Return to Transcripts main page
The Lead with Jake Tapper
What Will Election Night Results Look Like?; As COVID-19 Crisis Grows, Trump Complains About Pandemic Media Coverage. Aired 3-3:30p ET
Aired October 30, 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]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And to see the full story, go to CNNHeroes.com.
Our special coverage continues now with Jake Tapper.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
Only four days until Election Day in the United States, and the U.S. is on the cusp of crossing nine million confirmed cases of coronavirus, more than 229,000 deaths, the largest numbers of both infections and deaths of any country on Earth, according to official tallies.
Yet we're now at the point in this race where President Trump, his campaign and his allies are seemingly denying the existence of not just the threat of the pandemic, but of the hundreds of Americans who are dying every day in the United States because of it.
Minutes ago, President Trump complained about coverage of the coronavirus, saying this to a crowd of packed supporters:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Deaths are way down, and people are getting better. But I'm an example of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Not everyone is getting better. It is true that deaths are down from the peak earlier this year, months ago, but they are on the rise once again in this period.
This comes, of course, after the president's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., falsely claimed that almost no one is dying from coronavirus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF DONALD TRUMP: I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections. But I was like, well, why aren't they talking about deaths? Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Almost nothing. Almost nothing.
On the day that the president's son said that, 971 Americans were reported dead in the U.S. from the virus, 971, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, neighbors, friends, co-workers. In total, more than 229,000 Americans have been lost to the virus.
And this number, it's not almost nothing. And the daily death count, frankly, is growing. It's getting worse.
Debra Corpora from Texas saw Donald Trump Jr.'s statement. She lost her husband, Sam, to the virus several weeks ago. She tweeted a photo of his casket saying: "My husband four weeks ago. Reading Jr.'s statement causes enormous grief to families."
Also causing enormous grief, of course, the White House continuing to refuse to initiate a more aggressive response to the pandemic as it worsens, as health officials have been calling for them to do. It is something of a defeatist attitude that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, acknowledged to me on Sunday.
(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 areas--
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Why aren't we going to get control of the pandemic?
MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus. Just like the flu, it's contagious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Of course, other leaders throughout the world are trying to get control of the virus.
Donald Trump Jr.'s lie that deaths are next to nothing is an affront to literally hundreds of thousands of Americans, if not millions, who are currently mourning those who have been lost to the pandemic this year, such as the family of Billy Shields, who passed away on Monday at 45 years old. Shields lost his father to coronavirus too last Friday.
Or Sharon Schuldt, who passed away this week as well. She loved traveling. She married the love of her life, a man she knew since they were 13 years old.
Or Ernest Finocchio, a tireless and dedicated crusader for animal welfare, who was head of the Rhode Island SPCA for 18 years. Nearly 1,000 deaths a day isn't almost nothing. What if earthquakes or fires were killing 1,000 Americans a day? What if terrorists were killing 1,000 Americans a day? It would be a crisis, in the same way this pandemic remains a crisis, no matter what blatant lies are told on the president's favorite TV channel.
Let's go now to CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House.
Kaitlan, with the spread of coronavirus at the highest level so far, the president has a packed schedule of these rallies, with no masks required, no distancing, and evidence that he is spreading the virus by holding them.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, he's making his closing argument to voters as we are seeing these numbers the highest they have ever been in the United States.
But that is not slowing down the president's schedule of rallies, because his campaign just announced a few moments ago that, starting tomorrow, after he finishes the three rallies he's doing today, he's going to do 14 rallies across seven different states in the next three days, starting Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
That is what he's going to be -- you see those states in yellow there. That's where the president is going to be making his final pitch to voters. And it doesn't seem to be slowed down by the numbers that you're seeing. You're seeing these numbers happening in the states that the president is actually visiting, including Michigan, where he was just a few moments ago.
But, Jake, at these rallies, he's continuing to mock Joe Biden for holding a different of event, taking a different approach to the pandemic by having people in their cars as he's giving speeches, instead of packed in by the thousands.
[15:05:06]
But, Jake, he is also mocking people who are usually his allies, a FOX News host for wearing a mask at this rally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm watching these Biden rallies. It's like there's nobody. Of course, he says that they want to do it that way on purpose.
I can't recognize you. Is that a mask? No way. Are you wearing a mask? I have never seen her in a mask. Look at you. Oh, she's being very politically correct. Whoa.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: So, that's Laura Ingraham that the president was talking about there, calling her politically correct for wearing a mask around thousands of people at that event in Michigan.
And, Jake, what's notable is that the places that the president and Joe Biden are going today, you are seeing cases spike. And Joe Biden acknowledged that while he was in Iowa today. You're not seeing the president say the same thing. Instead, he's focusing on the optimistic language that is detached from reality that he's been using, talking about rounding the corner, when we're seeing these sky-high cases.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thanks so much.
Joe Biden just wrapped up a drive-in rally in Iowa. It's a state President Trump carried in 2016, but where Biden believes his plan for controlling the coronavirus pandemic and highlighting what he sees as President Trump's repeated failure to do so could win over undecided voters.
CNN's Jessica Dean is live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Joe Biden will be holding another event in just a few hours.
And, Jessica, the coronavirus crisis, it's been a consistent part of Biden's closing message. But we also just heard some very tailored comments for that particular audience.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
We have seen Biden now. And let us note, Jake, he's doing three states in one day, which is the most travel we have seen from him in one day since he became the Democratic nominee. So, he was in Iowa. He's going to Minnesota. He will end the day here in Wisconsin.
But this is what we have seen. We saw it yesterday in Florida as well. He is giving essentially his stump speech. He is making his closing argument about his plan for the coronavirus, tying that into the economy tying that into health care, in his opinion, being on the ballot during this election for millions of Americans and the Affordable Care Act and preexisting conditions.
But he's also tailoring in some very specific notes. He talked about corn and ethanol in Iowa, things that really tailor to the audience he's speaking to. Here's a little more from him at that drive-in rally in Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Folks, we can do this. There's nothing beyond our capacity.
So, honk if you want America to lead again.
(HONKING)
BIDEN: Honk if you want America to trust each other again.
(HONKING)
BIDEN: Honk if you want to America to be united again.
(HONKING) BIDEN: Folks, we cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump.
My campaign is a broad coalition, welcomes Democrats, Republicans and independents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: And you heard him there saying, honk if you agree with me.
These drive-in rallies, of course, quite the contrast to what we're seeing from President Trump's maskless rallies with no social distancing.
And, Jake, I want to note I'm in Wisconsin, where they have seen the coronavirus numbers explode here. One local health officials saying this is kind of disaster in the making, worst-case scenario. This is -- when these numbers get this high, it becomes very, very real for so many Americans who have a family member or know a friend or a colleague that comes down with coronavirus.
And so it is interesting to see. We will hear what Joe Biden has to say, but you can bet, tailoring that message to where he is, that, when he comes to Wisconsin tonight, he will certainly be talking about his plan for the coronavirus pandemic, and what he hopes to do should he be elected.
Again, the Biden campaign making the bet that people want a change in leadership on this issue. We will see if the voters agree with them.
TAPPER: And, Jessica, where's the Biden campaign decided to put their focus and resources in these final few days?
DEAN: Well, all eyes and all of their main players are going to be in Pennsylvania. It all comes down to Pennsylvania for the Biden campaign. We know that Joe Biden will be spending the closing days there, but not just him, also Kamala Harris and others.
So, they are really zeroing in on Pennsylvania as we get toward the very end here. That is just going to prove to be an incredibly pivotal, critical state. And, of course, Jake, as you have been following, the mail-in voting there and the mail-in ballots going to be an increasingly hot issue.
TAPPER: All right, Jessica, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
The United States hits the highest daily case number yet, as experts warn the worst is yet to come. And fears of a so-called twindemic are growing, as more people test positive for both coronavirus and the flu.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:14:05]
TAPPER: Now to our national lead.
The coronavirus pandemic shattering one awful record after the next. Nearly 90,000, 90,000 infections were reported just yesterday. This week alone, the country added more than half-a-million new cases of the coronavirus, with the nation likely to hit nine million cases at some point today.
Nearly 1,000 Americans died yesterday, with two states, South Dakota and Wyoming, reporting their highest daily death tolls. And as bad as those numbers are, experts are warning that death rates could get much worse, as CNN's Nick Watt now reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATSY STALLWORTH, COVID-19 PATIENT: People that don't take COVID serious, I hope they don't catch it, because they're in for a surprise.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The average daily death toll from this disease, already rising, might cripple between now and mid-January. Nearly 400,000 could be dead in America by February 1, this according to one regularly cited model.
[15:15:02]
And if states don't reimpose measures to slow the spread, those modelers say the death toll might top half-a-million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our hospitalizations are going up. Individuals in the ICU are going up. And, sadly, we are losing more people. Right now, the problem isn't that we don't have the right rules in place. It's that people aren't following them.
WATT: This month, more than half of states have reported record daily case counts.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: The virus is all over the country now. It's not limited to New York or Boston or the Northeast. It's all over the country now.
WATT: There's a spike in El Paso, Texas.
JUDGE RICARDO SAMANIEGO, EL PASO COUNTY, TEXAS: And if we don't respond, we will see unprecedented levels of deaths.
WATT: So, that judge just closed all nonessential services for a couple of weeks. But the Texas attorney general is now exploring legal action to reopen everything.
No statewide mask mandate up in North Dakota, but a memorial to the dead created by Carl Young. He's running for state assembly, lost his mother to COVID, now begging everyone to mask up.
CARL YOUNG, FOUNDER, COVID MEMORIAL PROJECT: It started because of my mom, but it's so much bigger than my mom. It's about humanity. We are losing our humanity because we're being selfish. WATT: There's a Trump rally in Wisconsin in about a half-hour. CNN
has analyzed the data in 17 counties after MAGA rallies. In 14 of them, infection rates rose in the aftermath.
DR. PAUL CASEY, BELLIN HOSPITAL: It's particularly mind-boggling when we have leadership setting a bad example.
WATT: In California's Bay Area, their first confirmed double whammy, a patient with COVID-19 and the flu at the same time.
And in Ohio?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): The virus is raging throughout the state of Ohio. There's no place to hide.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: And we just got today's case count from Ohio. It is a new record high, second day in a row.
Now, tomorrow, of course, is Halloween. And, normally, streets like this would be packed with kids clutching candy. Not this year. Beverly Hills has closed this street and a few others, and they have also banned trick or treating in the entire city -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Nick, thanks so much.
Joining me now is CNN medical analyst and former CDC disease detective Dr. Seema Yasmin.
Dr. Yasmin, thanks for joining us.
The U.S. just reported a record-setting nearly 89,000 new COVID cases. That's about an 83 percent increase in new daily cases since just last month. Are you surprised to see this massive spike?
DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Sadly, not, Jake.
And I worry that you could film me talking now and just air the same message again next week, the week after, the month after that, because the trends keep continuing, and all the warning signs are there. We're breaking records that we already set with the surge in the spring in the Northeast. And we're now surpassing the summer surge in the South as well.
The mask mandates are not there. Restrictions were lifted so early, we have already seen Midwestern states and the Northern Plains struggling to maintain order in the health care systems because they're getting overwhelmed. But it's not just those areas. Of course, it's El Paso as well in Texas.
The Utah governor tweeting yesterday that his hospitals cannot keep up with the pace of new infections. Nothing good is changing. It's all going in the wrong direction. And, of course, now with confirmations of people who are doubly infected with COVID-19 and with the flu, I worry it's just going to keep getting worse. TAPPER: I want to get to that in a second.
But, before we talk about that, this influential IHME model is projecting now nearly 400,000, 400,000 American deaths by February due to this virus, and by the middle of January, an average of 2,250 Americans dying every day, 2,250 every day. That's three times worse than what we're going through right now.
YASMIN: It is.
And, Jake, I used to do mathematical modeling, so I'm always really careful about how I analyze the results, because when you make those models, you can plug in different numbers to get a worst-case scenario, a best-case scenario and everything in between.
But, in the U.K., where, of course, I keep a, really, eye on what's happening there, too, they're actually having, in reality, some of their worst-case scenarios pan out, which is a reminder to me and many others that it really can go that far left.
And so we have to be really careful here too. The thing is, with these models that keep projecting the kind of worst-case scenario, they don't just give us the bad news. They're also telling us what difference we can make if we take good measures now. So, they remind us that, if 90 to 95 percent of Americans were to wear a mask consistently, we would lower the death toll by tens of thousands of people.
That's what's at stake here. You wear a mask. You encourage others to do so. And we could be saving tens of thousands of lives across the U.S.
[15:20:00]
TAPPER: Now, let's talk about this double infection subject that you were just talking about.
A person in California has now tested positive for both coronavirus and the seasonal flu. As we enter the flu season, how can people better protect themselves to make sure they don't get both?
YASMIN: First, be aware that having one of those infections, flu or having COVID-19, makes your body weaker and leaves you more susceptible to another secondary infection.
In fact, when you look back 100 years to the 1918 flu pandemic, we think maybe up to 50 million people died not directly because of the flu, but because they got flu, then a bacterial infection top of that, and there weren't antibiotics then.
So, get your flu shot. Make sure you are really protected against the flu this year. That will help you indirectly keep safe from COVID-19 as well. And the very same things we're asking people to do to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, wearing a mask, having physical distancing, avoiding gatherings, good hand hygiene, those are the very same measures that will protect us from the flu. The bad news right now is that COVID is clearly surging, so we have
conditions that are ripe for the spread of flu as well. But if we take those steps, we can protect ourselves from both viruses.
TAPPER: Dr. Yasmin, is it safe for kids to go trick or treating if they wear masks and they stay outside? Is that safe?
YASMIN: First question is to look at what's happening in your community. Not every community is equal. Do you have lots of viral transmission where you live? Is it lower? Take that into regard.
Then you want to make sure kids aren't doing trick or treating in the regular way, in big groups and congregating. You want to keep kids outdoors, where the air is circulating, keep them separated, so they're only in those pods with others they're exposed to.
They need to be wearing a mask, not just a Halloween costume mask, but a proper surgical mask or an N95. And then you want to do everything you can to limit exposure. For example, you don't want kids dunking their hands into buckets full of candy, and then another kid goes and does the same.
So some people are kind of MacGyvering out of PVC tubes and sliding the candy down that way, so they're not coming close to the kids, or leaving tables with goody bags, where kids can grab things and go.
So it's really just trying to take all those measures to keep kids as safe as possible to limit the exposure, keep things outdoors, and keep kids separated.
TAPPER: The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, is urging the federal government to introduce more restrictions on air travel. Do you agree with that? Does that need to happen?
YASMIN: I think it could help, but we also need some behavior changes, in that people like getting onto planes, airlines are pulling back from their restrictions, opening up the middle seat. So, we're going to just see lots more people packed onto planes.
You can't always enforce mask-wearing once you're up in the air and people are refusing to do it, or they're taking moss off to eat and drink, which is understandable. But I worry that, with so many surges across the states, with this patchwork pandemic, that having that much travel is just going to help fuel the virus spread across the country.
TAPPER: All right, Dr. Seema Yasmin, thank you so much.
After making fun of masks and the people who wear them, is President Trump having any sort of change of heart, based on his most recent comments?
What to make of a more -- a recent message? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:27:59] TAPPER: In our 2020 lead: Whether you call it the red mirage or the blue shift, you can expect early election night results to look pretty different from the final outcome.
This will not be a sign of fraud or irregularities, just the inevitability of mail-in ballots, early voting, and various state rules about when those ballots can be counted.
Let's discuss. Mary Katharine Ham and Hilary Rosen join us now.
Mary Katharine, let me start with you.
So, in Florida and in Texas and in your beautiful home state of North Carolina, they can count ballots--
MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right.
TAPPER: -- ahead of Election Day. And then that might create what could be called the blue mirage, where pre-election voting goes public right when polls close, and show Democrats way in the lead, since Democrats have been disproportionately voting mail-in and early.
What do you expect to see?
HAM: Well, I think, in Florida, I'm hearing from a lot of people on the ground. Obviously, the GOP is seeing what it wants to see and sort of closing that early voter gap a little bit these days.
They also did a lot of work on registration and evening up that gap in Florida. So, that's a place where I feel like the GOP is feeling pretty good.
In Texas, I would say Texas for Democrats feels like New Hampshire does perpetually for Republicans or Pennsylvania did several election cycles ago, which means for them that several election cycles of losing, they could actually bring it there. I'm not sure that this is the year.
And in North Carolina, which is Durham over my shoulder, shout-out to the Dirty, I think it's a very well-organized GOP. And I'm not sure where it's going to end up, but I think people are discounting that part, as well as the bad news for Cal Cunningham in that Senate race has maybe geared people up a little bit in the last couple of weeks on our side.
TAPPER: Hilary, the opposite is true in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where they don't process any of the early votes, vote-by-mail or absentee, before Election Day.
So, if we know Republicans say they're overwhelmingly going to vote in person, Democrats doing it ahead of time, their votes might be counted first. So, on election night, it might look like Trump is romping in, say, Pennsylvania, because they haven't counted all these Democratic- leaning ballots.
