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Biden: Will Take Voter Questions If Trump Won't Do Virtual Debate; Feds Charge Six Men Accused In Plot To Kidnap Michigan Governor; 10 Million Plus Under Watches, Warnings As Delta Strengthens In Gulf. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 08, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

LISA LERER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So this is of course about debates. But it's also about the really the major issue in this race, which is the coronavirus and how the administration has handled the spread of this pandemic.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Right. And now both campaigns, MJ, trying to game this out, if you will, in the sense that Joe Biden is in the driver's seat right now, our electoral college projection has an above 270 electoral votes, the battle state polls in recent days have all been moving Biden's way. And a lot of Republicans are worried that the President is giving up an opportunity to have 60, 70 million people, if he's going to mount to come back, he needs an audience.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, if things go as they currently look like they are going to go, this is not a bad situation for Joe Biden and his campaign, right? Because where things stand right now is that the President has declined this opportunity to debate though, from remote settings. So what they're proposing is Biden and Trump being in separate rooms in separate locations because there is a serious health concern.

Trump is saying no to that. So he is sort of the one that is backing out of this opportunity to face off against Biden. And if Biden does what his campaign says, but he will do, which is just to hold another town hall style event, and make sure that that conversation with the American voters takes place, well, then he's having an event, and he's getting his message out there.

And meanwhile, who knows what the President is going to do that night, right? He has already said that he is now eager to hold those campaign rallies again. So if we're talking about a potential split screen of Joe Biden holding a responsibly held, Town Hall event that will adhere to the health, public health guidelines that everyone says you need to stick to when you hold an event like that. And then on the other side of the split screen, you potentially have the President, maybe holding a large indoor or outdoor rally where people are not math.

And he says, you know, I think I'm immune from this, I don't think that I can spread this anymore. I mean, that split screen could not be in more sort of a contrast. And I think all of that sort of ends up being an advantage to Biden at a moment when, as you said, President Trump really can't afford to miss an opportunity to get his numbers up this close to Election Day.

KING: And so these pandemic safety concerns now and the President's response to them, putting the debates in jeopardy. The pandemic, of course, flashpoint, number one, when the two candidates for Vice President went out last night, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: On January 28th, the Vice President and the President more informed about the nature of this pandemic. They knew and they covered it up.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reality is Dr. Fauci said, everything that he told the President in the Oval Office, the President told the American people. Now President Trump, I will tell you, has boundless confidence in the American people and he always spoke with confidence that we'd get through this together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And Lisa, there was a lot of Dr. Fauci and a lot of way of confidence in the American people. There was not a lot of detailed answers to how and why things went so wrong early on in this administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

LERER: Yes, essentially, the case that Mike Pence was trying to make was that well, things could have been worse that the administration took steps and that mitigated how, you know, how out of control is pandemic spread. And it's just a really hard case to make. I mean, I think there's very few Americans, if any, whose lives have been untouched by this pandemic, people feel this national crisis, acutely, they feel it in their pocketbooks. They feel it in their kid's education. They feel it when they think about caring for elderly people that may be in their lives.

So I -- and we know from the polling that they give the President and the administration pretty poor marks for their handling of the virus. So I think part of what we saw in this debate is just how much easier the case it is for Democrats to make their case. They basically just have to argue, what voters already believe, at least according to the polling, which is that the administration didn't do their job and controlling the spread of this virus.

Whereas Pence and Republicans have to argue that it could have been worse, which is, you know, it's just -- thing's already pretty bad. I mean, we know from polling that at least half of Americans believe that things are only going to worsen in the winter. So he had a tough set of cards to play for sure.

KING: I need to sadly end the conversation there because of some very disturbing breaking news. We're following now out of the state of Michigan. The FBI Listen to this, the FBI says it has foiled a plot to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer. Our crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is following this breaking news for us and joins us. Shimon, what do we know?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. So it's six individuals that have been charged in a criminal complaint and as you said, according to this criminal complaint was a conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan and what the FBI describes is quite an extensive operation that they had undertaken.

[12:35:08]

They had undercovers. They had a cooperating witness, a human source who was inside this operation that was providing information to them. And what these six individuals were trying to do, according to this complaint, was overthrow the government there in Michigan, possibly talked about kidnapping the governor, they talked about trying to find her home, her vacation home, and then using a boat perhaps to escape, all sorts of really wild details about this plot.

Now, of course, the FBI was aimed on this plot throughout. They were -- they had information. They had other sources providing them information. They had undercovers that were also being used as part of this operation. And really, they got inside this operation. And as I said, it's six individuals that the FBI has charged.

And they also were trying to recruit other people to join this operation. The criminal complaint talks about a meeting in Ohio between several individuals who gathered there and how they talked about creating a society where it would follow, the complaints has followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self- sufficient. They discuss of various different ways of achieving the goal from peaceful endeavors to violent actions.

Now, of course, you know, John, I think it's important to know that this is something that the FBI Director, Christopher Wray has talked about openly the concerns for these kinds of domestic violent groups, these extremist groups here in the U.S. that he has talked about, that are a growing threat. And you can see this extensive operation here, by the FBI, by this group, by these individuals, that they were able to get inside, thankfully, and thwart any kind of plot to try and kidnap the governor.

But this is exactly the concern, as we've heard from the FBI of folks who have these extremist views who could potentially do harm here in the United States, John. Now, there's supposed to be a press conference in the short time where we'll probably learn more information. And then the governor is supposed to address her, supposed to have a statement around 3 o'clock or so as well.

KING: Disturbing allegations and you mentioned the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking these groups that essentially are mad at both -- been mad at state governors for some time. And we saw early on throughout the coronavirus response in the state of Michigan demonstrations outside of the state capitol, in Atlanta, some of those demonstrations carrying guns.

This governor has become a flashpoint in this national debate over states imposing restrictions to try to protect their citizens from the coronavirus. Do we know, and I know this is a breaking news story, I don't put you to bed, do we know how much of that directly factors into this? Have they traced it directly to that? Or is it just the motives of this group in a larger context?

PROKUPECZ: It's not clear to me because as you said, John, it's still breaking. I'm still reading through the documents. When, you know, this goes back to June and even earlier than that, if there's dates that are mentioned in criminal complaints in June and July of meetings that these individuals were having, discussing tactical training, weapons training, all sorts of kinds of things we've seen in other outside terrorism groups, right, international terrorism, people who come here from the outside, wanting to do harm.

But this was all happening here domestically and in different parts of the country where they were doing these meetings to discuss this plot and train for a possible attack here. So but there is no mention so far from what I can see here relating to any of the earlier incidents that you mentioned, John.

KING: Shimon Prokupecz, our crime and justice reporter. Shimon will come back to us when we get more information on this disturbing case. Again, the headlines, six men charged by the feds in an alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor part of her plan to disrupt the government in the state of Michigan. We will stay on top of that story and bring you more as soon as we get it.

[12:39:25]

Also, we're following this, up next, the Trump campaign releasing training tapes. The President says he wants his supporters to show up on Election Day as poll watchers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We know the President wants his supporters to turn out on Election Day as poll watchers. And now new training videos posted by the Trump campaign in 17 states are instructing this army of poll watchers the campaign plans to deploy. The message, be vigilant, behave, be courteous, even to Democrats.

CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes is part of our CNN team that reviewed these tapes. Kristen take us inside what we're learning that tone, behave, be nice, sounds a lot different from what we hear from the President.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's absolutely right, John. I mean, these are two very different strategies, which I guess seems right, since that's what we've seen throughout this entire presidency. You have President Trump, who has incendiary language. He says that Democrats are going to try and steal the election. And as you said, he's encouraging his supporters to just show up at the polls and watch which is not how poll watching actually works.

And then you have the strategic side here, which is the RNC and the campaign, putting together this messaging that looks very different. And I want to note poll watchers are a critical part of the legal strategy of the RNC and the Trump campaign as we head into the election. So they need them to actually behave.

[12:45:04]

I mean, take a look at this. We have these Colorado dues here. And of course, I'm just going to summarize it for you. But it says, be courteous to all, even Democrats, it says politely ask questions, dress professionally. Take a look at the Colorado don'ts. It says don't show up late. Don't take audio or video recording, something that we have heard a Trump associates saying to do to take video in those polls. Don't be confrontational. Don't interfere with other poll watchers or with the voters.

And I think it really sums it up. This is from a training in Maine. And I know it shows you the text on the screen. But I wanted to actually tell you what the speaker says when this slide comes up. He says essentially, the key is to behave yourself and not act like a fool, so very different messaging. But I have to tell you, you know, we have been talking to these state and local election officials, they're not as concerned about the people who actually are going to go through the training. What they're concerned about is the people who listen to President Trump's rhetoric and show up on Election Day. They are concerned about voter intimidation, John.

KING: Yet another of the many uncertainties as we get closer to Election Day and then counting the votes. Kristen Holmes grateful you're staying on top of this for us. We're going to have a long few weeks ahead without a doubt.

Still ahead for us, the Gulf Coast preparing another hurricane, takes aim.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:05]

KING: More than 10 million people now under hurricane watches and warnings as the Gulf Coast braces for another possibly devastating storm, sandbagging, other preparations. See it right there already underway in Gulf communities expected to take the brunt of Hurricane Delta. Many of those communities of course still recovering from the devastation brought by Hurricane Laura back in August.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray keeping tabs on Delta. What do we know?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, it's remarkable to see how close this landfall is going to be from Hurricane Laura less than two months ago same communities impacted as you said, right now a category two. It is strengthening though. It is getting its act together. You can see that I starting to pop out in those latest frames. It has gusts of 125 miles per hour most likely will become a category three within the next 12 to 18 hours.

This is moving to the northwest at 14 miles per hour. Here are all the tropical storm watches and warnings, the hurricane warnings you can see from High Island, Texas all the way over to South Central Louisiana and they extend well inland as well, the blue, the tropical storm warnings as well.

So here's the latest forecast track you can see becoming a category three and then weakening just a little bit before making landfall by Friday evening. Now the impacts will be felt much sooner beginning early tomorrow morning. We'll start to see the rain bands come on, conditions deteriorating, the winds as well picking up. This storm is twice as big now as it was when it made its first landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Once it makes landfall, though, it will continue to weakening -- weekend and we will have major flooding all across the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Important to note we have already had three named storms make landfall in Louisiana. This would make it a fourth. And so it really is unheard of to have this many landfalls for one state, 110 mile per hour winds, the area shaded in purple and then you can see the winds extend northward, hurricane force winds all the way up into Central Louisiana.

We could see significant storm surge with this as well, John. We could see 4 to 7 feet, 7 to 11 across that central vulnerable coastline in South Louisiana.

KING: Jennifer Gray, grateful you're tracking that for us and everybody in those areas. Please keep your eye on our weather center and then listen to your local officials.

[12:53:25]

Coming up for us, some global coronavirus headlines including Italy tightening its mask policy as coronavirus cases rebound.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Some important global coronavirus developments now from our reporters around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Fred Pleitgen in Berlin where Germany has seen a major jump in new coronavirus infections. The German Center for Disease Control announced that there had been more than 4,000 new infections in the span of only 24 hours. Now the German government has said it's very concerned about the recent spike in infections. And one of the things it's also very concerned about is that the government says that in the past four weeks, the amount of people in this country who require intensive care has doubled.

German government is urging all Germans to continue to adhere to the anti-pandemic measures and has also put some new measures in place as well. But the German health minister at a press conference today said that Germany needs to come to terms with this new situation or risk what he calls an uncontrolled spread of the virus.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Delia Gallagher in Rome. Italy has made it mandatory from today to wear face masks outdoors throughout the country. There is a fine of up to 1,000 euros for those who fail to comply. This latest measure comes as Italy records its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases. Today 4,458 new cases, that's not as high as some European countries, but it's the highest for Italy in the last six months.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says the new measure of facemasks outdoors is necessary to avoid eventually having to shut down businesses. And Italy has included the United Kingdom on its list of high risk countries. That means anybody coming to Italy from the U.K. will have to undergo a swab test at airports and other points of entry. Other European countries on that list include France, Spain, Greece, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

[13:00:08]