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Trump Rushes GOP's McSally as She Fights to Hold Her Seat: "Quick"; GOP's Loeffler Says She Isn't Familiar with "Access Hollywood" Tape; Update on Early Voting Across the Country; Update on Coronavirus Responses Around the World; United Airlines to Offer Free COVID Testing on Select Routes. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired October 29, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Manu is one of the most respected reporters on the Hill. He's known for asking fair and relevant questions like that one.
It was glaringly apparent McSally's weird attack was premeditated to put her in the spotlight as a Trump acolyte.
She later showed up on FOX to bask in a radioactive glow of Laura Ingraham's B.S.
And McSally put the slogan on T-shirts and fund raised off it.
Most important of all, she used it to ingratiate herself to the president in his hour of judgment.
Months later, with her political future in doubt as she and Trump fight to keep Arizona red, she appeared in a debate with Mark Kelly, made headlines for softening that appeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MODERATOR: Are you proud of your support for President Trump?
SEN. MARTHA MCSALLY (R-AZ): Well, I'm proud that I'm fighting for Arizonians on things like cutting your taxes.
MODERATOR: Are you proud of your support for President Trump?
MCSALLY: I am proud to be fighting for Arizona every single day.
MODERATOR: Is that a yes or no for President Trump?
MCSALLY: Putting legislation on President Trump's desk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: She wasn't the only embattled Republican incumbent that had trouble with that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED NEW CORRESPONDENT: Are you proud of your support with Donald Trump?
SEN. CORY GARDNER (R-CO): I am proud of work we have done together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Fast forward to now, days before the election, the president in Arizona trying for a repeat win there this year.
Here's how he talked of two Senators, not even from Arizona, not even up for re-election, on the same stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A friend of mine, a great Senator, somebody that has extraordinary common sense -- that's one of the reasons he is a successful man at what he does, Senator Rand Paul. (CHEERING)
TRUMP: Come on up, Rand.
Look at him. Look at this guy. Come on up. Come on.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: We have another great Senator from the state of Utah.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: And he is a smart one. He's a good one. He's a respected one, Mike Lee.
Come on up. Come on.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Come on, Mike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But when it came to McSally, who is up for re-election in Arizona, whose political future is tied to Trump's, with the Republican majority in the Senate hanging in the balance, he treated her like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Martha, come up just fast, quick.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: Fast. Fast. Come on, quick. You have one minute. One minute!
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Barely a minute, barely an introduction as McSally grinned and bared it.
Now juxtapose that treatment on how Trump praised Kelli Ward a few weeks ago at another rally in Arizona. Ward, now head of the state's Republican Party. In 2018, lost the Republican primary to Martha McSally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And a friend of mine. Somebody that was great. She would have been -- oh, if she didn't have three, four people running at the same time, she would have been your Senator. Hate to say it, she would have been your Senator.
A friend that's so loyal and strong and a good person, Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward. She worked so hard.
(CHEERING)
TRUMP: She is some warrior and fighter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: This is what embattled Republican Senators must endure to hold off the wrath of President Trump and his supporters, absolute loyalty, 100 percent of the time.
And all the while, Trump's loyalty to them rolling off faster than an Arizona tumble weed.
I want to talk with CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash.
Dana, in politics, I think that lawmakers expect to get incoming from the opposing party. But President Trump and McSally are both Republicans, obviously, and he is hurting a candidate that he needs.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. The context here is that some in the Trump campaign think that she is hurting him in the state of Arizona.
Arizona as we have been talking about now for quite some time is a big-time battleground state in the presidential run. That's why the president was there in the first place.
It has not gone for a Democrat in a half century except for one, and that is Bill Clinton in 1996.
There's concern among Republicans that Martha McSally can bring down Donald Trump in that state.
The flip side of that is probably the better way to say it, a lot of Democrats think that Mark Kelly, her opponent, could have reverse coat tails, could help bring along Joe Biden in that state, which is neck and neck now in most polls. And according to both campaigns in internal data. So, it is about Donald Trump. It is about the fact that many people in his orbit don't think she's a good candidate.
That stunt, as you appropriately called it with Manu Raju, is exhibit A of that. That's why that happened.
Having said that, it would not have taken a lot for the president to have said two sentences about something nice about the person that's on the ballot with him there in Arizona. But he didn't.
[13:35:02]
KEILAR: Look, she is not as natural a candidate, as say Cory Gardner in Colorado, who has his work cut out for him. But is seen as a better candidate.
He was saying to people in Arizona no one wants to hear this. No one wants to hear you as you come on stage.
One of the practices it is helpful to understand is in the past, presidents allowed Senators in swing states to give themselves distance if they need to.
For instance, when you think of McSally saying what she did during the debate, that's something that other presidents may have cringed at but might have been more forgiving.
We saw George W. Bush. Barack Obama give distance to people who were in swing states. But the president, President Trump doesn't tolerate that.
BASH: No. That's such a good point. He's a very, very hungry consumer of news and political news.
There's no question he saw that clip that you just played of Martha McSally on the debate stage really in an awkward way over and over refusing to stand by the president, saying why she likes the president or would support the president. There's little question that had an impact on it.
By the same token, you talk about sort of traditionally presidents and people at the top of the ticket understanding that you got to let Senators and members of Congress do their own thing because they know their districts and states, how it works best for them.
But sometimes it is to criticize the president.
Certainly, didn't happen in Maine. The president criticized Susan Collins, in the fight for her life in Maine, criticized her because of her vote on his Supreme Court nominee.
Some Republicans say that's great for Susan Collins in Maine, Democrats have spent tens of millions trying to tie the two together.
But it does speak to the exact phenomenon you're talking about, Bri, that this president doesn't see past his own future and what it means to him as opposed to the big picture for the party and in this case balance of power in the Senate.
KEILAR: I have been dying to ask you about what we say in Georgia, where Senator Kelly Loeffler is trying to hold her seat. It will be tough. She's a big-time supporter of the president. Ads highlight the fact she voted with him 100 percent of the time.
When asked about the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape where Donald Trump talks about sexual assaulting women, grabbing them by the "P" word, Loeffler acted like she had never heard of it. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): I don't owe anyone in Washington anything. I went there to drain the swamp.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're not disagreeing with that particular thing that President Trump said, you're not disagreeing with that.
LOEFFLER: I'm sorry. What are you referring to?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're still not disagreeing with President Trump's statements about personally sexual assaulting women.
LOEFFLER: I am not familiar with that.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The "Access Hollywood" tape. You're not --
(CROSSTALK)
LOEFFLER: Yes. No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: What did you think about that. Is that believable?
BASH: No, of course, it is not believable. You just heard, that's actually the aforementioned Manu Raju was there --
KEILAR: Right.
BASH: -- reminding her it is the "Access Hollywood" tape.
Even people living under rocks know about the "Access Hollywood" tape.
That is not what that's about. That's a first-time candidate really. She was appointed to replace, Johnny Isakson. And who is not really that adept at answering questions, particularly.
When the stakes are so high for her in a very unnatural position where it is a general election and yet there are four candidates on the ballot, major candidates, two Democrats, two Republicans.
So she's running against Doug Collins, a fellow Republican. Almost definitely going to be a runoff. The rules in Georgia, as you know, if you don't get 50 percent, there will be a runoff. She's in a position, with the demographics moving much more towards
the Democrats in Georgia, she should be running towards the middle, and instead she can't. She has to completely embrace the president.
And she's very nervous obviously about saying anything negative about the president, even as any candidate, as any human, never mind a woman, acknowledging that was not the greatest moment for Donald Trump.
She can't because there's a very real chance the Republican vote will be split so she can't anger any Republican conservative votes there.
KEILAR: It is an impossible situation for so many of the Republicans.
Dana Bash, thank you so much.
BASH: Thanks a lot.
KEILAR: We'll be seeing a lot of each other the next few days.
BASH: Thank you.
KEILAR: United is offering free coronavirus tests on certain routes. We're going to talk about how that works.
Plus, new reporting that the president's controversial task force member is pushing states to slow testing. And seems to have convince at least one other state.
[13:40:00]
And CNN goes inside a hospital in the Czech Republic, where the situation is so dire, they'll have to start turning patients away. And they're putting teenagers to work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:45:00]
KEILAR: With just five days to go until Election Day, President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are battling it out. They're hosting dueling rallies this hour in the key swing state of Florida.
And the Supreme Court has issued two major rulings on mail-in ballots in crucial battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Our CNN correspondents are covering all of the action across the country. Let's take you there, starting with CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who is in Raleigh, North Carolina - Dianne?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dianne Gallagher in Raleigh, North Carolina. A state where more than 3.8 million people have already cast ballots.
The overwhelming majority did it by early in-person voting. That ends on Saturday.
It's also the last time somebody can drop their absentee ballot off at an early voting site.
They can, however, give it to the county board of elections. If they mail it out, they have to mail it by Election Day.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ballot receipt deadline in the state of North Carolina, meaning as long as a ballot is postmarked by Election Day, it can be received up to November 12th at 5:00 p.m. and still be counted.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Detroit, Michigan.
Where the Great Lakes state is very much in play. How do we know? The number of candidates and surrogates in the state this week.
Today alone, Jill Biden, Tiffany Trump, Eric Trump, Betsy DeVos, those last three for the president. The president was here earlier in the week. The vice president was here yesterday. The president is back on Friday.
Then Barack Obama and Joe Biden will hold their first event together in Michigan on Saturday.
If you want to get your vote in here, it is no longer safe to mail it in says officials here. This is the way to do it. Drop boxes across the state. Put that ballot in.
Officials expect the vast majority, about two-thirds of votes, to be in by Election Day.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kyung Lah in Phoenix, Arizona.
We are getting a peek at the early vote count. I am in the Maricopa County Elections Department. What you're looking at here, one of the many machines that are scanning the early vote.
And 1.3 million votes already processed. And 2.1 million have been requested. That's 60 percent of early ballots that have been processed that were requested.
Who are these folks here? They are the adjudicators. Each adjudicator team is made up of a Democrat and a Republican. If there's a ballot that's unclear, they are the ones that visually determine voter intent.
If they can't determine intent, they bring in a third person to try to make the determination -- Brianna?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: All right. Kyung and everyone, thank you so much. The surge of COVID cases is forcing European leaders to take extreme
measures they have tried to avoid. Some countries are going back on lockdown. How this is going to be different this time around.
Plus, United Airlines' new offer to passengers in an effort to ease fears of the virus spreading on flights.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:52:33]
KEILAR: Researchers say coronavirus cases in England have doubled in the past three weeks. These findings are part of a new study that shows rising infections across all age groups and regions in England.
The biggest increase coming from those between 55 and 64 years old. However, young people are still making up the bulk of infections. Researchers say the findings are cause for concern.
We have more coronavirus headlines from our CNN colleagues around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT; I'm Jim Bittermann in Paris, where today is last call for the country's bars and restaurants. The COVID cases have been mounting. The ICU beds filling at as much as an alarming rate that the government has imposed a new country-wide lockdown, starting tonight.
Individuals will be allowed to go out for only one hour a day and within only one-kilometer radius in their homes. There will be exceptions for medical reasons and shopping and schools and some essential businesses.
But for the most part, the French are going to be spending the next month at home.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Scott McLean in the intensive care unit in a hospital in the Czech Republic, which has one of the highest infection rates in this country. One of the highest infection rates in the entire world.
Hospitals and ICUs in the Czech Republic are being stretched to the max. This one has already filled all of its bed space. Right now, it's using what used to be a storage room across the hall to house even more patients.
The number of hospitalized people has doubled in just the last two weeks. This hospital has already had to shut down seven different departments to make way for COVID-19 patients.
And it said, if it doesn't get more help, it would have to turn away patients by Monday or Tuesday.
Even more than the space, hospitals here are lacking in staff. So to fill in the gaps, many are recruiting volunteers. Some are medical students. Some have no medical experience at all.
At one hospital, not far from here, they were putting high school students, teenagers, to work caring for COVID patients.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Thank you so much to all my colleagues around the world.
[13:54:37]
All eyes are on Florida where the pandemic and politics are colliding. President Trump and his opponent, Joe Biden, are having dueling rallies. We'll look at how the pandemic is worsening there in the state just days before it plays a critical role in the election.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: United Airlines will soon begin testing some of its passengers for COVID-19. This is the first airline to move toward free COVID testing.
We have CNN's Pete Muntean following this for us.
[13:59:55]
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this could be what air travel could look like in the absence of a vaccine. For a few weeks, starting next month, Unite Airlines will require passengers on one particular flight to test negative for coronavirus.
