Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Poll Shows Biden has Double-Digit Lead Nationally against Trump; Obama Expected to Hit Campaign Trail for Biden Next Week; California GOP Refuses to Remove Unofficial Ballot Drop Boxes. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired October 15, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: Senior citizens, Biden, plus ten, Trump won that group.

I want to start with the women right there, the gender gap there. 26 points in the current NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, it was 27 points in the last NBC/Wall Street Journal. It has been 20 points or more throughout the year in that polling. It was 19 points in 2018, and that's why Democrats won the House in a blue wave and Nancy Pelosi is speaker. If that number does not move, can Donald Trump win?

NEIL NEWHOUSE, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: Look, John, it's not just women, truthfully. It's women and men. It's white women, white men. The president is not doing nearly as well among his base, among white men, as he did before.

We have significant challenges between now and Election Day. It is a very, very narrow path to kind of thread this Electoral College needle. I mean, as you point out, I mean, Trump is behind by double digits nationally, swing states are against him.

The key thing here is time is running out and our opportunity is running out as well. So we're looking at a potential October surprise or something that comes down the road to change things around but it's -- we're running out of time in this campaign.

KING: Running out of time, Neil says, Margie. Look, there's always a gender gap, at least in recent years, there's a gender gap. But when you look at Biden plus 26, Margie, in this NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll, you see similar gaps in some of the key battleground states. What is it? Why is it that the women of America, if things don't change, just as they did in 2018, are going to send a message of repudiation to this president?

MARGIE OMERO, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER, GBAO: I don't know if the segment is long enough to catalog all the things that the president has done that has upset women voters of a variety of backgrounds across the country. But I should just point out, and I think Neil mentioned this, is that the gender gap is not just about Biden's advantage among women, it's the difference between women and men, and that gap is actually not that wider than it has been in past elections across presidential elections.

It's just that men are supporting -- I mean, they're supporting Trump. It depends on the poll, but by a smaller margin than we've seen in past elections. Some polls have shown Biden and Trump tied with men. So it's not just about how well Biden is doing with women, it is that Biden is doing, relatively speaking, better with men than Democrats have in other years.

So I think all of that suggests not just the massive hurdle and obstacle Trump has to regaining any ground with women, but it's also that he's, you know, not doing well really across the board. I mean, that's -- with numbers like these, that's clearly the pattern that emerges.

KING: Right. So, Neil, to that point, we all lived through 2016, so, every day, I get up and I kick every rock I can find and look underneath it. Every state poll that comes out, every national poll that comes out, you're just looking. Is there something that tells you, here he comes, right, Trump is going to come back like he did in 2016?

And you keep looking under every rock, and please correct me if I'm wrong, at the moment, I don't see it. And to Margie's point, one of the things, let's look at where the president does have advantages. This is, again, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, where the president has advantages over Joe Biden but there's a big but among men, Trump is now have plus five.

In 2016, he won that constituency by 11. Among white voters overall, Trump is plus four. He won by 20 in 2016. Among whites with no college degree, he is plus 31 but he won that constituency by 37 points. So not only is he going whooped among women voters and shellacked among traditional Democratic constituencies, but he's lost part of his own base there. Why?

NEWHOUSE: Numbers are a terrible thing when you have to like defend them like this. But, John, the bottom line here is this is a referendum on President Trump. And with his job approval at no more than 44 percent of the vote, that puts him at a significant disadvantage.

And when you look at the difference between 2016 and 2020, first of all, 2016, Democrats were, you know -- probably felt the same way about President Trump's chances as they do today. But there are some significant differences. Number one is turnout. There's going to be a huge turnout this year. Every poll we do, everything on the ground indicates a huge turnout.

Second the early vote, the NBC News/Wall Street News Journal poll shows that 18 percent of voters have already voted and they're voting for Biden by 73 to 24. THIRD is, Biden's not Hillary Clinton. Biden's image is a net positive or right around net positive. Hillary was under water by ten points.

And then fourth thing is the calendar, lack of opportunity. You have one debate left, and by that point in time, a quarter of Americans will probably have voted.

So we're running out of time and this is a referendum on President Trump. And given his numbers right now, that does not put him in a good position.

KING: It does not, especially if you're a Republican running for Senate or governor or House or dogcatcher in any of these battleground states. It looks bad at the moment.

[11:35:00]

Neil and Margie, thank you so much. Margie, you get more time next time, I promise. I wanted to start with the Republican today because the numbers aren't so great. Thank you so much.

Up next for us, hospitals under severe pressure in several states as the coronavirus case count surges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:00]

KING: The fall coronavirus case surge is straining hospital capacity in several states. Count Wisconsin among them. The number of people hospitalized in Wisconsin is above 1,000 patients for the first time in this pandemic.

Joining us to discuss the challenge Dr. Ashok Rai, he is the president and CEO of Prevea Health. Sir, thank you very much.

You're in Brown County, which is the home of Green Bay, which is one of the hardest hit areas of the state. When you talk about your networks of hospital, I see you told our team before the program you're taking things hour by hour. What does that mean in terms of patient care when you're so stressed, you're taking things hour by hour?

DR. ASHOK RAI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PREVEA HEALTH: It means that we're not able to give the kind of care we truly want to give to the entire community, which is being available for them 24/7. It's not the fact that maybe we have 126 COVID patients across all four hospitals in Green Bay, that's 126 beds that we need for other things that were designed to do, such as that next stroke coming in, that next heart attack, we'll take care of that patient.

But then we've got to find a place to put them in the next hour. If there was a major car accident today in Green Bay between all the hospitals, we wouldn't be able to take care of it given just the lack of critical care beds and regular beds, and which also means the lack of staff and everything required for that. So it's a crisis we have to manage every hour.

KING: And as you try to manage it, as you mentioned, the potential damaging domino effect on other patients with other conditions who might need help, whether it's emergency care, heart attacks or the like, why is this, the national average right now of positivity, average coronavirus testing comes back just over 5 percent? In Wisconsin right now, it is just under 22 percent. What is it in Wisconsin that has you in the middle of this crisis right now?

RAI: If you rewind back to May when Wisconsin was also in the headlines when we had outbreaks at meatpacking plants and other manufacturing areas, we knew the source, we were able to control it and we had human behavior on our side.

Now, the source is so widespread, it's all over the community and we definitely don't have human behavior on our side. Whether it's the politics of it or just the fatigue, we don't have a community that is physically distancing, that's complying with masking, and that's how you get over a 20 percent positivity rate.

KING: Well, you mentioned, is it fatigue, is it political leadership. The president of the United States, the country's number one leader, its top leader, is coming to your state this weekend in Janesville to have a rally of his supporters. Should he?

RAI: You know, I can't tell the president what to do, like I can't tell anybody not to go to the bar or have a wedding. It's well beyond even political rallies. Even family gatherings shouldn't be happening right now, let alone anybody gathering. Even with masking, it's still difficult to see how you can put 10 or 15 or 20 people in a room, let alone thousands of people.

So it's extremely concerning. We wish that people would use their better judgment from around the country and in the state of Wisconsin and not have large gatherings right now.

KING: Dr. Rai, grateful for your time. I know you're extraordinarily busy. Please keep in touch with our team. We'll keep on top of this as we go through the challenging days and weeks ahead. Thank you, sir.

RAI: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us, back to campaign 2020, and Joe Biden about to get some help on the campaign trail from Barack Obama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

KING: Former President Barack Obama is warming up for a return to the campaign trail. Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, states under consideration for late campaign Obama appearances and he is also the star in Democratic videos about how to navigate new pandemic voting rules.

Now, we know there is zero love lost between President Obama and his successor, who, of course, spent years promoting the bogus idea that Obama wasn't born in the United States. That was one topic when President Obama sat down with former aides for a podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: As I was writing the book and I was just looking through some of the old stuff about Trump -- Trump was complimentary of me for like the first two years. So like, yes, Obama seems like doing a great job, you know?

Thinking, you know -- and, essentially, what happened, because the guy just decided he wanted attention, right, whether it was to promote Celebrity Apprentice or whatever, he looked and saw what was being fed and he said, oh, if that's -- if that's what folks want, I can do that with even less inhibition, right? So with even less of a -- I don't need a dog whistle, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. And I'll just -- and that's how the whole birtherism shtick came about.

Our country has always had this battle, right, between these darker impulses to exclude, to dominate, to rig the game in favor of certain folks and not others. And then, the other side of it has been to expand and embrace the dignity and inherent worth of every individual, regardless of what they look like or where they come from. And that tug of war is always going to be there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip joins me with more.

It is interesting to listen to the former president, Abby. I've heard him talk about Trump and birtherism in not so common tone, and it is understandable. But this is an interesting moment for him and for the Biden campaign to get him back on the trail, trying to energize turnout in key places in the final days.

[11:50:04]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, I think that this is a reprisal for Barack Obama of this very role that he played even four years ago when -- he played the role of the closer for Hillary Clinton as well. But, obviously, the stakes are -- I mean, you heard him say it, he believes the stakes are even higher than they were then.

What struck me about this interview was -- I mean, I think just there -- this is not taking sort of some kind of aloof higher ground on this, he's really digging in on his criticism of Trump personally, from a policy perspective.

And then I think what you will see from him, obviously, is trying to convey a sense of urgency, particularly to black voters in some of those states that you just showed that this is not like, you know, 2016 when you did see a downward swing in turnout compared to when he was on the ballot.

I just don't know for sure that that is going to be effective. But, obviously, you can see from what he is doing now and what they have plans to do, that they're going to try their hardest to get that message out. And if there's anybody that can do it, it is probably Barack Obama.

KING: And it's interesting, because a lot of Democrats scoffed at Joe Biden at the beginning of the campaign, when he was essentially running on unity and competence, right? Unity and competence, I know how to run the government.

But listen here. Even the guy who brought us hope and change back in 2007-2008 says, yes, competence should be part of your choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I would say to anybody who is skeptical about what government can do generally is to just take the example of when we were in office. You might not have been happy with everything I did, all my policy choices. I didn't eliminate poverty in America. But when we had a pandemic or threat of pandemic, we had competent people in place who would deal with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He's essentially saying adult leadership that understands and respects government and its institutions, not a bad thing.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, the hope and change candidate after eight years as president is now sort of like the bureaucratic competency president. And I think that that is actually the Joe Biden message, which is that this pandemic has shown what kind of President Donald Trump is.

And I think you'll see President Obama reiterating that probably a lot because, for all of the criticism of the Obama administration, I think that there is a sense that there wasn't this sort of topsy-turvy nature to his presidency, and he is basically making the case that Joe Biden would be another version of that, just more of that same kind of -- a certain kind of stability.

So that's the case that he's going to be making and it's totally different from what he made to voters when he was running. But this is what the entire election is about, how the coronavirus pandemic was handled and how Joe Biden would handle it as president.

KING: Abby Phillip, grateful for the reporting and insights. Interesting, 19 days to come.

Up next, wrinkle as part of that, the California Republican Party says it will not follow a judge's order to remove unofficial ballot boxes the state GOP has placed across California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:00]

KING: California's Republican Party says it will not comply with the judge's order to stop using unofficial drop boxes. The boxes have been placed in at least four California counties, including Los Angeles and Orange County. State officials say they are illegal and the judge's order calls on Republicans to remove them by the end of the day today.

Joining me now to discuss the importance of this, our CNN Contributor, Ben Ginsberg, also a very accomplished Republican election lawyer.

Ben, so much for law and order, I guess. The California Republican Party ignoring a judge's order, saying it will. But put this into context. Is this a big deal, a medium deal, no deal?

BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, California is a contested election really only for a few congressional races. So it will not have direct impact on the presidential race. It's interesting that the California Republican Party is pro-drop box because, by and large, Republicans around the country have been trying to restrict the use of drop boxes, especially in Texas and Ohio, for example.

Now, what's interesting about the California's situation is that it has a ballot harvesting law. That's a process where individuals can do sort of mass collections of absentees. That if there isn't been fraud found for it at least gives the appearance of potential fraud.

And so the Republicans in California, a badly outnumbered group, have decided on this somewhat puckish tactic of helping their own ballot harvesting process. I'm not sure it affects any elections, but it is the theater of the pre-election runoff.

KING: A theater of the pre-election runoff. And you have the secretary of state in California, listen to him here last night on CNN, saying, you have to stop, it's wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX PADILLA (D), CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE: -- of custody, and we don't have the requirements or regulations for these fake drop boxes as you do for official drop boxes, number one, the security and integrity of the box itself.

This is wrong no matter who is doing it. And it is not just the security of the ballot that's in question here, it is the transparency, voter confidence itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He says it is wrong, no matter who does it. But you see it in part as sort of a payback. The Republicans saying if you are going to have unions and other groups harvest ballots, we're going to do something too? Is that how you see it?

GINSBERG: Yes. I mean, look, John, if an individual was standing in there collecting the ballots, then that's perfectly compliant under the California ballot harvesting law. Again, it goes to the problems with ballot harvesting. Supreme Court is hearing a case on ballot harvesting in Arizona, probably in January. But the practice about harvesting is I think the Republicans have found a tactic to get around the advantage that California Democrats do have with unions and others collecting these ballots. It is a bad law.

KING: It's so bad. You're not only an election lawyer, you're plugged in with Republicans around the country.

I just want to put up a headline from the Drudge Report. 15 million already voted, record turnout alarms Republicans, lines as far as the eye can see. Is that true? Do your Republican friends tell you, holy God, what's going on out there, we're in trouble?

GINSBERG: Yes, they are. I think that this is sort of the impact of the president saying, don't vote by mail. It's still -- this is a heavy, heavy initial turnout. What isn't true is whether it expands to total turnout numbers a lot but it is certainly a leading indicator that Democrats are getting votes out and those votes will be in the bank come Election Day.

[12:00:03]

KING: And we will count them 19 days from today. Ben Ginsberg, I appreciate your insights. Thank you very much.

GINSBERG: Thanks, John.