPER: In our 2020 lead today: Five days away from Election Day, already, more than one-third of all registered voters in the United States have cast their ballots, more than 79 million so far.

But less than one week out, there are new legal fights over mail-in ballots in critical battleground states. And they're laying the groundwork for possible court battles in the days after the election, as CNN's Pamela Brown reports in our latest installment of "Making It Count."

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With five days to go until Election Day, more than a third of America's registered voters have already cast their ballots. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's more sense of security when we vote in

person.

BROWN: Twenty-eight states have received more than 50 percent of total ballots cast in 2016. And Florida, where more than seven million people have voted, the Democrats' big early turnout lead has narrowed to just over 200,000.

The Texas turnout is already massive, with more than eight million votes cast so far. Early voting there is on track to eclipse its entire 2016 vote total.

REP. SYLVIA GARCIA (D-TX): We want to make it as easy as it can be to make it accessible. So, this location is open 24 hours.

BROWN: There are also new legal battles over whether late-arriving mail-in votes will be counted. In two key states, the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in.

North Carolina can count ballots up to nine days after the election if they are clearly postmarked by November 3. In Pennsylvania, the decision is trickier, allowing ballots received by November 6 to be counted for now, but the court made clear they could be disputed later.

Pennsylvania officials announcing they will securely segregate votes by setting aside ballots that arrive after Election Day, setting up a potential nightmare legal battle if later-arrival ballots end up being enough to swing the election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know there's confusion about flying court decisions. Make a plan today to vote right now. Do not wait.

BROWN: And each county has a different counting plan. Cumberland County won't begin county mail-in ballots until Wednesday, prioritizing in person voting. Dauphin County wants to have it all done by Tuesday night, but mail-in ballots could lag.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We now believe that, election night, we will have all the in person voting done and approximately, if everything goes well, 50,000 mail-in ballots completed.

BROWN: New Hampshire is already getting started, as election officials there begin partially processing absentee ballots today.

And, in Minnesota, a bipartisan message from former governors urging patience, warning the count may not be complete on election night.

FMR. JESSE VENTURA (I-MN): A delay just means our system is working and that we're counting every single ballot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But, no matter who wins, let's demonstrate the civility and decency that Minnesotans are known for.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BROWN: And, Jake, early in person pre-election voting is wrapping up in several states across the country. But, in Arizona, it was supposed to end tomorrow. It has now been extended through Monday. Officials say that's because of the pandemic.

But, of course, as we know Jake, every state has different rules and deadlines. So, for more information on what viewers need to know on their state, just go to CNN.com/vote -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

Let's talk about this with my panel.

Former Congresswoman Mia Love, let me ask you. And, Paul Begala, let me bring you too.

Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission and general counsel for John McCain's two presidential campaigns, told Politico -- quote -- "What we have seen this year, which is completely unprecedented, is a concerted national Republican effort across the country in every one of the states that had a legal battle to make it harder for citizens to vote. I have never worked for a Republican candidate who thought it was a good idea to make it hard for people to vote" -- unquote.

Trevor Potter, a Republican, saying this about the Republican effort to make it more difficult. Does it concern you?

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it certainly concerns me.

I came from a race where there were lines that were about four to five hours' long. So, you have to make it as easy as possible, especially during the time of a pandemic and an outbreak that we're seeing right now.

People shouldn't be afraid of having people get out to the -- get out to vote. The president really shouldn't be afraid, if he believes that he is worthy of another four years. Get as many people to vote as possible.

My guess is that those who are concerned about the voting process are going to hand in their ballots personally. But you don't want those lines longer. You want to give as many people as many options to vote as possible.

TAPPER: And, Paul, we have seen, I mean, just as a matter of fact, the Trump campaign and allies and Republican parties trying to make it more difficult to vote, whether it's Harris County, I think, in Texas, in your home state, where there's -- I think Governor Abbott has said there's only one drop box?

Is that right? Do I have it right? I mean, why?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. Harris County--

TAPPER: Why -- why is -- why -- go ahead. BEGALA: I'm sorry.

Harris County has more people than 24 states, and yet there's just one drop box there, per the Republican governor, Greg Abbott.

TAPPER: And why? What's the point here?

BEGALA: Well, I think, if you step back, there is a holistic approach here to voter suppression that Mr. Trump has brought to the Republican Party.