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Trump Stokes Voting Crisis With Attacks On Mail-In Ballots; Virtual Democratic National Convention Begins Tomorrow; Study Shows Which Masks Work Best, Which Don't Work At All; Ballot Drop Boxes; Biden's Vice Presidential Pick. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 16, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: As we roll into the next hour, you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for being here.

In less than 24 hours, the Democrat National Convention kicks off that won't look you're your standard convention, with the entire events happening virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. But one part that will be familiar, the deep bench of Democratic speakers, including the Clintons, the Obamas, and the major voices in this 2020 campaign.

Joe Biden will accept the nomination on Thursday, and while he's doing that, his Republican rival wants to make sure he has some of the spotlight, too. President Trump is expected to travel to the area of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden's hometown, to make his case on why he's best fit to lead the country for another four years. All while continuing to sow doubt in this election, falsely claiming that mail- in voting is riddled with fraud. And he says it make take months or even years to know the results of this election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are going to have an election that takes place on a beautiful day, November 3rd. And usually at the end of the evening they say Donald Trump has won the election. Donald Trump is your new president. Whatever they say, you know what? You're not going to know this possibly if you really did it right for months or for years, because these ballots are all going to be lost, they're going to be gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: This morning CNN's Jake Tapper confronted the White House chief of staff Mike Meadows about there being no evidence of widespread fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud, though.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: That's not --

TAPPER: But there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

MEADOWS: There's no evidence that there's not either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let get to CNN's Kristen Holmes near the president's golf resort in New Jersey where he's spending the weekend.

So, Kristen, President Trump's chief of staff, he covered a lot of ground with Jake Tapper this morning, including mail-in voting and the funding of the United States Postal Service. Tell us more.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And it looks as though Democrats and Republicans may actually be able to come to an agreement when it comes to funding the United States Postal Service. Now just a bit of a primer here, we know that Democrats have put forth a stimulus bills that had billions of dollars for the Postal Service including money that was set aside to help prepare them for the election.

Remember, there has been widespread concerns particularly after changes made by the President Trump's postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, that there could be complications when it came to mail-in voting. Because of those changes postal workers say there have been massive delays.

Now when it comes to funding President Trump himself said last week that he was opposed to this funding from Democrats because he thought it would go towards mail-in voting. But today his chief of staff was singing a very different tune. He said he would be in support of a stand-alone bill to give that funding to the Postal Service. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEADOWS: I'm all about piecemeal. If we can agree on postal, let's do it. If we can agree on stimulus checks, let's do it. I've been the one that's advocating for that.

TAPPER: Great.

MEADOWS: Speaker Pelosi is the one who said that she won't do anything unless it's a big deal.

TAPPER: It sounds like there's a common ground here.

MEADOWS: Talking about exactly that.

TAPPER: It sounds like there's some common ground here.

MEADOWS: There is. Yes, I think there is, Jake.

TAPPER: Because Pelosi has said she is willing to do a stand-alone bill. And she can bring the House back --

MEADOWS: Is she willing to do a stand-alone bill?

TAPPER: -- within the 24 hours.

MEADOWS: OK. All right. Ask her, ask her, is she willing to do a stand-alone bill for stimulus checks for American people that are hurting? Ask her that.

TAPPER: Yes. She said on Friday she's willing to do it. So hopefully --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So a lot going on there, a lot of shouting back and forth. But the big takeaway is that the White House is willing to negotiate over a stand-alone bill on funding for the Postal Service. And Meadows is absolutely right. We have heard from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats say time and time again that they would not do any sort of short-term extension, anything that was just piecemeal. They only wanted a big comprehensive bill.

However, it does seem as though there is some wiggle room now, particularly given what we have seen over the past several days involving the Postal Service.

CABRERA: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are getting ready for their big week ahead. The Democratic National Convention kicking off tomorrow. But there are several major changes in store. And CNN's Jessica Dean is in Wilmington, Delaware, where Joe Biden is expected to accept the party's nomination.

Jessica, speakers and delegates will not be in the same room, but their theme is unity.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's going to be a convention unlike any we've ever seen before, Ana, as the Democrats try to make this work amid the pandemic that is gripping the entire country.

So there will be different themes every night, a unity kind of an over-arching theme. But for example, on Monday, take a look at the speakers.

[16:05:03]

It's we the people, and they're really projecting unity within the party and trying to get all Americans to get on board with the Biden- Harris ticket, with really a wide spectrum of speakers ranging from Bernie Sanders to John Kasich, who ran, of course, for the Republican nomination back in 2016. So he'll be speaking at the Democratic National Convention this year which will certainly be interesting.

And then speakers all across the rest of the week, including we learned today a variety of what are considered rising stars within the Democratic Party who will do a joint keynote on Tuesday. So 17 of them will be participating in that. And then of course, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Michelle and Barack Obama, as well as a number of other well-known speakers wrapped up in there.

We're also getting an idea of just how logistically a virtual convention is going to work. So I can walk you through a little bit of that. First of all, we're told there will be four sets across the country. So Los Angeles, New York, Milwaukee, where the convention was originally supposed to be held, and then here in Wilmington, Delaware, where we know Biden and Harris will both by accepting their nominations.

So they'll be able to use those sets across the country. But in addition to that, a number of speakers will be speaking from historic well-known sites across the country. A lot of these sites, we're told, will be woven into their speeches, that it will really coincide with the theme of what the speaker is talking about. So keep an eye out for that. And then in addition to that, broadcast kits have been sent to people across the country.

These people will be able to set up these broadcasting kits even within their own living room. And we're told that this could be used for the roll call. So typically in the convention, you see the delegations during the roll call when they pronounce who they're supporting. In this case they're going to go to 57 different locations across the country during that roll call.

Also we're told that those kits will be used for reaction shots that you would typically get inside of a convention hall. And that there will be a truck based here in Wilmington and a producer. They'll be able to see hundreds of different feeds coming in from all across the country. They'll be able to put those reaction shots up.

It's just going to be a very different type of convention, Ana, of course, as they work to be socially distant, but also rev up the Democratic Party -- Ana.

CABRERA: It sounds intriguing and interesting. I just hope the tech gremlins don't strike.

DEAN: Yes.

CABRERA: Thank you, Jessica Dean, for your reporting.

Now one of the most important goals of the conventions for both parties is to rally their voters, to get them to the polls. This year with the virtual events it could be an uphill battle.

Joining us now is April Ryan, a CNN political analyst and the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks. And also with us David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst and a former presidential adviser to Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton.

David, given that this is an all virtual event, do you expect that same kind of post-convention bump like we've seen in the past?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I think the real question is, can you make this more than boring? Can you actually make it as effective as what they did with the launch of Kamala Harris this past week? Now if it reaches that standard, which was a boffo performance by both Biden and Kamala Harris, I think they would get a bump. But given the kind of circumstance you have without an audience, and it's just hard to give a raring speech in really getting people rallied.

The setting actually encourages a more intimate kind of conversation, and I do think Biden is very good at that, right. That's his strength. It's not Trump's strength. Trump is a good demagogue. I mean, he knows how to whip people up and he will miss an audience, but Biden can draw upon possibly the empathic quality that he has, the friendliness that he has, the low key, the association to working class people.

All those work in his favor. And he may have -- and he's reaching out to women. Women, I think, are going to like these kinds of speeches than some of the women on the Republican side because they -- you know, I think they're going to be a different quality on the Democratic side. Softer.

CABRERA: We know Trump is not going to cede the spotlight, though, April. We learned he will hold a campaign event near Scranton, Pennsylvania, on the same day just hours before Joe Biden accepts the Democratic nomination. I mean, isn't this typically a no-no?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's a no-no. Ever since this president has come into office, anything that was traditional is thrown out the window. Typically the opposing party stands down that week during a convention and vice versa for when it's time for them to be up. So this president is doing something that he's known to do. He's shooting below the belt -- hitting below the belt and doing what he wants.

But at the end of the day we're going to see is the Democrats being COVID-correct, politically correct, also physically distant as well as socially connected, and this president rallying, and let's see if there are even going to be masks.

[16:10:04]

And at issue is what will happen on that day? Will the president make more news and overshadow on Thursday Joe Biden's acceptance of the nomination? We'll see. So it's up to those who are creating this event, this virtual event, to make it so spectacular that people will not want to miss President Trump call "Sleepy Joe" and want to watch him. They have got to rev it up on Thursday. They've got to actually rev it up this week.

And they started this today actually, Ana, with the interfaith welcome that they had with gospel singers and rabbis, and preachers, et cetera, to bring people in.

CABRERA: You know, one of the biggest concerns right now about the election is what's happening with the Postal Service, David. Democrats are now demanding answers from the U.S. postmaster general with at least one lawmaker going so far as to say that the sergeant-at-arms should arrest the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy if he refuses to testify after a subpoena.

Are you surprised that the post office is becoming political?

GERGEN: I guess I'm shocked, but not surprised. The -- we've seen too many things like this, which are inappropriate and April is absolutely right about the traditions that are being broken this week, with Trump taking too many ads out. That sort of thing. But I do think that this postal issue is right now I think favors the Democrats, but it could well bring a crisis in the country. And that's the biggest thing about it.

We have to remember in this election 77 percent of our very eligible voters can vote by mail, as long as they meet the deadlines and anything like that. 77 percent are up for voting by mail. And the Postal Service has now told 46 states, people in 46 states, that even if they send in their ballots in on time under state law, they may not be counted. That there's so many delays.

The issue here is not just money. The issue is services and the sabotage of the Postal Service so that it slows things down. We don't get a correct answer, we go into mess, potential mess, and a crisis after this election is over because nobody can tell who's won. And I think that would be very, very damaging for our democracy, and the Trump people, they say they're doing this honestly. It's just a matter of efficiency. Maybe they're right.

CABRERA: Right.

GERGEN: But they're doing so many things suspicious things. And we've now become I think justifiably so cynical about what they said they're going to do. But you don't trust them. And so when they say it will be fine, don't worry about it, we should give them a little money, it will be fine. It's not OK. This needs clear oversight.

CABRERA: Well, there is an oversight happening. We know the inspector general of the Postal Service is -- or at least that oversees the Postal Service is involved right now in an investigation to make sure we get to the bottom of this, and hopefully we all learn what that conclusion is before the election.

But, April, you know, the campaign is getting dirty right now. Birtherism rearing its head already again. This time against Senator Kamala Harris. Here's what two top Trump officials said about this this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I can't believe I even have to ask you this but just a simple yes or no. Do you accept the fact, and it is a fact, that Senator Kamala Harris is eligible to be vice president?

MEADOWS: Sure. And I think the president spoke to this yesterday. This is not something that we're going to pursue.

TAPPER: So when you say sure, that means yes? Yes, you accept that she's eligible to be vice president? MEADOWS: Yes. Yes. Yes. I do. Yes.

JASON MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: It is not something that anyone in our campaign is talking about. The president said that he doesn't -- it's not something we're pursuing, not something that we're interested in, and in our opinion it is case closed, end of story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Now Senator Harris has just responded. She doesn't appear to be rattled. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESUMPTIVE VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They're going to engage in lies. They're going to engage in deception. They're going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people. And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics and this is going to be a knockdown-dragout, and we're ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: April, the White House chief of staff, he says he accepts Kamala Harris is eligible. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller says case closed.

Do you think it is in fact case closed from a standpoint that Trump supporters won't try to use this as a line of attack?

RYAN: No, it's not case closed. But let's talk about the reason why we're hearing statements from the GOP. They are backtracking today because it is backfiring on them. We've been down this road. We've read the story before, the book was open and closed. This president, Donald John Trump, came out, if we remember, and had to say that what he had heard about Barack Hussein Obama was not true.

[16:15:02]

So when he tried to claim that then President Obama was illegitimate, he was born in Kenya, so we can also say the same thing about Donald J. Trump as he's trying to say about Kamala Harris. President Trump's mother was born in Scotland. So if he wants to play that game, we can play that game with him as well. But at the end of the day there's so much going on with this president, so many lies that even the basement of his base is now questioning him.

And going back to the issue of birtherism, trying to create fire under a base that is kind of leery of him at this moment in COVID and the economic downturn, he's trying to rev up the base and he's even going to more so hurt the base, going back to this Postal Service issue. People in red states are going to be hurt more so. His base. They're going to be hurt because you get medicine from the mail, you get your money from the mail. And people are having problems with their bills in the mail. So this birtherism thing is bad. This post office thing is bad. COVID

is horrific. It's deadly. And then the economic downturn, trying to stave off a depression, he's going down. And it doesn't look good for November.

CABRERA: You know, to be clear, the president didn't start this particular birtherism rumor. It was this op-ed in "Newsweek." But the fact of the matter --

RYAN: He's pushing it.

CABRERA: -- he isn't coming out and stating the fact when he's been given the opportunity.

RYAN: He's pushing it.

CABRERA: To say she was born in the U.S. This is not an issue at all. End of story.

RYAN: He's pushing it.

CABRERA: April Ryan, David Gergen, as always, it's good to have both of you here. Thank you for the conversation.

GERGEN: Thanks, Ana.

RYAN: Thank you.

CABRERA: Tomorrow's Democratic National Convention kicks off with Joe Biden supporters across the Democratic spectrum. Hear from former First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, Governor Andrew Cuomo and many more. Don't miss the first night of Democratic National Convention. Our special coverage, it starts tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern live on CNN.

Coming up, face masks come in so many different styles and materials, but it turns out all masks aren't created equal. We'll have a look at which ones protect you best and which don't work at all. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:18]

CABRERA: Some possible good news out of Florida today. The state reporting just 3,779 new coronavirus cases today. Now I say just because this is the first time that daily number has dipped below 4,000 since June. It's unclear how much masks have played a role in this decline, but health experts agree that wearing masks is key to getting the coronavirus pandemic under control.

And now we're learning more about which masks work best and some that don't work at all when it comes to preventing the spread of the virus.

CNN's Brian Todd reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They come in so many different styles, materials and designs. From N95 surgical masks, to bandanas, knitted masks, even so-called gaiters, those stretchy bands of fabric that cover the neck. Now a new study from researchers at Duke University has advice on which masks work and which don't. Gaiters or fleece masks, they say, you should stay away from.

PROF. MARTIN FISCHER, PROFESSOR, DUKE UNIVERSITY: It's a combination certainly of stretchiness of the material and the material potentially being very thin.

TODD: The bandanna, according to the researchers, may look cool but doesn't work well.

FISCHER: The material itself, that is just made a little bit more transparent, a little bit more transmissive to these droplets. In addition, there are, of course, lots of gaps.

TODD: The Duke researches tested 14 different kinds of masks. They shined iridescent light from a laser through slits in a dark box. A person spoke one phrase repeatedly into the box to create droplets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay healthy, people. Stay healthy, people.

TODD: They used a cell phone camera to record the droplets then counted the droplets that were let through by the different masks.

The ones that work well, they say, N95 surgical masks are the best, letting out very few, if any droplets. But those should be reserved for front line health care workers. Those standard surgical masks, the light blue ones that many of us can buy at stores, also work well, they say. And --

FISCHER: All the cotton masks we've tested, they work great.

TODD: The Duke researchers say there is one kind of mask that they believe does more harm than good, the fleece mask, because of the size of droplets it lets through.

FISCHER: What's noticeable here is that you see lots of particles and lots of little particles. So this is actually counterproductive because the little particles that get generated from big particles, they tend to hang around longer in the air, they get carried away easier in the air.

TODD: The Duke researchers told CNN their study is not meant as an endorsement of certain masks. Other experts are hopeful that this kind of advice can be communicated more clearly to the public, acknowledging there's been way too much confusion.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, DIRECTOR OF TRAINING, GLOBAL BIORISK ADVISORY COUNCIL: We should not have any confusion on the mask wearing. This is confusion that we ourselves, the front line workers, the government, public health experts, doctors, nurses and other influential people when it comes to infection prevention control have actually created, because we haven't got on the same page on what works and what doesn't work and what works based on evidence.

TODD (on camera): Experts say after the health professionals all get on the same page over which kind of masks work best, the next thing they have to do is find a way to distribute the masks that work to a wide range of people and train people how to put on and take off masks, and how to clean and store them, because there are specific techniques involved in that, too.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Dr. William Schaffner joins us now. He's a professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Doctor, we are starting to see the number of cases move in the right direction in many states. 17 holding steady, 20 seeing decreases in the number of cases.

How much of a role do you think mask wearing has played?

[16:25:02]

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR AT THE DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Ana, I think mask wearing is absolutely fundamental. It is critical and if there's anything that's driving things down, it would be more widespread acceptance of mask wearing. It's the most important thing to do. The next thing is, of course, distancing, six feet or more, and then staying away from those large group assemblies. All of those things will contribute to, as we say, flattening that curve, driving the rates down.

CABRERA: Now, on one hand the number of cases are going down, but we've also learned the number of tests are going down, and yet the percentage of positives are going up still in the majority of states across the U.S. And we're still seeing, you know, an average of 1,000 deaths a day. How do you square this?

SCHAFFNER: All of those things together, the testing, it may be testing fatigue, or a sense that why should I get tested if the results don't come back for a week because they're not useful? We've been hearing a great deal of that. So I'm not sure. But of the people who are tested, the proportion still remains high. And what that tells us, Ana, is that this virus is still spreading widely in the communities. It's not under control yet over most of the United States, I'm afraid.

CABRERA: Let's talk more about testing because the FDA has approved a new saliva-based coronavirus screening test for the general public. It was first used by the NBA to test asymptomatic players inside their bubble for COVID-19.

How long under Americans have access to this saliva-based test? And where is it needed most? SCHAFFNER: Well, I think anything we can do to make testing more

accessible to average people is a good thing. I think it will take weeks if not longer for this test to become more widely available, but as it comes online, I think people will like it much better than the more intrusive nasal swab test. And I think, once again, we can have it adapted so that we can follow people much more quickly, do that contact tracing, which is also so important.

CABRERA: Right. And in fact it's supposed to give you test results in a matter of hours, supposed to be cheap and again available and easier to use. So all of those seem to be, you know, good news aspects of this particular kind of test.

I also wanted to ask you about this new study because I think this is very instructive for our viewers as well. This new study was from the University of Southern California, in which the authors lay out the likely order in which coronavirus symptoms first appear. Now the researchers say the likely order based on 55,000 confirmed cases goes like this. A fever, then cough and muscle pain. That's followed by nausea and-or vomiting, and then diarrhea.

So come fall, when doctors will be faced with having to diagnose both the coronavirus or the flu in patients, how helpful is it to know the likely order of symptoms?

SCHAFFNER: Ana, it's interesting to know, but as the authors also note, there's a great deal of variation around that central theme. And I think that because we'll have flu as well as COVID out there, there'll still be lots of confusion. And if anything, the need for even more testing, because we'll see lots of kids, for example, going to school, coming home with some variation of the sniffles and cough and sore throat, we'll want to test much more widely. And I hope that saliva test will be much more widely available.

CABRERA: Quickly, if you will, you know, the CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield, warned that the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had could be what we experience this year.

What do you think the fall will look like here in the U.S.?

SCHAFFNER: Well, we've all tightened our belts here in infectious diseases and public health because we anticipate, along with Dr. Redfield, that we're going to have COVID, we'll have flu, there are other respiratory viruses out there, one called RSV, and there are others. They can all mimic each other and so we'll need to sort all that out. They'll all be making people sick simultaneously, so we could have a big hit this winter with winter respiratory infections.

All the more reason, let me say it now, get that flu shot. It can help protect you and take some of the weight off the health care system.

CABRERA: Good, good advice.

Dr. William Schaffner, good to have you here. Be well. Thank you.

SCHAFFNER: Thank you, Ana. CABRERA: President Trump continues to falsely claim mail-in voting is

rife with fraud. Now one state is considering a way for voters to bypass the post office and simply drop off their ballots. Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:00]

CABRERA: News just in. Sources tell us the House could return from their summer recess as early as the week of August 24th. We are told a conference call tomorrow is intended to sort all of this out. Democratic leadership is considering bringing the House back into session to try to combat President Trump's recent attacks on the postal service.

One holdup, the Democratic National Convention starts tomorrow. And it is unprecedented for either House of Congress to be in session at any time during either party's conventions. So, stay tuned.

[16:35:00]

CABRERA: Here's why this is so pressing. Millions of Americans are expected to vote by mail this fall, as the nation grapples with the pandemic. CNN's Abby Phillip has a closer look at what Connecticut is doing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can walk up or drive up. Either way, this is the newest way to cast your ballot in Connecticut.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very simple. Fill it out, drop it off, no problems.

PHILLIP: Drop boxes, like these, have been installed all around the state, one of the several changes made to create more options for voting during the Coronavirus pandemic. Here, it's been pretty much uncontroversial, Connecticut secretary of state Denise Merrill says.

DENISE MERRILL (D), SECRETARY OF STATE, CONNECTICUT: They're strongly in favor. Strongly in favor because it gives them more options.

PHILLIP: But in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Republicans are already challenging the state's use of drop boxes that allow voters to bypass the postal service altogether. Arguing in the lawsuit that allowing ballots to be collected in drop boxes allows illegal absent and mail-in voting ballot harvesting and other fraud to occur and-or go undetected and will result in dilution of validly cast ballots.

Meantime, President Trump continues to spread false claims of fraud with ballots submitted by mail.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're in all the mail boxes. And kids go and they raid the mailboxes and they hand them to people that are signing the ballots down at the end of the street.

PHILLIPS: Opponents say ballots could be stolen or vandalized in unsecured drop boxes.

(on camera): You've seen, so far, no evidence of fraud, tampering, vandalism?

MERRILL: No. No. The clerks empty these things a couple of times a day, actually. And they, usually, are in very prominent places. It can be very difficult to vandalize one of these boxes.

PHILLIP: You can't even stick your hand in the ballot box.

MERRILL: That's right. They're bolted to the ground. I mean, it's, really, quite a secure system.

PHILLIP: This is just a regular USPS mailbox. And, normally, you could just pull down this lever and put your ballot right inside. The opening is a little bit larger than the drop box, but it's pretty much the same.

(voice-over): In Hartford, local officials say they empty these boxes every hour in the days before Election Day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Insert the key. Both keys have to be in.

PHILLIP: Ballots are taken here.

NOEL MCGREGOR, TOWN AND CITY CLERK, HARTFORD: The inner envelope contains the ballot. We timestamp it.

PHILLIP (on camera): This bar code that you're scanning, what is that telling the system?

MCGREGOR: That John Doe has mailed his absentee ballots in.

PHILLIP (voice-over): That part of the process ensuring one person, one vote. But, this year, drop boxes may be the next front in a partisan battle over vote by mail.

MCGREGOR: To me, it's just another voter suppression. You know, we're supposed to enhance voters' ability to participate in the electoral process.

PHILLIP: States, like California, Washington and Colorado, have used them for years. Colorado, which almost votes entirely by mail, 75 percent of all ballots in 2018 were returned through ballot boxes or manually at polling locations, officials say. And officials in Connecticut see little reason for the controversy.

MERRILL: It's a way of scaring the public and trying to make them doubt their election system. And it's very destructive.

PHILLIP: Abby Phillip, CNN, Hartford, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CABRERA: The president likes to tout his boat parades as a sign of support. But what do the polls tell us just 78 days out from the election? We'll dig in, next.

[16:38:24]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The Democratic convention opens tomorrow, and it will be unlike any previous party convention, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Most convention events will be held virtually without the cheering crowds of past party conventions.

Meanwhile, President Trump is playing the distraction game with his comments about mail-in voting, and his threats to yank funding for the postal service. CNN's Senior Political Writer and Analyst Harry Enten is here with us. And, Harry, you say Biden is in better position than Hillary Clinton was in 2016 and any recent challenger to an incumbent going into the conventions.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, take a look at where the polls were just before the conventions back in 2016 and where they are now. And what you see is two key things. Number one, you see that Biden has a larger lead than Clinton had at this particular point. But, but more than that, what you also see is that Biden was over 50 percent. And that is just such a key threshold. Clinton never reached that. And, indeed, if you go back.

Over time, I think this is rather an important point -- important to point out. If you go all the way back since 1992, all the challengers versus incumbents, what you see is Biden's lead is larger than any of those. And more than that, he is over 50 percent. That is a huge threshold and essentially means he doesn't have to convince anybody else to vote for him. He's going to win, as long as he holds onto the voters that he currently has.

CABRERA: That is really interesting to see how it's gone in history. Harry, the convention is going to have a big impact on momentum, right, for candidates in the -- in the election. Are you expecting any convention bounces for Biden or Trump this year, given all the changes due to the pandemic?

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, look, this is an unconventional year, by any stretch of the imagination, not the least of which I'm doing this clip from my house. But if you look back over time, right, and you look at convention bounces, say since 2004 to 2016, versus those from 1968 to 2000, which is what you see is more recently the convention bounces have been considerably smaller. And that, of course, goes along with everything we've seen in this campaign so far, which is that it's just been a tremendously stable race.

So, in all honesty, I'm not expecting a big bounce. But, of course, this is an unpredictable year, so we'll just have to wait and see.

CABRERA: I know the last six weeks -- for the last six weeks, CNN has been tracking what Americans are hearing about the candidates and will continue to do so throughout the election. Harry, what impact is the Coronavirus pandemic having on how the candidates are being defined?

ENTEN: Yes. I think this is really interesting, right? We've -- essentially, we're asking what have voters heard about the different candidates? And what you see is that for someone like Donald Trump, you see Coronavirus is the big thing that they hear over and over and over again. It's just dominating the discussion.

While for someone like Joe Biden, in fact, you're hearing multiple different things about him. And that's a -- this is a very different dynamic than we had back in 2016 when the Hillary Clinton e-mail server scandal, the private e-mail server scandal. That was dominating Clinton, while Trump, basically, had a bunch of different things going about -- around about him. So, the dynamic has totally changed. And now, Trump, who is on the defensive, and your voters are, basically, just hearing one negative thing about him.

CABRERA: Harry Enten, always good to have you. Thank you, sir.

ENTEN: My pleasure. Have a good day.

CABRERA: You, too, my friend.

Coming up, how the spirit of Joe Biden's late son will be clear at next week's Democratic convention.

[16:45:51]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: As Joe Biden will be the first to tell you, his campaign has always been a family affair. That extended to picking his running mate. CNN's M.J. Lee reports on the bond forged by his late son.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M.J. LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Biden selecting Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate, a decision he says is all in the family.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala, you've been an honorary Biden for quite some time. You know, I came first to know who Kamala was through our son, Beau Biden. They were friends.

LEE: Harris, once the attorney general of California, served alongside Biden's son, Beau.

HARRIS: I would now like to introduce a great attorney general, the attorney general of the state of Delaware, Beau Biden.

LEE: Rising political stars, just four years apart, Harris and Biden forged a close friendship as they tackled shared issues.

HARRIS: There was a whole finding about how the big banks had been engaged in predatory lending activities. Beau Biden stood with me. LEE: But in May of 2015, tragedy struck the Biden family. Beau Biden

lost his battle with brain cancer at the age of 46. Harris attended his funeral service in Wilmington, Delaware. His death came in the middle of his father's vice presidency. And Joe Biden, devastated the loss of his son, announced months later that he would not return for president in 2016.

BIDEN: Unfortunately, I believe we're out of time, the time necessary to mount a winning campaign for the nomination.

LEE: Four years later, Biden and Harris both on the campaign trail as political rivals running for the White House. Then, there was this key moment in the first Democratic debate last year when Harris sharply criticized Biden for his past work with segregationist senators.

HARRIS: You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.

BIDEN: That's a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists.

LEE: Biden later expressed surprise at the attack.

BIDEN: I wasn't prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at me. She knew Beau. She knows me.

LEE: Harris ended her presidential campaign in December. And, in March, endorsed Biden with a tribute to his son.

HARRIS: I got to know Joe through Beau. And Beau showed courage all the time and conviction. And he spoke with so much love about the father who raised the man that he was. I know Joe, and that's why I'm supporting him.

LEE: Sources tell CNN Harris spoke at length about her relationship with Beau Biden in her interview with Joe Biden's vice presidential selection committee. And it was that relationship that clearly impacted Biden's decision.

BIDEN: My campaign has always been a family affair. Every campaign I've run. I know how much Beau respected Kamala and her work. And that mattered a lot to me, to be honest with you, as I made this decision.

LEE: M.J. Lee, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: And don't forget to tune in for our special coverage of the Democratic National Convention which kicks off tomorrow with Joe Biden supporters across the Democratic spectrum. Hear from former first lady, Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and much more. Special coverage starts tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern live on CNN.

That does it for me this evening. I'm Ana Cabrera. Thank you for joining me. My colleague, Wolf Blitzer, is up next with a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM." Have a great week.

[16:53:55]

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.

[17:00:02]

BLITZER: Tomorrow, the Democratic National Convention kicks off, and it will be like no other in U.S. history.