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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump and Biden Are Neck and Neck in Battleground Florida; Key County in Arizona Critical to Election Results; Federal Judge Rules 127,000 Ballots Cast Via Drive-Thru in Texas Can Be Counted; Trump Floats Idea of Firing Fauci; Trump Backers Outspending on Ads in Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa And Arizona. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 02, 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: What are you hearing from voters there today?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: I mean it's amazing the enthusiasm just to vote. Early voting has stopped now for the day but you can still do these drive-in, you know, mail-in ballots are being dropped off. This is super important. It's been a steady stream all day.

It's important, Jake, because unlike other states, there is no grace period. So, the mail-in ballots need to be in the election supervisor's hands by 7:00 Tuesday night. It's why they're going out of their way to make drop box stations like this accessible to everybody. And, you know, we've seen lots of first-time voters coming through, lots of enthusiastic people making sure their ballots count, their signatures are signed and just coming through.

Sixty-two percent of registered voters in the state of Florida have voted. Knock on wood, they're expecting this year it's going to be a smooth count. Although, Jake, as we've seen over and over again, and we're seeing in the polls, those 29 electoral votes are going to have to be earned with a razor thin margin of victory for one of these candidates.

TAPPER: That's right, as the Senator -- former Governor Rick Scott said to me yesterday, Florida is a 50-50 state, it just depends on who gets their voters to the polls. Drew Griffin, thank you so much.

Now to Arizona, where recent polls have that race for President a dead heat. And where the fight for those 11 electoral votes comes down in many ways to Maricopa County since President Trump win there in 2016. That county has had a population boom. And Democrats edged out Republicans there in the 2018 midterm elections.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Surprise, Arizona, that's in Maricopa County north of Phoenix. Kyung, early voting from this election is already higher than it was in 2016. KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And so close to crossing

the 2016 total vote threshold. We're getting this word, Jake, from the Arizona Secretary of State that they are at 97 percent of the total 2016 vote, so very, very close to crossing that threshold.

I'm in Surprise, Arizona. This is a GOP stronghold and we've seen people trickling in and out of this voting site throughout the day. You can either vote in person here, or you can, as this gentleman is seen over here, just waiting in his car in order to vote.

GOP sources expect places like this to be extremely busy, and they anticipate that that is where they will make up any lag that they might be seeing, something that did concern some people here in Arizona.

I want you to take a look at this graphic. If you take a look at who is returning ballots. Let's be very clear, this does not indicate who is leading. This is just based on party ballots returned. Democrats and Republicans in a dead heat. It is matching polls here in this state. It does not include independents, so it's very difficult to know exactly what is happening in this battleground state.

We've seen a lot of enthusiasm, of Trump flags flying across Maricopa County. But we've also seen this. I want you to take a look at what we saw at the Maricopa County Board of Elections, a Biden car parade complete with mariachis. So Democrats say that they also have enthusiasm on their side.

As far as what we are hearing from the Arizona GOP, Jake, they believe that come tomorrow that their in-person voting is really going to be very strong in places like this -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Kyung Lah in Arizona, thanks so much.

We have some breaking news for you now. We told you earlier about that court case in Houston. A federal judge just ruled in that case involving an effort by Republicans to throw away nearly 127,000 ballots already cast in Harris County, Texas. That's a Democratic leaning part of the state.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Houston, and Ed, this case involves ballots cast in a drive-thru polling centers. What exactly in the ruling?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this just came down seconds ago from the judge here in Houston, and the bottom line is this, that the 127,000 votes that have been cast through these 10 drive-thru locations across Harris County will be allowed and will be admissible into the overall general election tabulation.

So a favorable ruling for Harris County election officials here who have been championing these drive-thru voting locations as a way to protect people during the coronavirus pandemic.

But let's be clear about this, the judge in this situation not very happy with this according to the judge under Texas election code, that these voting locations should be held in building structures. And essentially, they're held underneath tents that people drive through, so the judge is saying that he's not convinced that a tent is a structure. A lot of legal arguments going on here for the last four hours in this case, but essentially this judge is also ruling that the Republicans who brought this case forward don't have standing to bring it.

[15:35:03]

So that is one of the reasons why this judge has ruled against the Republicans who were trying to invalidate these 127,000 votes. But the bottom line here, as we continue to make sense of what exactly is going to happen next, it sounds like Republicans are planning on appealing this decision. And what this means for tomorrow on election day here in Texas is that it appears at this point that those drive- thru locations, ten of them in all, will continue to function as they had been functioning during the early voting period.

And just to make it clear, there are ten of these locations across Harris County. This is a county, Jake, with 2.4 million registered voters, 127,000 people used these drive-thru locations here.

And I can't put too fine a point on it, how much angst and trouble, this is cause for a lot of voters who are very nervous about their votes being cast and what they might or might not have to do on election day. But the bottom line is here those votes will count in the November 3rd general election -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Ed Lavandera with that breaking news from Houston. Thank you so much. Coming up, another morbid milestone in America as North Dakota marks more COVID deaths in October than in any other month so far. Stay with us.

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[15:40:00]

TAPPER: In our HEALTH LEAD, the United States has set a new global record for COVID cases recorded in a single day. Nearly 100,000 new cases were reported on Friday. That, of course, is not stopping President Trump from floating the idea that he might fire the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci after a "fire Fauci" chant broke out during a Florida rally last night.

Joining me is the Dean of Brown University School of Public Health, Dr. Ashish Jha. Dr. Jha, what's your reaction when the crowd chants "fire Fauci" and the President suggests he may do so after the election?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, so, Jake, thank you for having me on. It's incredibly disturbing, I mean Dr. Fauci is the nation's leading expert on these issues. I think he's been often unfairly maligned, and the notion that you would want to get rid of very best person in the country, arguably the world during this difficult time boggles the mind. And the President should stand up and disavow that chant and not support it. TAPPER: Dr. Scott Atlas, who is the President's top coronavirus voice

on the task force, even though he's not an expert on infectious diseases, he chose to slam Fauci and other public health officials during an interview he did with "RT," which is "Russia Today." It's a Russian network labeled by national intelligence agencies in this country as a state-run propaganda machine. Atlas, later apologized for going on the channel, but for not what he said, not for what he said. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, ADVISER, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: The lock downs have been one of the -- will go down as an epic failure of public policy by people who refuse to accept, they were wrong. The public health leadership have failed egregiously and they're killing people with their fear-inducing shutdown policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your response, Dr. Jha?

JHA: Two things, Jake. I mean first of all, I think it's really questionable whether somebody working at the White House should be going on Russian state propaganda sites. I think they shouldn't. The "RT" has reached out to many public health experts, including me. I've refused to appear on "RT" for obvious reasons. I think Dr. Atlas should not have done it.

And then regardless of where he does appear, the idea that you would then go on to criticize Dr. Fauci. In that interview he criticized President Obama. To do all of that on Russian state media, I think it's beyond the pale. It's not what we want out of our senior government officials.

TAPPER: Let's look forward on how to fight this pandemic. The U.S. has seen an astounding 94 percent increase in the average new cases in just one month. When do you think we're going to have any sort of turnaround into a positive direction? All the numbers are going in the wrong direction right now.

JHA: Yes, they are going in the wrong direction, and unfortunately, we're heading into winter months which are going to get only more difficult. And of course, as you know, it's not just cases, now hospitalizations are rising and deaths are rising across the country.

You know, what's going to turn it around is smarter policies and individual behavior changes. And I don't think we should expect a lot from the federal government. The President doesn't seem interested in engaging, and so it's going to be about states curtailing indoor activities, trying to improve testing. All of those things can help but it's going to have to come from states and mayors at this point. I don't expect a lot from the federal government.

TAPPER: Take a listen to former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warning about what the next few weeks are going to look like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER FDA: Things are getting worse around the country. I think Thanksgiving is really going to be an inflection point. I think December is probably going to be our toughest month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What advice are you giving people who ask you, should people skip holiday gatherings even if it's just in a small group with close family?

JHA: Yes, so first of all, Dr. Scott Gottlieb has been a great voice in all of this. And you know, he was the FDA Commissioner under President Trump, and he's absolutely right. So what I have been urging people to do is keep gatherings very small, avoid gathering with people who are high risk. If you can avoid it altogether, that's obviously the safest thing to do.

But what an awful situation we find ourselves in that we're having to think about missing Thanksgiving, missing the holidays because of our failure to control the virus. This is going to be a very tough holiday season ahead for a lot of people.

[15:45:03]

TAPPER: North Dakota is one of the hardest hit states right now. They've reported more deaths in October alone than in March, April, May, June, August and September combined. How is that even possible?

JHA: Yes, so North Dakota, thankfully, was I think largely spared that first wave that happened in March, April, May. But what has been happening there over the last two months continues to surprise me. I've seen increasingly larger and larger outbreaks.

I keep thinking there is going to be a policy response. I keep thinking the governor can't possibly tolerate hospitals and deaths the way they are happening. And yet it continues. I don't know what the end game here is. Unfortunately, I think a lot more people are going to get infected, sick and die before this turns around in both of the Dakotas.

TAPPER: All right, Dr. Ashish Jha, thank you so much, appreciate your time.

Joe Biden maintains a big cash advantage in the final hours of the presidential campaign. How is the Biden can campaign using it to blow out the Trump team with TV ads? Stay with us.

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[15:50:00]

TAPPER: Continuing with our 2020 LEAD today with the pandemic upending the race for the White House. Both President Trump and Biden have put increased emphasis on television ads. The two teams have each spent hundreds of millions of dollars to saturate the airwaves with their messages and in this final stretch of the campaign, Joe Biden and the DNC are far outspending President Trump and the Republicans on these ads, as CNN's Tom Foreman explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Trump political ad): We took the virus head-on and now we're getting back to a normal life. The second shift. The dance lessons. And Friday night football.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The latest Trump ad echoes his relentless and false claim the pandemic has been largely defeated. Biden's answer? A call to the boss.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, MUSICIAN, TV DEMOCRATIC PARTY AD: This is his hometown. In Scranton, good times aren't promised. But here and in towns across America, times are harder than they ought to be.

FOREMAN: This ad narrated by Bruce Springsteen aired during a nationally televised college football game.

SPRINGSTEEN: He's running to change that, to give working people the shot they deserve.

FOREMAN: Biden and his supporters with a considerable cash on hand advantage are outspending Trump and his backers nearly 2-1 in the final week. Hitting hard in the battle grounds of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and once reliably red Texas.

And team Trump is outspending the Democrats only in Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa and Arizona in the closing week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, TRUMP TV AD: While American cities burn, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fan the flames.

FOREMAN: Trump's most aired ads continue pushing hard on the fear factor suggesting Biden's tax plan will wreck the already staggering economy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, TRUMP TV AD: Small businesses pay more. 5 million jobs lost.

BIDEN: You're going to get a tax raise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An economy in ruins.

FOREMAN: Biden's explanation?

BIDEN: Anyone making less than 400,000 a year won't pay a penny more. I'm going to ask the very big corporations to pay their fair share.

FOREMAN: Both campaigns are playing hard for seniors. Biden saying he'll make health care more accessible, cheaper.

BIDEN: To put it plainly, Trump's plan would wipe out social security. FOREMAN: And Trump hitting Biden just as hard

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their plan is just too dangerous for seniors like us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Ads won't make any difference unless they can move people to actually cast a vote in this bitter contest. Maybe that's one reason why Biden is actually running some ads simply explaining to people how they can do that, how they can get their ballot registered. No matter whom they are voting for -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Tom Foreman, thanks so much.

The final hours of the 2020 election season, how President Trump and Joe Biden are spending what little time is left in this historic campaign and key U.S. Senate races to watch. Which seats could flip and change the balance of power? Stay with us.

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[15:55:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

TAPPER: And welcome to the second hour of THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We are closing in on the final few hours before election day. And as has been said, nobody knows nothing. Nobody knows how tomorrow is going to play out.

Breaking news now, however. Two last-minute court rulings against Republicans and in favor of votes being counted. Minutes ago, a federal judge in Texas ruling that nearly 127,000 drive-thru ballots cast in Democratic leaning Harris County can be counted as a rejection of the Republicans seeking to throw out those votes.

Also, today, in a separate case in Nevada, a judge rejected a Trump campaign and Nevada Republican Party lawsuit trying to stop early counting in another Democratic stronghold of Clark County, Nevada.

The outcome of this historic election may not be known for days, yet President Trump is signaling not only that he's trying to stop votes from being count but that he may very well prematurely and falsely declare victory on election night.

A Trump adviser tells CNN even if votes are still being counted and the outcome is unclear. President Trump has denied that he has plans to prematurely declare victory, but he is openly threatening legal action to stop the counting of legally cast vote by mail ballots.

But we want to start with the Biden campaign, today. He is all in on Pennsylvania with Joe Biden, Senator Kamala Harris and their spouses holding a dozen events throughout the commonwealth, a clear sign the Biden team thinks that they can flip Pennsylvania and narrow President Trump's possible paths to re-election. CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Pittsburgh where Joe and Jill Biden will

hold a drive-in rally tonight with none other than Lady Gaga who President Trump is of course attacking on the stump today. Arlette, what are you hearing from the Biden campaign about what they think their chances are in places such as Pennsylvania?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, Joe Biden held his very first campaign rally of his 2020 campaign.