Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Trump & GOP Fighting to Make It Harder to Count Every Vote; GOP's Collins: I Do Not Believe Systemic Racism Exists in Maine; Now: Trump & Biden Hold Dueling Rallies in Florida in Final Sprint; Update on the Action in Battleground States; Wisconsin Facing Hospital Crisis Just Days Before Election; Hackers Targeting U.S. Hospitals as COVID Cases Surge. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 29, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And finally, in Michigan, a conservative judge has ruled that residents can carry an unconcealed gun to polling places. This reignites fears of voter intimidation
And this is what President Trump says about these lawsuits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll see what happens at the end of the day. Hopefully, it won't go longer than that. Hopefully, the few states remaining that want to take a lot of time after November 3rd to count ballots, that won't be allowed by the various courts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: This shouldn't be a Republican or Democratic issue. It's about people's right to vote and ensure all ballots are counted, even if it takes a few days.
Especially in the pandemic where the mail system is flooded, and people are trying to stay safe.
Voters are still out there. They're shattering early voting records in many states. But they're forced to stand in line for hours in some cases in order to do this.
Tomorrow is the last day of early voting in Georgia.
And Jelani Cobb, a Columbia University professor and staff writer for "The New Yorker," made this observation, quote:
"A friend of mine bought a gun today. Like many people, he's concerned about the climate surrounding the election. He made his selection, bought the piece and left. Then realized it takes hours' less time to buy a gun in Georgia than it does to vote there."
CNN political correspondent, Abby Phillip, is with us now.
Abby, have states like Georgia made it more difficult to vote in this election or has it simply been this bad for years?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think in states like Georgia, a lot of activists would say it's been pretty bad for years.
You'll remember, this was a huge issue going back many years.
But particularly after the 2018 election, when there were accusations that basically the roadblocks being put in place to -- for example, like Voter I.D. laws and other types of changes to polling locations, consolidation of polls locations, had a suppressive effect, particularly on black and Latino voters.
There have been some studies that have found that black and Latino voters are more likely to wait in lines. They tend to wait about 45 minutes longer than white voters. So the concerns there are real.
I would say also, about Georgia, you know, there's been a rash of sort of voter purging of the voter rolls, they say, to clean up the rolls.
But the result is often that people who are rightfully allowed to vote who should still be registered are taken off the voter rolls, making it more difficult for them to vote when they want to.
Just this year, about 200,000 people were reportedly taken off the rolls improperly, claiming that they moved when they hadn't actually moved.
So I think obviously Georgia has a long-standing problem as a lot of southern states. It's a long-standing problem, one that both parties have been fighting over for many decades.
KEILAR: Abby, I want to ask about a moment that happened during the debate between Senator Susan Collins, in Maine, and her Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon.
Let's listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MODERATOR: Senator, 30 seconds for a follow-up here. Is systemic racism a problem here in Maine?
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-MA): I do not believe systemic racism is a problem in the state of Maine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: She had 30 seconds to answer, and she opted not to use it.
PHILLIP: Very interesting. You know, you and I both are familiar with Susan Collins.
I don't think she really hesitates to give longer, more in-depth answers
(CROSSTALK) KEILAR: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- like it's something that she wants to do. She made a clear decision there not to do that. I thought it was interesting.
And it's in contrast to what Sara Gideon said in response to a similar question, in which she explained that there are all kinds of racial disparities that exist. Even in a very white state like Maine.
You know, what's interesting about that choice, though, Brianna? Is that, yes, this issue matters to voters of color. But it also matters to a lot of white voters, too.
In a state like Maine, where there are a lot of voters who are in the middle of the political spectrum, especially women voters, they want to know their candidates are being thoughtful about these issues.
I do think it is an interesting choice that she didn't give a more robust answer to that question.
She did say that she didn't think saying Black Lives Matters was a controversial statement.
But again, what we are seeing in this election cycle is that it's not just that this issue matters to voters of color. It also matters to white voters as well.
It can be particularly damaging to seem tone-deaf around the issues of race with those voters who, in a state like Maine, could be decisive.
KEILAR: It's hard to understand how someone who was awake for the last several months and didn't notice that.
Let's take a look at what we're seeing here. Live pictures coming from these Biden and Trump dueling rallies going on in Florida. We have a split screen here.
What do you make of this scene, Abby?
PHILLIP: Well, we're obviously in the final stretch. But look at the scene behind President Trump in Florida. Look at that scene. A couple people wearing masks, but a lot of people are not.
[14:34:59]
Actually, this is a bit different from we've typically seen. They have tried really hard to make sure the people behind the president are wearing masks to try to blunt some of the criticism. But you're not seeing that.
On the other side, Joe Biden standing on the stage alone with the flag behind him.
It's really a tale of two images, two campaigns going into this final stretch with very different messages about -- particularly about how they treat this pandemic and how they lead on the issue of the pandemic.
Yes, I think these two images paint that stark picture. That's exactly actually what the Biden campaign wants. They want that contrast to be there.
The president is making it very easy for them with picture like that out of Tampa right now.
KEILAR: And they want -- you can see when they went to the cut-away shot for Joe Biden --
PHILLIP: Yes.
KEILAR: -- it's a drive-in event.
I think it's a hard time to campaign during a pandemic. There's I think it's very difficult to be a candidate and not have a crowd in front of you.
PHILLIP: Yes.
KEILAR: But this is how they figured out a way to do it. To keep people in their pod units, in cars, to be outside, to be socially distanced, to be far away when it comes to -- obviously, car lengths away from other people, Abby.
PHILLIP: Yes. And you know, President Trump obviously loves his rallies. They are very reinforcing, self-reinforcing to him on a personal level.
He really wants them and needs them to feel this adulation from his supporters.
But there's a big difference between that approach to campaigning and one that says it's more important to protect people than to have people in a crowd cheering me on.
I do think that the Trump campaign, you hear his advisers actually doubling down on that, and kind of making fun of the drive-thru, sort of implying that it's -- to hear cars honking sounds sad or pitiful in some ways because it's not a roaring crowds.
Well, those are two different approaches. It's either about the roaring crowd or about the idea that safety is important.
That is the choice that they are laying out to the American public for them to make within the next couple of days before this election.
Based on -- we can talk about it all we want. But we already know, based on the polling, the American public, they are not satisfied with how this president has been handling the pandemic.
He's just doubling down on that kind of messaging in this final stretch.
KEILAR: Yes, he is putting the health at risk of people who put their trust in him. And there are many voters who do not think that's a good look. We'll have to see if that makes any kind of difference in a few days.
Abby, thank you so much for being with us.
PHILLIP: Good to be here.
KEILAR: Next, we are live in the battleground states of Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin as early voting continues to set records.
You're watching CNN's special live coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:41:58]
KEILAR: We are just five days until Election Day. You can see right now President Trump and Joe Biden having dueling rallies in the crucial battleground state of Florida.
And there's another major development for the 2020 race. The Supreme Court ruling that mail-in ballots in key swing states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania can be accepted for several days after Election Day.
Our CNN correspondents are tracking all of the action in battleground states, and we begin in Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Drew Griffin in Tallahassee, outside a polling booth near Florida State University. A steady stream of voters here.
But the real effort is in south Florida, where we have these dueling political rallies right now.
Joe Biden right now in Broward County. He needs to desperately harvest every single Democratic vote he can in that stronghold there to balance off what is going to happen in many red parts of the state.
And President Trump in Tampa, trying to get every single voter he can there.
The big story remains turnout. Now, today, 7.4 million Floridians have already cast their vote. That is more than half of all registered voters in this state, the ballots are already cast.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Detroit, Michigan.
If you needed any proof that the Wolverine State is in play and being fought over by both sides, just look at the number of candidates and their surrogates in the states this week.
Just today, Joe Biden's in the state. The Trump kids, Tiffany and Eric are here. Betsy DeVos, from the Education Department, she's here. The president was here earlier. The vice president was here. The president will be back here a Friday.
And then President Obama and Joe Biden will hold their first joint appearance in Michigan on Saturday.
It is expected that about five million Michiganders will vote in this election. The vast majority of those votes will already be in.
They will be in this way. The people who would have mailed in their ballots normally are now being told to drop them off at places like this. Drop boxes across the state. This one in Detroit.
It is going to be hard fought all the way through to Election Day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bill Weir in Madison.
Here in Wisconsin, 1.6 million absentee ballots already in. Another quarter million outstanding. Although, some of those may have changed their mind and they won't to show up on Tuesday.
In the polls, Joe Biden leads anywhere from five to 17 points, depending on which way you pay attention to.
The ground game for Republicans got a lot more complicated today when the state GOP announced they had been taken by an online phishing scam, that somebody with familiarity to how the operation was working towards these final days, made off with $2.3 million dollars. And that they're cooperating with the FBI -- Brianna?
KEILAR: My goodness. And the Wisconsin governor, Bill, has warned critical staffing shortages at hospitals there amid a spike in COVID cases. What can you tell us?
[14:45:00]
WEIR: Well, it's the infection rate that is scaring so many people. Yesterday, another 3,800 new cases, 45 deaths. But 27 percent infection rate.
If you do the math, that means Wisconsin's ICUs will overflow within the next couple of weeks. They have a field hospital on the state fairgrounds that will take that overflow.
They're making plans for people that are hospitalized or quarantined to still vote, using an agent who goes with their I.D. and ballot to vouch for them as well.
But it's really alarming how this virus is tearing through America's dairy land here.
KEILAR: It certainly is.
Bill Weir in Wisconsin. Thank you so much to you, as well as our other colleagues with their reports from around the country.
And CNN will be the place for the most comprehensive coverage on election night. This will begin, live, at 4:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Tune in for that.
Next, several hospitals have been targeted in a series of alarming ransomware attacks. What that means in the midst of a pandemic
Plus, a 20-year-old man is accused of hacking into the voter data of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, even the governor of Florida. We'll have details on what he was able to do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:50:33]
KEILAR: Hackers are targeting hospitals and health care providers in what cybersecurity experts believe to be a massive attack. And this is in the middle of a pandemic days before the election. Certainly, these attacks could not come at a worst time.
In some instances, patients actually had to be rerouted to other hospitals. Since July, hospitals in New York, Nebraska, Ohio, Missouri and Michigan have been the target of ransomware attacks.
Anthony Ferrante is a CNN law enforcement analyst. He's a former FBI special agent as well.
I think I should mention Oregon as well. There was an attack reported there as well.
How do these attacks work? Why are these so debilitating, Anthony, to hospitals?
ANTHONY FERRANTE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Brianna, it is actually really, really simple. In order to effect one of these attacks, a hacker can go online and buy a kit for as little as $15 on the dark web.
Once they have that attack kit, they can launch it at any organization they wish.
Of course, they are targeting hospitals because they are watching the news and they know the hospitals are weak right now. They see our numbers climbing every single day. They know the hospitals are vulnerable.
And they know, if they launch ransomware at these hospitals, the hospitals will have no choice but to pay that ransom.
KEILAR: What is the ransom normally?
FERRANTE: It varies. They used to fly under the radar with as littles as $300 ransom. But now, we've seen it as high as $1 million and sometimes as high as $25 million. So it really depends on the type of organize they are targeting. These hackers do their research and they understand who their end
target is and they know what they have in their bank account and what their insurance policy will cover.
So, they're smart. They do their research. They understand who their end victim is. And they target their attack. So they know the chances are the organization will pay the ransom and move on quickly.
KEILAR: We're all concerned, of course, with election security. According to top officials in the U.S. government, there's a link here between these hackings and election security.
But now we're hearing about a 20-year-old Florida man who was able to allegedly access voter databases.
Law enforcement believes that he accessed voter registrations of Michael Jordan and Lebron James and that also of the Florida governor.
And in the case of Governor Ron DeSantis, he changed the home address of DeSantis so that DeSantis couldn't vote.
I mean, this is incredibly alarming.
FARRANTE: Yes, you're right. You really can't make this up. We are not in a movie. This is not a psy-fi movie. This is real life.
Let's take a few steps back. We talk about the ransomware attacks on the hospitals.
Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI and DHS actually issued a 15-page intelligence product with real actionable intelligence that health care facilities should undertake immediately. Small and large, they should do that.
And what they did was they highlighted the fact that the reason why they published the report was because they were worried about these ransom ware attacks targeting health care facilities leading into the election.
And they had every reason to be concerned about that.
In 2016, when I was at the White House and at the FBI, these very ransomware attacks, they are exactly what we were concerned about.
Fast forward to today, not only are we seeing ransomware attacks targeting hospitals and creating chaos in the health care industry during a global pandemic but we're also seeing a 20-year-old kid who is doing exactly what the Senate intel report highlighted a few years back.
It said that Russia was exploiting the seams of our electoral infrastructure.
That is exactly what this 20-year-old kid did. He didn't hack into the voter registration voter base in the traditional sense. What he did was he found publicly available information of these celebrities and he entered it into the Web site and he exploited the seams of the system.
And then, you're right, he changed that information.
Think about that. This 20-year-old kid was able to do it quickly and easily from the comfort of his home.
Imagine a nation-state actor doing it at scale. That very scenario was exactly what we were concerned with leading up to the 2016 election. It's extremely concerning that it can be done.
KEILAR: Anthony, obviously, we're keeping our eye on this.
Anthony Farrante, thank you so much for your expertise on this.
FARRANTE: Thank you.
[14:55:03]
KEILAR: The U.S. just recorded its third-highest number of daily coronavirus cases ever. More than 78,000 just on Wednesday. And we are tracking new data on the increased risk to health care workers and their families.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.
[14:59:57]
We begin this hour with the 2020 lead. Five days until Election Day in the United States. And right now, President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, are both zeroing in on the critical state of Florida and its massive war chest of 29 electoral votes.
