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Trump and Biden Blitz Critical Swing States Hit Hard by Virus; U.S. COVID-19 Cases Hit Record Daily High as Virus Surges. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired October 30, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: Though you did note the environmental and health concerns.

[10:00:03]

But you know how many jobs are tied to it in Ohio. And I just wondered if you're concerned some of your constituents may lose those jobs under a Biden administration.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): Well, I said that in 2012 when there were a lot more fracking jobs. We've seen what these companies do. They come in mostly Eastern Ohio, fairly sparsely, fairly -- not densely populated, come in Eastern Ohio. They hire many, many people from Oklahoma and Texas.

You could -- when I went out to the fields you saw mostly license plates from out of state. They work for a while, then they're gone and they leave behind an incomplete infrastructure, shall we say, widened roads that we don't have, the state didn't tax at the well head the way they should have. So state and local governments could get revenues to build what they needed to build.

And there just aren't that many jobs in fracking or, unfortunately, even coal in Ohio now. So it's a different very place for me a decade ago.

And this president has done nothing. He always talk, he cares nothing about climate change, he ignores it, he doesn't buy the science. And then he's done really nothing about these jobs in energy in Eastern Ohio. So things are worse than they were, no help to this president, and we've obviously got to be more serious about climate issues.

HARLOW: Senator Brown, I'm sorry about the technical difficulties we had more to talk about, but we'll have you back, okay? Thanks for the time.

BROWN: All right, sounds good. Thanks, Poppy. All right, I appreciate it.

HARLOW: Thank you.

BROWN: See you. Thanks. Bye-bye.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good Friday morning to you, I'm Jim Sciutto.

HARLOW: I'm Poppy Harlow.

So it's only four days, four days before this election and the nation is fighting a virus that is surging this morning almost everywhere in the country. Both President Trump and Joe Biden are racing across the Midwest in a last ditch effort to win votes, campaigning in states hit so hard by the virus.

Here are the numbers. The U.S. will likely surpass 9 million confirmed COVID cases today. Nearly 90,000 new cases were reported yesterday, and that's a record.

SCIUTTO: And this sad figure, the death toll in the U.S. is now approaching 229,000 Americans. That is more than the entire population of, say, Des Moines, Iowa, where Joe Biden will be speaking today.

Let's begin with the race for the president, four days to Election Day, both campaigns making their final pitches to Midwestern voters.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny, he is in Iowa. Jeff, Biden says the visit there today not a sign he is getting overconfident, perhaps as much there about the Senate race as the presidential race?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Look, I do think it's a sign of his overconfidence. It's a sign of him trying to seize on every potential opportunity on the map. Things are so close in so many states. Joe Biden has a route to winning that could potentially go through several states.

But one thing is clear, the upper Midwest is a key part of that. We talk about the blue wall of Pennsylvania, of Michigan, of Wisconsin. Those three are key as well. But don't forget Iowa, yes, President Trump won it by 9 percentage points four years ago. But before that, Barack Obama and Joe Biden won it in 2008 and four years after that.

So this is still a reddish to -- it could be a purple state. We will see if it becomes a blue state to next week. But, Jim, you're right, there is a key Senate race here as well, Republican Senator Joni Ernst in the fight for her life as well. So -- and several congressional seats as well.

So, Joe Biden coming here to pick up an opportunity, if it exists, but more interestingly, he's going to Minnesota after this. And that is a state that Hillary Clinton won. They're also just making sure that Democrats and independents there are sufficiently energized and fired up. So he's not taking anything for granted here in the final days of this race.

SCIUTTO: Yes. You have to think, Poppy and Jeff, don't you, that they are trying to learn the lessons of 2016 when Hillary Clinton famously did not visit many of those key states days before the election.

HARLOW: John Howard at the White House, good morning, John.

Minnesota, one of the stops on the president's schedule today, he is ripping state officials there over the limits on the number of people who can attend. But the Republicans just won a huge court victory overnight when it comes to voting in that state.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They did. The appeals court suggested that ballots coming in late after Election Day can be segregated and may be challenged legally. That is a big victory for Republicans who across the board are trying to limit vote counting, especially those mail-in ballots that they know are likely to lean toward the Democrats. They're unapologetic about the way they're going about it.

But the trip to Minnesota by the president is one of the few pieces of offense the president is playing. Because as Jeff mentioned, Hillary Clinton barely won that state four years ago. This is one of the few opportunities on the map, Nevada, New Hampshire possibly are other ones where the Trump campaign has some hope of taking a state away from the blue column and putting it in the red column.

[10:05:06]

He's also defending Wisconsin and Michigan, which was states that he won that put him in the White House in 2016.

Now, of course, one of the ironies here, the president is complaining about the restrictions on his rallies but CNN has looked at the aftermath of 17 Trump rallies that occurred in August and September, found rising COVID cases in the aftermath of those rallies, and one was in September in Bemidji, Minnesota.

So the president has helped to make the coronavirus spikes worse, not simply by his inaction at the federal level but also by the physical presence and the holding of these rallies that have become potential spreader events. And that's one of the reasons why, in Minnesota, as in Wisconsin, as in Michigan and Pennsylvania, he is not only behind by a significant margin to Joe Biden, Joe Biden is over 50 percent, so all of those are uphill fights for him.

SCIUTTO: He'll be watching closely, we will. Jeff Zeleny, John Harwood, thanks very much.

Let's go to North Carolina, where more than 4 million votes have already been cast. That is roughly 55 percent of all registered voters in that state. They voted before Election Day.

HARLOW: Our National Correspondent, Dianne Gallagher, joins us in Raleigh this morning. Good morning, Dianne, remarkable the early turnout there.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not just when you look at it, but look at it compared to 2016. More than 85 percent of the total votes that were cast in 2016 have already been cast here in North Carolina. And we still have one full day of early voting to go, that's today. And tomorrow the last day of early voting until 3:00 P.M.

And that's the way that the overwhelming majority of people in North Carolina have chosen to vote, this early, in-person voting. According to state data, roughly 80 percent of people who requested though their absentee ballots by mail have already returned them, either successfully returning their mail ballot or by spoiling that ballot and choosing to vote early in person instead.

Now, again, tomorrow is the last day of early voting. It ends at 3:00 P.M. though. So officials in North Carolina have said, go ahead, if you plan to vote early in person, do it today.

Campaigns, this is a place that President Trump has said he needs to win. He won in 2016, and his campaign has placed a special importance on North Carolina they visited half a dozen times over the past month. President Trump was supposed to hold in Fayetteville, North Carolina, yesterday, but because of high winds, they postponed until Monday.

Jim, Poppy, we're going to see a surge of surrogates, including Vice President Mike Pence and Jill Biden over the weekend here in North Carolina. President Trump will be back on Monday night.

SCIUTTO: Yes. You could tell where they think it's close by where they show up. Dianne Gallagher, thanks very much.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Phoenix, Arizona, another key state. Kyung, today supposed to be the last day of early voting but we're learning several polling places that are going to be open this weekend. That's interesting, could be impactful. What more do you know?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm going focus on that one word you just said, Jim, supposedly. Today is technically supposed to be the end of early voting in the state of Arizona. But this year, it's going to be a little different. You're supposed to just drop your ballot at ballot boxes like this but we're seeing the convergence of COVID and this election.

So this is a county-by-county decision. What we have been seeing here in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, Arizona, is this, it is ballot boxes, preparations for these voting centers, still these items being moved out of the Maricopa Elections Department, like ballot boxes and signs and PPE heading to these voting centers that are now going to be opening this weekend.

This is a plan that was approved last month by the board of supervisors here in Maricopa County in response to COVID. These emergency voting centers are going to be open all weekend. It is up to the voter if you decide to vote this weekend in Arizona what qualifies as an emergency. You simply sign a statement and you say that an emergency prevents them from voting early on Election Day.

Meanwhile, what's happening here in Maricopa County is all of that ballot counting. Now, let's look at the statewide number. 2.1 million votes have been cast, early votes cast here in the state of Arizona. Now, in Maricopa County, more than 65 percent of the early ballots that have been requested have been signature verified.

And back to those early voting centers, take a look at these numbers here in Maricopa County, and this is just Maricopa County. There are also going to be some open in Pima, County, on Saturday, there are about 100, Sunday, 20, Monday 150. And, Jim and Poppy, on Election Day, that number increases to 175 voting centers.

[10:10:00]

HARLOW: Kyung, thanks for the reporting.

Drew Griffin in Tallahassee for us, good morning to you, Drew.

More than 7.8 million votes already cast in Florida already. Wow.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: 400,000 just yesterday, Poppy, just in one day. And they are lined up outside this polling center in Tallahassee, even though by Florida standards, it's a rather chilly morning. It's 54 degrees right now. But they have another three more days, today, Saturday, and Sunday of early voting. We just continue to see these massive turnouts.

Democrats -- registered Democrats had the advantage in early mail-in voting, they still do, but Republicans are showing up in force early voting and closing that gap. As you say, nearly 7.8 million votes cast, incredibly important state, which is why we saw both candidates here yesterday. Joe Biden says, look, if Florida goes blue, it is over. That does appear to be the case. Which is why Joe Biden is now outspending Trump in Florida two to one, and his wife, Joe Biden's wife, Jill Biden, will be in Tallahassee this Sunday as well as Orlando, the Trump campaign sending in Eric Trump to do some business.

Another full day of voting here and I'm sure we're going to cross 8 million as of today. Poppy?

SCIUTTO: Drew Griffin, don't tell a Minnesota girl that 54 degrees is cold. Just to note, as I say with regards to Poppy.

HARLOW: You guys are all weak.

GRIFFIN: I said, relatively speaking, relatively speaking.

HARLOW: You come sit here and I'll go there with shorts on, because at 50 degrees, we wear shorts in Minnesota. Drew Griffin, thank you.

The vice presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, is in Texas today, which is fascinating for many reasons.

SCIUTTO: No question. Joining us to discuss, Jeremy Wallace, he is Political Reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Good morning, good to have you on this morning, Jeremy.

JEREMY WALLACE, POLITICAL REPORTER, HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Thanks, Jim, I appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: All right, so, Texas, reported this earlier in the broadcast. More than 9 million people have now voted. That already exceeds all who voted in 2016 in Texas, four days to Election Day, a lot more time to go.

Is there any breakdown, is there any data that shows which, if any party, this big turnout favors?

WALLACE: Well, in Texas, we don't have voter registration by party, so it's impossible to know for sure which party is leading. Both sides see signs that their areas are doing better than others. In a lot of Democratic areas, we're seeing huge turnouts. You look at Houston and Harris County, the turnout is astronomical, already set records. And that's a pretty strong Democratic stronghold. And so that's going to be a lot of confidence for a lot of Democrats out there.

HARLOW: Okay. So energy jobs, oil jobs, I know there are hundred fewer rigs in Texas now than there were when the president was inaugurated. But still, I mean, it's a major industry there, refineries, et cetera. The Biden camp obviously not happy with this answer in the last debate. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Would you close down the oil industry?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I would transition from the oil industry, yes.

TRUMP: Basically, what he's saying is he is going to destroy the oil industry. Will you remember that, Texas?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Is he, right? Is it going to hurt Biden's chances in Texas?

WALLACE: It certainly has an impact in Texas. Look, this is a much more diverse economy than we were 10, 20 years ago, but it's still heavily reliant on oil and gas. And you can see it in the campaign donations. If you look at a place like Midland-Odessa, where a lot of the oil drilling is coming out of, that area is giving to President Trump 20 to 1 versus Joe Biden. So they clearly see the concern. They're trying to put the money in there.

But there's a reality that Texas oil has been struggling, even before the pandemic with the price wars that have been going on around the world, and there's not as much drilling as it was a year ago in Texas. And so the issue may be more blunted than you would typically see if this was like a boom period in Texas oil.

SCIUTTO: All right. To play Devil's Advocate for a moment here about Texas, the possibility going blue, Democrats have been talking about flipping Texas since 1992, the days of Ann Richards, as I don't have to tell you, Clinton had similar aspirations or at least talkback in 2016, definitely didn't happen.

Why do you believe now that this might be closer here, that that might be a real possibility?

WALLACE: I have a 1.8 million in-person reason. That's how many new registered voters we've had in Texas since the last presidential election. That's like we moved the entire state of New Mexico in here. It just completely changes the dynamics of the electorate. We don't know how these people are going to vote.

And then I think that's created the uncertainty where all of a sudden all of that talk for years, like you said, Jim, it's like everybody has been saying, it's going to go blue, it's going to blue. Well, right now the numbers have caught up.

[10:15:00]

The voter registration over the last six years has gone crazy, and particularly in places like Houston, in San Antonio and in Austin, all very blue areas. And I think that's kind of what's leading the emphasis on -- or at least the thought process that Texas could be turning blue.

And maybe the best sign of it is the fact that Kamala Harris is going to be here down the stretch run. You have to go back to 1988, the last time we had a presidential campaign for Democrats in the state of Texas this close to an election. So they clearly see something in the numbers that says this is where we need (ph) to be. And really important is that where is Kamala Harris coming. She's coming through the Texas border.

HARLOW: Three places, right?

WALLACE: Yes. And the Texas border, it's kind of like a Willie Nelson song, Always on My Mind, they were always taken for granted over the years. But here they are. All of a sudden, Kamala Harris is coming to the heart of the Texas border, where turnout has traditionally been low but the Democrats haven't done much to bring it up.

And here she is, going to be actually campaigning on the ground here. And that's going to have a lot of impact on the psyche of the community down here that's not thought enough about by the state Democratic Party (INAUDIBLE). This clearly shows they care about this border region.

SCIUTTO: Hey, we got a Willie Nelson reference, that's a good show. Poppy, I think we could wrap it up.

HARLOW: It's going to be a good day. And you are a Texas encyclopedia for us. So we appreciate it very much. Jeremy Wallace, thanks for your great reporting.

At the same time that the president will head to a state that he won in 2016, he won it big, that's Georgia, he is going to be there again today.

SCIUTTO: A candidate's time is precious, why use it there?

And a Texas judge is ordering all non-essential businesses in El Paso to close because of surging coronavirus infections there. But the city's mayor and the Texas attorney general may not be on board with that decision. What are they going to do about it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: The U.S. has just now reported the highest number of new coronavirus infections in a single day since the beginning of this pandemic. It's remarkable. Utah is one of 17 states that saw a record number of hospitalizations. That's key, of course, that's people getting very sick from this virus. The state's seven-day average for new infections also at record levels.

HARLOW: The state's top epidemiologist said current protocols are not even catching every case. She adds that Utah's true case count is, quote, likely much higher and the spread is out of control.

Well, joining us is Dr. Brandon Webb, a frontline infectious disease physician at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City. Good morning to you.

I'm glad you're wearing a mask even there to remind everyone of how important it is. Is this spread out of control?

DR. BRANDON WEBB, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN, INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTHCARE: I think we have to say it is. You know, the community transmission rates are tremendous. But what really has our attention is the hospital and ICU admissions.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Webb, even with a change at the White House next week, if it happens, I mean, either we have a re-elected President Trump or you have a president-elect Biden. who won't take office for a number of months, and then you have this broader political divide here where it's essentially a political partisan response to this state-by-state, if you're a red state, tend not to react very strongly, blue states do.

Given that, without a national strategy, can this country get this under control?

WEBB: Yes. I think the reality is that, right now, even at a local level, we have to act to interrupt the cycle of transmission. If we don't do that, we are going to be in a state where we're overflowing our health care system. And so what we need are for policymakers both at the local and larger levels to act courageously and definitively based on the data that's emerging.

HARLOW: To your point, listen to this from the governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GARY HERBERT (R-UT): We could have a crisis of care if we don't, in fact, bend the curve on the infection rates that's going so high now.

Hospitals, frankly, just can't keep up with the trend that we have going now as more and more people are going to be demanding hospital care.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: He says you guys are facing a crisis of care. Does that mean that you are approaching the point where you have to turn patients away?

WEBB: So, to be clear, we're not rationing care and we desperately don't want to be at that point. But we are at a point right now where we are at capacity or accommodating the hospital admissions and ICU admissions, and we're recognizing the need to flex and absorb more. And to be clear, the efforts of the hospital systems by themselves are at a point where they're, frankly, not enough.

And we need -- we need help from both policymakers, but we also are asking for an added measure of personal sacrifice from the public because, frankly, we need their help.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned data earlier, right? And if only data was driving decision-making across the board, but we had the president again tweet this morning that cases -- infections are only going up because there's more testing. That's false, right, because positivity rates are going up. That is the percentage of people testing positive going up in a lot of states.

What challenge does that present to you, doctors like you, going forward, when you have deliberate misinformation, challenging the facts necessary to make informed decisions about how to respond to this?

[10:25:01]

WEBB: Yes. You know, that's been an issue during the entirety of the pandemic, is getting the right information. And it does pose a challenge. You know, one thing that you can't argue with is the hospital admissions and the ICU admission numbers, because community transmission, it is dependent on test-seeking behavior to some extent. But hospital rates are not.

HARLOW: If you could just look at these pictures of protesters outside the home of Dr. Angela Dunn, the state epidemiologist for Utah after her home address was leaked online, some of the protesters are saying the governor and the state health department acted unconstitutionally by mandating masks in those gatherings. How does this impact your ability to save lives?

WEBB: It makes it tough. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Dr. Dunn and other professionals who are assisting in helping to craft policy, interpret the data correctly, and we really need to come together as a community to be able to do that effectively.

SCIUTTO: If only, right? If only. Well, Dr. Webb, thanks so much for having you this morning.

HARLOW: Thank you.

WEBB: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, the candidates are returning to some familiar, all important battleground state in the run-up to Election Day. We're going to discuss where and why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]