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Biden and Trump Blitz Midwest to Kick Off Final Campaign Weekend; Early Voting Ends Today in Seven States; U.S. Cases Reach Record Daily High at Nearly 90,000. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 30, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very, very busy news day with us.

Just four days left now on the election calendar. It is the final week and never campaigned truly like no other. Already get this. More than 84 million of you have cast your votes.

And now, an urgent messaging shift from the Democrats. From vote by mail to vote by drop box or vote in person because Democrats are worried if you vote by mail you risk your vote not being counted. Early voting closes today in seven states, including two battlegrounds the Biden campaign views as in play this year, Arizona and Georgia.

Look at the math markers for today on the trail. It is a study in battlegrounds math with a lot of overlap in a big Midwest focus. The president visits Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Vice President Pence campaigns in Arizona. Joe Biden is in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Senator Kamala Harris spends the day in a fascinating 2020 question mark, Texas.

The president is in a familiar place in need of a giant comeback. This time there is scant evidence of any late Trump momentum. The coronavirus surge is perhaps the biggest head wind. Thursday was officially the worst day of this pandemic when you consider cases, 88,000 plus added to the count.

The U.S. daily average is now 76,000 new infections a day. Everywhere you look, you see it there, red and orange. 43 states where cases are up this week versus last week. Only two, only two pushing their case curves down.

The president blames this dramatic rise in cases on testing. Well, that's a lie. Defies the science but it's a lie he often repeats. Yes, testing is up but so are positivity rates and hospitalizations and the increase in number of cases right now far outpaces the increase in the number of tests.

We'll get to the COVID breakdown later. But let's just begin with the campaign and this map here. We begin to fill it in four nights from now on Tuesday. The red and blue of who you pick, the most (INAUDIBLE) of who you pick for the presidency, rigjt? Let's look at it in this context. Let's go back to 2016 to view it in the context of where we see the candidates today. Just take a look at how the map is tilted right now in favor of Joe Biden. Doesn't mean Donald Trump can't make it up. But as the candidates throughout there today, let me start here.

Senator Harris in Texas, 48/46 a Trump advantage but we are saying the word Texas in the final four days of a presidential campaign tells you an incumbent Republican is in trouble. Iowa, it's a tie right there, the state that was part of the Donald Trump red map four years ago.

Now, let's move toward the Midwest. This is where Donald Trump is president because of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Right now in Wisconsin, it looks like a pretty comfortable Biden lead. We'll see if it can hold up. Look at Michigan. A pretty comfortable Biden lead. Donald Trump already had a bit of momentum at this point four years ago, we don't see it right now. The question is can he generate high turnout to overcome early voting in the final election.

Let's switch maps to get a better sense of just where we are in the race to 270. That's how we pick a president, not by the national vote, not by the popular vote, but by the state by state. Biden has an advantage right now. We have him at 290 to 163. And again, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, that was the path to Trump victory, right now we lean them for Joe Biden.

So, let's take a look just at some of the other dynamics right now. In this one here, it's just mind-blowing. We just showed you at the top, this is a mind-blowing early voting number. Democrats believe in most places this gives them an advantage.

The question is can they finish. Doesn't matter if you voted early if you don't win at the end. So the question is can Democrats finish over the final four days which is why they're worried in you have a mail-in ballot, they say do not put it in a post office box, put it in a drop box because they're not sure it will get there.

So, just think of one of the states here. Pennsylvania could come down to Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, the whole campaign could come down to one state. Pennsylvania. Of those who requested mail-in ballots, right? 27 percent of the Democrats -- registered Democrats who requested a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania have not returned it yet. 41 percent of registered Republicans in Pennsylvania who requested a mail-in ballot have not returned it yet.

The campaigns know this. They have this data. That is the huge challenge of the final days. Find your missing votes. Get them to either to the poll - either to a drop box or the polling place.

Now, before we begin the conversation, I just want to do one thing. One thing. Let's go back here. This is the Trump map from four years ago. You see all these red, right? So, why would Senator Harris be in Texas today, right? Is Texas really in play? Can't be in play, right?

Democrats say this every four years. Well, yes, Joe Biden needs to win Pennsylvania. Yes, Joe Biden is leading in Wisconsin. Yes, Joe Biden is leading in Michigan. If Joe Biden can get the blue wall back, the wall Trump cracked it's probably game over or look at it this way.

The blue states are Hillary Clinton states. None of them right now are expected to flip. If the Democrats could flip Texas, Joe Biden is the next president of the United States even if he loses Wisconsin, loses Michigan, loses Pennsylvania, loses North Carolina, loses Florida, loses Georgia and loses Iowa. If the Democrats could flip Texas, America would be remade when it comes to presidential politics which is why the candidates are everywhere, not only busy on the campaign trail but busy on TV.

[11:05:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under President Trump, America is stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And ladies and gentlemen, the best is yet to come.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to choose between change and more of the same.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is your campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's begin our conversation this hour with CNN's Abby Phillip and Alex Burns of "The New York Times."

And so, Abby, you're in this final campaign now and it becomes chess, right? Every campaign especially because when I started campaigns you didn't know the a, you didn't have early voting at this level, but b, you didn't have the data you have now. They know who has voted. They know who has not voted. And they know in these final days the challenges to go get the ones who haven't, grab them by the collar, figuratively. And either get them to a drop box, get them to a polling place or make sure they show up on Election Day.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is the get out the vote stage of this whole campaign. And at this point I think both campaigns understand they're probably not persuading a whole lot of people. And even if they were, this year compared to four years ago, just the pool of undecided voters is a lot smaller. People know what their choices are and they're making it.

But you have to look at those numbers and think, you know, was it - I mean I think we know the answer to it, it was not a strategically wise decision for President Trump to discourage his voters from voting early, compared to the Democrats. You have a lopsided early voting situation in a number of states that is going to make the Election Day dynamic for Republicans very dire.

The president is going to have to really go gang busters with his supporters showing up on Election Day to overcome this massive 84 million ballot early vote. And we still have several days left. That's not a position that Republicans should have been in. This was not how things were prior to this year. The president made it that way. And on Tuesday, his supporters really need to perform for him otherwise this is going to be a tough night.

KING: And Alex, to that point, I just mentioned Texas. If the Democrats could somehow flip Texas, I know Republicans out there are rolling their eyes saying that's a pipe dream. It's not going to happen. If they could, that math just becomes overwhelming. Another place if they can't get Texas, the next biggest prize is Florida in a sense. 29 electoral votes there, both Trump and Biden there yesterday. Let's listen to a little bit of flavor from that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The heart and soul of this country is at stake. Right here in Florida, it's up to you. You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it's over. It's over.

TRUMP: Now we're doing incredibly all over. And this isn't based on polls. This is based on votes that are coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is a fascinating time in the campaign because depending on who you talk to, Joe Biden is on the verge of this potential you know just map changing win, big win. Or it's bare knuckles, Florida, Florida, come down to Pennsylvania, electoral chess.

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's right. But I do think that one of the striking things about the position that we all find ourselves in right now is that Florida is a close and hard-fought race. And usually when Florida is that close, it means the national race is also very close. You don't have blue out wins in Florida if the national race is not also just a massive landslide and even then sometimes you don't. But John, right now the race in Florida is very close.

The national race is not that close. And that's why you end up with a situation where a state like Texas, a state like Georgia and North Carolina, these are traditionally solid Republican - the extent that they are. And you know, I hear less eyerolling on Republican side today when it comes to Texas certainly than I did two weeks ago.

There's real concern in the party that there's going to be just total wreckage for Republicans down ballot in the suburbs of the big cities like Houston and Dallas. And that if the turnout numbers stay, similar to what they are right. That you know President Trump cannot take that state for granted.

I think it's telling that he is not actively defending a state like Texas because John if Texas goes, that means a whole lot of other stuff is already gone.

KING: Right.

BURNS: That he needs to hold the line in a place like Florida, place like Pennsylvania because if those flip and Texas flips, too. Well, then Texas is just a whole lot of icing on the cake.

KING: Right. A lot of people that might not believe the polls in Texas, but those early voting numbers are getting a ton of - the president's campaign doesn't have the money. It should have at this point in the campaign and they say might need more money in Texas late in the days.

But Abby, back to the point about voting right now. Look, the Biden campaign has this golden opportunity. There's no question about it. But you have to finish the execution especially with the threat of these legal challenges looming.

So, listen to - you know, normally a campaign ad at the end and Joe Biden has some of these, who you are as a person, what you are pushing as policy but Joe Biden spending a bit of his money, and he has an advantage right now, on essentially a tutorial. If you have a mail-in ballot do not put it in a blue box, find a drop box. Listen.

[11:10:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Proud boys stand back and stand by.

They're bringing crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's an interesting approach a little bit of messaging in there, Donald Trump's voice. But the most important part trying to help people if they're confused, because this court rulings, different rulings in different states, do this right because we need that vote.

PHILLIP: It's crucially important as you said. I mean they have messaged successfully to their supporters that they have a lot of ways of voting. And by all accounts, the Biden supporters are actually showing up in all of these different ways. But at this stage there are only two options. Drop it in the ballot box or drop box, take it in, which is virtually the same thing or vote in person.

And one of the interesting things though about so much of the early vote being in, and some of these states in Texas, for example, the entirety of the 2016 turnout has already turned out is that now you can really hyper focus on the people who you know haven't turned in their ballots or haven't gone in person and follow-up with them.

And I think both campaigns are going to be trying to do that. But based on the pool of supporters and the split - the partisan split in who's voting early, the pool of supporters that the Republicans will need to follow-up with is so large. It's a lot larger. So, the bigger task and as you pointed out, they have less money, less resources.

So, it will be interesting to see how that dynamic shapes up going in. But clearly, the Biden campaign knows what they got to do. Their messaging to their supporters. And they also have the resources to actually do it. KING: And to the resources, there's more cash on the Democratic side right now, Alex. The Trump campaign says, and we will see if they can prove it. That they have built this ground operation that is going to blow us all away on Election Day. Which is why you do get a split when you look at the experts. Charlie Cook one of the best in the business saying this in the "National Journal."

"The Senate is increasingly less a case of whether Democrats will take a majority, but how large will it be. Joe Biden may well replicate Ronald Reagan's 10-point victory over President Carter."

And then you flip to the veteran Democratic strategist, Steve Schale, in Florida who says, "If I take my PTSD hat off, I can feel semi- comfortable about where things are. But it's impossible to take my PTSD hat off."

And there we go into the final week and where execution is everything.

BURNS: Yes, that's right. I think a lot of Democrats have reached kind of the acceptance stage of acknowledging that they are never actually going to be able to see the events of this election in any light except the light that has been cast since 2016 and those results.

But John, I do think that to your point about execution, this is a real sort of pull back the curtain and see whether there's a wizard there or not moment for the Trump campaign. That we have for the last couple years heard a lot of big promises from the political operation around the president about the sophistication of their data operation, their targeting operation, voter registration and fund-raising. And last couple of months we have seen some of those turn out to be not quite what they were cracked up to be. Especially on the fund-raising operation.

And so, the question now is both, do they actually have the turnout machinery that they claim to have. And if they don't, and frankly even if they do. But especially if they don't, did the work that they put in over the last few years to register new Republican voters in a place like Pennsylvania, give them at least enough cushion that some of these early votes stuff that we are seeing might not be everything that it's cracked up to be for the Democrats.

KING: That's just why we do math in the final weekend and then again starting on Tuesday. Alex Burns, Abby Phillip, grateful for the reporting and insights especially the time. I know both of you are so busy.

Up next for us, coronavirus cases hit a new daily record high here in the United States. Experts are warning things are about to get worse.

First though, another of our campaign flashbacks. This, the final debate 40 years ago, 1980.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had to make thousands of decisions since I've been president serving in the oval office. And with each one of those decisions that affect the future of my country I have learned in the process.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ask yourself, are you better off than you were four years ago?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:18:38]

KING: The coronavirus numbers are simply numbing. More than a half million new infections added in the United States this week alone. Nearly 90,000 added just yesterday in what is now an all-time high. The nation on track to top 9 million total cases today.

Let's take a look at some of the dynamics just starting with the national map. And you see all that red and orange, those of you familiar with it you know that's the wrong direction. 43 states now reporting more new COVID infections this week compared to last week. (INAUDIBLE) one of them, Oregon is another one, Alabama down here, several up in New England.

The deep red, that means 50 percent or higher rate of new infections this week compared to last week. And the case count is climbing and it's climbing to a dangerous place if you talked to the public health experts. 88,521 yesterday, that is a record high.

And you see, remember, we went through the painful summer surge. Just look at where we are now. Well above it and continuing to point that red line, pointing in a straight up trajectory. It is simply dangerous.

And let's look at hospitalizations also heading up right now. And again, the first peak around 60,000. The summer surge around 60,000. 46,095 yesterday but you see the trend line, the blue line inside that circle heading up as well.

[11:20:04]

There are no silver linings here. One of the questions though is this. The most painful graphic deaths from coronavirus in the United States of America. Will this start to go up? You see the flat blue line it's been on a relative plateau here but all the projections say it is going to go back above 1,000 on a consistent basis, some say even 1,500 a day or higher. 971 yesterday. That is a projection we certainly hope is wrong but something we need to watch in the days ahead.

Let's discuss these numbers and the troubling trends with Dr. Mark McClellan. He's the director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. He's also a former commissioner of the FDA.

Dr. McClellan, I'm grateful for your time on what is a sober day when you look at these numbers. When you see the trajectory, we're now getting close to 90,000 new infections a day. What must be done to slow that before hospitalizations get out of control? Several states are stretched already, but before that spreads to even more.

DR. MARK MCCLELLAN, DIRECTOR, DUKE-MARGOLIS CENTER FOR HEALTH POLICY: Well, first John, it's not just the level but as you said, the rate of growth in many parts of the country, growing number of parts of the country is accelerating. So, we're at over 90,000 cases per day now and more than a dozen states that testing positivity rate is very high, which means they're probably missing a significant number of cases and this is accelerating.

The rate of the transmission of the virus almost everywhere in the country is over 1. So, we're going to be over 100,000 cases very soon unfortunately. And that is going to have ramifications for hospitalizations. And even though we're getting better at the treatment in these hard hit areas, the hospital is working really hard, more deaths.

We know what can be done to slow this down, people are tired of having to deal with the pandemic, but it's the usual steps, masks, distancing, many areas are imposing new restrictions again. People -- if you look at areas that are hardest hit, people are changing what they do. They're going out less, starting to have an economic impact. The more that we can get ahead of these trends, by following the steps that we know work the better. And we're seeing that happen in some parts of the country much better than others.

KING: I want you to listen here because as you mentioned, we have 50 states -- you know how this works, it's been one of the complications. One of the gifts of America is we have 50 states and they each chart their own course. One of the problems sometimes is 50 states each charting their own course when you're trying to have a national solution to a national crisis.

Listen to the governor of Ohio here who has been an active and proactive from the beginning who says right now he's got a mess on his hands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): This is by far the highest number of cases we have ever seen during the entire pandemic. In fact, it's about 700 cases more than our previous high, which was just a few days ago. Virus is raging throughout the state of Ohio. There's no place to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I have you here as a doctor, Dr. McClellan, and that's where I want your expertise and your insights. But you also - your family has a political pedigree. You served in a Republican administration. Help me break through to people who are told by the leader of this country and by others, don't believe what you hear on CNN. Don't believe what you hear from the doctors. They're all part of a deep state. That they're lying to you. We rounded the corner. And everything is OK.

MCCLELLAN: I think there are a lot of Republican leaders around the country who are trying to get the facts out and trying to explain, like just you heard from Governor DeWine, what can be done to slow the spread. Governor Abbott in Texas, Governor Hutchinson in Arkansas have both supported mask mandates in the state.

You know this isn't like a nanny state approach, people aren't generally getting fines and so forth for not following these very evidence-based recommendations. But talking about the approaches that do work, like masks and with travel upcoming. It's being careful. I know people don't want to be all by themselves after so much time in the pandemic. Keeping the group small though, being careful about your pod, trying to create a bit of a bubble around people you're spending your time with.

Governors around the country, Republican and Democrat are helping to support these efforts and that's the kind of model, John, that we need.

KING: And so, what in your experience is the best way to break through it? And I ask that as someone who would love to do a better job myself at getting people to please listen to the data, listen to the facts, set the politics aside.

I just want to show you on graphic here of the United States versus the European Union. And you know we do know the European Union did a better job than the United States of shoving down the line early in the pandemic. If you look back at March, you know the United States stayed high, the European Union did shove it down.

But look, that's the green line. The European Union now is going up at a faster pace but what the public health experts tell me is if you look at the beginning there back in March, we went up the hill a couple weeks behind them and the fear is that we're going straight up again a couple weeks behind them as well and we'll catch up or surpass them.

How do you convince people, what data point, look at this, please change your behavior?

[11:25:00]

MCCLELLAN: Well, that's for we are potentially in many areas of the country just a few weeks behind Europe. They let down their guard a bit. People travelled together. They interacted more. And these trends once they start, like what we're seeing in Europe are hard to reverse. And you have to take some really intensive steps to get back towards control and not overwhelm health systems.

So, we do see around the United States ways that can keep infections down within the state of Texas. There are some areas that are doing better than others. And other parts of the country as well. Look at those models and try to adopt them more.

And John, there are a couple of things that are coming soon that could help. More testing at the point of care. These tests aren't perfect but they're being used in more and more schools and other workplace settings just like they've been used in the NBA and baseball to help keep infections down. And we have new treatments that may be coming as well. But for the next couple of months, the most important thing we can do are still just these basic steps and hopefully we can make progress.

KING: Dr. Mark McClellan, grateful sir for your insights and expertise at this very difficult moment.

MCCLELLAN: Good to be with you.

KING: Thank you.

Up next for us, we go back to the campaign trail. Live updates from our battleground reporters around the country as President Trump and Joe Biden target the Midwest today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)