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Pandemic Reality Check: Across The U.S. V. Across The Pond; Hurricane Zeta Hits Gulf Coast; Health Experts Say Normal Life Perhaps 2022; Europe Struggles With Economic-Health Balance And Restrictions; Why 2020 Is Not Like 2016; India Reporting 8 Million Cases of COVID- 19; Arizona Becomes Swing State Despite Trump's 2016 Win; Biden Leads Trump 54 percent to 42 percent Nationwide; Third Quarter Earnings, Unemployment Numbers Thursday; U.S. Senators Grill Tech Chiefs Over Content Moderation; Author of 2018 "Anonymous" Op-Ed Critical of Trump Revealed. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 29, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause.
And coming up on CNN NEWSROOM.
One surging pandemic, two very different plans of action. While France and Germany ordered new lockdowns to slow the spread of the infection, in the U.S., the president ignores a worsening health crisis and lies. He claims the outbreak is getting better.
But the fact-based health experts in the U.S. now warning anything close to a return to a normal life more than a year away.
Plus Hurricane Zeta hammering parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Nearly a million people left in the dark and Zeta is not t done yet.
In the final days before the U.S. presidential election, a surging pandemic is not only filling hospitals and morgues but also sending Donald Trump's poll numbers into freefall in crucial swing states. And with that, making a second term looking increasingly unlikely.
The Trump Campaign continues to hold likely super spreader event even in states where the number of daily new infections have hit record highs.
Vice President Mike Pence held a rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday.
But before that event, CNN spoke with the Trump campaign national press secretary about a visit to a state which just a day earlier saw new highs both in new cases and COVID-related deaths.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Are you at all concerned given that there has been a outbreak in the vice president's orbit of people around him and that there is currently an outbreak -- I mean, hospitals in Wisconsin are near capacity. And so does that give you any pause or the vice president any pause about going there and holding a big rally?
HOGAN GIDLEY, NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: No, it doesn't. The vice president has the best doctors in the world around him. They've obviously contact traced and have come to the conclusion that it's fine for him to be out on the campaign trail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It was an incredibly tone-deaf response and in many ways speaks to how the Trump Administration sees this pandemic. A pandemic which senior health experts say will continue to disrupt practically every aspect of normal life for another year, maybe more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think it will be easily by the end of 2021 and perhaps even into the next year before we start having some semblances of normality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Normality right now looks like this. The U.S. reported more than 76,000 new cases on Wednesday. And that is bringing warnings that there could be much worse to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Our nation is plunging into a terrible darkness from COVID- 19. The numbers will be probably up around 80,000 new cases a day by the election, which is the worst ever. And we're headed towards 100,000 new cases.
We're headed towards a doubling of the number of Americans who've perished in this epidemic by the end of the year, early January.
Hospitals are surging. And it's not only new cases that are going up, it's of course hospitalizations, positivity.
All directions point to a horrible, horrible winter for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Despite what the doctors and the scientists have been saying, despite all the warnings and guidelines issued by the nation's leading pandemic experts, Donald Trump's Arizona rally saw thousands of supporters all crammed together.
Social distancing, it seems, does not look good on camera. And very few were seen wearing a face mask.
And President Trump continues to lie and mislead about the nation's dire health crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Normal life which is what we want, we just want normal life.
CROWD: (Applause)
TRUMP: Like we had seven months ago, will fully resume.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: To Durham, North Carolina now and Dr. Gavin Yamey, professor of global health and public policy at Duke University.
[01:05:00]
Doctor, thank you for being with us. I think we've seen this movie before, right? About a month or so after opening in Europe it hits the U.S., like a lot of sequels this one has upped the death and the devastation.
Is it fair to say that just like the last time, the U.S. has done little to prepare for this next wave?
DR. GAVIN YAMEY, PROFESSOR, GLOBAL HEALTH & PUBLIC POLICY, DUKE UNIVERSITY: Yes, I think that's very fair. I think everybody needs to remember, of course, that the purpose of any lockdown, stay-at-home order, a series of restrictions to try and break the cycle of transmission, the purpose of that is to put in place basic public health measures.
In particular an excellent system to test, trace, isolate, support. In other words you really need to use that frame (ph) wisely to build a system to test and identify cases, isolate those cases, identify those who've been exposed, quarantine the exposed, and critically support those who are isolating or quarantined. Which might mean financial support, support at home with food and so on.
In the U.S. we didn't do that. We didn't use the first series of stay-at-home orders to put in place that kind of a system.
And here we are, again, unfortunately with rapidly rising numbers of cases and now hospitalizations. We are starting to see rising deaths as well. It was inevitable because we didn't put the measures that we needed to put in place.
And nor, unfortunately, have we reached the kinds of levels of personal protections that we should have had by now. Mask use, social distancing, avoiding of crowds, and not going inside into crowded spaces.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. president seems to have a plan. He believes that if he halves the number of tests he can actually halve the number of new cases.
The man in charge of the testing for the Administration, though, Admiral Brett Giroir, though disagrees.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASST. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: It's not just a function of testing. Yes, we're getting more cases identified but the cases are actually going up.
And we know that too because hospitalizations are going up.
Now the peak was in the 70,000s in July. We're about 42-,43,000 now so we're much less than July. But those are going up, those are real. And we know that deaths are increasing, unfortunately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The reason why those obvious and accurate comments are newsworthy is because they stand in very stark contrast to what the White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner , told journalist Bob Woodward back in April.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED KUSHNER, SNR. ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT: The last thing was kind of doing the guidelines which was interesting. And that, in my mind, was almost like -- you know, it was almost like Trump getting the country back from the doctors, right?
In the sense that what he now did was, you know, he's going to own the open-up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Those words "getting the country back from the doctors."
And as we face this new peak of COVID-19 it seems the doctors and the experts have still been pushed to one side. They're not calling the shots.
YAMEN: That's right. So Trump, Kushner, Trump's coronavirus tzar, Scott Atlas, they have rejected science, they've rejected the advice of public health experts, epidemiologists, virologists and now they are following a completely anti-scientific, kookie, zombie theory that we should just let the virus rip through America causing disease, destruction and death.
Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff, of course, said as much a few days ago. He said there's nothing we can do to control this pandemic.
The U.S. under the Trump Administration has thrown in the towel, has really rejected science. And unfortunately, has ignored the lessons from the Pacific Rim nations that have done so well. As Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA head says, if you look at the Pacific Rim nations in totality, all of them together are having fewer than 1,000 new cases per day. And that's because they follow the science.
They've had powerful leaders who have used scientific-based measures, who have promoted mask use, who have done test, trace, isolate. Who have really listened to what public health experts are saying.
In the U.S., Trump and his administration have rejected science and rejected basic public health measures. And here we are, the worst epidemic in the world, about a fifth of all cases and deaths.
And no end in sight under this Administration that really wants the virus to rip through society.
VAUSE: Speaking of Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner, he's one of a growing number of health experts who's calling for a national mask mandate.
In many ways this seems to be low-hanging fruit. A mask mandate in public has been implemented in Russia, any place with more than 50 people you have to wear a mask.
They're not doing that here; in fact, they're burning masks in protests in Florida.
What is wrong with this country?
[01:10:00]
YAMEY: To be honest, it is one of the most frustrating things. It's a piece of cloth that you put on your face. It is not some kind of restriction of freedom, it's not about liberty. It's about science. It protects you and it protects others.
And sadly it has become politicized in this country unlike in many other countries.
And one of the things that we really need to do is just get back to basic public health principles and promote science and not sort of kooky fringe theories.
What we really need is for a national mask mandate, a massive scale up of test and trace, isolate and support.
We will hopefully soon have a vaccine. But even if we have a safe, effective vaccine it's going to take many months, perhaps into late 2021 or even early 2022 before we've scaled it up to enough people in the States and worldwide for us to start really getting on top of this pandemic.
So we are going to have to do distancing and masking and handwashing and avoiding crowded spaces, particularly indoors, long term. Those are basic protections that we really all need to adopt.
VAUSE: Yes. And the longer we delay that, the longer this goes on. It's bizarre.
Dr. Yamey, thank you very much -- or Yamey, I should say. Thank you very much for being with us. We appreciate it.
YAMEY: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: With this just in from India. Now the second country to record more than 8 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus with almost 50,000 new infections in the last 24 hours.
Despite that milestone, India's daily numbers have been dropping over the past three months. A stark contrast as Europe's numbers continue to rise. And now the leaders in France and Germany have made the hard decision to once again impose nationwide lockdowns.
Germany is just one of many European countries which reported a record high in daily cases on Wednesday. And that is leading to warnings there may still be tougher restrictions to come.
CNN's Jim Bittermann reports now from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SNR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's Lockdown 2.0. In France and Germany, citizens must hunker down once again as the country's leaders announce sweeping new coronavirus restrictions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT, FRANCE (Through Translator): The virus is circulating at a speed faster than even the most pessimistic forecasts had anticipated.
Like all our neighbors we are submerged by the sudden acceleration of virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BITTERMAN: In France's month-long lockdown people will need a certificate to leave their home. Non-essential businesses, restaurants and bars will be closed but schools will remain open.
The new rules come after curfews across much of the country failed to contain a surge of new cases, officially averaging 40,000 a day. But experts suggest that the real number could be as high as 100,000 a day.
In Germany, a similar trend of soaring infections met by a similar response. Starting November 2nd, Germany will shut bars, restaurants and theaters. Shops can operate with strict limits on access. Schools will stay open.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY (Through Translator): What makes the current pandemic situation so serious is the speed at
which the virus is spreading.
Our health system can still cope with this challenge today but at this speed of infections, it will reach the limits of capacity within weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BITTERMANN: The sweeping new restrictions in two of Europe's largest economies sent world markets into a tumble though as harsh as spring lockdowns.
They follow an effort across the Continent to control a startling rise of new cases. From Russia to Italy, Spain to Poland, record jumps in infections have led to new restrictions on public life.
Not all have been easy to enforce. Protesters in Spain and Italy demonstrate a growing discontent at the economic and emotional impact of controlling the virus.
Meanwhile, medical workers also voiced their frustration as some hospitals begin to buckle.
Leaders across Europe struggling to strike a balance in the battle against a resurging coronavirus pandemic.
Jim Bittermann. CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It seems we've reached the time now for closing arguments in the U.S. presidential election.
For the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, that means hammering the Trump Administration for a failed response to the coronavirus pandemic. While at the same time holding very public briefings with health experts.
In a moment we'll hear from CNN's Jessica Dean with the Biden campaign. But first, Jeremy Diamond reports from Arizona on Donald Trump continuing to either downplay, mislead or ignore the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump on Wednesday was here in the battleground state of Arizona. Now this is a state that the president won by nearly four points in 2016.
But according to the most recent polls he's now trailing former vice president Joe Biden by that same margin.
[01:15:00]
And that's pretty remarkable given that this state of Arizona hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Bill Clinton in 1996. And so we're seeing the president as he is in so many places across the country playing defense here in the state of Arizona.
Now the president, despite the fact that the polls show that the coronavirus pandemic is the number one issue for voters, he's continuing to downplay the seriousness of this pandemic.
Insisting, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the surge of cases of coronavirus that is happening across the country is not real. Saying that it is because of testing which, of course, we know is simply not true.
And the president is also continuing to have events like the one that we saw right here in Bullhead City. Thousands of people packed very, very closely together, very few people actually wearing a mask. And the campaign certainly isn't requiring people to wear these masks.
And so the president of the United States putting on events that his own coronavirus task force has said could lead to an increase in cases as well as preventable deaths.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former vice president Joe Biden back in his home state of Delaware on Wednesday where he and his wife, Jill Biden, early voted.
Joe Biden also being briefed by his team of scientists and doctors on the coronavirus pandemic and then giving remarks which were televised. He really took the moment to slam President Trump his Administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
We've heard so many of these things from him before. But again, it shows you just how important the campaign believes this contrast is in these closing days of the race when we're seeing record number of COVID cases in the United States.
Vice President Biden saying unlike Trump, he does have a plan that he would enact on day one. Acknowledging that it would not be a flip of a switch, that it would take hard work. But that science would lead, that doctors would lead and guide his plan moving forward.
Up next, Vice President Biden heads to the critical battleground state of Florida on Thursday where he will have two stops there.
Again, he doesn't have to win Florida in order to get to that critical 270 electoral votes. But if he did, it would make President Trump's path to re-election incredibly narrow and incredibly difficult.
Jessica Dean. CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Larry Sabato joins us this hour. He's the director of the center of politics at the University of Virginia. And it is good to see you. LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, John. Good to see you.
VAUSE: OK. I hear a lot from people who just don't believe the polling, they expect a Trump upset just like 2016. And the reason, the rationale is because Hillary Clinton was up in the polls by a similar margin as Joe Biden. But there are a lot of reasons why 2020 is not 2016 and we'll start with favorability.
In June 2016, an "NBC News Wall Street Journal" poll had Clinton's net favorability rating underwater by 22 points. Trump's were even worse, he was underwater by 31 points. That's the favorable/unfavorable look.
Four years later, Biden's favorability is almost at break even point. While Trump, he's improved a little though Republicans have coalesced around him but he's still in the negatives.
People like Biden, they don't like Hillary Clinton. They still don't really like Trump. So is this one of the big key factors here?
SABATO: That is. That's a very important factor. I think also you'd have to say Hillary Clinton was representing a two-term incumbent administration.
Americans frequently change after eight years, we change parties. That obviously is not the case here, Donald Trump is a very controversial incumbent. He's only served four years but to be honest, I think it seems to most people like eight or more.
VAUSE: Yes. And during the campaign event in Nebraska on Tuesday when people were sent to the hospital because they were suffering from pneumonia, Donald Trump was talking about his own, I guess imaginary, polling data.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: By the way, a lot of things are going on. You're seeing those poll numbers are going through the roof. I hate to tell --
CROWD: (Applause)
TRUMP: Where is the fake news? It's over there. Oh, that's a lot of cameras.
CROWD: (Chant indiscernible)
TRUMP: It's going up. They're very concerned; they're very, very concerned. All over. Florida's looking great. Now Nebraska we know is looking great. OK.
CROWD: (Applause)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Florida's not looking great, Nebraska's not looking great.
And even if that was true, at this point given the record numbers who've already voted -- in Florida, for example, early vote is about 70 percent of the 2016 total vote count, it's more than 90 percent in Texas, it's more than 76 percent in Georgia, almost at the halfway point in Nebraska.
Last time, undecideds voted for Trump. So many people already voting, it would seem the president may have lost that advantage as well.
SABATO: Yes. We just conducted a survey, we're getting ready to release it. And it shows that the percentage of undecideds this year is tiny, we're down to 5 percent. And even if that split two to one for Trump, it wouldn't be enough.
[01:20:00]
So it's a very different situation. The narcissism that Trump has shown at these rallies suggests to me that he's living in a parallel universe. But that has often appeared to be the case over the last four years.
VAUSE: Yes. There's also no third party candidates this time, right?
SABATO: I couldn't hear you, John.
VAUSE: There's no third party candidates in the mix this time.
SABATO: Yes, thank you.
VAUSE: Which also was a significant factor in 2016.
SABATO: Yes, that's really important. Because the third parties were a vent for anger and frustration. And it kept them from Hillary Clinton's column more than it kept them from Donald Trump's column. Over six percent voted independent or third party in 2016.
Our current estimate is that it's going to be three percent or under. So those votes are really not available to Donald Trump to the extent that they are available to Joe Biden.
VAUSE: I guess the big question though, the sort of unknown factor in all of this is just how long will it take for all of these votes to be counted? And what can happen between election night and that result being made official?
SABATO: Partly it depends on how big a margin the winner gets. Let's say it's Joe Biden and he wins by five or six or seven points. I think we'll actually know within probably 48 hours. We won't have all the votes in and we'll still have states that are undecided.
But all it takes is for one candidate really to be leading convincingly in states that amount to 270 electoral votes. Now if this election turns close, we'll be lucky if it's election
week, it could easily be election month. I don't really want to think about it being longer than election month.
VAUSE: Because it could be a repeat of 2000 with Florida. And a lot of Floridas all over the country with legal challenges.
SABATO: It could easily be all the legal challenges are going to occur regardless of the margin. Guaranteed. Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. Because they'll be trying to set precedents for the future, they'll be trying to set election law for the future. So we're going to have that regardless.
But if we have an election plus a lot of lawsuits, eventually we might well have a case go to the supreme court.
And then they're really on the spot because we all know now it's six to three Republican. If they make a partisan decision then "Katy, bar the door."
VAUSE: Yes. Interesting times, Larry. But as you say, all will be known come Tuesday. We hope.
SABATO: We hope.
VAUSE: Good to see you. Take care.
SABATO: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: And CNN's special coverage of ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA begins Tuesday 9:00 pm in London, that's 1:00 am Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. And you'll not want to miss it.
Well, hundreds of thousands are without power along the U.S. Gulf Coast as Hurricane Zeta slams the region.
The very latest when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:25:00]
VAUSE: Hurricane Zeta battering the U.S. Gulf Coast and quickly moving inland. Already more than 850,000 people across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are without electricity.
Zeta is still a category one storm with intense winds and heavy rains. So far, just one death has been recorded, a man in Louisiana electrocuted by downed power lines.
Zeta made landfall in Louisiana Wednesday afternoon as a category two, strong enough to force this barge from its mornings, nearly colliding with another vessel.
This is the fifth named storm to hit Louisiana this season. It is a record for any state. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has been tracking this.
Yes, this has been quite the season, huh?
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's been quite the season. And it's going to get more interesting here over the next several hours just based on where this storm system is headed.
You noted it's moving rather quickly, it's inland, it's still a hurricane.
We expect it to weaken within the coming few hours here but certainly going to see those strong winds possibly over 100 kilometers per hour even into the Atlanta Metro area.
That's where some unusual tropical storm warnings are in place. In fact, only the second time I could find on record that we've had tropical storm warnings across portions of the Atlanta Metro area. Again, winds into the early morning hours could exceed 100 kilometers per hour into the metro.
So you noted over 800,000 customers without power farther towards the south. You do the math, you know the population density in the Atlanta Metro certainly could increase that number very easily.
But the system does quickly move out of here.
There is that number, 94 kilometers per hour. Again, it should be shortly after, say, sunrise to about 9:00 am local time. And then it quickly pushes off towards the eastern seaboard here and exits off the coast.
So if anything good comes out of this storm, it is the fact that it's moving very rapidly.
You'll notice the density of power outages that are expected here could be well into the hundreds of thousands.
In fact, it was back in 2017 when what was left of Hurricane Irma worked its way into the Atlanta Metro, left behind over 900,000 people without power across the northern region of Georgia.
So here's what we're looking at with the system as it quickly moves out of here. The rainfall amounts should be mitigated because of how quickly it is forecast to move out of this region.
But an area that we're watching very carefully that we think, the concern really going to be much higher for rainfall is what has happened here as a result of Typhoon Molave.
This is across areas of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia on into Vietnam. Look at the extensive damage left in place across this region, in Vietnam in particular. As we've had so much rainfall in recent days that once the soil gets fully saturated, winds of even 70 or even 80 kilometers per hour will bring down trees.
And, of course, winds here were well over 150 kilometers per hour at landfall.
And you'll notice the amounts of water here, 100 to over 200 millimeters coming down just since yesterday.
Now watch what's happening behind this, John. We have Tropical Storm Goni -- we've noted it's been a very active season not only in the Atlantic but also across the Western Pacific.
And this particular storm, much like Molave, forecast to work its way across portions of the Visayas, eventually through Luzon. And then much like Molave, could eventually end up in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand as well.
And, of course, Molave becoming the fourth named storm to impact this region in 2020. In fact, three of them now happening just in the past several weeks.
And you'll notice, John, the rainfall forecast moving forward. Still going to be tremendous with the next system coming through this identical spot potentially as early as Saturday into Sunday and going into next week. John.
VAUSE: Busy couple of days, busy couple of weeks, I guess. Pedram, thank you. Pedram Javaheri there with the very latest.
JAVAHERI: Right. Yes.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, Donald Trump won Arizona four years ago, but now?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRK ADAMS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, CONCILIUM CONSULTING: It's advantage Joe Biden.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SNR. US CORRESPONDENT: Is that hard -- is that shocking for you to say still?
ADAMS: It is still a bit shocking for me to get those words out of my mouth. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: As the demographics change in Arizona, the state may be changing from that bright red to deep blue. We'll hear from some Democrats there in just a moment.
Also, a senate hearing on social media policy gets heated as Republicans accuse tech giants of political censorship just days before that U.S. election.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:46]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: India is now the second country after the U.S. to confirm more than eight million cases of the coronavirus.
CNN's Vedika Sud is live in New Delhi.
And Vedika, it seems like there's some good news here, there's bad news. These numbers come as the overall case counts have been falling, but there are fears that the overall numbers actually could be a lot higher in the real world -- the real world cases could be much higher than these official numbers.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Good morning from India, John. I do have good and bad news. The good news is that we are seeing a huge dip in the daily increase of numbers here in India.
If you remember when we spoke in September, we're talking about India's daily numbers reaching nearly 100,000 a day. But now they've come down to here, you know, between 40,000 to about 50,000 per day.
In fact on Tuesday, India saw its lowest increase in daily numbers in three months where it stood at almost 36,400 new infections. So that's the good news.
The bad news is, yes, we have surpassed eight million confirmed cases of COVID 19. And there's a warning from medical experts, not to throw caution to the wind at this time because we've seen the cases fall.
But this is festivity time in India -- both October and November are full of festivals especially Hindu festival. The Diwali is coming up as well, which is the Festival of Lights here in India. And even the prime minister and his government have been reiterating that people should be very careful and very vigilant at this point in time given that the cases are coming down.
And as you've seen in other countries across the world it's when the peak has reached and you're seeing the dipping of the numbers, that people have been more relaxed than usual. That's the worry here in India.
And of course (ph), there's the testing (ph) time here in India. If people are not vigilant right now you could see those numbers going up as we are seeing in Delhi.
Now, according to the ministry of health, as of Tuesday, five states in Delhi have seen an increase in COVID-19 numbers. And they're attributing that to festivals. Also remember Delhi has awful pollution levels right now. And doctors say that with COVID-19 already existing in India and across the world, and high pollution levels this could be the reason for the increase in COVID-19 caseload here in India, John.
VAUSE: Vedika -- thank you. Vedika Sud there, live for us in New Delhi.
SUD: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, a sign of a struggling Trump campaign, on Wednesday holding two rallies in Arizona, normally a reliable Republican state which this election is leaning Democratic. At one rally, Trump announced a plan describe by campaign aides, rather as an American dream aimed at the Hispanic community.
Voters in Arizona's two largest counties are turning out in record number to cast the early ballots. And an ominous sign to the president, registered Democrats are outpacing Republicans.
Here's CNN's Kyung Lah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just leave them over here sweetheart.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: An election for the ages.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you put stickers on these.
LAH: All ages, for this Phoenix, Arizona family, volunteering to flip the state blue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is going to be people who are pissed off that have been -- you know, it used to be a really red state.
[01:34:56]
LAH: But change has arrived, say Elio (ph) and his wife Kat (ph). Like many new Arizonans they are younger, college educated and voting Democratic helping turn their state into a battleground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's definitely been a shift, a very noticeable shift. Arizona is growing very rapidly. It's no longer just a place for retirees. And it's going to change because there's more families like us.
LAH: Families like theirs are part of Maricopa county's population boom. About 200 new residents relocate to Phoenix's most populous and politically power counties every single day.
It used to look like that?
KIRK ADAMS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, CONSTRUM CONSULTING: Yes, it used to be cowboys out here.
LAH: Now --
ADAMS: It's upper middle income. It's professionals. It's highly educated. It is having a political effect. There's no doubt about it.
LAH: Adams should know. A decade ago, he was one of the top elected officials in the state. Arizona has voted for Republican presidential candidates since 1952, with the exception of Bill Clinton in 1996.
And this year --
ADAMS: It's advantage Joe Biden.
LAH: Is that -- like is that shocking for you to say still?
ADAMS: It is still a bit shocking for me to get those words out of my mouth, yes.
You know, President Trump was sort of like gasoline on that fire. He was the accelerant that has produced sort of the position -- the political position that we find the state in today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As Joe Biden knows, this moment is not about him.
LAH: The Biden campaign and its allies are spending $6.7 million on TV ads in Arizona the week before the election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He will continue to fight for you.
LAH: About $3 million than the Trump campaign and Republican groups according to data from the ad tracking firm, Kantar Media.
Both President Trump and Joe Biden have made Arizona a top priority, increasing their presence and ground game as election day approaches.
Adding to the changing demographics, about one-third of Maricopa County is now Latino. Maggie Acosta, believes new Latino voters and new residents could help Democrats take the states.
Do you feel it's different this year?
MAGGIE ACOSTA, DEMOCRATIC CANVASSER, UNITE HERE LOCAL 11: Yes, it is. It's more Latinos are getting out there to vote.
LAH: A once reliable red state, now home to opposing views.
LAH: If Arizona stays red, it will discourage you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I mean she'll say no --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll keep working.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- but yes. We'll keep working.
LAH: Early voting is underway here in Arizona. You can see there is a small line gathered here at this early voting site in Scottsdale, Arizona. As far as what the numbers look like, in Maricopa County the recorder says 1.26 million ballots have already been cast. These are signature verified ballots.
It is a record as far as early ballots as compared to 2016, more than all of the early votes cast in 2016. A similar story in Pima County, that includes Tucson, Arizona.
So when it comes to records on early ballots, those are being smashed in Arizona.
Kyung Lah, CNN -- Scottsdale, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Well, Joe Biden is not only leading in Arizona, but it's a similar story nationwide, according to a new CNN poll. Our man at the magic wall is John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Five days out, normally the time to say stop paying attention to the national polls. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote last time but we pic presidents state by state, electoral college. So why pay attention to the national polls?
Well, normally that's a good guide. This is not a normal election. Look at the choice for president right now. Hillary Clinton was up about 4 points at this point in 2016. She did win, but it narrowed on election day and Donald Trump won the electoral college.
Joe Biden is up 12 points -- a 12-point national lead sets the table for a potential blue wave. A 12-point national that has been relatively steady. If you go back to April, it's 13. Couple of dips but 12 points. A 12-point national lead -- that's a national poll worth paying attention to.
Can Donald get momentum? Yes but time is running short. So you're looking for the bones of the poll. What is happening here?
One is on personal characteristics. Donald Trump has Hunter Biden, career politician, stays in his basement, won't have big rallies and events. He's tried to attack Joe Biden anyway he can.
55 percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of the Democratic nominee. Only 41 percent have that same favorable opinion of the incumbent President of the United States on questions of personal characteristics. Honesty, integrity, character, trustworthiness -- Joe Biden is winning the race in that matter.
So if you're the president, and you can't beat Joe Biden on character, personal characteristics -- then you better beat him on policy.
Well, look at this report card. In our new national poll, the president has an edge on the economy, with just a very slight edge. And look, coronavirus the biggest issue facing the country. Crime injustice, health care, race relations, Supreme Court picks. Joe Biden beats the president on every one of these issues. And is essentially in a tie, a slight deficit on the economy.
[01:39:59]
KING: When voters say, what do I want in the next president? Clearly when it comes to these issues, they want Joe Biden.
So we look every day for any evidence of momentum, right? Any evidence at all for Trump momentum.
New polls out of Georgia today, the state has not gone Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992. Joe Biden, still has an edge in Georgia. You look new polls in Michigan and Wisconsin today, they were red in
2016. We have them right now leaning blue in 2020. Why? Because Joe Biden has a lead in the polls and Donald Trump has issues on the biggest issue facing the country -- the coronavirus.
Underwater, only 42 percent of likely voters in Michigan approve of the president's handling of the biggest issue in the country.
Only 39 percent of voters say that in Wisconsin. He's running against Joe Biden but with the spike of coronavirus cases around the country, Donald Trump's opponent is a virus as well, and at this moment he's losing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Our thanks to John King with those very latest numbers.
When we come back, after a rough week on Wall Street, could there be good news for investors in the latest earnings reports and unemployment numbers due out just hours for now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, this is what happens on Wall Street when concerns over the rising number of coronavirus infections meets more pandemic restrictions, as well as an election uncertainty -- a great big sell off. By the time it was done the Dow plunged more than 940 points, the S&P 500 was down 3.5 percent, the biggest lost since June.
U.S. futures are gaining some ground in overnight trade, but I think we said that 24 hours ago, and it didn't turn out so good.
CNN's John Defterios is with us in Abu Dhabi.
So riddle me this, John. the U.S. election has been on the radar for weeks. The outcome is looking increasingly likely. Coronavirus cases have been taking up significantly for weeks as well. European leaders have also been warning that more lockdowns are likely.
And so to their great surprise, investors woke up on this -- some time this week it went, oh my God, things are looking bad and then decide to sell.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: It's almost as if somebody flipped the switch, right John, in a big way, because we are risk off, and then all of a sudden we are risk on again.
And primarily because what you were talking about here -- but I think it's also very worth noting this is not a global phenomenon because Asia's on the mend even when it comes to COVID cases.
But let's take a look at the core of Europe for example -- Germany, France, Italy and even wider than that suffering the spike in cases which does not bode well for growth in this current quarter, the 4th quarter and even spilling into 2021. This is the biggest concern and then more stimulus is going to be needed to revive the economy. We had that jump in the third quarter, then back down again is what we're faced with.
Ditto in America, in the Heartland, the Midwest, and the South, the base for Donald Trump. And as a result of this, we are really concerned about earnings going forward. The earnings now are not bad, but every -- even warning about the futures slowing down.
[01:45:00]
DEFTERIOS: The Asian markets though, pretty resilient as you can see here. (INAUDIBLE) trading below the line. Shanghai has been a round break even all day.
There's concern about economic demand and that's why we saw oil prices yesterday get clobbered by 4 to 5.5 percent. But they're stable and above the line today but a much lower level, below $40 a barrel for North Sea Brent, for example. So that's not a strong sign for demand going forward.
And finally there is that political risk factor, despite what John King was saying about the wide lead for Joe Biden across the board in the United States. What if the president or his team decides to contest the election and everybody I'm speaking to right now says you that could still happen and that's why the political risk is back on the table when it comes to investors as well.
VAUSE: In the coming hours, we will get the last set of major economic data for the U.S. This is before the vote on Tuesday -- or the election on Tuesday.
What are the expectations here? What can we look at these numbers in terms of will they impact the election, the outcome, the result in anyway?
DEFTERIOS: Yes. That's the key question, John. And this is kind of an economic temperature check, if you will, right. I don't think they'll sway anybody to be candid, despite the efforts of Donald Trump.
Let's take a look at the numbers and what we're talk about. The claims are unemployment are still very high, these are expectations better than 700,000. 7.7 million Americans are still filing the weekly claims -- continues claims as they're called.
That second number John, I can guarantee you, you'll never see it again. Growth in the third quarter are better than 36 percent is what JPMorgan is suggesting here.
It sounds fantastic, Donald Trump will say we're roaring back. But we lost the equivalent amount in the first half of the year, right. So this is a great number but it just means that America is treading water right now. And we are going so into the election cycle, without a stimulus package, which leaves a kind of a cloud of uncertainty for those who need the financial support, especially small business and individuals who are still on the mend here, suffering as you saw in the jobless claims.
VAUSE: Yes. John, we're out of time but it kind of feels like we're in this sort of limbo waiting for this election to happen and then the economy is going to do what it's going to do.
But we appreciate you being with us. John Defterios there live in Abu Dhabi.
DEFTERIOS: Thanks.
VAUSE: Well, Republicans have long accused social media and big tech companies of conservative bias. And on Wednesday they had their chance to vent, and vent they did with the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google summoned to Capitol Hill as Donie O'Sullivan reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O'DONNELL, CNN REPORTER: Tech CEOs face questions from U.S. senators on Wednesday. The hearing was supposed to be about a very important piece of U.S. law, called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Now that law protects companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube from being held liable for what their users post on their platforms.
But with this hearing coming only six days before election day here in the United States, things were even more politically-charged than they might normally be.
One major point of contention was between Republicans and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about how Twitter handled, an unsubstantiated story, about Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden and his business dealings in Ukraine.
Twitter, a few weeks ago temporarily blocked links to that report. And here's what Republican Senator Ted Cruz had to say about that.
SENATOR TED CRUZ (R-TX): Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear? And why do you persist in behaving as a Democratic super PAC, silencing news to the contrary of your political views?
JACK DORSEY, CEO TWITTER: I open this hearing with calls for more transparency. We realize we need to earn trust more. We realize that more accountability is needed to show our intentions and to show the outcomes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you --
DORSEY: So I hear the concerns, and acknowledge them. But we want to fix it with more transparency.
O'SULLIVAN: There was one moment of levity however. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of one of the world's biggest communication platforms had some communication issues of his own, being unable to dial into the remote hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are unable to make contact with Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. We are told by Facebook staff that he is alone, and attempting to connect with this hearing. And that they are requesting a five-minute recess at this point. O'SULLIVAN: So there you have it. Even a titan of big tech can have
technical issues.
[01:49:52]
O'SULLIVAN: All eyes will now turn to how these companies, how Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube handle misinformation on election day and election night here in the U.S. next week.
Donie O'Sullivan, CNN -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, he's anonymous no more -- the mystery insider who infuriated Donald Trump with damning leaks has revealed himself, so why come clean now? We'll find out when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, it feels like that damning op-ed which we read from Anonymous in "The New York Times" appeared about a thousand years ago. It was actually just two years. The senior Trump administration official claiming to be part of a resistance, working to soften the presidents worst in inclinations and to save the world from his worst instincts, as well.
Anonymous has now revealed himself. It is Miles Taylor, former chief of staff to the Homeland Security Secretary and he is now a CNN contributor.
Taylor denied to CNN's Anderson Cooper as recently as August that he was, in fact Anonymous. And CNN's Chris Cuomo asked him why he lied.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES TAYLOR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I said in the book that if asked I would strenuously deny I was the author. And here's a reason, because the things I said in that book were ideas that I wanted Donald Trump to challenge on their merits.
We have seen over the course of four years that Donald Trump's preference is to find personal attacks and distractions to pull people away from criticisms of his record.
I wrote that work anonymously to deprive him of that opportunity and to force him to answer the questions on their merits. And I'll tell you what happened, Chris. The end result is the president couldn't.
He failed to deny what was in that book. And in fact to this day the White House has failed to challenge the narratives that were in that book or the narratives that I've explained in my own name over the past four months speaking out against the president.
So when asked by Anderson, whether I was Anonymous during that time period, I said what I was going to do. I temporarily denied it, but I've always said, I would ultimately come out under my own name. But that said I owe Anderson cooper a beer, I owe him a mea culpa, and the same thing for other reporters who at that time period asked me are you Anonymous? And I said no, because I wanted that work to stand on its own two legs, and deprive the president of an opportunity to do one more personal attack to distract from his record.
But look, I'm here tonight to say that was me. And I hope people challenge me on those accounts. And I hope the White House looks back at those accounts and looks at them and tries to actually say whether they're true or not.
Because there is an army of people, who will now come out, Chris, who will validate them.
CUOMO: We will go through what the White House said in response. We will go through your time there and what mattered in terms of what you were trying to hold off for America's collective national security.
But you know what the problem is with having lied is that now you are a liar. And people will be slow to believe you when you lied about something as important as whether or not you wanted to own this.
TAYLOR: Chris, that's the truth, and this was is a very torturous decision. It was not immediate for me to want to publish this work anonymously at the get go. It really wasn't.
But at the time, and I'll be frank with you, behind the scenes, I was trying to get people, who are not going to dime out, but other household names in the administration to come out and tell the truth that Chris we all knew, inside this administration.
[01:54:57]
TAYLOR: This isn't about just Miles Taylor. It's about a majority of the presidents cabinet at that time that share these views. And I couldn't and the next best opportunity was to convey it in a way that the president would avoid those personal attacks.
But you're right Chris, and I owe an apology for having to maintain that necessary misdirection for that period of time, in order for that argument to work.
But look, I'm here now to talk about it. And I've been out there talking about this for four months/
CUOMO: Why not come out when you wrote the book, and avoid the idea of a mysterious money grab?
TAYLOR: Yes. No, I think it's a really good point. But I want to start on the point of money grab. To be clear this was never about eminence, right. That's why it was written without attribution. It was never about money. That's why I pledge the proceeds of the book almost entirely to charity.
And it wasn't about a score settling tell-all memoir, which I have grown sick of in Washington D.C. It's a character study of one man, the president of the United States. And it wasn't me throwing other colleagues under the bus.
The point was to focus on him and his record. And if you go back in time Chris our founding fathers did this. When they wrote the federalist papers to defend the passage of the constitution, did they do it in their own names? They did it under pseudonyms and they did it for a reason, is Madison and the other authors didn't want to be about them and their personalities.
They wanted the people to debate the ideas and I wrote this Chris because I wanted people to debate the ideas and Donald Trump's character and record.
But again, I want to point out to you I had no fear about putting my own name on the line here. And that's why I did it months ago so people could come out and challenge me. They could pick apart my record. They could pick apart stories.
CUOMO: But not as Anonymous.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: That's all I'm saying? As Miles Taylor you did.
TAYLOR: Right. Unquestionably. And now they can and I welcome it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, the White House released a statement on Wednesday saying, "This low level, disgruntled former staffer is a liar and a coward, who chose anonymity over action and leaking over leading." That's a lot of alliteration. "He was ineffective and incompetent during his time as DHS chief of staff".
And this is what President Trump said to his supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know Anonymous? You know this Anonymous that everybody has been looking for? That law enforcement could have found early if they wanted to but everybody was looking for Anonymous. Turned out to be a low-level staffer, a sleazebag.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues in a moment with my colleague Kim Brunhuber. Stay with us.
[01:57:29]
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