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White House Official: 'We're Not Going to Control Pandemic'; Biden and Harris Hope to Flip Traditionally Red States; Wales Enters 'Firebreak Lockdown' to Slow Virus; Mixed Feelings Over Israeli Lockdown Despite Success; More Than 100,000 People Voted in NYC Sunday; Proud Voters Cast Early Ballots in California; Chinese Leaders Meet to Chart Economic Course; Trump Expected to Host Swearing-in Event for Barrett; Tropical Storm Zeta Moving Through Caribbean. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 26, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Not taking a break. The U.S. vice president stays on the campaign trail, despite several of his aides testing positive for coronavirus.

[00:00:26]

An alarming trend, record numbers of COVID cases across the U.S. and Europe this weekend. And within hours Amy Coney Barrett is set to be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Never mind that it's just eight days before the election.

And welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes.

Welcome, everyone. As the U.S. enters the final week of the 2020 election season, it is also enduring its worst stretch of the coronavirus pandemic. The country now recording more than 225,000 deaths from COVID-19, and, for the seventh straight day, it has confirmed more than 58,000 new infections, with a couple of days well over 80,000. Not a single state is currently trending in the right direction.

And once again, the virus hitting the White House. CNN has learned that at least five people close to the vice president have tested positive, including one of Mike Pence's closest aides and his chief of staff.

Pence was in close contact with some of those staff members, but so far he's refusing to quarantine. His office says he's tested negative and plans to hold more campaign rallies in the days ahead.

The White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, defending the vice president's decision to continue campaigning but admitting that the nationwide outbreak is out of hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Here's what we have to do. We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigations --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Why aren't we going to control the pandemic?

MEADOWS: Because it is a contagious virus, just like the flu.

TAPPER: Yes, but why not make efforts to contain it?

MEADOWS: Well, we are making efforts to contain it.

TAPPER: By running all over the country, not wearing a mask? That's what the vice president is doing.

MEADOWS: We can get into the back and forth. Let me just say this, is what we need to do is make sure that we have the proper mitigation factors, whether it's therapies, or vaccines, or treatments, to make sure that people don't die from this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, Meadows's comment comes just as the White House faces another potential second outbreak of the coronavirus. CNN's Kaitlan Collins with more from the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The vice president was in North Carolina yesterday, despite the fact that several of his top aides have recently tested positive for coronavirus, including, within 24 hours, his chief of staff, Marc Short, who is now self-isolating and is not likely to return to the campaign trail with the vice president over the next several days.

And of course, there's only a few days left until the election, and the vice president has been on the road nearly every single day with staff, including earlier this week, when he was on the road with Marty Obst, one of his senior political advisers, who works outside of the White House, who we've now learned has tested positive.

So basically, the situation is there are several staffers close to vice president who have tested positive for coronavirus, including his body man. There are several staffers who are now going to be quarantined, because they were in contact with someone who tested positive, one of those aides.

But the vice president himself is refusing to follow CDC guidelines by staying at home. The White House says that's because he's an essential worker. He's been cleared by his medical team to go out, that we haven't had an on-the-record statement from the vice president's doctor saying as much.

And of course, this comes on the day that the chief of staff to President Trump, Mark Meadows, told Jake Tapper yesterday in that interview that they are not going to get control of the coronavirus. He's basically saying they're going to have to focus on vaccines and therapeutics, but there is not a way to contain it, which is not what you have heard from health experts over the last several months, who said if people did wear a mask and if they did social distance, two things that the White House has really largely rebutted over the last several months, they said that could help stop the spread of the coronavirus, or at least slow it in the United States.

But that clearly doesn't seem to be the White House's point of view, and it also seems to be in contradiction to what the president has been telling us for months, which is that coronavirus is under control, and that we are rounding the corner on the pandemic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Kaitlan Collins, reporting there.

President Trump holding rallies on Sunday, crowded ones, too, both in New Hampshire and also in Maine. As usual, Mr. Trump seemed unbothered by the spikes in coronavirus cases all around the country, and as usual, no social distancing, very few masks.

[00:05:03]

He then traveled on to Maine, where he mingled with crowds -- You can see there -- signing caps and pumpkins, even, in close quarters with people. Maine, home to one of the most competitive Senate races of the year, with Republican Senator Susan Collins fighting to hang onto her seat.

The Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, was back on the campaign trail this weekend. She canceled all travel a week ago after two people in her orbit tested positive for the virus. That's not happening, as we see there, with the vice president, Mike Pence.

Sunday, in Michigan, Harris criticizing that vice president, who is also, of course, the head of the White House coronavirus task force, for ignoring the advice of his own health experts and refusing to quarantine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He should be following the guidelines. We're doing it. I think we have modeled the right and good behavior, and they should take our leader.

We are breaking records for the number of people that are contra ting a deadly virus. And this administration fails to take personal responsibility, or responsibility, in terms of leading the nation through this dangerous and deadly mass casualty event. And that's why they have forfeited their right to a second term in office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Harris made multiple campaign stops in Michigan, and here is why. Michigan, traditionally a blue state. President Trump the first Republican to win there since 1988. But he won by a razor-thin margin, fewer than 11,000 votes.

Michigan is home to the block of blue-collar workers that delivered the election to conservative Ronald Reagan in eighties. Now both Democratic, and Republican camps are vying for this key group of workers that has the ability to swing the vote.

As CNN's Jessica Dean now explains for us, the Biden camp wants to shake things up in traditionally red states.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're now entering the closing week of the 2020 presidential election, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are hitting the campaign trail, going into states that really tell you a lot about where the campaign sees things right now.

Joe Biden will be heading to Georgia later this week. That's a state that no Democrat has carried since 1992, when Bill Clinton carried that state.

For her part, Kamala Harris will include Texas on her travel schedule. Again, Democrats haven't had any luck in Texas in a long, long time. But the Biden-Harris campaign sending Harris into Texas in these closing days, hoping to up their chances of carrying that state and all of its electoral votes come next Tuesday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: CNN politics White House reporter, Stephen Collinson, joins me now. To talk about all of this. We're going to start with the five people in Vice President Mike Pence's orbit testing positive for coronavirus, his chief of staff among them.

And that follows, of course, the president, his wife, his child, and many others in the White House. How damaging, politically, is it for the administration, which is already, of course, fighting claims of mismanagement?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what it does is that the administration and the White House simply can't get out from under the coronavirus pandemic. We're heading into the last week of the campaign.

The president doesn't want to be talking about coronavirus at all, but he cannot escape it. And the fact now that the vice president is now in the middle of another coronavirus hot spot in the White House.

It really advances the point that the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, is trying to make. He's basically -- he's saying that Trump and Pence, the president and the vice president, can't keep themselves safe, can't keep the people around them safe, so how are they going to keep the rest of the American people safe?

And that really plays into this issue of whether the White House's mishandling of the pandemic should disqualify the president and the vice president from claiming a second term. HOLMES: How do you see it playing out on the electoral map? I mean,

there's some surprising states in play.

COLLINSON: I think what's very interesting is the fact that the president is playing defense on a lot of territory that he wouldn't want to be defending in the last week of the campaign.

If you think about states like Georgia, Arizona, and even Texas, where Democrats think they can do very well, even if they don't pull off that state at the end of the day, these are places where the president should have been strong and should have had locked up.

Arizona, for example, in the southwest, is one of these classic changing states. They're showing us the future of American politics. Big urban, suburban centers are changing states that used to be rural and conservative into swing states and, potentially, Democratic states going forward. Not just in this election but in the elections to come.

That's also the case with a state like Georgia and a real solid conservative state that's changing demographically and is coming into play. So the president is fighting, not just in those big Midwest battlegrounds but all across the map. And he can't really afford to lose many, or any, in fact, of those big seven or either swing states, if he's going to get a second term.

[00:10:14]

HOLMES: You know, it's interesting, because you know, he has slipped with you know, women, suburban women, of course, with -- even among some of the non-college-educated whites.

But the thing is, among the immovable base, you know, and many of them are, the non-college-educated whites and lower income people, and they're most affected by potential things like health care, loss the cuts already to social safety nets like Food Stamps and so on, income inequality. These are all things the Trump administration has negatively impacted, and yet they are still loyal. Why is that?

COLLINSON: I think, in conservative politics especially, and with -- in particular with this president, he's forged a cultural connection with many of these voters that supersedes some of the economic issues.

You know, he has styled himself as the voice for the forgotten American. People who feel that they've not been served well by Washington, D.C.

They've -- you know, trade, global trade, seeing their jobs disappear abroad to low-wage economies. They believe that America is being ripped off by foreign countries. They culturally feel this "America first" philosophy in their bones. So I think that's one reason why they stick together.

HOLMES: Very quickly, the -- the massive mail-in ballot, the early voting, 58 million people have voted. In some places, I think more votes are being cast now than would, in past elections, by election night. What does that suggest, or shouldn't read much into it at the moment?

COLLINSON: I mean, I think it suggests that there is real enthusiasm to vote in this election. A lot of experts are predicting that we could see 150 million people vote in this election. The number the last time was 136.

It looks like Democrats are doing quite well in some urban centers and, actually, among younger voters, who are the hardest voters to actually get to show up at the polls. Their share of the early vote has ticked up.

But generally, you know, Democrats are more likely to vote early, absentee, by mail. Republicans have told pollsters they're more traditional. They'll go to the polls on election day.

So, extrapolating too much from these early figures would probably be a bad idea, other than to say that there is real energy in the electorate, and we've still got eight days to go.

HOLMES: Totally agree, not to read too much into it. But you're absolutely right about the energy. Stephen Collinson, thanks so much.

COLLINSON: Thanks.

HOLMES: The U.S. has recorded more than 8.6 million cases of coronavirus now, the far -- by far, the most in the world. Have a look at the map there, the graph, the trajectory, as infections soar at record rates.

Health experts are now calling for drastic measures to try to slow what you see there on your screen. The former Food and Drug commissioner says it is time to consider a limited and temporary national mask mandate, warning of more deaths and hospital admissions in the weeks to come.

His suggestion comes days after the nation's top infectious disease expert also signaled he would support a nationwide mandate.

Quick break now. When we come back, Italy's prime minister says another lockdown would be devastating. Italy one of the many European countries trying to slow a second wave of the coronavirus.

Also still to come on the program, with the U.S. election just over a week away, states continue to smash records with their early voting numbers. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:17:54]

HOLMES: -- virus and new restrictions are being put in place as infections break records with nearly 43 million cases across the region.

France reporting over 52,000 new cases on Sunday, breaking its daily record for the fourth day in a row. The country's positivity rate more than double the U.S.

Another daily infection record was broken in Italy, but the prime minister says Italy cannot afford another lockdown. The government now ordering bars and restaurants to close by 6 p.m., while businesses like movie theaters, casinos and gyms must close their doors altogether for now.

And Spain's prime minister declaring a new state of emergency on Sunday. That includes a nighttime curfew and travel restrictions.

Meanwhile, the U.K. reporting nearly 20,000 new infections on Sunday. Wales largely spared from the virus earlier this year but is now under a fire break, as they're calling it, lockdown because cases are rising there.

CNN's Nina Dos Santos explains how that will work and the mixed response it's getting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shutting up shop and locking down. Friday's last orders were filled with uncertainty in Cardiff, as come sundown, Wales has three million residents who are once more ordered to stay at home for the next two weeks, a firebreak deemed essential to stop COVID in its tracks.

MARK DRAKEFORD, WELSH FIRST MINISTER: A short but deep period of restrictions that will interrupt the virus, break the chain of transmission, but that is the best hope we have of being able to get things back on track.

DOS SANTOS: The decision was welcomed by these shoppers on the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about time that somebody took it -- this this -- the bull by the horns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's people dying at the end of the day. You know, we've just got to respect that.

DOS SANTOS: But not so much in the supermarkets, where a ban on the sale of nonessential items prompted a petition to loosen the new laws almost immediately. Meanwhile, businesses braced themselves for meager takings.

JONATHAN PANGELLI, MANAGER, 39 DESSERTS: If this didn't work the first time, why is it going to work the second time? We have hand sanitizer for staff and customers. We wash our hands every ten minutes. We socially distance in the store why can't we stay open, safely?

[00:20:14]

DOS SANTOS: Like Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales has its own government, with autonomy over matters like health. It claims this national lockdown is needed to prevent the virus spreading from big cities to remote places where it hasn't yet gained a foothold. The porous border with England is also a source of concern.

(on camera): Here in Bertussi Corwyd (ph), in the mountains of North Wales, they were spared the first wave of the pandemic, only to recently witness an uptick in cases, thanks largely to tourists bringing the virus over the border from hotspots in England.

(voice-over): The Welsh government says that it's following scientific advice. Part of that science confirms that genetic material from COVID-19, caught by people in neighboring parts of England, is now cropping up in wastewater in Wales.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's of course, very, very busy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very busy here in the summer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the summer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very, very busy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's lovely to see people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it was really busy.

DOS SANTOS: Thousands of visitors were streaming into Snowdonia every day. Now, not even the locals are allowed out without good reason. Halloween is off the cards so that maybe Christmas can be saved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't do anything. And you can't diversify. We've all built our businesses up over 15, 20 years. You know, what can you do?

DOS SANTOS: Wales is taking a different approach to other parts of Britain still focused on local tiered restrictions. This lockdown will last until November the 9th. Whether the picture will look less bleak thereafter, it may be many more weeks before that becomes clear.

Nina Dos Santos, CNN, Wales.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Israel starting to ease its second nationwide coronavirus lockdown, and people there have some mixed feelings about it. The country has reported more than 309,000 infections. That's according to John Hopkins University. But new daily cases are dropping steadily, which is good news.

Israel saw fewer than 700 on Saturday, down from a peak of more than 9,000 a few weeks ago.

While there is relief that Israel's latest lockdown appears to be working, there's also a lot of finger pointing over why the situation got this bad in the first place. Oren Liebermann with that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the heart of the Negev desert, the second wave of coronavirus hit hard. The town of Yeruham was labeled a red zone because of a high infection rate. A second lockdown was inevitable. But it was also embraced.

DEBBIE GOLAN, YERUHAM RESIDENT: There was definitely an awareness in the community of the seriousness of the situation, and the need for severe measures, measures that would be effective.

LIEBERMANN: The town closed schools early, going above and beyond ministry of health requirements. Religious services moved outdoors before it was mandatory. And in late spring, the mayor created a local contact-tracing network, not relying on a national plan.

TAL OHANA, YERUHAM, ISRAEL, MAYOR: I need to fight the COVID, and I need to give them hope. I need to work for their community. And I must do everything I that they will trust me.

LIEBERMANN (on camera): Across the country public trust in the national leadership's handling of the coronavirus crisis has plummeted. The different sectors in Israeli society: -- religious, secular, ultra-orthodox and Arab -- attacked and blamed each other for a second wave of infections that was much worse than the first.

The second general lockdown only exacerbated that bitterness, even as it brought down the numbers.

ERAN SEGAL, WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE: Anytime you reach the point where you need a lockdown, that's a failure of managing the pandemic. The lockdown itself is likely to work, because everybody stays at home. But reaching that point is, in my view, a failure.

LIEBERMANN: Eran Segal at the Weizmann Institute of Science says it was a surprise that Israel's second lockdown worked so quickly. On September 30, Israel hit more than 9,000 new cases in one day. Three weeks later, the numbers were down to around 1,000 a day, even though a lockdown was less strict.

SEGAL: All other activities like allowing people to be more outdoors, to do sports, to drive more, but be more kind of on their own, those are not drivers of the pandemic. So the fact that we allowed those during the second lockdown but not the first didn't have an effect.

LIEBERMANN: Yeruham saw a similar drop, from 27 in a day in September, to less than 5 in the last week. Here, they take seriously the commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself.

RABBI YITZHAK SHALEV, CHIEF RABBI, YERUHAM (through translator): The country of Israel is like a hand. The hand has a lot of fingers. There's no finger worth more than others, but only all the fingers together can make one hand. A hand without a finger is not a complete hand.

[00:25:10]

The same thing for us. We have many different men and women, everyone with his opinions, desires, ideas, but we are all truly one.

LIEBERMANN: As Israel slowly reopens, there is a fear that it's too soon. The numbers now are significantly worse than they were at the end of the first lockdown in May.

Yeruham is not immune to that fear, but here they say their greatest strength is a community united against coronavirus.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Yeruham.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, Americans already waiting in long lines to cast their ballots for president, but there are concerns those lines aren't a good thing. One voter tells us why when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Michael Holmes.

With eight days to go now until the U.S. election, the country reporting some of its worst coronavirus numbers since the pandemic began. More than 50,000 new cases on Sunday, pushing the total past eight and a half million.

Five members now of the vice president's inner circle have also tested positive, including Mike Pence's chief of staff and a close aide. But the vice president refusing to quarantine, despite health guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say he should be.

His office says he's tested negative and will continue to hold campaign rallies until election day.

[00:30:00]

The number of Americans casting their ballots early shows how energized the voters are this year. Already, more than 58.7 million people have voted across the country.

Now that is more than all the pre-election voting back in 2016. It's shattering records in several states, and there are still eight days left until the election.

Of course, part of the reason people are turning out easy is to avoid crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic, but so far, that hasn't made the lines any shorter.

CNN correspondents talking to voters right across the U.S. Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles. But first, to New York, where more than 100,000 people voted Sunday, breaking the record from just the day before.

Athena Jones filed our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we're here in Brooklyn, where the 2nd day of early voting is well underway. And what we're seeing today is much of what we saw across the city on the first day of early voting on Saturday, which is huge enthusiasm, high voter turnout, and very long lines.

Here at the Brooklyn Museum, there's a line that is about hundreds of people long that wraps all the way around the building. Several of the folks we spoke with saying that they waited about three hours to cast their vote, all of them telling us that it was important for them to show up in person, to cast their ballot in person, because they had concerns about making sure their vote is counted.

Now, I talked about the long lines. We saw it in the city, as well, in the city of Manhattan, in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, in Queens. Lines stretching blocks long at some of these voting locations.

There are 88 locations throughout the city.

And I spoke with one voter who said, Look, it's good to see the voter enthusiasm. But she had some issues and some questions about the long lines. Listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I actually don't feel like it's great. I feel like that's still a form of voter suppression. I don't think that long lines should be celebrated. I think it's great that people are turning out, but I don't think that's ultimately a good thing that we're forced to wait.

Lots of working Americans can't afford to wait three house in line. It's a privilege to be able to do that. But we're also compromised, because we're afraid that, if we vote by mail, our votes might get lost.

JONES: So that voter there concerned about the long wait times.

One thing that's important to note and a sign of the enthusiasm, is that already, just from the first day of early voting, nearly 94,000 people cast their ballot, and that is more than voted in all nine days of early voting in 2019.

So we expect to see this enthusiasm continue, and folks are coming out on a day like today have got to just bundle up and, of course, pack their patience.

Athena Jones, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All weekend long in California get- out-the-vote campaigns after all 55 electoral votes at stake, 53 members of the House of Representatives to be voted on.

One unique get-out-the-vote rally here on the streets of Compton. The Compton Cowboys came through, and they delivered their ballots in person, dismounting from their horses at the Compton Library. Randy Savvy, a co-founder of the Compton Cowboys, he was downright choked up to be participating in his part of democracy.

RANDALL "RANDY SAVVY" HOOK, COMPTON COWBOYS CO-FOUNDER: I just feel for the people, man. All the people in the world that's suffering. And I just feel for our country right now, man. We're hurting like -- we're hurting a lot. You know? And I just feel that. I feel that for everybody that's hurting. You know what I'm saying.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to have my health, and my family, and my friends. But I feel for the people that don't have that, because you know, I know what that feels like to have it. And so I live my life imagining, like, man. I can't imagine if I didn't have my friends, my family, if I was sick, if I was losing my house, or losing whatever because of all these factors that's going on.

So I guess I just -- I feel grateful. I feel humble. And I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. And I feel like I'm making my family and my community and my city proud, and my country proud.

VERCAMMEN: So just another ballot cast, 6.5 million cast in California so far. They think an all-time record will be broken for voter turnout here in the Golden State.

Reporting from Compton, I'm Paul Vercammen. Back to you now, Michael.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right, Paul. Thank you.

Communist party leaders are gathering in Beijing to plan the next stage of China's economic development. A look at the priorities after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:37:47]

HOLMES: U.S. stock futures are down with no clear progress on a coronavirus stimulus plan, of course, and U.S. cases jumping to their highest numbers ever over the last couple of days.

The Asian markets are mixed, as you can see there. The Hang Seng up half a percentage point, the Shanghai Composite down nearly 3 quarters of a percent.

This as China's leaders meet to chart the country's economic course for the next several years.

Steven Jiang is in Beijing with more on that. I mean, the fact that, in these days, they can look ahead five years and make a plan is quite something. What do they expect?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN: That's right, Michael. This so-called Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee just opened this morning, on Monday, and it's going to last for days. Now, this is actually a regular occurrence, but of course, with added

significance because of the ongoing pandemic and worsening relations with Washington.

Now, doing this behind closed-door meetings, I think, the leader especially, President Xi Jinping, as you said, is going to map out the economic plan and other major policy initiatives for the next five years.

Now, they're probably not going to set clear GDP goal targets any more to give themselves more flexibility, but there are certain things they're undoubtedly going to do, including, for example, trying to increasingly emphasize domestic investments and domestic consumption as the engine to drive economic growth, and also to reduce the Chinese reliance on the U.S. economy.

This is obviously the result of what's been happening in the past four years. But also, even with a potential Biden administration, the leadership here understands the U.S. policy towards China is not going back to the good old days. That's why they are, especially President Xi, has been emphasizing self-reliance in key industries, especially the high-tech sector. And they're undoubtedly going to try to shore up and reinforce state backing in state funding in industries such as aerospace, and artificial intelligence, as well as new energy.

So Michael, you know, it's interesting, because as you said, this is uncertain times. The fact they were meeting to discuss a five-year plan is definitely a message to not only the country but the world that this system, the political system, the top-down approach really works and works better than that of the U.S. -- Michael.

[00:40:07]

HOLMES: Yes. Yes, it's going to interesting to see how that all plays out. You know, it's interesting. Steve, in the U.S. on Sunday, they were saying we're not going to be able to control the pandemic. And yet in China, one case is found, and millions of people are going to be tested.

Real quick, tell us about that.

[00:40:20]

JIANG: That's right. There is a new cluster of cases in the far border city Kashgar in the Xinjiang region. Over the weekend, actually, after the initial one case, they have found, in total, 138 asymptomatic cases in the Kashgar region.

And because of that, they have launched a very strict response, a level one response, locking down four towns and conducting mass testing of 4.7 million residents. They have done half of that and are going to complete this process by Tuesday.

So this is the kind of response that the Chinese officials say give them confidence they will bring the situation under control, even though the numbers themselves could be quite alarming -- Michael. HOLMES: Yes. Millions of deaths. Steven Jiang in Beijing. Appreciate

it. Thanks so much.

And if you've been watching us around the world, thanks for being with us. Our international viewers are going to have WORLD SPORT up next. For our viewers here in the United States, I'll be right back right after the break with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: President Trump is expected to host a swearing-in event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House Monday night after her expected confirmation to the Supreme Court.

The Republican-led Senate advanced Barrett's nomination in a procedural vote on Sunday. It has, of course, been a very contentious road to this point. Democrats have called their Republican colleagues hypocrites for pushing this through so close to the election, especially after Republicans refused to consider Barack Obama's nominee back in 2016, when there were months left in the year.

But Republicans say they're following the Constitution. CNN's Lauren Fox with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In what has been a fast-moving confirmation process, Amy Coney Barrett is on track to be approved to the Supreme Court on Monday when the Senate is expected to vote.

This comes after the Senate advanced her nomination in a procedural vote on Sunday afternoon.

Now, all eyes are going to be on whether or not Vice President Mike Pence will attend this vote. That's because members of his staff have tested positive for coronavirus. And while the vice president and his wife have both continued to test negative, there are some concerns on Capitol Hill whether or not Pence should make it to this vote or not, with Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer arguing that it would endanger the Senate for Pence to attend that vote; and other Republicans saying that it's not necessary for him to be there, although Senator John Thune, the majority whip, told me that it was up to the vice president to make that decision for himself in consultation with medical experts.

For CNN, I'm Lauren Fox, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: CNN Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic joins me now from Washington.

Always lucky when we can get you on, Joan. Let's just start with a basic thing. What precedent is set with a confirmation like this in these circumstances, less than two weeks from election day?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Good to see you, Michael.

And yes, this is quite amazing. Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, you know, just about a month ago on September 17, and here we are just hours from when Judge Amy Coney Barrett is going to be confirmed for the Supreme Court just about a week before the election. So, this is -- this is stunning. Nothing like this has happened this close to an election, ever.

So, it's a -- it's a pretty strong precedent, especially, Michael, given what we all know occurred four years ago in 2016 when the Republican majority that is pushing through the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett blocked all consideration of president Obama's nominee for the seat that had been vacated by Antonin Scalia.

So, we've got two -- two stunning developments here, one where an individual is blocked for about a year and one where someone was sped through in just about a month.

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. I mean, how -- how -- I'm curious, your take on how does a politically- charged nomination like this complicate things for the chief justice, John Roberts and his stated aim of keeping the Supreme Court out of politics, which sort of seems a bit ludicrous, as we've seem to be having this conversation.

BISKUPIC: That's right, that's right.

You know, John Roberts came up through politics early on in his career, so he knows how it works for the judiciary. He knows that these things are always drenched in politics to one extent or another.

But he maintains that, once someone gets on the bench, there are no such things as Obama judges, as Trump judges, as Bush judges, as Clinton judges. That's exactly what he said in late 2018.

But his -- his point is that he doesn't want the American public to believe that an individual is automatically going to side with the -- with the president who put him or her on the court.

And when you see something like what happened with this nomination, where the Republicans are pushing so hard to get her on and President Trump himself has said he wants her there in time for any kind of election litigation --

HOLMES: Yes.

BISKUPIC: -- it really defies the kind of assertion that Chief Justice John Roberts makes, that you can -- you can trust an impartial judiciary, that the Supreme Court is just going to decide these cases as they come, without regard to politics.

HOLMES: I -- I did want to ask you, though, you know, how quickly will be the impact of Coney Barrett on the bench in terms of the docket? Some pretty important things come up -- coming up and things that she has already expressed views on in her previous life.

[00:50:08] BISKUPIC: That's right. Exactly one week after the election, the justices will hear a case testing the entire validity of the Affordable Care Act. The -- it's the signature achievement in the domestic realm of President Barack Obama, and Republicans have been trying to get rid of it for ten years. It was signed in 2010.

And this is a -- a lawsuit that she hasn't commented on directly. But twice before, she has criticized court rulings that did uphold the Affordable Care Act earlier in 2012 and 2015.

So she already comes into it suggesting she's not so crazy about the Affordable Care Act.

But the question before the justices this time around, Michael, it's really a weak legal argument that the challenges are -- challengers have brought. And I would be surprised if she ends up -- first of all, I would be very surprised if the majority bites [SIC] -- votes to strike down the entire law. And she might not even go that far herself.

But even more immediately, before these November 10 arguments, this Supreme Court is going to see several challenges that relate to the current election. Ballot issues, deadlines for absentee voting and mail-in voting. So, there are just a lot of cases marching up to the Supreme Court that could affect the November 3 election's outcome.

HOLMES: Yes, we'll see -- we'll see how political it is. Joan, always good to see you. Joan Biskupic, thank you.

BISKUPIC: Thank you, Michael.

HOLMES: Well, back to the U.S. presidential election for a second. There are, as we've been saying, just eight days to go.

An astronaut living in the International Space Station showing her fellow Americans that there is no execute not to vote. This is Kate Rubins showing off her makeshift voting booth aboard the ISS.

She tells us how she's able to make her voice heard all the way back on earth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE RUBINS, NASA ASTRONAUT: There's legislation passed a number of years ago to allow astronauts to vote in space. I think a lot of astronauts do this. They feel that it's very important. It's critical to participate in our democracy. We consider it an honor to be able to vote from space.

And so, we fill out a form, and we vote via absentee ballot, and I plan on doing that in November. I think it's really important for everybody to vote. And if we can do it from space, then I believe folks can do it from the ground, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Now, Tropical Storm Zeta is expected to bring heavy rainfall and storm surge and flooding, as well, to parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. The National Hurricane Center projects the storm could make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast later this week.

For more details, let's bring in CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

Hey, Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Michael. Good seeing you.

The never-ending season, right, when you look at the number of storms we've had. And of course, yet another system not only threatening Mexico. And keep in mind, it was just less than three weeks ago we had Hurricane Delta make landfall across the peninsula there, over Yucatan in Mexico. And this is another storm on approach.

Notice, we've exhausted 21 named storms up through Wilfred. That's the National-Hurricane-Center-given names. And then six more now through the Greek alphabet, taking us all the way to Storm Zeta.

And this is where we are. This is a 95-kilometer-power storm sitting in an area that is often very conducive for development. Very warm waters across this region often allows these storms to really take off.

And the concern is that this particular tropical storm will strengthen further as it approaches the Yucatan region of Mexico. Cancun, Cozumel, the government of Mexico certainly taking this as seriously as it gets. We've seen significant damage with the previous storm, Delta; came ashore as a strong Category 2. And Zeta is certainly going to be no exception. We think strengthening is possible on approach here, and it could be a formidable Category 1 on approach across an area that was just hit, again, about 18 or so days ago.

So we're going to watch this carefully, from the landfall perspective, sometime Monday evening local time.

And then beyond this, the storm potentially maintains its intensity as it re-emerges into the southern portion of the Gulf of Mexico. And quite a bit of variability between the model, as far as where this system ends up.

Notice, the American model does want to take this and bring it ashore in southern and southeastern Louisiana. While the European model brings it, actually, on the western periphery here into southwestern Louisiana, maybe even coastal Texas.

So, breaking it apart here, you'll see quite a bit of variability exists between just about every single model, and confidence really low on where this system ends up and even how strong it is going to be just because this is the time of year.

The water temperatures are cooling off. Certainly, the steering environment in the atmosphere also changes. So really tough to get a handle on storms that are essentially pushing a November landfall here as we work our way through the latter portion of October.

[00:55:08]

But notice, again, we think somewhere on the coast of Louisiana yet again as the likely scenario.

Now, how about the broader perspective as we take you across the western Pacific? Yes, another line of storms here. We've got a low probability father towards the east. Molave, which is a typhoon, that has works its way across portions of the Philippines in the past 24 hours and still equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane as it sits there, reemerging back over the South China Sea.

So the forecast guidance does want to take this and eventually make landfall sometime around Wednesday afternoon or even around the coast region there of Vietnam. Maybe Danang, maybe points just to the south.

And you've got to keep in mind this is an area that has been so hard- hit with tropical systems. We've had dozens of lives lost just in October from landfalling systems. There was Linfa in early October, Saudel, which just made landfall in the last 24 hours across this region, Michael. That led to evacuations of thousands of people.

So yet another storm bringing with it the potential of about a half a meter of rainfall the middle of this week in areas that are very hard- hit.

HOLMES: All right. Pedram, thank you. Pedram Javaheri there with the latest.

Now attempts to remove the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the U.S. appears to have been a success. Scientists used radio trackers to find the so-called murder hornets in a nest in northwest Washington. The experts then vacuumed the hornets out of that nest so they can be studied.

The species is called "murder hornets" because of how aggressive and efficient they are in killing their prey. They're pretty damaging to other bees, as well.

Scientists have been trying to locate the nest since last December after they first sighted the bees in the U.S.

Thanks for watching. I'm Michael Holmes. I'll be right back with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after the break.

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