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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump and Biden Battle in Key States in Final Stretch of Campaign; CNN Poll: Biden Leads in Michigan and Wisconsin; WAPO: Dr. Fauci Slams Trump's Medical Adviser On COVID-19 Saying Dr. Atlas 'Doesn't Make Any Sense'. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired October 31, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Well, now 49 hours, 49 hours until Election Day. President Trump and Joe Biden will spend tomorrow campaigning in key battleground states. Trump making a whirlwind tour, holding rallies in five states Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, Biden holding two campaign events in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania is so important that Trump held four rallies there today.

Biden campaign with Former President Barack Obama at two events in Michigan, also a must win state that both candidates are fighting over. And let's not forget, it's all happening as a pandemic is raging. I want to get to the candidates path to 270 electoral votes. John King is at (inaudible) for us to explain what CNN's new polls tell us about the state of the race. John?

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Don, a lot of new polling three days out. Let's take a look at it and then we'll explain its potential significance in the race to 270 electoral votes. So let's look at the new polls in the 2016 map so that we can understand the significance even better. And let's go west to east. New CNN polling tonight shows Joe Biden; look at this with a five-point lead in Arizona. Republican State Bill Clinton the last Democrat to win it. This is pretty close, 3.5 points. Four years ago Joe Biden with a four point lead right now. Right, close, but Biden on top, but close. Remember that. Yet Biden is on top in a state he would love to flip. That could block Trump.

North Carolina, if Joe Biden wins this one, pretty much game over. And look at our new polling right here, 51-45 a six point lead for Joe Biden in a state that Donald Trump must win to win re-election. Six point lead in North Carolina, again, four point race, just shy of that, four years ago. Now we're going to move up to the Midwest. These are the states that made Donald Trump President, Michigan, Wisconsin along with Pennsylvania. Brand new Michigan polling tonight, this is very significant.

Not only that Joe Biden is at 53 percent with a 12 point lead, but to the incumbent President three days out is at 41 percent very difficult to win if you're the incumbent. Not a lot of voters break late for incumbent. So this is a troubling number for the President, as he tries to put the 2016 map back together, as is this in battleground Wisconsin. Look at this numbers Don, 52 percent to 44 percent and eight points lead for Joe Biden, how close the state was last time, 47.8 percent to 47 percent, 22,000 votes in change. Right now, Joe Biden with a double-digit lead and again, the President is stuck in the mid-40s, if you're an incumbent, that's tough number, hard to overcome in the final days.

One other poll out tonight is not a CNN poll but is very significant. And this, the Trump campaign will say is proof they're going to come back in the Midwest. The Des Moines Register Iowa report tonight, Trump, 48 percent, Biden, 41 percent. We've seen another poll showing that one closer even some with Biden on top. So if this is correct, maybe some Trump momentum there. So what does it mean? Let's go to the race to 270 and try to figure all this. Let me switch maps right here, so two ways to look at this, right.

First, let's just start with our new CNN polls and let's start with the President's path to victory four years ago. If our polls are right and Joe Biden is winning in Arizona and he holds it, and North Carolina, and Michigan and Wisconsin, that's it. If Joe Biden holds the Clinton's states and then picks up those four, he's the next President of the United States and he could be the next President without winning Pennsylvania, without winning Florida, without winning Ohio. Game over. If he holds those four states right there, then holds the Clinton states, Joe Biden is the next President of the United Stated. But here is another way to look at it.

You see all the golf (ph) here. Here is what we've done. Only leave a solid states, the solid red Trump states, the solid blue Biden states and let's work from here. Let's say that Iowa poll is proof that there's late Republican momentum, OK. So let's use that. The President wins Iowa because of that momentum. If you're winning Iowa and you're a republican, you might win Ohio as well, perfectly possible.

Let's say our Arizona lead for Biden is not big enough in this Election Day turnout. The Trump campaign promises overwhelming Election Day turnout, we'll see if they can deliver, but it's not inconceivable. If you're winning Arizona and you're Republican, you're probably winning Texas, Florida and Georgia as well. This is more difficult one but the Trump campaign says it can overcome, they can surge through.

Remember, we had a six point in North Carolina, let's say President gets that one. Now let's stop for a minute. Let's stop for a minute. Let's say Joe Biden holds the Clinton states that means he wins New Hampshire, he wins Minnesota, he wins Colorado and despite the Trump effort, Joe Biden wins Nevada. Now we're going to be generous and give one each to the suburbs. So I - these Congressional Districts, you have main second Congressional District. Let's say Biden goes there. We're seeing a lot of polling suggesting that, unless just say for the sake of argument the Biden campaign is competitive here, but let's say, if I ask you second Congressional District goes to Trump. This is where our polls tonight come in very, very important.

If Joe Biden under this scenario still holds Michigan and holds Wisconsin, look where that gets you, 259 to 259. The only thing left on the board, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There's a reason the President made four stops today. They do see a scenario on the Trump campaign that it comes down to that at the end. If it does, and it's close, that one could go all the way to the Supreme Court. This is a big if. It counts on a huge Trump turnout on Election Day, but it's possible, Don.

[23:05:00]

LEMON: John, thank you. I guess. Joining me now in CNN is Senior Political Analyst John Avlon and also Kirsten Powers. You know why I said that, I guess, it's giving me angina, a tie? Oh, my gosh, but you know what that would be appropriate, that would be 2020 in a nutshell.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That would be so 2020.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST & ANCHOR: Yes.

LEMON: Why not, why not. Yes. Good evening to both of you. John, final hours of this race. So we have seen CNN's new polls that shows Joe Biden leading in Michigan is leading in Wisconsin, tighter races is Arizona and North Carolina. Trump won all those states in 2016. So he still has a real shot?

AVLON: Of course he does. Look, nothing is done until it's done. What's different is that, 2016 was a 20 year low in turnout. And this time, you know, we've seen record turnout. Does that change the race? Does that change the underlying dynamic with COVID on top of it all? Those are the big questions. How are independent voters going to break? They want narrowly for him last time. 2018 they started to break Democrat. This race is not done until Election Day, but a lot of the fundamentals of this race are just fundamentally different than we saw in 2016.

LEMON: John, the President is trying to stoke fear about waiting for election results. Take a listen to this.

AVLON: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: We're going to be waiting. November 3rd is going to come and go and we're not going to know and you're going to have bedlam in our country. And you're going to have this period of nine days or seven days or whatever it is, and many bad things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, listen. To say that there was cheating, I mean, come on. This is the truth. Please tell us the truth here. And I know this. It often takes days or sometimes even weeks for ballots to be counted. There's nothing new about that.

AVLON: There is nothing new about it at all. Military ballots, for example, are by law can take up to ten days after the close of Election Day depending on the state. Donald Trump is doing what he's done from the beginning, trying to sow doubt about the legitimacy of the outcome if he doesn't win. In the rally in Pennsylvania today he even spoke out loud about hoping for an assist from the Supreme Court.

Tonight he retweeted, sort of approvingly about a bunch of folks on the road in Texas trying to block off a Biden bus. This is an ugly closing argument. It's not just divisive because he's never tried to win the popular vote. He's always had a divide to conquer strategy but he's sowing doubts about the legitimacy of the election. He's telling us out loud what his plans are and that's why we all got to watch with an eagle eye everything that happens between now and Election Day and after because every eligible vote should be counted. That is our right as Americans in a democracy.

LEMON: Kirsten in one world is that OK, where you swarm the opponent's bus and you try to drive people off the road. I mean and what - seriously, and then people get upset when they criticize - when, you know, some of the folks who support the President and their actions are criticized and they can say, oh, it's just a difference of opinion. No. It's not OK. It wouldn't be OK if Joe Biden's campaign did that. And those people deserve to be called out.

POWERS: Yes. No, I mean, it's not - it's some alternative universe that we now live in, apparently, where people think that this kind of behavior is acceptable and, you know, it's indefensible and that people can then behave that way and then somehow turn into the victim is also just sort of the new world that we live in.

LEMON: You're trying to take away their right to harass on an interstate.

POWERS: Yes, exactly.

LEMON: So they're victims. The liberty of trying to hurt other people. Kirstin, I want you to take a listen. This is what we heard from Joe Biden today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Three days. Three days to put an end to a Presidency that has divided this nation. Three days we can put an end to a Presidency that has failed to protect this nation. Three days we can put an end to a Presidency that's fanned the flames of hate all across this nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: As I'm sitting there watching, a couple of things I'm thinking. I want his dentist because his teeth are amazing. But listen, like, wow, that's a really bright smile.

POWERS: These are the important things.

LEMON: Listen, he's not taking anything for granted here, Kirsten. But do you think that the handwriting the handwringing I should say, on the part of Democrats has that gone overboard or you think it is justified considering 2016? POWERS: No. I don't think - I mean, I don't really consider it handwringing, I think its people being serious about those taking the election seriously and knowing that you've got to turn out your voters. And, you know, there is some concern about is the black turnout going to be what it needs to be, is Joe Biden going to get the Latino turnout that he needs in particularly in Florida? So I think that if there is probably normalcy...

[23:10:00]

LEMON: But what's new about that? That's every election cycle, Kirsten. Come on, you know that. I mean these are good things to ponder that it happens in every election.

POWERS: But that's the point. No, but you do need to ring the alarm bells and you need to - the election isn't still for a couple more days and there's still a lot that can be done to do phone calls and reach out to people and due to barnstorm and do all these other things. So I don't think the election is a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination. I think I do understand why the polls are supposed to be better this time.

But even if we take the polls at face value, we still have a lot of states that are very close. So of course, you know, the error, you know, the margin of error could go in either direction, so they could end up, actually not being that close if it's, you know, in Biden's favor. But we don't really know. So I think it's right to, you know, for everybody to assume that nothing's in the bag until all the votes are encountered.

LEMON: All right. John, I know you want to jump in, but you got to do it fast for me. I love you, but, you know.

AVLON: I'm just saying this. Look, Republicans in Texas are trying to get 100,000 votes thrown out because they were drop down by far. This is - the efforts to suppress our core to the Presidents strategy so everyone's got to vote like democracy depends on it, pure and simple.

LEMON: OK. So just we talked about John King. Stop texting me, everyone. John's scenario is going to keep me up tonight. That's all I'm hearing from everybody. But so I just say everybody keep calm and carry on. Thank you both. I'll see you soon.

AVLON: That's right.

LEMON: So listen, we just talked about this one, the Biden campaign canceled the Texas event after Trump supporters surrounded their bus on the interstate and the President is cheering. Plus, I'm going to talk to Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley about the President's constant attacks on the so-called the squad. But here's Stevie Wonder on the trail for Biden in Detroit.

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[23:15:00] LEMON: Tonight President Trump is praising his supporters for a confrontation they had with a Biden/Harris campaign bus yesterday in Texas praising. On the way to a campaign event in Austin, the bus was surrounded by multiple vehicles decked out with Trump flags. Campaign says the vehicles slowed the bus down to about 20 miles per hour and attempted to run it off the road.

Well, staffers called 911 and the bus was safely escorted to its destination. Look at that. These people, wow. They were rattled and the campaign event was canceled out of caution. We don't know what led up to this incident, but the President tweeted about it tonight, saying that he loves Texas, also saying this about it at his rally tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Did anybody see the picture of their crazy bus driving down the highway that surrounded by like hundreds of cars? They were all Trump flags all over the place. (Cheers) What a group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So let's talk about this and more, CNN Senior Political Analyst is Mark Preston. Mark, I mean, really?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know what? You know, Don, this reminds me of the turn of the 20th century when you saw the industrialists, you know, bring in the Pinkerton agents. And they would come in and they would intimate workers from trying to organize right or you know workers who were on strike and they would get together and they would create these goon squads and they would go up and they beat up people. Now that's not necessarily what we saw right here, but what we saw that still kind of, had the same reaction for the folks who are the target of it. That's what we saw.

LEMON: Well, here is the thing, OK, fine. Those folks out there do what they want. It's horrible behavior.

PRESTON: Right.

LEMON: But for the - this is person who occupies the oval office. To encourage that kind of behavior, says a lot about who you are as a person and what your moral compass is. And as my mom would say, who raised him?

PRESTON: Well, you know, I know this is a - well, who did raise him, I mean that is really a good question because I think we are still trying to figure that out. Maybe Mary Trump might have little more insight into that. But Don, what's really interesting right, when you look at the whole situation and how the Republicans are even reacting to it at this point, remember this is the same President who day in and day out and I know this is a tired line for folks who watch CNN and other networks where we talk about how Donald Trump goes out there and incites violence against the media who are traveling with him. So this is no surprise that this would happen tonight.

LEMON: What's the Biden campaign saying about it?

PRESTON: Well, they're trying to take the high road. And certainly before the tweet, this is what they had to say. They should rather than engage in productive conversations about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas today instead decided to put our staff and surrogates supporters in others in harm's way. Our supporters will continue to organize our communities for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot. And to the Texans who disrupted our events today, we'll see you on November 3rd.

LEMON: And what about the Republican Party? They put out a statement as well?

[23:20:00]

PRESTON: Well, right. So the Texas Republican Party did, I'm not going to read it because it was so ludicrous and ridiculous. It does not address the incident at all. And in fact, pretty much it encourages it and says we'll see you on Election Day as well. So things are heating up right now, Don, not necessarily good news heading into Election Day.

LEMON: So, listen, the Biden campaign responded on twitter to the President's tweet. OK, it said for the second time in a week your campaign has left your supporters stranded in the cold with no transportation at one of your super spreader rallies. Maybe you should spend more time worried about those buses than ours, those buses than ours.

PRESTON: Timing is everything, right, I mean. We saw Ryan Nobles great reporting last hour about the buses and how this has happened before. But this is disconcerting, Don. And let me just, leave it on so I can - this is concerning because if we're starting to see this type of violence or agitation on Saturday, tell me what's going to happen on Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday as well. We're already seeing what's happening in cities right now where people are boarding up afraid of violence. So I mean, it's kind of ridiculous.

LEMON: There is something very, listen-- I'll just put it - this is different. This is not about people disagreeing on ideology or on policy or whatever. This is horrible, the worst behavior from certain people within the Trump sphere that should be unacceptable to all Americans, even if you're a Trump supporter. This is awful behavior. And the President should not be encouraging it. Kids, that's an example of what you don't do even if you're parents are laughing at it, let me be the big guy here, let me be dad. You don't do that. It's awful behavior. Thank you, Mark.

PRESTON: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Appreciate it. Mark's a dad. He knows. So chaos outside a polling place in Graham, North Carolina, after police used pepper spray to break up a March supporting "Black Lives Matter" and encouraging people to get out and vote. So the rally started at an AME church with a stop at a confederate monumental before ending at a polling location. The Graham police department says officers sprayed the ground to disperse the crowd after the demonstration was deemed unsafe and unlawful. Both at North Carolina Congressional Candidate who was at the march says, the demonstration was entirely peaceful at least eight people were arrested there. I got a lot to talk about with Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. Congresswoman, thank you. So good to see you.

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D) MASSACHUSETTS: Good to be with you.

LEMON: Absolutely. You heard my conversation with Mark about what happened with the buses. You saw that video in North Carolina, horrifying. What do you think when you see Americans getting pepper sprayed while simply encouraging people to vote?

PRESSLEY: Well, it's just a reminder that we still find ourselves in the civil rights movement, and right now we have the opportunity to write the next chapter in our civil rights history. You know, what were fire hoses and dogs are today, what happen in my district, arson and drop boxes is voter suppression and intimidation with long lines. So it is just more of the same but it is also why we must be more emboldened than ever before when our democracy our lives we had enough bare lives (ph), are all on the ballot. But it is infuriating.

LEMON: The progressive leaders in the party are working hard to elect Joe Biden, all right? When you talk to progressive grassroots voters, are they all in as well here? Are they unsure? Give us a temperature check.

PRESSLEY: No, Don. I think people are clear eyed about the steaks of this election. It could not be more stark. In Donald Trump we have someone who has content for the American people. We have a pandemic that is raging out of control. We have just hit the devastating milestone of 230,000 lives loss. So people are clear eyed about the stakes, in Donald Trump we have someone that has contempt for the American people, a GOP led Senate, which has carried his water and instead of passing a comprehensive relief package to meet the scale and scope of this herd.

A pandemic that is raging because of his willful criminality, instead of doing that, they had a sham of a SCOTUS confirmation process and have approved 222 federal right leaning judges. We deserve and will have in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris an administration that has compassion for the American people. So I'm urging people to vote your condition. If you have a pre-existing condition, they are coming for you by dismantling the affordable care act. If you are dealing with food insecurity on the precipice of eviction, unemployed - have lost a loved one in this moment, every election has consequences, but this election, Don, this is the most consequential.

[23:25:00]

Not only our lifetime, but I believe in our nation's history. So vote your condition and organize your friends, your families, your coworkers, the people you worship with. If you have a mail-in ballot, drop it off immediately. And if you are going to vote on Election Day, be prepared to be in line to make sure that your voice is heard because our livelihoods, our lives and our democracy are on the ballot.

LEMON: You know actually, I said to give us a temperature check but I also think people should realize as well because they are - what I'm hearing out there is that people are believing that the stimulus checks that they got was sort of, was a handout from the Trump administration, not understanding that it's their own taxpayer dollars that they're using to help out. It is their own money that they have paid into the system that is helping. And on top of that, we got the courts that could be involved in this election in ways that we have never seen before. Are you worried that the courts are no longer in the position in this country where they are helping to protect voting rights because there's a great fear now that Donald Trump is setting up the use of votes to suppress the vote?

PRESSLEY: Sure. When he offered his remarks about the Supreme Court will decide, the courts will decide, it's just a corruption on full display and more of the same. The response to that is a decisive mandate by the people that we need to drastically change course in this country. We do not want someone in the court, in the oval office who not only has contempt for the American people, who not only will not disavow dangerous white supremacy terrorist groups, but emboldens white supremacy.

And Don, let me just say this to Black American, you know Black Americans are three times more likely to contract the coronavirus and three times more likely to die from it. Black men, the sixth leading cause for black men right now is police brutality. This administration does not even believe systemic racism exists, and they have allowed this pandemic to rage out of control with no national testing strategy.

We need Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because they will have compassion for the American people, not contempt. They have a plan for Black America. They have a racial equity agenda, and we need to vote like our very lives, livelihood and democracy are on the ballot because they are. People, vote your condition. Do not have selective amnesia. This is not the time to be cute.

You raised at the top of the hour done and about his attacks against myself and my cohorts, my colleagues. Why do you think he does that? Because he's anti-woman, he is anti-immigrant, he is anti-black, it's bigger than the four of us. It's about what we represent, and that is that we are champions for the working people. We are champions for all of America. And while he's worried about rally sizes and putting people at risk by having these rallies, he's feeding his ego when he should be focused on feeding the American people for suffering under unprecedented food insecurity, unprecedented unemployment, and on the precipice of eviction because of his failures, which are all on the ballot.

So while the American people are on the precipice of eviction, we need to be sending a decisive mandate at the ballot box, organizing our friends and families, and we need to evict Donald Trump, send a decisive mandate and I'll see occupant of this White House and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. LEMON: Congresswoman, thank you. Thanks for giving your viewers your passion. And we appreciate you on the show. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon.

PRESSLEY: Thank you, Don. Give your mom my best.

LEMON: I will. I certainly will. I'm sure she's watching. John King said everything could come down to one state, that's battleground Pennsylvania. Can Joe Biden pull out a win in his home state? Or will Trump's final four rallies today seal the deal? Plus, mail delays in swing states just days before mail-in ballots are due.

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[23:30:00]

LEMON: The election is less than 49 hours away, and the coronavirus pandemic is consuming the race. Cases are surging across every part of this country. So I want to bring in now Dr. Jonathan Reiner, he is the Director at a Cardiac Catheterization Program at George Washington University Hospital. Doctor, always a pleasure. Good to see you again tonight. Let's talk about Dr. Anthony Fauci just interviewed by the "Washington Post", slamming the President's Medical Adviser, Scott Atlas.

This is what Fauci is saying. I have real problems with that guy. He's a smart guy who's talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn't make any sense. Well, you've been saying a lot of people have been saying it now, Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying it. Talk to me about these comments.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it's just the truth and it's refreshing to hear the truth. We've always had it from Dr. Fauci that's what's been missing over the last several months, is a candid appraisal of where we are and what we need to do. You know, imagine if we had that throughout the summer when cases were surging, if we had a candid appraisal from respected folks like Dr. Fauci every single day. You know, he's too senior in terms of status.

He has zero to lose, and he's doing what's right now. He's speaking out for the American people. Scott Atlas is out of his league. He has no business being in that position. And Dr. Fauci is a national hero. What he's saying is that unless we change things, we're going to see deaths that no one here is really prepared to accept. It's going to take us about another week to get another million cases.

[23:35:00]

We passed the 9 million mark about two days ago. We'll pass the 10 million mark in about seven or eight days. Every million cases is about 20,000 deaths. These aren't just numbers. 20,000 deaths, that's Madison Square Garden.

LEMON: Doctor, I appreciate you coming on almost every evening. And discuss this with our viewers. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you. Thank you.

REINER: My pleasure.

LEMON: So President Trump making four stops in the key states - in the key stones - excuse me, today, starting in Philadelphia suburb and the Biden campaign announcing that it will hold two events in Philadelphia tomorrow. CNN poll of polls, here's what it shows. It's a seven point race, so joining me now to discuss, Senior Political Commentator, Charlie Dent, Former Congressman from Pennsylvania from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and CNN Political Commentator Alice Stewart, a Republican Strategist. She's back because she couldn't hear us last night. So we're hopefully, we're going to hear her again tonight and she can hear us. So good to see you.

ALICE STEWART, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It was a legitimate technical mistake, I wasn't trying to avoid your question, I promise.

LEMON: Stewart listen, you're back, that's all that matters. It's a continuing conversation. So Charlie, there's an intense battle under way for Pennsylvania. Early voting shows that the democrats with the big edge, right? Almost 1.5 million votes compared to a little over 500,000 for Republicans. We don't know who those folks voted for that to be sure about that, but can Republicans make that up on Election Day?

CHARLIE DENT (R) FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Don, I think it's going to be very difficult for republicans to make it up on Election Day. There's a more fundamental problem. The suburbs, not just in the Philadelphia collar counties, but in the suburbs of the Lehigh valley and suburbs of Harrisburg, the suburbs of Pittsburgh, there has been an enormous erosion of support for Republican candidates largely because of President Trump, it's must worst then 2016.

And I just don't know that there are enough rural white voters upstate who have not participated in the process before to offset those losses in the suburbs. That's the fundamental issue. And so I think republicans are largely in a very defensive place in Pennsylvania. I think it's tightened a little bit. You know, seven points, five points, it's a little tighter. But I just don't see how you make up that ground.

LEMON: So listen, you heard what Charlie said, Alice. The President needs a massive rural turnout to come close, right? Are there enough out there to make up for suburban women and others who he's alienated?

STEWART: We will know on Tuesday, right? I mean, Charlie is right. Biden has done well to really hold the suburbs and Trump is doing all right with the more rural areas. But keep in mind, I mean, this is going to be a critical state, as John mentioned. But democrats - Pennsylvania has gone for the democrat candidate in the last six Presidential elections until 2016. So the fact that Donald Trump was able to break through that blue wall is quite significant. It was by a narrow margin, by less than one percentage point. So he really needed to work hard to keep that support. I'm not convinced that that will happen it certainly remains to be seen. But the key for him as he did today, go out there, talk to them face to face and drive home his closing message, which I think is a critically important about safety, prosperity and opportunity. And that's a good message.

LEMON: You mean John King, right? Is that who you are referring back to?

STEWART: John King at the magic wall, right, yes.

LEMON: So Charlie, seeing this election forecaster Harry Enten now, we're talking about Harry Enten is (inaudible) has called Northampton County, Pennsylvania, a bellwether county because it traditionally predicts who will win the state. That was part of your Congressional District when you were in office. Which way do you see Northampton County going?

DENT: Yes, actually, I'm sitting in Northampton County right now. And Northampton County, like Erie County and Luzerne County are three counties that went from Obama to Trump. And I would watch on election night Northampton and Erie Counties. I think right now based on polling I've seen in this Congressional District that Biden is poise to win Northampton County. It'll be reasonably close, but it seems to me that Northampton County, which includes a cities of Bethlehem and Eastern by the way, that County I think, is moving back towards Biden. If - whoever wins, I believe my prediction is whichever candidate wins Northampton and Erie counties is going to win Pennsylvania. And right now it appears Biden is doing well, particularly in Northampton.

LEMON: Would that be in the Lehigh valley?

DENT: That is correct. It's a Lehigh valley.

LEMON: How did I know you were in the Lehigh valley?

STEWART: Don, one thing...

[23:40:00]

LEMON: I know. I actually - I got to go though Alice, I am sorry. If you can do it like in five seconds.

STEWART: It's really important. The President has really hammered home the fracking issue. But that's not as critical for people across Pennsylvania as health care, COVID and the economy. And hopefully he can connect that in the next two days.

LEMON: Yes. We heard that about the fracking issue. Now it's not as important as people, at least nationally I think it is. Thank you both, I appreciate. Have fun in the Lehigh valley. I do miss living in Pennsylvania. It's a great place to live. Thank you, guys. We'll be right back.

DENT: We miss you. Take care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Really important story here. Federal judge shining a light on delivery of mail-in ballots in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, ordering the U.S. Postal Service to report to him daily on their nightly sweeps for election mail. The judge telling the postal service it must make every effort to deliver any mailed-in ballots it finds in its facilities by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

[23:45:00]

That after a group of democratic-led states told the judge that mail- in ballots are not moving fast enough in some regions. CNN's Bill Weir joins me now with more on how this is all unfolding in Wisconsin is out on the trail. So Bill good evening to you. Tell us more about this ruling and what led to it.

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the postal service has been putting out their stat - just the numbers on delivery rates, right? And some of those delivery rates, they target for one to three days, they were hitting that target less than 60 percent in the Detroit post office the Great Lakes region includes Wisconsin, so they saw the stats and said this judge said not good enough. You need to up that. They have improved it but now they want inspection sweeps of postal stations around the state every day to make sure there's not bags of mail-in ballots sitting right there and make sure they get them in, the deadline after the Supreme Court ruled is 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night. And so something even sent last week that arrives after that will not be counted.

And April was a real lesson for this state, if you remember there, there was primary elections in Wisconsin and the Governor wanted to postpone it because of the pandemic. The Republicans fought that. It was a mess. So many people were afraid of infections. So many poll workers they went from 180 polling locations in Milwaukee to five they're not afraid that that will happen again. They have enough staffing and even the National Guard is ready to fill in if people call in sick.

But what was interesting there is the absentee ballots that were sent in, 23,000 of them, Don, were rejected because people didn't either sign the envelope on the outside of the ballot or get an address for their witness. And in small towns up North, you know, predominantly Donald Trump areas, the county clerk can call somebody and say hey, you messed this up, let's fix it. They're not doing that in Milwaukee, so it will be interesting to see how many of these absentee ballots that are hundreds of thousands that have been sent in from around the state, whether they will be counted.

Wisconsin historically was a very easy state to vote in the '70s, one of the first states to approve same day voter registration. But in the last decade when Republicans and Scott Walker took over Wisconsin, they deliberately made it much tougher. Voter ID laws were into place, which sort of, disenfranchises younger and older folks disproportionately because they don't drive as much or poor folks because they don't have a car. And so Democrats done in the state think it's certainly like playing basketball in an empty swimming pool and they feel like they're running uphill, not just by getting this votes in, but getting them counted.

LEMON: Boy, oh, boy. This is a - it's a real shame. Bill Weir, thank you. Keep us posted, Bill. Nice work out there. You stay warm and stay safe.

WEIR: You bet.

LEMON: So joining me now, CNN Legal Analyst and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and that's Mr. Elie Honig. Elie, it's good to see you, but every time I see you there's a wrinkle in the system, that we have to discuss. So is there any system in place to ensure that all these mail-in votes are making their way through the system in a fair and honest fashion and that there's not this backlog or slowdown that will disenfranchise voters even beyond the whole, you know, signing, signature thing? I mean, this is crazy.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So Don, it's so important that people understand we don't do have one nationalized federal system for elections. We have 51 different election systems, one for each state plus Washington, D.C. And what we're seeing now Bill just alluded to this, a series, dozens of lawsuits, some of which are making their way up to the Supreme Court. We saw three big cases in the Supreme Court this week out of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. Two of them went in favor of extended deadlines. The one in Wisconsin did not. I don't have a whole lot of faith in the Supreme Court to be neutral, impartial justices at this point. I think they've showed their color and I think there's a lot of politics at play in the Supreme Court right now.

LEMON: Let's talk about Florida, critical for the President. And it's a state that's had problems with managing elections in the past. We all remembering hanging chads and there are other examples as well. If a legal battle goes down there, what do you think it's going to look like, Elie?

HONIG: Boy, look it could be like Bush versus Gore in the year 2000. I think the most likely scenario, there's two scenarios that I can see happening. One is a dispute about recount. If it's close enough, right and if this is giving you flash backs to 2000, it should and it could. The other one is Donald Trump's strategy here seems to be just to cast doubt everywhere he can, and then if there is a state that's disputed, to go to court and try to get a case up to the Supreme Court to stop, for example, ballots being counted that come in after November 3rd. I think Donald Trump has made a calculation here that he's got a better chance in the Federal Courts and specifically the Supreme Court then he does in the polls.

[23:50:00]

LEMON: Elie Honig, always a pleasure. Next time bring some good news, OK.

HONIG: I should.

LEMON: Be well. Happy Halloween. Talk to you soon.

HONIG: You, too, Thanks.

LEMON: Yes. We'll be right back.

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[23:55:00]

LEMON: OK, everyone. It is now only 48 hours until Election Day. If you haven't gotten your ballot in, yet, go drop it off or vote in person. Don't throw away your shot.

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BARACK OBAMA, 44TH US PRESIDENT: What's, that's what I do. That's what I do!

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