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Don Lemon Tonight
Biden Says Trump Has Thrown White Flag; Joe Biden Leading In National Polls; President Trump Complains About Discomfort In Rallies; Trump Supporters Crowded In Buses; Philly's D.A. Warns The Trump Team; Supreme Court Hands Another Win For Democrats; Seventy-Five Million Americans Voted. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired October 28, 2020 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Two storms made landfall less than four hours ago, more than 700,000 already without power.
D. Lemon is also watching this. He has family as you know in Louisiana. Hopefully everybody is safe tonight, my brother. Come on in.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Yes. Imagine --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: "CNN TONIGHT" starts right now.
LEMON: You got, you can hear me, right? Imagine it being my friends and family there. I mean, it seems like every week I'm calling them saying, are you guys OK? Are you guys OK? Are you ready? Are you prepared? Do you need to evacuate? Do I need to get you up here? What's going on?
Every single week, or every other week, it's crazy what is happening. And it's nerve-racking, obviously for them but for people like me who are sitting here watching, and in the middle of this pandemic. We can't travel. You know?
CUOMO: I know.
LEMON: We can't travel. Because if we do travel, we've got to quarantine in certain places. We can't be on the air, so on and so forth. So, I haven't seen my mom in almost a year. I haven't seen my family in almost a year. So, I just hope that everyone is OK down there.
CUOMO: Me too. Obviously, we say thoughts and prayers. But just as important is staying aware for the needs that are going to develop.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: That's how you show the manifestation of your thoughts and prayers. Our brothers and sisters down there are going to need this.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: So, people have to stay aware.
LEMON: And you need them. You need them. Do you know why? My mom called me today. She was so mad at someone who came on your show.
CUOMO: Boy.
LEMON: And she thought disrespected you. And I said, mom, Chris is OK. He's going to be fine. But you know how she feels about you, right?
CUOMO: Yes.
LEMON: She calls you her son, her son from another mother or whatever. I forgot I don't know what she calls you.
CUOMO: I'll tell you what. My eyes are closer to hers than anybody in my family.
LEMON: I said some people you two cutting up sometimes on the TV but because it's a problem.
CUOMO: She gives to it me pretty good.
LEMON: I know, I know.
CUOMO: She really does. She gives it to me pretty good. There are few people who aren't related to me who can give me a look the way your mother does and says that you are FOS as much as her looked us.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: But you tell her not to sweat that.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: Literally never laid a glove on me.
LEMON: And she's a-- she's OK. So, check in and I'll let you know what's going on down there.
CUOMO: I will. I care about you and I know you care about that region.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: And we all got to care about each other. There is a lot going on. But we got to remember the people in need.
LEMON: I enjoyed your interview too with Miles, so interesting, interesting stuff. Thank you, Chris. I'll see you soon, my brother.
CUOMO: I love you, my brother.
LEMON: Thank you. I love you, too.
This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there. I say short, long way to go and short time to get there because six days, not that long but there is a lot to talk about. Six days until election day, six whole days. And already, more than a third of registered voters have cast their ballots, more than 75 million so far. Can you believe it? That's a lot of people. Are you one of them? I cast mine. I stood in line. It was about 20 minutes. Not that long.
Listen, we have a brand-new CNN poll out. Joe Biden with a substantial lead over the president. Now this is a nationwide poll so this is not battleground states. Keep that in mind. So that's a whole another show when you talk about the battleground states. I'm talking about the Electoral College.
This is a nationwide poll. Leading with women, tied with men, talking about Joe Biden. He leads with people of color. He leads with the youngest voters. He leads with seniors. And this is his message right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've lost more than 220,000 lives to this virus already. But this administration has just given up. Over the weekend, the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows went on television and admitted that they've waved the white flag and declared surrender. He said, quote, "we're not going to control the pandemic." End of quote. The American people deserve so much better than this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: This election and the virus at this point, they are one and the same, by the way. I want you to take a look how it is shaping this race, OK? This is how things looked on April 15th in the 10 states with the most cases. OK? At the spring peak of the virus right here. When the blue states were getting hit hard, you know, the states the president would like to just ignore.
Remember, big hubs, international travel, most of the people came through New York and Washington State, right, on the coast and then but just look at how things changed. This is how things changed with the summer surge, a lot more red states than blue states. Look at that.
People who took heed and those who said, maybe believed what the president was saying. Let's hope that they know better now. OK? No judgment but let's hope because you were being told that.
Here we are tonight smack in the middle of another surge. And the virus is raging in the red states. Look at that.
[22:04:56]
So that map is really is illustrative, right? It's an indication. It just shows you visually, visually why the president is so desperate to convince you of his, no other way to put it, big lie that we're turning the corner on the virus.
Just look at what it is doing to the upper Midwest on this map. This map is from the New York Times. the White House Coronavirus Task Force warning of what they call unrelenting broad community spread. And you can see it right there.
Wisconsin is almost all bright red. That's the highest number of cases. In a state the president won just by -- just 22,748 votes in 2016, a state where today Joe Biden is leading 52 percent to 43 percent. What do you think that is? Why?
Look at those coronavirus maps. Look around you. Look at your life. Look at how your life has changed, sadly, so awful, maybe some of the people who were with you just last year, not here because of a terrible pandemic.
I want you to listen to what every expert who knows what they are talking about is saying. The president though denying all of that saying it's Orwellian, right? It's like something from the novel 1984 about a dystopian future where the truth and the very meaning of words has been -- have been annihilated. To quote from that book, "the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final most essential command."
That's a quote from 1984, the book. That's why the president is out there on his super spreader tour, uncaringly putting his supporters at risk and complaining about having to hit the road for the rallies that he demands. That's right. As usual, it's all about him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And I'm sitting in the hottest sun I've ever felt. This is hot. Marshals and lawmen, tamed the frontier, braved the blazing sun that I'm braving today. I'm just as brave as they are. I'm standing up here, I'll be like a lobster tomorrow.
I probably wouldn't be standing out here in the freezing rain with you. I'd be home in the White House doing whatever the hell I was doing. I wouldn't be out here.
We win Wisconsin, we win the whole ball game.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: I mean, what the hell do you think I'm doing here on a freezing night with 45-degree wind? Huh?
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: What do you think? Do you think I'm doing this for my health? I'm not doing this for my health.
I may never have to come back here again if I don't get Iowa. I'd never be back. By the way, nice trucks. Do you think I could hop in to one of them and drive it away? I look it though, just drive the hell out of here. Just get the hell out of this. I had such a good life. My life was great.
I mean, I'm standing here freezing. I ask you one little favor. Get the hell out and vote.
(CROWD CHEERING)
TRUMP: The great red wave. At least you're down there with each other. I'm all up here and that wind is blowing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Doesn't sound like he wants to be there, does he? I mean, I didn't hear any, so happy to be here with you, the people who support me. By the way, wear a mask, keep yourselves safe. I want you to be safe. Not just to get to the polls to vote for me but in your life so you can be around for the people you love and you can look out for them. I'm so happy to be here to give you that most important message.
No. I don't want to be here. Drive the hell out. What do you think, I had a better life? Huh? For real, for real. That's what he's saying. Come on. Somebody told me that, I would say, well, you are free to go. Nobody asked you to come here. Real talk.
So, he thinks having to stand there making a 45-minute speech is worse than all those people who waited for God knows how long in the bitter cold last night. But there is more. So, the president took off on Air Force One leaving hundreds and hundreds of people stranded in the cold on dark roads, waiting for buses to take them to their cars, three or four miles away.
[22:10:03]
I don't want to be here. Just going to zoom right out and there you are waiting in the cold. Not only do they pack people into outdoor rallies, they pack them on to buses in the middle of a pandemic. Joe Biden talked about it today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just look at what happened last night in Omaha after Trump, after the Trump rally ended. Hundreds of people including old Americans and children were stranded in subzero freezing temperatures for hours. Several folks ended up in the hospital.
It's an image that captured President Trump's whole approach to this crisis. He takes a lot of big pronouncements and he makes a lot of big pronouncements but they don't hold up. He gets his photo op and then gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Think about that. Think about what you just heard from Joe Biden. Think about what you heard from the president. I don't want to be here. I don't want to. Now imagine if I opened my show every night saying, gosh, I had a better place to be. I don't want to be here tonight talking about this to you. I don't want to be here. I would rather be at home watching the TV. I could be watching the movie channel, Netflix or something. Instead, I don't want to be here but just watch me.
Can you imagine? That's like my mentor T.D. Jakes says where he would say he was so happy every day to get to the pulpit. I am so -- I cannot wait to get to the studio every day to talk to you. When he says, I got up out the bed to preach. I put on my clothes to preach. I got in my car to preach. I almost drove my car into the pulpit because God wanted me to deliver this message to you. That's when someone is really happy to be with you.
Every day I feel like that. I cannot wait to get here the talk to you every single day because I love doing it. Not that, my God. I don't want to be here. I love being here. That's how someone who respects you, talks to you and feels about you.
So, we have all of that going on as we are learning more tonight about just how thoroughly this White House mishandled the virus from the early days. Just listen to the senior White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner bragging to Bob Woodward, bragging, this was back in April when more than 40,000 Americans were dead. Bragging the president was taking the country back from the doctors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The last thing was kind of doing the guidelines which was interesting. That in my mind was almost like, you know, it was like Trump getting the country back from the doctors, right? In the sense what he now did was, you know, he's going to own the open up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: As he said, Trump getting the country back from the doctors. Taking the country back from the experts, the doctors? Because they weren't telling him what he wanted to hear because they were telling him the truth?
This president thinks that he has to choose between fighting the virus and opening up the country. When the fact is, the only way to open up successfully was to fight the virus and is to fight the virus. That remains to be true. That remains true to this day.
Just imagine where we would be right now if he had said, look, we need to reopen. And the only way to do that is for every one of us to wear masks, that we need to socially distance everybody. We got to stay home for a little bit so that we can all, we've got to get this country back up and running.
If he had said that, if he had been capable of leading us in one of the toughest times in our history, we would be so much better off today. There is no other way of putting it. It is obvious. Obvious as we say. Think of how many Americans might still be alive. Think of how many
kids might be in school. Think about your kids. I know people who didn't necessarily want to take a gap here but they're doing it. They didn't want to waste their money on distance learning. They wanted their kids to have the campus college experience. Not happening, could be though.
How many businesses might be open right now? How many of us could hug our loved ones again, right? I wish I could hug you, mom. I can't. But I talk to you every day. But I wish I could hug you. It's not the same. How many of you feel that way? Many. Many of you, I'm sure.
And guess what? This president would be a hero. Instead, he's sowing division, he's pandering to his base, lying that we're turning the corner on a pandemic that kills more and more Americans every single day.
[22:15:06]
But what do you expect from a president whose response to the deaths of thousands and thousands of Americans is this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They are dying. That's true. And it is what it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It is what it is. And he is what he is. And he doesn't want to be out there fighting for you. He doesn't want to be there. I have such a great life, him speaking. None of that is going to change. He won't. With just six days until election day.
You've heard what everybody is saying to Democrats. Don't get complacent. But are there any complacent Democrats these days? And what's the state of the race in just six days with just six days to go?
Jim Acosta, David Axelrod, both here after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So we're back now. Only six days until election day and this number is just incredible. Actually, it's record breaking.
[22:20:01]
As of tonight, get this. More than 75 million Americans have already cast their ballots in early voting. That's about 56 percent of all the votes cast in the 2016 presidential election.
President Trump holding two outdoor rallies today in Arizona. Arizona obviously is a key -- key battleground state that he won in 2016. He's desperately trying to hold on to Arizona. But CNN's recent poll of polls gives Joe Biden a slight edge there so Joe Biden is hoping to flip Arizona blue. He's hoping to do that this time around. Let's bring in CNN's Chief White House Correspondent, Mr. Jim Acosta, and our senior political commentator David Axelrod. Gentlemen, good evening to you. So good to see you. Jim is out on the campaign trail.
Jim, I'll start with you. So, in 2016, President Trump was the outsider, right?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
LEMON: He market himself as a successful businessman. But now he is an incumbent president presiding over a deadly pandemic in a hard-hit economy and he is trying to stay in the election by lying to the public about that. What gives here?
ACOSTA: Yes. Yes, Don, I've come to the conclusion that we're going to be a lot better off counting the number of times the president tells the truth instead of tallying up all of his lies. It would be a lot less exhausting.
Case in point would be the rally he held in the Phoenix area earlier this evening that we were at, where he was talking about how in California, they have a mandate that people wear their masks while they eat their dinner. That they take off their mask in between taking bites of their food. That's obviously false.
But it is, you know, part of the litany of lies that we've seen out in the campaign trail and what is becoming just an ugly, ugly finish for this president. He's sort of, combining race baiting with pandemic denialism at every turn.
And I will tell you, speaking of turns, Don. When the president says, we're rounding the turn, we're rounding the turn, getting close to the end of this pandemic, nothing could be further from the truth. And I think, you know, one of the -- you know, one of the data points that the president could turn to would be something that he likes to turn to all the time which is Wall Street.
The Dow Jones was down more than 900 points today. The president likes to talk about the stock market. Investors are starting to panic over the possibility that we might need lockdowns heading into this winter because of the way that the president and his administration have mishandled this pandemic.
LEMON: I need a little drink of water. Stand by. Sorry about that. Thank you, guys. David, I want to bring in, because Joe Biden is up. This is our CNN poll of polls. It's out of Wisconsin, 52 percent for Biden, 43 percent for Trump; in Michigan, 51 for Biden, 53 for Trump. If you're the Biden campaign, you're telling voters don't get complacent. But do you know any complacent Democrats at this point?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. In fact, Don, I think if I -- if I could have charged for therapy in the last few weeks, I could have made a fortune just trying to calm people down, Democrats that I know who are looking at these polls and simply refused to believe them because of what happened in 2016. Well, as you pointed out at the top, this isn't 2016. We have an
embattled president with a 42 percent approval rating who is denying a pandemic that is engulfing this country. And particularly those states that he most needs to win. It is an insane strategy. But it is the one that he apparently is following.
LEMON: Jim, let's bring you back in. Because as the president is going around on a hot spot tour of swing states, CNN obtained new Bob Woodward sound. This is -- it's of Jared Kushner. Here's what he said. This was on April 18th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUSHNER: So, we're testing now, what he's been saying to us don't fall into the same trap that we fell into the first time. The states have to own the testing.
BOB WOODWARD, AUTHOR, RAGE: Yes.
KUSHNER: The federal government should not own testing. And the federal government should not own kind of the rules. It's got to be up to the governors, because that's the way the federal system works. But the president also is very smart politically with the way he did that fight with the governors to basically say, no, no, no, I own the opening because, again, the opening is going to be very popular. People want this country open. But if it opens the wrong way, the question will be, did the governors follow the guidelines we set out or not?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Sorry, David. I got that little tickle. I don't know if you've ever gotten that on TV. And it's hard to make that stop. But listen, so Jared Kushner basically is saying the quite part out there. The entire calculation was about politics. I wasn't about people's lives.
ACOSTA: I mean, I think that's absolutely right, Don. And you know, keep in mind, let's turn back the clock and go to where we were during the pandemic when the president first came out with those guidelines that people should be social distancing. That, you know, a whole portion of the country should shut down.
[22:24:58]
You know, they made the calculation inside the White House, and Jared Kushner said the quite part out loud as you said when they essentially forced these governors to reopen in certain parts of the country, when they essentially bullied their way into some of these red states to make sure that their friendly red state governors reopened their economies.
And Don, you know, when you talk to advisers to the president, when you talk to people inside the White House, people inside Trump world there are some who believe that the president made a pretty historic miscalculation. And that is, he thought if he could get the economy opened up before the pandemic was finished, before the virus was under control, that that would be a popular move. And you could hear Jared Kushner talking about it. And they would be rewarded come election time.
But he got it -- he got it backwards. If they had gotten the virus under control, the economy would have open up as a result of that and he might very well be cruising to re-election. But when you talk to people, even people inside the Trump campaign who were close to this president, they will say getting that backwards, trying to get the cart before the horse. Opening up the economy before the virus is under control might be what dooms Donald Trump in the end come election time.
LEMON: Well, that's exactly, that was the advice that he was getting, was to do it the opposite way of what he did in real time.
ACOSTA: That's right.
LEMON: David, I saw you shaking your head there at that point --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Yes. Well, I mean, it's just chilling. It's chilling, Don.
LEMON: Let me get the numbers real quick just so people know.
AXELROD: Yes.
LEMON: At that point 38,000 Americans had died from the coronavirus. Now it's over 227,000. Go ahead, David.
AXELROD: It's just chilling. Because what people wanted was not to have him take the country back from the doctors. They wanted to have him to take -- have the doctors help take the country back from the virus. And we're still at that point.
You know, I would just point out that during the summer when we had the last wave cresting, the president was in a period of denial. And that was a point at which his polls really took a tumble and now he's doing the same exact thing following the same play book, except we're six days from an election. And I think he is going to pay a terrible price for that.
I think this election, you know, the dime may be cast, but he is certainly accelerating the dynamics that are working against him and reminding people of just how anguish they are about and angry about how he's handled this from the start. And he must have this delusion that there are all these people who want to resist his government's own guidance on this healthcare -- on this pandemic and that they will rally to the polls.
But you know, as you point out, 75 million people have voted. The CNN poll suggests that they're breaking two to one against him. He is going to have to have a hell of a day on Tuesday to overcome that.
LEMON: Well, we'll see on Tuesday. Thank you both. I appreciate it. Will life really not get back to normal until 2022? That's what Dr.
Fauci is warning could happen. Weird than that, last night the White House was sending out e-mails claiming that they had ended the COVID- 19 pandemic. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here. He is going to weigh in. He's next.
[22:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The president holding potential super spreading rallies across the country despite the White House Coronavirus Task Force warning of an unrelenting broad community spread. These are just some of the president's rallies during the last week or so. No social distancing, very few masks.
That as cases surge across the country with 40 states showing spikes. Only one state has cases going down. And if you look at where the president has held his recent rallies, OK, most of them are in states where the virus is surging including Wisconsin and Michigan. And that's just the rallies.
The Trump campaign has been using buses to get supporters to rally sites, OK? Look at that. Think about that being in there. Many of those supporters as you can see are not wearing mask -- masks. Just yesterday, 25,000 people in Omaha were bused to the president's rally. OK? After it was over, many were left stranded in the cold. Only to crowd into buses hours later, just some wearing masks.
Let's discuss. There's a lot to discuss with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Good evening, doctor. Man, that is -- it's tough to look at that. I mean, he's holding these potential super spreader events in places where the virus is, you know, making these surges that are skyrocketing. Is that making these surges even worse do you think?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think so. I think it's safe to say that. I mean, you know, the idea of bringing people together like this in a middle of a pandemic period is a terrible idea. I mean, this is the sort of stuff, Don, that we're going to look back history books, we'll be writing about this and say, so hey, let me get this straight.
The numbers are going like this. We can show what's going on in the Midwest, these areas that you were just showing. With the numbers are going up like this and you thought, well, let's bring a bunch of people together knowing that the virus just loves to jump from host to host trying to find a hospitable home here and we're making it very easy.
Don, the yellow line is just the Midwest. I mean, if you look at the United States as a whole, it's got even a little more of an exponential sort of straight up curve. But look, we're right on course with the European Union now which we know, you know, is usually a couple of weeks ahead of us in terms of their growth. And so, we're starting off at a pretty high level and are likely to go
up considerably more. Also, Don, you know, it's tough to really find cause and effect between these rallies or any kind of gatherings, and then subsequent rise in cases or hospitalizations.
But look, we look back at Tulsa, we look back at Arizona, we look back at Wisconsin. And all these areas earlier in the summer you saw a tripling of the hospitalizations in Tulsa. They went from 2,000 to 3,000 in Arizona a few weeks after that rally.
[22:35:03]
Wisconsin went up by 20 percent and continued to go up over the last several weeks as we know. So, it's a terrible idea, Don. And it's just another example, right? Need the test. They say testing causes cases. It doesn't. Need to wear masks. He takes the mask off as soon as he gets out of the hospital. We say don't bring people together. We're having rallies.
We're saying you should you quarantine if you've been exposed to COVID. And the vice president is out there campaigning. Do the exact opposite of what we should be doing.
LEMON: Right.
GUPTA: The basic, the basic public health guidelines.
LEMON: But on top of that, Sanjay, you know, listen, we hadn't seen -- we knew that there were outdoor rallies, right? I don't know if you did, but I didn't really know that they were putting those people inside the buses during a pandemic.
GUPTA: I didn't either. I mean, you showed those images just now. I mean, that is really, really startling because, I mean, that is taking an already bad scenario and making it much worse. It's cold outside. I'm looking at the windows. It looks like a few windows are cracked there. But still, you know, you're inside a structure now with lots of people, not a lot of masks. That's the prescription for viral spread.
And we already know, you do the math. And you look at where these rallies are happening. There is a very high likelihood, 93 percent according to some of our calculations that you're going to come in contact with someone who has COVID. They may not know it because they can't get tested but there is a very high likelihood, you're going to come in contact with someone with COVID.
Put them in the bus like that the virus aerosolizes and spreads around the bus. A lot of people can become infected. That is the sort of super spreader type event. That's how that occurs.
LEMON: The president's own testing czar, Sanjay, today completely contradicting the White House chief of staff. Listen to this comparison.
(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 because --
(CROSSTALK)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Why are not we going to get control of the pandemic?
MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus.
BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We can control the virus. We know how to do that, smart policies, very critical to wear a mask when you can't physically distance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So that was Admiral Brett Giroir also breaking with the president saying the surges aren't just because of testing increases. Is that the kind -- you know, they always say, well, the reason we have such great testing and that's why the numbers are so high. Is this the kind of clarity we need from the rest of the Trump administration?
GUPTA: Yes. I mean, clearly, we need this sort of -- this sort of very clear -- clear messaging. You know, it's interesting. I will say, Don, you know, we've been reporting on all these members of the task force for many months now. I do get the sense when you're listening to Admiral Giroir, obviously, Dr. Fauci, even Dr. Hahn, the surgeon general, Jerome Adams, they do feel, sound more emboldened than they have in the past.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: What you just heard the admiral say wasn't something he was saying a couple months ago. Testing is not going to be a strategy to get us out of this. He was really downplaying it. Now you're hearing a different sort of story.
One thing I want to point out on a more positive note and I think this amplifies what the admiral is saying. Look at hyper local data and see how impactful these strategies are, Arizona, for example. We know how bad Arizona got.
You may remember, they did the shutdown. When they lifted the stay-at- home orders, numbers went up 151 percent within just a couple of weeks, Don, that we're going back to June. But here is the remarkable thing and I think this is really worth paying attention to.
After they sort of really started to red line, they put in these basic mask requirements. They limited large public gatherings, and certain business closures, rid bars primarily. And what did they see, Don? A 75 percent decrease in overall new case numbers and that was within three weeks. OK?
Don, everyone should pay attention to that. That's without a vaccine, no magic therapeutic if we could even stall the growth right now.
LEMON: Right.
GUPTA: I'm not even talking about decreasing. If we can even stall it right now, that would be a big deal. And Arizona shows us that it can be done. What they did there, what New York has done where you are, that should be and can be applied to other places around the country.
LEMON: Sanjay, always a pleasure. Thank you. You be well, my friend. I'll see you soon.
GUPTA: You got it.
LEMON: Thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
LEMON: We'll be right back.
[22:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: So, here's our breaking news. Major decisions by the Supreme Court related to ballot counting in two battleground states.
In North Carolina, the court handing Democrats a victory, allowing the counting of ballots received nine days after the election as long as they are postmarked by election day and the court denying a request from Pennsylvania Republicans for a fast-track decision on whether to stop the counting of ballots received up to three days after the election. Brand new Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not take part in either decision because she did not have time to fully review the filings.
So, joining me now, CNN Election Law Analyst, Rick Hasen. Rick, so good to have you here. A fascinating conversation and rulings here. Let's start with North Carolina. OK? We have a conservative majority on the court. But this is a win for Democrats. What is the impact on the election do you think?
RICK HASEN, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: Well, it's hard to say what the impact is on the election as much as we're getting a little bit more certainty. Where, you know, a little more than five days before the election, and people still don't know when their ballots need to be returned. And so, we now know that ballots that are postmarked in North Carolina but that might not be received for up to nine days will be counted.
But there's still the possibility in both the North Carolina case and the Pennsylvania case that Republicans could come back after the election and still challenge these ballots. And so, we don't have the kind of full certainty that I would like at this point in the election season.
LEMON: OK. So, let's talk about Pennsylvania now. The Supreme Court is letting stand a decision that allows votes to be counted up to three days after the election. What does this mean for the election in that state?
[2:45:06]
HASEN: Well, so this is a case that's come back to the court last week. The court divided four to four before Justice Barrett came on and four to four ties goes to the lower court and so the extension stayed in place. The Republicans thought well, with Justice Barrett here maybe we can take another bite at the apple. The Supreme Court was not willing to do it.
And by now everyone in Pennsylvania knew that the deadline had been extended. So even if you tried to vote, given how long it has taken to get your ballots in, they might not arrive on time. So, I think it was that reliance interest that voters had which convinced at least some of the justices that they had to leave things as they were.
But Justice Alito in his separate opinion said well, we may come back after the election and still look at this. So, the advice is, don't mail your ballot in if you're in Pennsylvania or North Carolina. Your best bet is drop box official place to bring it back or vote in person on election day.
LEMON: So that's your advice. You said, what do you say if you live in Pennsylvania? Do what?
HASEN: Well, I say this about everywhere in the country right now. If you have an absentee ballot, you should either put in it an official government drop box if you're allowed, return to it an official government office if you're allowed, or vote early or in person or on election day in person. I would not trust the U.S. mail at this point. That's probably the most important thing that I can tell everyone who is watching right now.
LEMON: Wow, wow. Thank you, Rick. I appreciate that. We'll see you soon.
And listen, these are the conversations that we have on my podcast. I want to make sure that you know about it. It's called Silence is Not an Option. Taking on hard conversations. And this time about voting. Right? Especially minority voting and we talk about also race and being black in America.
This week we're going to talk about blacksit (Ph). Blacksit. It's black Americans moving overseas to escape racism. The new episode comes out tomorrow. You can find on Apple podcast or your favorite podcast app. This one is fascinating. You have to listen.
So, Philadelphia's D.A. has a message for President Trump now. He is telling him to, quote, "keep your Proud Boys, goon squads and uncertified poll watchers out of our city." He's going to join me next.
[22:50:00]
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LEMON: Well, Pennsylvania was one of the key states the president flipped to win in 2016. Current polling shows Joe Biden leading there now. But with both candidates fighting hard for the state, every vote really matters.
And today, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is not mincing words, accusing the president of trying to, quote, "throw gasoline on a long-burning fire in his city in order to provoke further unrest and violence ahead of an election he is terrified to lose."
Krasner writing in part, and I'm quoting here. He says, "keep your Proud Boys, goon squads and uncertified poll watchers out of our city, Mr. President. Break the law here, and I've got something for you." Well, President Trump has been encouraging his supporters to be what he calls, poll watchers, in places like Philadelphia.
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TRUMP: They don't want to have poll watchers in Philadelphia. So why don't they want to have poll watchers? What's wrong with people watching the votes? They don't have -- they don't want to have poll watchers.
In Philadelphia, which is notorious for what goes on, we want to have poll watchers. They won't let us have poll watchers. So, we're in court over poll watchers. Why won't they let you have a poll watcher? What's wrong?
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LEMON: Well, we should note that Trump's campaign has already come under fire for videotaping voters dropping off ballots in Philadelphia.
Joining me now, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Thank you, Mr. Krasner. I appreciate you joining us, OK? So, you --
LARRY KRASNER, PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Thank you, Don. Just call me Larry.
LEMON: OK. Well, thank you, Larry. You're using very pointed words in the statement, Proud Boys, goon squads. What's your concern about what could happen there in Philadelphia?
KRASNER: Well, Philadelphia is a battlefield, and it is the biggest battlefield in what is possibly the most important battleground state. We are aware of that. And what we are seeing in Philly, which is a very diverse town is a tremendous turnout. This is a city that's about seven out of eight people are Democrats. So, it is true that some bad things may happen.
But they are bad political things for Donald Trump. They are not bad in any other sense. And there's no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump, who is well aware that he is losing the entire election, who has everything to fear from being out of office, including criminal prosecution and the loss of his supposed wealth, there's no doubt in my mind that he is willing to do anything.
The Proud Boys have already gathered around Mike Pence. They are trying their best to get close to a certain police union that we have in Philadelphia. And there's been a steady drum beat coming from this president about how Philadelphia is a terrible town just like he constantly does about other large diverse cities.
We're not having it. We are not having it. This is the cradle of democracy, and I do in fact have something for the president if he wants to send people here to break the law. I have a cell. I have criminal laws, and I have a jury, a very diverse jury, that is going to want to hear why these people came to steal our votes.
LEMON: Wow. So, listen. Larry, Pennsylvania is such a key state this year. You said it was a battleground, right, for democracy. What is your city doing to protect voters from the pandemic and possible intimidation?
KRASNER: So, you know, every year the -- not every year, but every election, the DAO, the district attorney's office, has an election task force. This year it's bigger than ever and we are closely coordinating with our criminal justice partners, especially the Philadelphia police, but also certain federal entities like the FBI, that have shown some credibility in the last couple of months.
[22:55:06]
And I will not give away the entire playbook, but we are very confident that should anything happen, that we will be ready. Now the good news is we've had early voting going on now for several weeks, we don't have any serious problems yet and we also know that when you're talking about white supremacists and fringe groups, they tend to be big talkers. They're not always big doers.
So, I do not want to discourage anyone at all from voting. I voted. I voted a while ago. It was seamless. I was in a row of 300 people. It only took me 20 minutes to get from the back to the front. So, I don't want to exaggerate the danger, but I do want people to know that we are being vigilant, we are ready, we're tired of the rhetoric and we're ready for the results in this election.
LEMON: All right. Mr. District Attorney, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Best of luck to you.
KRASNER: Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Thank you.
Six days left. Coronavirus cases rising, the market dropping. What will it mean for voters at the polls?
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