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Biden Stumps in Georgia as Trump Hits Three Key Midwest States; U.S. Supreme Court Won't Extend Wisconsin's Mail-In Ballot Deadline; Protests Erupt in Philadelphia After Police Fatally Shoot Black Man. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 27, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: There's one week to Election Day. Make sure to get your vote in. The candidates, they're on the trail and coronavirus infections are on the rise, sadly. This health crisis gripping the nation as the Trump family launches a massive campaign blitz. We're talking 17 events across nine states.

Joe Biden, his taking his fight for votes to Georgia, looking to swing that state from red to blue for the first time since 1992. Former President Obama stumping for Biden in the key swing state of Florida.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: You can tell totally tell it is the final push. Still, all of these campaign events, all of the campaign events in the world cannot mask the pain that this country is experiencing, 37 states this morning are seeing a spike in cases. In the past week, nearly half a million new cases were reported across the country, averaging more than 70,000 new cases a day. One expert says the country is on the verge of an, quote, exponential spread. We'll get to all of those facts.

But, first, check in with our John Harwood and our M.J. Lee on the final push here in the final week. Good morning to you both.

And, John, the president's focus is on those key states in the Midwest that he won last time, plus Minnesota and Nevada, that he's hoping for his family all over the country.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. This is the mad dash phase of the campaign. And for the Trump campaign, they're almost entirely playing defense. Vice President Mike Pence, who, we should say, has just tested negative for the coronavirus, that's relevant because, of course, people around him, five people around him, including his chief of staff and body man, had tested positive within the past week. So that is good news for the vice president.

He'll be in North Carolina and South Carolina, both states the president won in 2020. North Carolina is a real battleground. Biden has had a small lead there. South Carolina is probably more about that Senate race where Lindsey Graham is trying to hang on against Jaime Harrison. But First Lady Melania Trump is going to go Pennsylvania where the president was yesterday. That's likely the tipping point state. He's down by about five points there, needs to win it. And the president will be going, in addition, to Wisconsin and to Michigan, both states that he won narrowly, along with Pennsylvania, against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Those made him president.

And the president is also go to Nebraska, to Omaha, where there is a congressional district that is where an electoral vote is awarded separately. Donald Trump won that in 2016, he is down against Joe Biden. Again, the Trump campaign playing defense against Joe Biden, who has got a significant lead.

SCIUTTO: All right. M.J., you've been covering the Joe Biden campaign. And it's interesting here because to see him spending this crucial last week election time in the state of Georgia, which in any other election would be a long shot for a Democrat here. I wonder why that focus? I mean, is the campaign seeing numbers that make them believe they have a shot there? Are there any concerns among the campaign about focusing resources there now?

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's very telling, Jim, that Joe Biden is spending today campaigning in the state of Georgia. As you said, this is not a state that a Democratic presidential candidate has won since 1992, that was Bill Clinton. But, yes, if you look at the recent polls, they do show that this is a competitive race right now in that state and that Joe Biden has a shot at winning that state. So that's why he's there.

And I think that tells you a lot about sort of the campaign's frame of mind that they can go for these rich (ph) states in the final days of the campaign.

And you look at where his surrogates are today. His running mate, Kamala Harris, is in Nevada, former President Barack Obama is back in Florida.

And I just want to walk you through quickly the rest of the week for Joe Biden, at least in terms of what we know about his schedule. He is going back to Florida on Thursday. This is a state, of course, that President Trump won in 2016, with so many electoral votes that are up for grabs.

And then on Friday, this is very interesting, he is going to Iowa and Wisconsin, also both states that President Trump won. And what Biden told reporters yesterday is that he feels that he can win the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. These are the three Midwestern states that made all the difference for President Trump back in 2016. Again, Biden saying he feels good about them.

And then as far as states like Iowa and Wisconsin, he is saying he feels like he has a fighting chance in those states. I'm sorry, Iowa and Georgia, I should have said. Georgia is where he is today, saying he thinks he has a fighting chance in those two states. So very interesting. HARLOW: And then, M.J., you have got President Obama in Florida stumping for Biden, obviously, and he unleashed on the president on the trail last week. More of the same to come today?

LEE: I think that's what is expected. I mean, he is doing a drive-in rally again in Orlando. And remember, it was just this weekend that former President Obama was in Miami. So this is his second trip to Florida in just a matter of days. It just goes to show how important that state is, again because it is so rich in electoral votes.

[10:05:02]

And I think we have seen over and over again why former President Obama is such an important and compelling surrogate for Biden. We saw this earlier this summer at the Democratic National Convention. We have seen this over the past week as he has hit the campaign trail. He is pretty uniquely positioned to talk about Biden's experience at the White House.

He is also able to talk about personally just about knowing Biden, knowing Biden's family, and this is so critical because Biden and his candidacy has been so much about talking about his character, running as sort of the candidate of decency. So, clearly, this is one of the most important surrogates that Biden can have at on the trail for him in these final days.

SCIUTTO: All right, guys, a week to go. I'm guessing both of you will be a little busy next week, we will too. John Harwood, M.J. Lee, thank you very much.

HARLOW: Well, now to a troubling surge in COVID cases across the country, nearly half a million new cases just over the past week here.

SCIUTTO: All right. So look at this map. 37 states now seeing an increase in new infections. And this notable, the number of cases among children that's also growing.

Let's bring in Dr. Jay Varkey, Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.

Dr. Varkey, I have just got to start with the kind of what can we do, what should we be doing as a country right now to get a handle on this? I mean, folks like you have been warning about this for some time. Here we are, right, and we're still nationally debating the science, I mean, eight months in. I mean, what are we going to do about it?

DR. JAY VARKEY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN: Jim, I think the first thing is we need to be honest with the American people. I mean, I know people want optimism but optimism breeds complacency. So I think, not to fear mongering but as an infectious diseases doctor, what I would say to your viewers is that we need to talk like adults and speak some hard truths.

In terms of what we need to do is we need to trust the science. The reality is, we can get through this. Infection is not inevitable. Remember, we have multiple studies to show that as few as 20 percent of people may be contributing to 80 percent of infection transmission.

So if we trust the science, if we wear a mask, if we avoid crowds and close indoor spaces, especially if there's talking, shouting or singing, so specifically if we keep out of bars, dine-in restaurants, political rallies. And also avoid the type of settings that are propagating the current outbreaks, which really seems to be family gatherings of friends and extended family outside the household. We can turn this around, the same way we did in the spring and the same way we did in the summer.

HARLOW: What's going on with children? The fact that the American Academy of Pediatrics says, you have got this 11 percent rise in cases among kids, almost 800,000 kids have been contracted COVID since the start. We just heard from a young woman named Maggie.

I don't want to alarm people, so sometimes I hesitate to even ask these questions. But I think the numbers are unavoidable at this point, is it because kids are back in school or is something else at play here?

VARKEY: Poppy, the exact driver isn't entirely clear. But I think that speaking the facts is the important point. Again, we've repeatedly heard the president claim that children are immune to COVID-19. We know that that's incorrect, that that is a lie.

As you said, the American Academy of Pediatrics has described over 800,000 children in the United States who have contracted COVID-19, including 100,000 in the last two weeks alone.

And it is important to reassure parents, like the three of us, that, thankfully, most children who develop COVID-19 do not develop serious complications, they don't develop serious complications like death, although some have. And, again, my heart goes out to those families, but I think the most important thing we need to recognize is that probably the most best way to actually keep our children safe is to limit indoor gatherings only to those that are in our household.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Varkey, do these rises in numbers among children change your view of school reopening? Dr. Fauci and others including on this broadcast have said, listen, in low infection rate areas, so-called green zones, even yellow zones, it's safe for schools to open. As you're seeing this uptick, does it change your view?

VARKEY: I think it impresses on the reason why we in our communities have to get control of transmission. So, sure, you can actually -- I think that we have enough anecdotal experience that you can reasonably safely start in-person school, even when there's some degree of community transmission. But when cases are skyrocketing and when we don't have control, that increases the risk.

The reality of it is that I think that we have a model of how we've actually run hospitals safely going back all the way to March that can serve as an example of how we'd actually do in-school safely. But the key is we have got to come together as a community and drive down community transmission.

[10:10:00]

SCIUTTO: Yes. And it takes steps by all of us. Dr. Jay Varkey, always good to have you on. We appreciate it.

VARKEY: My pleasure. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour, the Supreme Court made a major ruling on mail-in ballots in Wisconsin, which could have a big impact on the election just seven days away. We're going to tell you what it means for you and your vote.

HARLOW: That's right. Also, protests and unrest overnight in Philadelphia after police there shot and killed a black man. We'll give you the details of that, next.

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HARLOW: A huge development in the Supreme Court when it comes to voting in this election. The high court has denied a deadline extension for mail-in ballots in Wisconsin and ruled that those ballots have to be received by Election Day.

[10:15:02]

SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, this has big implications. Just last week, the court had upheld a ruling by a state court in Pennsylvania extending the mail-in ballot deadline there. Confusing? It might be.

CNN Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic and CNN Correspondent Bill Weir join us now.

Joan, to you, I mean, because this is remarkable here. I mean, some of the language from this decision is saying that those votes would flip an election. I mean, they're valid votes, right, based on the law and you have Roberts siding on one side, in Pennsylvania, another side in Wisconsin. What happened and what does it mean?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Okay. I'll address your easy question first, Jim, and that has to do with John Robert's vote. He explained it. He said, the Pennsylvania case involved a state court interpreting state law. This was a federal court here intervening in Wisconsin and the Supreme Court felt more of a reason to then reverse what the federal court had said about the Wisconsin situation. So that was the kind of the superficial difference here, state versus federal.

But you just used the word, flip, and that is a line from Justice Kavanaugh's concurring statement last night in which he said, if late ballots are allowed to be counted after a certain deadline, it could flip the outcome and raise suspicions. And Justice Kagan, in dissent, said, flip the outcome? This isn't flipping anything. It's just counting all the ballots.

But that's why Justice Kavanaugh's concurring statement was so fiery and strange in many ways because it flies in the face of some understanding of state court's ability to interpret their state legislative rules and separately in terms of just how November 3rd is not the cutoff date, as we all understand now because of these extraordinary measures that are in place with these mail-in ballots.

And, as I said, the dissenters really rose up on that. But it shows you how some of the rhetoric from outside in the political world is certainly emerging in court opinions now.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Yes. Certainly, that's a great way to put it, Joan.

So, Bill, are people freaked out on the ground that their votes aren't going to be counted? Does this mean more are going to line up on the third? I mean, what are they saying?

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you're a member of the Wisconsin Democratic Party today takes on all kinds of urgency. I was talking to the chair, Ben Wikler, last night, who says, due to this quirk of the Electoral College, if you're a voter in Wisconsin, if you're one of the 320,041 people still holding on to your absentee ballot, you have more power over the fate of humanity for the rest of existence than most people in history. He is not couching this in anything terms that everything is on the line right now, but this state, historically, has been among the most voter-friendly until Republicans put up more voter protections.

If you can see in the distance there, the capitol building, the folks in the yellow vests are poll volunteers who will come out to your car, take your absentee ballot or go inside and find your actual (ph) one to help you avoid any sort of COVID exposure.

Of course, back in April, this saw chaos at the polls. It was a statewide election for judges. The Democratic Party Civil Rights Organization said, we need more time, can we count if the ballot is postmarked by Election Day, can we count those afterwards? There was a big fight over that, a number of polling places went down. The judge -- actually, that was allowed. But this time, it has to be received by the Board of Elections by 8:00 P.M. on Election Day.

And so, the post office, while they say they're going to do their best, at least in Milwaukee to get all those ballots back by mid- afternoon, not even push it to the end. The post office today said, of the 27 states, like Wisconsin, that have this sort of Damocles hanging over you on the deadline, mail them today. So if you're among those folks waiting, maybe you'll stick it in the mail tomorrow, every moment counts is what the post office is telling us right now, and especially here in Wisconsin.

And what's interesting also, Jim and Poppy, are the attitudes towards COVID. The Democrats aren't knocking on doors. It's all -- they're doing virtual calls, they're doing texts, sort of blast, whereas the Republicans, we hear, we've asked to follow them along, I haven't heard back, are treating this as if it's any other election, getting out and canvassing.

SCIUTTO: Listen, folks, if you had any doubt as to why all these stories we've been covering matter, delays in the Postal Service, how many drop boxes are available to people, they matter because it's about whether your vote will be counted.

[10:20:00]

All right, Joan, to the law, there are other state cases pending, and crucially in other battleground states. How does the Supreme Court ruling in Wisconsin impact those cases, because some of the decisions for the folks in the majority here were very broad in their language?

BISKUPIC: That's exactly right, Jim. And speaking of battleground states, there's a case back from Pennsylvania, there's one pending from North Carolina. You look at Bill there with the Wisconsin Capitol of Madison, that's going to be the scene of so much chaos, as he says.

But right here in Washington D.C., at the Supreme Court building is going to be another scene right up through election night and probably after where, Jim, the justices will be deciding is what votes count.

And who's rules in the state count? WILL they rules set by a state legislature? Will they be rules set by a state court? Will they rules set by a federal judge intervening? Frankly, to that very last question, probably not, given what they said about Wisconsin.

So I think the Supreme Court is going to be right in the thick of things this election season. Jim? Poppy?

SCIUTTO: 20 years ago, right? I mean, we saw it then. And when you have the justices deciding in large party in line with the party of the president that appointed them, I mean, the questions are just amazing.

BISKUPIC: Well, can I just say one last thing?

HARLOW: Yes.

BISKUPIC: Three of our current justices actually worked on that case of Bush v. Gore, Poppy and Jim. New Justice Barrett, Justice Kavanaugh and the chief justice, and they all worked for George W. Bush. They know what can happen.

HARLOW: For sure.

WEIR: And, Jim and Poppy, the second state behind Florida on the closest vote, Wisconsin.

HARLOW: There you go. Thank you both. This has been the most illuminating segment of the show, for sure. I mean that. It's so important. Thank you, Joan, thank you, Bill.

All right, so outrage is boiling over in Philadelphia after yesterday, police shot and killed a black man. There are new protests that erupted overnight. We'll bring you there for the latest.

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[10:25:00] SCIUTTO: Welcome back. We have learned this morning that the Philadelphia district attorney is now investigating after police shot and killed a black man on Monday.

HARLOW: So this was all captured on a bystanders phone video. But before we play it, we want to tell you it's really hard to watch. So, here it is.

Police tell CNN -- tell our affiliate, they responded to a call about a man with a knife. Officers say when they arrived, they found the man who has been identified as Walter Wallace, waving the knife erratically in the air, then they opened fire, which you'll hear in a moment.

And we pause the video here just before -- because it's just so hard to see all of that, but that is what happened. Wallace was taken to a hospital nearby and he later died there.

SCIUTTO: Sad to see. Protests erupted in the city overnight. Police say 30 officers injured in those protests, more than 30 protesters arrested. CNN's Sara Murray is there in Philadelphia.

Sara, what specifically is the D.A. looking at as his office investigates this case? In so many shootings, right, the question is was there an opportunity to de-escalate, was it deadly force? The law, of course, favors police officers. What do you know?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think that's certainly early on in this investigation and that's, of course, going to be one of the things that they are looking at. We know that when were called, they were called to reports of a man who was brandishing a knife and waving it. And you can see, what you hear in that video, they're asking him to drop the knife and then you see the police firing.

So there is this investigation going on today. The mayor has called this a tragic incident. The police commissioner has said there is this investigation that she wants to meet with community leaders. She wants to meet with the family of the man who was shot. And the police commissioner says, I heard and felt the anger of the community.

And then, obviously, we saw that last night with the unrest that was breaking out here. Today, the district attorney is calling for peaceful demonstrations. We also have a statement from the head of the police union who is saying to wait for this investigation and do not rush to vilify the police. But, obviously, tensions are running very high here after yet another shooting.

SCIUTTO: Understood. And so we hope the tensions calm down those tensions. Sara Murray, thanks very much.

HARLOW: Yes, thank you, Sara.

All right, so stimulus negotiations are still stalled. Millions of Americans are suffering financially. We're going to talk to a Democratic congressman and ask him if it's time for Democrats to just take this deal, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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