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Joe Biden Is Leading President Trump; WAPO: CIA Assessment Says Putin "Probably Directing" Campaign To 'Denigrate' Biden; Young Voters Could Play Major Role In 2020 Election. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 22, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:39]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Election Day is six weeks from today and you would have to say, as of today, it is advantage Biden, a steady lead, stable lead in the national polls. And Biden neither leads or is in play in most of the key battleground states around the country. Will the Supreme Court fight change the dynamics of an election that's so far has been mainly about the President's handling of the coronavirus. Let's discuss, with me as the Democratic pollster Margie Omero and the Republican pollster Neil Newhouse.

Margie, to you first on that point, if you're a Democrat and you're looking at the national polls, a pretty stable race throughout the year, Joe Biden leads still in the ballpark of six through eight points, I can show you some of the battleground state polls we've seen in the last couple of days. In North Carolina, a very close race, Biden on top, Arizona, Biden on top, Florida, very close, Texas, very close, Iowa, very close. You could read this both ways. But the fact that all of those states, every one of them carried by Trump four years ago is in play. It tells you Biden has an easier path. Do you believe this Supreme Court fight changes the dynamics of the election in a way that hurts Biden and helps the President?

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: I think people are going to be looking, well, first of all the polling shows we have some polling from navigator that we released today showing a 20 point -- by 20 point margin. People would prefer the winner of the election to pick the next Supreme Court justice by a 20 point margin. A lot of polling has shown that that more people trust Biden on Supreme Court's picks, trust, well, Democrats point of view over Trump.

And then on top of it, we're talking about what is the focus? What are the priorities of the Senate? What do people want to see the Senate work on? Do they want to see the Senate throw us into more chaos and political divisions and partisan divisions at a time when we need all hands on deck to really focus on the coronavirus?

And the polling shows, very clearly, people want to see, you know, more leadership, they want more from their senators. They want more on relief. They want more action on the coronavirus. They don't want more divisions, to take the court in a direction that is already out of balance from where voters are on things like the Affordable Care Act.

KING: So Neil you could look at these two ways. And I get -- I completely understand the power play here in the sense that if you believe these polls, the President might lose. If you believe these polls, Republicans might lose control of the Senate. So you have the chance to have a Supreme Court nomination. Do it now, while you have the power. Are you concerned at all that a short term game, if you will, and a legacy game for this President in a conservative court for a generation could have an impact and adverse impact when people vote whether it's the presidential race or these key set of contests?

NEIL NEWHOUSE, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: John, I mean, we're looking for moments in the campaign in the last 42 days that are going to change things. The Supreme -- this debate over Supreme Court justice could actually do that. The actual debate on the 29th could do that. Trump is fighting three enemies in this campaign. He's fighting coronavirus, he's fighting Joe Biden, and he's fighting the calendar.

And truthfully, I think the calendar may be putting the most pressure on him right now in terms of having just 42 days left. So, to try to shake things up and make something happen, I think that's a smart move for Republicans. And yes, you're taking a bit of a chance in terms of which voters are going to be motivated by this debate. But it's a debate that worked to his advantage in the Kavanaugh hearings, you know, last at two years ago, and it could work through his advantage this timeout as well.

KING: So let me stay with you, Neil as the Republican in the group, just to share this. You know, we have 200,000 Americans dead today in the coronavirus pandemic. You have 41 percent of this new NPR poll who approved the President's handling, 57 percent who disapprove. I get that a Supreme Court nomination fight shakes up the race in the final six weeks, but the coronavirus has disrupted our lives for most of the year and we have the case count ticking up again.

Does the President need to change what he says last night at a rally he was quite callous essentially saying, you know, old people with heart disease get the coronavirus, everybody else is good?

NEWHOUSE: No. I mean I don't know what I'd be telling the President right now, about what I would say to coronavirus. But it is a -- it's a huge issue. And you see it in the polling where voters are overwhelmingly concerned about it and the impact it's had on them and their families. And the -- but President all be doing is talking about the issue what he's doing to try to address it and again, taking the protective action wearing mask, social distancing. And it's a just a challenge for anybody right now.

[12:35:16]

KING: And so Margie, one of the challenges for Joe Biden is to answer all the criticism from the President and other Republicans that he's become a captive, a puppet, as a term they use of Bernie Sanders and AOC of the left. So Joe Biden says, that's not me, that's not my history, that's not my career, that's not who I am. I want to play, listen to how he answered the question last night. We'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I beat the socialist, that's how I got elected. That's how I got the nomination. Do I look like a socialist? Look at my career, my whole career. I am not a socialist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I beat the socialist, that's how I got elected. Would you have preferred maybe to not -- Joe Biden, not pick a fight or poke Bernie Sanders at this moment of the campaign and maybe choose a different way to say that?

OMERO: You know, look, I don't know. You're talking about, you know, in comparison to what the President says on a minute by minute basis about, you know, bullying everyone in America and talking callously about people who've lost our lives. I mean, you know, I think that -- I think the Biden campaign is doing a good job of getting his message across and unifying Democrats. Democrats are completely unified behind Joe Biden. And you see that in the polls, you see independents breaking toward Joe Biden.

KING: Margie and Neil grateful for your time today. Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

NEWHOUSE: Biden strategy, he's just trying to run out the clock right now. It's like a four corners offense in basketball. He's just basically trying to run out the clock for the next seven weeks without any kind of -- six weeks without, you know, answering how he stands on any of these issues. I think the debate will be telling, that will smoke came out from the -- his basement in Delaware.

KING: If you're a candidate who are leading, you might have the same approach. But we will see. We will see, we do get a debate week from next week. It'll be great to see. Margie and Neil, we'll have you back to talk about it.

Coming up for us, brand new reporting, detailing who's in charge of the Russian interference in the 2020 election.

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[12:41:33]

KING: Important new reporting in "The Washington Post" today about Russian interference in the 2020 election. Josh Rogin of "The Washington Post" says a CIA report assesses that the Russian President Vladimir Putin is quote, probably personally pulling the strings in this campaign and that he is definitely aware of it. Let's discuss with James Clapper. He's a CNN national security analyst and of course, the former director of national intelligence in the Obama administration.

Director Clapper, it is good to see you. I want to read you Josh Rogan says he got access to the CIA assessment published August 31st. This is the first line of that assessment. We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. Vice President, supporting the U.S. President, and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November.

Help me because you're so familiar with the language of these intelligence reports. It's on the public record that the Trump intelligence community says Russia is interfering again, they're trying to hurt Biden and help Trump. That part is on the record. So what is the significance to have a CIA assessment and that language in it?

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first John, thanks for having me. And a point I have to make at the outset is if this represents a leak from a classified document, that's never good. So I have to, I'm obliged to say that. But I notice no one has denied the facts of it.

A couple points are really important here. First, this is to me a reprise of 2016. And we made the same assessment then that Putin was certainly knowledgeable and in fact, directed the interference in 2016. And it's no big surprise that he's doing it again, even in the absence of such a report, and this is an assessment, apparently, even in the absence of it, though, understanding how things work in Russia with Putin, that there's no way that an interference campaign, an information operations campaign have the magnitude and scope and aggressiveness of what the Russians did in 2016 and apparently are doing again in 2020.

There's no way that would happen without Putin's knowledge and direction. So this is simply affirmation -- confirmation of what has already been said both by Director Wray of the FBI and Will Evanina who is director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, who was kind of the nominal spokesman for election interference on behalf of the Director of National Intelligence.

So it's significant but not surprising. And again, given Putin's background, a trained career KGB officer, he has a very astute and sophisticated understanding of the tools that he can use to interfere with our election process and to sow doubt, discord and distrust, which he's doing fairly well.

KING: Would you not consider the obligation of the President of the United States, whatever his or her name is, to call this out to call it out publicly?

CLAPPER: Well, you know, of course. And that's, you know, kind of what's missing here. I'm sure a lot has been done on both at the federal and state and local level to try to secure our election apparatus. But what is missing here is the voice that can only come from the bully pulpit of the President to dime out what the Russians are doing and to caution American voters to recognize what the Russians are doing. And of course, you know, for whatever reason, we don't have that.

[12:45:20]

KING: We don't have that. And in fact, just yesterday, the President was asked at the White House about the poisoning of the Russian opposition leader, with the German say, with a chemical weapon that is available only to the Russians. And the President said this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do you think poisoned Alexei Navalny in Russia?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll talk about that at another time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This has been a recurring frustration, Director Clapper, and you know it that the President does not like to call out Vladimir Putin. Yes, people in his administration have done so. Yes, the Treasury Department and others have had times adopted sanctions. And they have the government has taken action against Russia. But to your point the President has not in the new Bob Woodward book rage, a man who held the job that you once held, Dan Coats.

Bob Woodward writes this way, he suspected, meaning Director Coats, the worst but found nothing that would show Trump was indeed in Putin's pocket. He and key staff members examine the intelligence as carefully as possible. There was no proof, period. But Coats's doubts continued, never fully dissipating. That is Bob Woodward writing about Dan Coats, a former respected Republican senator who became the director of National Intelligence. You understand that feeling, don't you?

CLAPPER: Yes, I do. And of course, there's been long speculation about this strange difference that the President has for Putin, where he not only refuses to criticize him to dine him out, but size with him as he did in Helsinki, in which he agreed with Putin's assertion that he had not interfered and Russia had not interfered in our election in 2016.

Over the judgment that the intelligence community then which in I was in, rendered. So, you know, it's very curious about this dichotomy between what the government does witness the Treasury impose sanctions on Russia versus the President's stance. It's very, very cherry of any kind of criticism, Russia or Putin.

KING: Director Clapper, it's great to see you. Appreciate your insights, Sir.

CLAPPER: Thanks, John.

KING: Thank you.

Ahead for us, this is national voter registration day. We'll take a look at how young voters could play a major role in 2020.

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[12:52:26]

KING: Election Day is six weeks from today but voting is already underway in 20 states starting today. Missouri during the growing list of states you see them there with mail-in voting or in person early voting underway. Today is also national voter registration day. CNN focusing on the key issues that matter to voters as part of our citizen by CNN Project, one group that could play a significant role in the outcome of the election, young voters. But many in person registration events that target young voters say at shopping malls or on college campuses, canceled, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Joining me now is Abby Kiesa director of Impact at CIRCLE, that organization conducts research in young voters at Tufts University. Abby, good to see you. It's a very important day. Some data you provided that show 20 states, 20 states so we can show a map of this where registration among young voters in 2020 already exceeds 2016 levels. The challenge is, that shows early voting underway are starting today, we could show higher youth voter registration map, hopefully we can get it up there on the screen for you. If you it already in 20 states, you have exceeded 2016 levels. How do you get to 50?

ABBY KIESA, DIRECTOR OF IMPACT, CIRCLE: Thanks so much for asking that John. So at CIRCLE Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, we're looking not only at young people's access to opportunities to participate and their influence, we're also looking at how we can make those opportunities more accessible.

And one of the things that we all can do in the next six weeks, regardless of who we are, whether or not we're in the media, parents, friends, we can talk to people about the essential information that they might need. We can talk to people about what they think about the election. Ask young people especially what they think about issues. And be talking to other people about that, posting on social media, texting folks to make sure that all of this is really in front of the people who need access to it.

KING: And when you say in front, when you identify the challenges to getting more young people to register, you say a lack of knowledge about online voter registration, a lack of access to information about how to cast absentee and mail ballots. This information is available in places. I'm guessing the challenge here is to get it to younger people in the places they use, the platforms they use, whether that'd be social media, or other means, is that right?

KIESA: Exactly. And one of the important things to point out about young people is that, 15 million young people, 18 to 29 have aged into the electorate since the last presidential election. So at least one- third of young people don't have experience with accessing some of these, you know, websites or systems previously. And that's a significant thing that we have to do every election cycle is bring those millions of young people into our small Democratic system.

[12:55:02]

And one of the things in this year where we have the pandemic happening is some of the change -- some of the state laws, not laws, but some of the state processes have changed. And so everyone needs to relearn these processes because only about a quarter of 18 to 29 year olds have voted absentee by mail before. And so that's a lot of young people who need new access to this information.

KING: Abby Kiesa, grateful for your work and your insights today. Keep us posted on those numbers as we move through the next couple of weeks and people get a chance to register. Thanks so much. And make sure you can check out our website.

KIESA: Thank you.

KING: If you need some help, go to our website CNN.com/vote, you'll find a voter guide and just where you can watch the virtual conference citizen by CNN that's streaming right now. Glad you could spend some time with us today. Hope to see you tomorrow. Briana Keilar picks up after a quick break. Have a good day.

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