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Trump Tries To Recreate 2016 Atmosphere In Final Push To Election Day; Twitter Removes Tweet By Trump Adviser Undermining Masks; Biden Looks To Win Over Voters In States Trump Won In 2016; Obama Campaigning For Biden; Latino Voters In Florida; CNN Hero Carol Rosenstein. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 18, 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: Hello, on this Sunday afternoon. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Sixteen days and counting until the election and we are learning of a superstitious president trying to so badly to replicate the winning atmosphere from 2016. So that means the same advisers, the same rhetoric, the same nonstop rallies including another in Nevada tonight. It follows events in Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida and Georgia. According to a person briefed on President Trump's Oval Office sessions this week, the president is insistent that his 2016 strategy will work again.

But 2020 is not 2016. The reality star is now an incumbent saddled with the pandemic and a rising death count. And there is almost nowhere in America where COVID cases are trending in the right direction. The U.S. is now averaging more than 55,000 new cases a day over the past week, up more than 60 percent since a mid-September dip. And experts say this is the fall surge we have been warned about for months, months the president spent promising there was nothing to worry about.

And yet the president who himself contracted COVID is still attacking the governor of Michigan for her pandemic restrictions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Democrats would terminate our recovery with a draconian, unscientific lockdown while your governor is doing right now.

CROWD: Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up.

TRUMP: And then I guess they said she was threatened. She was threatened. And she blamed me. She blamed me. And our people were the ones that worked with her people, so let's see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: The "lock her up" chant, another throwback to 2016. But this time it is said in the wake of very real and violent threats. Just over a week ago, federal authorities revealed Governor Whitmer

was the target of a domestic terror plot. More than a dozen men now face charges accused of planning to kidnap the governor and attack the state government. This morning Governor Whitmer put blame on the president's rhetoric.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D), MICHIGAN: You know, it's incredibly disturbing that the president of the United States, 10 days after a plot to kidnap, put me on trial and execute me, 10 days after that was uncovered, the president is at it again and inspiring and incentivizing and inciting this kind of domestic terrorism. It is wrong. It's got to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: CNN's Ryan Nobles is in Carson City, Nevada, where the president holds a rally later tonight.

Looks like there's already a crowd showing up, Ryan. And the Trump campaign was pressed on the president's comments over Governor Whitmer. What are they saying?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're not really backing down on, Ana, which is not much of a surprise despite the fact that Governor Whitmer herself believes that the president's rhetoric pointed in her direction is part of what inspired this group to come up with this alleged plot.

The president isn't backing down on that harsh criticism of how she handled the pandemic and then in many ways inciting these chants that happened at their rallies where people are saying to lock her up. He does that with political opponents in states across the country, not just in Michigan. But we were with him yesterday in Georgia. There was a similar chant towards some of his political opponents there.

And it's something that his crowds eat up. They believe it, chapter and verse, and they support the president when he says that. And today on "STATE OF THE UNION" Jake Tapper pressed Lara Trump, who is one of the president's senior advisers, one of his top spokeswomen, as to how the president handled this and if he should be accountable. And this is how she responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARA TRUMP, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Well, look, this -- he wasn't doing anything, I don't think, to provoke people to threaten this woman at all. He was having fun at a Trump rally.

Look, the president was at a rally. It's a fun, light atmosphere. Of course, he wasn't encouraging people to threaten this woman. That's ridiculous.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I don't think lock her up is fun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And the point being here, Ana, that it's not just Whitmer that is often the target of these very harsh attacks by President Trump. Ilhan Omar, the congresswoman from Minnesota, the president often talks about her going back to where she came from, even though she's an American citizen and a sitting member of Congress. And sometimes he'll play cute with this crowd. Someone will start the "lock her up" chant and he'll say, oh, I can't say that but then laugh and that just encourages them to fire them up even more.

And so, you know, you have to go no further than the people themselves that are the targets of this. Governor Whitmer, Ralph Northam in Virginia, they both specifically say that the president's rhetoric was at least part of what led to this threat. And we'll see, Ana, he shows no sign of backing down from that. We'll see if that continues here today in Nevada.

CABRERA: OK. We'll check back. Thank you, Ryan Nobles.

With us now is the former Republican governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder. He has endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 race.

Thanks for being with us. I first just want to get your reaction to the president's comments about your successor, Governor Whitmer, the "lock her up" chants at this rally that he held there yesterday, and Lara Trump now saying the president was just, quote, "having fun."

[16:05:10]

RICK SNYDER (R), FORMER MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: Yes, Ana, it's great to be with you. To put it simply, he's just flat out wrong. It's absolutely inappropriate to help drive comments like that from a crowd, to encourage people to do that. That's not how America should be. And he's not learned anything from the time he was running in 2016. He's doubling down now on dividing our country. And that's one of my huge issues, why I don't support him and I support Joe Biden. He's been our divider-in-chief in this country and we need to get back to civility in our nation.

CABRERA: Why aren't we hearing more of that from leaders of your party, current Republican lawmakers? Why aren't they telling the president to knock this off?

SNYDER: Well, some of us are. I mean, in a lot of ways he intimidates, he's a bully. And people are concerned about what he may do in their state in terms of cutting off aid or doing other things. I mean, that's just further representing why he shouldn't be in office any longer. He's proven that he's not done a good job. He's actually driven division. He's caused many problems in our country. And we need new leadership.

So the way I looked at it was not only just supporting Trump, but Joe Biden actually shows an ability to heal. I mean, if you look at his track record, his history, and what he's talking about today, it's talking about bringing people back together. I know I'll have policy differences with him but at least I'll have someone I can have a reasonable discussion with and someone that's going to listen. Isn't that the way our country should operate?

CABRERA: Governor Whitmer's deputy digital director tweeted this. "I see everything that is said about and to her online every single time the president does this at a rally, the violent rhetoric towards her immediately escalates on social media. It has to stop. It just has to."

Governor, is the president endangering the current governor's life?

SNYDER: Well, again, I want to be careful about not making speculative comments like that. What I would say is, it is absolutely wrong. There's no doubt about it. It's inappropriate. It's not helping our country. It's not helping Michigan. It's not helping our current governor. And we should all be rallying together.

We're in a pandemic. Look at the deaths going on, the challenges in our country that we need to bring our economy back. We shouldn't be in discussions like this or have people bring out ugly, nasty comments like this. We should be talking about how we can heal both in terms of the COVID issue and our economy.

CABRERA: I think everybody can appreciate your message about unity, but what makes you think this will stop if Joe Biden is elected? Trump is just one person. A lot of people say Trump is a symptom, not the root cause of the divisiveness.

SNYDER: I think he's both but he is part of the cause. I mean, if you look at it, he's fueled these fires. So I don't think it's going to change overnight but we need to get back on a more positive path of people working together. And what I encourage Joe Biden to do, assuming he does get elected president, and I hope he does, is to find some common ground issue that we can all rally around to show we can all win.

This shouldn't be about someone winning and someone losing. We need to get back to the model of how do we make everyone better off in this country in a collective fashion versus having winners and losers and having people say, you know, you're on my side or you're against me. We're Americans.

CABRERA: The fear --

SNYDER: I've said -- the greatest threat to our country is us. And in terms of this incivility and how we're treating one another.

CABRERA: Right. And so that fear, that divisiveness, the current climate, has a lot of people concerned about what happens on election day or after, no matter who wins. The Michigan secretary of state in fact has now issued this directive that banned open carrying of guns at polling places, clerk's offices and other locations where absentee ballots are counted.

What's your reaction to this directive? Do you think it was necessary?

SNYDER: Well, again, you look at the situation of what's going on with the kidnap attempt and things like that, I think it's a reasonable thing to look at during the circumstances. And again, there's so much rhetoric that are sort of discouraging people from voting in some fashion. We need to encourage everyone to vote. I just put a message out on social media about how I voted and it was great.

The clerk in my community actually sent me an e-mail saying they've got my ballot, they verified it, it's sitting there, just waiting to be counted on election day. That's good service. That's the kind of service we need and hopefully that will encourage people to use these mechanisms as opposed to having to stand in line on election day.

CABRERA: The secretary of state says this ban on open carrying has to do with voter intimidation and preventing that. Are you worried about voter intimidation at the polls in Michigan?

SNYDER: Well, again, I worry about it everywhere and the environment we're in right now, whether it's because of firearms or not. Again, this is where we need to have a civil election. And again, they've had rules for years about you can't do certain things within so many feet of a polling place. I remember those days. I've gone through that myself. Not in this nasty environment. It's only gotten worse.

So let's try to keep our polls safe, let's try to create an environment where we encourage people to vote. And everyone should do that.

[16:10:01]

It was amazing. When I posted how I voted, I had people come out and criticize me because they thought -- I didn't say how I was voting one way or another. It's simply just, please, go vote. People can't even be nice when you just said you voted in this country today. That's awful.

CABRERA: Yes. And when you look at the current health situation, the COVID cases there in Michigan, do you think Governor Whitmer has been too strict? Would you have done anything differently?

SNYDER: Well, again, I'm not here to make comments on my successor. Other than to say, this has been a terrible circumstance. She needed to take action. The governors collectively in our country had more responsibility placed on them because the president abrogated much of the federal responsibility to act. So I appreciate governors speaking up, and I appreciate our governor speaking up trying to solve a terrible situation.

There is no perfect answer. Nothing is going to go without some issues happening. And the main thing is, how do we support one another as opposed to how do we tear one another down?

CABRERA: In 2016 President Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Michigan by just 10,704 votes. That is about 0.2 of a percentage point. Do you think it will be this close this time around?

SNYDER: I don't believe so. I don't take it for granted, though. That's one reason I'm happy to talk about my support for Joe Biden. But if you put it in context, and you go back and look, there are two things that drive an election. One turnout and secondly the undecideds. In terms of turnout, Hillary Clinton didn't get a huge support in terms of people turning out to vote compared to Donald Trump. That was the difference there in terms of more people in certain parts of Michigan turned out for Trump but turnout was down compared to prior elections for the Democratic candidate.

And in this case, you have undecideds. The undecideds in this case last time gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt in many cases because he was an unknown coming into the political world. He's a known and he's a known train wreck. So we need to get better leadership in this country and show how we can come back together and be a great country again.

CABRERA: So you think Joe Biden will win Michigan?

SNYDER: I do. But, again, I'm going to keep working to help assure that as much as possible because I think it's really important. And you don't take an election for granted. Until the votes are actually counted and you know the answer, stay on the gas in terms of supporting your candidate.

CABRERA: Former Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, thanks so much for joining us.

SNYDER: Great to be with you.

CABRERA: With the coronavirus case count surging, why is the doctor the president listens to the most on COVID mocking masks? We'll dig into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:16:46]

CABRERA: He's the doctor who has the president's ear, wielding great influence over this administration's action when it comes to this deadly pandemic. And this is what Dr. Scott Atlas is spending his time doing, tweeting out misinformation that flies in the face of science, putting American lives at risk. His tweet which argues against the effectiveness of masks was actually taken down by Twitter for violating its policy of sharing false content that could lead to harm.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner is with us now.

Dr. Reiner, is there any doubt at all about the science here?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No, no doubt at all. When I saw Dr. Atlas' tweet yesterday, I thought the only rational conclusion was that someone had hacked his account. No physician in the United States should issue that kind of nonsense.

Look, there have been over 200 case control and observational studies. And when you look at a meta-analysis of over, you know, 25,000 people in those studies, masks work. And the better the mask you wear, the more protection you get. We know from countrywide data that masks work. Look at Japan, a country with very large adoption of masks. They've had 90,000 total cases. That's about a day and a half of cases in the United States. 90,000 cases. Their population is 130 million.

Look at Taiwan. They've had a total of seven deaths. Nearly universal masking. They had their first case the day after we had ours. Look at statewide data. Look at Arizona, when the shutdown was lifted, they have 151 percent increase in cases. Then they instituted a mask mandate, it dropped 75 percent. We also know from hospital data during the hottest days of the pandemic in New York, hospitals with mask mandates in the hospital had lower incidences than in the community.

There's no doubt that it works. The president has a lot of people around him who know a lot about this. Scott Atlas is not one of them.

CABRERA: And it just doesn't make any sense to me why he isn't saying what you're saying in order to best protect Americans. The president, we know, is in Nevada today and he has a rally later. But he made a stop earlier at a church service in Las Vegas where you can see folks were crowded together. Not everyone was wearing a mask. This is a state where cases are trending upward with COVID positivity rate around 17 percent as of Friday.

What's your reaction to seeing these images?

REINER: It's a blatant disregard for the health of people in this country. You know, it's really sad because we talk about this almost every weekend because the president behaves like this almost every weekend. It's not going to stop unless there's leadership change in this country.

Look, I'm a doc, no one cares what my political views are, but I don't see any change in policy right now. And these kinds of reckless behaviors on the part of the president cost lives. We've seen this in Minnesota. Over 20 people were infected at that rally he had two weeks ago. We saw it at the White House with the SCOTUS announcement. You know, over 30 people were infected. His actions have consequences. There's blood on his hands.

CABRERA: I mean, to your point about the impact and what we're seeing as the fallout from some of these events, the president was asked about that, pushed on why he continues to hold large rallies while nearly every state in the country is seeing cases spike. And listen to his answer.

[16:20:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I had a rally yesterday where I didn't see anybody without one. I mean, and you could see because the people were behind me. And I mean, almost everybody has it. And you know, we hand them out at the rallies. We give masks to everybody at the rallies. But the rallies, again, are outdoor. And we have heard of no instances, where -- and I've had big rallies. We're having 35,000, 40,000 people come at the rallies, and we've had no incidents where we have had a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CABRERA: So a couple of fact-checks there. First of all, video shows many if not most people aren't wearing masks at these rallies, but beyond that, CNN has learned and you pointed out that at least 20 cases have now been linked to just one of the president's rallies in Minnesota last month.

So how do you square those numbers with what you heard him say there? Do you think he really believes what he's saying?

REINER: Well, if he believes what he's saying, it's even worse. Look, the only people who wear masks at his rallies are the people that are standing behind him, who are told to wear masks, which is really interesting to me because we've seen people at his rallies, when they're interviewed on this question, and when they're asked whether they would wear a mask if the president told them, they say yes.

So when they go to the rallies and they stand behind them and they're given MAGA masks and they're told to wear them, they wear them. If he told the people attending his rallies that they need to wear masks, they would wear masks. If he told the country, if he told his supporters to wear masks, they would wear masks. Yet he doesn't do it. You know, he's going out, sticking to his guns and that has cost tens of thousands of lives in this country.

CABRERA: And so many more potentially to come based on all of the science and the way the U.S. has handled it.

Thank you so much, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, as always for your expertise. Taking the time to share with us.

REINER: My pleasure.

CABRERA: With just two weeks to go now until election day, we are starting to see more Republicans criticize the president. The latest, a GOP senator likening his relationship with President Trump to a woman who gets married thinking she can change her husband. That's next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:26:33]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm running as a proud Democrat but I will govern as an American president. No red states, no blue states, just the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden campaigning in Durham, North Carolina, this afternoon, just 16 days out now from election day, urging voters to cast their ballots early.

And CNN's Arlette Saenz is following the Biden campaign for us in Durham.

Arlette, Biden is clearly trying to reach independent voters in states that voted for Trump in 2016. Is North Carolina a must win for Biden?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, North Carolina isn't necessarily a must win for Joe Biden but a win here would help Biden cut off President Trump's path to the presidency so they are spending time in this state as they are trying to win back one of the states the president won in 2016. And you saw him here in Durham, North Carolina, earlier this afternoon at a drive-in style event.

Everyone was socially distanced in their cars. And he was encouraging his supporters to make a plan to vote in these final days before the election, with in-person early voting under way here in North Carolina. Now Biden once again hammered away at the president for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, but he also offered this vision for the country, trying to argue that the country needs to step away from its divisive nature that it's currently in.

Take a listen to a bit of his message that he had earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: There's nothing beyond our capacity. We have never, never, never, never failed. There's no limit on our future. The only thing that can tear America apart is America itself. Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. So let him know who we are. We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. Science over fiction. And yes, we choose truth over lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: So, that is a reliable message that Biden has been relaying over the course of his campaign, something he's really trying to hone in on in these final weeks before the election. Now this coming few days will have a busy campaign schedule for the former vice president's surrogates. Kamala Harris is heading down to Florida. Her first in-person trip after they had to suspend campaign travel for her after two members of her traveling team tested positive for coronavirus.

And on Wednesday we're going to see President Barack Obama hitting the campaign trail. This is his first in-person appearance for his former vice president. Obama will be campaigning in Philadelphia. The Biden campaign really believes that he can help turn out black men, Latinos and young voters. And this will be a solo stop. Biden is expected to be deep in debate prep on that day but there is a possibility that Biden and Obama could appear together in those final days before the election -- Ana.

CABRERA: OK. The Arlette Saenz, pressure is on, 16 days and counting now. Thank you.

Joining us is CNN's senior political analyst John Avlon and the host of PBS' "Firing Line," Margaret Hoover. So, guys, last night, President Trump told a crowd that former

President Obama campaigning for Biden was actually great news for him. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They said, sir, what? Well, we have a little problem. What? Obama's going to campaign for him. I said, well, that's good news, he campaigned harder than Hillary Clinton did for Hillary.

[16:30:00]

And it just made us stronger. I want him to campaign so much. I want him to campaign, you know, because we're going to do even better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: John, I'll start with you. Do you think he really believes that?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I'm sorry. I'm cracking up because whenever Donald Trump tells a story with someone calling him sir, he's lying. It's one of his many tales. Dan O'Dell (ph) has done a good job chronicling that for us.

But, look, what he -- but whatever, you know, his version of events is, look, there may be some folks in Trump's base who are alienated by Barack Obama. But the reality is that the contrast between Trump and Obama is so clear that Obama is a real asset to the Democratic ticket.

He brings energy, particularly if he campaigns in areas where he can get young African-American men and young Hispanics to really heed the call to turn out. That's an area where, you know, Hillary did not do nearly as well with African-Americans as Barack Obama did. He needs that number to be high. Same thing with the Hispanic vote. So, it's --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: -- positive --

CABRERA: Although, Barack Obama also campaigned for Hillary Clinton.

AVLON: Yes, but that was also Hillary Clinton.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, here's -- there's a couple of things here. One, Barack Obama is -- does pull stronger with the suburban women Trump that has lost. And he can drive up numbers of African-Americans as John just said.

But there's another thing most Republicans, who still support Donald Trump, that are looking at the numbers, had always counted on when -- six weeks ago, frankly, when it looked like Donald Trump was in a far stronger position than he appears to be now. And that's -- there is a small percentage of African-American men who are falling in favor of Trump. And --

AVLON: I mean, a very small number.

HOOVER: It is a very small number.

AVLON: To be clear.

HOOVER: I mean, to be clear, it's single digits, OK? Because Republicans traditionally don't win more than -- you know, between 10 percent and 20 percent of the African-American vote. But Trump supporters had count -- had counted on some African-American men falling away as part of, you know, this little bit that they could hang their hat on.

So, when Barack Obama is out campaigning, all he's doing is solidifying the Obama coalition in an attempt to rally the troops. The big guns come out in the last two weeks.

CABRERA: So, Margaret, do you really think the president was in a stronger position six weeks ago? And, if that's the case, what changed?

HOOVER: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. I mean, six weeks ago, before the first debate, before the president, himself, succumbed to -- got sick with the Coronavirus, and that became the dominant issue in that campaign, and will remain so for the last few weeks, we were talking about law and order.

We were talking about the economy recovering. The national mood and focus of the debate, the narrative was far more in favor of Donald Trump's re-election, frankly, and the wind was in his sails.

I'm not saying he was ever going to run away with it, but what changed was the debate and what changed was Coronavirus taking over the narrative and really reminding us that that is -- that that's the center point of this debate.

AVLON: What she said.

CABRERA: And, still -- and, still, John, Biden's campaign manager did write this memo, sounding the alarm not to get complacent, saying, quote, "The very searing truth is Donald Trump can win this race, and every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire. Is this just about being overly cautious after the shock of 2016 or are they, perhaps, seeing something that worries them?

AVLON: No, look -- I mean, look, first of all, it's campaign 101. You should always campaign like you're behind. You should never be complacent. And, frankly, you know, Joe Biden is racking up big numbers that we haven't seen in decades in conventional polling.

So, it makes sense his campaign's going to say, look, don't take this for granted. Every vote counts. Show up and vote because the only poll that matters on Election Day.

So, you're darn right she's got to remind folks about that. That's just basic common sense in a campaign. Especially because Donald Trump did shock the world last time around because, in part, some Democrats got complacent and voted third-party.

HOOVER: Look, it's 16 days out from the election, Ana. As you know, as everybody knows, we still have another debate this week.

AVLON: Yes.

HOOVER: There's another opportunity for Donald Trump to at least change the narrative or to get some momentum in his own direction. Truly.

AVLON: Maybe.

HOOVER: I mean, and that could happen, right. So, I don't -- this goose is not cooked yet. OK? It's cooking but it's not cooked yet. And I think that's what, I'd say, everyone needs to keep in mind. There's still a lot can happen.

AVLON: That's right.

CABRERA: Margaret, Republicans, clearly, believe the president is trailing badly among women and in the suburbs. And they're worried, you know, they could lose not only the White House, but also the Senate. Listen to Republican Senator Ben Sasse this week.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. BEN SASSE (R), NEBRASKA: I'm now looking at the possibility of a Republican blood bath in the Senate. And that's why I've never been on the Trump train. I think we are -- we are staring down the barrel of a blue tsunami.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CABRERA: Margaret, do you think that's what will happen?

HOOVER: I think we are staring down the barrel of a blue tsunami. I think, of all the Republicans who are going to return to the Senate, and Ben Sasse being one of them, he's -- it's a lonely minority.

[16:35:03]

HOOVER: And the part that's hard to hear about that, as a Republican who -- Sasse made a calculation to be on the Trump train. And now that he's cleared his primary and up for re-election, and he's safe, and he's going to return to the Senate, he's now not? And, on the one hand, I appreciate that he's being candid now. But it's just tough to square.

AVLON: I mean, but, you know, in the fullness of those comments he made, he's saying, look, he -- you know, he kisses, you know, the butts of dictators. He's spending like a drunken sailor. He's been terrible for the country. He's divisive. All things that are true that sound like a Democratic campaign ad, coming from a sitting Republican senator.

But a lot of these folks are finding religion a little bit late because they have not stood up to Donald Trump, up to this point. But the reality is what people say in private is the truth. And that's the truth, what a lot of senators, including Republicans, think of Donald Trump.

CABRERA: Although, I would say that that phone call was not necessarily in private. That was a call with his constituents, 17,000 of them, we are told.

AVLON: Yes.

CABRERA: And, clearly, he had a sense that that could end up getting -- becoming public and, you know, widespread.

I do want to also get your reaction, though, --

AVLON: (INAUDIBLE.)

CABRERA: -- before you continue, because let's add in what we're now hearing from John Cornyn and what he told --

AVLON: Yes,.

CABRERA: -- the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram." That paper writes, quote, "Cornyn initially described his relationship with Trump as maybe like a lot of women who get married and think they're going to change their spouse, and that doesn't usually work out very well."

And Cornyn continued, they write, I think what we found is that we're not going to change President Trump. He is who he is. You either love him or hate him, and there's not much in between. What I tried to do is not get in public confrontations and fights with him. Because, as I've observed, those usually don't end too well.

So, is buyer's remorse starting to settle in for Republicans?

HOOVER: Well, look, I have buyer's remorse. Look, I think what it tells us is John Cornyn is worried about his race, too. I mean, and when --

AVLON: That says a lot.

HOOVER: -- you're worried in Texas -- and when you're worried in Texas, that's a problem. I don't know much about, you know, women in marriages trying to change their spouses, thinking you can change them. Otherwise, John Avlon would be a really die-hard Republican, at this point, if I had any success with that.

But I do think -- you know, there is a lot of buyer's remorse. And it's too little too late. And what John Cornyn is trying to do, strategically, is peel off a little bit more of those suburban women, because they're there in Texas, too. And people who, frankly, probably agree with him. That this president has been an irresponsible leader of this country.

AVLON: Just -- in Texas, remember what all the Republicans said after the impeachment? It seems like a million years ago. It was just this year. I'm sure he'll change. He'll learn his lesson. Nope and nope.

CABRERA: He's still the same Donald Trump. You know, what -- that comment you made, Margaret, about John Avlon being Republican, if you had your way. It just goes to show Republicans and Democrats, people with different political feelings and leanings, can still get along, can still love each other.

AVLON: Absolutely.

CABRERA: Can we get back to those days? You're a beautiful example. We can all aspire to be like you.

AVLON: Take care.

HOOVER: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: Have a good one, guys. Thank you so much.

Tonight, hear from former Trump administration officials, including John Bolton, Olivia Troy and Myles Taylor. They join CNN's Jake Tapper. "THE INSIDERS: A WARNING FROM FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS." That's tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

[16:38:23]

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CABRERA: Flat out lies and wild conspiracy theories are taking hold in the key battleground state of Florida. And much of that disinformation specifically targets the Latino community, leaving many voters unsure who or what to believe. CNN's Leyla Santiago reports.

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LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Coffee is a part of daily life for Susy Calderon and her daughter, Amore. But what's really brewing? Something you rarely see inside a conservative Cuban- American home. You see, Amore is for Biden. The rest of the family, Trump.

SUSY CALDERON: It has been very difficult for us, for my mom and for me, to see her defending something that is completely wrong for us because we came from a communist country 36 years ago.

AMORE RODRIGUEZ: What's very worrisome is how I see the Republican Party, Republican propaganda, almost manipulating the trauma of my people, and using it as a fear tactic.

SANTIAGO: The strong opposing views have caused tension for the family and some in their community. Much of it, experts say, fueled by rampant misinformation aimed at Latino voters, especially in Florida, where they make up about 20 percent of the electorate, according to Pew research. Many of them Cubans and Venezuelans who fled the socialist and communist regimes in Venezuela and Cuba. Jacobo Licona, researcher at Equis Labs, is tracking disinformation on social media, targeting the Latino community. SANTIAGO (on camera): Where is this coming from?

JACOBO LICONA, RESEARCHER, EQUIS LABS: A lot of times, it's difficult to find out who is spreading this information. We know there is a network of Facebook pages that tend to work together. And they tend to coordinate a lot of these attacks.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): Licona says he isn't sharing the post his team is tracking, in order to help stop the spread. But he confirms false claims have been shared thousands of times, taking aim at candidates on the left and social movements, like Black Lives Matter.

LICONA: We also see, specifically within the Latino community, a lot of them trying to build racial tension between communities.

SANTIAGO: Some of the conspiracy theories he mentions have ended up on Spanish language radio and popular messaging apps.

LICONA: WhatsApp has always been commonly used by Latinos. There is not much accountability there. It's very hard to know what's happening on WhatsApp, because they're closed platforms.

SANTIAGO: WhatsApp says it is taking steps to combat misinformation. Users can send claims to special accounts that can verify information. The twisted accusations are being echoed at official Trump campaign events for Latinos.

[16:45:01]

ALFREDO ORTIZ: If you don't have law and order, you have anarchy which is, obviously, what Soros (ph), and that entire what I call regressives, like AOC and stuff like that, just embrace.

SANTIAGO: The Trump campaign argues voters should fear the influence of Democratic socialists, like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Senator Bernie sanders, over the Democratic Party and Joe Biden.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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.

SANTIAGO: The latest poll shows Latinos in Florida are leaning toward Biden.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're taking care of you, and I'm never letting you down.

SANTIAGO: Leaving Latino voters, like Suzy and Amore, divided on who to vote for and what information to trust. But agreeing too much is at stake for the country.

CALDERON: Democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Our thanks to Leyla Santiago for that reporting. Record breaking numbers of people are showing up to the polls,

especially in Georgia, a state that could turn blue for the first time in nearly 30 years. Is the surge in early voting all due to the pandemic or is something more at play? We're live with voters in Atlanta next.

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CABRERA: Now, more than ever, Americans want their voice to be heard. And with 16 days before the election, it's showing. More than 22 million Americans have already cast an early ballot. Voter enthusiasm fueled, in part, by a pandemic that's affected more than eight million people here in the U.S. That surge of early in-person voting is causing hours-long lines at polling places across the country.

And CNN's Natasha Chen has been following what's happening in the state of Georgia, which could be a swing state this year. Natasha, Georgia seeing record early voter turnout. What's the latest today?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the secretary of state's office here has said that the numbers today show that the overall turnout is now 152 percent higher than it was at this point in the 2016 election. That's compared to the end of the sixth day of voting back in 2016 versus today, which is the seventh day of voting in 2020.

So, -- and if you break that down, we show that for early in-person voting by itself, that has been more than a 62 percent increase compared to the last presidential election. And the absentee ballots, this is -- this is huge. It's 648 percent higher than it was in 2016. So, you can see that energy, the enthusiasm.

Yesterday, when we talked to you in Marietta, which is a suburb north of Atlanta, that was an area that was seeing very long lines. It's a very different story today, though. In it's Sunday. Some people didn't know that Sunday voting was an option for them.

The place we're in front of, right here in Atlanta proper, has not seen any wait all day. Just a few minutes tops. In fact, somebody saw our live shot and saw there was nobody here so they said they came over.

But, all in all, we're hearing that there are a lot of people who really want to vote in-person, even though absentee was available to them. Here's what one person told us about that.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I absolutely wanted to vote in person. I don't want any issues with possibly my ballot being rejected in any way. Because I know some people in the past, their signatures haven't been accepted, because it was their signature from when they were 18 and registered to vote and obviously it changes as you age.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Right. So, there was some distrust that we were hearing among voters about, especially the mail-in process as well, being able to track their ballot, you know, really got into the hands of the right people and got counted. Some people say they just want to touch that screen, the machine, to see their vote has been cast.

All in all, we're seeing some themes here. People willing to wait as long as it takes, even if they were pleasantly surprised. And really saying that the issues most important to them this time around are the response to the Coronavirus pandemic and the divisiveness in this country -- Ana.

CABRERA: OK. Natasha Chen in Atlanta for us. Democracy in action, that's great to see. Thank you.

Since 2014, CNN Hero Carol Rosenstein has been using music to help people battling dementia, Parkinson's and other diseases. And when COVID hit, she moved her organization's program online. And their work has become more crucial than ever. You've got to see this.

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CAROL ROSENSTEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MUSIC MENDS MINDS: COVID just makes us doubly difficult for people to sustain their levels of wellness, because they've got so much isolation going on. We are going to see people deteriorating faster.

But we can provide a great substitute that is going to keep us healthy and well during quarantine.

Music is medicine for the mind.

[16:55:03]

The complexity excites so many centers in our brains.

All of that excitement miraculously pushes neurotransmitters that help us function. Medicine with a side effect that is pure joy.

Where's my Kleenex?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Amen. We could all use more music in our lives. To see Anderson Cooper's full story about the great work Carol is doing, using music to battle the impact of COVID isolation, go to CNNheroes.com right now.

[16:55:44]

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